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No more local connection

To the editor: I was shocked and disappointed the other day when I called into my TBayTel home security centre. I had accidently tripped my own security system and I quickly called in the false alarm.
To the editor:
I was shocked and disappointed the other day when I called into my TBayTel home security centre.

I had accidently tripped my own security system and I quickly called in the false alarm.

Instead of hearing a familiar friendly voice, I got a rather lengthy electronic voicemail menu.

After listening to the menu and making the correct selection, I got a male voice that asked me what city I was living in.

After a pause he asked for my address; another pause as he confirmed my name followed by another pause and finally, my password.

I asked him if I was talking to TBayTel and he said no. He gave me the name of his company and told me that he was answering my call from Sarnia, Ont. That is 1,500 kilometres from here.
I was left with a number of questions. Why is our city-owned telephone company (that is making huge profits) shipping emergency response centre jobs to southern Ontario? When Apex owned this company, the dispatchers were local.

They knew the houses, the streets and most importantly, the customer.

No delays; they picked up on the first ring and it was a human on the other end of the line ready to get into action.

There was an urgency in our local dispatcher’s voice, not a computer waiting to direct my call to someone who could not locate Thunder Bay on a map.

If someone is breaking into my home, I don’t really care that TBayTel throws the city a financial bone every year.

I want local people, who know the city, the streets and their customers, not some call centre 1,000 miles from here.

I understand there are other choices and I intend to explore my options.

Name withheld,
Thunder Bay




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