Last Wednesday (March 18th) I bought a BlackBerry Storm. On Friday I requested Bell Mobility 'switch on' my GPS option. Didn't have a chance to take a look at it until last night when I went to save our home location to the Favourites/Address Book. I saved it as "Home." The GPS app returns the message that "Home" had already been used. How could this be if I'd never used it before? I use a Garmin in my car and before that had built-in GPS in my X5 for four years, so I'm not exactly a newbie when it comes to GPS features and functions.
Long story short, I have someone's entire GPS locations' records installed in my Bell Mobility GPS Favourites/Address Book. Many, many entries - his/her home address in Burlington, his/her 'Dad's home' address, friends' addresses, places where this person has used his/her GPS since last November through March 19th - one day before I had my GPS feature switched-on by Bell Mobility.
So, this morning I called Bell Mobility, explained the issue and received an extremely lukewarm, nonchalant response from the Customer Service agent (and I use the term loosely with respect to this particular agent, because in the past we've had, on the whole, very good service from agents at Bell Mobility.)
"It must be a used phone," he says flatly. "Take it back to the store, they'll give you a new one," yadda, yadda.
This guy is not understanding the concerns inherent to this issue, obviously.
It's security stupid!!!
"I have someone's address book, I know where he or she has been since last November," I reply, but said customer service agent tells me to return the phone. At that point my husband insists he speak with a supervisor, but customer service agent adamantly refuses to allow us to speak with a supervisor.
Here we are, trying to get through to Bell that this person's privacy has been breached, doing the right thing to alert Bell to this fact, and customer service agent tells me it's a used BlackBerry Storm - 'just take it back to the store.'
Out of sheer frustration that we can't alert anyone at Bell that I'm receiving someone else's whereabouts on my GPS, we return to the Fourth Avenue, St. Catharines store and immediately the agents there agree that this is NOT right. They make numerous telephone calls to Bell Mobility 'tech support' (there's a laugh) and others at Bell, but no one has a clue how this has happened, and is happening.
"Delete the entries" advises one customer service agent at Bell to the Fourth Avenue store employee.
"Delete the entries???" Hey, it's not a matter of deletion, it's a matter of someone's addresses being broadcast to my BlackBerry Storm! If I enter in my addresses on this GPS is some other unsuspecting customer reading MY information?
After calls to Bell Mobility from the Fourth Avenue location store, I got on the phone with 'tech support.' (My next words here are "to no avail.") No one at Bell Mobility's tech centre can figure out what the hell's going on.
I tried my other media card in my phone, by the way, and the problem persists. Bell also confirmed that I do not have a 'used' phone as aforementioned flat-voiced customer service agent insisted.
Thanks, Bell, but I'd already figured all this out after the non-productive conversation with flat-voice.
Buyer beware! You own a Bell Mobility SmartPhone with Bell Mobility? Got GPS? Just hope your Favourites/Address Book is NOT being broadcast to someone else's phone.
By the way, Bell still hasn't offered to do a lookup of the main address of the person in Burlington to inform him/her that I currently have all their information. Doesn't seem like a big deal to them.
Now wouldn't you think that would have been in the works by now? Well, instead, we did it ourselves and managed to reach the person in Burlington by telephone. He's a chartered accountant and was dumbfounded when I read out names and addresses from my Storm. Seems I've got some of his information and his wife's address book, but apparently, there's some other person's information in there too. Interestingly, he and his wife are also Bell Mobility clients and also use BlackBerry Storms. Hmmm, coincidence?? Who knows how many Bell Mobility clients' information Bell has given to me via my BlackBerry Storm.
I then speak to BlackBerry, to a customer service agent there who wanted to put me through to "the excellent technical support agents at Bell Mobility." I told her I'd already spoken to the so-called excellent agents and got nowhere. She then advised me of the pay-per-call charges if I continued to need help with this matter... $55.00 per incident and....
I can't freakin' believe the conversations I've had today: No one understands that other Bell Mobility clients' addresses and information have been sent to my BlackBerry Storm SmartPhone.
We are now on the line with another Bell Mobility agent who is telling us to return the phone to the store.....
Helloooooo?
We've wasted the entire day trying to make Bell Mobility and RIM alert to the fact that there's definitely a flaw somewhere, but their suggestions range from "delete the entries," return the phone, or advice that I'll have to fork over $55.00 per incident if I want to speak to RIM's agent.
Knew I should have bought that Apple iPhone...
Stay tuned, as we still don't have an answer from Bell, but "they're working on it," I guess, though we haven't heard a word from them all day. Security doesn't appear to be important to Bell or RIM today.
***2:45 p.m. - Just got off the phone with Bell Mobility - after being on hold for yet another 40 minutes. I'm informed now that it is not something they can help me with but that they can put me in touch with the third-party company that Bell contracts for GPS services so that I can troubleshoot what's wrong with my phone.
So, let me get this straight: I pay Bell for all my services and features, but they're sloughing off all ownership of this problem by telling me that it's up to me to troubleshoot the 5 day old Storm's GPS problem with the third-party they contracted while they sit back and refuse to admit that they're providing me with these services. The bottom line, apparently, is that they've washed their hands of this issue and we're on our own.
There, folks, is a perfect example of Bell Mobility's customer service and its touted security features.
Long story short, I have someone's entire GPS locations' records installed in my Bell Mobility GPS Favourites/Address Book. Many, many entries - his/her home address in Burlington, his/her 'Dad's home' address, friends' addresses, places where this person has used his/her GPS since last November through March 19th - one day before I had my GPS feature switched-on by Bell Mobility.
So, this morning I called Bell Mobility, explained the issue and received an extremely lukewarm, nonchalant response from the Customer Service agent (and I use the term loosely with respect to this particular agent, because in the past we've had, on the whole, very good service from agents at Bell Mobility.)
"It must be a used phone," he says flatly. "Take it back to the store, they'll give you a new one," yadda, yadda.
This guy is not understanding the concerns inherent to this issue, obviously.
It's security stupid!!!
"I have someone's address book, I know where he or she has been since last November," I reply, but said customer service agent tells me to return the phone. At that point my husband insists he speak with a supervisor, but customer service agent adamantly refuses to allow us to speak with a supervisor.
Here we are, trying to get through to Bell that this person's privacy has been breached, doing the right thing to alert Bell to this fact, and customer service agent tells me it's a used BlackBerry Storm - 'just take it back to the store.'
Out of sheer frustration that we can't alert anyone at Bell that I'm receiving someone else's whereabouts on my GPS, we return to the Fourth Avenue, St. Catharines store and immediately the agents there agree that this is NOT right. They make numerous telephone calls to Bell Mobility 'tech support' (there's a laugh) and others at Bell, but no one has a clue how this has happened, and is happening.
"Delete the entries" advises one customer service agent at Bell to the Fourth Avenue store employee.
"Delete the entries???" Hey, it's not a matter of deletion, it's a matter of someone's addresses being broadcast to my BlackBerry Storm! If I enter in my addresses on this GPS is some other unsuspecting customer reading MY information?
After calls to Bell Mobility from the Fourth Avenue location store, I got on the phone with 'tech support.' (My next words here are "to no avail.") No one at Bell Mobility's tech centre can figure out what the hell's going on.
I tried my other media card in my phone, by the way, and the problem persists. Bell also confirmed that I do not have a 'used' phone as aforementioned flat-voiced customer service agent insisted.
Thanks, Bell, but I'd already figured all this out after the non-productive conversation with flat-voice.
Buyer beware! You own a Bell Mobility SmartPhone with Bell Mobility? Got GPS? Just hope your Favourites/Address Book is NOT being broadcast to someone else's phone.
By the way, Bell still hasn't offered to do a lookup of the main address of the person in Burlington to inform him/her that I currently have all their information. Doesn't seem like a big deal to them.
Now wouldn't you think that would have been in the works by now? Well, instead, we did it ourselves and managed to reach the person in Burlington by telephone. He's a chartered accountant and was dumbfounded when I read out names and addresses from my Storm. Seems I've got some of his information and his wife's address book, but apparently, there's some other person's information in there too. Interestingly, he and his wife are also Bell Mobility clients and also use BlackBerry Storms. Hmmm, coincidence?? Who knows how many Bell Mobility clients' information Bell has given to me via my BlackBerry Storm.
I then speak to BlackBerry, to a customer service agent there who wanted to put me through to "the excellent technical support agents at Bell Mobility." I told her I'd already spoken to the so-called excellent agents and got nowhere. She then advised me of the pay-per-call charges if I continued to need help with this matter... $55.00 per incident and....
I can't freakin' believe the conversations I've had today: No one understands that other Bell Mobility clients' addresses and information have been sent to my BlackBerry Storm SmartPhone.
We are now on the line with another Bell Mobility agent who is telling us to return the phone to the store.....
Helloooooo?
We've wasted the entire day trying to make Bell Mobility and RIM alert to the fact that there's definitely a flaw somewhere, but their suggestions range from "delete the entries," return the phone, or advice that I'll have to fork over $55.00 per incident if I want to speak to RIM's agent.
Knew I should have bought that Apple iPhone...
Stay tuned, as we still don't have an answer from Bell, but "they're working on it," I guess, though we haven't heard a word from them all day. Security doesn't appear to be important to Bell or RIM today.
***2:45 p.m. - Just got off the phone with Bell Mobility - after being on hold for yet another 40 minutes. I'm informed now that it is not something they can help me with but that they can put me in touch with the third-party company that Bell contracts for GPS services so that I can troubleshoot what's wrong with my phone.
So, let me get this straight: I pay Bell for all my services and features, but they're sloughing off all ownership of this problem by telling me that it's up to me to troubleshoot the 5 day old Storm's GPS problem with the third-party they contracted while they sit back and refuse to admit that they're providing me with these services. The bottom line, apparently, is that they've washed their hands of this issue and we're on our own.
There, folks, is a perfect example of Bell Mobility's customer service and its touted security features.
