An online chat with Bell Aliant, or "how to suck the joy of life out of yourself in 5 minutes or less..."

An illustration of yet another fruitless conversation with a Bell Aliant employee.

 

One more reason why I can't get Bell out of my life fast enough to suit me...

 

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Thank you for your patience an online representative will be with you shortly. Your wait time is approximately 0 minute(s).

You are chatting with Faheel.
Your name:
Your number: 709-999-9999

Your question: I received an email 3 hours ago, advising about the change to a Mobility service that will take effect on my next bill, and include the period from now until the next billing date. Problem is... I DID take my nephew to upgrade his phone, yesterday, but ultimately DID NOT UPGRADE THE PHONE, or make any changes to the account. I did not sign anything. Therefore, there should be NO charge associated with anything, as there was nothing changed.

 

Faheel: I'll be glad to help you and check your account.

 

Faheel: Can I have your full name and email address?

 

Margaret: Margaret Xxxxxx

 

Margaret: margaret.x.xxxxxx@gmail.com

 

Faheel: Thank you for that information. Let me goa head and pull up your account.

 

Faheel: Thank you for patiently waiting. U

 

Faheel: May I know your plan for this account?

 

Margaret: Plan???

 

Faheel: Yes, your current monthly plan if you still remember?

 

Margaret: I don't know what you're asking. I have an account, four cell phones on it. I was going to upgrade one of the phones and decided not to. Now I'm getting a notification of a change to the bill that will occur because of a CHANGE THAT WAS NOT MADE. I do not know what you're asking about a 'plan'.

 

Faheel: Okay, Upon checking your account, it appears that you did not upgrade your phone as your contract is still the same from 11/10/2011 until 11/09/2013 but it also shows that you change your plan to Voice and Data Lite $60 starting November 28, 2013.

 

Margaret: There was no change on Nov. 28th. We went to the local Bell outlet, picked out a phone, but when the terms and conditions were reviewed with me, I refused to sign, and the transaction was ended. The original phone was reactivated and everything was to continue as it had been.

 

Margaret: If the guy changed it from what it had been on Nov 27th, then he should have changed it back. I authorized NOTHING.

 

Faheel: Then I strongly suggest for you to go back to the store as I can see on your account your plan was changed on Nov. 28, 2013.

 

Faheel: Or you can also call our client care for this matter.

 

Faheel: The telephone number for our Client Care department is 1 800 667-0123. The office hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 9pm; Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 6pm.

 

Margaret: Thank you very much. I appreciate the information.

 

Faheel: Thank you for chatting with me. Have a good night!

 

Margaret: You too. (Grrrr...)

 

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I wouldn't believe this if it wasn't happening to me. Daily.

 

As far as I understand, Rogers' service outside of St. John's is poor, but firstly, I rarely venture west of the Overpass except under duress, and secondly, I'd rather revert to Morse Code than deal with Bell for one moment longer than I absolutely have to. Unbeliveable.

 

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It's been a long time coming - Bell Aliant & I have broken up

Bell Aliant - you are dead to me.

After all the nightmares I've had with them, first with the Great iPhone Rip-Off of 2013, and throughout the entire span of our time together with crappy internet service, this very morning, the straw that broke the camel's back occurred, and that camel fell right down on top of my last nerve. I said, "Enough is enough!!!" and called Rogers.

The bottom line is that I am now the proud owner of a gold iPhone 5s...

...and my total bill for all of my telecommunications services is $100/month cheaper. I'm pretty much a-quiver with joy!  

What's included, you might ask. This is the package. It includes:

* Home phone - Caller ID, voicemail to email, TV display, 3-way calling, call waiting, call blocking, and unlimited long distance across Canada.

* Internet - 500GB, "Extreme Tier", 30MB download speed, WiFi

* Television - Digital Plus TV package, 270+ channels, 'Anyplace TV' - I can access my subscribed TV channels on any tablet, worldwide, 'Whole Home TV', including 2 HD PVRs and 1 standard box for my little bitty TV in the kitchen. In three years, all I have to do is pay $1 each, and they're mine.

All of this, so far, will be $124.29. I was paying $72 for internet alone, and another $70 for Bell ExpressVu satellite TV, plus $49.95 for the land line with call waiting and caller ID. What was $191.95 + tax is now $124.29 taxes included, a savings of $67.66 + tax every single month. And I haven't even got to talking about the cell phones yet!!

* Mobility - Smartphones x 4. Yes, four. Even *I* will now have one, and not just any smartphone. It will be the above-illustrated shiny new, gold iPhone 5s. We will be sharing 6GB data, whereas right now, the 3 smartphones are sharing 1.5GB data, and I have none. All four will have unlimited text messaging. All will have unlimited calling minutes and unlimited long distance across Canada. All will have call display and voice mail. Four smartphones with unlimited just-about-everything for the cool sum of $237.30. How they work it is that my phone, as the primary phone, will cost $105/mo. The other three will each cost $35/mo. Thirty five dollars a month for a smartphone. Cheaper than what Bell was charging me for my flip-phone.

With my current Bell Mobility situation, I am paying a total of $260.72 for three smartphones and an embarrassing 18th century flip-phone.

NOW, I will have a gold iPhone 5s, and we all will have all the data and texting and long distance and minutes that we could ever want, and it's still $23 cheaper. If I had gotten an iPhone with Bell, I would have been charged over $80 more / month, and the four of us combined would still not have had 6Gb to play with.

So, here it is, $100 / month cheaper. Everyone with the phones they want, all the bells and whistles, two HD PVRs where at the moment I have only one, a firm promise of superior Internet service, and I'm saving $100/month.

And, what is interesting to me is that Rogers, from the moment you call and say, "what can you do for me", assigns you a customer service rep - somewhere around Toronto - and this is your person. You call this person, directly, with any questions / issues / concerns. Not some generic, foreign call center. Serge, who's first language is English, is my guy, and will be as long as he's with Rogers. I called him back twice today about different things. What a joy it was not to have to re-tell my story to every living soul in India. Whoever answers the phone, I just had to say, "May I speak to Serge, please?" If he's away from his desk, they give him a message, and he'll call back, promptly. It works. The human touch is back.

I told Serge that my sordid history with Bell is well-documented on the Internet, and I would be equally merciless with Rogers, if the same nonsense starts happening. He laughed and said he was very confident that it would never come to that. I had to rant and roar countless times with Bell before they gave me a name and a number to call, and even then, I fell through some mighty big cracks in their universe.

 

This might be a logo they've adopted, but things have to get pretty freakin' bad before they decide they want to "talk".

I haunted them, over and over, admittedly, but in essence I was very patient, and gave them multiple opportunities to put things right, but my patience was not rewarded, and was not without limits. The time has come to give Rogers a chance.

Boy, oh boy, oh boy... I sure as heck hope they don't let me down.

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Christmas Pudding Day!!

Today my house smelled like a Christmas wonderland, and there's only one reason for that - today is the day I made my Christmas puddings. Well, to be completely accurate, one will be a Christmas pudding while the other will be our Easter pudding.

For something I make only once a year, I have to say, quite immodestly, that I do a helluva job.

Here is how they came to be:

All of the ingredients, ready to be poured, cracked, chopped, peeled, weighed and / or measured. 

 The dry stuff, the wet stuff, the lightly floured stuff and the grated stuff.

I started out stirring, but soon had to give that up. On went the food-grade gloves, and the hand-mixing commenced.

This pot is very important to the process. It is one of my mother's original set of Wearever pots and pans from when she was married, over 60 years ago. No Christmas pudding would be the same without it.

All mixed up, and now all tucked away into the two pudding moulds. Yumminess in the raw.

For the grammar-obsessives out there like myself, be assured that the word 'mold' and 'mould' are interchangeable in all uses, such as a form or frame for shaping or filling, or in reference to fungal growth, etc. 'Mold' tends to be used in the USA while (or 'whilst') 'mould' tends to be associated with the UK. Live and learn!

Onto the stove they go, for three hours of steaming. Both moulds have supports underneath so the puddings are not receiving direct heat from the burner. I'd top them up with boiling water from the kettle every 45 minutes, so the moulds stay about 2/3's submerged. Both the moulds and the pots are kept covered throughout.

The finished products. Dessert is ready! Except for the brown sugar sauce, of course.

There was a time when I feared they would fall apart coming out of the moulds. That could possibly be attributed to the fact that it has happened, more than once. Not in recent years, but I do admit to acute feelings of trepidation at that fateful moment, even now. The trick, so I've learned, is to ensure they are well-steamed. One of these did not seem as done as the other, so I gave it an extra 30 minutes. The pots I steam them in are different, and I'm sure this makes a difference.

I burned them once, and only once, and that was because I left the burners on 'high' when they were steaming. This is not necessary. Once the water begins to boil (which I allow before I put the moulds in), I then turn down the heat to medium, or whatever setting is needed to allow a slow boil throughout. The water does not need to be at a full, rollicking boil.

I remember once about 10 years ago, it was a horrible, stormy, cold snowy night when I was making my puddings. A perfect night for it! At least it was, until the phone rang, and the next thing I knew, I was on a private jet with my colleague Ian, flying to Florida on a medevac flight to bring two people home to Newfoundland. I didn't know what was going to become of my puddings when I first got the call, they had just started steaming! By the time the flight logistics were worked out, they were whipped out of the pots, out of the moulds, and left to cool while I took off, hoping to get to the Torbay side of the airport to get this flight. One of my many adventures and fond memories, but the only one related to the making of my Christmas puddings!

I'm not sure where I found the recipe, but it has met with my sister's seal of approval. It's not sickly sweet, as so many are. It does not have cherries, which is important to her, but it does have carrot, which is a nice, colorful touch. These will be the puddings I make, as long as I have strength enough to mix 'em!

The recipe is available upon request. I was going to post it, then I thought, "naw". If I made it too easy for people to get, then they mightn't value it as I do. Can't have that!!

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