Comments on: Friday Fun, my ass. Or: why my friend Stephanie is boycotting Telus. http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/ helping canadians be savvy, informed and thoughtful about their money Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:00:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Wooly Woman http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5599 Wooly Woman Sun, 04 May 2008 15:52:40 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5599 Try contacting the CRTC. I did this after a huge problem I had with Rogers over home phone service. I got a reply from the CRTC stating that this was usually beyond their control, but because I had lodged a complaint with the CRTC AND I told Rogers I had done so, I very quickly received a phone call from some VP at Rogers who was able to finally fix my problem. I wouldn't hesitate to mention that your story has been posted on a Canadian financial blog, that you are considering contacting Olsen on Your Side and/or Ellen Roseman. Put it in writing too... then you have a record. Sometimes a web search will help you pull up emails for Telus corporate people. And good luck Stephanie! What a terrible ordeal you have gone through! Try contacting the CRTC. I did this after a huge problem I had with Rogers over home phone service. I got a reply from the CRTC stating that this was usually beyond their control, but because I had lodged a complaint with the CRTC AND I told Rogers I had done so, I very quickly received a phone call from some VP at Rogers who was able to finally fix my problem. I wouldn’t hesitate to mention that your story has been posted on a Canadian financial blog, that you are considering contacting Olsen on Your Side and/or Ellen Roseman. Put it in writing too… then you have a record. Sometimes a web search will help you pull up emails for Telus corporate people. And good luck Stephanie! What a terrible ordeal you have gone through!

]]> By: Eddie Stone http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5507 Eddie Stone Thu, 01 May 2008 15:11:58 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5507 Hi, My friend sent this to me, cause he has had some trouble with Telus too. But i have to say, it sounds like the problem you're having is with the computer, right? Sure, Telus may have not been the easiest to deal with, but let's be honest - the computer that you received is not a Telus brand computer. I've had lots of issues with Lenovo in the past, and I have to say that I am very dissatisfied with their products. I agree with you that action needs to be taken, but I think Lenovo should be brought to court. Telus is just the ISP. If the computer worked fine, then you wouldn't have any problems with Telus. I say we should come up with a way to deal with Lenovo, cause these guys are the worst with customer service and just pass the buck to everyone else but them. I think they know how crappy their product is, but they don't want to deal with it. It's really a shame, and I'm very sorry to hear about what you've gone through. Sincerely, Eddie Hi,

My friend sent this to me, cause he has had some trouble with Telus too. But i have to say, it sounds like the problem you’re having is with the computer, right? Sure, Telus may have not been the easiest to deal with, but let’s be honest – the computer that you received is not a Telus brand computer. I’ve had lots of issues with Lenovo in the past, and I have to say that I am very dissatisfied with their products. I agree with you that action needs to be taken, but I think Lenovo should be brought to court. Telus is just the ISP. If the computer worked fine, then you wouldn’t have any problems with Telus. I say we should come up with a way to deal with Lenovo, cause these guys are the worst with customer service and just pass the buck to everyone else but them. I think they know how crappy their product is, but they don’t want to deal with it. It’s really a shame, and I’m very sorry to hear about what you’ve gone through.

Sincerely,
Eddie

]]> By: S007 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5432 S007 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:12:06 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5432 Hi, Your experience sounds painful, but I think the start of it is some misinformation from the person you chatted to @telus when you were signing up. I don't think these people are trained on computer hardware so I'm not surprised with some of the information you were told. I too signed up for this deal and paid extra for the laptop and memory. I am pretty skilled in computers so I knew that I was getting a lower powered machine and that it would run like a three legged dog on Vista. Vista is a b@stard when it comes to how fast it runs...even on high powered machines it is a dog. I don't blame telus for putting on Vista as it is really the only mass option these days for a operating system...unless you go MAC! I got my machine and installed the extra RAM (very easy and this does not void your warranty) and turned it on. Vista takes a long time to set up when you first turn a system on so I let it do its thing. After the config, I found it pretty slow (too slow for me, but it did surf and email ok)...so I went to a PC dealer and bought a copy of XP SP2. I removed vista, installed XP and now the laptop RUNS LIKE A DREAM and I'm very happy with it. You may want to look at doing this. I'm doing all the normal stuff...surfing, email, photos, music, MS office apps and dabble in Photoshop CS2. Now that I'm running XP, I'm much happier and the laptop works great. Sorry to hear about your friends woes, but I definatly recommend taking Vista off and putting on XP (or some free OS .....). Hi,
Your experience sounds painful, but I think the start of it is some misinformation from the person you chatted to @telus when you were signing up. I don’t think these people are trained on computer hardware so I’m not surprised with some of the information you were told.
I too signed up for this deal and paid extra for the laptop and memory. I am pretty skilled in computers so I knew that I was getting a lower powered machine and that it would run like a three legged dog on Vista. Vista is a b@stard when it comes to how fast it runs…even on high powered machines it is a dog. I don’t blame telus for putting on Vista as it is really the only mass option these days for a operating system…unless you go MAC! I got my machine and installed the extra RAM (very easy and this does not void your warranty) and turned it on. Vista takes a long time to set up when you first turn a system on so I let it do its thing. After the config, I found it pretty slow (too slow for me, but it did surf and email ok)…so I went to a PC dealer and bought a copy of XP SP2.
I removed vista, installed XP and now the laptop RUNS LIKE A DREAM and I’m very happy with it. You may want to look at doing this. I’m doing all the normal stuff…surfing, email, photos, music, MS office apps and dabble in Photoshop CS2. Now that I’m running XP, I’m much happier and the laptop works great.
Sorry to hear about your friends woes, but I definatly recommend taking Vista off and putting on XP (or some free OS …..).

]]> By: nancy http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5430 nancy Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:21:51 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5430 @Mark - hey, thanks for that. I've passed your e-mail on to Stephanie. I think her real issue is with telus, but if you can help on the computer front, that may take some of the sting away. @Mark – hey, thanks for that. I’ve passed your e-mail on to Stephanie. I think her real issue is with telus, but if you can help on the computer front, that may take some of the sting away.

]]> By: Mark http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5429 Mark Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:21:31 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5429 Nancy, Thanks for sharing your friends story - it sounds extremely painful and disappointing, and not the kind of experience we would like to see our products found delivering. I've left my email, and would like to get your friend some help. Thanks, Mark Nancy,

Thanks for sharing your friends story – it sounds extremely painful and disappointing, and not the kind of experience we would like to see our products found delivering.

I’ve left my email, and would like to get your friend some help.

Thanks,
Mark

]]> By: Simon http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5360 Simon Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:00:55 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5360 What a coincidence, Squawkfox recently wrote a nice blog post on this very subject: http://www.squawkfox.com/2008/04/21/complimentary-turkey-why-free-stuff-is-for-the-birds/ What a coincidence, Squawkfox recently wrote a nice blog post on this very subject:

http://www.squawkfox.com/2008/04/21/complimentary-turkey-why-free-stuff-is-for-the-birds/

]]> By: Simon http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5359 Simon Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:56:35 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5359 Stephanie: While I sympathize with your plight, I wonder what you expected? "Gift offers" like these are rarely worth the money and are frequently, as you've discovered, simply a way of offloading merchandise that wouldn't sell otherwise. After all, if Telus couldn't make a profit on it, they wouldn't do it. I hope you're successful in getting out of your contract but perhaps your story can at least serve as a warning to others: negotiate the best discount you can and don't be swayed by worthless gifts. As an aside (and to be fair to Telus), Windows Vista is widely acknowledged to be a dog, and is frustrating to use even on much better computers even though it's what's normally included with them these days. That's not really their fault. I bet that if you replaced Vista on that laptop with a no-cost, GNU/Linux-based operating system like Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) it'd run like a dream. Email, web browsing, word processing, the works. I'm using a desktop machine from 2002 with a similar set of software and it's perfectly adequate despite its age. Stephanie: While I sympathize with your plight, I wonder what you expected? “Gift offers” like these are rarely worth the money and are frequently, as you’ve discovered, simply a way of offloading merchandise that wouldn’t sell otherwise. After all, if Telus couldn’t make a profit on it, they wouldn’t do it.

I hope you’re successful in getting out of your contract but perhaps your story can at least serve as a warning to others: negotiate the best discount you can and don’t be swayed by worthless gifts.

As an aside (and to be fair to Telus), Windows Vista is widely acknowledged to be a dog, and is frustrating to use even on much better computers even though it’s what’s normally included with them these days. That’s not really their fault. I bet that if you replaced Vista on that laptop with a no-cost, GNU/Linux-based operating system like Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) it’d run like a dream. Email, web browsing, word processing, the works. I’m using a desktop machine from 2002 with a similar set of software and it’s perfectly adequate despite its age.

]]> By: Drinkin’ Guinness in the 416 | At this rate, I’ll be a driver by 40 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5336 Drinkin’ Guinness in the 416 | At this rate, I’ll be a driver by 40 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:23:37 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5336 [...] favourite links that I saw this week were this jaw-dropping tale of corporate scumbaggery, this patriotic lolcatmoose, an interview with two firefightin’ [...] [...] favourite links that I saw this week were this jaw-dropping tale of corporate scumbaggery, this patriotic lolcatmoose, an interview with two firefightin’ [...]

]]> By: Stephanie http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5335 Stephanie Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:54:33 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5335 Thanks for posting my ordeal Nancy! Funny that you mention "Olson on Your side" because when I was speaking to my mom the other day, she said I should call him. And someone else in one of the Vancouver newspapers. An old friend who has a lot of family working at Telus wrote to me and said she was passing my number on to see if there was anything they could do to help. I am going to be switching to Shaw so I can bundle my phone, internet and TV like I intended to in the first place. I will keep checking back in case anyone else has any other ideas, thanks for the feedback! Thanks for posting my ordeal Nancy!
Funny that you mention “Olson on Your side” because when I was speaking to my mom the other day, she said I should call him. And someone else in one of the Vancouver newspapers.
An old friend who has a lot of family working at Telus wrote to me and said she was passing my number on to see if there was anything they could do to help.
I am going to be switching to Shaw so I can bundle my phone, internet and TV like I intended to in the first place.
I will keep checking back in case anyone else has any other ideas, thanks for the feedback!

]]> By: guinness416 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/comment-page-1/#comment-5334 guinness416 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:09:02 +0000 http://nancyzimmerman.com/2008/04/25/friday-fun-my-ass-or-why-my-friend-stephanie-is-boycotting-telus/#comment-5334 Wow, reading this took years off MY life, never mind Stephanie's. What a disgrace. She should forward this whole pathetic tale to Ellen Roseman, who seems to have the capacity to work miracles. My Bell tales are somewhat similar. I think I'm giving up phone and email and moving to smoke signals. Wow, reading this took years off MY life, never mind Stephanie’s. What a disgrace. She should forward this whole pathetic tale to Ellen Roseman, who seems to have the capacity to work miracles. My Bell tales are somewhat similar. I think I’m giving up phone and email and moving to smoke signals.

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