I just heard that they canceled the first two weeks of the basketball season. Well that's....ok, I tried. But I couldn't care less. One sport I could never get into.
My favourite sports go:
1. Baseball
2. Hockey
3. NFL
4. Nothing
My bottom two are definitely soccer and basketball and it's interchangeable which one is on the bottom. Really, it's whatever is on tv is worse. So if I flick on the tv and it's Soccer Saturday - it drops to the bottom of my list.
The baseball playoffs are on right now but with two kids we are trying to get as much sleep as possible so I've missed the endings of most games. Caught the grand slam by Nelson Cruz last night which would have been great if I was cheering for the Rangers. To be fair I more or less just pick a team and I don't really care who wins the World Series now as Toronto's not in and neither is San Fran. I'm also a closet Yankees AND Red Sox fan - so that should show my lack of devotion.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Unfriending is the new thing
I've been defriended on facebook and unfollowed on Twitter twice for something that I had said in separate occasions.
The first one was in August and about this:
We went to Dave Paterson's wedding in August. Most everyone was there on time for the wedding with the exception of 4 people that we could count. Todd Van Allen and his girlfriend Agata along with David T. with his girlfriend.
They missed the entire ceremony. Now, that doesn't sound too bad. Preferably, if I was given the choice to go to a wedding and then have a meal afterwards or just have the meal afterwards - I'd probably just choose the latter. I'm sure most people would. The problem was that Todd was the MC of the wedding - so typically the MC shows up for the ceremony portion. He also had the video camera to record the wedding....so that was also just a wee bit of an issue.
They showed up afterwards and no one really looked happy. Of course - when you approach comedians you're really not going to get much sympathy. David & his girlfriend made Todd & Agata late because....well.....we don't know. David said that it was his fault and his girlfriend blamed him too but we never got a story. No story? No sympathy. Quite funny actually - but after seeing Agata and that she was upset about missing the ceremony Jason Blanchard, Andrew Evans and I turned it into a bit of a "roast David T." night.
It was all in good fun. Any chance we had we took a verbal jab at Mr. T. He was not taking it very well whatsoever. Our thoughts were, "it's your fault, you upset one of our friends, man up and take it for a night". Our jokes were about missing or being late for the wedding - all directed at Mr. T. I admit that it must have been a bit much as it went on for 7 hours (well - 6 hours as he missed the first hour - remember?).
The icing on the cake was when Todd turned to our table during the dinner as he was MC and announced our table to everyone saying something like, "here are the stars of Canadian comedy - you won't recognize a single one from TV". To which I replied "Some you won't even recognize from the ceremony".
Anyhoo - I guess this kept Mr. T. mad so he kept drinking and he was talking during all of the speeches so.....we continued this afterwards.
To make a long story less long - by the end of the night Mr. T. said that he was going to slash our tires and punch me in the face. In which I thought he was joking. Apparently he wasn't.
At around 1:30am, when Kathleen (my wife for you new readers - or reader I should say) and I were already back in our hotel room (we have two kids - we NEED sleep) he sent me a Facebook message apologizing and saying that he would never take a swing at someone. He also sent one to Kathleen apologizing as she was there the whole time as well. We laughed and went to sleep - it was a fun wedding.
That was Saturday night. On Monday I get a call from Mr. T and he told me that he actually WAS going to punch me. Now - I still don't actually believe this. He doesn't look like a fighter. If he did take a swing though he would have knocked me flat on my ass because I definitely wouldn't have expected it. Plus - I'm not a fighter either and I would most likely lose (I've got this weird fear of losing my two front teeth).
He was looking for an apology for what I said on the weekend. I let him know that I wouldn't apologize as he made one of the bride & groom's friends miss the wedding. Our jokes (wasn't just me remember - Andrew & Jason too - although I'm sure he didn't send an e-mail saying he was going to punch Jason or we would only refer to Mr. T. in the past tense) lightened the mood and if he had to take a few jokes in order to make this happen - so be it.
I even said "what are you going to do - defriend me on facebook and unfollow me on twitter?". And guess what happened.
I don't take offense to this - it's just a funny new thing with social media. "YOU'RE NO LONGER MY FACEBOOK FRIEND". Ahhh! I guess when Facebook reconnects you with everyone from high school you forget that you've actually grown up.
I've been defriended on facebook and unfollowed on Twitter twice for something that I had said in separate occasions.
The first one was in August and about this:
We went to Dave Paterson's wedding in August. Most everyone was there on time for the wedding with the exception of 4 people that we could count. Todd Van Allen and his girlfriend Agata along with David T. with his girlfriend.
They missed the entire ceremony. Now, that doesn't sound too bad. Preferably, if I was given the choice to go to a wedding and then have a meal afterwards or just have the meal afterwards - I'd probably just choose the latter. I'm sure most people would. The problem was that Todd was the MC of the wedding - so typically the MC shows up for the ceremony portion. He also had the video camera to record the wedding....so that was also just a wee bit of an issue.
They showed up afterwards and no one really looked happy. Of course - when you approach comedians you're really not going to get much sympathy. David & his girlfriend made Todd & Agata late because....well.....we don't know. David said that it was his fault and his girlfriend blamed him too but we never got a story. No story? No sympathy. Quite funny actually - but after seeing Agata and that she was upset about missing the ceremony Jason Blanchard, Andrew Evans and I turned it into a bit of a "roast David T." night.
It was all in good fun. Any chance we had we took a verbal jab at Mr. T. He was not taking it very well whatsoever. Our thoughts were, "it's your fault, you upset one of our friends, man up and take it for a night". Our jokes were about missing or being late for the wedding - all directed at Mr. T. I admit that it must have been a bit much as it went on for 7 hours (well - 6 hours as he missed the first hour - remember?).
The icing on the cake was when Todd turned to our table during the dinner as he was MC and announced our table to everyone saying something like, "here are the stars of Canadian comedy - you won't recognize a single one from TV". To which I replied "Some you won't even recognize from the ceremony".
Anyhoo - I guess this kept Mr. T. mad so he kept drinking and he was talking during all of the speeches so.....we continued this afterwards.
To make a long story less long - by the end of the night Mr. T. said that he was going to slash our tires and punch me in the face. In which I thought he was joking. Apparently he wasn't.
At around 1:30am, when Kathleen (my wife for you new readers - or reader I should say) and I were already back in our hotel room (we have two kids - we NEED sleep) he sent me a Facebook message apologizing and saying that he would never take a swing at someone. He also sent one to Kathleen apologizing as she was there the whole time as well. We laughed and went to sleep - it was a fun wedding.
That was Saturday night. On Monday I get a call from Mr. T and he told me that he actually WAS going to punch me. Now - I still don't actually believe this. He doesn't look like a fighter. If he did take a swing though he would have knocked me flat on my ass because I definitely wouldn't have expected it. Plus - I'm not a fighter either and I would most likely lose (I've got this weird fear of losing my two front teeth).
He was looking for an apology for what I said on the weekend. I let him know that I wouldn't apologize as he made one of the bride & groom's friends miss the wedding. Our jokes (wasn't just me remember - Andrew & Jason too - although I'm sure he didn't send an e-mail saying he was going to punch Jason or we would only refer to Mr. T. in the past tense) lightened the mood and if he had to take a few jokes in order to make this happen - so be it.
I even said "what are you going to do - defriend me on facebook and unfollow me on twitter?". And guess what happened.
I don't take offense to this - it's just a funny new thing with social media. "YOU'RE NO LONGER MY FACEBOOK FRIEND". Ahhh! I guess when Facebook reconnects you with everyone from high school you forget that you've actually grown up.
Sunday, October 09, 2011
October 9, 2011
So I'm not sure. Either my buddy is suffering from Depression or I am suffering from paranoia but I think I'm right.
This is a really strange situation that I'm in right now - a whole new realm of where I really don't know what to do. I've known this guy for 7 years. I know him very well and my closest buddy when it comes to comedy.
We had done many shows together and he is a great comic. He used to have a full-time job but got laid off a couple of years ago and he hasn't really been the same since. I think this is when I first started to notice this.
Since he got laid off he more or less kept to himself. He doesn't go out too much and he stays in his apartment. He'll show up at the odd comedy show and he will go out for some errands but other than that he is at home.
He has not gotten a new job so he mostly makes his money off of comedy. Most....a couple of years ago he started doing medical studies where he would show up at a clinic, they'd strap him to an iv while he takes pills and they monitor him and others. It's sad but some people do this to make some cash. It's a quick way to make a buck but certainly not the healthiest.
And I think that is what has really brought out his Depression. He would not respond to emails or voicemails for a week at a time. He doesn't keep in contact with his close friends. I'm not sure what he does - he has a vague excuse, apologizes, says it won't happen again - and then it does.
It's been a month since I've last heard from him. Not only is a he a friend - he was my business partner too so we typically kept in touch. A month. I hacked into his e-mail (as I received a couple of phone calls from people that were looking for him - not just random neurotic) and I saw that he hadn't checked his e-mails in 3 weeks (at that time - not it's 4) which I found odd as the first email that he hadn't read was from me continuing a normal conversation for that day.
Now - I know he's alive. That was priority one - to find that out. He was randomly spotted at a comedy show a week and a half ago. So he is around - not checking e-mail or his phone or responding to anyone. This is definitely not behavior from the guy that I know.
My problem is that there are really only two guys that care about him - me, who lives 3 hours away driving, and another guy who moved to England. His family doesn't live in the same province so there's really no one to check on him anymore.
We've sat him down for a mini-intervention before but that didn't work and now that no one's around we have no way of knowing how he's doing. This is just a nutty situation and I'm mostly typing this to see if I can figure out what to do.
Of course - if he sends me an e-mail saying that he was getting help for the past month hence the non-response then I'll feel like an idiot. I'd still be correct though.
And then Sens suck really bad this year.
This is a really strange situation that I'm in right now - a whole new realm of where I really don't know what to do. I've known this guy for 7 years. I know him very well and my closest buddy when it comes to comedy.
We had done many shows together and he is a great comic. He used to have a full-time job but got laid off a couple of years ago and he hasn't really been the same since. I think this is when I first started to notice this.
Since he got laid off he more or less kept to himself. He doesn't go out too much and he stays in his apartment. He'll show up at the odd comedy show and he will go out for some errands but other than that he is at home.
He has not gotten a new job so he mostly makes his money off of comedy. Most....a couple of years ago he started doing medical studies where he would show up at a clinic, they'd strap him to an iv while he takes pills and they monitor him and others. It's sad but some people do this to make some cash. It's a quick way to make a buck but certainly not the healthiest.
And I think that is what has really brought out his Depression. He would not respond to emails or voicemails for a week at a time. He doesn't keep in contact with his close friends. I'm not sure what he does - he has a vague excuse, apologizes, says it won't happen again - and then it does.
It's been a month since I've last heard from him. Not only is a he a friend - he was my business partner too so we typically kept in touch. A month. I hacked into his e-mail (as I received a couple of phone calls from people that were looking for him - not just random neurotic) and I saw that he hadn't checked his e-mails in 3 weeks (at that time - not it's 4) which I found odd as the first email that he hadn't read was from me continuing a normal conversation for that day.
Now - I know he's alive. That was priority one - to find that out. He was randomly spotted at a comedy show a week and a half ago. So he is around - not checking e-mail or his phone or responding to anyone. This is definitely not behavior from the guy that I know.
My problem is that there are really only two guys that care about him - me, who lives 3 hours away driving, and another guy who moved to England. His family doesn't live in the same province so there's really no one to check on him anymore.
We've sat him down for a mini-intervention before but that didn't work and now that no one's around we have no way of knowing how he's doing. This is just a nutty situation and I'm mostly typing this to see if I can figure out what to do.
Of course - if he sends me an e-mail saying that he was getting help for the past month hence the non-response then I'll feel like an idiot. I'd still be correct though.
And then Sens suck really bad this year.
Monday, August 15, 2011
So.....
Comedians can't take a joke. For the first time that I know of someone has defriended me on facebook and unfollowed me on twitter.
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Favourite quote
"it's better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6".
Those are words to live by.
www.brianhopecomedy.com
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Dear Beer,
We've known eachother for 15 or 16 years. You've been with me through the best of times, the worst of times, the regular of times, the most boring of times.
You helped me make rash decisions on whether I wanted McDonald's at 2am. You always wanted it so I always gave it to you. I don't know why you always wanted a Junior Chicken, a Double Cheeseburger with no pickles and a chocolate shake - but you did.
You've been with me throughout all celebrations in my adult life. Like when I got married. When I heard Kathleen was pregnant. When the Sens made it to the Cup Finals. When I was forced to watch soccer.
But Beer, you haven't been very good to me. I gained a lot of weight when I was with you and I didn't appreciate that. You did it while I was laughing and having a good time so I didn't notice. Not until someone mistook me for one of my buddies who is much bigger than me - and that did it.
That was 3 years ago beer - and while I worked really hard in losing the weight that you gave me I have now reached a plateau. I've lost over 40 pounds and I need to lose 10 more pounds - JUST 10 - but you won't let me do it. You keep saying "Hey - let's go out and get some wings!" - and I would succumb to your peer pressure.
But not anymore Beer. Not anymore.
I've been without you for over 6 weeks now and I'm not coming back. I originally said that I wanted to be away from you for a year - but I'm just leaving you for good. And no, I'm not going to start cheating on you with Rum - I don't drink those drinks. You were my one and only.
Please change your Facebook status from "It's Complicated" to "Single" as I ain't coming back.
And yes, I'll be writing Crack an e-mail in the next few months.
We've known eachother for 15 or 16 years. You've been with me through the best of times, the worst of times, the regular of times, the most boring of times.
You helped me make rash decisions on whether I wanted McDonald's at 2am. You always wanted it so I always gave it to you. I don't know why you always wanted a Junior Chicken, a Double Cheeseburger with no pickles and a chocolate shake - but you did.
You've been with me throughout all celebrations in my adult life. Like when I got married. When I heard Kathleen was pregnant. When the Sens made it to the Cup Finals. When I was forced to watch soccer.
But Beer, you haven't been very good to me. I gained a lot of weight when I was with you and I didn't appreciate that. You did it while I was laughing and having a good time so I didn't notice. Not until someone mistook me for one of my buddies who is much bigger than me - and that did it.
That was 3 years ago beer - and while I worked really hard in losing the weight that you gave me I have now reached a plateau. I've lost over 40 pounds and I need to lose 10 more pounds - JUST 10 - but you won't let me do it. You keep saying "Hey - let's go out and get some wings!" - and I would succumb to your peer pressure.
But not anymore Beer. Not anymore.
I've been without you for over 6 weeks now and I'm not coming back. I originally said that I wanted to be away from you for a year - but I'm just leaving you for good. And no, I'm not going to start cheating on you with Rum - I don't drink those drinks. You were my one and only.
Please change your Facebook status from "It's Complicated" to "Single" as I ain't coming back.
And yes, I'll be writing Crack an e-mail in the next few months.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Day 15
No beer. And someone has "borrowed" a punchline to one of my bits. Wrong week to do that.
www.brianhopecomedy.com
www.brianhopecomedy.com
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Day 3 of no smoking
And no drinking. The only reason I am cutting out alcohol as typically when you try and quit smoking you gain weight. So I might as well stay away from beer for a while.
So if you see me eating McDonald's with a beer and a smoke then you may be witnessing a full meltdown.
www.brianhopecomedy.com
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
So
May 11, 2011
I am quitting alcohol for one year. I will pretend I am pregnant. Hopefully I won't look it.
I am keeping one Labatt Blue in my fridge and I will keep it one year to this day. I assume beer gets better with age.
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry
Thursday, May 05, 2011
My letter to Bell Canada this morning - luckily I did not write this yesterday when it actually happened.
To Whom It May Concern,
I doubt this e-mail will actually reach management but I thought I would give it a shot anyway.
I had a simple request – so I thought. I did not realize that in the history of Bell this had never been asked so I do understand the confusion that happened with my phone line.
Here is the gist of the situation:
I have two phone lines. To really simplify the situation – I have one phone line upstairs (home phone) and one phone line downstairs (business) in my office. To REALLY simplify this – let’s call my home line “Jack 1” and my business line “Jack 2”.
I called Bell the week of April 20th to see if I could cancel Jack 1. We don’t use that one as we have cell phones so we thought we would be smart economically and cancel the upstairs line. I said specifically on that call that I want Jack 2 to stay where it is. It is my business line so I need it in my office.
Easy, right? The person assured me that they would flip a switch in 6 days and the job would be done. Excellent – easiest call I have ever made, right?
April 27th – Jack 1 is canceled - which is what I wanted. Jack 2 – moved to Jack 1 – which is exactly what I didn’t want. SURPRISE!
We only found this out because my wife picked up a ringing phone upstairs (because really, who would not pick up a ringing phone) only to find out that it was a client of mine. Oh – and by the way – trying to make an excuse to my client saying my secretary needs to learn how to properly answer the phone gets me in trouble with my wife too. So Bell also assisted me in sleeping on the couch for an evening.
Now I have no working phone in my office and my work phone is ringing upstairs. Jack 2 has no dial tone.
I called Bell on Friday, April 29th. I had a great conversation with a Bell rep and he understood my situation so I thought. We spoke for 25 minutes. He kept on saying “What were they thinking? Why would they do EXTRA work to switch your phone lines?” I could not answer that. I just said I wanted the phone line in Jack 2.
We laughed, we cried, and then he said they would flip a switch by Tuesday to get everything sorted out. Good – I hung up the phone and cried again watching the Royal Wedding. Joyous! Oh – and for future calls – please speak to your employees about lingo. Don’t say “flip a switch” – make it more wordy so it sounds more difficult than it actually is. Maybe just say “the ‘communications lab’ will have this ready for you”. Just a suggestion of course.
Fast forward to yesterday – May 4th.
If you DO record the conversations please have a listen to this one. You might want to get some popcorn.
I call up – gave my number and started to explain my situation. He lets me know that I shouldn’t worry – the repair was done on Friday. I’m calling from the phone in question – it is clearly not done.
He then asked me if I had tried calling my own phone. So – by him asking me this I clearly knew he had no clue what I was talking about. Maybe it was his first day, maybe he decided to go against the norm and not use a computer – but he did not know my issue.
Yet – when I started to re-explain my situation he said “I know the situation”. To which I replied, “REALLY? OK, tell me my situation”. To which he replied, “I don’t know the situation”.
That was three seconds of my life wasted right there.
I then tried as best as I could to re-explain – and this is partly my fault as I did call just before noon and I’m sure he just wanted to go to lunch. I personally thought he had already but that’s a different story altogether.
Me: “I just want my phone number to be in Jack 2”.
Bell: “That’s a $99 fee”.
Me: “Why?”
Bell: “We have to send a technician out”.
Me: “So you’re telling me…..I made a request to cancel Jack 1. I asked specifically for Jack 2 to stay where it is. Bell moved it. And now I have to pay?”
Bell: “Yes – because we have to send a technician out. It’s a $99 fee”.
Me: “I was not told of this before. Why do I have to pay because you screwed up? I want to speak to someone else. Your supervisor.”
Bell: “He will tell you the same thing - $99 technician fee”.
Me: “Transfer me to your supervisor”.
Now – mind you – I guess if this person excelled at anything it was learning about the $99 fee. I give him an A for that.
On your website under How Does Bell Commit To Their Customers it says:
“We will strive to ensure that pricing information is presented clearly”.
Let’s give him an A+!
Although – the next line on your website says:
“We will be helpful and courteous in your dealings with us”
He receives an F for customer service, listening, empathizing and solving issues. But he does know that fee so if you do happen to speak to him – please start off positively by saying “Hey, the customer mentioned that you knew about our technician fee”.
He finally transfers me. Not to his supervisor of course – that would be what I asked for and clearly I was not getting what I asked for today.
He put me through to Bell Repair – which is what I wanted. I told the new guy my situation – and I said the words I KNEW I shouldn’t have said. I said my “business line” – the guy was very happy to transfer me to “Business Repair”. I let him know that they would not help me – I am not a business. He said that he would transfer me.
Now I’m with “Business Repair”. And I must say (and gee – I really hope you’re listening to all of this from the recorded conversation!) that the phone line on his end was absolutely terrible. I call Bell Canada and some of your guys are using the Magic Jack. Wonderful! Who knows – maybe he’s waiting for someone to flip a switch for his new phone line too.
As expected – the “Business Repair” said they could not help me as I am a residential line. I let him know that I knew that and then we cried again. I got transferred back.
To make a long story less long – I think I was finally helped. The person I spoke to said she would waive the technician fee. I think she expected me to jump for joy at this gracious news but to be honest – as soon as I heard about the $99 fee I knew I wasn’t paying it. They are sending out a technician on Tuesday May 10th – approximately 3 weeks after my original request to put the phone line back to where it originally was.
The total time for this one call is 1 hour and 1 minute. I hope you enjoyed listening to the call – it was a whole lotta fun on my end.
I’ll be canceling my phone and internet service at the end of the month – and yes, we will keep our cable as we signed a two year contract and frankly I have not had any problems with my cable.
If you have any questions please feel free to call me at 613-544-6726. It may ring a few times before I answer as I have to run up the stairs to get it.
Best Regards,
Brian
Brian Hope
Business Development Sales Manager
******************
613-544-6726
To Whom It May Concern,
I doubt this e-mail will actually reach management but I thought I would give it a shot anyway.
I had a simple request – so I thought. I did not realize that in the history of Bell this had never been asked so I do understand the confusion that happened with my phone line.
Here is the gist of the situation:
I have two phone lines. To really simplify the situation – I have one phone line upstairs (home phone) and one phone line downstairs (business) in my office. To REALLY simplify this – let’s call my home line “Jack 1” and my business line “Jack 2”.
I called Bell the week of April 20th to see if I could cancel Jack 1. We don’t use that one as we have cell phones so we thought we would be smart economically and cancel the upstairs line. I said specifically on that call that I want Jack 2 to stay where it is. It is my business line so I need it in my office.
Easy, right? The person assured me that they would flip a switch in 6 days and the job would be done. Excellent – easiest call I have ever made, right?
April 27th – Jack 1 is canceled - which is what I wanted. Jack 2 – moved to Jack 1 – which is exactly what I didn’t want. SURPRISE!
We only found this out because my wife picked up a ringing phone upstairs (because really, who would not pick up a ringing phone) only to find out that it was a client of mine. Oh – and by the way – trying to make an excuse to my client saying my secretary needs to learn how to properly answer the phone gets me in trouble with my wife too. So Bell also assisted me in sleeping on the couch for an evening.
Now I have no working phone in my office and my work phone is ringing upstairs. Jack 2 has no dial tone.
I called Bell on Friday, April 29th. I had a great conversation with a Bell rep and he understood my situation so I thought. We spoke for 25 minutes. He kept on saying “What were they thinking? Why would they do EXTRA work to switch your phone lines?” I could not answer that. I just said I wanted the phone line in Jack 2.
We laughed, we cried, and then he said they would flip a switch by Tuesday to get everything sorted out. Good – I hung up the phone and cried again watching the Royal Wedding. Joyous! Oh – and for future calls – please speak to your employees about lingo. Don’t say “flip a switch” – make it more wordy so it sounds more difficult than it actually is. Maybe just say “the ‘communications lab’ will have this ready for you”. Just a suggestion of course.
Fast forward to yesterday – May 4th.
If you DO record the conversations please have a listen to this one. You might want to get some popcorn.
I call up – gave my number and started to explain my situation. He lets me know that I shouldn’t worry – the repair was done on Friday. I’m calling from the phone in question – it is clearly not done.
He then asked me if I had tried calling my own phone. So – by him asking me this I clearly knew he had no clue what I was talking about. Maybe it was his first day, maybe he decided to go against the norm and not use a computer – but he did not know my issue.
Yet – when I started to re-explain my situation he said “I know the situation”. To which I replied, “REALLY? OK, tell me my situation”. To which he replied, “I don’t know the situation”.
That was three seconds of my life wasted right there.
I then tried as best as I could to re-explain – and this is partly my fault as I did call just before noon and I’m sure he just wanted to go to lunch. I personally thought he had already but that’s a different story altogether.
Me: “I just want my phone number to be in Jack 2”.
Bell: “That’s a $99 fee”.
Me: “Why?”
Bell: “We have to send a technician out”.
Me: “So you’re telling me…..I made a request to cancel Jack 1. I asked specifically for Jack 2 to stay where it is. Bell moved it. And now I have to pay?”
Bell: “Yes – because we have to send a technician out. It’s a $99 fee”.
Me: “I was not told of this before. Why do I have to pay because you screwed up? I want to speak to someone else. Your supervisor.”
Bell: “He will tell you the same thing - $99 technician fee”.
Me: “Transfer me to your supervisor”.
Now – mind you – I guess if this person excelled at anything it was learning about the $99 fee. I give him an A for that.
On your website under How Does Bell Commit To Their Customers it says:
“We will strive to ensure that pricing information is presented clearly”.
Let’s give him an A+!
Although – the next line on your website says:
“We will be helpful and courteous in your dealings with us”
He receives an F for customer service, listening, empathizing and solving issues. But he does know that fee so if you do happen to speak to him – please start off positively by saying “Hey, the customer mentioned that you knew about our technician fee”.
He finally transfers me. Not to his supervisor of course – that would be what I asked for and clearly I was not getting what I asked for today.
He put me through to Bell Repair – which is what I wanted. I told the new guy my situation – and I said the words I KNEW I shouldn’t have said. I said my “business line” – the guy was very happy to transfer me to “Business Repair”. I let him know that they would not help me – I am not a business. He said that he would transfer me.
Now I’m with “Business Repair”. And I must say (and gee – I really hope you’re listening to all of this from the recorded conversation!) that the phone line on his end was absolutely terrible. I call Bell Canada and some of your guys are using the Magic Jack. Wonderful! Who knows – maybe he’s waiting for someone to flip a switch for his new phone line too.
As expected – the “Business Repair” said they could not help me as I am a residential line. I let him know that I knew that and then we cried again. I got transferred back.
To make a long story less long – I think I was finally helped. The person I spoke to said she would waive the technician fee. I think she expected me to jump for joy at this gracious news but to be honest – as soon as I heard about the $99 fee I knew I wasn’t paying it. They are sending out a technician on Tuesday May 10th – approximately 3 weeks after my original request to put the phone line back to where it originally was.
The total time for this one call is 1 hour and 1 minute. I hope you enjoyed listening to the call – it was a whole lotta fun on my end.
I’ll be canceling my phone and internet service at the end of the month – and yes, we will keep our cable as we signed a two year contract and frankly I have not had any problems with my cable.
If you have any questions please feel free to call me at 613-544-6726. It may ring a few times before I answer as I have to run up the stairs to get it.
Best Regards,
Brian
Brian Hope
Business Development Sales Manager
******************
613-544-6726
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)