OTTAWA – Telling customers "we miss you" or somesuch, doesn’t violate the CRTC’s prohibition on telecom win-back promotions, the Commission said today.
Earlier this year, Quebecor Media (owners of Videotron) complained to the Regulator, saying that Bell Canada’s practice of sending customer appreciation cards to recently lost customers violates the telecom regs, which restrict win-back promotions until 90 days after disconnect from the incumbent local telco.
The Bell cards in question had the following caption on their cover: "it just won’t be the same without you."
And inside: "I’m writing to say that we are sorry to see you go. Even though you are no longer using Bell for your Residential Phone service, we haven’t forgotten about you. You were a valued member of our Bell Family and we truly appreciate having been of service.
"Unfortunately, industry regulations prevent us from contacting you in an effort to win back your Residential Phone service for a period of three months. We are counting down the days until we can talk to you again. These rules do not prevent you from contacting us if you are interested in more information about your local service."
The cards did not indicate a contact telephone number or offer any new promotion. QMI said Bell was trying to evade the regs, saying "the purpose of this new card… invited former Bell Canada LES customers to contact Bell Canada and… qualified as an attempt by Bell Canada to win back former LES customers. QMI requested that, given the flagrant nature of Bell Canada’s breach of the LES winback restrictions, the Commission deal with this matter on an expedited basis," recounts today’s decision.
Bell contended that its cards, "in addition to generally informing its former LES customers of the Commission’s winback rule, corrected the incorrect information regarding the winback rule" provided by Videotron in newspaper ads.
The Commission said that the winback rule does not prohibit all contact with former customers and that it "is not persuaded that the new card, in and of itself, is an attempt to win back the former customer, in violation of the winback rule," reads the decision.
