Telus, or, the devil rides a high wire

Okay...I need to ask if anybody knows what kind of telephone company would make themselves nearly inaccessible by phone? Oh wait...I know, it would be a company who has absolutely no plans of providing customer service whatsoever. Might that company be Telus? It is in my world.


Five separate times I have tried to have a feature ( that we do not pay for and that we have not ordered) removed from our account. It blocks any collect calls or calls from a pay phone. Last night Ken tried to call home, collect, and could not get through. He was enraged by the time he got within cell range and was able to call me that way.


When I called Telus today I asked for a supervisor and was told none were available and this guy I was talking to would be able to assist. I explained to him that this was the fourth time ( at that point it was still four times) that I had called and I needed to have the problem remedied right now, today. He told me that the phone was in Ken's name and he could not discuss the account with me, he needed to speak to Ken. I carefully laid out for him, why that was not possible and that was where the problem was, was that even he could not get through on our own phone, if he called collect.


The anonymous boy ( and they are always anonymous...go figure) said he would need to speak to Ken before any changes were made. I said that would be nice, but if he was listening he would have already heard that Ken was not able to speak to him by phone, because he was working in the bush and not within telephone range.
I again requested that he get a supervisor right now. He spoke over me as though I wasn't even talking and said that a supervisor would not be able to help me either because the phone wasn't in my name. I said, very firmly, "Get me a supervisor immediately." He finally said hold the line, then hung up the phone.


By this time I was shaking I was so enraged. I called back for the fifth time. Went through the same thing only to be told the same thing. I explained that I was his wife, and I paid the bill each and every month, because he worked away from home, in the bush, out of phone range. I reminded them that we would not be cancelling a service we had requested or paid for, but one that was on there by mistake.  I said that I could almost guarantee they would rather deal with me on this than deal with him if he had to take time of work to find a phone and then had to sit and go through this stuff with them for half a day.


"We need to talk to Mr. Clinton before we can make any changes to the account"


Speaking through clenched teeth, I one more time, slowly and carefully, explained that the feature I wanted removed was something that we neither ordered, nor paid for, that Mr. Clinton was not reachable by phone and that I didn't know any other way to help them understand this.


"Well can you give us a number where we can get hold of him?"


AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!


I feel like poking my own eyes out.