Friday, May 13, 2005

Emily - Your Automated Service Representative

Went to go see the new Paul Haggis flick Crash last night with Papa Len. Pretty good flick, dad found it depressing; I suppose in light of the recent events of my life I actually found it sort of uplifting. Perceptions right; it is afer all all about perceptions.
Before the film were the ads and previews. One was for Bell Canada; the music, "the knee bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the hip bone..." etc insinuated that all of Ma Bell's services: cell phones, long distance plans, high-speed internet and satelite tv are all interconected. The ad ended with the Bell tagline, "Bell - Making it Simple." I'm sorry but is that a joke? Has anyone dealt with Bell Canada and their automated service representative Emily of late?
I have and let me tell you Bell Canada does not make anything simple. First of all... no part of the company has any dealings with anyone else. If you are talking to Bell Sympatico they have no interest in your phone line or your satelite tv. The only thing they are interested in is selling you more crappy Bell products. What is "wire-care" and why should I pay five extra bucks a month for someone to make sure my wires are in good condition. Shouldn't Bell be in charge of the wires that they installed for their exploitative $55.00 hook up charge? I could go on and on about Bell... but my favourite experience involves my attempt at ending our phone line in Montreal while simultaneously ending our Sympatico service... the phone line was under the roomies name, Sympatico my name. I won't go into the confusion that this caused over at Bell - where they were trying to make things simple. Then Ben, the roomie, had the brilliant idea that he would switch our phone line to his new apartment in MOntreal. Cost: $55.00, which yes is the same as the hook up charge. Apparently Bell doesn't reward loyalty as they are too busy trying to make things simple. So we ended our phone line on a Friday, but because of Sympatico's billing period we were still paying for the internet - but waait - the company that was trying to make things simple cannot have the internet working without a phone line. Fair enough if that's how the technology works but if all of Bell's sprawling company's are connected shouldn't someone have clued into this when we cancelled everything and why do I have to pay for a service that Bell can't even provide technology without installing a "dry loop" as Jean at Bell Canada suggested.
Making Life Simple? Hardly...

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