Bell analyzing my phone bill to sell me shit? F*ck off already!

[Subsonic Chronic]

I've been with Bell now for well over two years on my own account. Never had any problems, service was fine, always paid my bills on time...

Yesterday I get a call from some chump in a call centre... and I know it's not his own fault because he's just doing what he needs to do to get paid, but this is what he says:

"Hello Mr Elkerbout (of course he incorrectly pronounces my name Elker"boot")... blah blah blah... how is your service... blah blah blah...

...I see that you're calling Ottawa and Peterborough often... looking at your bill here, I notice that you use the *69 function frequently. We would like to send you a free call display unit so you can use call display for only $8 a month.

What the fuck are the sales people doing with my bill? It's bad enough that I get ads with my bills in the mail, it's worse now that they have a whole department analyzing my calling patterns and then harrassing me for new products and services.

A strongly-worded email is on it's way to Bell, that's for sure.

Pete

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Subsonic Chronic:
...I see that you're calling Ottawa and Peterborough often... looking at your bill here, I notice that you use the *69 function frequently. We would like to send you a free call display unit so you can use call display for only $8 a month.

What the fuck are the sales people doing with my bill? It's bad enough that I get ads with my bills in the mail, it's worse now that they have a whole department analyzing my calling patterns and then harrassing me for new products and services.

A strongly-worded email is on it's way to Bell, that's for sure.

Pete</font>

Yeah, but at the same time Pete, they are trying to offer you the best service that they can provide you and save you a bit of money too. I got a little irked when Bell or Sprint starts calling me for long distance reasons and the like, but they have sometimes offered me some savings that have been worthwhile.

From the Ministry of I do understand though why you're irked. Nobody likes being under a microscope.

Prime Minister Highsteppa

 

[Subsonic Chronic]

I know that it's part of their whole marketting scheme, and I know that this isn't in violation of of any of their privacy policies.

But like you said... it's that feeling of being under a microscope of "hey lets look at his bills and see how we can make more money off of him" that burns me.

Pete

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Subsonic Chronic:
But like you said... it's that feeling of being under a microscope of "hey lets look at his bills and see how we can make more money off of him" that burns me.

Pete</font>

More like: Hey let's try and get customer loyalty, as we aren't going to have a monopoly for long....

From the Ministry of I understand what your saying, billing is a very private and personal matter to me too. I heard that Credit Card companies were planning to do something similar, but decided not to.

Prime Minister Highsteppa

 

[Quirkz]

"Hi! I'd love to talk about updating my plans, just give me your home phone number and I'll call you back when your eating supper."

 

[Subsonic Chronic]

haha... sweet Matt. Should a tried that.
I was polite to him though, I mean, he's just doing his job.

And he's lucky he called during a commercial break and not in the middle of Raw!

Pete

 

[Quirkz]

Not that I've ever done it, but if you construct a SIN so that it passes the mod 10 checksum you can get a line under any name..

 

[Cannabus]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Quirkz:
"Hi! I'd love to talk about updating my plans, just give me your home phone number and I'll call you back when your eating supper."</font>

Seinfeld...gotta luv it

I have used that one plenty o times

 

[*SiLver*RoBoT*]

I'm gonna have to agree with the one they call Highsteppa on this one...Everyone's doing this sort of thing, and Bell's smart enough to finally start doing it. Telus called me not too long ago saying that they noticed I wasn't using my 400 mins, and that my average monthly minutes were roughly 250 - 300. When I asked what that meant, they gave me $10 credit per month. So instead of paying $40 for 400 mins, I know pay $30. They just said it's part of their plan to keep customers happy. I myself own another Rogers cell, but will probably switch over to Telus as well because of their service alone.

*over*and*out*

*SiLver*RoBoT*

 

[t-boy]

Hey pete..

haha this is funny. The Direct Marketing Centre for Bell Canada is currently the only centre in Ontario that does outbound calls. I work for them. We are the ones that call you and harass you. I've been selling the Call Display unit for the past few weeks now.

Yes its a dirty corporate scheme. But just imagine if you actually wanted a call display, but didn't want to pay for the little box and Bell called you and offered you a free display unit, you'd be happy. Obviously Bell isn't doing this to benefit you, but some people do end up getting something out of it...

If they really annoy you, just ask them to remove you off the list, and hopefully we will not call you again.

 

[labRat]

it's one thing to analyse your bill automatically - which i'm sure has been done for a while now. but it's another thing to have someone call you up and look at the bill personally while trying to sell you something that you could've purchased on your own if you wanted.

if you are really pissed about the whole thing I would suggest trying to find out who the manager of customer service is and contacting them. a general email will probably get lost.

i had one of those natural gas fix-the-price dudes come to my house and he did not properly introduce himself, nor did he explain why he wanted to see our gas bill, etc. i phoned the energy board, got the name of the cust. service chicky and faxed her a letter explaining that I did not appreciate what was done and that i filed a complaint with the board. she phoned back and 'ensured' that things were being looked into - she even mentioned that she knew the name of the guy who came to my door, so i bet they've gotten a lot of calls about him.

--craig

 

[Ditto Much]

I work for the largest "Loyalty Program" in North America. We give points towards free air travel and consumer goods in exchange for a copy of the invoice of your purchase at any of our 138 sponsors.

By analyzing this data and making sensible decisions we can reduce the amount of advertisement and junk mail your sent. We can tell if an offer makes sense to send to you, and we can batch the offers of all ~140 sponsors into a single mailing rather than each of them promoting to you separately. If you think about it in the end this actually saves you from a far bit of junk mail and reduces the amount of total garbage your sent.

for interest sake here is a copy of our privacy policy...

------------
The Loyalty Group collects personal information for the following purposes:
- To administer the AIR MILES® Reward Program, the AIR MILES For Business Program™ and AIR MILES INCENTIVES™, including the management of Collector accounts, to accurately record and update reward mile balances;
- To process Collector redemptions, including the issuance of reward tickets and vouchers;
- To invoice Collector and Sponsor accounts, as appropriate;
- To communicate information and offers to Collectors, Sponsors and suppliers;
- To understand and analyze Collectors' responses, needs and preferences;
- To develop, enhance, market and/or provide products and services to meet those needs; and
- To enable Collectors to participate in promotions and contests. From time to time, you may be asked to provide additional personal information. If you choose not to provide this information, it will not affect your ability to collect or redeem AIR MILES® reward miles.

The Loyalty Group will use this information from time to time to promote additional products, services, rewards and special offers from the AIR MILES® Reward Program and/or its Sponsors.


Collector information is processed and stored in secure and confidential databases in Toronto, Ontario and Dallas, Texas.


The Loyalty Group does not give, rent or sell Collector lists from the AIR MILES® Reward Program to any organization or individual other than business units of The Loyalty Group, Sponsors of the AIR MILES® Reward Program and companies contracted to process and manage Collector transactions, redemption requests and communications.


The Loyalty Group respects the privacy of Collectors when promoting products and services.
If you do not wish to receive marketing or promotional communications in electronic, printed or verbal format, other than AIR MILES® Summaries, simply inform us in writing to:

AIR MILES® Customer Service,
P.O. Box 602, Station A,
Scarborough, Ontario M1K 5K7

or by e-mail to: privacyoffice@airmiles.ca

Your ability to collect or redeem AIR MILES® reward miles will not be affected.

------------


As the government has moved forward into creating laws with regards to this they have actually used these principles as they're basics. An important note to also mention is that we NEVER sell your address, name, or phone number. These are for the purposes of our program and are not allowed to be sold to our sponsors even (they can't contact you but they can pay us to contact you).

Consumer habits are very interesting actually, you should see the shit I have access to.

 

[SUNKIST]

the best is when you look at your bill..and read the things the charge you under...
Changes?
Miscellaneous Charges?
what the hell is that?! do they just make up categories to throw a couple bucks under here and there? its not like my phone bill isnt already a million dollars a month.

 

[mingster]

Privacy? Come now.
You know better to think you have any...

 

[Ditto Much]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by mingster:
Privacy? Come now.
You know better to think you have any...</font>

I expect privacy in the following occasions.

My home
Any washroom cubicle
Any church confessional
My accountants office (once had a guy at H&R call out my salary in his office, I damn near punched the idiot out)
My bank managers office
My lawyers office
My private phonecalls to private individuals
My doctors office

For the rest I don't really care.

 

[mingster]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Ditto Much:
I expect privacy in the following occasions.

My home
Any washroom cubicle
Any church confessional
My accountants office (once had a guy at H&R call out my salary in his office, I damn near punched the idiot out)
My bank managers office
My lawyers office
My private phonecalls to private individuals
My doctors office

For the rest I don't really care.</font>

That's because you are employed by the devil.

And he has brainwashed you into thinking that this type of activity that has been infringed upon Subsonic is acceptable. The validity of this fact is disputable. As I'm sure you will...

Ming.

 

[mystique0217]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by t-boy:
Hey pete..

haha this is funny. The Direct Marketing Centre for Bell Canada is currently the only centre in Ontario that does outbound calls. I work for them. We are the ones that call you and harass you. I've been selling the Call Display unit for the past few weeks now.

Yes its a dirty corporate scheme. But just imagine if you actually wanted a call display, but didn't want to pay for the little box and Bell called you and offered you a free display unit, you'd be happy. Obviously Bell isn't doing this to benefit you, but some people do end up getting something out of it...

If they really annoy you, just ask them to remove you off the list, and hopefully we will not call you again.</font>

hey matt, the center that i work for is also doing bell right now!

and our center is hiring.
anyone interested:
email me

 

[mystique0217]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by mystique0217:

Originally posted by t-boy:
Hey pete..

haha this is funny. The Direct Marketing Centre for Bell Canada is currently the only centre in Ontario that does outbound calls. I work for them. We are the ones that call you and harass you. I've been selling the Call Display unit for the past few weeks now.

Yes its a dirty corporate scheme. But just imagine if you actually wanted a call display, but didn't want to pay for the little box and Bell called you and offered you a free display unit, you'd be happy. Obviously Bell isn't doing this to benefit you, but some people do end up getting something out of it...

If they really annoy you, just ask them to remove you off the list, and hopefully we will not call you again.</font>

hey matt, the center that i work for is also doing bell right now!

and our center is hiring.
anyone interested:
email me

sorry, t-boy.
i just got up.
you are DUNCAN

right? woops.

 

[Ditto Much]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by mingster:
That's because you are employed by the devil.

And he has brainwashed you into thinking that this type of activity that has been infringed upon Subsonic is acceptable. The validity of this fact is disputable. As I'm sure you will...

Ming.</font>

Nope I do infact work for satan. I wouldn't refer to it as being "brainwashed" as I'm completely aware of what I do. I'm also completely against what I do and what my company collects. But the simple truth of the matter is he put the highest bid on my soul to watch over you guys like ants. Hey what can I say I'm pretty cheap, free air travel and a fat ass check every 14 days was all it took.


Hey I will entertain and cosider anyone's offer who's willing to pay me the same amount to not do what I do.

(you guys don't want to know how much I can find out about some of you. Its really pretty sick!!)

 

[Subsonic Chronic]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by t-boy:
The Direct Marketing Centre for Bell Canada is currently the only centre in Ontario that does outbound calls. I work for them.</font>

Alright... you're on the bad list now!

Right after the dodgy NYC promoters who I EMAILED SPECIFICALLY ABOUT INFECTED MUSHROOM AND WHO NEVER GOT BACK TO ME AND I MISSED THEM THIS PAST WEEKEND!!!!

Pete

 

[mingster]

How do you sleep at night, man? How do you do it?

 

[mingster]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by mingster:
How do you sleep at night, man? How do you do it?</font>

For Ditto.

 

[Ditto Much]

On a very nice fluffy expensive mattress and deigner linens baby. Here's to the Bay downtown for having the nicest linens selection availible to us aspiring yuppies. And to my maid service that washes and changes them for me.

 

[Michkey]

We just had a new Bell phone line installed this month, and have been getting about 5-10 calls from a fax machine a day. Frustrating.

Anyway, call Bell to try and come up with a solution. Their CSR did nothing but try and upsell their feature products: caller ID, *69, and others that would not solve the problem. I was pissed!

But I don't think that it is unusual that they peruse people's billing. I have had both Telus and even CIBC call me in the past after analyzing my usage to tell me about other plans that were more suitable. In both cases they sold me on less expensive plans.

 

[SUNKIST]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by mingster:
How do you sleep at night?</font>

on a large pile of money with many beautiful women.