Fraud Awareness Day! IRONY!

And, the easiest way not to fall victim to fraud is to not pay the Yellow Pages Group for your marketing!

I expect that this is fair comment, since I didn't subscribe to get this spam in my email--it came in to a catch all mailbox with a made up first part at one of my domains.  Yellow pages used to rule the marketing world--but then Google happened and that ended. Now Yellow pages averages 3 visits per month for business sites they create and charge the clients roughly $360 a month for the privilege of calling yourself their client. Of course, these are for a set term and you need to sign in blood, (Rumour has it).

It is nearly as ironic as their sister company Bell and their "Lets Talk", marketing campaign masked as a PSA for Mental Health. Bell's policies drive me nuts...most of the time.

UPS - Customs Brokerage

UPS Customs Brokerage Billing the wrong people...

Occasionally people send things to us, new products to check out. Usually they send it and deal with the duties, customs brokerage etc.... but when they don't, the customs brokerage tries to bill us.

Ups has their own profitable wing dealing with customs brokerage, and they bill at about 10x the typical wholesale rate. ie. an entire transport truck can be $100 brokerage fee, but 1 package through UPS is $22.29.

So, UPS delivered a package to me containing 2 deck boards... Samples from a company operating in Toronto.  He asked for payment of the brokerage fees... I told him clearly, that is not my responsibility...take it back and have your customer pay for it.

2 days later the package arrived back at my door...no invoice. I thought it was done.

Wouldn't you know it... I get an invoice...and a collection call.

Now, keep in mind, I did not buy anything, did not ask for it to be imported from the US, and as far as I am concerned they have no business billing me anything...for any reason. I am not a UPS customer. I do not have an account with UPS and wouldn't. Common practice in the industry is that they have one scale out front...the package is re-weighed on a different scales out back and you find a bigger bill when you open your bill than you agreed to when you shipped.

Duties and Customs are not payable on samples or Non Purchases as far as I know.

Well, for the 4th time this year, UPS has billed me for customs on a sample sent by a company near Toronto which for god knows what reason had to be imported from the US. Icing on the cake...the boards were severely damaged when they arrived.

I wasted 15 minutes on the phone with Dwayne  Employee # 3127 at UPS for him to say "I'll see what I can do", and after questioning him about why he can't just do what he should do and bill it back to "His" customer, he said that I should call the customer for him. I told him that was not my job and intimated that he should probably do his job.

I am so Running out of patience with these guys--whoever is initiating this policy for UPS, they need to look for a different career. Any good will I had towards UPS is quickly disappearing.

UPS collections can be reached at 866 836 4875... ask for Dwayne.

He said that I should have their customer call 800 263 8125 to get that charge reversed.

Shortly thereafter I received another call. She said that they had written that charge off. Said that they could not reverse the invoice...but I wouldn't be charged this fee wrongly. Now, I am not sure what that means, however if I do receive another bill I will let you know.

To add insult to injury, the boards were bubble wrapped and UPS damaged them by throwing them back in the truck when I told them I wasn't responsible to pay them anything.

Attention UPS:

I AM NOT YOUR CUSTOMER... DO NOT SEND ME BILLS!

Doesn't this whole practice sound like those guys that started a company to send out fictional bills to every company in North America...Remember they made millions? Maybe the management at UPS came from that group...they would be out of jail now!

407 ETR Complaints

The 407 ETR gets 70-100 complaints about billing monthly, not to their office....but to the Ministry of Transportation. You are not alone. 

Complaints about 407 ETR often fall on deaf ears....who can blame them. They must gets thousands of complaints a week!

The company 407 ETR is owned by a Consortium "Spanish construction firm Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, Australia's Macquarie Infrastructure Group and Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin Inc."

u·su·ryNoun/ˈyo͞oZH(ə)rē/

1. The illegal action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest.
2. Interest at such rates.  More »

Wikipedia - Dictionary.com - Answers.com - Merriam-Webster

Back in the 90's their method of charging up to 100% interest was deemed to be Usury. Later, this was rescinded in court since the province didn't want to buy the highway back at an inflated price.  

I guess it's not usury, Raqueteering maybe?

racketeering:

Main Entry: rack·e·teer·ing
Pronunciation: "ra-k&-'tir-i[ng]
Function: noun
1 :  the extortion of money or advantage by threat or force
2 :  a pattern of illegal activity (as extortion and murder) that is carried out in furtherance of an enterprise (as a criminal syndicate) which is owned or controlled by those engaged in such activity —see also Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt

I don't use the highway out of principal, however I still get bills because the wife does.

If you don't pay the bill get ready for them to enter the unpaid bill on your credit report. 

If you still don't pay, you cannot renew your licence plates or license. 

There are always issues when a private company is given too much power over their customers. 

3 years ago I paid fees they attributed to me from 10 years ago totaling $1200.00  

The statute of limitations in Ontario is 2 years. 

Government can go back 7 I believe...but the 407 can apparently go back 15 years, attibute interest and penalties and that can lead to a nasty surprise. 

They have no government oversight. They can bill what they want and the government gives these Spanish pirates more power than Revenue Canada.

They typically don't answer the phone if you call...and mail is disposed of unless it is registered. 

Good luck with these Shysters known as 407 ETR.  

Here are some resources you may find entertaining. Please add any others people might find interesting in comments...as usual comments are wide open in this blog, so have at it! Give us your complaints! 

suicide due to the 407 ETR  

Review of customer service complaints about 407 ETR by Government

Complaints about 407--Government cannot deal with it.

Sandford Borins, Ph.D. Writes about 407 ETR in his blog

Chris Grieves has complaints about the ETR


This guy names and shames 407 Employees in his Blog Complaints!

GreenWashing of Whirlpool

Whirlpool corporation has begun the process of greenwashing it's reputation.

The green choice is simply the most efficient choice--not the cheapest. When it comes to the most efficient, responsible and kindest appliances for preservation of the planet--appliances that last a year or two is the least green alternative.

DO NOT BUY WHIRLPOOL APPLIANCES... read through this blog for evidence regarding the poor design and build quality of Whirlpool Appliances and their abstinent attitude towards their customers.

The green choice is simply the most efficient choice--not the cheapest.When you design something that needs to be replaced in a year or two I would call it irresponsible and fraudulant--not green.

Buy LG... Samsung... anything not designed and built by Whirlpool.

Do not buy their deceptive marketing. Look closely at the hardware... and compare it to LG and Samsung... and look at the warranty. 

Friends don't let friends buy Whirlpool Applicances.

Yellow Pages Group... Evil Corporation?

Yellow Pages Group Canada, Internet listings and Adwords Marketing Program.

Not inherently, they have shown some flexibility of late by negotiating prices. However in their struggle for survival they are committing some sins against their customers.

These web pages-paid managed marketing through adwords start at $250/month so you would expect performance--however it just doesn't.

I called them to hear the spiel first hand. I have had my own website for about 15 years so I am up on the jargon. The salesman on the other end builds websites, so when I asked him for clarification of what he was saying he gracefully elaborated in the proper terms.

They are told to refer to "clicks" as "Leads"--they are not. A click is a visit to your website. Half those clicks leave immediately... and I bet when they see the site that yellow pages built... even more leave immediately.

They said to expect 100 "Qualified Leads" a month for your $250.00. Again... Deceptive. They mean 100 visits to the template web page that they create. Of which 50 or 75 will leave... and you may or may not get any calls at all.

They seem to prey on the people that don't know better. When you have a good website you might get a couple of calls per 100 hundred visits... A bad site, (see the photo in this article), may only see a lead for every 1000 visits.

Due to the decline of their print media--they have embarked into the on-line world. They are fighting hard, however like most directories they are having issues with traffic.  They claim 11 million potential customers a year in Canada. You don't have to try very hard to dispel that myth.

If you go to Alexa and search for www.yellowpages.ca you will get very interesting stats that don't jive with what they claim.

Common sense dictates that there is roughly 30 million people in Canada. Half of those people may be a potential customer. That's 15 million potential. Go and ask 15 friends.. if you were going to hire a service business, how would you go about finding the company.

More info on Yellow Pages Websites

I would bet 12 of the 15 would say Google if they couldn't find someone from word of mouth. I would bet only 1 would suggest the phone book, since the other 14 don't know where their phone book is is. I would also bet that that person is likely over 60 and not likely to be shopping for much.

By my best estimation Yellow Pages .ca gets about 90,000 unique visits a month. Of those visits roughly half are from customers searching for their listings to make sure they are correct or to figure out why they aren't getting any calls. 20% will be web searches from other countries that are coming up for certain keywords and 30% is likely actual potential customers... Close to Retirement and female, without secondary education. (their demographic from Alexa)

Another interesting site on the Yellow Pages Group Websites is here.

Check out our deck business blog on Yellow Pages Group Websites.

Bell Canada- High Speed

Yes, they can be a brutal company, their support is out of Mumbai India so they are sending jobs overseas...

But after a 10 year wait, we have high speed.

Through their new Business Unplugged we now have 3 mb of high speed. Unlimited amount. No more 2 hours downloading emails, and once our webmaster gets finished updating our editors I won't have to cut and paste html when I edit anymore...

Thank you bell... However, Bell keeps shuffling phone lines because they don't have enough hard lines in this area.

We are still looking at options since for a week or two a year we don't have land line service for our main business.

Whirlpool Appliance Blog is garnering comments...

"Dave Lawless has left a new comment on your post "Friends don't let friends buy Whirlpool Appliances...":

"Not purchasing an extended warranty was the gamble you took...if these manufactures could produce 100% perfect product off the assembly line there wouldn't be any such thing as an appliance service technician."

Yes Dave, It is my fault because I didn't pay more money to Whirlpool for extended warranty service-- Nice to see that people working for the company see buying their products as a gamble too!" BTW, More than a year in and the LG washer and dryer haven't needed a service call... and the knobs didn't fall off either. By this point we had 5 service calls for the Whirlpool and Dave, I don't ever gamble when I buy appliances. Nowadays I check the web for the appliance I am shopping and complaints... that has a direct effect on what I buy.

Ya it sucks…but in my experience as an appliance salesman, Whirlpool is above and beyond the competition when it comes to quality.

Not in my experience--however you live in the whirlpool corporate bubble, so you get a different experience. You get the money I wasted buying a whirlpool washer and dryer... both the washer and dryer circuit boards shorted as the first year ended, and within 2 years the bearings were gone, fins had fallen off the dryer and the washer had cronic issues with things blocking up the filter throwing errors. I wished I could have had my $300 Roper top loader back.

Yes, at my store we see customers like you every once and awhile but we see far more disgruntled customers who have bought GE and LG products.

Mr Lawless, you don't really work in a store do you? As a carpenter, the last thing I want to do in the evenings is woodwork--I just can't imagine an appliance salesman that trolls the internet trying to minimize damage caused by blogs. You work for Whirlpool Head office and this is your job.

Just think, for every one of you…Whirlpool gains 3 new customers who are upset with GE/LG and the like.

That's not what the internet and the open market says. I paid about $2,000.00 for the washer and dryer, (might have been a little more). I can get the same model for about $1000 today. Yet, the LG I bought cost 2k. All the insurance in the world won't save the main bearing from falling out of a cheap Whirlpool washer in a year... and it sure won't seal and isolate the circuit board the way LG has... Face facts... you work for a company that builds sub standard junk washers and dryers... and that company is Whirlpool.

Hopefully life doesn’t send you any more lemons….but remember you can always make lemonade!"

Yes Sir... this is precisely what I am doing... making lemonade! Thanks for writing Dave Lawless from Whirlpool!

It is the early days of this blog and yes, I am picking on one product at a time, just for effect. There are so many complaints and so many people selling this junk on line that it is very difficult to rank for the terms we need to get the word out on the street... "Friends don't let friends buy Whirlpool Appliances". And of course there is the corporate disinformation and professional blog posters like Dave don't help the clutter.

We will use our websites and blogs to pump this blog up over time. The message gets to a couple of hundred people a month already... give this some time and it will be hundreds finding out that it is a gamble to buy Whirlpool Appliances.

L

Another call from Whirlpool regarding Whirlpool Duet Complaints

We got a call regarding the whirlpool duet complaints this time from Whirlpool corporation's Executive Offices. This is their customer retention branch--skilled people trained to deal with complaints from irate customers. I don't expect they have the ability to get your defective whirlpool duet washer or dryer fixed--not in this economic reality for this dysfunctional corporation.

So the gist is... When she heard that we threw out the washer and dryer because it wasn't worth fixing after 2 years of service...

She offered to refund us the cost of the disposal fee. ($15.00) I am sure it was a joke.

She also indicated that it is not policy for them to help anyone maligned by their corporation after they dispose of the Defective Whirlpool Washer and Dryer. (paraphrased)

And I assured her I would try to let everyone on the planet know that their product is garbage. I also acknowledged that she must have the worst job in the world. I can't imagine having to defend defective products for a living.

If you would like to speak to Whirlpool's Customer Retention Duet Desk (Whirlpool Corporation Executive Office), here's the number. (they don't publish these contacts).

Kerrie Carr

1 866-640-7146 x 3681

For Whirlpool Duet Customer Complaints

(She doesn't answer the phone--I am sure you can understand that she gets way too many whirlpool duet complaints so leave a message and make sure you tell her where you got the number)

I am going to step up the link campaign today to make these articles rank better. We will track progress.

Typical Whirlpool Customer Loyalty Team Correspondence

Try this search. We have the first two listings when you type in "friends don't let friends buy whirlpool"

I'll feed this from the 200,000 visits a month from our other websites and lets see how much we can climb for "Whirlpool Duet Washer" or "Whirlpool Duet Dryer" in Google. Sometimes it takes a few months or even a year, but I did it with "Composite Decking" and we've held listings in Google on the first page. I think we are #4 presently.

Anyhow, here's what you get when you reply to or send complaints to Whirlpool on-line if you are outside warranty. This is all about making sure people know that this product is a lemon and they are not worth buying EVER.

From: win@csolve.net Sent: 4/29/2009 10:21:08 AM

To: nar_whirlpool_customerexperience_ca@whirlpool.com

Subject: Questions and Comments Your Details are. The following information has been received Regarding :

Owner Support Subject : I have an almost 3 year old pair of Whirlpool Duet Sports that need a new home-Can you recommend a good land fill?

Comments : Both the main circuit boards failed 1.5 years in.The latch on the door broke 1.5 years in--ordered it 3 times, part never arrived. We used a 2x4 wedged to the cabinet and I have some very attractive photos of that.The main bearing went out in the washer...so badly that it has finally stopped working.

We paid a Sears service rep $100 to tell us to start saving our shecels for a new pair...he said neither were worth fixing. Every 2 weeks we had to remove the front cover to take the change out of the clean out. Obviously those screws are very stripped and the bottom cover doesn't go back on.

All the fins fell out of the dryer...so I screwed them back on about a week ago. The control knobs... on both the washer and dryer...you know, the ones that were recalled? those both broke in the first month...the three service reps that were here in the first couple of months all said they ordered them, however they never arrived.

For the past year and 11 months (as soon as the warranty expired), the main brains of both the washer and the dryer started flashing all numbers and controls at once. You had to just press the button and pray it would start.

Every day or two the controls would lock up...and they would go into a computer crash where no button would bring it back to life--so we would just flip the breaker 2 or 3 times. The incessant beeping from the malfunctioning unit kept the children awake many nights.

I've bought a few washers and dryers in my life--but this pair take the cake.I don't believe that when you spend $2000 on a washer and dryer that they should be landfill as soon as the warranty expires.I don't believe this to be fair or equitable treatment.

Warranty or no warranty, Whirlpool made a very inferior product in this case and this needs to be made right. We need a washing machine that works.Respond to this email and I will send you photos...

Lawrence Winterburn 1 705 322 9919 Product : Washers Modelno : YWed8300SW0 and WFW8300SW00 Serialno : MT0901113 and HLT1679830 Email : plans@gardenstructure.com

And, you get a response that makes it pretty obvious they didn't even read what you sent... just a cut and paste disrespect marketing "shyte".

It all adds up to Entertainment. Lets see how entertaining they find it in print, haunting their disrespectful collective reputation on line. (likely they are overloaded with furious complaints).

Dear Lawrence Winterburn, Thank you for visiting the Whirlpool web site. We appreciate hearing from you. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to advise Whirlpool of your concerns and loss of faith in our appliances.

Please accept our apologies for the difficulties and inconvenience you have experienced with your washer and dryer. When one of our appliances fails to meet a consumer’s expectations it concerns us. We take pride in the design and quality of our products.

Whirlpool continually strives to use only the best components in all our appliances. However, any electrical or mechanical component may deteriorate or malfunction, and we are unable to predict when this might occur. We try to use only the finest materials in our appliances and put them through rigorous quality control test to assure trouble-free performance.

There are several external factors, which can affect the life of appliance apparatus. Experience shows inherent defects in parts or workmanship will be reported within the first 90 days of operation.

Our warranty will cover these 90 days and 9 months were added making one full year manufacture warranty to ensure the protection of our consumers. Our manufacture warranty states that we will repair or replace any part that proves to be defective within a specified period of time..

Feedback from customers is an important source of information and you may be certain that a copy of your comments were entered in our database. Thank you for allowing us to assist you today. You are a valued customer and we apologize for any inconvenience this concern may have caused.

We invite you to contact Whirlpool again either by calling 1-800-807-6777 between 7:30am to 8:00pm EST weekdays or by emailing whenever the need arises. When calling please press the available option or stay on the line to reach a representative.

Sincerely, Brenda R. Whirlpool Customer Loyalty Team Whirlpool Customer eXperience Centre http://www.whirlpoolappliances.ca *If replying, please use Forward verses Reply or New as that will leave this message intact and will help us to respond faster. [THREAD ID:1-99AESL]

Publish Post

Fun with Whirlpool Duet Washer and Dryer

Here's some Catchup on the Whirlpool Duet Washer and Dryer. Here is the letter I sent to the president of Whirlpool about a year ago regarding these very defective Whirlpool Washer and Dryer. It was sent to an email for the office of the president I found on a corporate site to do with stocks etc, so likely it landed on some secretaries desk and was shredded with all the other complaints that they don't really care about. First, more pretty pictures! (I have hundreds)

Dear Mr. President,

I Bought a Whirlpool Duet Sport Washer and Dryer about 2 years ago and they have been nothing but trouble. They have been repaired a couple of times and most recently we had a service tech from Sears over to look at them and he told us that they are not worth fixing. Here's the list of what went wrong.

• Both the main circuit boards failed 1.5 years in.
• Thelatch on the door broke 1.5 years in--ordered it 3 times, part never
  arrived. We used a 2x4 wedged to the cabinet and I have some very
  attractive photos of that.
• The main bearing went out in the washer...so badly that it has finally stopped working.
• We paid a Sears service rep $100 to tell us to start saving our sheckles
  for a new pair...he said neither were worth fixing.
• Every 2 weeks we had to remove the front cover to take the change out of the
  cleanout. Obviously those screws are very stripped and the bottom cover
  doesn't go back on.
• All the fins fell out of the dryer...so I screwed them back on about a week ago.
• The control knobs... on both the washer and dryer...you know, the ones that
  were recalled? those both broke in the first month...the three service
  reps that were here in the first couple of months all said they ordered
  them, however they never arrived.
• For the past year and 11 months (as soon as the warranty expired), the main brains of
  both the washer and the dryer started flashing all numbers and controls
  at once. You had to just press the button and pray it would start.
• Every day or two the controls would lock up...and they would go into a
  computer crash where no button would bring it back to life--so we would
  just flip the breaker 2 or 3 times. The incessant beeping from the
  malfunctioning unit kept the children awake many nights.

I've bought a few washers and dryers in my life--but this pair takes the cake.

I don't believe that when you spend $2000 on a washer and dryer that they should be landfill as soon as the warranty expires.

I don't believe this to be fair or equitable treatment. Warranty or no warranty, Whirlpool made
a very inferior product in this case and this needs to be made right.

We need a washing machine that works.

Respond to this email and I will send you
photos...

Lawrence

Whirlpool Duet Washer and Dryer Review episode 2

So, a year after writing to Whirlpool and considering dumping their garbage whirlpool duet washer and dryer in their corporate headquarters in Mississauga--where technically it belonged, and after I paid to get rid of them at the dump because nobody would take them for free curbside for 2 weeks...
A YEAR AFTER PAYING HARD EARNED MONEY TO DUMP the Whirlpool Duet Washer and Dryer this comes in the mail. Click to enlarge.

Of all the low down, reprehensible, morally bankrupt ignorant and disrespectful things to do-- they try to sell me an extended warranty after I reported them as a lemon--and they tell me that they can't do anything for me. The first one came 9 months after I disposed of the garbage Whirlpool Duet Washer and Dryer and they asked for about $500.00.

This time it is down to $170

I guess that when you sell garbage-- and the prices get cut in half in 3 years because word is getting out that their products are less than reliable--you have to recoup the profits by selling extended warranties.

They can't even get my name right.

Friends don't let friends buy Whirlpool Appliances

Inherently evil corporation or just an idiot corporation? We don't know.

Whirlpool is one of the largest appliance makers worldwide. They have swallowed up Maytag and many others so you need to be cautious. Look carefully at the flimsy hardware and latch catches, the brittle plastic parts. Keep in mind that these appliances are some of the most competitively priced in the market. Every component is made from Low Bid Suppliers... as cheap as they can do it.

It is not made to last, it is made to be cheap. They make their money by supplying appliances every 3 or so years.

We spent $2000 on a Whirlpool Duet Sport washer and dryer... and took it to the dump after paying a service rep from Sears for his opinion. His $128.00 opinion was neither appliance was worth fixing after 2 years.

Computer controls... both washer and dryer were malfunctioning. Vibration and moisture had caused them to short circuit.

The bearings on both the washer and dryer, one had failed and the other was about to.

The fins had fallen off the dryer.

The door closing hardware had broken on the washer, and we were using a piece of wood to hold the door closed.

The motor would suck change in and cause an error every month or so, and when that happens you had to fish it out and drain it manually.

I called Whirlpool and asked if anything could be done... whether they were all lemons or something. They said I was out of warranty and out of luck. I would have to buy another washer and dryer. No discounts, no credit towards another one... no respect whatsoever.
I did consider dumping them off at Whirlpool head office in Mississauga, however that may end up being more trouble than it was worth.

Check the web before you buy... there are many thousands of disgruntled customers out there.

I left them out front for 2 weeks before the sight of them sitting there just made me insane. In my neighborhood anything left within sight of the road that looks to be valuable is gone in minutes. I've seen broken chainsaws go in 15 minutes, an arbor in the middle of my front yard was gone in 4 hours. (I didn't even get a picture).

2 modern looking whirlpool duet appliances... Nobody wanted them. After a few days I put a price on them... even that didn't attract someone to take them.

To be candid, paying to get rid of these was the single greatest insult to my intelligence.


It cost me $15 to dispose of these... so yes, I did take a few whacks as I dropped them off the back of the truck.

We sent a letter to whirlpool addressed to the president that made us feel a little better... no response.

We also sent a complaint by Email... no response, but now we get spam emails that look like this.
This week we were offered an extended warranty on our whirlpool duet by mail...only $500 and something dollars--only a year after they went to the dump.

Do NOT let your friends or family buy any whirlpool appliances ever. It could be an incredible waste of money.

Southwest Airlines-- Silent Bob Buckles like a Belt!

Ok, Airlines, plenty of adversity with clients over the years-- and they seem to cause the majority on their own.


Kevin Smith was bounced from a flight saying that he couldn't fit in the seat and that he had to purchase another one...

Well, polls put it dead even and many comments said he should lose some weight... We all love ya Mike... you should live a long life.

Here's Mike's Blog Post on the subject.

Looks like he is accepting their apology. Too bad everyone can't get the same aftercare as Mike Smith.

The key is that their clients come in all kinds of shapes and sizes--what about bodybuilders? Offer different sized seats for a variety of prices and treat people with respect... oh, and stop overbooking flights and you may have happier clients.

Bell Canada

Bell Canada Episode 1

Few corporations have a captive and helpless market like the phone company. It was worse once upon a time--for 100% of the market they had absolutely no choice in service providers. Now roughly 90% have choice, and Ma Bell is not wearing it well.

Bell Canada has put up a very effective firewall around it's management. First wall is customer care--they have no authority, their purpose is to pacify. Collections handles anything to do with financial, however they don't have the authority to correct mis-billings, they just do the collection. Their favorite ploy is to call you up if you are a day past due and claim that the current balance is... Only after you pay the "Current Balance" do you realize that you actually only owed much less, you hadn't received the bill for the "Current Balance", but you paid it because the person on the phone sounded serious.

Now, when you have a service issue it is quickly routed through a call center in Mumbai India. They go through their script no less than 3 times carefully converting your complaint to the most dumbed down form while keeping you on the phone for no less than 15 minutes. (I guess the call center is paid hourly rate for calls handled).

When you have residential service you are simply not a priority. Business customers, if you squalk, you may feel a little more important.

Now, living in rural Ontario (on a main road), we have had our share of phone issues. In this day where phones for a business are a necessity--not a privilage we lived through about 9 years of "NO PHONE SERVICE" for no less than 3 weeks per year. I made hundreds of irate phone calls to Bell Canada trying to get our phones back up and running at our busiest time of year.

As it turns out the reason for our service issues was that farmers would routinely cut the 40 year old phone lines in our area, they would get patched hundreds of times between the service center and our business and every time someone complained they would shuffle the lines. We would be good for a month until someone else complained about poor phone service, the tech would give them our line and we would get the poorer line. During the rainy season everyone on that branch would be dead shorted for weeks... that means every spring, no or poor service, and every fall, more problems with phone service. Once things dried up or froze... all was well again.

Only after 9 years, hundreds of complaints and frustration ad nausium did we finally get a tech that noticed that we had another, barely used, clean, fiber optic line running on our property that he could tap into. It was there all along.

We had to bury the new lines on our own (they refused), but for the last 2 years we have had functioning phone lines. I also had to pay extra to get business lines to get another line installed for the business. They refused to add another residential. We technically didn't need business lines since we don't subscribe to yellow page ads--we have a website that gets 140,000 visits a month. That is an entirely other story though.

Feel free to add your own stories in comments or send them by email!

Welcome to the Evil Corporation Blog

Have you been maligned by a large corporation?

Everyone gets shafted by a big corporate tyrant sooner or later. When you call to complain about how you have been maligned you always hear the same thing. "It's just our Policy "

These days these bully corporate dictators have take to pillaging what they can and putting up a firewall so that they don't have to invest in customer service. With a few hours work you may find that they actually have a call center where people actually have the authority to do something about it. Sometimes there is a regulator that oversees the misbehaving entity on behalf of the government.

The purpose of this blog is two fold. Get your pound of flesh by posting a comment to purge your injured sense of self worth. Share or get information from others that may have dealt with this behemoth scourge of a corporation.

When it comes to phone companies... they all emulate each other's bad behavior to maximize profits. Everyone needs a phone so people bounce from corporate marauder to be victimized by one, then another tyrant.

Some appliance makers build in flaws and hope to sell people a new appliance every 3 years.

Sometimes it's just a group of scoundrels stealing from businesses.

Comments will be open but please, keep it civilized and stick to facts. Please don't post anything that can not be backed up by facts. This blog is within the realm of public commentary, however posts that are not in good taste or using foul language may be removed by the editor-- ME.

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