Oakridge Vancouver Telus (Connect) Sucks!
Last time I went to the Telus dealer Connect in Oakridge Centre, Vancouver, I talked with a girl that gave me some serious attitude. I went in to ask about if I could disable the line 2 on my blackberry curve since it always accidently switches to the line 2 when it is in my pocket. I’ve always liked Telus Mobility, but the commission sales staff in that store are absolutely terrible. Now both me and my Fiance have gone into that store and had some crappy service.
1. First time, the sales girl saw me come in first, and even made eye contact with me.. then proceeded to help a different couple that went into the store afterwards. Whatever. I can live with that, but then she treated me like I was such a hassle when I went in to ask about the line problem. I wish I checked her name tag.
I just can’t stand it when someone gets short with you when they are supposed to be customer service. Maybe it’s because we aren’t signing up for plans that they get commission on so they just dismiss us.
2. My fiance goes in to buy a pay & talk phone today with a $50 activation credit, that costs $49.99 as specified on the Telus website. She walks in, and talks to a fellow named Yang who doesn’t know what she is talking about. He’s very rude and then tells her that they do not have this product. He then goes on to charge her an additional $35 ACTIVATION FEE! He insists that this must be charged. WHAT THE HELL!?!? Damn commission greedy assholes. Not only that, but he says he needs to charge her another $10 in order to activate it with a Nanaimo number. I am so pissed off with the lousy service at the Telus in Oakridge. Yes, Oakridge is a classy, high-end mall.. but apparently it doesn’t prevent companies from hiring bottom-rung customer service that is a detriment to their company.
Now I have to go back to the mall with her to return the phone because those a-holes charged her something that shouldn’t be charged. Telus, don’t let your sales people ruin your image.
Forget Telus Mobility in Oakridge. I had a lot better service at the one in Richmond Centre.
UPDATE: DEC 30th, 2008
So I go into the location and talk with the manager Chris Cheung. He seems “upfront” about everything, but I can still feel that salespersons vibe. At first he tells me I can’t return the phone, only refund me the $35, which really does nothing for me, as I am stuck with a $50 phone and a $10 charge for some airtime which I dont want and won’t use.
I argue with him a bit, and even tell him I am going to file a chargeback and complain to Telus directly, and he doesn’t seem to care. Finally I convince him to return everything to me except the $10 fee for some sort of airtime. Which is still s slap in the face because now we’ve wasted an hour or two of my time, and I still gave those assholes at Oakridge Telus Connect $10 for wasting my time and pissing me off. He says he “can’t” refund the whole thing. I say bullshit. Bottom line is Chris Cheung doesn’t care about me as a customer, and he obviously doesn’t care about the reputation of his store.
I have complained directly to Telus via the online route, as the customer service rep on the phone asked me to do this. I keep getting canned responses from them, which is pissing me off. HOWEVER, the rep immediately offered me a $10 credit to my personal cell phone plan, which is very nice. I have accepted it and now Telus and I are even. However, Yang and Chris Cheung at Connect in Oakridge mall are not finished yet.
Dude, chill out… If you don’t want to pay those services fees then order and activate the phone with TELUS yourself over the phone. Those guys have bills to pay too and they don’t get paid by doing stuff for free. The service fees are clearly outlined at the front counter. The second thing is that those stores are privately owned, as in TELUS doesn’t directly pay the employees or rent for the store etc, so they can charge whatever service fees they like. They are a separate entity from TELUS. For the $49.99 phone, sometimes stores don’t always carry what’s advertised online, that’s why it’s online and not in-store.
While much of the population does not realize this, I do realize this. However, my problem is with the Employee Yang, who lied about the store policies. The service fees are fine, but we did NOT want to activate the phone, and Yang insisted that the phone had to be activated. He Lied. He also lied about the return policy.
Why should I chill out when a company that I visit lies to me and tries to cheat me out of $100? They had the $49.99 phone. They could have sold it to me for $49.99. They chose instead to lie to us, and tell us we needed to spend $100, and said that it we could return it all for a full refund if we weren’t happy. When we came back, Chris Cheung gave me a hard time and wasted my time.
I have every right to be pissed off. This has nothing to do with Telus other than the fact that it’s a Telus Dealer.
So far, I agree with all the things people say about the staff there there image is horrible, they sold me a BB Storm for 600$ that crapped out after two months thank god for warantee. Its not like they knew it would be a dud but hey come on, if I buy a car I want what I pay for, locked me into a three year contract and I live on 49th ave and sherbrooke which has been tested as a telus deadzone. Guess what not even that is enuff to get out of a contract, nore the fact that Im on my fourth swap phone nice word “swap”. The Staff are full of attitude and resort to making you call telus art there store just so telus can tell you your S.O.L. and the staff knows Telus will tell you that, but they let you patiently sit on hold for an hour anyways, at least that way your out of there hair. The women are full of attitude except one of the girls Jen she’s nice and helpful. I would however like to strangle the little fucker at the desk with his tie.
I don’t know what you mean by website
However I am so sorrily pissed off at the staff at Oakridge center
a little more aggrivation doesn’t matter.
Waited for approx 45 mins to see a representative at the desk
and having 2 people walk in behind me and get serviced first
I have decided to cancel my contract and return my phone.
The only problem is I cannot find a e-mail contact for
the Telus Customer Service Representative on their website
to advise them of my intentions.
I completely agree with you about your blog post, all they do is really waste my time, and even when i called to ask them a few questions the girl on the other line had acted as if I was bothering her, whether I was or wasn’t, it’s her job to answer questions I have about my phone, and the unnecessary things I’m being billed for. My phone has also malfunctioned after three months and they said I have to go there, ugh it’s going to suck =( oh well i have to suck it up and deal with these people one more time.
I have heard nothing but complaints about this provider. Telus has been very good as far as acknowledging concerns and making it right. I would recommend you contact Telus and explain the situation and you will likely get your money back. I would always recommend that you set up your account stuff with Telus in advance before going into a vendor location. This way, when they call up your file all the specifics are itemized and you get plug and go essentially. I think (hope) Connect sees concerns like yours a I have heard from others that they suck – Telus should seriously review this franchise as they do not do them well by having rude, non-customer driven sales folks like this cramming stuff down your throat and not acting in a civil manner. Call them on it!!! Afterall – You are the Customer and they need to listen and respect you.
I did contact Telus, and they made it right, however I don’t think they really did much about the dealer. They continue to use Connect to do their business.
I just dealt with Apex downtown Vancouver, and they are exceptional with their customer service. Fantastic communication and sales service at that location.
Service here was absolutely brutal!
Received a repaired phone back with none of the original e-mail addresses re-activated with no instructions how to do it… took me three days and much time to get it right…oh, they forgot to tell me I had a refund
I bought my iPhone G3s @ Oakridge last June2010 I am planning a trip to UK I am told the sim card can NOT be changed is this correct?
I’ll agree about that store… I went in there a few days ago, and there was one helpful lady that knew what she was talking about and made a couple suggestions about the phone. However, I found out later that she was the regional manager. Go figure.
I went back in yesterday to buy a phone (HTC Desire HD, $29.99 on a contract), and I made an “offer” (I suggested $150) on it, a two-year warranty, Otterbox, and car charger, all on a three-year contract with the insurance as well. The guy in there (small, young guy, probably Yang), told me there’s no way they could give it to me for that price, saying that the phone, activation, and warranty would be over $160. When I brought up that I could activate the phone online for free, he disagreed and said I had to do it there. Then he made it sound like he was doing me a favour by throwing in a car charger, while charging me $200 for everything else… on a $30 phone.
I ended up calling Telus, and because I’m an existing customer, it should only be a $25 “swap fee” if I get the phone activated in store, and free online, but they offered to waive it in my case. I’m going to Richmond Center today to try them, so hopefully I’ll have better luck there.
As for using the SIM card… Apparently, after you’ve had a phone on a plan with Telus for at least 90 days, they will sell you the unlock code for $50 and you should be able to use it with any provider. I’ve never looked into jailbreaking before, so I don’t know the normal costs, but I suppose Telus wants in on that. I’d rather get it directly from them though, rather than paying some guy to dig around in my phone.
Wow – Obviously the Connect store in Oakridge Centre is giving Telus a terrible name and is a bad representation of the company. I’ve always actually had good service from Telus on the phone, so good in fact that I don’t like to go into a store.
My last dealing with Telus was via a company called Apex Communications in Downtown Vancouver. They usually do corporate but there was a guy there that was awesome. Held a blackberry torch for me and delivered it to me and set it up on the fly. Had everything ready for me so it only took like 15 minutes to do. Great service and I’m happy to pay the $20 swap fee to have everything taken care of when it is done with a smile and efficiently.
I’ve been a Telus customer for years. Wanted to take advantage of a new plan that they were offering; knew that I would have to sign a new contract and purchase a new phone to do so. Wanted to give my old phone to the BF on a month to month (waiting for iPhone 5 to come out before signing a second contract!)
Chose this store because I have dealt with Metrotown store and received good customer service there, but didn’t feel like going all the way out to Burnaby. I was having a bad day, I was in a hurry and maybe the sales person was having a bad day two. We didn’t hit it off, and on a couple of occasions I thought about walking out the door before finishing the transaction, but I didn’t.
I had a 32GB iphone 3GS. I was not asked what size 4G I wanted. I expected to get a 32GB 4G (makes sense that I wouldn’t want to downsize the storage unless I asked to?). At no point was this a topic of conversation in the store. It wasn’t until I got home and hot synched the phone that I realized I had been sold a 16GB…
Called the store, got voicemail and left a message. Called the next day, voicemail again. Went out of ton for a few days, called agin when I got back. Voicemail, no returned call. Finally got through to store manager; she told me that it was an Apple policy not to accept returns on iPhones. Told me to deal with Telus and/or Apple directly. Called both, both laughed and said that was not the case. Telus offers a 14 day exchange/return… But because this company is a contracted dealer, the stores policy is what I am stuck with. After several emails and phone calls I am stuck with a 16GB phone that hardly fits my iTunes library, never mind some photos and apps. The sales clerk also kept the packaging for the case that I bought, so no returns on that either…
Be forewarned; no returns or exchanges on any Apple products (iPhones) at this store. They may not tell you this in store, but it’s printed on the backside of the invoice. I’ve taken my complaint all the way up to the VP and he will not make any exceptions.
Thanks for the Apex recommendation; I will check them out next time I need to swap handsets.
It is an Apple Policy not to accept returns on iPhones unless you buy them from the Apple Store. Too much abuse as the popularity of Apple Products are abused so much by consumers trying to resell and stuff.