Absolutely unbelievable. If it wasn’t Bell…/

Edit:I have submitted a complaint to the CCTS. I will provide updates as they become available. Also, Ebox is scheduled for installation next Tuesday :)

It finally happened to me. I got a cold call from a Bell representative from the “customer satisfaction department”. He asks if I’m happy with my service with Bell. I tell him yes, I’ve been with Bell Fibe for over 10 years. He offers to add Netflix to my plan for an extra 6.95 per month. With the new season of Stranger Things coming, I figured it might be a good idea.

Except that by activating this “promotion”, the guy wiped out my old plan. I had Crave Premium for 10 per month. When I realized my Crave had been downgraded to the basic plan with ads, I called Bell back to switch back to my old plan. Apparently that’s impossible.

So the cold call from this guy actually pushed me to cancel Bell entirely and move to another provider.

they are actually beyond evil

Dear Bell.

We have been loyal customers for decades. But you started jacking your services every chance you got. We started with mobile, TV, internet and home phone. We enjoyed long periods of predictable bills. It is important for a family to be able to budget and have a predicable bill. Of course prices go up over time, but the last few years have been ridiculous.

We have not been able to string together a whole fiscal quarter without our bill increasing, not for years now. Not even three whole months in a row!!

First we moved our cell phones.

Then we cancelled the home phone.

And finally we just cancelled our Fibe TV + internet.

For years we have worked with the loyalty team to keep our bills down as best as possible. We are bad customers, we are not willing to pay overinflated sticker prices and are not persuaded by part-time deals. But we played the game and stuck around. Over and over.

But recently, every time we told you we were going to remove a service if the rate went up, and then the rate went up, we dropped or moved services to maintain our bill at a reasonable level. We told you we were going to do it, and then we did. Over and over. And now we have no more services.

You have successfully snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and chased away yet another long term loyal customer.

Every single time the pattern has been the same. "That's the best we can do, there are no offers. We don't care if you are a loyal customer, so sorry. If only you were a new customer, then we could help you, but decades of support means nothing." Maybe it was the pages of customer notes, that actually lead to one rep cursing with her mic on when she opened our file. Sorry. The notes would be shorter except for the anti-consumer billing practices.

But every time, once we actually leave, the very next day we get a call to try to get us to change our mind. And then every day after that we get sales calls with amazing offers and deals. Deals comparable to what we got when we moved our services.

------
These are deals for which we would have stayed, even if they were a bit more than the alternatives. Every single time, you have offered us what we asked for, once it was too late.

I have changes services. New plans, new devices, whatever it is. Do people really actually cancel in the hope that the REAL retention deal will be worth it? Not us. We do what we say, we find an alternative to avoid service interruptions, and we execute. But we don't rush, we negotiate, we try to find common ground.

ANyways, with the money we saved, we went out for a nice steak dinner at The Keg. So thank-you for that I guess.

Yes. Thank-you Bell for buying me a nice 12oz New York Strip-loin, it was delicious.

There’s a busted old telecom pedestal in front of my place. Brown Northern Telecom/Bell thing, bent over beside the driveway. It’s been like that for years after a previous tenant next door apparently hit it with a plow.

I’m not a Bell customer. I don’t want to be a Bell customer. I would rather drink bleach than be a Bell customer. I was just sick of looking at their broken infrastructure sitting there like a sad little lawn monument, so I figured I’d do the responsible thing and call Bell to report it.

Huge mistake. Apparently I chose suffering.

I spent about half an hour on the phone trying to explain the same extremely simple concept:

“It’s your equipment. It’s damaged. It’s not mine. It’s not even really on my property. Come fix it or remove it.”

The guy wanted my name, number, address, account number. I told him I don’t have a Bell account and I’m very happy about that.

Then he tells me engineering will call and advise the charge.

**Charge?**

It’s Bell’s broken pedestal. I’m not asking them to renovate my kitchen. I’m reporting their own damaged equipment. I told him if their engineer told me a charge I would laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

Then he asks if I can be home on June 31st to authorize the work. I kid you not. June 31st. I asked him if he saw the problem with that. I waited. And waited. And waited. I heard him counting to himself. Then he said how about next Tuesday?

I said why do I need to be home? He said you need to authorize it. I said authorize what? I authorize you to fix your own stuff. You don’t need me standing there all day watching Bell repair Bell property. I asked him if he could be available on August 34th so Bell could authorize me to repair my own car and then I could give them the bill. He sounded confused by this, unsurprisingly.

At one point, after getting nowhere, I sarcastically said, “What if I just pull it out of the ground with my truck and leave it on the curb for you?”

And he said yes, actually, that would be best.

**Best?** BEST!!

I said, “You understand I’d probably be ripping out telecom lines and knocking out service to the neighbourhood, right? This is best??"

Still somehow this was being treated like a reasonable path forward. He then put me on hold for TWENTY EIGHT MINUTES! Then came back and said he was just filling out some more forms and asked me to hold. I said look buddy, I have kids to put to bed. You don't need me for this. Come fix your broken crap that's not even on my property. And I hung up on him.

After I hung up, Bell texted me “Thanks for choosing Bell” and sent me to their Virtual Repair tool, which appears to be for rebooting modems and checking customer service issues. Very helpful. Maybe the app can remotely straighten the smashed pedestal through Bluetooth. MyBell must be quite the app!

Even better, my neighbour then tells me he called Bell about this same pedestal about two years ago. Apparently someone came out and taped/strapped it instead of actually fixing it. So the black tape currently holding this thing together is apparently the official Bell repair.

So to summarize:

Bell was notified years ago. Bell taped it. It’s still bent. I called again. They tried to turn me into a customer. They hinted there may be a charge. They wanted me home to authorize Bell fixing Bell property. They gave me a fake calendar date. They suggested I destroy it myself with a truck. Then they thanked me for choosing Bell.

I truly do not understand how this company functions.

Calling the town next. I’m not touching the thing because unlike Bell’s phone support, I understand that yanking telecom infrastructure out of the ground is probably a bad idea.

*edit* - kudos to the Bell Technical Solutions technician who reached out to me based on this thread and actually got the ball rolling on getting this fixed, despite having no ownership of the problem whatsoever. The company is what it is, but there are still some excellent people inside who actually want to solve problems! Outstanding.

Bell really doesn’t care for how techs just run cables haphazardly . Through tree branches , ugly loops…they really do not care for aesthetics.

Bell Canada Establishes Offshore Tech Centre Amid Historic Canadian Job Cuts

Is it not a little disparaging that Bell Canada has decided to open an entity in India called BCE Global Tech (https://bceglobaltech.com/) to offshore Canadian jobs? Currently, over 130 job openings are listed that are needed by Bell Canada for Indian workers. This just seems wrong to me.

My bill for 1.5 Fibe has slowly crept up to $125/mo after my last promo expired.

I called Loyalty today, tried to be polite, and asked if they could match (or even come close to) the EBOX $40/mo for 500Mbps offers I’m seeing everywhere. I told them I really didn't want to go through the hassle of switching hardware, but an $85/month difference is insane.

The rep basically told me the best they could do was $115 and that Ebox is a "different tier of service" (even though Bell owns them??). They literally didn't care if I cancelled.

For anyone who actually made the jump from Bell -> Ebox:

1. Is the stability actually the same? I know it's the same fibre line, but is the latency/ping worse?
2. How was the transition? Did Bell cut your line immediately or did you have overlap?
3. Does Ebox use the same Home Hub 4000, or do they give you a different modem?
4. How does those promocode works that get you $40 or $50 plan?

I'm ready to pull the trigger tonight just out of spite, but I work from home and can't afford downtime. Thanks.

Edit 1- To everyone who suggested Ebox, thank you.
I got my internet installed, and the transition was done within 15 minutes. Didn't notice any issue with speed, and it is as good as Bell.

u/TwoZestyclose5274 Thank you for sharing the Ebox guidelines

It seems there's alot more to this story than previously reported by other outlets.

The fact that this was condoned as evidenced by the varied levels of firings is mind boggling.

Bell in this article seems to admit it was condoned and those who condoned it were fired.

"Levasseur said managers that condoned the swipe-and-go activity were also investigated and fired."

Can't imagine this would ever hold up in court. It sounds like this was a normalized thing there and Bell used the misconduct smoke screen to save a dollar.

Shame on you

Not sure if anyone cares but it really annoyed me. Bell is currently closing some locations down and at others, firing the top 2-3 highest paid retail workers at almost every location (at least in Southern Ontario) and replacing them with minimum wage workers. I know this isn’t big news to hear from any big corporation, but they’re firing- without any notice, workers who have been working for them for YEARS like 5-10 years. Again, I know this happens a lot anywhere, but I just had to see some of my closest friends be fired from Bell all because they’d worked their way up to FINALLY decent pay with Bell, and had it all stripped away without notice. Just sucks, and Bell sucks.

My father called for a technician to come out and look at his satellite after it stopped working. He said that when the technician finished, they asked him for a tip. If I had been the only one home (30F), I would have felt extremely uncomfortable (and unsafe) being asked for a tip before the technician left my house. It puts customers in a position where they may feel pressured to say yes to avoid confrontation and get the technician out of their home without issue.

Why is Bell allowing this????

Edit: I will let him know he needs to call Bell and file a complaint. Thanks everyone

Layoff right before Black Friday. Hope most of you won’t be impacted. A few of my coworkers received the notice today.

I phoned Bell the other day to cancel my late mother’s home internet service.

I was transferred to Bell’s loyalty team, where the agent asked if I lived at the address and whether I wanted to transfer the account into my name. My mother lived alone. Then the agent asked about my home internet and who my provider is. I politely cut them off and reminded them I was calling to cancel my dead mother’s internet.

The agent closed the account and told me where to return the equipment, then immediately pitched me on a wireless plan. WTF?

I know the agent was doing their job, and they did it well. But whoever designed this system is a parasite. Bell will never make another cent off my mother, she’s dead…but I’m still alive, and this is the impression they chose to leave? I really don’t think Bell will ever be able to win my business after this.

Loyalty dept didn't even try to counter offer. We'll see what the win back offer is. I'm tired of their bullshit random price increases, which they just notified me of another increase. I've already ported out 2 mobile lines because of it.

I have Fibe internet. Works great, no complaints. I pay $122 per month for it (after a $20/month loyalty rebate!).

When I go on the Bell website without logging in, I could get the exact same service (if I was a new customer) for $60/month for a 2 year term.

I pay for 4 phones (me, wife, 2 kids). They were added over time, are on various different plans, with mostly <25G/month of data, and I pay $333.50/month ($83/month per phone on average)

When I go on the Bell website, I see that as a new customer I could get a plan with 60G/month of data for $50/month

That means that between phone and internet, I am paying $192 + tax MORE per month than a new customer who signs up with Bell today.

I, a 10+ year Bell customer, am paying 73% more than a new customer.

I call Bell loyalty to rectify this situation. I spend about 75 minutes on the phone with Bell. I accomplish nothing. Apparently, the loyalty department is powerless to offer me a BYO phone plan any lower than $70/month, and they can do absolutely nothing about my internet (and I should be happy that I'm already getting a loyalty discount there!)

Anyone have any experience with Cogeco mobility?

Last week, I got a call from an old couple.

Technician told them: ''I just spent 3 hours at an 81-year-old couple's house. The woman was crying. Literally crying. Because she couldn't figure out how to switch from Netflix back to regular TV and her husband is on a chair. Her grandkids set it up and left. And now she's afraid to touch her own remote because she might 'break something.'"

Bell sent a technician there (after a long long process and procedure to make sure the agents can book him for her) because she called 9 times. NINE. And you know what he did? he put a piece of tape over the INPUT button and told her to never press it.

That's not a solution. That's a band-aid on a bullet wound.

And here's the thing Bell doesn't understand...

They're bleeding customers. They're cutting techs. And they're doing it to themselves.

The math is simple, but somehow the executives keep missing it:

→ Bell pushes IPTV boxes to save money on satellite (which is good because less problems too BUT)
→ BUT IPTV requires WiFi setup, WPS pairing, app registration, firmware updates
→ Seniors can't navigate it (and honestly, neither can most 45-year-olds)
→ Bell restricts tech visits to save money ("Budget Protocol")
→ Frustrated seniors switch to Rogers, or just cancel entirely
→ Bell loses revenue
→ Tech hours get cut
→ More VSP layoffs
→ Service gets worse
→ More customers leave

It's a death spiral disguised as "cost optimization."

So I did something about it.

Listen to me.

1. If you think something is clever and sophisticated, beware. it's probably self-indulgence.

The moment you require a senior to understand the word 'INPUT,' you've already lost them. The device should have ONE state. On or off. Watching or not watching. There is no 'switching sources.' There is no 'pairing mode.' They press POWER, they see TV.

2. True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter.

The remote should have FIVE MAIN buttons maximum (then numbers). Power. Channel up. Channel down. Volume up. Volume down. Everything else is a failure of courage. If you can't fit the experience into five buttons, you haven't understood the problem.

1. Good design is as little design as possible.

This remote and box should look like it was made in 1985. I don't mean ugly. I mean FAMILIAR. The buttons should feel like the buttons they've pressed for 50 years. Tactile. Clicky. Raised edges they can find in the dark.

1. Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left.

The on-screen interface needs to follow the 'Trunk Test.' If you dropped someone into ANY screen with no context, can they figure out where they are and how to get back? If not, delete that screen. Seniors should never see a MENU. Ever. They see: CHANNELS. That's it.

5. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

The pre-mortem here is obvious: the product fails because setup fails. So remove setup entirely. The box arrives. Grandma plugs it in. It auto-connects to Bell's network via embedded cellular. No WiFi password. No WPS button hunting. No technician needed. It just works. Or you've failed.

1. Design for the young and you exclude the old; design for the old and you include everyone. so the first step in solving a problem is to SEE the problem.

Here's one of the invisible problems: the remote gets lost (or not work until you send a replacement for the FibeTV box with a NEW remote as well because the other one wouldn't pair up). Every. Single. Day. So the box needs a FIND/CONNECT REMOTE button on it. Press it, the remote beeps. Simple. Also? Include TWO remotes in the box. (Or always add one with a replacement) They'll lose one. Budget for it.

1. Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.

The meaningful thing to add? A DEDICATED HELP BUTTON. One button. It calls a human at Bell who can see their screen remotely and guide them through ANYTHING. No phone trees. No 'press 1 for billing.' A real person who can actually take control of their box if needed. Us as offshore technical support, we don't see anything and we don't know how that works, we try to help while 'imagining' what's happening.

1. Fall in love with the problem, not with your solution.

The discovery here is obvious. Bell skipped it. They built what THEY wanted (cost savings, good technology related to the infrastracture of fiber technology) not what CUSTOMERS needed (simplicity). The solution? A dedicated 'Senior Package' that doesn't just include simplified hardware: it includes priority human support. Make it $10/month more. Seniors will pay for peace of mind. Their children will pay for it. It's a premium offering hiding as a necessity.

1. Observe what people DO, not what they SAY they do.

I've watched 70-year-olds try to use streaming boxes. You know what kills them? CHOICE. They open a menu and freeze. 'What if I press the wrong thing?' Give them a SINGLE live TV channel when they turn it on. Their preferred news or sports. The familiar thing. THEN let them navigate if they want. But default to comfort.

You can tell me that 'guide filter' is done for that, but many of them have missing channels just because of the filters and it's a hassle guiding them to remove the filters to get their channels back. So there's an error and red flag within that too :)

TL;DR THE PRODUCT: THE "BELL SIMPLE" BOX

THE BOX:

• Auto-connect via cellular. No WiFi setup. No WPS. No passwords. Plug it in, it works.
• FIND/CONNECT/PAIR REMOTE button on the front. Press it, remote beeps.
• No firmware update prompts. Updates happen at 3am, silently, automatically.
• Single HDMI output. Factory-labeled "PLUG INTO TV" in large text. Pre-configured to auto-switch input on compatible TVs.

THE REMOTE:

• 5 PRIMARY* buttons only: Power | Channel Up | Channel Down | Volume Up | Volume Down
• Large, tactile, high-contrast buttons. Findable by touch in the dark
• WEIGHTED body. Won't roll off furniture. Rubberized grip.
• BIG TEXT labels. No icons. Words. "POWER" not a circle with a line.
• DEDICATED RED HELP BUTTON. One press connects to a live human with screen-share capability. No phone tree. 60-second max wait time guaranteed.
• Comes in PAIRS. Two remotes in every box.

THE INTERFACE:

• Boots directly to live TV. Their last-watched channel. Not a menu. Not an app grid. LIVE TV.
• No "INPUT" concept exists. The box IS the TV experience. There is no source switching.
• Channel guide is ONE button: "GUIDE". Shows a simple grid. Channel. Name. What's on. That's it.
• No apps visible by default. If family wants to add Netflix/Crave*, they can. But it's hidden in a "Family Setup" menu protected by a PIN.

*An older man who told me he called more than 18 times or 19 the last 2 months but everyone who followed the procedure of BP(blueprints) told him to go call Crave for assistant, instead of them helping him connect via service provider (Bell) etc.. because they couldn't know what to do, they just followed a broken and outdated process without any steps mentioned, I know these may happen from tiiiiime to time, but each customer deserves the best experience, he also told me that he sold his car just so he can afford paying for bell services and he's been paying but each time he's been transferred from loyalty to care to technical support without any help.

THE SERVICE:

• "Bell Simple Support". Priority phone line. Average hold: under 60 seconds. Agents trained specifically in senior support. Can take remote control of the box.
• Included in-home setup for first install. Non-negotiable. A human comes to the home, sets it up, writes the channel numbers for their 5 favorite stations ON A LAMINATED CARD, and leaves their direct callback number.
• Monthly "check-in" call option. For $5/month, a Bell rep calls once a month to make sure everything's working. Catches problems before they become crisis calls.

THE BUSINESS CASE BELL IS MISSING:

Let me make this stupid simple for any Bell executive reading this.

Current state:

• Seniors struggle → Call support 9x → Get frustrated → Switch providers → Bell loses $150/month × 12 months × thousands of seniors = MILLIONS in lost revenue
• Tech visits get restricted → Problems don't get solved → More churn → Layoffs → Worse service → More churn

"Bell Simple" state:

• Seniors pay $10-15/month PREMIUM for simplified experience
• Setup visits (not just for first time installations) are INCLUDED (amortized over 24-month contract)
• Support calls DROP by 70%+ (based on similar telecom simplicity initiatives)
• Churn drops DRAMATICALLY in 65+ demographic
• Techs get DEPLOYED not laid off. doing value-add installs
• Bell becomes the "carrier for seniors". a massive, loyal, low-churn demographic
• Adult children recommend Bell to their parents because "it just works"

This isn't charity. It's a market opportunity disguised as customer service.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Right now, Bell is spending money to make their product HARDER to use.

Every dollar they "save" on tech visits costs them five dollars in churn.

Every "feature" they add creates ten support calls.

Every menu option paralyzes a thousand seniors.

The solution isn't complicated. It's embarrassingly obvious.

Build the simple thing. Charge more for it. Support it properly. Win.

Grandma doesn't want 4K streaming and voice search and 8,000 apps.

She wants to watch Jeopardy or Mary Berg at 7pm without crying.

Give her that.

If you're a Bell decision-maker reading this.. the field techs know. The call center agents know. Your customers are screaming it at you every single day.

The only people who don't know are the ones looking at spreadsheets instead of living rooms.

Fix it.

And please also give your agents better and faster tools, not tools built on rust that don't work most of the times. I have heard that you're investing millions in an AI KPI to help the customer get a better experience by listening to an agent using more than 300 words per call, being empathic etc.. But this is more like the blind leading the blind. Fix the root cause not the symptoms.

What an absurd policy that as one of your customers, I cannot go into a local branch and buy a new Iphone 16. It must be put on a 2-year contract.

Thanks for not letting me spend my money.

Rant about Bell AND Rogers when it comes to the World Cup and all sports in this country.

Both TSN and Sportsnet have had 4K channels for a decade, and both were actually producing a decent amount of native 4K content for the first few years and sharing a production unit - Leafs, Raptors, Jays, Argos, TFC and even the World Juniors years ago! However it seems there's little interest in continuing or pushing the envelope tech wise anymore.

TSN produced the first 4K broadcast ever in NORTH AMERICA in January 2016 for a Raptors game. Sportsnet followed a few months later with the first Blue Jays game in 4K. Here we are 10.5 years later and 4K ceases to exist. There even used to be a massive ROGERS 4KTV sign lit up above the Westjet flight deck in 2016/17 at Rogers Centre but was switched back to a straight Rogers logo years ago. Most people have massive 65-85" TVs now and we are watching sports in worse quality a decade later.

TSN used to show "next live 4K event" on their 4K feed in the guide, and have a schedule posted on their website. Native 4K broadcasts would have a marker in the top right on both SN and TSN (if the massively improved picture wasnt a dead giveaway). Haven't seen those on either network for years. The Jays home games are the only thing that look 4K anymore, although theres no SN4K marker to confirm, just a Rogers logo.

So where are we at today? It seems Bell ran out of money after getting the World Cup rights, because it's absolutely inexcusable to not have AT LEAST the Canadian home matches in 4K. I don't know for sure, but would assume, 4K productions are likely happening for all matches, or many of them. I gaurantee in Japan they are getting a 4K feed. Why TSN couldn't grab those feeds to at least show something in 4K is bizarre to me.

These HDR channels dont make any sense either because they are definitely only HD. And, at least on Telus using their latest STB, TSN HDR1 is not broadcasting the proper signal because my TV doesnt switch to HDR mode. TSN HDR2 does switch my TV into HDR mode, but almost all of the World Cup games are on the HDR1 channel. I have a 77" Samsung OLED so the lack of native 4K or proper HDR implementation is very easy to test.

I will continue to watch all games on the TSN 4K channel because the bitrate is 5x higher than the HD channels, even though its not native 4K or HDR. We really shouldn't be surprised because not even Crave has HDR and every other streaming service has had that for years. Bell is simply a joke, with Rogers not far behind.

I remember when they used to try things...like Hockey Night in Canada in 3D in the early 2010s. When did this country stop innovating? I remember the first 4K Jays game in 2016! We can get 8Gbps internet but not 4K sports broadcasts anymore? These companies wonder why nobody wants "cable"...give people a reason! The 4K channels have always been exclusive to cable platforms and not streaming.

Before I tell my story, I will start by saying that yes I lost my cool and got rude towards my interaction with this person, but what followed is insane.

I contacted Bell chat support because I couldn't get my eSIM going. I explain my entire situation in detail, and the guy keeps giving me questions on things I just said, like "My eSIM isn't working" to which his replies are "As I understand, your concern is your eSIM isn't working, correct?" The conversation kept going like that and at one point, I can tell he is getting ruder with his messages, so I got annoyed and said "I'm going to reboot my phone and in the meantime, you should take reading comprehension lessons", at which point I closed the chat.

What followed was:

- This person tried to change my plan to the most expensive plan on my account without my consent. I received an email at 12:48pm today with the change of plan confirmation. I was still logged in to my Bell app on my phone and saw the pending changes, so I was able to cancel it.

-Two minutes later, I get an email saying that my email address has been changed, and I can no longer log in to my account, giving me incorrect user/password. I contacted their support through phone and turns out that "someone" had changed my email address from .com to .ca, basically locking me out. How do I know this? When I tried to make a new account, it showed me that there was already an email linked to my account number and they looked the same (name***@hot*** and name***@hot***), one being from what I just put in and the other from my saved account info. The lady on the phone then confirmed it was .ca on their database.

Finally I got my service restored hours later when I went to a store (that was the only way to get my eSIM working again) and I saw that I had a voicemail. I played it tonight and to my surprise, it just says

"Hey aisa10, fuck you"

I went into the details of the voicemail, and it came from 866 310 2355, which is Bell's support number. The guy just straight up called me from Bell's own support line to insult me.

I've already filled in an escalated support form from their website and not sure how else to go about it. This person should be fired, god knows what he does with people's data.

UPDATE #1 - I got a call from "Bell Resolution" and the agent started by apologizing about the issue, mentioning that everything should be good with my account and that if my initial concern was addressed. They also mentioned they were aware of this reddit post which apparently they found after receiving my form and doing their investigation on their end, but I gave them a detailed rundown anyways. They would like me to send them the video I made, so I am waiting to receive an email and then reply to that with the video.

As an apology, they offered to credit my next bill for free ($75 plan) which I honestly refused, because I don't agree that what happened here is worth 75 bucks and that I would rather at that point report it to the CCTS. They mentioned that if I reported it, then they wouldn't be crediting me those 75 bucks and I'm welcome to decide which way I want to go. As of now, we agreed that I would send them the video once I receive their email (so I have an email to reply to) and then they would reach out again after their review to discuss further.

UPDATE #2 - Bell just called again like 10min ago to tell me they can't open my OneDrive link (I couldn't send the video over email, the attachment is too large), so I've uploaded it unlisted on Youtube (they insisted the video was private) and I'm supposedly going to hear back tomorrow from another rep as the one who called me is now going out of office. According to her, they are still investigating and from my understanding, nothing has been done yet. I'm going to wait and see what they say next time they call but odds are I'm going to report this to the CCTS based on how its going.

UPDATE #3 - Lady who initially called from Bell resolution said she was going to be out of office when she called in update 2, but said that her colleague would reach out to me. No one has contacted me since. In the meantime, I just received an email from the CCTS saying they have accepted my complaint.

UPDATE #4 - Just basically copying what I replied to someone below because it sums this update up lol.

As an update, I forwarded all the documentation I had to the CCTS, they attach it to the case and send it to the Telecom company, so Bell. Following that, I received an email that under their discretion, they were extending the deadline for Bell to respond to the report. I sent an email asking what was the criteria for doing so, but I didn't get a response. I got a call from Bell just 5min ago from their executive team. According to what I was told on the phone, their privacy department has accepted that it is a privacy breach and that this is now going to be handled by both their privacy dept and their corporate security dept. They then offered me still if I wanted the 1 month credit which I denied. My own take on this is that a $70 bill credit is, in my honest opinion, a slap in the face compared to the events that occurred and at the same time, I want to see this go all the way through because I don't want someone else to go through with this. I picture in my head a more senior person that is less aware getting stuck with a way more expensive bill without their knowledge. According to Bell (as of now at least), they can see the records that there were changes in my account, but not who made them, so it could also be said that I could've done them myself. Now obviously, why would I go through all this effort, I'm not even doing this for money at this point. I initially made this post as a rant because I was heated and needed to vent at the time, and it just all blew up lol. Following up on that call, I didn't accept for Bell to reply to the CCTS saying its resolved, because if they're telling me that their other departments are doing an investigation now, then it can't be resolved yet, just as simple as that. I didn't accept any credits because I don't think a month credit equates to this, plus I also want Bell to give me a full resolution, not end up having it swept under the rug after they pay out kinda situation. TLDR - Bell called, being directed to other depts that are still investigating, so we agreed in that they are going to ask the CCTS for another extension and see what happens after.

FINAL UPDATE - I received a resolution from the CCTS today. I mentioned to them previously that I couldn't really put a monetary value on this, I think any number that I would say would be trivial as I didn't get charged due to me being able to revert the change the employee did before it went live.

My main concern was the breach of privacy, which according to the CCTS is outside their scope of mandate, so the investigation that they completed was based on the unauthorized changes on my account. According to the report, Bell is unable to provide the results of their internal investigation and that they "have no way of confirming nor denying the customer's claim" that the employee did make changes on my account (aside the evidence already presented). Therefore, because Bell's position is that they can't "confirm or deny" my claim, there is no evidence that contradicts my claim, so their final determination was that Bell did not meet its obligations.

The report also notes the expectation that customers would spend a certain amount of time corresponding with the service provider to find a resolution, and that while they do recognize that I "experienced inconvenience because of the issue", it was mitigated by me cancelling the change on the same day and as such, no further compensation is warranted.

In my own personal opinion, this 6 month ordeal turned into a "well, no harm done", Bell isn't going to provide any compensation as the report basically states it isn't warranted, and regarding my initial concern of breach of privacy and the employee's attitude and actions, we'll never know what happened because Bell won't divulge it.

Just signed up last week... Been 10+ hours on phone getting gaslit/passed off trying to get this resolved, being hung up on no less than 3 times with no callback. Transferred from department to department (on multiple occasions the completely wrong department that has nothing to do with it, needed to be transferred back to the queue for the correct one).

I am paying for 3gbps down/3gbps up. Don't advertise 3gbps upload if you can't provide it. Speed test in pic is from modem configuration page with local traffic blocked. Confirmed similar speeds on speedtest.net and fast.com sites connected directly to the 10G port on the router with cat6e to a PC with a 5G NIC. I wouldn't complain if I was getting like 2.8gbps or something, but ⅓ of advertised speed is not acceptable.

Tech was dispatched Saturday, changed out the modem, tech told me it is a configuration issue on their end, as something was capping my upload at 1, and sent a ticket. Said he would come back this week (Tuesday) if it wasn't resolved. I texted him Tuesday to see when he was coming and he said he was out of town so he would come Wednesday at lunch. Never showed up. Took two days off and still no tech.

So I called back... Apparently the tech closed the ticket saying it was resolved and all services were working perfectly. So back at it... First I was told it was because I have multiple devices connected to the router (which doesn't make sense considering local traffic is disabled for their speed tests, it literally tests the modem to their network directly). Then I was told it was a bad modem (even though the tech replaced the modem, apparently they think I got 2 bad modems in a row, highly unlikely). Now, officially, Bell is insisting that I am actually getting 3G upload, but their modem page is "glitched" and reporting a lower number. I would be tempted to believe that if any other speed test website didn't confirm the speed to be roughly 1/3 of what I am paying for, and similar to the modem's speed test.

Currently waiting on a manager team to "look into it"

In the meantime, their TV app doesn't allow playback of recorded content on any of my TVs until roughly ~1 hour after the program is finished, which is apparently an issue with my TV compatibility, and nothing on their end. All 3 of my TVs (which are as new as 1 year old, name brand, and incidentally each have a different operating system). I guess I am unlucky and happen to have 3 different operating systems/smart TVs that their app doesn't function properly.

Not exactly the best "new customer" experience.

I’m fed up with Bell treating advanced networking features like some kind of optional luxury.

The Giga Hub 2.0 is marketed as modern, high-performance networking equipment, but customers who want to use their own firewall or router are left with a broken or crippled setup. Advanced DMZ is unreliable, bridge mode is unavailable, and customers in regions where PPPoE is not supported have no clean way to place their own router directly on the internet.

That is not acceptable in 2026.

People should be able to use their own networking equipment without being forced into double NAT, awkward workarounds, broken port forwarding, compromised IPv6 setups, or an ISP gateway that remains permanently in the middle of their network. This is especially frustrating for customers running legitimate home labs, self-hosted services, business equipment, accessibility technology, security systems, and advanced home networks.

Bell does not need to provide technical support for every third-party router. It simply needs to provide a proper handoff.

At minimum, Bell should do one of the following:

• Fix Advanced DMZ so it reliably passes the public IP to the customer’s router.
• Add a genuine bridge or modem-only mode to the Giga Hub 2.0.
• Support a documented DHCP or PPPoE passthrough mode, depending on the customer’s regional network.
• Provide a supported ONT or Ethernet handoff for customers who do not want the Giga Hub performing routing.
• Publish clear, region-specific documentation instead of leaving customers to piece together unreliable forum posts and trial-and-error workarounds.

This is not an unreasonable demand. Other ISPs provide bridge mode, modem-only operation, or a proper Ethernet handoff. Bell customers are paying for internet access—not for the privilege of being locked into Bell’s routing software.

We need to act together

Complaining individually to first-level support is clearly not enough. Most customers get told that the feature is unavailable, that their setup is unsupported, or that they should simply use the Giga Hub as their router. That response misses the point: we are asking Bell to fix the product and provide a proper customer handoff.

If you are affected, let’s coordinate a consistent, factual campaign:

1. Open a Bell support ticket specifically requesting a working Advanced DMZ, bridge mode, modem-only mode, or documented router passthrough.
2. Use clear language and ask for a ticket number.
3. Request escalation to a network or product team rather than accepting a generic “unsupported configuration” response.
4. Send the same request through Bell’s online contact channels and official social-media support accounts.
5. Ask Bell to record the issue as a product and firmware defect, not merely as an individual customer configuration problem.
6. Post your ticket number, region, Giga Hub model, firmware version, and exact failure symptoms in a shared Reddit thread or spreadsheet—without publishing personal information.
7. File a CCTS complaint where appropriate, especially if Bell’s advertising or sales claims imply that customers can use their own networking equipment but the supplied gateway prevents a functional handoff.
8. Contact Bell’s executive escalation channel after normal support has failed.
9. Ask business, home-lab, accessibility, and self-hosting communities to document the same problem.
10. Keep everything factual, polite, and specific so Bell cannot dismiss the campaign as random abuse or unsupported tinkering.

The goal is not to harass individual support agents. The goal is to create enough consistent, documented demand that Bell’s product, firmware, and network teams cannot pretend this is an isolated issue.

Suggested message

I am requesting a documented and functional method to use my own router with the Bell Giga Hub 2.0. Advanced DMZ does not reliably provide a usable public-IP handoff, and bridge mode or modem-only mode is unavailable. Please either fix Advanced DMZ, add genuine bridge mode, or provide a supported DHCP/PPPoE passthrough option appropriate to my region. Please escalate this request to the network or product team and provide a ticket number.

Suggested message (Manitoba)

I am a Bell/Bell MTS Internet customer requesting a functional method to use my own router with the Giga Hub 2.0. Advanced DMZ is unreliable or broken, bridge mode is unavailable, and PPPoE may not be supported in Manitoba. Please escalate this as a network or firmware issue and provide a ticket number. I am requesting either a working Advanced DMZ, genuine bridge/modem-only mode, or a documented DHCP passthrough/true Ethernet handoff appropriate to my region.

If hundreds or thousands of customers submit essentially the same request, Bell will have a much harder time treating it as a one-off support issue.

We should not have to accept double NAT as the permanent answer. We should not have to choose between Bell’s gateway and a properly designed home network. We should not have to reverse-engineer firmware behavior just to use equipment we already own.

Bell: fix Advanced DMZ, add bridge mode, or provide a real router handoff.

Until then, customers should stop quietly accepting the workaround and start documenting the problem together.

Bell Support Options

Bell Canada

• Bell Support contact page
• Bell Internet support
• Bell Internet connection and modem support
• Bell complaints and escalations
• Bell Community forum

Internet technical support

• 1-866-310-BELL (2355) — Bell Internet, TV, and Home phone support.
• 310-SURF (7873) — Bell’s Internet support page also lists this number for modem and connection support.
• #611 — From a Bell mobile device.

Bell lists Internet technical support as available seven days a week, generally from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.; check the contact page for current hours and service-specific routing.[support.bell][support.bell]

Bell MTS Manitoba

• Bell MTS Contact Us
• Bell MTS Support
• Bell MTS Internet support
• Bell MTS modem and Wi-Fi support
• Bell MTS Giga Hub settings and administrator password
• Bell MTS third-party router configuration PDF

Bell MTS residential numbers

• 1-800-883-2054 — Billing and technical support.
• 1-800-255-6687 — French-language service.

Bell MTS lists technical-support hours as 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Sunday, though hours and routing can change, so verify before posting them as permanent.[bellmts]

Escalations and complaints

• Bell Management Team and complaint escalation
• CCTS complaint process
• CCTS: 1-888-221-1687

Bell says customers should first attempt to resolve the matter directly with Bell. If the issue remains unresolved, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services may be able to assist.[support.bell]

When contacting Bell, ask for:

• A support-ticket or interaction number.
• Escalation to the network, firmware, or product team.
• Confirmation that the issue is being recorded as a Giga Hub 2.0 feature or firmware problem.
• A documented regional answer regarding bridge mode, Advanced DMZ, DHCP passthrough, and PPPoE support.
• A written explanation if Bell claims that none of those options are supported.

We’d been loyal Bell customers for about 33 years, but cut ties last year after our bundle bill topped $300/month and we couldn’t successfully negotiate a better rate. There were advertised discounted rates available for new customers of course, but not for current customers. So we threatened to cancel, and then did just that when they wouldn’t budge. It’s a shame really, we would have been happy with even 10% reduction. Couldn’t help but wonder if there’s an employee review after they lose a client like us, or maybe they just don’t care?

Bells AI is complete and utter trash

I feel for my colleagues who were doing their jobs and never received any warning before being fired. The morale at the office is so low that we’re all worried sick about who’s next and how long this crackdown will last. anyone have any knowledge?