Pop Culture
Bell Canada – Behind the Times and Proud of It
By Hervé St-Louis
Mar 1, 2010 - 21:29
Bell Canada, one of the largest telecommunications company in Canada is proud to have been one of the main sponsor of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic. The company, along with brother in arm, Telus built a new 3G GSM network just in time to greet all the foreigners that would visit Vancouver in February 2010. However, Bell Canada, an old company not known for its innovative demeanour nor its sensitivity to the real needs of Canadians still proves that no matter how much money it spends advertising itself or revamping its logo and image, that it’s still the same old dud, a company Canadians cannot rely on.
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Case in point, while Canada was defeating the Americans in men’s hockey, the Americans, the Germans, the British, the Spaniards and virtually everyone that uses one of American mobile manufacturer Palm’s webOS phones was busy updating their devices to the newer version of the operating system developed by the Mountain View company. The new version of Palm’s webOS improves on the multitasking heavyweight which on some recent models can open up to 50 apps at once (apps which included anything from Need for Speed, a heavy duty 3D racing game, to phone dialers, Web pages, calendar applications and more). The newest version of webOS also features video recording and video editing as well as a direct upload to sites like Facebook and YouTube.
While Americans were happy downloading the crucial update, Canadians were served with ridiculous commercials from Bell Canada, flaunting their “superior” customer service. Many Canadians that have used services from Bell Canada will always be quick to share their personal horror stories with the company. There doesn’t seem to be an end to those. My personal horror stories with Bell Canada include being told to leave a Bell Mobility store by a clerk after I asked him why he was being so rude. Five months later, the folks from Bell Canada have not apologized in writing and failed to deliver any compensation.
Through my various and perilous ordeals with Bell Canada, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to a high up executive that told me that the iPhone was a toy and that Bell Canada didn’t care about the Palm Pre. He also told me that none of my complaints would ever get any kind of resolutions I would like as ultimately everything would fall on his desk and that he would deny me any compensation. He mocked me several times and even called me closed minded. Just because I’m an Albertan doesn’t mean it's right to call me closed minded when I’m fighting for my consumer rights. It’s rather insulting. All the while, the executive kept telling me how BlackBerry phones are great. Hum, Mister executive who doesn’t give a damn about this customer, I may not be the best supporter of Apple’s iPhone, and I may loath Google Android’s questionable privacy settings, but I am the last guy who will argue that these phones and operating systems are worse products than Blackberry phones. BlackBerry phones, are ancients and useless. Only a high end executive who thinks he has a better pulse on the likes of Canadians would argue that Blackberry is the end all of the mobile world.
And that’s why folks Bell Canada is so behind and out of touch with its customers. If there were any real alternatives that doesn’t suck as much as Telus or Rogers – basically Canada is an oligopoly where mediocrity in telecommunication and ridiculous mark-ups is the norm – Bell Canada would be out of business. I called Bell Canada today, and they didn’t even have a clue about whether or not Canadians users would get the much sought after webOS upgrade. If the Canadian government was serious about serving the needs of Canadians, it would allow foreign companies like Verizon, Orange and Telcel to enter the Canadian market without being forced to being tethered to a Canadian company and start offering real competition in telecommunications. As it stands, Canada as a country is falling behind in technological innovation because of companies like Bell Canada that think being number one is about being complacent. Knowing Bell Canada, they'll probably threaten to sue me for writing this article instead of offering innovation and respond genuinely to my frustrations as a customer.
Last Updated: May 16, 2012 - 6:56
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