SensoryMetrics

Surprise! Primus is now offering local phone service (regular old land-lines not VoIP) and sure enough it’s going to be about $10 a month cheaper than my Bell bill. With news this good, it’s easy for someone to do the sales pitch. So I went for it and signed up for it. Plus Primus provides the service of canceling your Bell line.

I’d have to say that it was great to deal with the Primus representative that was talking to me on the phone. How’s this for bizarre UX? To complete the transaction of switching to Primus, the rep explains to me that he’ll be handing me off to a computer over the phone. This is Bell’s wonderful Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Why do I have to step through this process? Well, this I’m guessing is Bell’s way of making it difficult to switch. The Primus rep stepped me through the process, say your name, then answer ‘Yes’, and then ‘Yes’ again etc. That’s when you’re put on hold and then the computer kicks in, and you say your bit. It’s all rather the most weird customer experience you can imagine. I was tempted just to hang up on this but knew that it wasn’t Primus but probably Bell that has concocted this super unusual business measure for dealing with it’s lost customers.

God help me if the Primus service turns out to be bad and I need to switch back! Fortunately, I’ve been a Primus customer for about 4 years now and their DSL service is excellent.

Tags: Primus, local-phone-service, Bell

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