Primus ... Not quite what I had hoped for ...

My vacation was winding down yesterday, when my son called me to tell me that Primus had called and required a callback that day. It was apparently urgent.

Now, he had woken me up as I got up early to meet my brother for breakfast and then popped back to the room to finish my sleep (this vacation was shorter than normal so we packed in a lot of late evenings.) I wasn't in a terrific mood when I called Primus to see what was what.

My mood soured even more as soon as I spoke with them. The first woman I spoke with said that my account was at a zero balance, so had to look further to see what was happening. Then she found what the call was about ... 4 unbilled calls. These are calls that have been made, but are not yet on my bill.

Let me repeat that so the sheer stupidity is appropriately highlighted.

Primus called me and required an immediate, urgent callback to discuss calls that were not yet billed.

It gets better.

They were warning me that someone in my house (that would be my eldest) had made 4 calls to the UK for a total of $468 ... WOW! That's highway robbery by the way.

During the subsequent discussion, it came out that they had also stolen my long distance service from Rogers back in May. I cannot remember authorizing that, since I've had a wonderful $5 per month plan for years. This really upset me, and the fees may very well have been lower through Rogers. I find it all rather sleazy ...

It gets even better.

I hung up in frustration and blinding anger and waited a while before calling back. The next woman repeated the story and I asked why they were calling, since the calls were not even on the bill yet.

She said that they need a "good faith" payment of $400 or they would have to disconnect my service. I asked if 911 would still work and she said no. I said that this was illegal and she said that I was being warned so it was legal. What I said next is unprintable.

Ok ... let's get this clear.

I have a perfect history of payment of phone bills, some rather large when my son called collect from Europe. But Primus suddenly demands a $400 "good faith" payment upon threat of disconnection. Further, they will remove my 911 service, thus putting me and my family at risk ... over a payment for a bill that contains a zero balance. A ZERO BALANCE.

Do we all have this so far?

Primus is willing to risk killing me (removal of 911 service) because they are nervous that my second large bill in three months might not get paid this time, despite the fact that it got paid last time. Further, I have a credit card on file with them so there is no chance that they will fail to get their money.

Now why would my phone company want to risk killing me over a bill that does not yet exist when I have never acted in anything but good faith?

Beats me ... but I can tell you that I will not be a Primus customer for long ... and I recommend that you avoid them like the plague! Their business practices are feudal...

Edit: Today (22 October) I moved my home phone to Rogers, thus making it a clean sweep with them. Four services, my bill will be spectacular :-)