It seems like major phone providers, like Bell Canada, have not learned their lesson about how to maintain customers.  Two stories in the headlines today featured Bell Canada:

1. One story from CBC News stated that Bell Canada wants to make it necessary that consumers make a ‘goodbye call’ before they leave.  Bell Canada wants this so that it can try to win back the consumer by offering incentives before he or she leaves.   Ultimately, it will make it more difficult to switch providers and slow down the transition. 

2. The second story from Yahoo News stated that several businesses have had their phone systems hacked and have received bills that are hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Bell Canada sent a 38-page bill to  one business that was for more than $207,000 worth of calls to Sierra Leone. Bell offered to halve the amount.  Bell Canada is arguing that hacked phone systems are the consumer’s problem. 

The article said that Bell’s vice president Peter Kerr wrote one hacked customer and stated: “Remember that you are responsible for paying for all calls originating from, and charged calls accepted at, your telephone, regardless of who made or accepted them.” 

This is absolutely crazy.  The businesses have argued that it is Bell’s infrastructure that allows hackers to split four phone lines into 400, allowing them to make hundreds of phone calls simultaneously. 

 

Both of these articles highlight the main problem with Bell Canada.  Rather than trying to make it harder for customers to leave, perhaps Bell Canada should address the reasons that customers want to leave in the first place: high cost of services and poor customer service.  Blaming customers for hacked phones and leaving them with bills that could bankrupt their businesses is NOT good customer service by any means. 

By making it more difficult for customers to switch providers, major phone companies would be continuing their assault on average consumers.  Phone companies have already made it difficult for customers to leave by creating lengthy service contracts with steep penalties for those who want to leave or cancel their services.  And god help you if you have problems with your services and must call customer service for help- I hope you can take a week off work to try and get the problems sorted out.  Now, they want to make it harder to leave after those contracts expire!?!  What is next?  Lifetime contracts that indebt you to a phone provider for your life and the lives of your next of kin?