The Consumer Complaints Blog

Resolving unfair stolen vehicle insurance offers:

We had our Honda Odyssey stolen in Nov. 2009. I was extremely disappointed by Primmum Auto Insurance, (TD Insurance), totally unfair offer. They started at $30,500. Replacement for a similar used vehicle was $40k. Why must the consumer battle it out just to get paid fair replacement cost. Hopefully this bad press will make them think twice.

After many calls to them, they raised their offer to $33k. They wouldn’t budge.

Finally I called the Insurance ombudsmen, who referred me to the Primmum Auto Insurance, (TD Insurance) ombudsmen. I thought here we go again, but was pleasantly surprised by their response. I e-mailed them my fair value comparison spreadsheet. 24 hours later they agreed to $40k, and sent me a chq.

One of many underhanded strategies employed by the ins. co’s third party fair value evaluator was comparing my car to recent similar sales and offers that were mostly US imports. Honda Cda doesn’t honour warranties on US imports. One can buy a third party warranty for between $1,500- $2,500 extra. This extra cost wasn’t being calculated in the “fair value”.

When I pointed this out to the Primmum Auto Insurance, (TD Insurance) I was told they “don’t insure warranties”. What a scam! All I wanted was a bruised apple for my stolen “bruised apple”.

We were fortunate to have two vehicles and didn’t have to rush to settle. The insurance company was in no rush to resolve this. They said my only other avenue was to get a lawyer. If it happens to you, give them your final offer and if it’s not accepted, call the insurance ombudsmen.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I am a customer of Rogers cell company since 2003. During this time I may have had few late payments, however, I have always paid my bills ( otherwise I wouldn’t have a cell phone with them).

Rogers has the wrothest customer service in caring for their loyal clients. on January 17 2011 I received a message on my cell that I am behind for my phone bill payment. At the time I check and I realized that I never received my Rogers phone bill for the month of December and therefore I have not pay. I made the payment on line on Jan 20th in 3 days after their 1st message. Now the problem is that after a message being left on my cell in Jan 17th, from Jan 17th –Jan 23rd, they have called me 16 times on my cell and 8-10 times on my house phone. I received one call on January 21st at 1:14 am when I was sleeping. On Saturday Jan 22nd I told the lady stop calling I have paid but I still received a call on Sunday when I told her I have already spoken to someone, she was so rude and still would not let me off the phone and I just hang up on her.

I would like to know who gives them the right to call after midnight re. a phone bill? Who gives them the right to harass civilians continuously? What are my legal rights as a consumer? Could I take legal actions for harassment? They call from these 2 numbers 1-800-300-4000 and 1-866-349-4596. When I searched I could not find the subscriber, however, people from these 2 numbers told me they are calling from Rogers. I am very angry and upset with this situation. What would you do on behalf of me as a consumer?

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Upon installation of my satellite services, the Bell technician broke my brand new TV. I was not in the room and did not see it, but the TV was fine before he came and was moved from one place to another and broken when he left. I called Bell as soon as I realized what had happened and lodged a complaint. Since then I have been on the phone with Bell customer service repeatedly. I have been punted from one person to another, has escalated again and again and nothing is being done. They claim that because they outsource their installation practices, they are not accountable for the broken TV, but they also will not give me the name of the company they outsource to.

At long last they sent a guy (Al) out from the outsourced company to see if the TV is in fact broken – which of course it is. He then tells me that the technician denies breaking it and that if they choose to compensate me for the TV, it would be the technician himself who would have to pay for it (well of course he’s denying everything then). So basically it’s my word against his, and good luck with that. Additionally, if they do decide to compensate me for the TV, I shouldn’t expect full price because once it’s out of the store, it’s worth only about half of the original cost (the TV was 5 days old!). If the technician refuses to pay, then there’s nothing the company could do and I’d have to take him to small claims court, and the technician likely wouldn’t show up, so it really wouldn’t be worth it for me. Al continued to tell me that this is why Bell outsources, so that they don’t have to deal with this type of thing.

So basically, everyone involved is brushing me off and refusing to take responsibility and have no qualms with this. So my counsel to anyone thinking of joining Bell is to NOT let any technician in to your house – because even if you follow them around for the entire 3 hours it takes for installation, even if you do see the technician cause any damage, it’s still your word against theirs and again, good luck with that. It is such a huge risk for consumers because these technicians could steal anything, break anything, basically do anything they want and the company won’t do anything for you. It’s actually quite scary. Oh, and good old Al was quick to tell me that Rogers does the same thing so it’s not worth switching because I’d face the same thing with them.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Update: Wed. April 20th, 2011
Mistakes can happen in any business. What is important is to fix them and make your clients happy. This company has taken the necessary steps to rectifying this complaint. Great job Dynamite we’re always happy to show a resolution when someone takes the steps to fix mistakes and make clients happy. The following information was received from the original complaining party to Penciltrick.

I am pleased to announce Sid has been in contact with me and the issues I have had with the cement are being fixed. Sid is sincere and is fixing the problems. I would used Dynamite Stamped again.

Thanks for your help.

The original complaint continues below for reference purposes:

We recently installed a pool and hired a stamped concrete contractor to complete the concrete around the pool and to finish a patio for us, we had saved for years to finally have our dream backyard and this was the final step!. We researched and looked around and found Dynamite Stamped Concrete, we checked references, looked at their work and then we met the owner Sid, he was very helpful and promised us we would not be disappointed.

Once the job was ready to commence things started to go south fast (after they had the deposit), first he was delayed by a few days because he claimed he was sick, he would never answer phone calls and only the random text. Then once they finally formed it took another week to show up and finally pour the concrete!

They were a bunch of pigs, there was so much dust my pool filter got clogged, they didn’t try and cover it up, there was concrete all over my fence. Another 4 days passed and nobody came to clean off the cement, it rained and now my pool is again full of this stamped powder they use, I go out and try and clean it best I can. Multiple calls and texts later someone finally shows up to clean and seal it 5 more days later Once the sealer has been applied it starts to bubble and leaves marks all over the place. Sid has never returned to fix this problem! Don’t ever deal with Dynamite Stamped Concrete of Brampton – Sid is a con artist!

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

In May of 2009 I made the mistake of changing service providers for my Phone, Internet and Bell Express View. When I originally spoke to the representative at Bell, I informed the rep that I wanted to be informed of all charges that Bell intended to charge, as what I was being told, no matter what the bills said, was what I intended to pay.

The first bill I received was not correct, so I called Bell to attempt to resolve, gave them the confirmation Number I had been provided and the agent’s name that I had spoken to. They assured me the billing would work itself out as this was the first month, and extra charges were applied that would be reversed the next month.

For the next 3 months, the billing was still not correct, I spent hours on the phone with Bell representatives, promising that this would be resolved on the next bill. After receiving the August bill, I asked to have the services disconnected, and from the disconnection department, finally spoke to someone that I thought could resolve these billing issues. Month after month the bills were incorrect, and each month that I called, I got the response that they were fixing the issues, just wait until the next month. By this time the amount that I had been overbilled was adding up

I either did not receive a bill in October, or it was misplaced, so it was back to the phone attempting to get a copy of the bill. Each time I was promised the representative would send the bill. I told the reps that I did not intend to pay a bill that I had not received, thinking this might be incentive for them to send a copy…not really. For another 3 months I again spent hours on the phone with Bell Reps trying to get the billing issues resolved to no avail. I eventually felt guilty and paid the amount I had been quoted when I signed up without a bill.

During this time, I recall only one time that Bell refused to provide service, briefly for a day or two on the phone, during the time I was waiting for the missing bill to be provided. This week they have disconnected the service to both my Bell ExpressView and phone services, claiming that unless I pay the full amount of the outstanding balance they will continue to deny access to services, and effect my credit rating in doing so.

I am trying to be patient, and get this resolved, as I realize it is not the fault of the rep that I may be speaking to, but it is all very frustrating, especially when being transferred from department to department for hours on end.

Something most Canadians may not know…..Do you realize the reason for the name change from Bell Canada to Bell World, occurred when all the Bell billing, and technical support were moved to the country of India putting hundreds of Canadians out of work. I have been told the staff are given ‘Canadian’ names, to make it seem like you are still speaking to someone in Canada. Gotta wonder if Bell now provides in India………

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.