Fighting for better customer service

On Tuesday June 30th around 1:30 pm our phone and internet service were disconnected. All bills have been paid on time and there was no request for cancellation. We called Telus to let them know of the problem at 5 pm and were told that there was no way it could be fixed before Friday July 3rd, even though we were “top priority” due to both services being unavailable.

My husband and I were both very upset as I am 8 months pregnant and could have the baby at any time. It is of vital importance to have access to a phone to call emergency services. We requested to speak to a manager to see if we could get the problem fixed sooner. We were told a manager would get back to us within 24-48 hours. No one attempted to call us. We called again on Thursday to make sure it was happening and the customer service agent 'accidentally' canceled our Friday appointment to have it repaired and told us we could not get it fixed now until Monday July 6th. Again we requested to speak to a manager and were told that they would get back to us with 24-48 hours. No one attempted to call us again to deal with the situation.

I was told by the repair man that the rules of the CRTC state that a disconnection in service (unrequested) must be fixed within 24 hrs (excluding holidays and weekends of course). He was the one who suggested I file a complaint with the CCTS.

It is understandable that it couldn't be fixed that night as it was already 5 pm and the next day was July 1 Canada Day. There is no reason why it should not have been fixed on Thursday following the holiday. The customer service agents did nothing to assist with fixing the problem, short of stating that a manager would return our call (and never did, twice). They even made it worse by losing the Friday appointment that was booked.

In Lloydminster (on the Alberta side) Telus has a monopoly. There is no other company that provides home telephone service to its residences. I feel that they are not fulfilling their obligations as service providers and that there should be consequences for this.

Our service was repaired this morning Monday July 6th, 7 days after it went out. I was told that the reason why our service wasn’t working was because the box was left open in the main office and it was just disconnected, a problem that took 2 minutes to remedy. When we called in the first time I thought this might be the case as our next door neighbour had just moved in. I assumed they had just turned off the wrong service. I told the customer service agent this (as it may speed up the repair process since it only takes 2 minutes to fix). They denied that this was the problem and that it MUST be something more serious because they couldn’t possibly make a mistake like that.

The only person I encountered who was helpful was the repair technician who advised that I make a complaint with the CCTS. He also gave me the number for the Telus complaint line (which isn't even listed by Telus) whom I called just prior to submitting this complaint. They offered us a month of free service and apologized for the inconvenience but didn't really accept responsibility for their actions and I feel like it would go no further than thinking they had appeased an upset client.

I am not appeased! I am still very upset and would cancel service with this company but have no other option. I hope that by submitting this complaint that Telus may be held accountable for their incompetence and poor customer service.

Thank you for taking the time to read this,

Jennifer Isackson