Bell Canada Caught Lying In Advertisements... Continues Advertising Because It Doesn't Believe Ad Review Group

from the hear-no-evil... dept

Fri, Jan 23rd 2009 3:05pm — Mike Masnick

Bell Canada is taking an interesting approach to being called out for lying in its ads to consumers concerning network performance: it's simply ignoring the whole thing. Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) found that Bell Canada was being quite misleading in claiming that Bell Canada was the "fastest network across North America." Now, there may be different ways to judge the speed of broadband offered on a network, and you would think that a company would respond with some data to support its side. Bell Canada, on the other hand, has said that it simply doesn't recognize ASC as a legitimate organization, and therefore, it can go about its business and advertising.

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Filed Under: advertising, truth in advertising
Companies: bell canada

23 Comments

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Skeptical Cynic (profile), 23 Jan 2009 @ 4:10pm

It Happens...
Well that is one way of looking at it.
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cvpunk, 23 Jan 2009 @ 4:18pm

umm..... ok
So they decided to take the 5 year old approach.
"Na-uh!"
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2009 @ 4:22pm

when did bush start running bell canada?

must be his new job
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- Skeptical Cynic (profile), 23 Jan 2009 @ 4:25pm
  
  Re:
  Shut up. You really show how stupid you are with comments like that. Also since you are an Anonymous Coward you just show you don't have a clue.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2009 @ 5:00pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Wow George,
    You're kind of oversensitive eh?
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    - Skeptical Cynic (profile), 23 Jan 2009 @ 5:06pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Still a coward.
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      - Steven, 23 Jan 2009 @ 5:35pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Talk about immature... Looks like someone can't take a joke. Are you Bush's little B*tch or something? Get a life.
        
        BTW AC, I got a kick out of it.
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        Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2009 @ 6:59am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Why do you think he's bush's little bitch? Just because he's bent over with his arse in the air and his trousers around his ankles doesn't make him a bitch. Oh right, it does....
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Griffon, 23 Jan 2009 @ 4:24pm

but what and they do
Well if it's a totally toothless organization with no regulatory power then they can certainly get away with this.
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zergy, 23 Jan 2009 @ 4:40pm

who has better experience.
Personal Experience. Bell highspeed sucked from when I first had it 10 years ago. It was the onlything available at the time. Switched to the other guy's and haven't looked back. Only thing good about bell is its a different IP everytime you connect. But connection was always lousy. But thats my experience. Bell service and products have never been good. But people says the same about who I'm with now. They are with bell for the poor service and products. Sorry way off topic. Just ranting
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Seen this before, 23 Jan 2009 @ 4:51pm

They know full well
Companies know that they can lie in their ads.
They do not care.

I recall a news item some time ago where a company was in court for something and attempted to declare its right to free speech, like it was to be considered on par with a human. I do not recall the outcome .....
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ScytheNoire, 23 Jan 2009 @ 5:32pm

It's Bell
Bell Canada is known for it's corruption and abuse of power. The government has given it way too much and allowed it to do whatever it wants. It continues to illegally throttled competition, and so lying in advertising is just par for the course as far as Bell Canada goes.

If this was an American company, there would be monopoly and antitrust lawsuits galore.
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Geoff C, 23 Jan 2009 @ 8:39pm

Bell Service [Internet DSL]
we had Bell's DSL service the very first week that it was available in Guelph, and it was never as fast as promised.
Bell wanted to charge us $55.00 + taxes to come and clean the terminal block contacts in this apt.bldg. I used to install tel equipment, and if the contacts were not clean, then voice and DSL would always be a problem.
Bell lost over $300.00 per month of business from us, because of this silly charge! Bell will never be any different until there is a wholesale change of the old Bell managers and execs, IMHO.
Rogers service is great and is as promised!
Bye, bye, Bell! And go clean your public pay 'phone once a year would be great too!
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- John Wilson, 24 Jan 2009 @ 10:30am
  
  Re: Bell Service [Internet DSL]
  Lemme see here. Bell diagnosed dirty contacts on a terminal block and wants to charge you.
  
  I admit that's interesting. Must be some old screw down terminal because if it's punch down one pair of corroded pins would mean far more of them there. If the it's BIX the problem would be worse. (Yes, I'm familiar with telecom.)
  
  Still, it strikes me that Bell would be much better off to clean the entire problem block and eat the cost for the simple reason that they'd retain customers. I guess not. Doesn't take long on punch down, either. (There's even simple ways to get early corrosion out of BIX though if it's advanced it's impossible. I'd be more concerned about how it got there in the first place.) For an R15 block about 2 minutes a pair.
  
  I guess in Ontario Bell doesn't face as aggressive a competitor as Shaw vs Telus in the West. (To say that Rogers was hated out here is a serious understatement.) So both Shaw and Telus here go out of their way to clean up minor irritants like this.
  
  As for Bell being the fastest broadband available in its service area I'd take that with a huge grain of salt. Every delivery system has it's pluses and minuses right down to the capacity of twisted pair vs cable. Being the fastest in downtown Toronto, again a doubtful claim, doesn't interest me if I want high speed in Wawa.
  
  Oh, and pay stations aren't cleaned because Telcos lose money on them. Lots of it, I'm afraid.
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Michael Langford, 24 Jan 2009 @ 9:15am

Bell who?
People still use those crooks? Theres cheaper and better alternatives that suck a whole lot less...
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neil, 24 Jan 2009 @ 11:43am

boycott bell! F@*#in' with your cash is the only thing you kids seem to understand!
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jan 2009 @ 11:48am

Does Mike Masnick know how to read?
So it goes from a story in the Toronto Star about CDMA wireless networks and it becomes a story about broadband in Techdirt.....

And the commenters are as clueless.....
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2009 @ 5:28am

If bell says it is so then it must be.
How could anyone else be faster... Bell controls the main lines and has said it does regulate the bandwidth... so.... if you control the speed for everyone else you can always guarantee you are faster.
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Francois Desfosses, 26 Jan 2009 @ 11:08am

Bell
Woot! something i can talk about!!! as being an old CGI employee, serving Bell Canada Client, specificaly, the technician who installed the telephone, internet, expressvue, i was partly in charge of the system that controls all that tech stuff...

lets be honest on something... all external GWI's are equiped with let's say 1 or 2 100MB net card... standard... and inside a GWI's, you can have arround 2000 client for highspeed. if all 2000 are connected at the same time... they will be dirrected to those 2 network cards.... now make the count!

as a matter of facts, Bell systems, never guarante their speed. they allways says that IF you are under 4 KM of cables between you and the C.O. you are guaranted to have a connection, outside the 4 KM of cable, you are treaded as best effort support.

Bell is loaning their equipment to other companys... behind the wires, if other companies are using difefrent technologies, yes they can become faster than Bell, BUT still, if these cpompanies are using Bell infrastructure, they still are limited of 4 KM of wires before having a signal loss...

so in my opinion, even tho i could had a bell highspeed (well, suposed to be highspeed) at half price, due to me working at CGI, i ALWAYS been with VIDEOTRON. CABLE POWER!!! coaxial is the best for signal quality, and the network is sisco based, mac filtered cells, so if someone steel my cable modem, he cant use it...

thats why Bell had to create their connectivity software, they couldnt control who was logged in... so if someone stole the HS modem, in the past, they just had to connect it to a phone line somewhere else, just praying that the GWI's had network card in it... and BOOM, internet access free... isnt it AMAZING! i love uncle TOM (tete a claques)

and im not talking about internet technical support of Bell...

the main trouble, is Bell relied too long on their current equipment... regular RJ11 Cables are outdated... their old equipment is failling, there is not much upgradability for better speed, so they need a bigger bandwith, and knowing the current Bell position, they wont do that for a long period of time... resession hit hards on big companies, and videotron stroke hard on bell too, they had to cut a lot of staff, and cgi too had to. so before that bell is gonna change all their infra, they will still use RJ11 for a long time...

they where the only phone companies for too long, and they just sit down on their customers/clients without taking care of them, now that there is other competitors, they have to rethink everything... and lovely, they do it by sending support outside to india!

live long and prosper VIDEOTRON...
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2009 @ 1:07pm

bell canada have always been crooks and more so now as they profit from crime.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2009 @ 1:12pm

BOYCOTT BELL CANADA !!!
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sangfroid, 4 Apr 2009 @ 12:45pm

Canada has its Corporate embarassements too!
Bell Canada...so unlike Canadians. Nothing but lies, smoke and mirrors. The great Internet Deception is still underway and allowed to continue.

Can't wait for the expiration of my contract. Bye Bye...dish, modum and ringer. An over-priced package of false pretenses.
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Fred Neathway, 27 Oct 2014 @ 4:29am

bell incompatance and theivery
I was a bell user for years and then I started looking at my bills and there was a lot of discrepancies,but I could never get anybody to care I would get somebody I could not understand or never get a response,this went on for months and finally I cancelled all ties with bell and now I get calls and junk mail every week I will never go back to bell and they are ripping people off and should be stopped
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