Comparaction is a long distance carrier out of Montreal, Quebec.

I signed up with them ONLY because Scotia Bank recommended them by sending me continuous pamphlets.

Boy was that a HUGE mistake on my part.

I was told that if I went with them, my prices would be cheaper than if I stayed with Primus Canada. This was for unlimited long distance throughout North America & they were going to put me on the Roger’s plan.

Well a few months later I found out they weren’t cheaper, they were a few dollars more expensive.

Other issues I had were:

1. I was told that I would get 30 minutes free long distance on my cell phone. When the girl signed me up, I was very distracted because I was running around doing errands & actually doing my banking at Scotia Bank.I don’t remember her telling me I had to use an access number in order to get the free long distance, so the entire time I was dialing straight out & then I was charged by Telus.

   I remember wondering how I would get the free minutes, but I was too busy with life to worry about it.

   The next thing I know, I’m charged by Telus, & Comparaction is not taking responsibility saying that the girl had to have told me on the phone I had to use an access code.

   They also said they sent me an e-mail about it, but when I checked my inbox, there was nothing.

   The customer service reps were rude, one was even laughing at me, & there was sooo much noise in the backround, it sounded like an Indian call centre, but even worse.

   I wasted about 2-4 hours of my precious time arguing & fighting with the customer service reps and supervisors at Comparaction.

   When a supervisor called me back, his attitude was terrible. While he credited my last bill in lue of the long distance charges, it was clear he didn’t care about me as a customer, & there was a clear power struggle going on between him & I.

   When I called Scotia Bank to complain because I truly thought they would care about how this company was treating its customers, I was given misinformation & passed around first to my branch, then to the head office.

   Finally I spoke to the Office of the President (I think it was). In the end they were of no help either. The guy who helped me didn’t understnad what I was saying the first time around, & while he kind of got my complaints & agreed with me in the end, by the time he called me back, his attitude was that Comparaction did what ever they could to help me & there was nothing more he could do. So I wasn’t happy with Scotia Bank either, & I will NEVER use any future company they recommend.

2. Comparaction’s long distance rates overseas were terrible. I ended up paying double the amount I would have paid had I just stayed with Primus.While I do remember them telling me it was going to be more than if I stayed with Primus, I didn’t realize it was going to be that much more, so I lost a lot of money when I had to make my business calls outside North America.
3. Comparaction would charge my credit card first, & only afterwards send me the bill which I didn’t like at all. I prefer to see my bill first & then be charged.
4. When I called to cancel Comparaction because I was moving, the girl told me that I didn’t have to do anything, the minute the line was disconnected, Comparaction’s service would be shut off as well.Well you guessed it, it WASN’T shut off.

   I only found this out because I was arguing about that bill, so that’s when one of the customer service reps told me that it wasn’t shut off. I started to get very upset. One mistake Comparaction had done was now starting to pile up.

   While they shut off my long distance after that, that snippy arrogant supervisor proceeded to tell me that I had called Pakistan when nothing could have been further from the truth. He tried to tell me that my long distance bill was over $100 & he was waiving it in lue of all the Telus long distance charges.

   I argued that I NEVER called Pakistan (I don’t know a soul over there, my landlords were Pakistani), so you are giving me nothing. He didn’t care, he tried to make it seem like he was doing me this BIG favour when he had actually done NOTHING for me except give me back the money that Telus was charging me.

5. When I cancelled my account, they never told me I would still be charged until the end of the month (I cancelled it on the 12th or 13th of the month.) I only found this out later on.

So all & all, Comparaction was one of THE worst telephone companies I’ve ever had to deal with & the fact that Scotia Bank didn’t seem to care in the end was truly shocking.

I got a call from a survey taker wanting to know how the Office of the President at Scotia Bank handled the situation. I told her the guy hadn’t phoned me back yet. She said she would call me back.

I never got a call back.

Nice.