Dear Sir:
If you are old enough to remember BC Tel, you will remember a time when they were the only game in town, a time when employees outnumbered managers, when a real person would answer and a tech person would fix your phone the following day when you needed them.
Since Alberta Telus got involved, when you call them, an electronic voice tells you they know that your time is valuable and then you wait 15 minutes.
Last year, a tree fell on our telephone wire.
We waited two weeks for repair.
This month during the snowfall, our phone was again dead so I engaged the mechanical monkey once again.
After the obligatory 15 minutes of elevator music, a cheerful person told me that the first available service technician will be three weeks.
When I insisted that was unacceptable and demanded to speak with a manager, I was exposed to more music for another 15 minutes and then cut off.
It is outrageous that a corporation with yearly profits around $500 million refuses to hire enough staff to provide a reasonable service.
They do not even have a friendly voice telling anyone that the phone is out of order, but leave callers believing that you refuse to answer or are dead.
As our computer is also fed by the downed wire, e-mail and assignments from my wife’s students are not happening and to top it off, our Telus satellite TV, which never works properly in winter, is off again for a period of time daily.
“Thank you for your patience” notice is all you see.
As my neighbour said, “you can’t complain about the Telus service – they don’t have any.”
If you are contemplating choosing Telus for TV, internet and phone, I advise that you don’t. I am stuck with a three-year contract, and cannot wait to get out.
John Jensen,
Terrace, B.C.
