Christian Conservative Christian "Independent"

I'm an evangelical Christian, member of the CPC, but presently & unjustly exiled to wander the political wilderness.
All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

GOODBYE KOODO!!!


UPDATE IV: Wow, this post is STILL the highest traffic post I think I've ever written, so a clarification is in order... I've since had GREAT service from Koodo.  I have to chalk things up to a single issue with an account, in part because I was the technical contact who set up the account, while someone else was the one paying the bill.  I'd signed up for a paper bill, and since the payee never got one, I didn't know anything about it until Koodo sent me a "FINAL NOTICE" before going to collections.  Anyway, I got it all cleared up, but this post went up because I had a bad experience with a customer service rep.

If you're looking for Koodo, check them out here: KoodoMobile.com

ORIGINAL POST


Well, being an IT guy, and being the resident cell phone expert amongst my friends and political circles, people ask me for advice on who's got the best deals for cell phones. And invariably, for average usage folks, I've always spoken well of Koodo... low cost, and great value for what you get.

BUT NOT ANYMORE!!! Thanks to their low cost, or rather, cheapskate billing practices, I nearly ended up getting a collections black-eye thanks to the folks at Koodo... because THEY never bothered to send me an electronic bill, which is what I'd signed up for! You see, their way of doing things is that instead of sending your monthly e-bill to your e-mail, which is what I "thought" I was signing up for, you actually have to go and register on their website in order to get access to the e-bill.

The real kicker is when you cancel your account (which I'd done, because it was an Election 2011 campaign phone)... you'd think they'd send you a final invoice in order to get their money, right? WRONG!!! All I got from them was a PAST DUE notice, and a threat of getting sent to a collection agency! How's THAT for "Customer Service"???

Funny thing is, if they'd just sent me the bill, paper or electronically, they'd have had their money MONTHS AGO!!! (say, May 3rd?) Instead, cause of their backwards billing processes, they've had to wait an extra two months for their cash, AND have gone and lost me as a customer, AND a whole whack of folks to whom I'll be making recommendations in the future!!! Did I mention that I've already steered two people today away from Koodo?

Plus, I seem to recall that there's a campaign coming up soon... guess who's NOT going to be getting our cell phone contract! And likely this post will influence a few other campaigns to go elsewhere too!

WELL DONE KOODO!!!


UPDATE: Oh the power of the blog... got a response:
"Looked at your account & from what I can tell the issue seemed to have been that your bills have not been received by you. I can see that they were sent to Canada Post with your address that we have on file. As long as our records are correct I don't have a ready answer why they haven 't arrived even prior to the CP strike. Because of privacy and security concerns we don't email invoices and I don't think anyone else does. Since you were set up to receive a paper bill no email notifications were sent out. I also see that you called and now have access to your bill through our self-serve site. Disappointing that it took us this long to solve things, but I think we have learnt from the experience and will make a few reccos to our team. Thanks for your feedback! Bernard from the Koodo Team"

Thanks for the reply Bernard... you're right, I never got a bill, not even once, even though I paid the extra $2 a month for them. Guess I need to call back for a credit?

UPDATE II: It's been a while since I posted this, and a number of people have found it online and commented on it. Thought I should post an update, because I've since had another, and MUCH better, experience with Koodo, and didn't encounter these kinds of issues. I may have to chalk it up to a one-off issue, as opposed to their customer service as a whole.

UPDATE III: Well, it seems I'm still getting LOTS of traffic to this post (it's one of my higher hit count posts) so it looks like I have to do YET ANOTHER update to clue people in on a few things.

1) Koodo has improved their processes since this post, so the main issue has been resolved. I have dealt with them a number of times since (though NOT during the 2011 Ontario election, as I promised) and have been satisfied. With several of their new plans and phones, they are, in my opinion, once again one of the best options on the market.

2) The issue WAS ON THEIR END, it had nothing to do with me, where some commenters have tried to lay blame. Though I set up the phone for someone, I was NOT supposed to be dealing with the bills... therefore, I didn't even know there was an issue until I got the FINAL NOTICE before going to collections. But the root cause was the fact that there was an issue with Koodo, NOT with me.

So here's a FINAL NOTICE to commenters... anyone who posts stating that "it was your own fault" simply won't get their comments posted. So now you've been warned.

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15 Comments:

  • At Wed Jul 06, 02:36:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Daev Hodson said…

    I have electronic billing with most of my service providers--and I don't believe any of them e-mail me an invoice. I would be fabulously convenient if they would sent it by e-mail, but the most I get is an e-mail telling me my bill is ready for viewing if I log on to their site.

     
  • At Wed Jul 06, 02:46:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    That's the thing Daev... DIDN'T EVEN GET THAT FROM THEM!!! Nothing, nada, ZIP, until I got the "We're sending you to collections" notice!

     
  • At Wed Jul 06, 03:59:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I had a bad experience with Rogers when I decided to buy some more time. What I found out later is that by doing so increased my contract period which they didnt tell me about. One of the tv networks did a story on this and of course, Rogers denied doing this.

     
  • At Wed Jul 06, 04:57:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Freelance Writer said…

    Wind Mobile has been very straight with me. The retail kids took time to explain plans, I get an email bill and I pay online. Plus it's a good plan at a fair price.

     
  • At Wed Jul 06, 05:04:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Shaw cable did the same for me. For 3 years I recieved my bill electronically, then I moved and cancelled my service. They didn't send out a final bill, only a final notice threatening collections. I was(am)out of the country so by the time the bill caught up to me, it was already in collection. Less than 30 days from the date I cancelled. All for total of 20 bucks. And after the person I have my mail re-routed to paid it. Anger with this worthless arrogant company doesn't come close to discribing what I think of them right now.

     
  • At Thu Jul 07, 12:17:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Don said…

    What a load of crap. I just checked my inbox and my cell provider sends me a notice that my bill is ready and also sends the amount due.

    I also get a bill in my email for my cable-based internet services.

    Sounds like Koodo is fishing for an excuse.

     
  • At Mon Jan 23, 10:55:00 a.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Seems to me that if you have a cell phone or really any other product or service you should know you have to pay for it. Not being sent a bill, for whatever reason, is no excuse for not paying for the service you signed up for. I just love how everything is always someone else fault with some people.

     
  • At Mon Jan 30, 04:48:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Well I've had many cell phone & plans, some were for work related and others personal, let me tell you, right now Koodo is the best by far that I've ever had, coverage in all areas that I travel, no lost calls, and my bill is sent electronically every Month, I had to call Koodo on a couple of occaision and was treated the very best couldn't asked for a better service.

    So far so good Koodo has met my expectance for what my uses of a cell phone is.

    Thanks Koodo

     
  • At Tue Jan 31, 08:09:00 a.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    An update Anon@4:48pm - Koodo has in many ways really turned things around. It looks more like this was a one-off occurrence, based on what I've heard from other people.

     
  • At Tue Feb 21, 04:31:00 a.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Anonymous' comment on Jan 23 was 'bang on'. When you signed up for a phone service and have not received a bill for months obviously something is wrong. The responsibility is on the user to call and find out what happened. A simple call could easily clarify and correct the problem. You don't just wait and do nothing until you get a collection notice and negatively blog about it. Where is the accountability there? It is easy to blame and point the finger to other people, but, i say, look into the mirror first. Just use common sense.

     
  • At Tue Feb 21, 08:43:00 a.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Actually Anon@04:31, it makes perfect sense for me not to have seen a bill... this phone was a temp phone for a client, and Koodo was supposed to send the bill to the BILLING address, NOT to me. I was never even supposed to have seen it, EVER.

    The fact that Koodo only sent a notice to me was because they'd never done what had been set up in the first place, and as a result, they never got their money. So why then then sent a collections notice to my PERSONAL address, instead of the billing address, is just another symptom of the root problem... the fact that something got messed up in their billing process.

     
  • At Thu Mar 08, 11:32:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Sorry but you know you have to actually go online at self serve to go paperless, at least i had to!
    but what im pissed off with is that they go home at 10 pm and even crappy rogers is still open,

     
  • At Tue Mar 27, 04:24:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Same thing happened to me. I had about $100 left on my tab, switched to Wind (saving $20/mth with much more included), and it took them two months to send me a final bill in the mail.

    The final bill not only included late charges, but also charges for data and Caller ID (when the same bill showed $0.00 for cell plan). Oh, and it included the same threats about collection agencies.

    Personally, since they couldn't be bothered to send me a bill, and since they charged me for services I couldn't possibly have used (their own bill says I had no cell service that month, how was I supposed to use Caller ID or Data?), as well as for bogus late fees... I've decided to stiff them. If they can't bill people (properly) in a timely fashion, screw 'em.

     
  • At Wed Apr 18, 01:24:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Good Job, there billing online must be done by monkeys cause it does not match anything i got. they better hope revenue canada's not watching.
    fee's everywhere and they say they reversed it well not online said -090 the next month forward 51.49 "what"
    started at 30 a month for 2 phones the year end cost is 850?

     
  • At Tue May 15, 10:55:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Had the exact same experience with FIDO. The art of customer service is drifting away into cyberspace... I maintain that paying the extra $2 for paper billing saves alot of aggravation.

     

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