It's really unfortunate that Bell and other corporations are using these practices and shows a distinct lack of business ethics. Every case is different, but in the end this kind of practice results in the customer taking his business elsewhere. The shareholders are largely unaware that the management is undertaking the long term destruction of their company.
Henry On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 11:49 PM, Chuck Mariotti <[email protected]>wrote: > I have a client that recently went through this mess. > > He was notified after he called to move offices... possibly cancel the > contract and move it to another provider.... It had auto renewed about 80 > days before. His ~100 page Bell bill apparently had it on the last page/few > pages in print. > > He raised a stink, up to the VP level after much complaining, delays on > Bell's end, etc... He was given the "courtesy" of renewing on a 1, 2 or 3 > year term (previous was 3 years). I told him if they are giving him the > courtesy, they don't have a leg to stand on which in my view means, he > should have a no year term (cancel option). The problem was that they "go > back the 80 days" and charge you their NON-Contract rates... which kill > you. Then they don't give much of a break on the 1 year... so you are left > with choosing 2 or 3 years... > > In this case, we chose two years since the penalty was far less when > working out the penalties. We'll be moving after the term. > > A little trick I enjoy doing when dealing with contracts like this... > especially on the phone/cell/alarm/fitness companies... auto renewals, > etc.... where you have to notify them with notice to cancel prior to > renewal date. > > You go through the process of getting the contract signed and done. And in > the same breath, you give them verbal or written notice to cancel the > service (make sure they make an entry/record of this). 80% of the time, the > sales rep is impressed after you explain why... the rest of them are > completely confused and it requires several explanations as to why you are > doing this. The only possible gotcha I think is that if you wanted to get > out sooner, you could have created more of a hassle since you may have > technically made a deeper commitment to the contract term by notifying them > of the cancellation... but I've not run into that yet. > > Chuck > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Bruce N [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: August-16-12 6:19 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [on-asterisk] Bell Canada evergreen contracts > > Hi Everyone, > > Anyone can share their story about Bell's auto-renewal contracts? They > usually send a notice on bills to customers telling them they have 30 days > to call or else their contract will be renewed (a contract which was never > signed in first place). This of course doesn't stand in courts and Bell > backs off after some time. But what is the quickest way to get away from > less knowledgeable reps? > > Any feed is appreciated. > > - Bruce > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > -- * ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * *Mr. Henry L. Coleman * * *
