…no internet service at my house this morning.

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.

More soon…

~kc

Edited to add…

So, Telus began bombarding me with phone calls after the blog & twitter posts, and offered me the same deal as the new people get for 6 months. When I added that it seemed odd to have a policy that angers your long-standing customers to the point they think of leaving, she just didn’t reply. Like — silence. Then — “Is there anything else I can do for you, madam?” SO frustrating. Once again, I recognize the person who called me is not the policy-maker, but it’s clear from this that Telus values its employees as highly as its customers, which is to say… not at all.

Avert your eyes if you’ve heard this one before…

My router began acting up a few weeks ago, so I contacted Telus and they replaced it for me. The rebooting problems were solved with the new machine, but the internet service continued to move at a glacial pace. I’ve been massively deep in an edit recently, and between that and #SiWC14 work have not had much time to come up for air, but by this morning, things were crazy.

So I took a deep breath and called Telus.

I’ve been a customer for a LONG time. [I’m old, okay?] Almost 20 years in this house. In fact, since there WAS a telus, as I used to pay AGT bills when I lived in Calgary.

Pre-Telus.

Anyway, of course it turned out that, though they advertise 50 mbpm service, the max I can get in my area is 15. I am currently getting 1.5, [though they record it as 3]. Regardless, substandard service.

So the Telus guy told me that I can pay an extra $5/month to bump my service to 15, the best possible in my area. Okay, sez I. Go for it.

We ring off and I go online to check prices. Here’s what I find:

Telus Link

To save you the click-through, it says the SLOWEST of the available services, 15 mbpm, will be $30/month.

This burns me.

So I follow the link from the confirmation email they’d sent me, log onto a chat line and ask why. I explained what had happened already and asked why they would offer me a higher price for lesser service than they advertise on their own site.

Here’s a transcript of the conversation, missing only my initial question and edited only to take out account info:

You are now chatting with ‘Jane’

kc: Hello?

Jane: Welcome to TELUS Care Chat Support. My name is Jane and I will be your Care Chat Expert for today.

Jane: Hello KC. I’m glad you chatted in today. How are you?

kc: Cranky.

kc: Did you read my question? [Ed: Referring to the initial explanation and question on the log-in page.]

Jane: I’m sorry to hear that.

Jane: Yes.

Jane: I’ll be more than happy to assist you with your concern.

Jane: To assist you better, is it okay to ask some account information?

kc: Yes. Here is the confirmation number from today: Confirmation number: xxxx

Jane: Thank you.

Jane: May I please have your name and billing account number to pull up your account?

kc: My account # is xxxxx

Jane: Please wait while I search for your account.

Jane: I checked your account and you’re paying $54 for home phone with LD and $42 for internet.

Jane: For your home phone package, would you still like to have the same LD plan or change it?

kc: The phone is fine. The internet is TOO SLOW. I want the fastest available internet. Keep the phone the same.

Jane: I can give you a better home phone package though.

kc: Whatever the cheapest phone package is. I almost never use my landline.

Jane: I can be able to upgrade your internet to Internet 15.

kc: I am asking today about my internet. Please don’t up-sell my phone package.

Jane: Internet 15 is from 3 to 15 mbps with 150gb/mo for $50/mo for 6 mos, $55/mo after.

kc: Why not to Internet 50?

Jane: Internet 50 is not available yet in your area.

Jane: The fastest internet in your area is Intenret 15.

Jane: *Internet

kc: Okay, I get that. But here it says Internet 15 is $30/mo:

Telus Link

kc: This feels like false advertising to me. Offering services and prices that you don’t back up.

Jane: The $30/mo for 6 mos price for Internet 15 is for new clients who is not with TELUS for the past 90 days.

Jane: The advertisement on the website is for new client sonly.

Jane: *clients only

kc: WHAT KIND OF A WAY IS THAT TO TREAT LONG-TERM CUSTOMERS????

Jane: For clients who would like to upgrade, it’s $50/mo for 6 mos, $55/mo after.

kc: Fine. I will go with this system as ordered. But as soon as I chat with [Ed: your competitor], I’ll be moving to their system. THIS IS APPALLING SERVICE.

Jane: I understand.

kc: You understand???? And yet you won’t fix this? Unbelievable

Jane: For your home phone package, what calling feature would you like to keep so we can change it to the basic package?

Jane: It includes 1 calling feature of your choice and the Pay Per Minute LD plan.

kc: NO CHANGE TO THE HOME PACKAGE. Sheesh.

kc: I am, by the way, putting this conversation up on line. Telus’s cute teddy bears do not make up for terrible service. [Ed: Note poorly photoshopped Telus Panda, above]

Jane: You are paying $54/mo for the home phone package with LD and we can give you a lower monthly charge for it that’s why I’m offering it to you.

Jane: The best price I can give for Internet 15 is $40/mo for 6 mos, $55/mo after.

kc: Why wasn’t I offered the best price to begin with? Is it in Telus’s best interests to make me furious?

Jane: No.

Jane: I’m sorry for the inconvenience.

kc: Exactly. Now, I know you are not the person who makes the rules, but surely you can see this is ridiculous. Perhaps you can transfer me to someone who can actually give me the same price you offer some JOE off the street who hasn’t been paying a telus bill at this location for 20 YEARS. [Ed: Actually 19 years, but I was feeling testy, okay, and that affects my math skills…]

kc: **crickets**

Jane: I checked your account and there is already a pending request to upgrade your internet service.

Jane: I will apply the additional discount on your next bill onwards.

kc: That is why I signed in today. I called earlier to see why my internet was so slow. They told me they could upgrade it by tomorrow to Internet 15. I agreed. I then went online to see why I was paying $50 for sub-par service, and saw that a better price was being offered online by YOU, Telus. I said all this at the beginning of this conversation.

kc: What additional discount? What will be the amount paid per month? $30 or $40?

Jane: $40/mo for 6 mos, $55/mo after.

Jane: I cannot apply the discount right now because of the pending request to upgrade it.

Jane: Once that request has been processed by the system, I will apply the discount to make the monthly charge $40/mo for 6 mos, $55/mo after.

kc: Man, this is crazy.

kc: Why will you give a NEW customer a better deal than someone who has been paying their Telus bill for 20 years? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

Jane: I understand you would like to get the promotional pricing for new clients and that will be processed by the Loyalty Department. I can submit a callback request. They will call you within 24 hours. Will that work for you?

kc: Yes. Thank you. You might want to mention that I’m feeling mighty cranky about this situation.

Jane: Yes.

kc: Fine.

Jane: I have submitted your callback request.

Jane: Is there anything else that I can assist you with?

kc: No, that’s fine. Thank you.

Jane: Excellent.

Jane: TELUS would like to ensure that you can get help 24/7. You may check this link anytime if you need more information: http://www.telus.com/help

Jane: I hope I was able to give you the information that you need so that the right department can assist you with your concern.

Jane: Thank you for using TELUS Care Chat Support. Have a great night! 🙂

So there you have it. I’m pretty sure the people at Telus are spitting on my internet, or whatever the equivalent is. But the way I see it, the current policy is to offer sub-standard service until you complain, then try to up-sell you on something else as a distraction, and THEN charge you MORE than someone who hasn’t been paying them regularly for 20+ years.

It’s moments like this that I wish my friend James McCann was here. He’s never let corporate greed go unchallenged.

James, I tried to channel you today. We’ll see what comes of it.

What do YOU think? Let me know in the comments!

More soon…

~kc

And it’s been an eventful one, including two birthdays [Canada and my son’s — he’s the younger…] baking a cake and pulling a car out of a ditch with my jeep. But I can’t let the day go by without sharing this fun cover reveal for an upcoming release by YA writer Denise Jaden.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE Cover Reveal and ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER Giveaway!

Here are a few of Denise’s thoughts on Foreign Exchange and its cover…

I’m so incredibly excited to share my cover of Foreign Exchange with you! This book holds a very special place in my heart. I wrote it during a very difficult year of my life, and the characters and their stories were a real bright spot for me.

Because this book is so important to me, I’m giving away something VERY important to me to go along with this cover reveal. I was fortunate enough to receive an early copy of the highly-anticipated Isla and the Happily Ever After by one of my all-time favorite authors, Stephanie Perkins. ISLA and Foreign Exchange are both romances with swoon-worthy boys, and they’re both set partially in Europe. So I want one lucky person to receive my advanced copy of ISLA in to get you excited for Foreign Exchange!

Read on, check out my cover, and read the first chapter of Foreign Exchange below. It’ll all help you in earning extra entries to win my copy of Isla and the Happily Ever After!

And here is the beautiful cover…

Jamie Monroe has always played it safe. That is, until her live-for-the-moment best friend, Tristan, jets off to Italy on a student exchange program. Left alone with her part-time mother and her disabled brother, Jamie discovers that she is quite capable of taking her own risks, starting with her best friend’s hotter-than-hot older brother, Sawyer. Sawyer and Tristan have been neighbors for years, but as Jamie grows closer to the family she thought she knew, she discovers some pretty big secrets.

As she sinks deeper into their web of pretense, she suspects that her best friend may not be on a safe exchange program at all. Jamie sets off to Europe on a class trip with plans to meet up with Tristan, but when Tristan stops all communication, suddenly no one seems trustworthy, least of all the one person she was starting to trust—Sawyer. 

One of the entries in the Rafflecopter below will ask you a question from the above chapter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

* Note – Click through to the Rafflecopter Widget HERE.

So go ahead, celebrate by entering Denise’s contest — and happy 147th Canada Day!

~kc

to smell the flowers this morning. How has your summer begun…?

The crazy continues here at kcdyer central, so a moment enjoying the garden is always welcome. Hoping you can find some peace today!

More soon…

~kc

creative commons image by Becky Bokern. Thanks, Becky!Router crashed yesterday — and the usual chaos ensued. Back online now, with just time to suggest the following for your 100 word challenge…

Write about the teeny tiny problem — easily solved — that instead sets off a firestorm/disaster/nightmare. Go!

More soon…

~kc

How is your 100 word challenge progressing? I heard some good feedback on how some of you are addressing the subject of loss in your work. It’s interesting, you know, because loss is so different than conflict. Loss — true loss — there is no coming back from. No action can change it. In life and on the page, people can be defined by their loss, or move past it or even never get over it. Loss is a route into character, albeit an often painful one. I hope exploring it has helped you with your story.

Tomorrow’s challenge is almost the opposite, in many ways. Hunger is the state of longing that can move a story forward in so many ways — hunger for food, for love, for power. So…

Use your hundred words to explore what your character is hungry for. Hunger for food is an awesome metaphor — can you use your character’s favourite food to launch you into an exploration of what they are truly hungry for? What’s stopping them from getting what they want and eating it all in one sitting?

Have fun cooking up this challenge!

More soon…

~kc

[If you are reading this post and wondering just what the heck is going on, you might want to click HERE to read the genesis of the ‘kc 100 word challenge’. And if this challenge isn’t for you, another route to jumpstart your writing is the Famous Yahtzee Method! Either way….This Day We Write!]

Well.

This has been a pretty tough month for me, on a number of fronts. So, let’s talk about loss, shall we? I’m kinda in the mood…

For your 100 word challenge, subject one of your characters to an unexpected –and therefore shocking — loss. How do they cope? How does this help define them as a person? How does it change them forever?

Let me know how it goes. You know where to find me.

More soon…

~kc

A quick one tonight, in honour of the Camelopardalis…

A third of our lives [give or take, latitudinally-speaking] is spent under a night-time sky. For tomorrow…

Use your 100 word challenge to celebrate the night sky. Is it a backdrop? Is it the setting itself? Does it light the path, unexpectedly? And just how do your protagonist’s eyes reflect starlight, anyway?

More soon…

~kc

[If you are reading this post and wondering just what the heck is going on, you might want to click HERE to read the genesis of the ‘kc 100 word challenge’. And if this challenge isn’t for you, another route to jumpstart your writing is the Famous Yahtzee Method! Either way….This Day We Write!]

Rare Scottish Proboscis…For the next writing prompt, I’d like you to turn your attention to the most neglected part of the sensory setting in most stories — the olfactory.

What does it smell like in this scene — a freshly rain-washed morning? The inside of a week-old noodle box? The insole of a teen basketball star’s shoes?

Describing scent can be a lot of fun, but it’s not enough just to mark your territory. You need that odour to drive the story forward in its own way.

‘Because she smelled of Jasmine, he…’

‘The funk of untreated sewage seared her nose hairs clean away, so she…’

‘Rich, raw and coppery, the smell rose up from the entrails as she…’

Well, you get the idea. Now let’s see you WRITE it:

Use your 100 words to not only add sensory depth through scent, but to drive the story forward on the strength of the smell alone.

I’d love to see what you come up with — feel free to share in the comments below — or send me a snip of 140 characters or less on twitter, @kcdyer! Speaking of twitter, as we are teetering on the edge of 900 followers, I rashly promised a random draw for a book AND a real English Cadbury chocolate bar [is there any other kind?] when we hit the big 900. Spread the word to join in the fun.

And of course, there will be…

More soon…!

~kc

[If you are reading this post and wondering just what the heck is going on, you might want to click HERE to read the genesis of the ‘kc 100 word challenge’. And if this challenge isn’t for you, another route to jumpstart your writing is the Famous Yahtzee Method! Either way….This Day We Write!]

A great guy for changing hats: author James McCannHow goes the challenge? Getting your 100 words in every day? If you have been, this post will bring you up to 500 words for the week. Congratulations — and keep at it!

Tomorrow’s 100 word challenge is to help get you past a rough spot. That place where your character or their story has just gotten stuck. What are you going to do?

Step away from the problem by changing your hat.

Pick another character — not your protagonist — and write the scene from their point of view. Switch hats and see if you don’t find a new insight to get the story moving again.

A new point of view…a new perspective.

Happy writing!

More soon…

~kc

[If you are reading this post and wondering just what the heck is going on, you might want to click HERE to read the genesis of the ‘kc 100 word challenge’. And if this challenge isn’t for you, another route to jumpstart your writing is the Famous Yahtzee Method! Either way….This Day We Write!]