TORONTO – Primus Communications president Ted Chislett told www.cartt.ca it denies “slamming” Bell Canada customers.
As first reported by www.cartt.ca on Tuesday, Bell Canada filed a complaint with the CRTC demanding sanctions be placed on VOIP provider Primus for “slamming” Bell customers. Slamming means changing a customer’s phone company without their permission and the CRTC has strict guidelines governing how such a switch must happen.
“There is no slamming,” said Chislett, who added he was confused as to why Bell chose to pursue a CRTC response rather than go through normal processes for resolving such disputes.
In its December 12th submission to the CRTC, Bell said its customer service reps began to record a spike in the number of calls from customers who say they weren’t aware they were no longer Bell customers and wanted to switch back, in September of this year.
“As the number of customers claiming to have been slammed grew, the Company was increasingly concerned and decided to investigate further,” reads the Bell submission.
A market research firm found that 72 customers out of a small sample of 142 felt they had been slammed. “Of the 72 customers who had been slammed, the service provider with the most instances was Primus, with 35 slamming complaints,” says Bell.
Having received the list of supposedly slammed customers along with a copy of the complaint, Chislett told www.cartt.ca that none were wronged. “We can show in all cases that we have recorded confirmation from customers requesting services,” he said. “Independent, third-party verification.
(Ed note: As someone who has changed phone companies a few times, the process when switching phone companies and keeping your phone number involves a quick third-party chat to confirm you know you’re switching.)
“The comments received… from respondents to the questionnaire indicate that Primus representatives frequently did not clearly identify themselves as being from Primus and led customers to believe that the contact was being made by Bell Canada,” adds the Bell letter. “In addition, the Primus representatives did not clearly indicate that the customer’s local service would be transferred from Bell Canada to Primus. Most customers indicated that they only found out they had been transferred away from Bell Canada when they received their first bill from the new LSP.”
Chislett points the finger back to Bell. “Bell was slow during that period (September) in migrating (customers from Bell to Primus) so maybe people forgot or something,” he said.
Bell wants an expedited proceeding to deal with the matter but the CRTC has not yet responded.
