Bell Canada 'lost' this business owner's phone number, now he's losing Bell

UPDATE: After CBC Toronto posted this story, Edmundson heard from a senior manager at Bell Canada, who gave a sincere apology and details about why the problems occurred. The manager said he will review the file this weekend and get back to the trucking company about the outstanding bill and compensation.

Andrew Edmundson's connection to Bell Canada is as old as his family's trucking company. For 39 years, Edmundson Transportation Services of Mississauga, Ont., has had the same phone number.

Recently, he signed up for a new service — Bell Total Connect. But not only did he never receive the service he paid for, Bell also disconnected his number altogether and said it was "lost."

"They actually said, 'We've lost your phone number.' Like, how do you lose a phone number?," said Edmundson, who has discontinued his Bell service and signed with a competitor.

He learned of the disconnection from a client who had been trying to reach his trucking company for days and kept getting an "out of service" message.

Edmundson was alarmed and angry, "because it sounds like you've gone bankrupt."

"And that's the last thing I want, rumours flying around saying we disappeared," he said.

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Edmundson contacted CBC News after reading about a Toronto woman's recent battles with Bell Canada to fix her landline.

He said he feels he has no recourse and has been disregarded as a long-time, loyal customer.

"It seemed the only way to let other people know or get some kind of justice was by going public with it," he said.

No phone, erratic internet

What happened with Bell Canada was something akin to a Franz Kafka novel, he said.

Edmundson Transportation Services went almost four weeks with erratic internet service and no phone line. Edmundson says his operations manager logged 70 hours trying to troubleshoot the problem as seven Bell technicians tried to fix it.

In the meantime, the company received service bills totaling $857.02 for the Bell Total Connect hardware it had ordered and service that was never delivered. The company also lost revenue when customers couldn't reach them.

"We have no idea what we missed," Edmundson said.

He said new customers often call the next-day shipping company giving little notice to request a load moved.

"If we lost a truck for a week because of this service it's [$5,000] a week, easily," he estimated.

Taking care of business

The company has six trucks and eight employees. That's small by trucking standards but Edmundson's mother, Barbara, said that's by choice to provide personal, loyal service.

"I don't care how big your company is, you have to take care of your customers. Without them, you have no business. And Bell is not doing that," she said.

She said the company received no compensation. "Not even an apology, which would have been nice," she said.

CBC News contacted Bell Canada for an explanation and asked for an interview.

After two days, the company issued a one-line statement through spokeswoman Isabelle Boulet, who wrote: "We're certainly sorry to lose them," and that Bell regrets "the inconvenience they were caused."

In his office, looking at Bell paperwork, Andrew Edmundson noted a line that read, "Your business phone is more than just a phone line it's your connection to your customers and suppliers."

He questions whether Bell Canada actually believes that.

"If this is going to be your mantra, it has to go through all of your company. It can't just be something that your sales guys pitched on a Monday morning meeting."