I really debated writing about this but anyone who knows me, I am always up front and customer service needs to change.  Let me tell you about my story with Bell Mobility. I purchased a $600 9700 Bold as I initially had a Bold from Rogers and whenever I had problems the Bell standard line is “We don’t support other carriers phones”, though they are happy to port the number over.  So I decided to concede and Future shop had a better deal than Bell, so I bought a Bell branded Bold 9700.   Feb 23/2010.  Love that model by the way!    About 3 weeks in, the battery wouldn’t hold a charge and I go to Future shop where they tell me it is a Bell issue.  At the store I call Bell and they say it is a Future shop issue.  hmmmmm….The kind lady says you know what, here is a battery.  Whew…..  She said the warranty ends next week, only 30 days.  So as luck would have it, I hadn’t used the memory card yet and on day 32, yes 2 days out of warranty, I find that it won’t recognize ANY memory card.     I call Bell and guess what?  I call Future shop and guess what?   Let the finger pointing begin.   Bell also says why didn’t you buy an extended warranty, only $7 a month, and we would happily swap it.  Well, because I wasn’t asked or told about this through Future shop.   So I spend several hours on the phone and give up and every once and awhile for the next few weeks I attempt the process all over again.  Same result.  So last week I HAVE to get this resolved and I spent, are you ready?  Approximately 8 hours on the phone over two days, Bell says call Future shop, Future shop ( usually doesn’t answer their phone but when they do  they say…) says call Bell.

Tell me what  a consumer does?  Can I bill them for all the time it has taken me to resolve this?   Do you report it to the Better Business Bureau?  Do huge companies have the right to do this?

Finally I talk someone at Bell to pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaase help me.   They finally say ok, ok, but we are doing you a favour as Future shop should be handling this.  Thank you, thank you for honouring a device that you have made arrangements with Future shop to sell.  Here is the ticket number they say and go to one of our repair stores and they will send it out for you.    Lucky me I feel.  Oh but wait not done yet,  we don’t loan out another berry to you without charging you 240 dollars on your cc, which you will get back when the phone comes back, wait for it……..5-8 weeks later.    Seriously I say?  I could be without a phone for 2 months?   If I choose to not buy/rent your loaner, can you stop my payment until I get my device back?  No we can’t do that!  You pay, even though you won’t have a device.   Hmmmm Interesting theory.    So what can you do?   I say ok, fine, thanks for helping me out.     My honey gets home and I am near tears having spend 4 hours this day on the phone.  He says, let me call customer loyalty.   He spends 2 hours on the phone and gets them to ship a loaner for free.  Well, that is a nice thing to do for sure.  So thanks Bell, that was and is great, though shouldn’t that just be a normal process?    We are told to wait for the phone and then take both in for them to swap the info.

So today I go to the store, all equipped with everything and what does the guy say?  Oh I know you know……Go to Future Shop.  OMG, I almost lost it but kept my cool and eventually, though not happy about it, he said he would do me a favour and send it out.  He also said he doesn’t know who told me 5-8 weeks….Well, every person I talked too!    He thinks it might be 2-4.

So I don’t know what the moral of this story is but be very careful about who supports what when you purchase any phone and get EVERYTHING in writing.

I will update you later as to what happens when I get my gorgeous 9700 Bold back!