Telus - Very Odd Business Practice

[Popereel]

We bought our daughter an LG Chocolate for Christmas '07 and based our decision on selecting Telus because of their $10.00 unlimited text plan and open pay as you go. We topped her account up every month without fail and never had a problem - our average monthly cost on the phone came to $11.00 a month.
5 days ago that changed - the daughter used her phone while on a school trip (long distance) and the balance in the account slipped to $9.85 - Telus immediately cancelled the plan without notification and within 2 days the $9.85 ran out due to texting fee's. The daughter came home and said that her phone wasn't working - we went on the website to find her balance at $.01.
We called Telus and let them know the situation - after multiple reps and a multitude of conflicting information (not to mention 3 disconnects) we were told that they could not reinstate the plan and that she must change to a new plan - "even if we wanted to, we can't, because there is no longer a code for that plan"
So for a $.15 slip up over a 3 day period we now must go on a more expensive plan.
I believe this is a bad business policy - they reel you in on a great plan and the second you mess up..."sorry".
We requested a name and number of someone up the chain of command so that we could launch a complaint - the rep (this is on a Saturday) said he was as high as we could go.
Does anyone know of a contact for Telus Mobility that is higher than a supervisor? Their website doesn't provide one.
I'm sure we will change carriers over this and in the end probably pay more but it's now the principal of the whole thing.
How can it be "impossible" to reinstate a plan that was active 3 days prior - any names, email addresses or contact numbers would be appreciated.

Telus is like a fox at the henhouse fence waiting for one of them to stick their beaks out.

Dan

[dscott01]

That doesn't sound right. I would call in on Monday morning. If you don't get anywhere ask to be transferred to Loyalty and Retentions.

Hopefully Loyalty and Retentions can fix you up. They seem to be able to do a lot of things that normal reps can't

[Popereel]

Thanks for your reply, yes it didn't sound right and it still doesn't - no matter how many reps say it's so. We will call the Loyalty and Retention Department tomorrow and I'll post the outcome.

[Popereel]

The Telus Escalations Department in Scarborough Ont. wasn't much help - she claimed that there was nothing they could do...the code was gone. We asked to go higher up the chain and she said it won't help...we insisted and were told that someone will call in a day or two.

As I said in my opening post, I can not accept that they have the inability to reinstate a plan that was active 3 days prior - also I can't believe they feel justified in canceling a plan without notification.
The one thing I'm beginning to believe is that Telus does not care if we stay customers or not...I guess the next step is to cancel the landline and DSL.

[eljay]

Curious: Did anyone explain to you why the plan was cancelled when there was still money on the account? You don't mention anything about a "minimum balance at all times" requirement, so it seems particularly odd that Telus would scrap the plan with $9.85 still on the account.

[Popereel]

Yes you're right, the texting package did have a minimum balance of $10.00 - thus the cancellation of the package. We fully accept that a mistake was made and are willing to pay a reinstatement fee or something like that.

The statement made by the Telus Reps so far (everyone of them) hasn't been in regards to the minimum balance but rather "We would love to reinstate your plan but unfortunately the code does not exist anymore and the system will not allow it".

Our argument to this is that people make computers, they program computers, therefore they can reinstate a phone plan that existed 3 days ago. Plus the initial Rep told us that it was no problem but he couldn't do it, so call tomorrow and the support team will reinstate the plan. So we topped up the account to $30.00 only to find out that they refuse to reinstate the plan and they will not refund the money in the account.

I guess it's more the underlying lie (We'd love to do it) that bothers us as well as a policy that says "screw up once and we will place you on a plan that costs you 50% more".

Our son's phone is with Bell and being 17 he administers his own account - he has a similar plan with Bell and has had his texting shut off a number of times for no funds available - he tops off his account and he's back in business with his $10.00 a month unlimited texting plan.

The Telus Reps also said that all the Mobility Companies were the same - when we mentioned our sons plan with Bell - they said "Oh that's not right (a nice way of saying that we were liars)". THANKS FOR THAT TELUS.

[Dog Byte]

I've (almost always) had good service from Telus. I set my dad up with Pay & Talk automatic billing and his credit card expired. He didn't notice for a while but when I called CS with the new CC number it was painless. They even gave back the rollover ($300+) and threw in a cheaper per minute rate.

In any case Telus offers 2500 messages (and free incoming) for $10. That's 83 messages a day.

[JmanBC]

I've had something like this happen with Rogers. I was talking to the CSR about switching one of my plan features in order to get a better discount on a new phone. In order for the CSR to check if it would give me a better discount, he had to actually make the change (without telling me) and when it wasn't what I wanted he couldn't change it back because that package was no longer available.

Of course, being Rogers they just gave me a better package for the same amount of money, and there was no problem at all.

[jshel101]

Originally Posted by JmanBC

I've had something like this happen with Rogers. I was talking to the CSR about switching one of my plan features in order to get a better discount on a new phone. In order for the CSR to check if it would give me a better discount, he had to actually make the change (without telling me) and when it wasn't what I wanted he couldn't change it back because that package was no longer available.

Of course, being Rogers they just gave me a better package for the same amount of money, and there was no problem at all.

the exact same thing happened to me with Rogers, except I didn't notice the mistake for about 6 months. Show just how much I look at my cell phone bill. Anyway, Rogers told me the same thing. They can't give me back my old plan, but they did offer me something comparible.

[Bigwill]

It is true that once these codes are gone they cannot be reinstated. That is true with any provider and pretty much any service. That is why we must watch the terms of our services. On the other hand just call back and get the same plan that she had and ask for a monthly credit for the amount that is above what you used to pay. That gives you the same service for the same price, it's just a matter of credits.

[Popereel]

Thanks BigWill I will call to see if they will do just that - as I said before, we fully take responsibilty for messing up and now that it seems that all carriers do the samething, I guess we'll let the chips fall where they may. Thanks to all for the input.

[urbanlegend]

if you can't get anywhere with customer care, call the corporate office. i'd suggest a google search to find the vp of customer service and call that person. you probably won't get through to them, but someone should be able to tell you who you can speak to if you can't get satisfaction from the call centre.

i've found being calm and rational helps. if you're angry, most folks will shut down quickly. on some occasions, i've actually ended up speaking to the vp and getting my concerns addressed.

john

[navderek]

dscott01 said:

That doesn't sound right. I would call in on Monday morning. If you don't get anywhere ask to be transferred to Loyalty and Retentions.

Hopefully Loyalty and Retentions can fix you up. They seem to be able to do a lot of things that normal reps can't

You said you would contact them and let us know your response...Did you contact Loyalty and Retention?? This is key as they have the power to do pretty much anything if it's warranted. From all your posts it sounds to me like your barking up the wrong tree.

Telus has always been #1 for me and they do have very good customer service. Unfortunately, like with any big company you need to speak to the appropriate department, otherwise you won't get anywhere!

-navderek

[mickk]

sounds like your going to have to go right to the top to me. all the phone jockeys at customer support can do is whatever the computers they have give them so there useless to you now. not surprised witrh this happening with pay as you go plan's because sense your not tied down to a contract you can cancel at any time with no penalties and it seems they can do the same to the customers.

[superbry]

Were you signed up for the automatic top-ups with a credit card? I know that when I signed up for auto top-ups with my pay and talk from Telus they offered a feature to add and extra auto top-up if the account every goes down below $5.