{"id":548816,"date":"2026-03-20T10:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T10:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/548816\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T10:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T10:48:12","slug":"customers-complain-about-long-wait-times-multiple-calls-to-resolve-issues-with-rogers-telus-and-bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/548816\/","title":{"rendered":"Customers complain about long wait times, multiple calls to resolve issues with Rogers, Telus and Bell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have tips for navigating telecom customer service? We want to hear from you. Click the \u201cJoin the Conversation\u201d button\u00a0above. On the app? Join\u00a0here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The offer seemed straightforward. In early January 2026, a Bell chat agent promised Vicki Sloot that if she upgraded to a new Bell Fibe TV box, she could keep all her specialty programming sports channels like TSN and Sportsnet. Plus, she\u2019d be paying $5 less a month.<\/p>\n

The next day, her new equipment arrived \u2014 but she was missing the speciality channels. She went back to Bell, who told her she only had a \u201cbasic starter plan\u201d and that it\u2019d be an extra $25 a month to get them back.<\/p>\n

So began an eight-week odyssey through Bell\u2019s customer service department, consisting of hours spent live chatting and on the phone with different agents, and an eventual escalation to Bell\u2019s resolutions team. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to get a single right answer that is consistent throughout each support agent,\u201d said Sloot, who lives in Toronto.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sloot is one of more than a dozen customers with whom Marketplace has spoken who say they are frustrated with the poor customer service they received from Canada\u2019s big three telecoms: Rogers, Bell and Telus. Complaints include long hold times, multiple transfers and escalations, dropped calls and overall poor communication, which can make seemingly simple issues take days or weeks to get sorted.<\/p>\n

Employees at two of the largest telecom companies, Rogers and Telus, told Marketplace that frontline customer service representatives have less incentive to help issue credits or lower bills, and said they\u2019re measured on their abilities to increase customers\u2019 bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes as complaints against telecoms reached an all-time high last year, with more than 23,000 complaints filed with the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), the majority of them relating to billing issues like incorrect monthly charges and missing credits. Meanwhile, in Spain, a new law is looking to cap how long customers have to wait when addressing similar issues \u2014 and some say Canada should take note.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are getting continuously harder for customers to resolve issues,\u201d said Mohammed Halabi, the founder and director of MyBillsAreHigh.com, who\u2019s been negotiating with the major Canadian telecoms on behalf of his clients for 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They\u2019re exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘The system is designed to frustrate as many people as possible’<\/p>\n

Sloot was one of several telecom customers Marketplace documented as they tried to get resolution to their telecom troubles one day in late January. By then, a resolution manager had been assigned to her case, and the live chat and general customer service agents told her they were unable to help. She had a brief call with the manager, who promised to look into her problem and get back to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am locked into this one agent, I can\u2019t do anything else,\u201d said Sloot.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Marketplace tests telecom customer service:\"\"<\/p>\n

Vicki Sloot tries resolving an issue with her provider Bell <\/p>\n

Marketplace followed Vicki Sloot as she tried to resolve an issue through Bell’s customer service chat, phone agents and resolution team.<\/p>\n

Sloot waited three hours for a call back that never came. Amas Tenumah is an Oklahoma City based author and customer service expert who consults companies on their customer service practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistakes: There’s no hold music, but [she\u2019s] also on hold there, too,\u201d he said about Sloot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tenumah believes Bell is following a pattern he has seen many times before. \u201cThe system is designed to frustrate as many people as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cPart of the design is that people will give up so that [companies] don’t have to incur that expense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sloot\u2019s issue remained unresolved, and she eventually gave up and paid more to get the specialty channels back. After Marketplace reached out to Bell about Sloot\u2019s case, the company gave her a $90 credit and a $30 discount on her monthly bills moving forward.<\/p>\n

\"AmasAmas Tenumah says customer service is designed to frustrate consumers. (CBC)<\/p>\n

In a statement, Bell acknowledged she had to take more steps than necessary to rectify the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strive to make it easier for our customers to do business with Bell and in this instance, we did not live up to our customer commitments,\u201d said communications director Ellen Murphy. \u00a0<\/p>\n

However, she said, \u201cthe assertion that we have deliberately designed our customer operations to avoid resolving issues is just simply not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reps encouraged to increase customer\u2019s bills: insiders <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just consumers who are frustrated \u2014 some telecom employees are, too. Marketplace has spoken confidentially to several current employees of Telus and Rogers, whose identities we are concealing because they fear professional repercussions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marketplace spoke to a Rogers worker who takes escalation calls and supports frontline agents. He said those employees’ ability to help customers, including by issuing credits, is “decreasing constantly.”<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s noticed more agents calling him with basic questions, for example, around how the autopay credit or the financing promotion programs work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH | Telcos raise some prices:\"\"<\/p>\n

Major wireless carriers hike some prices<\/p>\n

Rogers is raising its U.S. long-distance rates to $1 per minute for customers without a plan after Bell and Telus recently hiked their roaming fees. The increases come at a time when Ottawa is pushing for more affordable prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don’t have very much experience or knowledge of what to do in those situations.”<\/p>\n

A longtime customer service representative with Telus said similarly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started, we listened to customers, we appreciated them. I never had any hesitation reducing someone\u2019s bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, she says she\u2019s monitored on the number of credits she issues. She says credits of a certain level have to be approved by a manager, and her scorecard is affected negatively if she lowers a customer\u2019s bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another Telus employee, a technician, said he has high sales targets to meet and he\u2019s expected to upsell customers when he arrives at their home to install or fix equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agents are victims of this process, as well,\u201d said Tenumah, who has run call centres across the world. \u201cThere is a long list of metrics that are in conflict with them delivering exactly what you want.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked for comment, Telus didn\u2019t respond to the claims made by the employees.<\/p>\n

A Rogers spokesperson said it has an intensive training program for new customer service agents, including six weeks of training and two weeks of monitoring and coaching on calls. \u201cWe\u2019re working hard to ensure we deliver a great experience for our customers at every touchpoint and continue to invest in training, tools and technology to continuously improve,\u201d said the spokesperson in a statement.<\/p>\n

Spanish law limits wait times to three minutes or face fines<\/p>\n

In late December 2025, Spain passed a law introducing mandatory customer service standards for telecoms and other large companies with more than 250 employees. It stipulates that customer calls must be answered within three minutes, 95 per cent of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a revolution, in that it’s a small thing, but will change the everyday life of millions of consumers,\u201d said Pablo Bustinduy, the Spanish consumer affairs minister.<\/p>\n

Under the new law, which goes into effect within the next year, customer complaints must also be resolved within 15 days, or five if it involves \u201cimproper charges.\u201d Non-compliant companies could be fined up to 100,000 euros. <\/p>\n

WATCH | Spain introduced a new law, limiting how long customers have to wait on hold:\"\"<\/p>\n

Spain’s new customer service law <\/p>\n

Spanish Consumer Affairs Minister Pablo Bustinduy talks about the goal of Spain’s new customer service law.<\/p>\n

A lack of competition can contribute to customers feeling helpless, Minister Bustinduy said: \u201cEverybody does the same, so there\u2019s no point in looking for an alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says if companies don\u2019t modify their practices, they\u2019ll pay a price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make that relation a little bit more balanced and make sure that the rights that we have as consumers are respected and enforced.”<\/p>\n

An opportunity for telecoms to do better\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here in Canada, there is no set standard of customer service for telecoms. The CCTS investigates complaints, but the quality of customer service \u2014 all those long wait times and dropped calls \u2014 doesn’t fall under its mandate, despite hearing about it from consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s clear that customer frustration exists,\u201d said Jos\u00e9e Bidal Thibault, commissioner and CEO of the CCTS. \u201cThere is an opportunity to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadian Telecommunications Association said the majority of customers have positive experiences. The industry group represents several Canadian telecoms, including Bell and Rogers. \u201cTelecom providers work to resolve concerns fairly and directly with customers and continue to invest in improving service for Canadians,\u201d said spokesperson Nick Kyona.<\/p>\n

\"Jos\u00e9eJos\u00e9e Bidal Thibault, commissioner and CEO of the CCTS encourages Canadians to file a complaint if they can\u2019t get resolution through their telecom. (David MacIntosh\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) controls the CCTS’s mandate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A CRTC spokesperson said they\u2019re monitoring Spain\u2019s recent customer service legislation \u201cto see how they may inform the CRTC\u2019s future regulatory activities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly, who oversees telecom policies, didn\u2019t answer questions about whether her department would consider setting a standard of customer service, similar to Spain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her office said in a statement that recent amendments made to the Telecommunications Act make it easier for Canadians to switch, renew or cancel their telecom plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen consumers have problems with their carrier, an option is to switch providers, which helps create a competitive landscape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although CCTS can\u2019t do anything to get those wait times down, Bidal Thibault encourages Canadians to turn to the ombudsman regardless.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomer service issues generally aren’t happening in a vacuum. Customers tend to be calling their providers when they have a problem,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cChances are those types of problems are going to be within our mandate to help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have tips for navigating telecom customer service? We want to hear from you. Click the \u201cJoin the Conversation\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-548816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}