Exclusive Hidden camera investigation: Misleading sales tactics for Bell services (Marketplace)

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[♪] Erica: This is your Marketplace. Erica: We get a job on the inside to learn the Bell sell. Sales secrets revealed. They're only paying us for commission so they're only paying us if we make sales. Erica: A special Go Public/Marketplace investigation how not to get duped at the door. [ ♪ ] [ ♪ ] Erica: We're going undercover. We're waiting for the people to come out. Erica: Following door-to-door sales reps selling Bell Canada's latest home services. We've heard a lot of complaints so we're doing something no one's done before. Getting one of our own hired at a company that sells Bell door-to-door. We want to learn for ourselves why people who buy in feel misled. [ ♪ ] Hello. Erica: Gary Gemus remembers the front porch sales pitch. Fibe had just come to the area and that's why they were calling on people. Erica: They're selling Fibe internet and TV. Voice-over: Bell offers blazing fast internet and industry leading security features all on Canada's largest fibre optic network. They were offering some very good incentives as far as pricing was concerned. Erica: For TV, internet and home phone, Gary says the sales rep guarantees a monthly price of 145.90 for two years. I asked him, is there going to be any increases and he said no, no, no, this is 145.90 and it's going to be for the full 24 months. Erica: With that guarantee, he signs up. But his monthly bill does in fact go up a few bucks. It's not the dollar value, it's the principle. If you say you're guaranteeing a price, you better back it up. Erica: Is Gary an isolated case or are other reps selling Bell making false promises at the door? [ ♪ ] Erica: We're about to find out. Our undercover producer arrives for door-to-door training. She's here to learn all the sales tactics. Mohamed Abdelhadi is the man behind Mox 1 business solutions, a subcontractor hired to sell Bell. Do you know your intro? I hope so. Okay, let's hear it. Erica: We rehearse a sales script. Producer: Because your name is on my list, you're eligible for fantastic deals. Erica: Mohamed's making sure we know our lines. Huge. -Producer: Huge deals. -On-going. -On-going deals. -Discounts. -Huge on-going discounts. -You got it. Erica: We're told to stick to that training script. You know what's really cool about this one, it works, and this one is teachable. Everybody can make a ton of money from it. [ ♪ ] Erica: The promise of money is a big motivator. Man: I do. Erica: The team is made up of mostly 20 somethings. Erica: With big dreams. Erica: With script in hand, teams fan out to neighbourhoods outside Toronto. Over seven days, we shadow trainers day and night. They hit hundreds of homes a day. Erica: Reps are given leads by Bell, names and addresses targeting potentially new customers. [ ♪ ] Erica: John Lawford is a lawyer who heads up the public interest advocacy centre, a consumer watchdog. We advise people to be, you know, extremely careful at the door. Erica: He agrees to watch along. So if you're game, let's take a look at what they say. Sure, great. Erica: First up, the pitch on price. Erica: Forever? Really? Gary's price was guaranteed too but his bill crept up. He called Bell to find out why. They say, well, it's in the contract that we're allowed to bill you if our administration costs go up. And other incidents other than the service itself. Erica: Yep, Bell says prices are subject to change. It's in the fine print. Erica: A key detail Bell says it requires customers be told but Gary says it was never mentioned. Back on hidden camera, same story. Erica: Not once does our undercover producer hear sales reps reveal that price could go up. Your forever price or the maximum price Bell can ever charge you. Erica: A forever price? Sounds like it's-- Yeah, I would interpret that as being-- going past say a two-year contract and into another period of time. Erica: Is that problematic? Yes, because if their contract comes in the mail and it says the price may change, that's -- it's contrary to what's said at the door so overall that can be enough to, you know, mislead a consumer. There have been many times where the Competition Bureau of Canada has gone after companies for talking about a guaranteed price for lifetime or forever. [ ♪ ] Erica: And it's not just the forever price. Sales reps are also twisting the truth about another deal, a one-year promo discount. Erica: New customers get a special discount for signing up with Bell at the door. Because we are going door-to-door though, what I'm going to do for you is very simple. I'm going to give it to you for about $131. Okay? I'm not gonna give it to you for three months, nor am I gonna give it you for six months, okay? But I will give it to you for one year. Erica: And here's the thing, they also lead you to believe you'll be getting that one-year discount year after year. It's part of their training. Erica: Sure enough, out in the field. Erica: But some of Bell's call centre employees contact us warning they often can't renew those deals at the door so sales reps shouldn't be making that promise. It looks like they are promising something that they can't deliver. Yeah, it looks that way to me too. That's law school 101 is you can't guarantee the outcome of a negotiation, right, and it's unfortunate it looks like it's being used to try to entice people into a sale. Hello. Erica: When Gary called to complain. He says the customer service rep confirmed he's not the only customer feeling duped. Customer service basically responded in that, yes, I know, we've had some issues with this situation where other people have not been given the full story and dealing with the same situation. I said, well, I think it's up to Bell to honour what was basically told us at the door. Erica: But Bell won't budge. He says the sales rep told him you should have read the contract. You can't just put the responsibility just on the consumer because the consumer is relying on a Bell representative. Erica: Time to let you in on another sales tactic. We learn how to sell you on speed. One really easy thing they can do, is if they ever do a speed test on their phone, a hundred times out of-- like 99 out of a hundred times, their internet speed is not what they're paying for. [ ♪ ] Erica: Sure enough. In the field, the rep gets this customer to test her current speed. Erica: And it doesn't look good. Erica: The rep promises Bell can do better. What Bell is promising you guys is this... Erica: She's sold on speed, signs up with Bell. Can you make those speed guarantees? Interestingly, most of the contracts, and I've looked at Bell's, has a clause saying there are many factors that affect your speed. Erica: How does that sit with you? It's an important factor, speed is right after price, so it's disturbing because I think it can mislead somebody into signing up for a contract, yeah. Erica: The high-speed pitch worked for this home owner. She got Fibe installed. So, do those promises stack up? Time for us to make a house call. Hi, Rhona. Erica Johnson. Hi, Erica, nice to meet you. -Come in. -Thank you. Erica: We tell Rhona Carleton about our undercover work. What was it about the pitch that you found appealing? We had some lagging with computer speed, we thought we could improve our computer speed. Erica: But when we take a look at the actual pitch. What I'm doing is I'm going to bump -- Erica: Uh-oh. We lost signal... [ Laughter ] Erica: ..on your wi-fi. That's hilarious. Erica: We get the wi-fi back. This is your download speed. My download speed right now, it's like 50 times way better. Erica: What was her promise to you? You're going to get 50 megabytes per second and that was supposed to be the minimum. When the sales rep came to your door, she got you to do a speed test. Let's do one now, and see what you're getting. Okay. Erica: We use a Google speed test, same one the sales rep used. Oh, my. Oh, my. So, that's interesting. 3.18 is your download speed. So it hasn't improved at all according to the test she did at the door. Correct, yeah. This is not 50 megabytes per second. Erica: Bell advertises up to a specific speed but the sales rep went further, guaranteed a minimum speed of 50 megabytes per second. Do you feel misled? Absolutely. Erica: We know different tests sometimes turn up different results so Rhona takes the Bell speed test, too, the one recommended on its own website. Her speed is better but still short of what was promised. If you're selling me 50 megabytes per second and I'm paying for 50 megabytes per second, that's what I should be able to get. So, meet your commitments. Erica: More sales tactics revealed. So let's go downstairs and see exactly what kind of setup we have down there. Erica: Promised fiberoptics. This is the wiring coming in from outside. Erica: So where is it? And we go looking for answers. Hi, Mr. Abdelhadi, Erica Johnson from CBC. Erica: This is your Marketplace. Erica: The real deal on your Marketplace. [ ♪ ] Erica: Marketplace and Go Public are teaming up investigating door-to-door sales for Canada's biggest telecom, Bell. We're tagging along undercover to hear the pitch. Erica: So far, sales reps are misleading customers on prices. And speed. This is not 50 megabytes per second. [ ♪ ] Erica: Another sales tactic to sell Bell? Emphasizing fiberoptics. Erica: Fiberoptics sure was a selling point for Gary Gemus. They mention that, you know, it was fiberoptics and that that's the best quality and you're going to get the highest speed from an internet standpoint. Erica: So we ask to see those fiberoptic cables. This is the wiring. But inside, as you can see... Erica: It's not a fiberoptic cable. It's just regular copper. At the door, they said we were getting fiberoptics. So, you know, there's a major, major issue that I think has to be addressed. [ ♪ ] Erica: So what's really going on? In Gary's neighbourhood, fiberoptic cables only go to a box on his street called a node. So this is where my supposedly fiberoptics is going to my house. We are at least 300 feet from our house. Erica: From here, it's old fashioned copper wiring back to his home. Meaning you can't get the same speed as an all fiber connection. What they told me at the door isn't correct. I don't have fiber coming into the house, I have fiber at the road so I'm not sure technology-wise if and when that's going to be available to me into my home or whether that's just marketing ploy that they have. Erica: So what's the impression being left at the door? Our undercover producer questions that because the rep knows this neighbourhood is just like Gary's, it's not fiber direct to the home. Certainly Bell needs to wake up and come to the party and make sure that they deliver what they say they're going to deliver. Erica: We've sure got questions for Bell so we say let's talk. [ Phone Ringing ] After the tone, please record your message. We've been trying for some time now to get an interview with somebody from Bell to talk about your door-to-door sales reps. Erica: Will Bell ever answer our call? Well, we wait to hear back about an interview... Our undercover producer's getting a pep talk with the team heading back out to sell Bell. Erica: Mohamed Abdelhadi runs Mox 1 door-to-door sales reps for hire. He pumps up the team. [ ♪ ] Erica: The chance to make good money is what enticed Krys Weiss to join that team two years ago. I had the impression that I'd be making roughly a thousand dollars per week. Erica: But there's serious pressure to sell to make that kind of cash. They're only paying us for commission so they're only paying us if we make sales. Erica: Mostly on commission, working six days a week, knocking on doors for hours. One of the first quotas that we would have to do is basically we would have to hit 60 houses on a night. We're setting our soul outside of the door. And we have to do everything that we can do to guarantee a sale for the company. Erica: To guarantee that sale, he was trained to literally get a foot in the door. I would just basically point in front of a doorway and stick my hand in front of the household so that they know that I want to get inside, especially considering this is a very cold environment. Erica: In training, we're told to use the weather to our advantage, too. They key between, like, whether it can be a successful sale or not successful sale is really stepping into the house. The one thing I like to do is like if it's cold outside or it's hot outside, I'll talk just about the weather, I'm like hey, like, it's super cold outside, do you mind if we just step inside so we don't freeze to death. Erica: Out in the field, it works. Erica: For Krys, the pressure to sell was too much. After two months, he quit. He has a message for the people he pitched at the door. I have to take responsibility for my actions. I want to apologize for misleading them. So not talking to them about the fine print that's going that's in the contract. And that was a big issue that I have, and I really want to say sorry. Erica: Coming up, we catch up... Is he coming this way? ..with the man behind those reps selling Bell. Well, please tell us what you say to customers who feel misled. Erica: This is your Marketplace. Erica: Telecom tricks on your Marketplace... Caught on camera. Misleading pitches. The maximum price Bell can ever charge you -- Erica: On prices, promos and speeds. Hi there, how's it going today? All right. Erica: Consumer advocate John Lawford says it's time for change. If this is a widespread practice, it means Canadians are getting ripped off at the door in quite a big way, and the question would be whether anybody's ever going to do anything about it. [ ♪ ] Erica: We're still waiting for an on-camera interview with Bell. A spokesperson keeps telling us he's working on our request. Man: There's a black SUV just on the other side. Erica: How about the boss behind those door-to-door sales? Bill, is he coming this way? The man who trained us, he won't give us an interview either. Okay, ready? So we're knocking on his door. Hi, Mr. Abdelhadi, Erica Johnson from CBC. Do you have a minute to answer a few questions about your operation? Just talk to Bell. Why are you training your salespeople to mislead people at the door? Talk to Bell. Thank you very much. You are responsible for -- -Please talk to Bell. Thank you very much. -They're wearing Bell uniforms. You're training people to mislead customers. You can talk to Bell. -Thank you very much. -Why are you doing that? I'm not the qualified person for the interview. Well, you're training people, sending them out door-to-door, they're making promises that they often can't -deliver on. -Thank you very much. Please tell us what you say to customers who feel misled by your sales people. You can talk to Bell. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. No answers at all? I really appreciate it. We would appreciate if you would stop misleading people at the door, sir. Thank you very much. You can talk to Bell. I really appreciate your time. See ya. Erica: We would like to talk to Bell on camera but after weeks of asking, no luck. Instead, Bell sends a statement saying, "The examples of the sales practises you provided are in no way aligned with Bell's commitment to providing the best customer experience possible." It also says Abdelhadi and his Mox 1 crew will no longer be selling Bell at the door. Ties severed for breaches of Bell's policies. Bell adds, "We apologize to anyone who may have been adversely affected by this conduct." As for Rhona, an apology may not be enough. The customer is the be-all and the end-all. Erica: Misled on price and speed, she hasn't ruled out leaving Bell. Don't create somebody who's an unhappy customer right upfront because that's what's happened. Erica: The deal at the door hasn't exactly made Gary a satisfied customer either. Transparency and honesty and integrity is a major part in keeping the customer. Erica: After hours of fighting Bell, the telecom says it will give Gary some money back, 81 bucks. But it was never about the money. Well, a pot of gold is many different things. I will be very happy if this helps somebody. That's my pot of gold. Erica: If you feel you've been duped at the door or on the phone by any telecom provider, check out our Marketplace website and fight back. [ ♪ ] Erica: The dirty truth about makeup. Asha: So the next person that tried on a blush tester would be putting that on their face? Oh, yes. Erica: From brushes and bronzers, to lip gloss and lipstick, is it a case of tryer beware? That's unbelievably disgusting. Erica: Coming soon on your Marketplace. [ ♪ ]

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Channel: CBC News

Views: 851,454

Rating: undefined out of 5

Keywords: Hidden camera, hidden, camera, investigation, misleading, sales, tactics, Bell, Bell Canada, company, Bell services, door to door, salespeople, discovers, phone, internet, cable, bill, fee, ongoing price, forever price, Marketplace, CBC, fibre optics, Erica Johnson

Id: grU3esNMntU

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 22min 26sec (1346 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 02 2018