[mrvanwinkles]

Bell Store "We're just a FRANCHISE"(!)

Re: Bell Store "We're just a FRANCHISE"(!)

Ever go to a Bell Store in person to seek customer service/help and be told:

"We can not help you with that here ... we are just a Franchise store here ... mainly only sales and some customer support ... some things we can not do here ... and you must make a telephone call yourself to do that ... or go online and try and do that yourself ... or go to a "Corporate" Bell Store to do that in person ... sorry, but there is *NO* "Corporate" Bell Store here in <your city or town> and probably you must go to ex. a TORONTO "Corporate" Bell Store if you want to try and do that / get help with that - in person."

Yikes.

And then have to spend 2 hours of your personal time, waiting on the phone, to get to their call center agent, or setting it up on the internet, so you can "do it yourself".

Also ... they told me at that "Franchise" Bell Store - we can sell you hardware, but you cannot return it here. We give you Waybill to ship it back yourself.

Hmmm.

I wonder if anyone else has had this sort of experience ... would like to share their stories.

( I have had a similar experience with Canada Post ... "this is just a franchise Canada Post outlet - we don't have all services here ... you gotta go to a "Corporate" Canada post outlet to do that ... )

Yeesh ... seems like you just can't tell anymore where you can go to get customer service in person ... seems like you've gotta call ahead now and ask
"Can I do that there in person? Are you a full service "corporate" location or just one of those "franchise" locations?"

 

[mrvanwinkles]

Canadian Press
3/25/2011


Layoffs at Bell Canada.

The company has chopped well over 2-hundred staff members in eight different cities, including Hamilton.

A union spokeswoman says 173 unionized workers have been let go, along with an unknown number of managers in the past few weeks.

The union says the latest cuts were made in Hamilton, Toronto, London, Ottawa, Sarnia, Kingston, Montreal and Quebec City.

{ WILL BELL CUSTOMER SERVICE / PRODUCTS SUFFER ? }

 

[hugh]

There losing thousands of landline customers a month and a few million over the last five years. They need to cut back on staff.

Shouldn't affect service since they were likely overstaffed anyway.

 

[mrvanwinkles]

Ottawa? - any Corporate "Bell Stores"

Kingston, ON - NO Corporate Bell Store/just Franchise Stores

Ottawa - claims to have Corporate Bell Stores ... several / many.

Ok. so when I was back in Kingston, Ontario - no Corporate Bell Store at all, nowhere in Kingston - advised Toronto has corporate store.

Now it is Monday morning, and I am back in Ottawa for my "work week", so I call one of the Bell Stores listed in the Ottawa phone book.

Ottawa phone book shows approximately 12 or so "Bell Stores" - around a dozen (I am not sure if that includes Gatineau Quebec, across the Ottawa river. Gatineau - used to also be known as Hull Quebec, the downtown part on the Quebec side).

Called the Carlingwood Mall Bell Store ...

Bell Store, Ottawa, Carlingwood Mall, Carling Av near Woodroffe Av, west side of Ottawa - says YES "we are a Corporate Bell Store"

...and says "They are all Corporate Stores here in Ottawa except for the Kanata Store and the Barhaven Store" - but the guy did not sound too sure, when I tried to go over the list in the phone book, one by one, and ask "Corp Store yes or no".

Kanata = city / suburb far west side of Ottawa - not a Corp Store
Barhaven = city / suburb far south side of Ottawa - not a Corp Store
( ... according to guy at Carlingwood Mall Bell Store)

So ... my best advice to all / Ottawa or not ...

If you need/would like to try and take care of something in person, at any "Bell Store" is to call that particular store in advance .... the store you are thinking of going to ... and ask them first if they can help you with your issue - whatever it is you would like to take care of.

There's Corp Stores and Not Corp Stores/Franchise stores - and may be differences in what they can or can not do for you in person.
(and probably these things change with time - a fair bit)

There's also the various Bell call-in Customer Service numbers, and the Internet, Bell.ca - that sometimes they direct you too - to try and take care of things that way.

Hmmm - very interesting.

Getting customer service I find, for some things ... can sometimes be a bit of a challenge - just generally - or time consuming, takes a fair bit of personal time and effort.

 

[mrvanwinkles]

There losing thousands of landline customers a month and a few million over the last five years. They need to cut back on staff.

That is unfortunate.

Not that I have any great LOVE for Bell. But I was a little bit aware of the decline of land line services.

I still see a standard land line / POTS - plain old telephone service - as as having value - at say - your place of residence.

In it's very simplest form, a POTS landline is usually very reliable - works even when the power is out - with a simple type phone. And there are no issues with "no signal", or airtime minutes. No need for an internet connection to get other types of phone services like VOIP or SKYPE.

But it must be cost ... and the fact that it is not really portable (except really nearby - with a wireless portable phone/handset).

But careful with wireless anything - there is always the issue of "Security of Information" that you transmit wirelessly.

And the fact that extra "options" are charged for and add up on the bill.
ex. call display, voicemail etc etc.

But a basic POTS line with No features at place of residence - can be very handy - esp. for outgoing calls.

(and Yeesh ...Just ignore all the Spam/Solicitation calls - and turn off the ringer - and don't use it as your main personal incoming number for all your important personal business.)

We keep one POTS line at the Ottawa FLOP house ... like a "house phone" very handy.

Also serves as the ALARM system dial out line.

Also serves as the emergency backup form of communication.
Helps to reduce cellular airtime charges.
Helps with long waits for "Customer Service" on some of the customer service numbers / Call centre queues for various issues - Bell or other.

It's also a very standardized form of communication - for many.

Maybe Bell's gotta work on the costs of a POTS line. Make it a little more competitive - and give a bit of a break on the costs of features.

It is a competitive industry - at least one would think so.

 

[mrvanwinkles]

So tonight on the local Ottawa CTV news - CJOH TV - they mentioned something about the layoffs from Ottawa's "LISGAR Street Bell Building" ... something about the employees outside the Lisgar steet building.

 

[audacity]

But careful with wireless anything - there is always the issue of "Security of Information" that you transmit wirelessly.

It's easier to secure a Skype call over wireless than it is to secure a POTS call on your land line.