Cam I Am

I decided to try something different yesterday..  I thought I’d try the “customer retention/relations game”..  One of my friends seems to do this periododically and it usually works out for him..

I have had a cell phone with Rogers for about 8 years straight, but 15 years on and off.  In that time, I’ve paid my bills on time and have not even really complained about the service..

A few years ago, I switched my service to Fido, and gave my wife the Rogers cell phone plan, while retaining the number and the billing in my name.  She doesn’t use it much (something around 250-300 (mostly daytime) minutes a month), so we’ve tried to find a plan that works..  Back in January, I tried to find the most optimal plan that works with her usage, and was offered by Rogers a plan that should work.  

So we watched the next 3 months of bills come in. That plan worked out to be about $75 a month.  I looked over at my unlimited City Fido plan, with the bells and whistles that I have added on..  $85 a month for 1500-2000 minutes a month..

There is hardly a comparison there!

Now, I know that my “I Will Die With This Cell Phone Plan” with City Fido was an amazing offer that will probably not be repeated ever again, but $75 for 300 minutes with Rogers?   That just doesn’t seem like a good deal to me. 

I don’t usually complain about things to companies.  I usually put up with far more than I should..  So the phone call that I made to Rogers yesterday was certainly out of character for me.  I called to see what other plans that they had.  The (rude) woman on the phone said that was “the best that she could do”, so I said that I wanted to cancel.  She advised me of the contract termination fee of $240 to which I said, ‘That’s fine.  I’ll make it up with the plan that I can get at Telus.  She said that she would start to cancel the line.

This isn’t going quite according to my plan, at this point.   If I did switch to (evil) Telus, I wanted the same number that I have had all this time.  I advised the lady that I wanted to port it so my next call would be to Telus. 

This is when she said that she put me through to “Customer Relations”. 

Ahh!  This is what I was looking for! 

I get a very happy sounding employee who, in the end, was able to give me a better plan, including voicemail and call display, with 250 minutes, free weekends and evenings for…..$39…

Much better!  I can live with that! 

So, I signed for another 3 years, which wasn’t so bad since I was already one year into a three year contract anyways.  Maybe it wasn’t the best possible deal out there, but it is one that I could live with..

Now I have the taste for this little game.  Now who else can I try it on?!  I can’t with my cable/internet/home phone and I think I do pretty good with Fido already…

Maybe I should threaten the Gas or Hydro company! 

I just got off the phone with Telus.  I cannot believe how much they can screw up a simple task.

In early January, I switched phone providers from Telus to Shaw.  We transferred our number over and everything seemed to go well.  Since I do this for work all the time, I thought that it would be another simple transfer.

Apparently not.

Last month, we got another bill from Telus for around $139.00.  They tend to bill a month in advance, so my wife called them and asked what’s going on.  She was assured that the situation would be taken care of and that the next bill would reflect our final amount owing.  Great!  All taken care of!

Apparently not.

I come home today and find another Telus bill.  Great!  We can finally pay off the true amount owing!  I open it.  Amount owing: $210.

What the hell?  So I call them again!  I go through their extremely annoying voice-activated menu system on the phone and eventually get a person on the end.  She answers in the typical way, asking how she can help me.

I tell her that I got my bill…  and I shouldn’t be..

She seemed quick enough to react, put me on hold for a couple minutes, and then comes back to say that it is taken care of and that the next bill I receive will be corrected.

I wouldn’t think that a task such as finalizing and closing an account would be so difficult.  It’s very frustrating to deal with a company that you have no desire to do business with..

We’ll see what happens with the NEXT bill..

About a week ago, I wrote a post about my complaint about a couple of baby gates under the brand name “The First Years”

Well, things have progressed nicely there..

First, they are sending me two sets of the hinges that were broken at no cost..

But the second part is even better.  If though I can’t find the original receipt for either of the gates, they are sending a new gate to replace the one that has internal parts that I broken!   I had to find some information for them and send them another form of proof that I actually had the gate, but they are replacing it.

I am impressed when companies that manufacture/sell products for kids stand behind them and do whatever it takes to make the customer happy.

Too bad that companies rarely do it for products for adults..

Yesterday I decided to complain to a manufacturer of a couple baby gates that we had bought over the last 1 1/2 years.   I don’t usually complain to companies (normally I grumble to my wife about them), but I felt that I needed to tell Learning Curve what I thought about there “The First Years” baby gate..

Here’s what I wrote:

In the past 18 months, I have purchased two of your “Everywhere Gate” for our home. We bought them because we didn’t want our two toddlers climbing up or down the stairs. I have to say that I am EXTREMELY disappointed with this product. About 2 months ago, one of the gates (that we had for only 3 months at that point), broke. It seems that the mechanism inside the top part gate that allows you to adjust the width and lock it broke. I had to open it up to “super glue” it back together. The second gate has been fine (we’ve had it for 18 months now), but the mounting hardware has broken. I’ve had to make a temporary mounting bracket out of wood just so that we can still use it. We’ve bought many “The First Years” products over the past several years, but I have to say that the quality of these gates is not what I expect it to be. I bought these gates to keep my kids safe, but I feel that they are not doing there job. If you could contact me about this I would appreciate it.

 I wrote that mostly expecting a “very sorry but there isn’t anything we can/will do”.  The last time I remeber complaining about a baby/childrens product was in 2001 when we bought a crib at Sears made by Storkcraft.  One part was completely broken in the box.  Storkcraft did replace the part without a problem or charge to me.  Surely that wouldn’t happen again!

Well, I checked my e-mail this morning and I had a reply.

Cameron,

 Thanks for your inquiry.  The First Years gates carry a one-year warranty on them & we do have some replacement parts for our Everywhere gate Y4996. 

Please refer to your instruction manual to get the exact name of the part that broke.  Once you get that email us back with that plus, your name, address, and phone number.  If we have the part available we would be more than happy to send it out with our compliments.  The adjustment buckle that you are also having problems with is a non-replaceable part.  If you have a receipt stating it was purchased in the last year please let me know and I can advise further. 

Regards,

Consumer Services

Wow…  I’m impressed..  now I just need to find the receipt for one of those gates.. 

I know that Mark is going to laugh at me when he reads this..  And I’ll save him from saying it now..  Yes, I probably should have bought a Mac when we bought our new computer several months ago..

Last night, I had to go out and buy a new printer..  The Dell A810 that came with the computer was a piece of garbage and not functioning well/at all… So we bought a new HP Deskjet F4180.. 

Windows Vista is Plug N Play?  HAHAHAHA!  Not quite! 

I don’t care what anyone says..  Windows Vista SUCKS!  I’d much rather have Windows XP… 

After 3 online chats with “Qualified Online Technicians”, who clearly did not use English as a first language, I finally SORT of have the printer working.  I’m still getting pop-up windows saying it can’t find some driver, but the printer does appear to be working.  Of course, I haven’t dared to turn off the computer and printer and restart it.. I’m sure that disaster will occur.  I wouldn’t be surprised if some small village far, far away bursts into flames if I try…

So, wish me luck..  I’m going to try to reboot and power cycle…

Here’s hoping to you that it’s not your village that is about to spontaneously combust!

A couple days ago, I left the house to go out, armed my alarm, and left..  I came home a couple hours later, disarmed it, and then proceeded to my dining room. 

Now, I live close to some train tracks (within 300 feet), so it’s common place for me to hear trains going by, even with the doors and windows closed..  But as I was setting down the bag from the grocery store on the table, I noticed that the train going by seemed a little louder today..

I had gone out, armed the alarm with the sliding patio door open.  This door has a wireless sensor on it..  But it appears that I left, and the alarm never detected that the door was open.  Alarmforce never contact my cell (like they claimed they would) to notify me of an alarm if there is no answer on their two-way voice technology….

Another reason that Alarmforce is a bunch of crap…

I’ve decided to devote a page to recalls. This can be found at (http://blog.eagleinbc.com/canadian-recall-list/).  As I’ve stated in a previous post “Getting Tired of Recalls“, I think that the recall situation is getting out of hand.

So, this is for recalls that I come across.  By no means is anyone to assume that this is a complete list.  Also, this will be mainly a Canadian List (But very often, Canadian/USA ones are the same).

If you have one to add, please feel free!  My main source will be from Health Canada, but I may use others as well..

Overall, I think that awareness is key.  The more sources that list the info, the more likely that it is that more people are going to  get the message.

Thanks!

Cam…

(Please note that this list is effective as of today, October 9, 2007.  I may refer back to older ones though)

I thought I’d leave a follow-up comment on AlarmForce.  A few weeks ago, I put a post up about my disatisfaction with how AlarmForce handled my back-up battery replacement.  The battery arrived, about three days after this post.  It was simple enough to replace, but I am now stuck with this dead battery that contains lead.  At some point, I’m sure that I’ll find a place to dispose of it.

Overall, I am not impressed with Alarmforce’s service or technology.  The system (at least in Canada), is a joke.  It’s a small box that plugs into the phone jack.  It isn’t integrated into the phone system to ensure that it has priority over the dial tone.  (I work for Shaw Cable. Part of my job entails hooking up phone service for customers; I know how alarm systems SHOULD be hooked up).  It’s very “mickey mouse” really.

In short, if you live in Canada at least, I would NOT recommend AlarmForce as an alarm company.  You can be sure that when my contract with them is up, I’ll be switching.

Since I seem to be on a bit of a rant this morning, I figure, why stop at toy recalls!

I have had an alarm system from AlarmForce for a couple years now.  Overall, I’m not very impressed with there alarm system.  They advertise a free alarm system, but there “free system” doesn’t include much, so you end up buying lots of add-ons to actually make it worth having an alarm from them.  Without getting into the technical details, I’ll just say

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I just finished reading a blog by my friend Mark, about how Starchoice is charging him a fee for a mandatory upgrade his HD reciever.  And it reminded me about a conversation I had with my wife a couple weeks ago…

For the past 7 years, I’ve been a customer with TD Canada Trust.  My “relationship” with them started out when they were the only bank that was willing to give me a car loan, regardless of my credit history.  I figured that any bank that was willing to overlook my student loan situation, I’d be willing to transfer my business too.    Since then, I’ve have my chequing, savings, and some RESP’s for my kids with them.   The only things that I don’t have with them are my mortgage (because they weren’t competitive enough), and my RRSP’s.

Now, I am not saying that I feel like I’m one of their most valuable customers.  I’m essentially non-exisitant to them.  But I see this ads for banks saying, “Switch to us and get a free $150 gift card for blah!”, or some other comparable offer.  TD was promoting a free iPod for switching. 

What I what to know is, what are they willing to do to KEEP me as a customer?  New customers get the promo, and all I get is service charges every month.  I could easily switch to any other financial institution for a promotional deal.  Coast Capital Savings offers a free chequing account (no service fees).  BMO is offering gift cards.  Where is the customer retention plan?  The rewards for doing business with them?

Where is my free iPod?