Some 30,000 Shaw customers, mostly in Calgary, spent much of yesterday without phone service, and many more western Canadians experienced Internet problems as a result of a small electrical fire at a Shaw Communications facility in downtown Calgary.

Described by a news report as “chaos,” the fire also brought down at least three Calgary radio stations, an area bank’s ATM network, hospital communications, government offices, and Calgary’s 311 government information service.

A transformer fire on the 13th floor at Shaw’s Calgary headquarters, combined with the sprinkler system that put the fire out, proved the old adage that water and electricity don’t mix. Calgary’s power company disconnected electrical service to the building, creating additional outages for corporate customers who use Shaw’s data center, also inside the building.

As a result of the fire and its impact, Calgary officials decided to activate the city’s municipal emergency plan.

Shaw’s Internet service problems were felt as far away as Vancouver, according to news reports. As of late this afternoon, Shaw’s website is still offline.

While phone service has largely been restored, everything is not back to normal at Shaw’s headquarters, where many workers were turned away as late as this afternoon. Several streets around the building remained closed as of this morning.

Calgary Emergency Management Agency director Bruce Burrell called the incident “a major telecommunications failure,” and noted it was felt across the province and beyond.

Shaw joined local and provincial officials to assess the incident and the fire department response, as well as reviewing its impact.

It has been a difficult week for Calgary and Alberta generally. On Monday, just as the Calgary Stampede Rodeo fired into high gear, Alberta’s electricity companies began rolling blackouts after six power generators went down.

Questions are being raised about the impact of both events.

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CTV Calgary covers the impact of the fire at Shaw Communications’ headquarters in Calgary, Alb. and the cleanup still ongoing.  (6 minutes)

AT&T denied it was billing the DeFazio family. (KCBS)

A Sacramento family that continued to receive bills from AT&T more than a half-year after closing their account got an interesting response when they questioned the charges: AT&T denied they were billing the family at all.

Naomi DeFazio cancelled her service with AT&T in November, but nobody told AT&T’s billing department who continued to faithfully bill her $4.84 a month for long distance service the family stopped using. The family wants the charges stopped, but that proved more difficult than they first imagined when AT&T claimed they were not, in fact, billing her at all.

That was news to DeFazio, who showed a growing pile of AT&T phone bills to a local consumer reporter.

“I think they’re just expecting me to pay it just to get them off my back,” DeFazio told KCBS. “Nobody wants to take responsibility for looking into this.”

KCBS:

AT&T, a communications company, eventually admitted it had a communication problem.

“We inadvertently billed a monthly minimum charge and the taxes and surcharges which should not have applied,” said company spokesman John Britton. “We have corrected it.”

AT&T apologized, wiping out her balance.

“It would have been a lot nicer to have an explanation a lot earlier in this process,” DeFazio said.

If you are getting the runaround from AT&T, call 1-800-791-6661 to reach AT&T’s Office of the President. Those executive level customer service representatives are empowered to get things done for customers that lower level representatives cannot.

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KCBS shows AT&T’s phone bills to viewers that the phone company denied ever existed. It took a consumer reporter to finally get AT&T to stop billing a Sacramento woman for long distance service she canceled more than a half-year ago.  (2 minutes)

Tony Cosentino has been trying to speak with an AT&T supervisor for weeks, but the company’s customer service representatives have refused to put him through.

At issue is a $652.52 charge AT&T sent to collections for U-verse equipment the company claims Cosentino never returned after ending service. But Cosentino has proof in the form of a shipping confirmation that he did, in fact, return the equipment, but AT&T has refused to listen.

With collection agencies calling Cosentino’s home for more than a year, the frustration peaked when Cosentino was turned down for a mortgage refinance when banks discovered his credit score took an 80 point plunge thanks to AT&T.

That credit hit could have stayed with him for the next seven years, but Cosentino called KOVR-Sacramento’s consumer reporter and let him chase down AT&T for an explanation.

Sure enough, AT&T quickly discovered the last year and a half of collections hell for Cosentino was all for nothing.

AT&T spokesman Dan Newman called it a “system error,” saying “we appreciate you flagging it.” They also agreed to remove the negative information from Cosentino’s credit report so he can win back unblemished credit.

The one valuable piece of news from the entire affair was that Newman disclosed AT&T’s executive customer service number — 1-800-791-6661. This team of customer service specialists is authorized to handle disputes at its  discretion, which gives customers the opportunity to talk to someone that can make things happen, and quickly. If you run into a dispute with AT&T their usual customer service representatives cannot solve it to your satisfaction, call AT&T’s executive customer service and see if you can’t win a better outcome.

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KOVR’s Curtis Ming is back again to fight Big Telecom, this time on behalf of a Rancho Cordova man who had his credit ruined by AT&T.  (3 minutes)

Detroit U-verse technicians are at high risk of being confronted by crooks looking for valuable electronics.

AT&T U-verse technicians carry iPads, cell phones, and other expensive electronic equipment in trucks destined for service calls, and the crooks know it.

At least 10 technicians have been robbed in northwest Detroit in the last week alone, some at gunpoint.

“They’re scared. Afraid to go in certain areas,” said CWA Union President Greg Streeby. “A tech was approached by an individual with a gun who said, ‘Give me your iPad.’

So far, union leaders have been unimpressed with the reaction of AT&T, leading one worker to suggest the company does not care if technicians live or die.

Thieves learned AT&T’s U-verse branded trucks come stocked with expensive electronics, including cell phones and iPads, and they have become magnets for smash and grab robberies while technicians are inside customer homes. Since the robberies began, some technicians have started bringing valuable equipment inside with them.

Thieves learned to adapt, and are now willing to confront technicians as they return to their trucks, sometimes at gunpoint, and order them to hand over the electronics. Technicians have lost phones, laptops, tablets, and whatever else the thieves can steal and resell.

Jim Simons has never seen anything like it, and he has been working for AT&T as a field technician for more than 20 years.

“We are defenseless. We don’t carry any weapons,” Simons told WDIV News. “Not allowed to.”

AT&T workers were told by administrators there is nothing the company can do about the robberies, at which point a group of workers left and began a union-backed protest outside of several AT&T facilities across Detroit.

AT&T promptly locked out those workers and deactivated their ID badges, and their vehicles remain locked and inaccessible inside AT&T gated parking lots.

The company claims it is working on a solution, but union officials want an extra service technician temporarily sent on service calls in dangerous areas to keep an eye on the company’s property while another worker attends to the customer. AT&T has rejected that proposal.

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WDIV first told its Detroit audience about the AT&T holdups last Friday in this exclusive report. (2 minutes)

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Since WDIV’s first report, safety conditions have further deteriorated for AT&T workers, some of whom have now begun public protests outside of AT&T facilities demanding more safety while on service calls. (2 minutes)

Sally Medina is a Sacramento mom grandfathered with her daughter on an unlimited data plan, or so she thought.

When daughter Leticia started getting text messages from Verizon alerting her she used half of her data allowance for the month, the Medina family learned for the first time Verizon had quietly switched them away from their unlimited data plan to one with just a 2GB usage allowance.

The family suspects the change was made when Leticia upgraded to a new phone back in January, and did not realize it until slowly growing data use finally triggered the first usage alert from Verizon.

Medina is angry because Verizon pulled the rug out from their agreement to allow the family to keep unlimited data.

“This was the agreement. We did our part. I think they should follow through on theirs,” Medina told CBS Sacramento consumer reporter Kurtis Ming. “They told her it was going to be unlimited so she didn’t question it.”

Too late to fix it now, came the reply from Verizon Wireless, who refused to switch the family back to unlimited data.

“Selling data consumption is incredibly lucrative, especially since data consumption is expected to rise. People are getting more hungry for it. And also people will start using more data as the network speeds improve,” CNET senior editor Jessica Dolcourt told the consumer reporter.

Dolcourt added carriers have a vested interest kicking customers off unlimited data as quickly as possible so they can start earning the additional revenue that comes with more expensive tiered data plans.

Verizon today launched its biggest change yet with its new “Share Everything” plan. Consumer groups like Free Press agree it does represent a big change. Verizon used to charge $29.99 a month for unlimited data. As of today, it charges $50 for 1GB on its newest plan.

The company says existing customers grandfathered on unlimited data plans can keep them, but only if they do not upgrade their phones or are willing to pay the unsubsidized upgrade price, which can run as high as $600. Either way, Verizon Wireless will get paid.

In light of the media attention on the company, the Medina family ultimately won what they wanted — an apology from Verizon and a return to unlimited data for daughter Leticia. But even she will not escape choosing a different plan if she wants a discounted phone in the future.

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KOVR in Sacramento reports Verizon Wireless snuck away an unlimited data plan that one local customer was promised she could keep.  (2 minutes)