The Consumer Complaints Blog

Upon installation of my satellite services, the Bell technician broke my brand new TV. I was not in the room and did not see it, but the TV was fine before he came and was moved from one place to another and broken when he left. I called Bell as soon as I realized what had happened and lodged a complaint. Since then I have been on the phone with Bell customer service repeatedly. I have been punted from one person to another, has escalated again and again and nothing is being done. They claim that because they outsource their installation practices, they are not accountable for the broken TV, but they also will not give me the name of the company they outsource to.

At long last they sent a guy (Al) out from the outsourced company to see if the TV is in fact broken – which of course it is. He then tells me that the technician denies breaking it and that if they choose to compensate me for the TV, it would be the technician himself who would have to pay for it (well of course he’s denying everything then). So basically it’s my word against his, and good luck with that. Additionally, if they do decide to compensate me for the TV, I shouldn’t expect full price because once it’s out of the store, it’s worth only about half of the original cost (the TV was 5 days old!). If the technician refuses to pay, then there’s nothing the company could do and I’d have to take him to small claims court, and the technician likely wouldn’t show up, so it really wouldn’t be worth it for me. Al continued to tell me that this is why Bell outsources, so that they don’t have to deal with this type of thing.

So basically, everyone involved is brushing me off and refusing to take responsibility and have no qualms with this. So my counsel to anyone thinking of joining Bell is to NOT let any technician in to your house – because even if you follow them around for the entire 3 hours it takes for installation, even if you do see the technician cause any damage, it’s still your word against theirs and again, good luck with that. It is such a huge risk for consumers because these technicians could steal anything, break anything, basically do anything they want and the company won’t do anything for you. It’s actually quite scary. Oh, and good old Al was quick to tell me that Rogers does the same thing so it’s not worth switching because I’d face the same thing with them.

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.