Credit where credit is due

Recipe (c) colette copeland


The world is full of complaints, and much of it is justified, but the world doesn't praise enough. So today I'm going to talk about a company that's always done good by me for all of my adult life: Bell Telephone. I've been with Bell ever since I got my first phone. I've gone from Pacific Bell to Southern Bell to Bell Canada. I've never been interested in changing companies. Why? Because Bell has always taken good care of me. I know people who have complained about Bell, but I've never had reason to myself. On many occasions over the years, they have helped me, given me good deals, and waived certain charges on the grounds that I was such a good customer. Obviously they work to keep me, and I place a high value on good service.


Yesterday I inquired at the Bell Centre if someone could come and hook the modem and all the paraphernalia for my high-speed service. They said, yes, but that there was a charge of $50. I was tempted but I declined, and decided to do it myself, dreading it because I don't like doing fiddly things like this.

Today, a rep calls me and says, "I see you've signed up for high-speed internet. Would you like someone to come and set it all up for you free of charge?"

I told her I was told it cost $50. She said she was authorized to offer it to me free of charge. So I said Yes, yes, yes. She booked the earliest she had, which is a week today, took down all the info etc., asked me if I needed anything else, and we said goodbye. To be honest, I was waiting for her to ask me if I wanted to sign up for some other service, but she didn't. She had just called to offer me the free installation.

Here's the really good part. I don't answer calls whose number I don't recognize that have no name attached because they are invariably marketing calls. When I saw this number, I figured it was one of those calls but something made me answer. And so it was, but I am so happy that I answered it!