Sympatico customer service is terrible and they keep screwing up my bills

I am a subscriber of Bell Canada's high speed Sympatico Internet service since 2000 and never really had a problem with them. Until near the end of October when I received a notice in the mail from Sympatico that I haven't paid my bills since June. I owe thm a total of $221 and something cents (I forget at the moment but it isn't important to the blog posting).

Now that's ridiculous, I thought. I pay through my credit card. Good thing I keep all my credit card receipts for such an emergency. Turns out, Sympatico never did bill me since June. So a call to them verified that indeed it was their fault and that I can pay the full amount by credit card over the phone.

• why did I have to give Sympatico my credit card details if they already have it on file?

However, then they asked me a question which would change my impression of Sympatico forever. "And what about your other account?" Other account? What other account?

Turns out, they mean my cousin's account with Sympatico. Way back in 2000, she gave me Sympatico high speed service for my birthday. At the time (and before then(, she had already signed up with Sympatico dial-up. Since then, I had always paid for my account, not hers. And vice versa.

Further investigation by the Sympatico CSR revealed that since June, for some reason, both of our accounts were under my cousin's name, but with my postal address.

• the entire phoen call took an hour and 25 minutes of being passed from one Sympatico billing CSR to a CSR for Bell One Bill back to another Sympatico CSR and then to another One Bill CSR. Apparently, their CSRs weren't clearly trained on which department handles what. What happened what my cousin's account and my account got put together on a One Bill thing. Yeah, it's that convenient.
  

Whatever. I paid and she's gonna pay her bill and Sympatico told me they would deconsolidate our accounts (meaning, she gets the bill for her account and I get the bill for my account. What a clever concept).

Not until a week later when I receive my Visa statement. Oct 30th had a charge by Sympatico for $221 and Oct 31 had a charge by, you guessed it, Sympatico for $298. In total, I owe them a whopping $519.

This is where It gets fun. Another phone call which lasted another hour and a half with me being shifted between Sympatico CSRs and One Bill CSRs with each time I had to explain not only why I was calling, but the entire story of my Visa statement, my cousin's account and why it was there, how I had called before and why I don't owe $519. I had to explain all that over and over.

I eventually got someone who actually knew what she was doing and she promptly called up my cousin while I was put on hold. My cousin provided her VISA number and told the Sympatico CSR to take $104 from her credit card and give to me. The $104 is part of the $298.

It turns out that the Oct 30th bill I got was wrong. The Oct 31 was correct; 221 was for my account and 104 was for my cousin's account.

• I was told I would be getting a $326 refund cheque

I don't remember how the smart CSR got $326 but I have it in my notes and I was waiting for it.

And I waited.

And waited.

Until I got a nice envelope from Bell Sympatico.

Nope, it wasn't the cheque. It was a bill including both my account and my cousin's account. My bill also had a credit for $221.

SIGH

Another phone call which lasted-- yup, an hour and a half (must be a company policy) explaining e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g to each Sympatico and One Bill CSR that I was passed to. I must have spoken to at least 5 people before anything was actually accomplished.

• Bell Canada CSRs for whichever sevice (Sympatico, Mobility, ExpressVu, etc) don't know anything about their jobs. The minute they get a customer with a problem they don't have a clue about, they immediately send you elsewhere regardless of whether you'll get your problem solves or not

Not only did I have to explain everything for the hundredth time, but I had to add the refund cheque I was told I'd be getting (to which I was told "we don't give refund cheques") and why was my bill being credited instead.

Despite being told I'd be getting a refund cheque, Sympatico instead went decided to credit my account. Ok, fine. They did the opposite of what they promised but at least I am getting my money back.

• except they hadn't charged my cousin's VISA

Just so you know, my cousin used to be a Bell CSR so she knows all the tricks they're doing; the whole transfering me elsewhere just so they don't have to bother and also that they keep a record of what was said in every call you've ever made.

• Sympatico CSRs don't seem to read this file most of the time

I was livid and tired of explaining myself over and over and over and over and bloody over again and pulling teeth. They have no record of the $326 I was supposed to be getting (I guess Sympatico CSRs can't do proper math either) so it's up to me to get $104 from my cousin despite the fact that she gave them her credit card and told them to take that money out.

Honestly.

So I am bracing myself for the next bill soon to arrive to see who's account is on there. I can guarantee you that despite the many times I was assured that I will only be getting my bill for my own account, I know I will be seeing my cousin's on there.

The minute my credits are up, bye bye Sympatico!

A few weeks before this fiasco started, I had called up Sympatico to find out why my speed drops down to slower than dial up between 7 and 10 pm. Their reason: "You have too many phones in the house". Right. 5 phones. I received 7 filtres from Sympatico.

Now onto Bell ExpressVu. The excuse they give you for whatever problem you have is "Do you have your receiver connected to a power bar? You do? Well, it needs to be connected to the wall socket".

Right.