Frustration: BEV card swap process

K

kristen

New member
I received my new smart cards in the mail. Because I am blind, I asked someone sighted to install the new cards for me so that I would be certain that the right cards were put into the right receivers. I then called Bell Express Vu for activation. What shocks me is that they cannot do this unless I once again get someone sighted to give me the numbers from the smart card information I received in the mail. It seems to me that they could look up this information themselves (after all they knew what cards to send me in the first place) and then activate them. They will not do this and insist that they need me to get someone sighted to read out the numbers to them. However, when I asked to speak to a supervisor ( I thought this might help) they instead kept me on the line for over a half hour and then just disconnected me. I am beyond frustration with trying to explain that I am blind...for this problem and for any other ones that crop up from time to time. Seems to me that they do not understand that I should not always have to depend upon someone sighted to read out all of this info to me when in fact they could access this information themselves from my account. Does anyone understand why I would need to give them the numbers?
 
kristen, I'm sorry to hear about your frustrations and certainly appreciate the issue.

Unfortunately, ExpressVu needs to confirm the numbers on the smartcard in order to "mate" each card with a receiver. Since you have more than one receiver and one card, they need to know which card went into what receiver.

If you only had one card and one receiver, they likely could have avoided the issue.
 
Personally, I'd contact a group like CNIB, Council of Canadians with Disabilities or some such group, and tell your story to them.
I'm sure they'd love to have a few words with Expressvu regarding your problems, I'm also sure they could manage to deal with someone of a higher level in the company.

I'm sure ExpressVu wouldn't be interested in a heck of a lot of publicity on such a matter.
 
cm_soo, your suggestions are pretty ridiculous, time consuming and overkill. I'm certain that kristen just got a rep that was over their head and can probably get this resolved pretty quickly with the proper rep.

I recommend kristen call back between 9 and 5pm and get a new CSR and upfront explain the situation. I'm certain that a solution can be found quickly and easily without having to contact more organizations and more people etc.

kristen, if you still have problems after a second call to Bell, please get the CSR's identification number or name and time of call and private message the information to me. I will personally contact Bell and try and get the situation resolved.
 
hugh, she already spent the time on the phone with bell. It would probably take the same amount of time (not more time consuming) with CNIB then to call expressvu and do it again. The csr (hence bell) show disrespect to client. Even if the csr have a bad day, he still speak for his employer. It could teach bell a wonderful lesson in customer relation. Too many times we end up with disappointment after contacting this company.
 
I gotta go with cm_soo and cyberchem on this one. I am of those who doesn't like to involve other people/organizations when such issues come up but, in this case, I think Bell (and any other service provider really) should have pre-defined processes that address problems faced by people with handicaps. Unfortunately the only way those service providers ever do anything to address those special requirements is when organizations with a lot more power than "just another customer" get involved.

Kristen, I think Hugh covered the "why" Bell need you to be able to give them the numbers even though they already have them. I think right now the question is "why wouldn't Bell plan for that situation and address the swap differently for blind customers"?
 
Getting cut off happens to us all the time. The correct thing to do is call back and say that your call was cut. Hugh's advice is sound. Try to resolve it yourself before escalating the issue.
 
"why wouldn't Bell plan for that situation and address the swap differently for blind customers"

Maybe they assume blind people shouldn't watch TV ;-). But then why do they provide Descriptive Video ?
 
Again, I think it was likely that the OP spoke to an insensitive CSR who didn't know what they were doing.

I'm certain that the vast majority of CSR's at Bell (and most other big companies in Canada) would be far more sensitive to the situation.
 
If Bell already knew the numbers for each smartcard, wouldn't they be automatically activated once they were inserted into the receiver? I don't think it's reasonable to expect Bell to know the numbers for each card, but that's just my opinion. Regarding the original post, are there two different model receivers involved?
 
The problem is that it is 2 differents departements involved here. There is the departement who ships out the card, and the CSR team.

The departement who ships out the card doesn't leave a note on the account as to which card was send out to who and for which receiver. They have their own application, which only this departement could acces, that gives them the info.

The CSR doesn't have a number or a way to contact that team (I personnally never even was inform on where that group is located or the "official" name of that team). As sensitive and customer devoted he wants to be he HAS NO WAY to know which card was send out. The only for him to know is therfore to request that client has someone who is sighted and could read the numbers out to him (her).

This issue could have been easily avoided if that departement was putting notes in the accounts as soon as they send the envellope.

As for the supervisor, he probably doesn't have himself, a way of contacting that departement. He probably put her on hold and try to acces the info. Why the phone was cut? I don't know... The phones at the call center I was at where not the simplest and not in the best working condition (sound ironic for a compagny part of a giant compagny who also offers telephone service). I personnally think that the supervisor should have called the client back to let her know what was going on, just like my supervisor would have done when I was working there
 
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