The Consumer Complaints Blog

I bought a Kijiji Deals coupon for a Toronto-based company called “Super Air Duct Cleaning (416-913-0704) to come and clean my ducts – it was advertised as $475 of value for $79. The only problem is that when you read the fine print on the coupon it informs you that every vent (including heat registers AND cold air returns) over 10 costs an extra $8. So the supposed $79 service was actually going to cost me closer to $300. While they were here they also tried to convince me that I needed to have my furnace cleaned – that was only going to cost a mere $389 extra!!

In the end I told them to stop before they even got to the basement because they were blowing dust all over the place and actually ripped the drywall in our living room trying to get the cold air vent off (haven’t these guys ever heard of an exact-o knife?). I refused to pay anything additional until I spoke to the owner of the company because the service guys refused to take responsibility for the damage to our living room wall. They then became abusive and threatening and in the end before storming out the house they actually disconnected our furnace so we had no heat until placing an after hours service call.

When I finally got a hold of “Annie” at the office (I had to call three times because she didn’t respond to my first two messages) I was told that she couldn’t help me because there was no record of the service being delivered since I hadn’t paid their representatives.

These guys are absolute rip off artists, completely unprofessional and shouldn’t be allowed to conduct business here.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Telus all about your hidden agreements

Since April 2008, my mom and I have been telus mobility clients. We recently bought a house and moved and even started our internet services with them. Little did we know we were setting us up for such a great disappointment and emotional stress.

In 2009, my mom (who is not a very fluent English speaker) went into a Telus store to replace her faulty phone. She came home with the new phones, saying they replaced both hers and my phone and everyone was happy… until a few months later, when we started online billing. It was then that we realized that the new phones were given not because of the original faulty phones. They had added another 3 years to her contract without her knowing. She went back and they said there was nothing that she could do. But that’s not a very big deal because we were going to need the phone service anyways.

Our contract recently ended June 2012 and we switched to Fido. Here’s the thing, we are from Los Angeles and there, when a contract ends, services stop as well. That is what we assumed here.
We just got a letter September 2012 saying that our “TELUS account remains unpaid.” So I’m wondering what is going on? Contract has ended so we shouldn’t have anything to do with them anymore. So, being confused, we log in to the telus mobility account and see a billing cost of $238.25.

Seeing the outrageous amount, I panic and call their Client Account Management Office (mom doesn’t speak English very well). After telling my story 3 times, and 3 transfers, I finally speak to the right department. I tell them that we got a letter saying that we are going to be referred to a collection agency for our unpaid bill that I had no knowledge of (no bill in the mail).

The woman tells me that apparently, mobile services continue even after the contract is over, unless you call in to cancel. So then, what is the point of having a contract? Once the contract stops, services should stop as well. I tell her that we assumed services were stopped and that we did not use it at all, but she says “no, doesn’t matter if you use the services or not, your mom is still responsible for the bill.” I ask her if there is anything I can do or anyone I can speak to. (I am a student and my mom works minimum wage and we have mortgage payments to make, so we can’t afford to just throw $238.25 to a big shark company.) She tells me that there is nothing I can do and no one I can talk to that will tell me different. I can’t help myself and start crying… the call ends. My mom has just left for work. (She is a casino dealer and is forced to work from 7pm to 2am.) I try to stop crying and call her. I don’t want her to worry, but I just couldn’t stop crying. Through my tears I tell her what happened. We don’t know what we can do, except pay the bill and I won’t be able to afford my textbooks…

I really hope someone reads this. I just feel like a big company is squeezing the life out of me. There is no justice in the world at all. This is how big companies become so rich… by ripping off good Samaritans who have no money. I feel hopeless… Don’t make the same mistakes we did…

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I have a complaint about Bell Canada. We have recently moved and we decided to cancel our bell phone but keep the internet and television with them.
Bell came in to install the internet, the phone in the house we moved into had primus and we did not want to change it.

We advised Bell Canada that Primus was our home line.
Bell came in and installed a dry loop and made up another phone number so the internet can go thru the number. thanks to this we were left without a phone for a week.
Bell keep saying to contact primus to reconect our phone, I spent at least 4 hours with them on the phone each time I called I was on the phone with them for an hour (mind you I was calling from my cell phone, which now those bills are going to be insane)
They would transfer me from one person to the next and could not resolve the problem and everytime I was transferred I had to explain everything all over again.

This all started last monday march 2nd, by wednesday I demanded to have a technitian come in to fix the problem and ofcourse they said nobody would be able to come not until saturday. I got very angry and finally they sent an express technitian which they will
be charging me $75 dollars on my bill, but then I would have to call back to have the charge removed (so they do not make anything easy for the consumer).

The technitian came in on thursday and he was not able to fix the problem instead he said it would be easier if we just did both internet and phone with bell.

They offered me after all the troubles 2 months of free internet and a minor discount on our internet. But the phone was still not working.

I called primus and asked to reconect us and they came and did it but the line was still not working because Bell had the dry loop to they tied into our phone line and primus could not get in. I had to call yet again to have them remove the dry loop.

Primus sent me the package for internet and connected our phone in no time. I can still use the bell internet with primus, mean while this incompetent company Bell did a a big ordeal because they could not conect us to the internet with out loosing our phone.

Primus said to me that Bell only had to call the to get a circuit number and the internet would have been up and running with no hassle.

I have 3 children and was with out phone for one whole week and bell did nothing at all, nor did they care.

I called them to find out why they did this and ended up getting so angry that I cancelled the internet with them and for sure the TV will be the next thing. I found this company very arrogant and rude.

I wanted to speak to a manager and I had to fight to get a manager they did not want to transfer me to the manager, their excuse was they are too busy and have their own jobs, this is what I was told by Bell.

I told the guy isn’t this why managers should be available to deal with very angry customers. The guy refused to transfer me to the manager, finally I spoke to what I presume was a manager It could have been anyone else just to get me off.

The manager said there was nothing they could do and transfered me yet again for the third time to some one else, I got very frustrated and cancelled my internet because that person kept putting me on hold. every 5 minutes.

Nobody could resolve nor try to calm me down, they did not care I cancelled.
I want everyone to know the type of company that bell is, they tried to take us for fools so they could yet again monopolize everything in our house. All I want from them is to be gone for good and out of my house and warn people about this awful company.

when I called for the last time to have the dry loop disconected, I had to cancel yet again my internet.

During the time we were with Bell we were over charged huge several times in a matter of a few months we had to call back. One time our bill was 300 dollars and when we called it dropped by 200 does this sound correct? They overcharge as well to see
how much they can get away with and their bills are so complicated that you have no idea what they are really charging for.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

My Rogers 3 year contract will be up in May of 2012 and both my phones are still working fine and I have no need to update to new ones. I called Rogers retention department and asked how much my bill would be reduced because the phones original cost had been amortized of the 3 year term, their answer was my bill would not change. When I pushed the agent on the costs of the phones no longer being a part of the monthly bill he told me they Rogers do not amortize the cost of the phone in the monthly bill. This response shocked me and I went on to ask if the phone price is not amortized as part of the monthly bill and I didn’t pay for them in full how where they paid for? His answer was to say the least total BS because he tried to convince me the phones are paid for up front, not amortized but he couldn’t explain how that is covered in my monthly bill. His comment made no sense because we all know that if you want out of your contract before the term ends Rogers charges a hefty cancellation fee that they clearly admit is to pay for the total cost of the phones the gave you in order to get you into a 3 year contract, that means the phones are amortized over the term of the contract.

I went on to ask what would I save if I decided to buy my next phone for cash up front and not sign a new 3 year contract? I was told I wouldn’t save anything and in fact if I don’t sign a new contract and get a new phone my monthly bill would probably go up because I wouldn’t be eligible for many of the special discounts contract customers can apply for. In my opinion this is just plain criminal because I have paid in full for my phone and if I don’t sign a new contract or need a new phone I’m paying for something I haven’t received by default.

I’m no lawyer and it’s just my opinion but it would seem to me this must be against the law and I would be very interest to know if anyone has challenge this intimidating way Rogers tries to force customers to renew their contracts.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

ALERT: Do not do business with this bunch. This complaint has two messages. #1 and most distressing is CLEAR WIRE is like all other cyber-related businesses. Their customer service representative will speak with a thick accent and you will probably not understand what you hear. After two or three conversations with these people, you will know not to trust them either. Confirmation #’s you recieve during your business discussions with them are worthless. Their representatives names are bogus usually using an “All-American” name such as “Jim”, “Jerry”, “Tracy” or some other familiar sounding name to assure you initial confidence. They are obviously unsupervised and follow some COMPANY “Canned program” to settle your problem. Worthless to say the least. #2 They hide behind their own inability to communicate to avoid definate commitments to your needs. As said before their confirmation #’s for account settlements are worthless and their practice of billing and drafting bank accounts for payments are not affected by a properly managed customer cancelation of an account. They will continue to draft an a closed account. Closing the account is the only way a consumer can pick these leaches off their back. It sucks to think a former high officer of AOL owns this abortion and promotes these practices to run his business. DO NOT USE THEM or TRUST THEIR BUSINESS PRACTICES. You will not like the outcome.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.