Bell's 'Let's Talk' campaign rings hollow for employees suffering panic attacks, vomiting and anxiety

Current and former Bell employees have written CBC's Go Public to describe the toll that aggressive sales targets have had on their health at a company well known for its "Let's Talk" campaign — a massive initiative to improve mental health.  

More than 600 people contacted the CBC after the investigation was published earlier this week. In email after email, current and former employees describe panic attacks in the workplace, stress-induced vomiting and diarrhea. Some reported crying before starting call-centre shifts and said taking stress leave is "common."

And although many of the employees applaud Bell's mental health program, they say it's ironic that so many of the company's employees are suffering physically and mentally from pressure "created by the top, down." 

One employee even filed a human rights complaint this week, alleging Bell didn't accommodate her disability. She says it eventually led to so much stress that she is on a medical leave.

Bell refutes all the allegations.

"I was on the verge of panic attacks. Just overwhelmed," Jessica Belliveau, who worked for three years at a call centre in Moncton, N.B., said in an interview. The call centre was run by Nordia, a former Bell subsidiary that was recently sold to a Toronto investment firm.

Workers at the Nordia call centre in Saint John, New Brunswick. (CBC)

"I was so stressed out that I'd be vomiting and having diarrhea at the same time. I ended up getting ulcers," she said.

Belliveau says sales were based on the number of workdays in a month, but if she had the flu and had to miss work, her targets wouldn't be adjusted. She quit two weeks ago, despite fears of unemployment.

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"It makes you nervous, because here in the Maritimes...it's rough," Belliveau says. "Things are very expensive. The economy is not that great here."

'I was throwing up blood' 

A Bell Mobility sales manager who is on stress leave says the pressure to meet sales targets was so intense that he lost 40 pounds in a few months. CBC is not identifying him — or several others — because they fear speaking out will affect their employment.

'[My manager] would call me at 3 in the morning to ask why I was off my sales targets.'- Bell Mobility sales manager

"I had sales targets that kept going up," the sales manager says. "But I had no idea where they came from. It was so stressful, I was throwing up blood."

"My manager sent emails at 2 a.m. comparing my sales stats to the rest of the company," he says. "Or he would call me at 3 in the morning to ask why I was off my sales targets. It was relentless.

"It upsets me that Bell makes such a big deal about mental health awareness and takes a lot of credit for bringing that awareness to the general public," he says.

'Bell doesn't walk the talk'

Dan Breffitt, a former employee who managed projects for Ottawa's Bell Business Markets team, says the stress of dealing with an ever-growing workload contributed to an anxiety attack that sent him to hospital last fall.

"I had severe anxiety and depression," he says. "There wasn't an hour in the day where I wasn't worrying about how I was going to meet all the expectations at work."

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He says he raised the stresses of the job with upper management after he returned to work last spring, but nothing happened. 

"They have the 'Let's Talk' initiative," he says. "But Bell doesn't walk the talk."

Breffitt quit earlier this month after having to take another stress leave in August.

Bell response 

Go Public asked Bell to respond to numerous allegations from employees that the company is doing a poor job of ensuring good mental health, by allowing a culture based on extreme pressures to meet what employees call aggressive targets.

"None of the allegations you make is true," wrote spokesperson Mark Langton.

"Bell has taken a leadership position in workplace mental health," he added. "It's part of the way we work at every level. That's been recognized by our team, the healthcare community, federal and other levels of government, other corporations across Canada and internationally."

He said two per cent of the Bell workforce is on a mental health disability leave.

'Let's Talk' campaign              

Bell's "Let's Talk" campaign is the largest corporate initiative in the country dedicated to mental health.

Each year, the company chooses one day to dedicate 5 cents per customer call, text, tweet, Facebook video view, Snapchat geofilter or Instagram post.

Since its inception seven years ago, the campaign has raised more than $86 million and supported more than 400 community organizations dedicated to helping people living with mental illness.

The company's website says the program was launched after recognizing that mental illness was a national health concern with "a lingering stigma."

Stressed-out Bell employees say "Let's Talk" campaign ads like these are "infuriating." 

'The Bell Effect'

Despite Bell's public commitment to improving mental health, past and present Bell employees describe toxic workplace environments to Go Public.

A former sales rep from a Montreal call centre writes, "The second I told my doctor that I worked at Bell after she heard the symptoms, she did not hesitate to prescribe a leave. Doctors everywhere are apparently well aware of what I call 'The Bell Effect.'"

A manager at an S&P Data call centre — contracted by Bell — in Hamilton says customer service reps regularly broke down crying at work.

'You better hope you don't get sick. If you don't meet your numbers, we're going to show you the door.'- Former manager, Bell's S&P Data call centre

"I was the bad guy telling them to sell or they're out," he told Go Public in an interview. "Because if they don't hit their numbers, my manager comes down on me and I'm not going to have a job."

The call centre manager says Bell's head office seemed to genuinely care about people's mental health but claims that message was not translated to his managers — and is the reason he says he eventually quit.

Discrimination complaint against Bell

This week, Bell call centre employee Andrea Rizzo filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) claiming discrimination because of a disability.

Rizzo was featured in an earlier Go Public story as the first Bell employee to speak out about aggressive sales targets.

Several years ago, she noticed her right wrist becoming more and more painful. She was eventually diagnosed with a painful repetitive strain injury — carpal tunnel syndrome.

In her complaint to the CHRC, Rizzo says that despite two doctors recommending reduced targets, which were temporarily lowered, they went back up again in December 2016.

Andrea Rizzo developed carpal tunnel syndrome working inside a Bell call centre, and says the company didn’t lower her sales targets when she returned to work with a disability (CBC/Tina Mackenzie)

"I was still experiencing significant pain because of my disability," writes Rizzo. "I did not hit my target — I was simply unable to."  

Bell has put her on a "performance improvement plan," which could lead to her termination. Rizzo says the stress caused her to go on a medical leave.

Toronto human rights lawyer Wade Poziomka, Rizzo's lawyer, says Bell is discriminating against a disabled employee.

"It's holding a disabled employee to the same standard as all other employees, and not taking into consideration the fact that they do have a disability," he says.

Poziomka also takes issue with Bell expecting people to hit their targets even when they miss time from work, due to sickness.

"If somebody's off because of a cold or a flu, the right thing to do — from an employer who cares about their employees — is to take that into consideration and reduce their targets," says Poziomka. "That's what is morally and ethically fair."

In New Brunswick,  Belliveau is wondering how she'll pay bills, now that she has quit the call centre.  

But that's a stress she says she can cope with. 

"My morals are more important than my paycheque."

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'Scared the heck out of me': Drivers stunned, injured after airbags deploy without warning

There was no crash, no rollover, nothing was hit, yet the side airbags went off — twice — while they were driving, leaving a Saskatchewan couple shaken and injured.

The most recent incident happened on Thanksgiving Day. Joanne Yuke was driving their 2006 Honda Odyssey EX with her husband Rick and visiting sister-in-law as passengers, showing their guest the Saskatchewan countryside. 

Joanne Yuke, of Moose Jaw, Sask., says she was driving down a straight and level gravel road, under the speed limit, when "all of a sudden" the airbags along both sides of the van went off.

Joanne Yuke was driving with her husband and sister-in-law as passengers, when the side airbags went off leaving all three with minor injuries. (Rick Yuke)

"There was a very loud bang," Rick Yuke tells Go Public. "They just went off. It scared the heck out of me."

The Yukes say both incidents happened on straight, level gravel roads around Moose Jaw, Sask. (Rick Yuke)

"We sat there for some time just kind of taking into account what had happened. Rick was sitting in the passenger seat — his shoulder was very sore, my head was sore, my ear was ringing terrible," Joanne recalls.

Rick Yuke's sister sustained a bruise to her abdomen in the October airbag deployment incident. (Rick Yuke)

Go Public found drivers are on the hook for thousands in repairs, and left with damaged vehicles and injuries after their side panel airbags deploy while they're driving. Insurance companies won't pay for the damage since there was no collision and automakers won't either, blaming drivers or road conditions. 

Complaints to Transport Canada show random airbag deployments are happening in a number of makes and models of vehicles.

Several recalls have been issued, but the Yukes's van wasn't among them. Transport Canada says it has received other complaints about the same series (2005-2008) Honda Odyssey.

Honda says it replaced the airbags on the van owned by the Yukes after the first incident in August 2015, as a "goodwill gesture."

When the bags deployed a second time last month, the carmaker refused to help, blaming the driver, modifications to the vehicle and the gravel road.

The Yukes say the only modifications they made to the van included adding a trailer hitch, a remote starter and interior warmer.

Experts say those changes shouldn't impact the airbags.

The Yukes run a home for adults with developmental disabilities. The van is the only vehicle they have that can hold the group and is also economical to run.

The Yukes rely on their Honda Odyssey to transport their developmentally disabled live-in clients to work and medical appointments. (Trent Peppler/CBC)

It sits parked at the couple's Saskatchewan farm, undriveable. The airbags along both sides are still hanging down.

The Yuke's car insurer would not pay for a repair, saying the 'inadvertent airbag deployment event cannot be considered a collision.' (Rick Yuke)

After the second airbag problem, the Yukes tried to negotiate with Honda Canada, asking if they could trade in the van and pay a few thousand dollars more for another used vehicle they felt safer driving. They couldn't come to an agreement.

"We need a vehicle that can hold our family, keep them safe, I would never ever have our family be in that vehicle again. Never," Joanne Yuke said.

Honda tells Go Public it "has been unable to reach a satisfactory resolution with the customer relating to the second deployment."

Report finds 'malfunction'

Go Public obtained a diagnostics report done by Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) after the first airbags deployed in 2015.

The insurer told the Yukes it would not pay for repairs because there was no collision.

That report found random airbag deployments are not uncommon, and can be caused by "an internal malfunction" of the van's safety system known as the Supplemental Restraint System.

The SRS module controls the airbag deployment. 

At Go Public's request, accident reconstruction expert Peter Keith looked at the SGI report and says he agrees the airbags went off because of a defect in the van's safety system.

Accident reconstruction engineer Peter Keith says the problem is with the safety system's design.

He says bumpy roads can cause vibrations that fool airbag control modules into thinking there has been a rollover.

"The software misinterpreted the information coming into the vehicle, deployed the airbags when it shouldn't have … This is not unique. I've seen this problem before myself," Keith said.

He says automakers will often blame gravel roads, the driver's behavior or modifications to the vehicles, but the problem is with the way the safety system is designed.

"Clearly they are not meant to deploy like that. They are only meant to deploy if you're having a front collision, a side collision, a rollover, that was not the circumstances which happened with them driving straight down a gravel road."

Another SGI report noted airbag sensors can also be "sensitive".  A risk, it says, that's accepted by the automobile industry "compared to not being sensitive enough". 

Honda responds

Honda Canada tells Go Public its investigation found "the side curtain airbag system deployed as designed."

The company says airbag systems are "sensitive to driving conditions that emulate an impending vehicle rollover and/or side impact. The likelihood of generating these driving conditions is amplified when driving on dirt or loose gravel roads."

Honda fixed the airbag system after the first time the side airbags went off in 2015, but when it happened again in October 2017, they did not fix it, blaming the issue on 'the customer's distinctive driving habits on their local road conditions.' (Google)

The company says the error codes indicating a problem with the safety system in the 2015 SGI report were caused by a battery issue and "unrelated to the deployment event."

Honda also says the second deployment was not related to any vehicle or system malfunction, but due to "the customer's distinctive driving habits on their local road conditions."

The Yukes and CBC News requested a copy of Honda's diagnostic report, but the company would not provide it.

Side airbags 'blew for no reason'

Drivers of GMs, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Fiat Chrysler and other carmakers have filed similar complaints. Some companies have issued recalls.

Cynthia Germain took Volkswagen to court in 2007 when her side airbags deployed without warning — and won.

"We took it on because our side airbags blew for no reason," she said. Her husband was driving with a friend down a gravel road near Calgary when it happened.

Calgarian Cynthia Germain sued Volkswagen and won. The judge ordered the automaker to pay for the repair of her Jetta after the airbags inadvertently deployed while the car was being driven on a gravel road. (Colin Hall/CBC)

She says the Volkswagen dealership claimed the airbags deployed when her husband hit a rock and that's why the company wasn't responsible for repairs.

A judge disagreed. Germain says she took the case to court as a matter of "principle."

"If it was a collision. then that would have been our fault. And I felt that this was something that wasn't our fault and should never have happened," she said.

"I wanted to make sure that I can get to where a judge says, this is wrong. So we continued on and I sued for breach of contract and negligence."

In his ruling, Alberta Judge Brian Scott said: "Airbags are only meant to be deployed in serious motor vehicle collisions, either with other vehicles, or with large fixed objects such as trees.

"It is the responsibility of the vehicle manufacturer to equip its vehicles with airbag systems that only deploy under
accident conditions ... in my view, the premature deployment of airbags is a manufacturer's defect."

The Yukes don't want Honda to replace the airbags again — they want to trade the van in for another vehicle they'll feel safer in.

"It's just wrong that we had a vehicle that was worth $8,000 and now it's worth zero and for us to finance another vehicle, we just can't do that," Joanne Yuke told Go Public.

Submit your story ideas

Go Public is an investigative news segment on CBC-TV, radio and the web.

We tell your stories and hold the powers that be accountable.

We want to hear from people across the country with stories they want to make public. Submit your story ideas at Go Public.

Follow @CBCGoPublic on Twitter.

Consumer complaints about telecoms on the rise — wireless issues most common beef

Canadians are becoming more vocal about poor service by their telecom providers, according to a report released on Tuesday by Canada's telecom watchdog, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS).

The report shows in 2016-17, consumers filed more than 9,000 complaints with the CCTS.

That's up 11 per cent over the previous year, when 8,197 complaints were accepted, and reverses a three-year trend that saw complaints decline.

Most people who filed a formal complaint were ticked off about their wireless accounts, accounting for 46 per cent of all complaints.

Why customers aren't happy

Linda de Boer says customers would often complain about their bills, when she worked for Atelka — a call centre handling work for Rogers — in Sarnia, Ont., two years ago.

She says customers were often upset because sales reps promised a product or service at a specific price, but then didn't deliver.

"I think sometimes it's a little misleading," says de Boer. "How we would relay the message to the customer… or if it's said to the customer too fast. So it's easy for us to overtalk the fact that [the price] will go up."

• Want a story investigated? Contact Erica and the Go Public team

De Boer says the issues reported in this story about Bell are happening at Rogers, too — she couldn't just fix a customer's problem, she was under pressure to sell them an upgrade or new service every time.

"Honestly, it came down to trying to get people to buy things they didn't need," says de Boer.

"I didn't feel good about my job."

Linda de Boer says when Rogers customers called the call centre in which she worked, agents would speak quickly or not reveal full contract details. (Linda de Boer)

Rogers responds

In an email to Go Public, Rogers spokesperson Sarah Schmidt wrote:

"While we do not believe the concerns raised represent our practices or our values, we take this very seriously and we will work with our team and our vendor to respond to these concerns."

Schmidt added, "Improving our customers' experience is a key priority for us. Over the past five years, our CCTS complaints have gone down over 70 per cent, but this is an ongoing effort and we have more work to do."

Internet complaints fastest-growing

Wireless issues dominate complaints filed with the CCTS, but customer complaints about their internet service were the fastest-growing, accounting for 31 per cent of all complaints. That's up 38 per cent over the previous year and an increase for the seventh consecutive year.

The commissioner for the CCTS, Howard Maker, calls the continual increase in internet complaints "troubling."

"I don't see any reason why there should be so much difficulty in an internet transaction," says Maker.  

"The amount of information customers need to be informed about internet service isn't nearly as complicated as a wireless transaction. So it's a concern that the number of complaints about it continues to increase."

Howard Maker, Commissioner for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, wants disgruntled telecom customers to contact the CCTS, which successfully resolved 91 per cent of concluded complaints last year. (CBC)

Top 3 customer issues

Telecom companies large and small had customer complaints filed against them — topping the list was Bell Canada, followed by Rogers, Telus, Virgin and Fido.

Videotron was sixth on the list, but the number of complaints against that company actually dropped almost 14 per cent.

• See top ten issues raised in complaint

Of the 9,087 complaints the CCTS received in 2016-17, "incorrect charges" was the most common beef, followed by contract terms not being fully disclosed or receiving misleading information.  

The third most common complaint was about intermittent service, or inadequate quality of service.

'I have to fight every time I get a bill'

Go Public has received hundreds of emails from telecom customers with their own stories, mirroring complaints received by the CCTS.

Many say they are charged for upgrades for which they never agreed.  

'I have spent hours trying to straighten out their data charges.'— Paul Mitchison, Hamilton

"I have to fight every time I get a bill," writes Hawa Kab of Kanata, Ont.

"I have spent hours trying to straighten out their data charges," writes Paul Mitchison of Hamilton.

Others write about the price of promotional packages going up before the offer has expired.

"They promise something, charge something else," writes Toronto's Maureen Koya. "When you call back to rectify it, they have no record of it. You end up paying what they bill you. Sneaky!"

Another customer couldn't stop the charges from coming. "They continued to charge me even though I had moved three months prior," writes Dara Bouchie of Newmarket, Ont.

"I was told my bill would be $150, but it's now $190," writes David Howe of Wakefield, Quebec. "I just want to pay the same amount every month. I am fed up."

Yet another customer says she had to call every month for six months before her account was finally closed. "It is unacceptable that a customer should have to invest so much time and effort into stopping a service," writes France Rochette of Toronto.

'Customers need to examine their bills'

Maker says he's concerned that complaints about telecoms are on the rise, particularly if part of the reason is that customers are receiving misinformation.

"Obviously, if people are having products foisted on them without need, or are being told misleading information about what they're getting or what it's going to cost them, that's a big problem," he says.

But he stresses that customers have a role to play, too.

"Customers need to examine their bills every month — make sure the bill reflects what they're supposed to be receiving, and what they're supposed to be paying for it," says Maker.

"The reality is, sometimes things go wrong, and customers protecting themselves is an important part of being an effective consumer."

'Bill confusion'

Keith Holmes of Toronto says he checks his telecom bill carefully — but says it's no small feat figuring it out.      

"You've got to have a university degree in Bell bills if you want to understand those things," says Holmes.

'You've got to have a university degree in Bell bills if you want to understand those things.' — Keith Holmes, Bell customer

He was overcharged 35 dollars for adding a new phone number to his account and says it took several frustrating calls to Bell to figure out the bottom line.

"When I called their help support line I used to get knots in my stomach before I called and I always ended the call angry and irritated," he says.

Bell credited his account, and says "as a goodwill gesture" it even gave him another credit after he filed a complaint with the CCTS.

But Holmes says, he's still confused, and the fight was "torturous."

"I don't know if I'd do it again."

Call for dedicated consumer organization

A consumer advocate says a lot of customer grief could be avoided if Canada had a dedicated organization to help them complain, sue and lobby for key protections.

Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch has been calling for the creation of the Telecommunications Consumer Organization for almost two decades.

"Telecoms are very powerful, and they have lots of money for lawyers, to discourage complaints," says Conacher. "As a result, the market is tilted in favour of the telecom companies."

Conacher wants the federal government or CRTC to require telecom companies to include a message when they send out customer emails - asking people if they'd like to help fund a consumer watchdog, for a small fee, and providing a link to click for more information.

"It would balance the marketplace," says Conacher. "And give customers the information and power they need."

Duff Conacher wants the federal government to support a consumer watchdog for telecoms. (Victor Modderman/CBC)

Location, location, location: How your health-care coverage is linked to where you live in Canada

Two men, different provinces, the same life-changing surgery, yet one has to pay out of pocket and the other is covered by the public health-care system in what some call Canada's medical "postal code lottery."

Peter Pawlik, a hearing-impaired Calgary man, is travelling to Austria to get a life-changing medical device surgically implanted that will help him hear clearly for the first time. Because the Alberta government won't pay for the surgery, his retired parents are footing the $50,000 bill.

It's a trip they wouldn't have to take and a cost they wouldn't have to bear if their son lived in another province.

Peter Pawlik, right and father George pause to take a selfie on their journey to Austria, where Peter will undergo surgery to receive a Bonebridge hearing system. (Peter Pawlik)

"I'm old and I don't know how long I'm gonna live. I can't leave him knowing there is something somewhere which can help him," father George Pawlik told Go Public in an interview from his home before he left the country with his son.

• Been wronged? Contact Rosa and the Go Public team

The Pawlik family tried for years to get surgery in Alberta for a Health Canada-approved bone conduction implant doctors say could restore Peter's hearing to "almost normal."

The 35-year-old was born without ear canals and underdeveloped ears: conditions called bilateral atresia and microtia.

George Pawlik packs for the trip to Austria, where his son will receive a surgery to improve his hearing. (Michael McArthur/CBC)

He has been diagnosed with several mental health issues, which his psychiatrist links to his inability to hear clearly.

His father says Peter is depressed and feels isolated, and that he can't work, shies away from social contact, and didn't want to be interviewed.

George Pawlik says navigating the Canadian health-care system has been frustrating, and that the family faced delays and received conflicting information even when they offered to pay for the surgery themselves.

Eventually, they gave up and booked the surgery overseas. "If something is possible to do, we have to do it," Pawlik said.

Alberta Health tells Go Public the last time it looked at insuring this type of implant was in 2013 when it decided there was "a lack of evidence that these implants were safe and effective."

Half of the provinces in Canada did their own reviews and decided the implants should be publicly funded.

Canadians have to live in a province for more than three months before they are covered by medicare there.

Different province, different system

Ross Weiss lives in Saskatchewan. He has the same condition as Peter Pawlik in his left ear and in 2015 he had the same surgery. The province of Saskatchewan paid for it.

Ross Weiss of Saskatoon had Bonebridge implant surgery in 2015 and says the improvement to his hearing has been 'a life changer.' The external audio processor is worn above the ear, magnetically attached to the bone conduction implant which was surgically embedded in his skull. (CBC/Chanss Lagaden)

"It's not fair. Everybody should have access to something of this nature because it is a life-changer," Weiss told Go Public.

 "I'm very happy to live in a province that does cover the surgery."

Physicians frustrated

Dr. Vincent Lin, an Ontario head and neck surgeon, says Alberta should revisit its decision not to fund the surgery. Ontario pays for the surgery, and Lin has done more than 80 operations to implant Bonebridge hearing devices in the last few years.

Dr. Vincent Lin, a head and neck surgeon at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, holds the part of the Bonebridge hearing system that is surgically implanted in patients' skulls. He has performed the surgery about 80 times. (CBC/Ivan Arsovski)

"There's been numerous studies … where it's been freely available for years now, where it shows that Bonebridge has a huge advantage for patients with this type of hearing loss," Lin said from his Toronto clinic.

He says patients who would benefit from the implant have to go without if they can't afford the surgery in provinces where it's not covered and that is an "ongoing frustration with physicians, in many many fields."

Medical 'postal code lottery'

Health-care advocate Adrienne Silnicki says she hears stories like Peter Pawlik's all the time.

Adrienne Silnicki, national director for policy and advocacy at the Canadian Health Coalition, says hearing devices are just one of many areas of Canada's health-care system where covered services and devices vary widely among the provinces. (David Richard/CBC)

"It's not just for hearing devices. It's for pharmaceutical and dental care and vision, all of these pieces of the body that we left out of the Canada Health Act," said Silnicki, who is the national director for policy and advocacy at the Canadian Health Coalition.

Medical devices and medicines are approved by Health Canada, but it's up to the provinces to decide what they will or won't cover.

"The postal code lottery is a perfect way of describing it. We have this patchwork of systems where people are trying to access services, but they may not be able to access it in their province."

Silnicki points out the "great divide" between "have and have-not provinces." The ones that have more money to spend on health care sometimes offer more procedures, but she says it's not just about funding but about using money they have more wisely.

Peter Pawlik's current hearing system, which he's used since childhood, requires him to wear a headband and it only gives him limited hearing. (George Pawlik)

A new Canadian Institute for Health Information study found 30 per cent of medical care in Canada is unnecessary and wastes health-system resources that could be put to better use.

Silnicki would like to see the federal government work with the provinces and territories to ensure all Canadians have the same access.

Peter Pawlik's surgery is scheduled for Jan. 8. His retired parents will have a big bill to deal with, but his father says it will be worth it if his son's hearing improves.

"Peter was talking all the year about this, and this is first time that he has some sparks in his eyes, that he was believing that something would change in his life," his dad said.

Submit your story ideas

Go Public is an investigative news segment on CBC-TV, radio and the web.

We tell your stories and hold the powers that be accountable.

We want to hear from people across the country with stories they want to make public.

Submit your story ideas at Go Public. Follow @CBCGoPublic on Twitter.

With files from Jenn Blair

CRTC urged to hold inquiry into telecom sales tactics

The CRTC is being urged to hold a public inquiry into the sales practices of the country's major telecommunications service providers.

The formal request to the federal regulator comes from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, an Ottawa-based non-profit group that often battles with Canada's major telecommunications service providers.

PIAC executive director John Lawford on Monday called for CRTC chairman Ian Scott to investigate recent media reports about high-pressure sales tactics used by least one major company.

• GO PUBLIC: Bell customers, employees flood CBC with complaints about high-pressure sales

"Many of these aggressive sales practices appear to have targeted vulnerable consumers, including older Canadians, grieving spouses and blind customers," Lawford writes.

His letter refers to a CBC news investigation in November that began with allegations by Andrea Rizzo, a Bell call centre employee in Toronto who said she was under intense pressure to make a sale on every call.

• Bell insider reveals high-pressure sales tactics required on every single call

The CBC reported later that it had received emails from dozens of Bell customers with various complaints and that a "flood" of Bell employees, past and present, had followed Rizzo's lead in speaking out about the stress they felt from pressure to meet sales targets.

At the time, Bell Canada's spokesman told the CBC that it succeeds in a highly competitive marketplace by serving its 23 million customers well. He also said the tactics described by current and former Bell employees would be "completely contrary" to the company's culture, values and code of conduct.

A spokeswoman for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, headquartered in the Ottawa area, acknowledged receiving PIAC's letter but offered no further comment Monday.

Bell, Rogers and Telus were asked for their reaction to the PIAC letter but no comments had been received as of mid-afternoon Monday.

Inquiry would 'provide transparent forum'

Lawford, whose organization takes a pro-consumer stance on a number of issues, acknowledged in an interview that the allegations against Bell haven't been proven in court, adding that's why the CRTC needs to step in.

"Anecdotally, we've had complaints from customers that this is happening at other companies," Lawford said.

He said that the CRTC would be able to provide a transparent forum to hear both the allegations and rebuttals.

"And they have the power, in their statute, to do things like this. And they have done it before," Lawford said in an interview.

He pointed to the recently updated code of conduct for the Canadian wireless telecommunications providers, which went into effect on Dec. 1 after the CRTC spent months collecting submissions from various parties.

• Telecom complaints decreasing, but biggest gripe is misleading terms of service

He also said that non-disclosure of terms and misleading information about terms accounted for 10.9 per cent of complaints received by the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, another federal agency that works with the CRTC and oversees the wireless code.

Lawford said an industry-wide inquiry into telecommunications services would serve a similar role as a probe into banking sales practices that's being conducted by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.

The FCAC probe was launched last year after another series of CBC articles, beginning with allegations about sales practices at TD Bank (TSX:TD) that later included all of Canada's major banks. The federal agency said last month that it expects to release its report during the first quarter of this year.