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This Air Canada employee found a passenger's lost phone — then it disappeared – CBC News

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Olu Awoseyi remembers that sinking feeling after boarding a plane that he didn’t have his three-month-old, pricey Samsung phone. 

Awoseyi, his wife and two children were returning from a vacation from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. They had just taken their seats on the Toronto to Edmonton leg of their trip when he realized his phone was missing.  

He got his wife to call the phone, only to be disappointed, “We didn’t hear vibrate or ring around me, so I knew I dropped it at the point of boarding.”  

It was too close to take-off to go look for it. But when he returned home, he remembered he’d installed a security application called Bitdefender on the phone. The app was set up to snap a photo of anyone who tried to unlock the phone with the wrong PIN. 

Sure enough, he found a photo taken approximately 90 minutes after he’d boarded his flight: It was an Air Canada employee staring back at him.

He studied the photo carefully, double-checking the colours of the person’s uniform. “At first I was kind of excited,” he told Go Public.

“I think I’m in good hands. If it’s an employee of Air Canada that found it, then I’m OK.” 

That was Oct. 9. Over the next five weeks his optimism turned to anger and frustration as he repeatedly called and emailed Air Canada’s customer service and communicated with its online customer support chat service — to no avail.

He also tried to track the phone using Bitdefender and the Google Find My Device app. But the phone appeared to be switched off, so the trackers didn’t work. 

A man sits at a desk that is crowded with several laptops and computer keyboards.
Olu Awoseyi was optimistic the photo would help him get the phone back. Over the next five weeks his optimism turned to anger and frustration as Air Canada seemed unable to locate it. (Trevor Wilson/CBC)

On Nov. 9, an Air Canada agent said a Samsung phone had been turned in at the Pearson Airport’s lost and found. But Awoseyi had checked, and the lost and found service said they did not have his phone. 

A little over a week later, Air Canada customer service wrote a conflicting email, saying the airline had identified and interviewed the employee in the photo. 

WATCH | Missing phone, mystery employee:

Edmonton man battles Air Canada over lost cellphone | Go Public

20 hours ago

Duration 2:02

Edmonton’s Olu Awoseyi has spent months trying to get Air Canada to either retrieve or replace his expensive new cellphone. An airline employee found it and claims to have placed it in a lost and found, but it disappeared. Awoseyi says the airline has given him the runaround ever since.

It said, according to the employee and an eyewitness, the phone had been returned to the Air Canada customer service desk, in Pearson’s international area. 

Despite this, the email went on to explain, the phone was nowhere to be found.

“We have conducted our own thorough search this morning at the airport’s Lost and Found, as well as at Air Canada’s Lost and Found,” it said, “but regrettably, we have not Located your phone.” 

A product shot of a mobile phone
Awoseyi is still paying for the lost Samsung S23 Ultra phone that he bought as part of his mobile plan contract. (Samsung)

That Nov. 16 email was Air Canada customer support’s last communication with Awoseyi. Even the chat bot stopped replying to him.

In a statement to Go Public, Toronto Pearson Airport said it has “no written or video record” of the phone being dropped off at its lost and found.

Go Public asked the country’s two largest airlines and Canada’s busiest airports about their success rates reuniting customers with their lost items. The airports report thousands of lost items each year, especially electronics like phones and tablets. 

Air Canada claimed a 92 per cent success rate last year. Pearson appears to have been in second place, behind Vancouver International Airport, saying it got more than half of its lost items back to their owners. 

In a statement to Go Public, Air Canada denied responsibility for the lost phone “as it is a personal item. Regrettably, several efforts to locate the item…have been unsuccessful.”

With the case unresolved and the last documented sighting of the phone in the hands of an Air Canada employee, Awoseyi is left thinking the worst.

A photo of a man with the face blurred out, alongside a printed warning indicating he has tried to unlock a mobile phone.
This is the photo and alert Awoseyi received from the Bitdefender app. (Bitdefender)

“Why try to unlock [the phone], when you don’t have a code for the phone? So that made me believe this was a case of a theft.”

Regardless of what happened, Weston Powell, a Toronto lawyer, says Air Canada likely had an obligation to take care of the phone.

“Finders keepers, losers weepers — that’s not an accurate summation of the law,” Powell said.

A man in a blue suit smiles for the camera.
Toronto lawyer Weston Powell says Air Canada is likely liable for the lost phone. (Mark Bochsler/CBC)

“When someone comes into possession of someone else’s property and that person’s identification is known, they do have obligations to return that property.”

Powell says the person snapped in the photo holding the phone may have some explaining to do, “But beyond that, Air Canada would also owe obligations because they are vicariously liable for their employee’s actions.” 

Chris Choi, a professor at the School of Hospitality, Food and Beverage Management at the University of Guelph, says Air Canada’s response is the sort of thing that erodes customers’ trust.   

He says it’s not only the fact that the airline can’t account for the missing phone, but that its customer support has stopped communicating with Awoseyi altogether. 

“Ignoring the customer like that seems like you’re trying to avoid fixing the problem,” Choi said. “This situation can harm the airline’s reputation for a long time.” 

Awoseyi has since redoubled his efforts to hold Air Canada to account. He filed a complaint with the Peel Regional Police, the closest municipal police force to Pearson Airport and hired a lawyer, who in a Jan. 8 letter asked for compensation for his phone and legal fees. 

That letter received no response until almost three weeks later — three days after Go Public’s initial inquiries about the case — from a lawyer in Air Canada’s department of Litigation and Management, Global Claims.

That lawyer asked for the same information Awoseyi had already communicated to the airline’s customer support channels multiple times, and promised to get back to him “as soon as possible.” As of Friday, Awoseyi has received no response.

For now, he says he’s still on the hook for about $2,000 left on the contract for his uninsured phone.

“I think it’s disappointing.” he said. “I would think an organization like Air Canada should have a zero tolerance for things like this.”

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Go Public is an investigative news segment on CBC-TV, radio and the web.

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Telus prioritizing ‘most important customers,’ avoiding ‘unprofitable’ offers: CFO

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Telus Corp. says it is avoiding offering “unprofitable” discounts as fierce competition in the Canadian telecommunications sector shows no sign of slowing down.

The company said Friday it had fewer net new customers during its third quarter compared with the same time last year, as it copes with increasingly “aggressive marketing and promotional pricing” that is prompting more customers to switch providers.

Telus said it added 347,000 net new customers, down around 14.5 per cent compared with last year. The figure includes 130,000 mobile phone subscribers and 34,000 internet customers, down 30,000 and 3,000, respectively, year-over-year.

The company reported its mobile phone churn rate — a metric measuring subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.09 per cent in the third quarter, up from 1.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. That included a postpaid mobile phone churn rate of 0.90 per cent in its latest quarter.

Telus said its focus is on customer retention through its “industry-leading service and network quality, along with successful promotions and bundled offerings.”

“The customers we have are the most important customers we can get,” said chief financial officer Doug French in an interview.

“We’ve, again, just continued to focus on what matters most to our customers, from a product and customer service perspective, while not loading unprofitable customers.”

Meanwhile, Telus reported its net income attributable to common shares more than doubled during its third quarter.

The telecommunications company said it earned $280 million, up 105.9 per cent from the same three-month period in 2023. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was 19 cents compared with nine cents a year earlier.

It reported adjusted net income was $413 million, up 10.7 per cent year-over-year from $373 million in the same quarter last year. Operating revenue and other income for the quarter was $5.1 billion, up 1.8 per cent from the previous year.

Mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.85 in the third quarter, a decrease of $2.09 or 3.4 per cent from a year ago. Telus said the drop was attributable to customers signing up for base rate plans with lower prices, along with a decline in overage and roaming revenues.

It said customers are increasingly adopting unlimited data and Canada-U.S. plans which provide higher and more stable ARPU on a monthly basis.

“In a tough operating environment and relative to peers, we view Q3 results that were in line to slightly better than forecast as the best of the bunch,” said RBC analyst Drew McReynolds in a note.

Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi added that “the telecom industry in Canada remains very challenging for all players, however, Telus has been able to face these pressures” and still deliver growth.

The Big 3 telecom providers — which also include Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. — have frequently stressed that the market has grown more competitive in recent years, especially after the closing of Quebecor Inc.’s purchase of Freedom Mobile in April 2023.

Hailed as a fourth national carrier, Quebecor has invested in enhancements to Freedom’s network while offering more affordable plans as part of a set of commitments it was mandated by Ottawa to agree to.

The cost of telephone services in September was down eight per cent compared with a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent inflation report last month.

“I think competition has been and continues to be, I’d say, quite intense in Canada, and we’ve obviously had to just manage our business the way we see fit,” said French.

Asked how long that environment could last, he said that’s out of Telus’ hands.

“What I can control, though, is how we go to market and how we lead with our products,” he said.

“I think the conditions within the market will have to adjust accordingly over time. We’ve continued to focus on digitization, continued to bring our cost structure down to compete, irrespective of the price and the current market conditions.”

Still, Canada’s telecom regulator continues to warn providers about customers facing more charges on their cellphone and internet bills.

On Tuesday, CRTC vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy Scott Hutton called on providers to ensure they clearly inform their customers of charges such as early cancellation fees.

That followed statements from the regulator in recent weeks cautioning against rising international roaming fees and “surprise” price increases being found on their bills.

Hutton said the CRTC plans to launch public consultations in the coming weeks that will focus “on ensuring that information is clear and consistent, making it easier to compare offers and switch services or providers.”

“The CRTC is concerned with recent trends, which suggest that Canadians may not be benefiting from the full protections of our codes,” he said.

“We will continue to monitor developments and will take further action if our codes are not being followed.”

French said any initiative to boost transparency is a step in the right direction.

“I can’t say we are perfect across the board, but what I can say is we are absolutely taking it under consideration and trying to be the best at communicating with our customers,” he said.

“I think everyone looking in the mirror would say there’s room for improvement.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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TC Energy cuts cost estimate for Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico

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CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.

It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.

The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

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BCE reports Q3 loss on asset impairment charge, cuts revenue guidance

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BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.

The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.

“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”

Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.

BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.

The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.

BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.

It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.

The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”

Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)

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