Bell Mobility to Start Charging for Technical Assistance

[Xander99]

During this weeks' departmental briefing, we've been told that Bell Mobility's technical support division (formerly known as Data123, Technical Solutions, etc) will begin charging for usage & how-to issues in the near future (no date given, but we were told to expect the change by the end of the year and to have the department split in tech & howto teams).

This might seem as a "reasonable" thing to do in regards to people who don't read their phone's manual, etc, but these are not the people targeted by these measures as they are not regular/frequent time-consuming calls at the helpdesk.

The situations targeted are more like the following example:

[tech] Welcome to technical solutions...
[client] Hey, my Blackberry is giving me a JVM error when I turn it on...
[tech] Ah, that is quite easy to fix, don't worry. You just need to do an OS reload on it. Is there anything else I can help you with?
[client] Uhhh.... how do I do that?
[tech] Oh, just one moment, let me transfer you to our paid "how-to" department...

Any thoughts ? Anybody else from Telus or Rogers heard of similar processes in your departments ?

[jase88]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.5.0.160 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

If true, it doesn't surprise me. In fact, I predicted as much a long time ago on this board.

[Scotch-guy]

Just one more reason to choose Bell

[dirtyjeffer]

two things (even though i am sure hoedirt will rip me for saying bad things about Bell ).

first, the nickel and diming has to stop...enough is enough already.

second, they really expect people to PAY for their support??...they can't even help their own employees: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1553504

if this is true, Bell will continue to finish dead last in everything - sales, customer service and desireable places to work.

[DrewNL]

I just waiting for the new monthly fee that they are going to charge us and then tell us that it is in order to maintain the superior network of technical how-to reps, and this fee is another reason to choose Bell.

They can call it the Technical Access Fee.

[mfpreach]

Charging for tech support is fine so long as they can fix the problem.
Most of the time these support guys know less than I do and just read off a manual.

[Sammy740]

They already charge for OS reloads in-store.

$25 a pop

[Xander99]

Hm, by this memo it seems the target date for this project was much closer than we were lead to believe.

Service as a Product, How-To Pilot

Please be advised that the How to Pilot program that was supposed to begin August 3rd has been postponed.

As of right now the project has been put on hold and there is no current ETA for the pilot rollout. We will keep you informed of any changes and updates as we move forward. Thanks for all your feedback and effort to date.

[Guest 113]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.5.0.160 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

If true, it doesn't surprise me. In fact, I predicted as much a long time ago on this board.

I remember said prediction you made too!

[SatisfiedUser]

That seems... not terribly reasonable..

[frankie5string]

Seems fine to me... In all my years with Bell, I think I've made maybe 3 calls to Data123... to verify that my phone was completely dead and a replacement should be shipped ASAP...

If you're smart enough (or dumb enough) to bungle the system software on your phone, you can either pay to fix it or use your best friend: Google...

I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner. In some markets, if you call Verizon and they suspect you've modded your phone (and caused it to crash) they will charge you to set it right again if you decide to go through their data support group.

[thymaster]

99% of the time these tech guys are useless in my opinions. I had a caller ID not showing on my phone problem once. I spent 2 hours of pointless transferring between tech guys and diagnostic test. All they did was blame it on the hardware and sent me to a store to buy a new phone.

I got mad and went to a store. I came across a sale rep that said here let me try removing the feature off your account and putting it back on again. To my surprise caller ID worked again. I asked the sale guy how long he'd worked for Bell and he said just over 2 months.

[frankie5string]

You really have to poke and prod to get the true techies... It's a lot easier on the landline side. I had a hell of a time with 35 lines that were not providing disconnect supervision to our PBX, and NOBODY could figure it out. These were simple ANALOG lines too! Finally, they shuttled me over to DMS at Simcoe data and I got a bunch of technicians who, while not all that social, did fix the problem in about 20 seconds.
The problem was that we were running off a remote switch, and none of the people below Simcoe believed us - and kept messing with the host switch. In the end, they had the wrong line-cards in the remote.

Then all those years of working with "Susan" at toronto test board. Now, you're lucky if you ever get anyone who even knows how to reset the voicemail system.

I had a coworker on a Bell cell where every single call had someone else on the line if she stayed on long enough - as if another call would "pile ontop of hers" after about 5 minutes.

To fix it we had to go all the way up to Pharmacy MSC and have a tech listen to the calls - it was amazing how quickly things got done when we were actually dealing with the guys who maintained the gear. I don't think anyone is even left at Pharmacy or Ronald Ave in Toronto, is there?

When I got Bell Digital Voice, I was one of the first ones on the CO-based version. There were some problems with dialtone and ringback at first. When I had problems, I had a direct number to their technical support team in Montreal who would, once they verified I was a BDV customer, simply transfer me directly to network support... That was pretty cool and those guys were right on their game...

Things are going to get interesting when the new HSPA network is up and running and those who are knowledgeable start calling in due to call or network issues - I wonder how much training the frontline staff will get for this.

[htan]

i think i'm in favour of this change regardless of whether it results in better prices or not. simply teaching everyone to look for remedies themselves in this age of readily available information will mean people will stop asking stupid questions

[Train784]

More great news from Old Blue...