Editor’s note: The headline of this story has been updated to reflect that the customer was charged for two accounts.
A Calgary woman is warning others to double check their cellphone statements after her late father was being charged twice after switching phone companies.
Stacey Shimozawa’s dad Stan passed away in July. While she was settling the Lethbridge senior’s estate, she noticed something unsettling on one of his credit card bills.
“When I found it initially, I didn’t know if I was seeing what I thought I was seeing,” she told Global News. “So I had to call Telus and Koodo and (go) back and forth between the companies.”
She said she finally got some answers from one customer service representative.
Shimozawa believes it all started after her dad got a new cellphone and switched carriers. But she said finding out why he was being billed by both carriers wasn’t easy.
“I kept hitting a brick wall,” she said.
“Everybody told me, ‘Well this has never happened before. We don’t know what to do with it. We can’t do anything with it.'”
Shimozawa said even when she did finally get some answers, she didn’t get a resolution.
“There was absolutely nothing they could do because they could not give a refund to somebody who had been deceased,” she said she was told.
Global News reached out to Telus which also owns Koodo.
A spokesperson said: “This is a very unusual and complex case, and it took our team some time to thoroughly investigate and formally close the account of the deceased customer.”
The wireless giant added its investigation concluded that the customer was not charged twice for the same number. He had two numbers, and two accounts, one with Telus and one with Koodo, but the Koodo one was not actively being used.
The company said the customer switched carriers multiple times at the start of the year — originally switching from Fido — and did not act on a text message prompt to complete one of the porting processes.
Telus added the Fido account was eventually and successfully ported over to Telus but the customer never mentioned the Koodo account and he continued to pay his monthly bills for both accounts regularly.
Telus added this is a case others can learn from.
“We understand some of our customers may benefit from extra assistance in managing their account, and we encourage them to involve a trusted third-party – such as a family member, caregiver, or friend – as an authorized user on their account to help review billing and in making account changes.”
Shimozawa said her father probably didn’t notice the extra charges or didn’t realize what they were for, but reiterated that is not the point.
Telus has issued an apology for its customer service.
“We are very sorry that we did not immediately resolve this matter when the customer’s daughter first contacted us on Aug.28, 2021,” a company spokesperson told Global News.
“We have taken this opportunity to coach the account representatives involved as to how to best manage these difficult life events and formal account closures.”
The company said once it became aware of the issue it took just a few days to refund Shimozawa the $294 charged during those seven months.
Shimozawa said she was happy to get the refund, but added that was never her top priority.
“It was never about the money, it was just that a wrong had been done.
“Once I had spent somewhere in the neighbourhood of seven-to-nine hours on this — I didn’t want to let it go.”
She added she also believed the only reason she got a resolution was because she posted about her experience on social media and started contacting Telus’ top brass.
“I just started messaging Telus executives and that’s how I finally got a call back.”
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