Most of these services are installed by a phone conversation and at the time of the install Bell rep doesn't tell you that your contract will auto-renew so you don't agree to an auto-renew clause (verbally) even if they pull a recording so the "evergreen" clause won't stand in court. I am in awe that CRTC has sold it's soul to Bell Canada. In this case there is no signed contract. Bell pro-actively and one-sidedly writes on the last Bill that your contract is coming up, call us or you will be in contract for another 3 years...real bs.
-Bruce 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 >
