Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: [OT] Bell Canada - service vs. abuse
Date: Thu, 22 May 2025 12:24:42 -0400
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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It's been an interesting morning. My internet stopped working a couple 
of hours ago. Initially, I thought I was having a technical problem but 
it soon transpired that my account had been suspended due to non-payment 
of the account.

My brother had always been in charge of paying the internet but he had a 
fatal car crash back in February and I hadn't quite got around to 
getting the bills re-organized. I've always had a procrastination 
problem and losing my brother seems to have made it worse. My 
procrastination caught up with me this morning.

So I called the phone number for my ISP, Bell Canada, intending to 
settle the bill and put the account in my name and carry on as usual. 
But the rep I spoke to had a different plan: he set up a new account for 
me, doubled my internet speed, bundled in some kind of TV package called 
Fibe TV, lowered my bill by $50 or so, and locked the price in for two 
years so they can't increase it. I also get a new modem; the installer 
is coming by tomorrow to upgrade the wiring for the internet and give me 
the new modem. All I have to do is take the old modem down to the 
nearest Canada Post outlet and mail it back to Bell at no cost to me. (I 
also need to configure the new modem but I'm not worried about that; I 
have some technical skills and it's supposed to be dead easy even for 
those without skills.)

I'm struck by the contrast between the quality of service I got vs. the 
"service" - which seems more like abuse - that I hear about when Adam or 
anim have to deal with *their* internet providers. Instead of getting 
jerked around and having to always pay more, sometimes for less service, 
I got more services for considerably less money.

Of course it isn't *always* that way in this country. Bell and its main 
competitor Rogers used to be notorious for crappy service and 
ever-increasing prices, just like American ISPs. But Bell at least seems 
to have changed their attitude and is trying to win customers and keep 
the ones they have. That's the way capitalism is *supposed* to work, 
even if it doesn't always work out that way, especially in the 
semi-monopolies like Internet and telecoms. (At least their 
semi-monopolies in this country; in the US, not so much.)

-- 
Rhino