I had the same type of call from that number (866-366-8212) earlier today, I actually made an appointment, however I am having serious doubts, so I cancelled the 'appointment'. If I need a Bell Technician, I will call Bell to arrange it. I actually called Tech Service and they told me NOT to let them in, they could have gotten my name & number from anywhere, e.g. phone book, etc. They also said Bell does not make those types of calls. I should have gone with my gut instinct, (was suspicious) I will know going forward. Stick to the old adage, 'don't call us, we'll call you'!

I just got a call now about sending a Bell technician to check the filters on my phone lines inside my house to improve the speed of my internet connection.  I argued with the lady about it being a scam, why me, what about my neighbours, why can't they do this from outside, Bell doing something for free, etc.  As with other replies above, I got a phone number 1-866-366-8212 & their hours of business.  I did make an appointment & got a ticket number.  Shortly after that call, I phoned 310-surf and spoke to a technician.  He finally told me it was all legitimate, it was for free, quoted the same ticket number and appointment.  So, I guess I'll go through with it, unless the person coming to the door looks seedy, doesn't drive a bell truck & does not show me proper id.  Then the door gets slammed.

Thanks for the reassurance. I also called Bell just to see. They confirmed that the call was ligit.

June 08/13: Just had this same phone call. I also called Bell myself, at first the fellow said it was a scam but put me on hold to do some more checking. He came back to say it was a ligit call; that the team is going around in our area checking the lines for possible issues. Being proactive is what I got from it.

Man with a VERY heavy accent called from this number claiming to be from Bell & wanted to send somone out to check our lines for our internet speed. He also gave me 1-866-366-8212 to call back to if I needed to change the appointment. I thought the whole thing was extremely odd. I called Bell  310-SURF (7873)  myself to check. At first the Bell agent thought it was a scam but then put me on hold to do some further checking. He came back and said it was ligit; their sending a team around in my area but not to check the speed, it's to check the lines to be proactive in preventing disconnections or other issues.

Many red flag posters are complaining

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/bell-sending-technician-953716/

Received same call from "Bell" - 1-888-782-1362 and also very concerned.  My internet is working fine but they are requesting an 'in-house' visit.

Think that this is a scam and will cancel appointment.

I received a call from this number (1-866-366-8212) last week; a woman named Janice (Canadian accent), who claimed to be calling from Bell, said that there had been some service interruptions with my Internet connection and told me that Bell would like to send a technician to fix these issues, both inside my place and outside. I hadn?t noticed any problems with the Internet connection, but I agreed to have a technician come over the following Tuesday to check the line and modem.

However, after thinking that the call was rather suspicious (it?s hard to believe that Bell would be looking for extra work to do, especially without receiving any complaints), I called this phone number on the Monday in order to cancel the appointment, but could get only a recorded message (even though I was calling during their supposed work hours, 10 am to 8 pm).

I then called the main Bell phone number (310-BELL) and managed to speak to a customer representative, who told me that the call and appointment were actually legitimate. I still requested a cancellation (as someone pointed out above, this might be a round-about way for Bell to sell upgrades, maybe through a third-party company of some kind). However, before getting confirmation of the cancellation, I had to spend about 30 minutes on the line, because the customer rep passed me over to a technician who kept me on hold while he checked various things. Despite getting the cancellation, I?m half expecting a technician to show up tomorrow anyway.

Overall, the calls from this number do seem to come from Bell, but it?s difficult to say whether or not there is some kind of scam involved (eg, trying to trick customers into paying for service upgrades they don?t really want or need). If Bell is genuinely trying to help customers (which is a good thing), it needs to find a better way of approaching them in order to avoid suspicion and wasted time.

this is my concern too - in 7 years of bell sat tv and dsl services, every time I have had a complaint, bell has started with a 75$ fee just to show up!  This behaviour - I got the call last night - is totally diferent, so much so that I do not buy it.  there is ZERO chance that Bell is performing this service just to check and make sure your internert is performing well - they could do this online with a speed test, or check meters on your usage.  bell just does not operate this way.

Here is my take -

The obvious starting point is that SOMEONE. Is making $$ from this exercise.  Either Bell is somehow performing some upsell as suggested earlier or perhaps, as I suspect, the company that is making the calls is NOT actually Bell, but has some third party cotract with Bell.  I can't connect the dots but can see a situation where somehow they trigger kickbacks or payments from bell.

The call I got came from 888-366-8212. Same thing as described by most people here, they said they wanted to send a technician to repair my modem, that the modem had had intermittent problems 13 times in the last day, etc.  

I said I was too busy to have a technician over and hadn't noticed anything wrong. The woman, Elizabeth (ID: EY08838) was quite insistent, and asked why I wouldn't want someone to come over and fix the issue proactively. "Are you going away on a vacation?" she asked  

At which point this really seemed too much like a scam to me. A cold caller asking if I was going to be away from my home for a long period of time?? Immediately looked it up online and found this thread.

This is legitimate phone from Bell, They are working on special project and its call Eagle. Its improve affected area.

They have been calling me 2-3 times a day, every single day of the week, for several weeks. Caller ID says "Bell Repair". They never leave any messages, or they just hang up on the voice mail. How annoying.

im a bell agent give a call to 310 bell to make sure please just got a call of a cx saying the same so please make sure with bell first after asking th caller for agent id

I got a call from these people about three years ago - a Bell truck showed up and a guy who appeared to be from Bell (hey, he was wearing a tool belt what do I know) came in and started poking around on the computer. Looked suspicious to me so I asked him if there really was slow service, wouldn't it be on the outside connections to the house, rather than my home network? He more or less agreed with that which made me wonder why he needed access to my computer. Nothing ever seemed to come of it (and the Internet service didn't improve) but I was always suspicious afterwards.
Well wouldn't you know, they called again last week (April 2011), claiming to be from the Bell office in New Brunswick, saying the Internet was slow in our area and "someone" had to come in and check it. I called the number this morning (888-782-1362) and got a recording implying it was outside their business hours, although it clearly wasn't if they are in Ontario or anywhere east of here. I called back half an hour later and got a Bell message again, but eventually it takes you to a message that says "for reasons beyond our control we can't take your call" (?) Very suspicious.
How hard is it to get a Bell truck, or use Bell for some undisclosed purpose?
Seems pretty obvious to me that Bell can check Internet service outside your home, they don't need to be inside poking around on your computer. My advice, say no next time these people call. If they really are concerned they're giving you poor service ask for a discount, then see what happens!

I received this call too.  The guy on the phone with an east asian accent said they wanted to maximize my internet speed and said I wasn't getting everything I was paying for.    I have to admit Bell Sympatico has it's problems and is very expensive and they DO NOT GO LOOKING for work to do.   It's hard enough to get them to listen to you when they pick up the phone in customer service over in India.   I get so fed up with this nonsense.  It gets to the point where you can't trust a soul.

Had a call from a heavy accent, saying he was calling on behalf of Bell to schedule testing of our internet service. He said they are following-up poor service reports in our area. Said they may need to also test inside my house as well and wanted to book a time when we will be home. It was hard to understand his English at times. Yes, my speed is always slow.
With all the fraud, corruption, scams and incompetence who can you trust anymore? The guy could be an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka or Lybia or Somalia? No wonder there is so much paranoia.
Instead of threatening their customers with extra usage fees because they don't understand how to roll-out an innovative competitive digital telecom service.
If they are honestly monitoring poor service levels and improving network performance, then if it was my company....I would have made a BIG PUBLIC announcement about a BIG PLAN to (fix all the crappy local loops that are hampering customer Internet performance levels).
Then anyone receiving these very strange calls from people with names like Ackmed will only be annoyed not scared or confused.

They have called yet again on Mar 24  and 29 and still telling me that they are taking me off their lists.  Morons!  I am seriously thinking of yanking everything since they are so friggin annoying.

Its Bell repair, and they're morons. in the last 2 weeks i have talked with 3 different morons that said they would take me off the auto dialing lists... stupid thing just called here again.  Jeez do they have anybody working there that doesn't have a really heavy accent?  Oh and the idiots dont know why its dialing here when there doesn't seem to be anything wrong.

Got the call also,

I was agreeable until he asked me for my "b1". The one used to sign onto internet and is linked to the bell account.

I told him "No, and that I found it odd that bell would ask me for a number they gave me when I got my internet account".

I posed the scenario that "I forgot my b1 number; he needs to look it up my account and tell me". He wouldn't / couldn't do it.

Second, I arbitrarily said I got my account 7 years ago (more like 5) and he said "Ah yes, I see that on your account".

That doesn't pass the smell test. I had to hang up on him he was so persuasive, ignoring clear social cues to p****off.

My husband & I have received several calls from "Bell Repair" asking to come into our home and check the modem as they said our computer was running too slow.  They left the  1-888-782-1362 number to call back which we did and there was a voice message requesting our area code and phone number.  I contacted Bell who said they had no knowledge of the number and would not have called unless we had reported a problem.  We called Windsor Police, Fraud Branch who are looking into this complaint.  They advised that we warn others that this is not a legitimate call and we should not allow them into the home or provide them with any information.

I just got the call at 8:40pm its a piss-off to be bothered that late for a non-service service call.  the tech on the phone said that i need to make the appointment, but I cannot call them back on this 888 number because they are only open 10am to 8pm ... huh? so why are you calling me at 8:40pm?

I don't know about this, bell charges for everything, I can't see why they would want to send techs to people's houses for nothing

I am being bugged at least twice a day by calls from this number.  Why can't the CRTC and the Canada Do Not Call List do something to help us?  I never answer the calls, but they are bloody annoying.

It is not a scam.  It was indeed Bell calling to check on the status of my internet service.  If you have the new Bell modems, they give them the ability to see if your internet connection is not stable.  They have booked an appointment to check the lines at my place.  I have to say this is the first time a company has proactively done something to improve any service.  Kudos to Bell!!

Just got a call supposedly from Bell wanting to check my internet connection.

this is a legit phone number, the reason why we are calling it's because there is unstability on your lines and we are optimize your speed , if you are suspicious abt this, ask the agent to give you a confirmation number and his agent ID , contact the known bell internet phone number 310-SURF(7873) and with your comfirmation number and the agent ID , any agent on the bell internet side will be able to tell you that is a legit number

this is not a telemarketing calls , there is nothing that we are trying to sell you.

This is a legit phone call!! It is a special project calling only the affected areas which is why 310-BELL is not familiar with it.

We got suspicious when the call came in. They wanted to come and inspect my modem because they had tracked interruptions in my internet service. I'm thinkin': "Who doesn't have occasional interruptions of service or slow service now and then?"

So I took the technician's information and this number but called hat I new to be Bell Canada and spoe to a what I knew to be a legit representative.

They knew nothing of such a call and said they did not have anyone phone me about my service. Take from that what you will.

Beware - this is Bell trying to get you to unknowingly upgrade your service so they can bill you more.  Here's my story:

I received a call from this number - caller ID said "Bell Repair".  They called about my internet service (I'm with sympatico) and that there had been reports of slow or intermittent service in the area so they were sending a technician out.  Chances were that the technician would be able to find and fix the problem without coming into the house, but they needed me to be there just incase.  They wanted to schedule an appointment.

I'm not inclined to let a cold calling stranger in my home - but I googled the number, found this page and though that maybe it was legit.  So I scheduled the appointment, scratching my head at what seemed to be exceptionally good customer service on Bell's part.  I had no reason to complain about my internet service - so this seemed incredibly proactive on Bell's part.

The technician came over this morning.  He said that Bell opened a ticket saying that I called them to complain that I wasn't getting the 7MB/s that I was paying for.  I explained to him that I was paying for 5MB/s and that I hadn't called to complain to Bell in years (when I was only getting around 1MB/s although I was paying for 5). The technician told me that he's been getting sent out on these recently. He showed me the ticket, he also showed me my current service and the current speeds I was getting.  basically, I was paying for 5MB/s and getting 5 MB/s.  The scam is that by creating this ticket, the technician will say "you're getting 5, the ticket says you want 7.  Do you want 7?"  If I say yes, then we've created a contract and I'd basically have upgraded my package. They don't have to upsell me, they just have to confuse me. If I complain about paying extra when the bill comes in, I'd have to pay a cancellation fee.

Sneaky b*****ds.  

At least that' the story the tech gave me.  I had an old modem, so he installed a new one since he was there anyway.  Confirmed it wouldn't cost me anything extra and when he closed the ticket he put in the remarks section that I was happy with the 5MB and didn't want to change.

We received the same type of call. The caller knew my name.
It was someone claiming to be from Bell, wanting to make an appointment at my home to check my modem and jacks, because of unstable lines and slow Internet connection in the area. When they gave me their 888 number, they said when I call back, they would know what it is about because they made a note in their file.

Within short time, I called the well known Bell number in my area:
-after I gave them the number: 1-888-782-1362, they confirmed it is their number
-However they could not find any record of anyone calling me, saying perhaps someone called by mistake, and there is nothing to fix on my line

I received the same call from Bell Repair (Very heavy accent - difficult to understand), saying my modem
has stopped working 13 times the last 2 days.  I told him I have no trouble with the internet at any time.
Strange - the last time it did not work was at 4:47 A.M. I was not up nor on the internet.  Ah, we have
a record of the times.  I told him, give me a phone number, I will call when it is not working.  No way
would I give him an appoitment.