Bell has been known for having “shady” door to door sales practices. CBC a few years ago caught them doing really shady things by going undercover. And there was this story where an ex Bell sales rep said that they were trained to lie to customers when they went door to door. This is a main reason why I have suggested to my clients that you need to call Bell directly if you want to sign up with them. This might be about to change as a class action lawsuit in Quebec has been allowed to proceed:
Quebec’s Court of Appeal has on Friday denied Bell’s request to appeal a ruling that authorized a class action against the company for alleged inappropriate door-to-door sales practices.
The lower class action certification court approved in July a class of plaintiffs to take Bell to court over allegations it violated the province’s Consumer Protection Act by instigating a service sales using a door-to-door salesman but concluding the contract over the phone.
Bell alleged that the evidence in front of the certification court meant that there was less than a simple possibility that the plaintiffs would win the case.
But the appeal court sided with the trial judge.
“Perhaps the hearing on the merits will make it possible to demonstrate that the respondent does not meet its burden of proof of the alleged facts and offenses; similarly, perhaps the hearing on the merits will make it possible to demonstrate that the composition of the group must be restricted and that certain types of contracts are not covered by the request for collective action: this is the aim of the defense and hearing on the merits,” the appeal court said.
“However, given the simple filtering role of the request for authorization and the even more restricted role of the judge responsible for authorizing appeals of judgments authorizing collective action, the applicant does not convince that the judge has, on the face of it judgment, erred in a manifest and decisive manner or committed a simple error of law,” it added.
Here’s the thing. If telcos in Canada want to be seen as something other than companies who take advantage of their customers whenever possible, this is the sort of behaviour that needs to stop. While Bell is seen as the worst at this sort of behaviour, all Canadian telcos do door to door sales and they all do it in a way that is suspect as best. If they all either stopped doing this, or did it in a way that doesn’t result in people wanting to sue them, they would be seen in a slightly better light. Then they can work on lowering their prices to something reasonable and having better customer service.
Bell Canada Cuts Spending On Their Fibre Rollouts… And They Blame The CRTC
Posted in Commentary with tags Bell on November 7, 2023 by itnerdYou might recall that I posted a story about Bell allegedly slowing down the rollouts of their fibre projects. And that when I asked Bell about that, they said that they had nothing to announce at the moment.
That changed with this press release:
Bell today announced its intention to reduce capital expenditures by over $1 billion in 2024-25, including a minimum of $500 to $600 million in 2024, money the company had planned to invest in bringing high-speed fibre Internet to hundreds of thousands of additional homes and businesses in rural, suburban and urban communities.
This reduction is in addition to Bell decreasing its 2023 capital expenditure budget by $100 million in anticipation of the CRTC decision to unrelentingly pursue wholesale access at the expense of critical network investment.
Bell’s fibre network is now available to over seven million homes and businesses. Prior to the CRTC’s decision, Bell’s near-term plan was to build high-speed fibre to nine million locations by the end of 2025. Bell will now re-consider pending builds in all communities where it had planned to expand, and will reduce its 2025 build target from nine million to 8.3 million locations.
Rolling back fibre network expansion is a direct result of the CRTC’s decision. Today’s decision forces Bell to open up its fibre network in Ontario and Quebec but does not mandate access to fibre-to-the-premises networks in western Canada where there are over three million fibre locations passed. If the intent of the decision is to benefit consumers then it is arbitrary and capricious to leave western Canadian consumers behind. When Bell enters a community with high-speed fibre Internet, it increases competition, and customers benefit from better service, better value and lower prices.
The CRTC decision that Bell is referring to is this one. The TL:DR is that the CRTC is going to make Bell and TELUS give access to independent competitors to sell internet services over their fibre networks in Ontario and Quebec. And clearly Bell doesn’t like that. And as a result, you get this situation. And to be honest, this press release has the feel of a two year old throwing their toys out of the baby carriage.
Bell can have an issue with something that the CRTC does, and that’s fine. There are ways of expressing that displeasure that Bell can use. But holding their customers and potential customers hostage should never be on the list. The fact that Bell immediately went to the hostage option is pathetic. It really doesn’t paint them in the best light and they should really reconsider their choices when it comes to this CRTC decision. Bell may have the best tech around, but as I have said previously, their customer service needs work, and this tendency for Bell to make their present and future customers hostages when they aren’t happy with the CRTC needs to stop. Otherwise they may find that this may come back to bite them.
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