Readers seeing red with Rogers

May 22 2007 by Ellen Roseman

In my column on May 12, I talked about Rogers as a company that’s growing so fast it can’t always take care of customers. That drew a sympathetic response from readers (check out some comments below).

Category: Finance | 140 comments

140 comments

Robert

May 22 2007

On Feb. 7, 2007 I went to a Rogers outlet and upgraded to their digital cable by ordering the VIP digital package. When I got home, I went to the Rogers website and noticed they were offering a special of $49.99 per month for a one-year contract, which I was not told of at the outlet.

The next day I called Rogers and was told that I would get the $49.99 special. However, I noticed in my February bill that I was not given the special, so I called Rogers on March 3 and the person told me I would not qualify. The person indicated she would check and call me back, which she never did.

In my March statement, I noticed that I was still not given the special so I emailed Rogers about this on March 29. I received a reply back indicating they would give me the special, plus credit my account in the amount of $8.48. However in my April statement, it still was not done, so I emailed Rogers once again on April 28 inqiring about what was happening.

Rogers indicated that the credit of $8.48 was applied, which is not correct. The full amount was not credited. I sent an email to Rogers expressing my dissatisfaction with their service and asking that they reconsider, which they refused to in a reply of May 6.

Why will Rogers not honour a promotion that I qualify for and that has been promised to me several times?
Former customer rep

May 22 2007

I worked from October/05 to March/07 at Sitel Corp. That’s a 3rd party Rogers customer service call centre in Montreal. Here’s how it works:

Customer service reps (CSRs) are constantly under the gun to resolve issues quickly. Time is money and if an agent’s scores are too high, then let’s just say, it’s not a good thing.
Sitel is penalized if conditions set forth between Rogers and them aren’t met.

Many agents working directly for Rogers or a 3rd party are immigrants, whose use of the English language is somewhat limited. Hence customers have trouble understanding them. The employeee turnover rate at Sitel Montreal is very high.
Many agents don’t care about Rogers customers, just the paycheque every 2nd Friday.

I have had customers who were transferring services call me wondering where the tech was, only to find out a transfer was never done. The customer was told all would be taken care of.

People are rarely told about the two-year commitment when combining services.

Rogers customers, as your article indicates, are constantly (well, annually) being nickle and dimed to death. Rate increases are not subject to CRTC approval, hence the yearly markup.

I left Sitel and work elsewhere now. The company transferred me to wireless portability, which I didn’t like. When I asked to be transferred back to cable and internet, they said no. I said good bye. Sitel lost a serious dedicated agent. Rogers lost a person who was passionate about helping customers. My friend, who was also serious about his job, left over the portability issue too.

We were never asked to transfer, only told. Sitel, as far as I can see, is not helping Rogers customers when good agents are leaving. The company is its own worst enemy in keeping experienced agents.
SD

May 22 2007

Rogers Telecom was my long distance service provider until November 2006. After that, I cancelled the service with them and chose a new long distance service provider.

Even after cancelling my service with them, I continue to receive the bill for System Access Fee every month. Every time I receive the bill, I contact their customer service department. They apologize, issue me a credit, inform me that nothing is payable and that I will not receive the bill in the future. They inform me that they have emailed to another department and cancelled me out of the billing system.

I have been receiving and continue to receive bills every month for the past six months. This is very stressful and time-consuming for me.
FG

May 22 2007

My Rogers problem is small, but it does indicate a problem with service that no matter whether I email or phone, I can’t seem to get sorted out.

I am missing two statements from Rogers for December 2006 and February 2007, which were supposed to come to me via email. But with a problem in their system, I never received them. Since that date, I have been trying to get hard copies sent to me and after at least 6 requests, I am still waiting.

What is it with large corporations? As long as you don’t need to call them with any problem other than normal service connection, they cannot respond in normal time frames. I have had good conversations with most of the customer service people I am connecting to, but somehow my request gets lost in the ether and nothing comes of it.

They claim that one of their mailings was returned as “moved.” Well, clearly we haven’t moved, because the service is still on in the apartment and the money comes out of my account each month for payment of said statements.

I echo frustration with large corporations and their lack of customer service. They are quick enough to take our money, but very slow to provide response to requests. I am on the verge of cancelling my automatic payments so that Rogers is forced to send a bill to me each month for service. Hopefully then I will at least get a statement.
SD

May 24 2007

After I sent you the information, I received a call from Rogers today. I was told that receiving bills after I cancelled service is an IT issue, a computer error. My bill will be redirected to the executive office until the problem is resolved and my account will be credited so that nothing is payable. Thanks for your help in this matter.

I am a regular reader of your articles in Toronto Star. I find them informative and interesting. Please continue to write as there are lots of issues that are bothersome to many ordinary people.
Robert

May 24 2007

Hi Ellen, just wanted to let you know that a Rogers rep called and indicated I will get the special that I had problems getting before.

Although I had gone through three promises and four refusals to honour this, I am confident that they will do it this time, especially since you got involved.

The person mentioned I will not see the new price till my second billing (the next bill will not reflect the change). I will keep you informed of what happens in a couple of months.
Thank you for your assistance.

June 30, 2007: Hi Ellen, I got my latest Rogers bill and they have started charging me the $49.99 that was promised but not delivered till you got involved. Thank you very much for your assistance.
Wyley

May 31 2007

My own experience hardly warrants a column, but I would like to pass it along to you in case you add a postscript to this article.

I run a small home-based translation/editing business and use Rogers High-Speed Internet. I always enter this expense on the Summary of Professional Activities sheet in QuickTax when filing my income taxes. In March, I emailed Rogers Customer Service requesting a statement showing all of my high-speed Internet charges for the year 2006. It’s true that the monthly bills can be accessed online but when I tried, I found only a part of the monthly bills for 2006 rather than all 12 - hence my email request.

I was aghast at the reply. They would be “happy” to send me this information at a cost of $4 per invoice; multiplied by 12, they would be “happy” to charge me $48 for a simple 12-month statement. I would be “happy”, too, if I could gouge my clients like this and get away with it! Other companies would supply such a statement at no charge because it’s such an ordinary, routine document. I was not asking Rogers to search through ancient archives and assemble this information for me.

I tried replying to the address from which the message came but my email bounced back to me. Since I was extremely busy with other matters, I let the whole thing drop. Rogers’s practice, has, however, been nagging at me.

I realize you may do nothing with this but I feel better for sharing it with you.

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Two weeks later, after you sent my email to Rogers, I got this response from customer service:

“We appreciate your comments and feedback. The fee of $4 is the standard rate we are to charge for reprints. Prevously, only the last six months’ worth of invoices was available online. However, last fall, our online service was updated and we now will be offering 18 months of invoices for our customers. So, going forward, you will have access to the next 18 months of invoices. We also thank you for your positive comments on your Rogers services. You are a valued customer and we thank you for your business.”
Perrii

May 31 2007

My Rogers cellphone did not work for about 3 weeks ending April 28. It did not receive calls during that time. When some one calls, straight away it would go to a message. The phone would not ring and we were unable to make outgoing calls.

Rogers call centre advised me to go to their store with the activation details. The phone was under warranty. I had to get a copy of activation from Rogers by mail, which took about 10 days. Then when I went to the Scarborough Town Centre store where, after much argument, they agreed to accept the phone to send to the manufacturerer. They also gave me a courtsey phone to use in the meantime. Without checking the courtesy phone, I accepted it. To my dismay, it also did not work.

I did not have time to go the store immediately. Later when I went to the store, they checked it and replaced it with another phone. When I asked about credit for all these days, I was told to talk to customer service. Within the next few days, I was told to pick up my original phone, which I did.

Today when I made the payment over phone, I asked for credit for the days that phone did not work. I spent about 40 minutes on the phone with people who were not only rude but wanted me to go to the store and get a memo to consider credit. I said the facts could easily be verified by the usage of phone, for which Rogers definitely has access. They were not willing to listen and firmly refused to consider the geniuneness of the request. I MADE THE PAYMENT UNDER PROTEST. The bill amount was $42.41, so a credit is not going to be significant. But I am taking up the matter with you to protect other customers in similar situations, at least in future, if possible.

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After you sent my email to Rogers, I got this response:

“Please accept our apologies for the level of service you received from Customer Service. A credit adjustment of $25 has been applied to your account in consideration of the time you were without service.”

Thank you for your assistance.
AC

May 31 2007

I have been a Rogers customer for some years. I go on holiday for about 4 months out of the country every year and I always contact Rogers long distance to cancel my account or suspend it till I return back and I reactivate the account again and there was no problem.

Last year on October 31, I contacted Rogers and advised them to suspend the account so that no bills would be issued till I return. They told me to call back in November before I left, so I called again on Nov. 14 and asked to suspend or cancel my account till I returned on April 7, 2007. I was assured this would be done.

When I returned, I found bills that my daughter had paid on my behalf. I was unaware that I was charged as the service was canceled, as I understood. But I had asked my daughter who lives far away to pay all the bills for me and it was all paid.

On April 9, I phoned Rogers to reconnect the service so that I could use my long distance as usual. I was given a credit for $18.52 and told my account was fully paid, including the service charges. I was told the service would be reconnected the same day. To my surprise, on April 25 I received a bill from Bell Canada for long distance calls.

On April 26, I was talking to Rogers again and a nice person tried to solve the problem but she was unable to do it. I tried to talk to her supervisor, but she said her supervisor advised me to send a written complaint to you and this what I am doing now. She had tried her best to reconnect me but she told me my services were canceled on April 11.

No one from Rogers could explain to me why the service was canceled and why they were unable to reconnect me and why my account was sent to Bell Canada without my consent!!!
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After you sent my email to Rogers, I got a phone call from someone who said I didn’t have to pay any bills if I received them and he would take care of my bills till he got to the bottom of my complaint. He told me that there is a problem with the billing system at Rogers and I replied this is your problem, not mine.
Steve

Jun 7 2007

I have a story as well, although Rogers did resolve it in the end.

I live in the Cogeco area, but Rogers decided they were going to come into town and offer their home phone service (basically a VOIP package, from what I can tell). It had a fantastic price with no committment so I figured, “what the heck, let’s try it”. They told me the changeover would be done on the 8th of the month and that nothing had to be done or installed in the house. I would know when the changeover was done, because I would have to re-record my voicemail.

Well, night of the 8th, still the same old service, same on the 9th, so I called and they said they had to upgrade a network, so the new date was the 12th. Ok, no problem.

On the 12th, 13th, and 14th… still no change, so I called Rogers to find out what’s up. Well, apparently the service is not available in my area, but it will be any time in the next few days to the next year, and they’ll just switch me over when they can. Well, needless to say, I’m not happy with that so I say no, that’s not what we agreed to, cancel the order, but feel free to call me again when it really is available and we’ll look at what you’re offering then.

A month later, I get a bill. I call in and say that the service isn’t even available, you goofed up, reverse the bill. The CSR was nice, said no problem, and that was that.

A month later, I get another bill, now showing a late amount. I call in again, get another CSR who says he’ll take care of both of them, but also tells me that according to his files I actually received the service on the 8th, and that it was disconnected on the 14th. I point out to him that that cannot be true, as I have never had an interruption in voice mail, and I show long distance calls every day of that period with the current provider.

After that I got a bill showing $0 owing, so that was fine. But it does show they’re growing faster than they can get things working.
Ellen Roseman

Jun 7 2007

This is from Barbara, who has an interesting Rogers problem. I’m trying to help her.

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I don’t miss reading your column! It seems that, more and more often, we need someone like you to help us deal with increasingly pathetic customer service in this country. It seems like the larger the company the more they walk all over their customers!

My pet peeve is Rogers Communications. The bottom line is that as a long-standing customer, I was paying more for cable TV than would a new customer! I would not have known this had they not sent me a letter stating what my ‘new’ monthly rate would be as of March 1st, 2007. Amazingly enough, it was $4.49 less than my old rate - and it was supposed to be an increase!

About the same time, I spent one very painful weekend on the phone with them back in February trying to get them to correct my discounts. It seems that I was under the very old VIP program, not the new ‘bundles’ and also was paying more than I should have because my discounts were not correct. The first customer service rep whom I spoke to that weekend inadvertently cancelled my service altogether (cable and internet). It took 2 days and a service call to rectify that blunder. They even accused me of cancelling my service myself!

Even if I can forget the weekend on the phone, cancelled service and accusations, I can’t understand the whole concept of being overcharged for my cable service. I have kept copies of many e-mails to the customer relations people in which I was trying to get them to even agree that my new monthly rate was the amount stated in their letter!

I asked them 4 times to explain why I had been paying more than I should have (who knows for how long?), but was never given an explanation. Is this the way loyal customers are rewarded? Should we all be constantly checking to see that we are being charged correctly?

I wonder how many others are in the same position as me. I see no excuse for any company, large or small, to treat their customers this way.
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I finally received a phone call from a customer rep from Rogers on June 20 about my situation. I reiterated my complaint that my basic cable rate, before discounts, would be substantially lower with their new increased rate. The reply was what I expected - he talked in circles for about 5 minutes about VIP, bundles, digital service etc., none of which had anything to do with the problem. I kept repeating my stance and finally said that we were wasting each other’s time, thanked him and said goodbye.

Two hours later, he called back, apologized and offered me one month’s free cable for being such a long-standing customer. He tried to explain that the old VIP package included things like coupons for Roger Video. I said that no one could deny that I had been paying more for the service that I had gotten (I probably don’t want to know how much more) and he did not deny this. They would have a hard time admitting such a thing.

The bottom line is that others should be aware of this. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who this has happened to. I guess it’s like insurance - you need to shop around every year!
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Rogers’ response: Here’s the story - she was on an original VIP package (cable television only). Later, when we had the Better Choice Bundle offering, she was moved to it. As she now had hi-speed Internet, that discount was BETTER than the old one… so she is comparing one package to another.

Having said all that, she has been with us since 1979 so I asked the rep to call back and give her a free month - and she was delighted.
Arne

Jun 25 2007

I have the same problem as noted above. Sometime during the course of our long distance plan that eventually ended up being owned by Rogers, a password was applied to our account. So when we moved and tried to bring our long distance plan to our new number, we were told we didn’t have authority to do this - but we were allowed to close the account. This was in November 2006. This morning, we have received yet another billing from Rogers for the system access fee - funny though that they were able to change my address.

I’m gong to send them an invoice for my time wasted.

ps. I’m typing this while on hold with the customer dissatisfaction department
Linda Grimm

Jul 4 2007

I signed up for Rogers wireless internet while spending the winter in Vancouver. The service took a long time to get installed, which was stressful as I was running my business in Newfoundland over the internet, and when it was installed did not work. Constant phone calls to Rogers got me a temporary fix of dial-up. Eventually, after a few weeks, the wireless worked.

Before we left Vancouver at the end of March, I had previously phoned to let Rogers know when to cut me off. They cut me off early, leaving me with a day and half before my flight back, with no contact with my business in Newfoundland.
I paid my bills (with an extra $3) to the end of March and now have a bill for $26.80 for an “early disconnect” as well as dial-up fees after we left.

I am tired of talking to the poor people on the other end of the line (constantly a new person, wait on the line, etc.) and am now totally fed up with Rogers. I just received a letter telling me that they are now going to disconnect me. They disconnected me back in March.

I just needed to rant. I will never deal with Rogers again. I am in the hospitality business, and I know how important my customer is. As far as I am concerned, Rogers has distanced themselves too far from the customer. At this point, I wish I could charge them with harassment for the stress they have put me through.
Tom

Jul 5 2007

Thank you for helping us with our telephone problems.

On June 29, I picked up the phone to make a local call and got a recorded message “this line is currently not connected.” What a surprise.

We have been Bell customers for over 37 years and have always paid our bill in full and on time. To add insult to injury, we received our bill for service from June 12 to July 12 on the same day.

We called 310-Bell and were told that Rogers had acquired our number. We had not asked Rogers for phone service or had not been informed of this at any time. When we called Rogers, it denied acquiring our number, but said it could easily set us up with a new phone number in a few days.

Bell said if we got Rogers to release the original number back to us, Bell service could be restored in a few weeks. Rogers had a better offer: It would restore service within 4 days but with a different number. So we asked for this deal.

My wife talked to our daughter, who said we had been “slammed” (a deceptive switching practice) and to take a deal with Rogers at this point was the wrong decision. So we cancelled the service order with Rogers.

We are now without any land line service at all and are likely to be so for some time to come, through no fault of our own. We are seniors on a fixed income, using a Virgin cell phone purchased for emergencies only. Since June 29, we’ve spent over $50 on phone cards.

Once you got involved, things started to change. Our Bell phone was reinstalled with the original number. Your input has accelerated our reconnection from two weeks to instantaneous, which we could never have accomplished on our own. We have gone from being second class people to the front of the line, all thanks to you.

We have received apologies from both Bell and Rogers. Also, Rogers covered our cell phone expenses, with an additional bonus of $50 for the inconvenience we have suffered, a pleasing good will gesture.

We understand now, from explanations provided by both Rogers and Bell, that we were not victims of “slamming.” We got caught up in a comedy of errors — a typo through Rogers and Bell’s failure to compare the name and address with the phone number on the purchase order.

Once again we really appreciate your intervention on our behalf resolving this with lightning speed.
Leslie

Jul 19 2007

I thought we were the only ones with Roger problems!

We were Sprint customers for years prior to Rogers buying them out. We were happy with our service, so we elected to continue with them during our move.

I took the necessary steps of calling 6 weeks in advance to arrange a ‘move’ service (allowing us to retain our number) and was given a hook-up date. That date came and went and no phone. After being bounced around through customer service, I was finally sent to the hybrid department. The fellow on the phone told me that it looked like the request was done incorrectly and that due to switching us from the old to the new system, our order was never placed.

After 1 month and 3 failed attempts to replace the order, including having our phone number removed several times and enormous cell phone bills, we now have a phone - but a completely different number and area code. At this point, all I want is my number back. The time it will take to change it with everyone and the expense of replacing business cards and letterhead is riduculous.
CSR

Jul 21 2007

As a customer service rep, I have a natural urge to defend the call centre reps. I work in a sales-specific department and as with most sales cultures, we have aggressive targets that need to be met monthly. When you call the automated system and ask for sales, you may in fact, get through quicker, but not because we want your money, because we are always standing by to take calls. We are, in fact one of the least busy departments. When you call into sales and we cannot help you, this means you’ll need to be transferred, which will be done in priority sequence. I’m not sure what that means to you, but to us, it means that you’re put at the end of the line because you were too impatient to actually wait in the queue for the correct department. We’re making you wait longer.

If you want every cable channel offered, and you want to pay only $40 a month, not going to happen. Yes, cable can be expensive, however if you want the “Mercedes” package for cable, you’re going to pay the higher price. Cable is a luxury, it is not a neccessity, keep that in mind. And why are people so affaid of the commitment with multiple products? It’s actually quite simple. You get cable and internet, you’re eligible for 5% off. If you don’t keep the service for the required two years, we charge you back the savings. The worst case scenario: you end up paying up to full price. Boo hoo. People who aren’t willing to commit for two years to get a better rate, I think, are dwelling upon issues deeper than cable.

If your concern is valid, and you are polite, I can pretty much guarantee I’ll give you what you want, as long as it is realistic. So next time you are calling and you have a valid concern, do not call the person on the other end of the phone an idiot, a retard (this is probably most offensive) or any other profanity, if you expect your issue to be resolved.
Jamie

Aug 5 2007

Anyone getting a LOT of telemarketing calls lately where the caller hangs up upon answering? If it’s from 1-800-336-1352, it is likely related to Rogers for Fido cell phones or home phone solicitation. The number belongs to SMT direct marketing, which has a long list of blue chip clients, but the complaints seem to be about their work for Rogers. Quite a few people have posted complaints about all the hang-up calls from this outfit to both cell and home phones, e.g. http://whocalled.us/lookup/8003361352 and http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-800-336-1352/3

Of course, since most often it hangs up upon answering, there is no one to request to be removed, and the number isn’t reachable to call back to. Googling telemarketing numbers never turns up a hit from who owns them, but others who have received calls have often posted information.

Rogers has to be out of their mind to think I’d ever deal with a company that does this…
Michele

Sep 11 2007

Wow! I knew Rogers had very poor customer service, but I didn’t think we were so many victims! My experience with Rogers has just surfaced after a few years… Actually, I was never a client with Rogers, as I did not like their service. I got a call back in March 2004 from a telemarketer from Sprint with a special offer. I could go with Sprint for my home line, keep my Bell phone number, get my first month free and all of this for a 30-day trial with no obligations. The offer sounded good, so I said yes. The rep took some info and within 3 days the change was made.

Well, as soon as I had my new home line service, nothing was working right. The automatic answering service was not functioning and would hang up on me once I had put in my password to get into my voicemail. Plus, the other options were not working. People would call me and at times I would not hear the phone ring and they’d go directly to voice mail, which I was never able to access in the first place.

Two weeks later, I called Sprint and told them about the features not working and said I was not satisfied at all and I did not want to continue with them. The rep tried to convince me otherwise, but my mind was made up. So he told me that he cancelled my account, but that I would still receive a bill for the two weeks I was with them. He did not want to follow through with the 30 day free trial as it was offered to me. After speaking with supervisors, they said they would fix everything and I would not be billed. I did receive a bill from Sprint the following month, but they told me not to worry about it that I would not receive any more. My home line was cut off a few days later and I used a cell phone for a few months, as I was moving to Montreal in July.

A few years went by, I spent 2 years in Montreal and came back to the Outaouais region. Last month, I wanted to buy myself a new car, so I decided to get my credit report first to make sure all is in order. Rogers had put a note on my credit report saying that I owed them $202, that my last payment was made in October 2005 (I was in Montreal then and I never made any payment to them EVER) and that my account was ceased in December 2006. I was oblivious because I had never been with Rogers.

I called them up saying it was a mistake, but when the lady checked she had a file with my info. I was stunned by it, and then she said I kept the line until August 2004, which was not true I had the special offer from the rep who had called me back. They do have a note that I called in April 2004, when I told them I was not satisfied and I wanted to discontinue my services, but she said no disconnection was done so I am still responsible for the account. Another bizarre thing is that she did not see any payments made in her system (this is true as I did not make any payments), but Rogers put in my credit file that I did make a payment in October ‘05. They do not want to waive the account and get the notice off my credit file, even though technically I don’t owe them anything and their system shows different information than the info they put in my credit file. I need to fix this before I can buy my new car!

Only today, while I was researching some info to help me with this (which is how I fell on your site), did I realize that I had taken the home line with Sprint and when Rogers had bought Sprint, it got all the accounts and mine was already wrong, so Rogers just made it worse! Now Rogers says it will not cancel and it’s my responsibility. What can I do? How can I deal with this? Is this something that you could help me with?
J. Gagne

Sep 24 2007

Since May 2007 - intermittent outages averaging 2 to 4 hours many evenings.

Tecnical support will only send service technician to the residence - refuses to send maintenance to resolve troubles.

Many neighbours are experiencing the same problems.

Often when calling tech support, the technician has indicated 30 - 70 modems are experiencing outages at the same time yet they insist on wasting my valuable time by sending a technician to my home. Why handle these complaints as though I am the only customer experiencing problems.

Trouble consistently is between 8:30 p.m. and midnight. Technicians do not handle residential visits after 8pm. When technician does come to handle call - everything is within specs - trouble ticket gets closed and I am left to call again the next time.

I met a maintenance man in the neighbourhood - who says there is a known problem in the neighbourhood and that a piece of equipment worth millions of dollars is the reason for the majority of our outages and that Rogers has no plans to replace it.
CSR

Sep 25 2007

I sympathize with everyone’s situation. However, I too agree with the previous CSR’s comment!

Everyone has some sort of problem with one or more of their bills, and we can all agree that Rogers (cable) is dear to everyone’s heart for a quiet evening on the couch! If you have a valid dispute regarding your bill, it WILL be rectified 100% of the time.

It’s where there are campaign expiry dates we must follow that there are problems. (Whether you agree with them or not is another thing!) I would love to still give away many of our campaigns to new and old customers of Rogers, but rules are rules. We learn them in kindergarten and sometimes customers don’t act any older than that, which is very disappointing!

As loyal customers of Rogers, you are permitted to call in and see what promos are current. So don’t be shy, as we would love to give you things for free as long as it’s reasonable. Please, we CSRs are people too. So really think about that before you call in next time.

P.S. When we as employees have to call in, we deal with the same people as you do. We don’t get special treatment!!!
Mal

Oct 3 2007

I called Rogers a few days ago to cancel my VIP cable TV and I was told I’d have to give them 30 days notice. Fine with me! In addition, they told me that I had to pay a $50 early cancellation fees. I thought may be it was one of their rules, so I agreed to it.

Today I looked at their website, which clearly states that $50 will be charged for early termination from 13 to 24 months with the Better Choice Bundle:

“The ECF is calculated as the amount equal to the value of the Discount you received in respect of the terminated service category subject to a maximum of: (i) $100 per service category, if termination occurs during months 1 through 12 of the BCB Term; or (ii) $50 per service category if termination occurs during months 13 through 24 of the BCB Term.”
Source: http://www.shoprogers.com/store/bundles/bundles_legal_popup.html

What I don’t understand is why I should be charged $50 given that I have been with Rogers bundle (TV and wireless) since October 2004. The rep told that it’s rolling early termination fees. So if you cancel cable TV in the first 12 months, you will be charged $100; or $50 between 13 and 24 months; and start all over ($100 or $50 ECF) again, depending on which months you’re at within the 24-month cycle. To me this is a joke.

Anyone in their right mind will agree there is no such thing as rolling. I could fight this by calling back Rogers again and deal with another rep. But you know, I am too tired talking to any one of them. So Rogers, you win today with my $50.

But I will make sure that that I will not give you any more business. Enough is enough. Will cancel wireless services soon. I don’t plan to deal with Rogers services or anyone associated with Rogers.
To CSV

Oct 7 2007

I just added wireless to my Internet & Cable Service. When I asked for the 10% bundle promotion, they replied with the 2-year commitment thing. I admit I did not know about it and I also disagree with what CSR is saying.

In my opinion, the bundling discount is an incentive for customers to use multiple services from one vendor. Rogers would like people to do that (more money for them), so they provide an incentive. If this was not available, customers could pick and choose services from the variety of companies out there (Bell, Telus).

In my opinion, adding the 2 year comitment negates the incentive and if more people knew about it, I bet they would reconsider their choices…
Dee

Oct 17 2007

Dear Ellen,
I had asked a Rogers’ representative to allow me to put a password on my cable and Internet account. The rep did so by asking me for my date of birth. I now can’t remember my password.

Recently, I tried to disconnect the services and was told that Rogers could not do so unless I take a photo ID to a Rogers centre. I’m still baffled that the rep placed the password without my photo ID, but now wants me to present one in order to cancel my account. I don’t have time to go to a centre.
Marusha

Oct 18 2007

I spent a lot of time on the phone with various CSRs, who seemed unable to process a simple change of address request without my having to explain myself repeatedly. I finally gave up and informed the rep I was talking to that I was going back to my previous long distance service provider and that I was cancelling my Rogers account effective Sept. 1.

Since then, I received another bill — after all the delays, they had managed to transfer services to my new address but only after I’d already cancelled the account! This involved more phone calls, during which I was assured that the account was cancelled and that the monthly service charges were waived (I did agree to pay for the actual calls I’d made and did so promptly).

This seemed to work for a time; I received a bill from my chosen service provider and assumed that the issue had been resolved. But this week, I received another bill from Rogers, which reactivated my account without my knowledge or consent and switched my service back to their company — a practice that many of you will recognize as “slamming”.

I spoke to my chosen provider to rectify this, then emailed Rogers “Customer Care” to complain and to demand that the full amount of the latest bill be waived, since my service had been switched without my permission. I also requested that all communication be carried out by email, since I have found their call centre to be very inefficient and time-consuming, and now wish to document everything that they tell me.

In addition, I’ve twice asked for contact information for their head office. They have ignored the latter request, and I’ve had several emails referring me to their call centre, as follows:

“Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of online customer service. In your recent email, you have addressed account concerns. We would like to apologise and inform you that we do require all customers to call our Customer Care for any account related concerns.We apologize for the hold times due to busy service levels. We would like to also inform you for customer confidentiality, we do not disclose account-related information online. We apologize we could not accommodate you.”

What exactly is their online “service” for if no one is authorized to take care of customer concerns? This company has outgrown itself to the point where it has lost efficiency. It seems to prefer pushing cheap product at the expense of good customer service. If they are contracting out the latter, that explains a lot about the level of mediocrity that I’ve encountered.
Sheldon

Oct 24 2007

Dear Ellen,
About a year ago, a call from you to Rogers solved my problem within 24 hrs. That incident made me more aware of how important it is to keep good records when dealing with Rogers.

I called to confirm my cell phone and land line contracts and found that one of my cell phones had a contract extended without my knowlege. I was upset but it was not a big deal, because I had not intention of changing anything anyway.

My land line had a 3 year contract that I had agreed to in order to get a bundled discount. The problem was that the discount was not coming off my bill. They gave me a partial credit and the discount was on my next bill.

In September, I checked my contracts again and found that my land line had a contract extended another three years because Rogers had moved to consolidated billing. I phoned and they read my extensive file and on an EXCEPTION basis canceled my land line contract. (I still have the service but without a contract).

I asked for my contract in writing so I would know where I stand and the rep said they do not send out written contracts. I wrote to Customer Service on Sept. 18, requesting the contract details in writing, but that letter was ignored. I called at the end of September and was told to write a letter to the Office of the President.

I am anxious to see how a contract can be extended by one party (Rogers) without the knowlege of the other party (that’s me, the customer).
Jacqueline

Oct 26 2007

Well, it’s nice to know you’re not alone … I guess.

In June 2007, after moving in with my partner, I called Rogers to have my email address switched to his Rogers account and to cancel cable service at my house. I was told that I would be billed up to the first billing date in July, and that if the tenants at my house wanted to continue with Rogers cable, they needed just to call and request that the service be switched over.

The email migration happened without any problems. However, it appears that my cable service was not cancelled as requested.

Every now and then, I’d get an overdue account bill from Rogers. But when I’d call their customer service line, I would be told there was no balance.

In early October, I began to receive final notices from Rogers regarding the account number. I called again and was told there was no balance on the account. I double-checked online, which confirmed there was no balance on the account. So I left it at that.

I continued to get final notices, so I called again. But the only option available to me on their customer service phone line was to pay the bill, which I wouldn’t do because I know I cancelled the service in June.

So, I went to their online customer service function. Regardless of how many times I’ve explained that I requested cancellation of cable services in June 2007, the customer service representative continues to tell me what Rogers considers my balance to be. There has been no attempt to investigate a record of my call or to even entertain the idea that they made an error. The CSR’s position seems to be “we don’t accept or deny whether you cancelled service, we aren’t willing to accept the possibility that you might have, and we’re not going to do anything to investigate whether or not you’re telling the truth.”

As others have discovered, Rogers has no complaint resolution or ombudsman’s office. I was referred to the office of the president, where I have now sent a complaint. Meantime, I have new tenants moving into my house in a few days and they won’t be able to get cable because Rogers won’t do any work at that address until the account is settled!

I echo Marusha’s closing paragraph (above) completely. This is customer service????
Lyn McArthur

Nov 12 2007

Dear Ellen, I too am seeing red where Rogers is concerned. In brief, my problem is with the Rogers digital box, the one offered when you purchase through Best Buy. It is referred to as the “starter kit” and a box is thrown in free for 8 months. Thank God it is free because I would refuse to pay for it, otherwise.

Anyway, since I got this box two months ago, I have probably logged approximately 10-15 phone calls to Rogers because it does not work properly. Each time I call, I wait about 15 minutes for a technician, who walks me through their trouble-shooting program, it gets resolved, the box works, then several weeks later, or not even, it stops working again.

Finally, Rogers sends out a technician because “we can see there is a problem.” First the technician confirms this. Tells his supervisor. Supervisor is to contact me the next day and arrange to have a new box delivered. Doesn’t happen.
Instead, his secretary (since he doesn’t have the decency to contact me himself) calls me and says “there are no boxes in the warehouse, won’t be any until December of January, but you can go out and pick up one at a Rogers outlet, yourself.” Not good enough.

I called Rogers the next day to register my complaint. Another manager said, yes, there in fact is product and I will see that a rep comes out to your home, tomorrow night, to install. A no-show, not even a call to cancel.

I called again, another complaint. Spoke to another manager, who stated that she could not find this appointment. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Again, I will take care of this. Another appointment made for the next day.

I get a message from Rogers that there is no product in the warehouse, so they will cancel the service call and let me know when the product arrives. I see red. I call the latest Manager ( I have their names, just not using them) and she refers now to her supervisor. After leaving two messages with him to call, and after emailing you this note, he has finally called to say there is product, we’ll deliver tonight and I will call you to confirm when they will come by. Still waiting.

Is there anything I can do to formally register this complaint and is there anyone at Rogers who really cares?

Feeling in limbo…
Marusha

Nov 14 2007

Here’s the sequel to my rant (above).

I finally went to the website of the CRTC and filed a complaint online. They forwarded my complaint to the office of the president at Rogers Telecom. Yesterday I got a phonecall from someone there who apologized, assured me that my account had been credited back to zero, and that I would receive no more bills or other communications from their company. She added that I would receive confirmation of all this by letter, with her name and contact information for future reference. I accepted her apology and thanked her for having addressed my concerns.

Once I’ve received this letter, I’ll contact the CRTC to advise them of the outcome — but I need to have it in writing first.

The online complaint process is easy and fast and gets results. I highly recommend it. If enough people use this method, perhaps Rogers will see the light and clean up its act. Here’s the link:

http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/Wiki.jsp?page=Scope

Good luck everyone.
Ghulam Hussain

Nov 15 2007

I am Roger cell phone for the 4 years. In January 2007, I went to one of the Rogers agent. He told me that you are entitled to a new cell phone for $19.99. He asked me to sign a paper and give me a $50.00 coupon and said when the next bill comes send this coupon with your payment. To my surprise when the bill came the charge for the new phone was over $100 and that discount coupon was not applicable to my contract. I went to the agent
again explained his fraudulent misrepresentation. On this he got furious and tried to literally thrown me out of his store. Several complaints were lodged with Roger Head Office about the behavior of the agent and the adjustment of the bill. No action. Finally the matters it appears will be settled in court.
Ghulam Hussain

Nov 16 2007

I was a Rogers cell phone customer for the last 4 years. In December 2006, I went to Rogers’ authorized agent, Connect Alberta Inc., 3120 Parsons Road, Edmonton. The agent said that under the existing contract, you can get a new cell phone for $19.99. This offer was accepted by me. He asked me to sign a few papers and presented a discount coupon, which he asked me to send along with the payment of the next bill.

When the Rogers monthly bill came, I was surprised to see a charge of $124.49. Further I learned that the discount coupon he had given was not valid for my contract. I went to the agent and explained my situation. He got furious and almost threw me out of his shop, not accepting his fraudulent misrepresentation. Several complaints were made to Rogers by phone and through email but I could not get any resolution.

I told them to resolve the issue first before I can make any payment. Anyway, they de-activated my telephone. To my surprise, I got the next bill with a credit of $50 for the discount coupon and a charge of $50 for the re-activation. In other words, at zero cost they want to put their wrongdoing in order.

First the de-activation was illegal as my default of payment was not in the normal course of business, but because I made it conditional upon resolving the dispute. Secondly, once a contract is broken by de-activation, they can not re-activate it without my concurrence.

I said several times that I was willing to pay all legitimate charges for the usage before the first activation but would not pay any charges relating to the purchase of a new cell phone and that the cell phone would be returned to them. I doubt they ever questioned their agent about the fraudulent misrepresentation and the inhumane treatment given to me and my friend.

Finally, they have given this matter to a collection agency and their attorney, It was for the first time at this late stage that I saw their claim gone up to $533.27. I have no clue how they have arrived at this amount.
Ghulam Hussain

Nov 19 2007

After going through this ugly battle with Rogers, I inquired on the other service provider of cell phones. I suggest Virgin Mobile. They have very straight forward deals. No hidden charges, No activation fees, No system access fee or 911 fees. It will be worth to take a look.
Anil Sedha

Nov 26 2007

I have used Rogers wireless services for around 2 years now.

Earlier i used to be a pay as you go customer and everything worked fine. But pay as you go services have their limitations so i thought of becoming a monthly customer and signed a 1 year contract since i already have a phone. Now i think i did something horribly wrong, since after switching to Rogers wireless monthly billing my phone does not ring. On 80% occasions it goes directly to the voicemail and it sucks to have a phone that does not ring. Friends and associates have been complaining regularly about the hassle to get in touch and having to leave voicemails everyday. Can you please forward this email to someone in rogers since their customer service is not very helpful. I called them and their only resolution is to make me restart my cell phone daily. I do it on a nightly basis and the phone still does not ring regularly. I am not sure if this message will be posted automatically and hence am not providing my cell number here. I can send it to you via email.

Thank you
Anil
Ellen Roseman

Dec 14 2007

I helped Anil get a replacement cell phone from Rogers. Here’s his response.

————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Thank you so much for forwarding my complaint to Rogers. I had been trying to push my complaint, but every time I spoke with someone in customer service, I heard a different opinion of what the problem was with my phone and what their understanding of the fix was.

I was finally sent a refurbished phone as a replacement and that seems good.

However, someone from Rogers Customer Contact Centre acted on the complaint that you forwarded and called me. The gentleman was polite but a little serious. His overall view was that my phone should be repaired first and I should not get a replacement.

I told him that Rogers had referred me to a local store that had a technician, in their opinion, and had a lot of loaner and replacement phones. The store has never had a technician in its history, according to the reps there, and it was a waste of my time. If their customer service is so unhelpful, I’m not sure of the repair service. The store employees were extremely sympathetic to my problem and very cordial in saying they could not offer me a replacement phone since there were “no notes” on my file, in spite of the Rogers rep telling me he was going to write it down.

I had to go back and call them again twice in 2 days to reach customer care. Finally, after escalation and negotiating on the phone for almost 20-30 minutes, they offered a replacement without a contract increase or additional cost.

I am very grateful to you since I never expected a call from Rogers. It is reassuring to know there is some way of airing our grievances to companies that suck customers into a whirlpool of contracts without offering quality service, despite our paying them.

The gentleman who called did not agree when I said 80% to 90% of the calls went to voicemail without ringing. He even went on to threaten me: “What if I compared current info with your pay-as-you-go history and found that you received most calls and not just 10% of them?”

On top of this, he said he would have someone make test calls to me throughout the day to see if I would get calls. I asked him to go ahead and then he talked a little sensibly. He just looked at my used minutes and didn’t even realize that most calls were outgoing and not incoming.

What seems illogical is that I am not their employee, so why should I accept any test calls throughout the day. I do not sit idle, as may be his opinion, to receive their test calls.

He finally said their rep had done me a favour by sending me a replacement phone. That was not their usual procedure. I was thinking that I had faced crappy service for last 4 months and didn’t complain much until now. Did I deserve favours from a company that I was paying for service? The issue is finally resolved and I started using my new phone. It arrived very promptly in a day.

Anyways, thanks for your help. We need to have our companies accountable for their business. Only then will there be professionalism and positive growth. Please continue to be our voice as long as possible.
Linda

Jan 10 2008

Price increase for Roger’s Home, Cable and Internet starting March 1, 2008. Is this a yearly increase? This is my first year with Rogers.
ex CSR

Jan 13 2008

I was a Rogers Wireless CSR for a year in 2000/2001. Customer service is unimportant. O.k., it’s important but it comes after call time and other CSR benchmarks. It was extremely common to get calls from irate customers who had called 3 or 4 times and been assured each time that their problem was being solved.

The CSR is judged by their call time. It was my experience that large numbers of CSR’s would lie to the customer to get them off the phone and never solve the customer’s problems.

Until CSR’s are rated by customer satisfaction, this crappy treatment will continue.
LND

Jan 14 2008

Dear Ellen,

I recently signed up for Blackberry service from Rogers. I elected to go with the email package only, since I already have cellphone service through another carrier (and with whom I am currently locked into a 3 year deal, although I like their service and plan to renew with them).

When I received my first Rogers statement, I noticed there was the set-up fee, system access fee (although, hadn’t I read somewhere a while back that companies were not supposed to be charging this fee anymore, or did I imagine it?) and emergency 911 fee, all of which I had expected, and the SIM card fee I had paid upon activation, plus another fee referred to as a Network Access Fee. I don’t recall having been advised of this fee.

When I questioned the Rogers representative who had set me up on my Blackberry, he wasn’t sure what it was for either. He was very helpful in contacting Rogers directly to inquire about this fee, but the answer he got didn’t make sense to either of us. Apparently, the fee is charged to customers who have email service with Rogers but not phone service. They’re charging me for a service they provide, but I haven’t opted to get it from them, so I have to pay a penalty?

This just seems wrong, so I phoned Rogers myself and was advised this fee is charged to Blackberry clients where a combined voice/email plan has not been purchased from Rogers so that they can access the network. So, I’m paying $40 a month for the specific Blackberry email package I selected and the $6.95 system access fee and I have to pay a network access fee on top of that? Why? It’s only $10 a month, but why don’t these other fees cover whatever is required to access the network? And why does having a voice mail plan in conjunction with an email plan make a difference with respect to accessing whatever system this even applies to?

I didn’t see this particular Rogers issue addressed on your website, but it could be in a different category. If so, could you please direct me to the article in question and/or let me know what, if anything, can be done to address this ridiculous excuse for getting more money out of Rogers’ customers?

Thank you.
Steven

Jan 20 2008

Hi Ellen, nickeled and dimed.

Out of the blue, a $0.95/user fee for using *67 (caller ID block) – and I have used this feature with no charge since signing on with Sprint/Rogers in 2005.

Yesterday, the Rogers billing department could only tell me that yes, there is a $0.95 charge—but I can minimize that by paying a $4 per month for this service! The agent had no idea what could be the cause for this change.

Have any of your other readers had a similar experience with Rogers?

(This isn’t my first blood pressure spike from unethical practices at Rogers. I’ve previously had to confront them about taking away a rebate when I bundled services, also agents not explaining fees when selling services—and the $228 charge for upgrading my internet speed with Rogers!)
Wendy

Jan 24 2008

I’m so angry at Rogers Wireless right now! An issue that was cleared up last year has surfaced again. (I have had no dealings with them since last May.)

Everything was taken care of back then. They even sent a nice letter to the credit bureau because they recognized and admitted their mistake…and now, I see the credit bureau didn’t remove it, only updated it to show “client’s true payment history” or or something…And here I was thinking it was gone - by Roger’s own admittance of their own error! …they never followed back up with it to have it “completely removed” as they had promised they would.

I asked the supposed “manager” of the accounts receivable dept for the head office number - he told me he doesn’t know it. Come on…..a manager doesn’t know it, won’t transfer me to another manager, and he is the escalation department. There is no one he can transfer me to and he said: “Well it WAS an 09, now it’s an 07 - that’s good!” IS HE KIDDING ME, IT SHOULDN’T BE O ANYTHING - IT SHOULDN’T BE THERE!!!

They have the absolute WORST customer service I have ever encountered. They just can’t keep off the script - even if it doesn’t make sense…..This person I spoke with couldn’t stop telling me the “credits” were “given” to satisfy me….actually they were given BECAUSE ROGERS MADE A MISTAKE and a big one at that!

Does Rogers not care what is happening on their phone lines?? Or how they are being represented? I wonder what the rep training program is like “OK, today you learn how to completely ignore your customer and just keep repeating - “No Sir/Madam…you are wrong, not us!”

Do they have to hide behind their reps because they know they are WRONG in most cases? Can I sue them for undue stress?? Reporting false info to the credit bureau?

I really just want to get done what they promised but didn’t complete, then they can go away again!
Ghulam Hussain

Jan 29 2008

I have used Rogers cell phones for number of years. Each month, I would get surprising hidden charges. Finally I revoked
all the contracts by paying $200 per phone as a penalty and switched to Virgin Mobile. Let me tell you that I am better off, even after that penalty.
Terry Korte

Feb 16 2008

Hi Ellen,
I’m copying this email to you…it will give you a bit of a snapshot of what seems to be a common concern with Rogers and their poor service. I’m in Alberta.

Dear Rogers Customer Service,

Once again - I still don’t have call display.

If you are able to help me with this, great.

If you are not (and you haven’t been, despite 18 months and 6 separate ref #’s and phone calls) able to, please release me from my contract with Rogers so that I can switch to a wireless provider who can give me call display.

My cell phone is useless without it. If you look at my usage record, you can see that I hardly use my cell phone because without that basic feature, it’s like my home phone in 1982. If I miss a call, I’m screwed because I won’t know who called.

Anyway, I’ve been given the runaround for a year and a half (at least), with each customer service rep promising to look into it and get back to me. They never do.

On Oct 31, 2007 5:03 AM, Rogers Wireless Customer Service wrote:

Dear Terry Korte,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of online customer service.

In your recent email, you have informed us that you cannot add call display on your account.

We would ask that you please contact Customer Service anytime, 24/7, toll free from a landline at 1-888-764-3771 and have your phone with you.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for choosing Rogers.com.

Regards,
Patty T.

Rogers Online Customer Service
http://www.rogers.com

Original Message Follows:
————————
This has been nearly a month and no resolution.

Can someone please tell me why I can’t add call display to my phone!!!

On 10/16/07, Terry Korte wrote:
>
> Do you have an update for me?
>
>
> On 10/8/07, Rogers Wireless Customer Service
> wrote:
Dear Terry Korte,
In your recent email, you have informed us that you are having an issue with this getting added to your account.

We have reviewed your account and see that we are looking into this for you and will adjust appropriately once we have found a resolution.

We apologize for this delay. However, since we have escalated this on 10/03/2007, we ask that you allow the correct time frame for us to resolve this for you. Currently, we are asking that you allow us until one week from today to fix this issue for you.

We appreciate your continuing patronage. Please contact us at your convenience if you have any further inquiries.

> >
> > Regards,
> > Teddy H.
> > Rogers Online Customer Service
> > http://www.rogers.com

Original Message Follows:

It has been 18 months and I continue to try and add this to my wireless essentials. I have also tried to call on 4 different occasions. Each time I talk to a customer support representative, they can’t add this and say they will escalate it to the next level and call me back if they can’t resolve it….and I don’t hear back from them again. Is this too difficult? Is adding call display to my phone too much to ask?

I go online and try to add this feature, and the same thing. Honestly,I’ve tried on 8 different occasions to add this one service, have probably spent about 5 hours of my life on hold or talking to a Rogers rep and I’m no closer to having a resolution.
> >
> > Now I will just wait until my contract is over in a year and run like hell away from Rogers!
> >
> > Thanks for nothing!
> >
> > Terry Korte
> >
> > On 10/7/07, Rogers Wireless Customer Service
> >
> > wrote:
> > >
Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of online customer service.

In your recent email, you have informed us that you would like to add the $10 Communicate Value Pack.

We were unable to add the $10 Communicate Value Pack due to a system error which has already been escalated by one of our representatives.We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for choosing Rogers.

Regards,
Natalie T.
David

Feb 17 2008

I am extremely upset with Rogers. I have dial-up internet and every month the charge goes on my Visa bill. I came home a few weeks ago and there was a bill in the mail for my internet. I called and was told they had changed systems and did not recognize my arrangement. She asked for my Visa number for this month only and starting next month, it would be preauthorized. But the next day, my Visa bill arrives and they charged me my normal amount as they always have.

Again, this meant another phone call to them and being on the phone for hours. Turns out, this rep tells me, I was under an old account number and a new account number. I am now under one account and all is okay.

So I hang up and go on the internet. I can surf the web but cannot get on email. So yes,, another phone call to them, only to be told my email account is closed. How can this be?

Again I am on hold, only to have the rep come back and apologize. They will try to fix it. Turns out they cannot fix the problem. They will try to give me a new email address. Not happy, but if they can get me back on email, i will be okay and just email my friends with my new address. But their computer guys cannot fix this. Blame it on the system and give me a $25 credit and an apology.

So I have a dial-up internet account with Rogers but no email account. What’s up with this? This is not what i signed up for and they made the error. All I want is to get it resolved. This is the worst customer service experience I have ever had. I will probably switch to high speed with another company and for now I have a free email account with someone else.
SW

Feb 19 2008

The problems encountered in your “Bell Blues” seem like child’s play to us after our experiences with “Mr. Rogers”.

As senior citizens, we are reasonably knowledgeable in the area of electronics, and certainly we have not yet exhibited signs of dementia. However, due to chronic physical health problems, we decided to move our residence from a two-story townhouse to an apartment located two stoplights from our home.

We chose a two-year-old building knowing that the cable, telephone land lines and computer internet access were built into the unit. Hookup should be a simple matter, right? Wrong.

We had two telephone lines at the townhouse, one with Bell and one with Rogers. The Bell line was a throwback to the time when we had Sympatico dial-up internet connection. We needed a free line available for security reasons in the event that the facility where my husband manages property is left unsecured or there is a break-in. We transferred our home ‘phone and also our internet connection to Rogers high-speed, but it seemed wise at that time to continue the second telephone line with Bell.

I can assure you that Rogers considered us VIP customers and they told us so! We had our cell phone, land line, internet and digital cable connections with them for several years. We felt at this time it might be practical to transfer the Bell phone to Rogers in order to simplify our new life, right? Wrong again.

A telephone call to Rogers in December assured me that a simple request close to our moving date would ensure prompt transfer of service at no charge to us. Wonderful, since moving expenses for pensioners are not a budgeted item. Bell would be notified by Rogers of the land line transfer and both numbers would remain the same. So we mailed out change of address cards and packed our belongings.

On Jan. 2, I called Rogers and said we would like the services transferred on Jan. 14, the day before our furniture was to arrive at the new location. Rogers sent a detailed email confirmation that day.

On the 14th, I sat on a chair in an empty apartment, cell phone turned on, printout of the email in hand, awaiting the Rogers installer’s appearance. The Rogers truck parked in the apartment lot, the serviceman entered the building, stayed for a while and then left! I did not see him, so I telephoned Rogers, who told me he would be here on the 15th.

I admit that at that point I lost it. I could not convince them that I had a confirmation in hand stating the 14th.
Exactly one month later, we finally got the second line operational. It is still with Ma Bell due to the fact that we met, conversed with and swore at so many Rogers employees we lost count. Space does not permit a play-by-play account of the problems we encountered.

I still have to call the Rogers’ office to sort out the inflated bill that we received this week.

If anyone had taken the time and effort to explain what the problem was, we would not have reacted so extremely each time another roadblock appeared. I feared at one point that my husband was going to have a coronary attack while speaking to a Rogers representative. I have never seen him so upset, even when we were raising four active kids who were all teenagers at the same time. All that stress over a telephone line!!!!!
How about smoke signals????
RM

Feb 19 2008

Bell doesn’t have a monopoly on poor service. Here’s some recent correspondence with Rogers.

Re: Support Request 33704094:

Sunday, Feb 10: I have twice ordered a wireless gateway for my home computers and appointments were set up for a technician to bring and install it. I am in a wheelchair and have trouble getting out. The first time (last week), the technician cancelled because he couldn’t get the gateway and promised to reschedule.

No one called, so I made an another appointment to have it done today. The technician arrived without the gateway and promised to reschedule for 24 to 48 hours. I tried to phone, but was on hold for an hour before sending this. IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF SERVICE?

Wed., Feb 13: You’ve got to be kidding. Technician arrived today but could not install gateway because of lack of “provision” by Rogers. Rescheduled for Friday (4th appointment). I think matters have reached a stage where a goodwill adjustment to my account would be in order to compensate for the aggravation and loss of service.

Fri., Feb 15: Another technician arrived today. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do but fortunately brought both a gateway and a modem with him. Internet access is now working on both computers but I can only print from one. None of the other technicians thought to check the cable and tell me that the end that fitted into my old router did not fit the gateway. Funny thing is, the cable included in the package is the same as the one I already have. Is that dumb or what?

So now I have to get someone to go out and find me an adapter or new cable before I can print from the wireless computer. The snow makes it impossible for me to get out in my wheelchair.

Now the only responses I can get from them is (1) to blame the problem on the printer and (2) to pretend the above emails don’t exist and advise that they are monitoring my modem connection and it appears to be working.

Can Bell Sympatico be worse?
NP

Mar 1 2008

Hi,

I had nothing but trouble since they moved my account to their new billing system. They overcharged me for dialup twice. Finally, they cancelled my old account which solve the double charge problem but at the same time it deactivate my internet service meaning no surfing and email access.

I have called their customer service line about 4 or 5 times.

If I find something better I am taking my business elsewhere !
Alan

Mar 3 2008

We used to have Rogers Home Phone, but had to cancel it due to their atrocious billing and accounting practices. We would pay our bills, and for some reason, Rogers would not credit us. Then, they’d cut our phone service. We run a business from home and when the phone service is cut, we lose money.

On Nov. 5, 2007, we cancelled Rogers Home Phone and switched to Bell. The switching was a nightmare, (again, thanks to Rogers) but that’s another story. Since that time we have continued to receive monthly bills for the Home Phone service. My wife has made numerous call to Rogers Customer Service (an oxymoron if there ever was one). Every time, they say the issue is now resolved. Yet the bills keep coming.

We’re also having a cell phone billing problem that goes back a year. We ordered a phone, but within an hour of ordering it, we cancelled the order. We have been receiving bills for it ever since. Again numerous phone calls and accumulated hours with the useless Rogers drones.

The last straw occurred today. We received a mailing from Rogers indicating that they were going to take us to collection, ruin our credit rating and cut our service if we didn’t respond within five days. My wife is on the phone right now pulling her hair, while once again being told that all will be resolved. We’ve heard that line so many times we’re ready to gag.

Does anyone on this board know who we can call at Rogers, someone who can actually deal with this situation? If stupidity, apathy and complacency, plus the personal suffering they’ve caused, were things we could sue Rogers for, we’d be rich. Unfortunately we can’t, so we’re just frustrated and steamingly angry.
Ellen Roseman

Mar 4 2008

Hi Alan. So sorry to hear about your Rogers problems. I have escalated this to the someone there who usually gets things resolved pretty quickly.

As with Bell complaints, I find that media inquiries sent to media contacts get results.

So, please let me know what happens. Too bad it takes a year of your time to get nowhere with your cell phone billing.
VG

Mar 4 2008

Last June, I contacted Rogers to cancel my home phone and cable services as I was moving to live with family and no longer required the service. I was assured by a Rogers CSR that the service would be discontinued and there was no balance owing on the account. I returned my equipment to a Rogers store in my new community and went on with life.

In January of this year, I received a call from a collection agency retained by Rogers, stating that I now owed Rogers $886 for unpaid services and equipment fees. I truly believed this to be a mistake.

Since then, I have contacted Rogers numerous times for assistance. Each phone call only results in being transferred to various departments, being told each time that I was speaking with the wrong department and transferred to yet another. When I finally reach someone who seems willing to help me, they assure me the problem will be rectified and they will return my call within 48 hours. Needless to say, the call never comes.

My last communication with Rogers involved an AR ‘Manager’ who informed me there was nothing to be done about this problem as they have no record of the request to discontinue service nor of the return of the equipment. She continued to say she found this an odd coincidence and inferred I had fabricated the entire scenario.

She proceeded to explain that the equipment had not been used since May and therefore she was certain that I must have it. When I suggested that this only further supported my argument, she responded by informing me that I was not to contact Rogers any further, but pay the collection agency in full. Should I fail to pay the collection agency $886, then Rogers would take me to court and further damage my credit rating.

While I admit I no longer have my receipt for equipment return in my possession (7 months have lapsed), I offered the AR ‘Manager’ documentation from my previous landlord indicating that I vacated the apartment as of June 2007. The building was sold shortly thereafter and to my landlord’s knowledge, still remains empty.

She only proceeded to repeat the same threat of credit damage and litigation. When I asked to speak with the head of the department, she informed me that would not be possible. She would not allow this complaint to move any further.

As a result of my frustration, I became somewhat single-minded and dug a little further myself. Here is what I did:

I went back to the location where I had returned the equipment and had them physically check the store for the items in question. The modem could not be located, but the cable box was. I was given a receipt as proof of its return.

While at the store, I also made a payment for $117.30, the maximum amount Rogers could possibly hold me responsible for paying. This sum amounts to 30 days’ service, as they failed to bill this to me at the time the account was to be disconnected.

With some searching on the stock exchange, I was able to find the phone number for the head office of Rogers Communications in Toronto. I called head office directly and asked to speak with someone regarding a customer service/accounts receivable problem.

I spoke with 2 receptionists (both very helpful) who forwarded my call to the Office of the President. I then spoke with a gentleman who wasn’t particularly interested in the whole story, but did credit my account to $0.

I ensured he understood that I wasn’t calling merely for a credit, but that I truly felt I had been treated unjustly by Rogers. I made the point of telling him I had paid the 30-day cancellation fee that should have been billed to me had they actually disconnected the service as per my request; this call wasn’t regarding a hand-out. He understood my frustration and recommended I keep hold of any receipts should the collection agency come calling again.

I realize it may seem a little extreme to call head office, but I really felt that the call centre was doing nothing to rectify the situation. I did attempt to speak with them again this morning prior to calling head office.

I was once again told that Rogers had done everything they could and that I had not fufilled my wireless contract. I did point out that I did not have a wireless contract, but home phone and cable. I was told once again not to contact Rogers but to speak with the collection agency regarding making payment arrangements. When I tried to explain that I really believe an error had occurred on my account, I was told the collection agency would take care of this. As part of my job includes AR, I know this is not the case.

So, if the need should ever arise, you can reach Rogers Communications Corporate Office at (416) 935-7777. A little extreme perhaps, but it certainly seems to have an effect!

Thank you again, Ellen. When one lone person attempts to deal with an enormous corporation such as Rogers, it is wonderful to know there are people like you on our side. I will keep you posted should anything else arise!
Ivy

Mar 11 2008

Rogers had brought me nothing but trouble. And their website is an absolute nightmare to deal with. As a major TELECOMMUNCATIONS corporation, they should at least have the resources to deal with server load. It is a frustration to pay my bill every time because of a 500 server error, server load error or scripting error. I can understand if it’s a small business that do not have IT technicians at hand. But for a company the size of Rogers, it’s inexcusable.
Alan

Mar 13 2008

The evening I wrote on your website, my wife was on the phone with Rogers. She ended up talking to someone for at least 45 minutes and after the call ended, she was sure that the problem had finally been resolved.

As a result, she no longer wanted anyone else intervening on her behalf for fear that Rogers might get confused and mess up what had finally been accomplished.

I do want to thank you for taking an interest in our problem. As a result of your efforts, I did receive an email from Teresa at Rogers, who offered to intervene on our behalf. Again, my wife wanted to wait until we received the next bill before getting Teresa involved.

We received our bill today and it was dated the day before my wife had made the call, so the corrections were not reflected on this bill. However, I did speak to a Customer Service Rep at Rogers and was informed that the correct balance on their records is exactly what we expected it should be. This is the first time in at least a year that their balance matched ours. So it looks like the problem has in fact been resolved.

Again, thank you so much for your concern and all the effort you put forth in helping people who do have problems with the big companies.
David

Mar 24 2008

I came across this site while I was wasting my morning trying to reach Rogers to resolve the latest of their technical failures on their Home Phones. The technical failure resolved itself in less time than it took to reach a technical support individual - about 45 minutes of bad music before a live voice was heard. And during all of this time, my business had no phones, even though the internet connection (the same cable) was just fine.

I am going to be cancelling all five (5) of my Rogers Home Phone lines as soon as further lines are arranged with Bell.

Although there are some reasonable people in technical support, they are not all reasonable, not by a long shot. And the office of the president? Hohoho. The fellow I reached there today is a total waste of skin.

We have spent many hours dealing with morons in tech support whose diagnostic script is directed far more at trying to slough off responsibility for their technical failures than identifying the problem at hand. Specifically, and with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, EVERY problem that we have had with their service, and there have been many, has been on their side of the cable, not ours, and today was the final straw, when their service failed, again, while I was engaged in a conference call and sending out some critical email on a dialup line.

At the same time as we migrate those phone lines to a different supplier, we will discontinue whatever else we can of Rogers services. As a customer that pays the bills, some very LARGE bills from Rogers over a great many years, I have had absolutely enough of their poor treatment and whimsical phone services. The one Bell line we presently have has had supplier side service issues perhaps once in the past eighteen years, while the five Rogers Home Phone lines have had service issues perhaps twenty times in the past fourteen MONTHS. That is, issues that we know about. Perhaps they fail far more often, at night, when no one is there to notice.

Strangely enough, one of those five lines was originally placed with Sprint eighteen years ago, and it was rock solid, until Rogers acquired Sprint, and from there it was all downhill.

I would absolutely not trust Rogers again with a telephone line that is important to me in any way. I will also move our four cell lines to another supplier, at the same time, and dump the PVR and any other service that I possibly can. I have had enough of their arrogant attitude. Basically put, I am voting with my feet.

This posting is for information purposes only, no help is required or requested. But if it assists you in some way, then my time spent typing was well spent.
Samuel Platter

Mar 29 2008

I subscribe to the Rogers basic cable package. When I was first solicited for the basic cable package (according to Rogers promotional material), I would receive…now wait for it…here it comes…up to 170 channels…all for the low price of…you get it.

Now, we all know you don’t receive anywhere near 170 channels — not to mention that you pay for far too many shopping channels (they don’t mention that at the beginning).

The same program is on 5, 6, even 7 different channels, at the same time. I recently called Rogers and informed them of my take on their false promises.

I also mentioned I would be opening an ice cream parlor soon. I was going to carry up to 170 flavours…you know what I mean…when a customer would walk in and ask why do you have 35 chocolates….30 vanilla…30 strawberry…you get the idea…and you might be wondering what I’d call this new store…well, “Rogers” of course!
Samuel Platter

Mar 29 2008

It was several years ago, I really became pissed at Rogers and wanted to cancel all my services. I was forwarded to their H.O. in Toronto, and then referred to someone in “Public Relations”. I stated my case, and mentioned how unhapppy I was with their service, or should I mention, lack thereof.

She stated that I still had several months remaining on my contract, and if I decided to cancel now, I would be penalized at a charge of up to $200 per cell phone. I informed her of the terrible service I received and felt it was within my rights as a “customer”, if I was extremely unhappy, I should be able to cancel based on that alone.

Her response was, and I quote, “where does it state in the Terms and Conditions you have the right to cancel if you’re unhappy?”

If this particular moron was a man instead of a woman…at that very moment…a dentist would have been notified.
DP

Apr 7 2008

Dear Ellen:

Love your columns, you are a breath of fresh air in the doldrums of customer rooking in Canada.

My question is…do I have any options to Rogers Cable in Mississauga? I wouldn’t go to Bell either…they’re just as bad. I suspect Rogers has a virtual monopoly in Mississauga. If so, why aren’t the fees controlled?
Dave Ings

Apr 18 2008

Regarding DP’s question: “My question is…do I have any options to Rogers Cable in Mississauga?”

You can always cancel the service entirely. My wife and I did just this recently, when we realized that our “viewing” time had shifted almost entirely to the Web, and we were turning on broadcast TV (literally) once or twice a year. Also, those very few “must see” shows are easily rentable on DVD.

We don’t miss broadcat TV at all. A friend predicted that after a while if I happened to catch a TV show somewhere, I would find the commercials even more stupid and insulting than before we cancelled - and he was quite right.

Try it - you might like it!
Jason Johnson

Apr 24 2008

It seems every single month, I’m checking my Rogers Wireless bills and finding things I’m being overcharged, or double charged for. I had just accepted that as a pain of doing business with them, until recently, when things got out of control.

I noticed through my online account about 3 weeks ago that I was no longer eligible for a hardware upgrade, despite having been eligible the week before. I figured it was just a mistake and emailed customer service. They replied a few days later stating that a hardware upgrade was done a few days prior, a phone mailed out and received, and my contract renewed. Knowing that I most definitely did not authorize this, I asked what phone and who placed the order. They said my fiance had ordered the phone on a date when we were together all day. Of course, she had not placed the order.

I tried phoning in and got nowhere, so again back to email. I asked for further information on the phone order, and was given a UPS tracking number. When I investigated, it showed the phone was shipped to Don Mills (not anywhere close to where we live) and delivered to someone named Brian (not either of us). How that didn’t raise a red flag, I’ll never know, but so be it.

I then called the fraud department to sort this out. I was told by a very nice rep that they would open an investigation on our issue, and get back to me within 3 days. Well, 5 days later I was contacted and informed they determined that it was a fraud case, and our account had been fixed. However, they refused to tell me who or how the fraudulent order was placed. To protect this from happening again, they had me create a password for my account.

Feeling our privacy/personal information was now at risk, I asked to cancel our account. I was transferred to a CSR who told me, despite my privacy concerns, we would have to pay an early cancellation fee of $200 per line to close the account. Not thrilled about this, but fed up with the constant monthly issues and now this, I agreed. He transferred me to the cancellation department.

The third rep I spoke to there was extremely condescending from the get go, and told me that to cancel would be $400 per line. I said I was JUST told it was $200, but she said I was misinformed. As well, she would acknowledge that our privacy had been violated, and she would want to cancel too. She then told me it could be a malicious Rogers rep who committed the fraud (and boy did that make me feel great about doing business with them).

Not wanting to pay $400 to cancel, I ended the conversation there (after about an hour). My finance was upset when she heard this and decided to call herself. Again, they would not tell her anything about how we were defrauded, and gave her the same story about canceling our account. She was also told it was likely an inside job by a disgruntled Rogers rep (one of the CSRs she spoke to shared this theory because she had heard of it happening multiple times). I’d like to also point out she was not asked for our password once - great protection.

We then took our issue to the privacy department for some assistance. After multiple emails back and forth and their refusal to call us to discuss the situation, we hit a dead end. We feel extremely violated that our personal information was at risk, and our account was the victim of fraud.

As long time Rogers customers, we feel we are being treated unfairly, and would rather not give Rogers another dime of our hard earned money. I don’t expect to be completely let go of the cancellation fee, but at the same time I don’t think Rogers has lived up to their end of the contract we’re both a party to.
Rogers Hater

May 8 2008

Do NOT use Rogers Home phone EVER — especially if you take business calls on it. If Rogers has an outage, your phone dies. (And of course your internet). Stay away from Rogers internet.

May 7, 2008– my phone and internet died. Could not call or email customer support, obviously, because they are both Rogers. (Expecting very important phone calls, and sending out important time-sensitive email documents, and have to book a business flight related to call.) After 20 minutes, get on a borrowed cell phone. And receive the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER (caps used for those just scanning the posts.)

Short version: 11 am. Having outgoing mail problem. Call, negotiate prompts, get someone, explain… and am told there is no problem. 15 minutes gone. Two hours later, internet completely down. Pick up phone to call. Phone down. Get on cell, negotiate prompts, get technical support. Ask if there is outage. Told no. 15 minutes gone. Wait. Net still down; call again. Eventually told there is an outage. Ask how long. They don’t know. Then ask for customer support. On hold. 10 minutes gone. Get someone.

Explain litany of problems–not just on this day, but since switching to Rogers, there has been the sound of a radio on my phone. Have had Rogers come out twice to fix (losing half a day for them to show up sometime between 9 and 12, which means 1:30 if you call to ask where they are). Still isn’t fixed. Some days, it’s so loud it’s hard to have a conversation. Asked by customer service if I want technical– I said no, now I want credit to my account.

Eventually passed to a ’superior’. I explain again all the problems, including the complete phone/net meltdown today. She asks what I want, and I say credit– which she says she can’t do. I then ask “How does one get good customer service from Rogers, do I have to go complain on the internet or to the press?” She says I am threatening her (????) and puts me onto muzak. 30 minutes gone.

I call back, eventually through prompts, on hold, get another customer service rep. Explain it all again. She says I need technical support. I answer no, I understand it’s an outage, it’s not on my end, I don’t want to talk to techinical support, I want the name of a senior manger who can credit me some time back for the overall continuing bad service. She says there is only ONE manager working (the one I already spoke to). I say there must be more than one– she says no. So I ask for that manager’s superior. She says there is none.

So I ask for the name of someone I can write a hard copy complaint to… and — wait for it– SHE TRANSFERS ME TO TECHNICAL SUPPORT! As I’m saying to her again I don’t need technical support, the tech support comes on, asks for all my information again — I tell them I don’t need them, I know it’s an outage– she says it’ll be two hours– and I say “Can you pass me through directly to a manager at customer service?” I’m put on hold. Another hour gone. Over all, give or take, almost 3 hours on the phone to get NO CUSTOMER SERVICE whatsoever.

I realized then (and now confirmed by reading the Sitel agent’s post above) that it is a strategy to keep passing people along to other people who, after 2 or 3 or more times on 10-minute holds, just give up. Repeat: the customer service strategy is not to solve problems/assuage customers, BUT TO GET THROUGH THEM AT A HIGH RATE. This is solved by transferring/being put on hold.

So I got out the phone book and called Rogers Corporate office, got someone who listened to my rant (and couldn’t transfer me elsewhere.) He paid attention to my recent experience and my suggestions for improvement and credited me back time. So after all those hours, and the $15,000+ dollars I’ve spent with Rogers over the years, I got what works out to be about an $80 credit. This could have been resolved an hour and a half earlier by that sole manager.

UPDATE: the internet was down for for 17 hours. The phone is still not working — 19 hours. If I’d have known that, I would have demanded more credit.

I will be leaving all Rogers services after my business trip.

DO NOT USE ROGERS HOME PHONE & INTERNET IF YOU NEED THEM FOR IMPORTANT CALLS, EMAILS OR WEB BUSINESS.
Rogers Hater

May 8 2008

Other things– switched to home phone for the price — but the $25 or so ends up being, with all sorts of extra fees, nearly $40.

My favourite charge scam is the ’system access fee’. It’s like buying an orange at the supermarket and there being a ’supermarket access fee’ tacked on to the price of the fruit when you go to the cash register.

Additionally we were charged for months for a phantom phone line, etc. which we never ordered from Rogers,. And when we canceled and demanded credit back, were not given any.

And re: problems with hearing a radio on the phone mentioned in my previous comment — when we had Bell, the phone was quiet (for 8 years); the noise on the line only started when we switched to Rogers Home Phone.

Bye bye, Rogers.
bill

May 9 2008

What happened? Yesterday, Rogers disconnected my home phone service. When I called them from work to ask why, they claimed I had requested it.

I told them I had not requested it and they had no answer. They tell me it will be five days to restore service and I will have a new phone number, as mine is “gone”.

Now they expect me to call all my bankers, credit card companies, and all my friends and family to give them a new phone number, when they screwed up. When I asked them where my number has gone, they have no answer.
Sneaky Rogers

May 15 2008

Rogers Wireless extended my 2- year contracts without my permission, and I got the worst customer service ever when I called 611 for the “service” today.

Watch if you were planning to change your plan. Once you’ve added another service (like voice mail or a long distance discount plan) you have to agree to extend another 2 years or maybe more.

If it’s ever happened to you, please file a complaint to CRTC. Don’t let them get away with it ’cause they can.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/rapidsccm/Register.asp?lang=E
Alison Humphrey

May 15 2008

I am losing my mind over Rogers! In January of 2008, I relocated to British Columbia and needed to get home phone service and internet. We decided to go with Rogers.

The rep I spoke to submitted our order for “high-speed light” internet, which she told us was available in our area. When the modem arrived (which I had to drive out to the airport to pick up), I plugged it in and nothing happened.

After three days of phone calls, waiting on hold and being told by techs that it “would probably just start working,” I was informed that they do not offer ANY internet service in my area (which a very sweet and helpful rep told me should have been clear to them from the beginning). We had to ship back the modem, and I was assured that I would not be billed for any of the cost of this, since we were informed in error that they could provide this service, and since we had NEVER even received any service from them.

Today on picking up my mail, I was upset to see our Rogers bill in the mail. Upset, since it usually means that I will spend a waste-of-time hour on the phone trying to straighten the matter out.

Four months later, we continue to be charged for a service we have never received and am still waiting for $60 worth of credit to be applied to my account. It is the same old story — a rep promises this will not be a problem again, followed by another bill. Is there no recourse?
MK

Jun 2 2008

My parents each have a cell phone. My Dad is with Rogers and has relatively high usage. My Mom is with Fido. My parents also have Internet and home phone with Rogers and have bundle discounts.

My Mom, who takes care of a lot of administrative tasks for my Dad, usually never listens to Rogers reps calling with offers, but my Dad’s 2 year contract obligation finished in December. So when someone identifying themselves as a Rogers rep called at the beginning of the year, my Mom listened to what they had to offer and accepted the described plan.

The original plan my Dad had was the “Right Fit Plan”, which adjusts based on usage, up to 900 included minutes for $85, with additional minutes at 10 cents each. My Dad’s usage fluctuates between 800 and 1,300 minutes a month.

The plan that was described to my Mom on the phone was as follows:

- 3 year contract

- a 2 phone plan - the 2nd handset/number was a ‘condition’ of the plan, even though my Mom indicated that this phone would never be used as she already has a phone with Fido

- 1,000 minutes included in the plan (my Mom explicitly asked if these can be used for outgoing calls from only one of the handsets and she got a ‘yes’ for an answer)

- unlimited incoming calls

- the cost of the plan with the two phones was supposed to be lower than what my Dad was paying

- a new basic phone handset to replace my Dad’s old one.

As it turned out, what the agent setup for my Dad is a Family 200 Pooled Weekday plan with the following features:

- 3 year contract

- 200 pooled weekday minutes

- 200 shared weekday bonus minutes

- unlimited evenings and weekends (most of my Dad’s usage is daytime weekdays)

- 1,000 free long distance calls between the two handsets

- 35 cents a minute for all additional usage

The monthly statements said ‘Unlimited incoming local calls’ but my Dad kept on being charged for incoming calls

As a comparison, a 916 minute usage with the old plan, after all charges and taxes, came to $127, while a 717 minute usage with the new plan totalled $155.

The worst came when in April. My Dad used 1,378 minutes and the bill was $305, when it would have cost approximately $180 before.

Since my parents get one bill for all their Rogers services, it was this $305 charge that made my Mom notice that something was wrong. She asked me to call Rogers for her.

I spent an hour on the phone on May 11. The agent changed my Dad’s main phone’s plan back to “Right Fit Plan” and credited my parents a total of $222.60 (taxes included) for a few months of extra charges. He indicated, however, that I
would have to call customer relations department the next day to arrange the cancellation of the second line.

The next day, my Mother and I spent about an hour and a half on the phone with Rogers customer relations department (this is during my work hours), first with Becky, than with her manager Katy. Rogers refused to correct their wrong-doing and cancel the second phone without penalty charges, despite it being a clear case of their misrepresentation of the plan being sold.

They indicated that the best they can do was:

1. Change the plan on the second phone to the smallest possible, i.e. $32/month (taxes included), which adds up to $1,152 on a 3 year contract, or

2. Pay a $400 cancellation penalty.

Some of their arguments were that my parents apparently had plenty of time to notice the issue sooner, and that Rogers goes out of their way to make sure they communicate that the plan is correct, namely:

1. There were details of the plan included with the shipped phone, and

2. on March 29, someone called my parents, went over the details of the plan with them, and made sure that everything was understood and agreed upon.

In reality, the paper that came with the new phone has the following ‘detailed’ description of the plan:

“Fam 200 Pooled Wkday Unlimited E&W/Forf. Fam. 200 a sr et w-e part. Prm$30 Sec30 AB BC ON PQ”
“Term Length: 3 YEAR”
“System Access Fee: $6.95 / Month”
“Activation Fee: $35″
“Special Bonus: Chat N Send - Local Air, Txt, Pic, Vid, Free 1st month MSF - MSFTELCR1, Activation Fee Credit - ACTCRTELE”

As for the March 29 call my Mom received, it was limited to Rogers trying to sell my parents additional services on the phone line they were not going to even use.

I certainly hope your intervention will help resolve this. It is just wrong for a corporation such as Rogers to try to take advantage of people like my parents.

If it makes any difference, with all of the services that my parents are buying from Rogers, their monthly bill is around $300 - hopefully Rogers is interested in keeping their business.
Lior

Jun 3 2008

I really don’t understand how Canadians just stay there and take all the crap from companies like Rogers, and Bell, and Telus. If you have a cell phone with them, you pay $35 to activate it (with all the competition choices out there and how they offer very similar and comparable service, shouldn’t they be paying me for choosing them over the competition??), plus a system access fee of $7 (or in Bell’s case $9) a month, an extra $84 a year for no reason at all. Add all the service fees for extremely simple features such as caller ID and voice mail and that slaps another $10 a month on the bill. Add taxes, 911 fees, and all of a sudden your “amazing only $25 a month deal” literally doubles! What a scam!
MK

Jun 5 2008

Rogers called me today and took care of correcting the problem my parents had.

The second line is cancelled at no extra charge and my Dad gets to keep the cell phone, which was supposed to be his ‘hardware upgrade’.

Thank you very much for your help in addressing this matter.
Gabriel

Jun 19 2008

Hello, I have read through the posts here and although my specific problem seems unique, my experience with Rogers is far from it.

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first home. When a credit check was conducted, an old charge from Rogers was noted in the amount of $164 under my name.

Odd, seeing as I had not had an account with Rogers during the dates listed on the credit report. But I currently do.

So I call Rogers to try to get this error cleared up, thinking it should be very simple. I have the delinquent account number and my correct account information. I spend over 2 hours on the phone being transferred between 8 or so individuals from 4 different departments, with frequent disconnections in between.

Nobody can find any record of the account’s existence or any account associated with my name in arrears. They can locate the current account, which is paid in full with a monthly charge in excess of this phony collections note.

Well this is not a surprise to me, but the hoops I am being forced to jump through certainly are. Finally, I insist on speaking with a supervisor and am transferred to someone new.

I am assured this is a difficult case and they apologize for the inconvenience. But they need some time to look into it. Would I mind if they take the information and see what they can do? I am promised a return call in 24 - 48 hours. I agree — but 48 hours later, no call.

I call back and spend another few hours on the phone being transferred around and frequently disconnected. Finally, I get a supervisor on the phone (not an easy task). She says I need to call the collection company and provides me with a company name and a phone number. So I thank her and hang up.

Well, isn’t this great? The number she provided me with is not in service. A web search for the name provided does not bring up a single collection company.

Since they cannot locate this account or confirm that it belongs to me, all I want is a letter stating I don’t owe them $164. Why is this so much to ask?
Joe

Jun 25 2008

Roger’s June cable bill came with a colorful brochure hailing the new and easy read statement format. Upon reviewing my June statement and its new easy-read format, I realized that I was being overbilled $1.

I subscribe to Roger’s VIP Cable, which includes rental of your first standard digital terminal and the Digital Services Fee. (Note: the new statement has an asterisk * to draw your attention to the VIP savings.)

On the statement, Rogers lists the Digital VIP Cable amount, along with an amount for the VIP Terminal and the Digital Services Fee. Then further down the bill, they display a VIP discount.
The total amount for the VIP Terminal and the Digital Services Fee is $7.48. However, the VIP discount is only $6.48.

I went back over my billing statements from the last 2 1/2 years and discovered that prior to April 2007, the total amount for the Digital Terminal and Digital Service Fees was $6.98. This was offset by a VIP discount of $6.98.

When Rogers increased their Digital Terminal rental from $3.99 to $4.49 in April 2007, they did not pass onto their VIP customers an extra $0.50 discount, as the VIP discount remained at $6.98.

In April 2008, when Rogers increased various cable fees, the VIP discount was reduced to $6.48 even though they are billing their VIP customers a total of $7.48 for the digital terminal and digital services fees.

Yet Rogers continues to advertise their VIP Cable plan as including rental of your first standard digital terminal and the Digital Services Fee.

I called Rogers billing twice yesterday and spoke to two agents and a supervisor. The runaround I got was worthy of any political spin doctor.

I received no acknowledgement of any billing error by Rogers or my request to be credited for what appears to be 17 months of erroneous billing.
Ellen Roseman

Jul 4 2008

Anyone notice that the Rogers guy, the robotic voice that answers your call and redirects you to the right place, has had a sex change? He’s now the Rogers gal.

Is Rogers trying to be more like Bell’s Emily?
Lior

Jul 7 2008

In an article covering his 75th birthday for the Toronto Star, didn’t Ted Rogers say he was planning on revamping the whole customer service system? Perhaps he got pressured by women’s groups to make him a she. Bell has a she, Enbridge too, so they figured what better way to complete their domination over this industry by making Rogers get a she as well
Jose S

Jul 14 2008

Revamp Customer Service?!!? I am sorry to sound very negative, but most corporations in Canada don’t have a clue what customer service is all about.

I have worked for many firms and I have to say that back in the 80`s Customer Service actually meant something.

Recently I have been having an issue with my Rogers service.

After receiving a Digital Box PVR for free for 3 years, I made the decision to convert all my services to Rogers from Bell. (Huge Mistake, live and learn.) I was not very happy with Bell services either, the bills never seem to say constant always a charge here a charge there. And what the heck is with the service charge for tone dialing, they prefer that I use a rotary phone! How am I supposed to call “Emily” every time I have a problem.

Anyway back to Rogers!, so Free DIGITAL PVR and discounts for transferring home phone a credit of some sort which I have not seeing the light of day yet, so along comes first bill, Digital box charge, installation charged for the PVR my first bill came up to just shy of $300. After repeated call to Rogers, this went on for over 6 months, dammed frustrating, I finally had to take out my frustrations on one of these so called customer service professionals and demanded that this individual take ownership of my situation and have it corrected, oh yeah! By the way, don’t ever ask for a supervisor, you’ll get hang up on more times that you care to count.

So I on the 8 month everything finally ironed out with the bill I was getting some extra channels in the promo of getting the new FREE PVR, the offer lasted for a month or so, during that time I did enjoy the extra channels more than just regular cable, so my bill approx just over $100 a month for High Speed, phone service (Long Distance with Yak).

For some reason, Rogers Home phone does not allow you to use 10 10 numbers. Just one that knowledge alone I would never of changed from Bell at least I was able to get cheaper Long Distance, Rogers reps gave me some dumb excuse that their system does not support 10 10 calling cards because those services are not digital, ok!?

So all is going along well after about 6 months of basic cable watching, an offer arrives in the mail addressed to me, offering a not a full VIP package for cable but all the channels I was enjoying before during my limited time offering for $10.00 extra a month for an entire year, I called I spoke to a service professional and had everything done in not time accept they have to send out a tech. 72 hours tops, oh well what is another 3 days, the tech did not need to come into my apartment, but 72 hours later I had the extra channels, 3 weeks later the cable goes out, got on the phone spoke to the customer service professionals and I was informed that I called and canceled my services.

Well it took some convincing, but I explained that no one called to cancel service, got to send out a tech 72hours with appointment, no need to come to my apartment will connect from main switch. 3 days later cable is back, but what happened to the extra channels? Apparently according to the Customer Service professionals I never had that service, I needed to send a fax of the offering that I got in the mail to prove I guess that I was not lying, good thing I still had laying around, have to send out a tech, extra channels back for at least 3 months bill back to normal.

Just recently, extra channels went again, I called twice first time got hang up on and the second time the Customer Service Professional was telling me because I am the super for my building, I had to call a different number. Yes I do rent, but I’m gainfully employed by a large IT company.

Thank you, I feel much better….

Revamping Customer Service???? I think NOT, learning a thing or two about proper edict and matters when dealing with general public, especially people whom you are providing a service for and they are paying you for those services, these people are called CUSTOMERS, AND THEY ARE THE REASON WHY YOU HAVE A JOB TO BEGIN WITH.

Granted I have to say that there are some customers that are a bit more difficult to please and equally there are a few Customer Service Professionals that go beyond the call of duty but get their supervisor to inform them that they are taking too long to fix a customer’s issues, you know if everyone worked to resolve and listen to customer’s issues, there would not be a need for the same customer to call and complain numerous of times.

Ted, get your Head examined, what do you care anyway you’re a rich man, no small part because of your customers.

Hey has anyone tried the TELUS Digital TV yet? I am looking forward to it.
M. D’Souza

Aug 10 2008

A simple solution should be implemented by ALL carriers where negotiating agreements on plans are involved: Digital Recording that can be saved by the carrier. This would eliminate ALL “he said, she said” issues between carriers and customers. In addition, this can be used as “evidence” for “wrongful plans” that were promised to the customer.

I wish I had this recording in place when I negotiated a new contract with Bell. However, after months of being given the runaround with Bell, one post here on Ellen’s website resulted in a quick call from Bell’s corporate office to resolve the matter within DAYS.
Yasmin Damani

Aug 11 2008

I’ve been with Rogers for a few years now, and I recentlt started getting crank calls from a guy I don’t even know, leaving me voicemails with songs and trying to talk to me, trying to get me to meet up with him, and I was so annoyed, I ended up changing my phone number. About 3 days after changing my phone number with Rogers, he started calling my new number. I never gave him my new number, but to only family and really close friends, and now I have a feeling he has a friend working at Rogers, and that friend is giving out my information. I’m so upset and they pulled out a investigation on it, and won’t get back to me or try to resolve the issue with me, but say they don’t mind changing my number again. I’m so frustrated, because my point is, he has my new number but not only that, he mentioned my address. If something happens to me at all, it’s because of Rogers. Simple as that! I’m so mad!
Dave Oner

Aug 18 2008

I have been a Rogers customer for 5 years now. I’ve had 2 phone lines (Business and Personal), Internet High Speed and Cable service.

I called to have my services transferred prior to my move on July 30th. I called one month in advance to ensure that everything was prepared for when I moved into my new home.

The technician was to arrive between 5 to 8 PM on the day of the move. I had 3 movers, a cleaning lady ( plus myself) on site during those 3 hours and no technician showed for the appointment. I called at 8 PM asking where the tech was and was told he came by the house and found no one home. They tried calling a number, which was my emergency contact (a friend), not the number (my cell phone) that I gave them to call. First error.

Rogers said a technician would be dispatched that evening to hook up the services, but no one showed. I called the next day expressing my frustration and was told that dispatch would call me that afternoon to reschedule a technician to show up that evening. No one called.

I called again to express my frustration and was told that all they could do was reschedule my appointment for Friday, August 8th between 5 to 8 PM. (This conversation was with a so-called supervisor.)

I waited at the house from 4:30 to 7:30 PM and thought I should call to see where the technician was. Apparently, he had showed up for an appointment between 2 to 5 PM and tried calling my cell phone and said it wasn’t working (this was the same cell phone that I was using to talk to the customer service representative).

I said I did not believe that he had attempted to call. Again, I was told my only option was to book another appointment for Saturday, Aug. 16th, between 5 to 8 PM.

Finally, a technician showed for the appointment. I told him how frustrated I was. He said that certain technicians will look at renovation properties as difficult and come up with an excuse not to complete the installation.

After he was done, he told me that all services except the phone were working and that there was a technical problem with the phone. He opened a ticket number for that to be resolved in 24-48 hours.

I called back today (2.5 weeks since my initial services were to be installed) and was told that a more experienced technician was required to complete the installation. Technical support would get back to me in 24 to 48 hours to schedule another appointment.

I have a feeling I will just call and have all services cancelled and go with another provider. But since I have weathered the storm this far, I would be disappointed to give up and not get something back from Rogers for the inconvenience. There must be a way for these stories to get to more senior management levels to address.

What has happened to Communication! Service Level! And putting the customer first!

Knowing now that they outsource their customer service department allows me to understand why they have issues. Having customer service as a silo to your core business is not a model that would work in any organization.

As a communications giant, perhaps Ted Rogers should communicate with the people he provides service to and learn that his current model doesn’t work.

Kind Regards,
A Frustrated Rogers Customer…Dave
Shafali Jain

Aug 25 2008

My husband and I have been customers of Rogers since 1990. After the experience I have had in the last few days, I am cancelling all the services I have with Rogers.

It’s been one nightmare after another dealing with Rogers customer service, Rogers Plus store as well as Rogers’ customer cancellation department.

If I account for my time spent on the phone, I would say easily 8-10 hours. That’s not counting the distance, gas and travel time for a return trip of 96 kilometres that I was forced to make.
Rogers Tech

Aug 26 2008

Im’ a Rogers tech in Ontario Canada. Here are the reasons why you get the run around from an installer point of view..

- We (the rogers installers) are paid 100% in piece work

- For the last 5 years, the installers have been FORCED to take pay cut after pay cut. I personally have been with them for 3 years and have had 4 pay cuts!

- When i started 3 yrs ago, we had about 35 installers who were all VERY UPSET with how Rogers was constantly cutting their pay. Long story short, im’ now one of the most senior techs today! Most of them moved out west to work for Shaw Cable who still actually pays their techs good.

- Rogers is a VERY demanding company and loves to push their techs to the limit to work faster and faster. The more work orders the tech does, the more $$$ he makes. Only problem is that there are are TON of little things that the technician simply won’t do for you (the customer) because it’s simply not worth his time….because Rogers doesn’t compensate for it. Here are some examples..

a) A tech gets about $8.00 to simply hook up your Digital Box to your TV. Do you really think the tech is going to take 5-10 minutes out of his day to teach the customer how to actually use it? I don’t think so….i just drop it and tell the customer to read the manual.

b) The Hi-Speed line should be a DIRECT home run like right out to that grey plastic box on the outside of your house. Rogers only pays the tech about $10 to run that line. Do you really think the tech is going to clip a cable around your house in the middle of January for 45 minutes to make this $10? Or is he going to simply say ‘Fuck it’, im’ just going to split his TV.

c) Night calls (5pm-8pm). Customers should simply NOT book night calls if they want to get decent services. Why? 95% of techs out there just want to go home by 5pm. So they will come up with EVERY SINGLE excuse in the book to bail on the call. Here are just SOME of the things that techs will do to get out of a night call…
- Show up at your house during the day (when the customer is not home), disconnect your phone service, then when 5pm rolls around he calls his dispatch to confirm no one home.
- Change the phone number on the work order to a bogus number. So when dispatcher calls, he gets wrong number.
- The list goes on lol

You the customers have NO IDEA how bad the technicians are treated by Rogers. The facts about of 100% true and are coming from an active rogers tech in the field.
Julie

Aug 27 2008

My issue with Rogers started the beginning of the month (August 6th to be exact) when all of my Rogers services were disconnected.

I hadn’t been keeping up on my bills, fell a bit behind, but was still giving Rogers something each month. Once my services were disconnected, I immediately called Accounts Receivable to sort everything out. The lady who I spoke to assured me that upon payment, we’d have our services restored. Boy, was that a crock!!

My husband went to a Rogers store, paid the bill in full and was told to call Customer Service from their phone to inquire about restoration of services, as the person working there had no idea. My husband was told it would be 24-48 hours. And this is where it gets good!

When we asked why we were initially told that our service would be restored immediately upon payment, the CS man was extremely rude to my husband, who by this time had grown increasingly frustrated. Words were said and we left it at that… 24-48 hours without any service at home with 3 babies. And no cell phone because my husband uses it for work.

So now I have to pray that nothing horrible happens that may require me phoning 911. I call customer service one more time just to make sure when I should be expecting service and I was told that it’d be 24-48 hours AFTER ROGERS PROCESSES MY PAYMENT. And apparently it takes at least 24 hours to process the payment, EVEN THOUGH payment was made in cash at a Rogers store.

So payment was made on the 6th, isn’t processed until the 7th, so we should expect service no later than 4 pm on the 9th (a Saturday coincidentally).

When 4 pm came and went without restoration of services, I called Rogers again and spoke to someone who I am sure has no idea what customer service even means. After being on hold for more than an hour, and being REFUSED to speak with his supervisor, he came back to tell me that it’s actually 24-48 BUSINESS HOURS and although Rogers does business on Saturdays, it is technically NOT a business day and now we should expect service Monday OR Tuesday!!!

I was literally in shock…I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and immediately asked for them to close my account. OF COURSE, I have to give them 30 days notice, blah blah blah. And the strange thing was, NO ONE SEEMED TO CARE AT ALL. I didn’t hear any apologies or anything. I was so disgusted with the level of service I received.

So fast forward to Monday…..service is restored in the morning, everything is fine and dandy. Tuesday at noon, I see a tech van drive off just as I was feeding my baby and realised we had our services disconnected AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In utter disbelief, I ran upstairs to use my neighbour’s phone and waited over an hour on hold, only to be told they have absolutely no idea why or how this happened, I am told that the earliest someone can come out is around 5 pm.

I am in tears by this point. Imagine being at home with 3 small children without a phone. Sure my neighbour is upstairs, but what if he wasn’t home?? What then??? The tech I spoke to was the most genuine I had dealt with thus far, and he seemed to empathise with my situation, and said he’d try to get someone here ASAP. So service is restored later in the day. Fine.

Fast forward to last night, 8 pm. Both our cable and internet go out. It’s not just a glitch, so we call, tell them what is going on, give them our history (even though it’s right in front of them on their computer screen) and wait for some kind of explanation that service is down in the area (fingers crossed). NOPE! They disconnected us AGAIN, except this time, they left our phone on (how kind of them).

After being bounced around from CS to Accounts to Tech support to Customer Relations, back to CS and so on, no one has ANY IDEA why this happened and offers no explanation other than some CS agent made a mistake and they apologise. SURE.

So we’re on the phone for 1.5 hours dealing with a multitude of people and the best they could do was restore our cable, but internet could take until the morning. The agent assured us that we would not be billed, that we’d get a credit for the days lost, but we would have to pay a cancellation fee of $100!!

Even though I gave them my 30 days notice, they’ve told me it now has to be 30 days from last night, because they restored my services last night. I absolutely refused to budge and the agent said he’d get flack for doing what he did, but he waived the $100. Unbelievable!!

This morning I wake up, no internet, and I’m sure you know the drill by now. Over an hour on the phone again, to be told (get this) that they cancelled my services yesterday and not on Sept. 7th as I requested, because it was the end of their billing cycle and it was probably “done out of convenience.” Yay. And again I was bounced between every SINGLE department because no one knew what to do or why this was happening!! Can you even believe that???

I asked the lady in customer relations if she could make an appointment for me to speak to someone in person about my ordeal, but apparently that is not an option. She told me to go to a Rogers store!!! Unreal!!!

So my husband made an attempt to go to head office this afternoon, but couldn’t wait in line the minimum 40 minutes just to ASK to speak to someone!! Is there anything I can do or we as customers can do when situations like this arise?

Lame apologies just don’t cut it, Mr. Rogers. And the customer service I received left much to be desired. Unfortunately, I have a feeling this won’t be my last tryst with Rogers before my account is closed for good. Good luck to all the Rogers customers out there…I really feel for you…

Disgusted,
Julie C.
JN

Aug 27 2008

Rogers was to send a cable TV technician to my home this morning from 8 am to 11 am.

The 3 hour window is great in theory. But…. when you book the appointment, Rogers does not tell you that the technician will call during that time frame to confirm the appointment. If you miss the call (say you’re in the washroom or you don’t pick up the call because it shows up as ‘unavailable name’ and you are waiting for another call or assume it’s a telemarketer), the Rogers rep leaves a message asking you to call Rogers Customer Service to rebook.

No second call from Rogers - appointment cancelled.

When you call Rogers — within about 30 minutes of the message, after you get through the customer service IVR, and to the top of the phone line but still within the 3 hour window — the rep (and supervisor) say they cannot get a technician out today. They say Rogers will use their best efforts but…. this is apparently the Rogers policy.

So, here it is 1:44 pm and I’m still waiting just in case Rogers can send someone out. I did call Rogers to see if there were any updates and learned that I’d been rebooked for an appointment this Friday.

I had told the supervisor that I am not available on Friday but somehow, there’s a booking for Friday! When I said ‘good thing I called - please cancel the Friday appointment”, I was told that if I did, my request for Rogers to send someone out today would be cancelled. Huh?

Word of advice - if you have an appointment with Rogers, make sure you answer the phone!!
Alexandra

Aug 29 2008

I recently moved into a new condo and was given a promotional flyer entitling me to three months of free internet, tv and phone.

Having said that, I recently received a bill in the mail for $332. I was put through to eight different departments today and my problem was not resolved.

I asked to speak to a supervisor, but the person on the line told me that it could take up to 25 minutes. Well, all I can say it that I really just want to get to the right department so that this my bill reads $0.

Thanks for your help.
Dave

Aug 29 2008

Hi Ellen,

I enjoy reading your stories about people with receive very poor customer service from big companies.

This is an issue with wireless service.

I am a Telus customer and very happy with their service!!! They are the best of the worst!!!

I would like to share my experience with Fido.

In early August this year, I called Fido to inquire about the 6GB/$30 data promo they were offering. I spoke to an agent (sorry did not get his name and employee ID) who advised me I could sign up for 6GB data plan, I would pay system access fee and 911 service. This was perfect, exactly what I needed for a 2nd Windows Mobile Smartphone I had that I use for data only.

A few days later, I went to a Fido retailer, started the process of signing up. The retailer told me I needed a voice plan and had me speak to someone at Fido, who told me I needed to sign up for minimum $25 voice plan (on Fido’s own website, they offer a cheaper voice plan).

After reviewing my options, I decided to go to the Fido Store and sign up (the $30 data plan is good value and I’d get the cheapest voice plan). This was on Aug 7/08. I got signed up later in the evening and was told by Fido Store I needed to call customer service to get their data settings, I was on hold for 1 hour, tried to call back and their customer service was closed.

I called the following day to get their settings. That was 1 hour of torture, their customer support people place you on hold and call data specialists. I received conflicting information since I needed to call 2 times with 2 different agents.

Once I was able to get settings complete, I sometimes use the Smartphone as a modem. I called to clarify that I could tether the phone as a modem.

Over the last week, I have received different answers from different agents. When I requested to speak to a supervisor, I was told a supervisor would call back in 48 hours. This was another 1 hour speaking to agents, being hung up on and calling back 2 times

I have been told by some Fido agents, tethering is included, but others have said no. In all cases, this is after agents place me on hold and call their technical support department. One Retention agent advised me on phone that tethering was included, but wrote in a note that it wasn’t. He told me the conversation would be proof, but when I asked a supervisor for a copy of the conversation, I was denied.

I was able to cancel service today (within their 14 days cancellation period). I am guessing this will be screwed up as well.

How can a company run like this?

I have emailed Fadel.Chbihna@rci.rogers.com (he’s VP customer service). It looks like this email works, I received an out of office reply. You may want to post his email for your readers who have complaints about Fido.

About 5 days later, I received an email from Gaetano Di Falco [Gaetano.DiFalco@fidomobile.ca], he is with Office of the Executive. He regrets that their company could not meet my wireless needs. What goofs! Sending a form email after I write to their General Manager and VP Customer Service.

No resolution, no offer.

I have signed for 2nd cell line with Rogers. I hope this does not end the same way. They include tethering!!

Jim Prentice, get some competition in Canada.

Simple Equation:

No Competition = Crappy Customer Service

I hope Globalive, Quebecor and others who won spectrum read this blog.

Just a hint for them, don’t outsource customer service, make it a point of differentiation as well as price.

Dave
Paula de Ronde

Sep 1 2008

Dear Ellen:

Thank you so much for your help. I now have a Quad Band World phone and a credit on my Rogers wireless account.

For any remaining cell phone neophytes, like myself, a little advice. If you are taken in by Rogers’ advertisement of worldwide access on your phone and are tempted to sign up for same please ensure you ask for a quad band world phone when you go to purchase.

My story: My husband was so happy to get me a phone with world wide access, given our travel schedule. We could keep in touch but even more important our family and friends could reach us in case of emergency. I got rid of the ‘pay as you go phone’ which was used for emergency too here at home.

Before leaving for Chile for over four months, I called Rogers and double checked with a customer service representative about using my phone in Chile. After checking and getting the details of my phone I was told it would work with ‘no problem whatsoever’. I was even told how much the local and long distance charges would be in Santiago. Not true. The phone did not work. I checked with every wireless provider who had welcomed me as I flew over Ecuador and Chile to no avail.

When I contacted Rogers from Chile I was told Rogers did not suspend service and I was responsible to adhere to my contract by paying my fees monthly.

That got me upset. It seemed that I was to keep a contract but Rogers did not have to keep their side of it, which was to give me service.

It is a long story. Rogers tried every delaying tactic imaginable to get me to give up on the issue but I thought it was so unfair to ask me to pay for more than four months without any service after I was told that service would be provided that I decided to stick to my guns.

During the protracted emails Rogers had at one time told me they could not help me as I had the wrong birth date. True, my husband’s date of birth was on the contract as he had bought the phone for me. So too his credit card number was on the bill of sale which meant that neither could I use my card for identification! Logical? Yes, except both my husband and I are registered with Rogers and all bills and correspondence come in both our names and we also subscribe to Rogers Cable, Rogers Internet and Rogers Home phone. Go figure! After finding myself by calling another Rogers number I was sent many unwanted emails about sim cards, other wireless companies’ lack of updates or maintenance, on not putting any other sim card in my phone. These in reply to my reiterating my original complaint and asking for some resolution. Instead I got a long smelly red herring trail and information which I did not need or want. As I said I just wanted a phone that worked as advertised.

Finally in desperation and utter frustration I contacted Ellen Roseman and sent her the trail of emails and letters to Rogers. That brought a response. I finally got to speak with someone, and one individual instead of the steady stream of first names and alphabet surmanes.

I am happy with the result so far. My next trip will let me know if this Quad Band world phone does work.

My gratitude to Ms. Roseman and kudos to all those advocates who work on our behalf with companies who do not know the meaning of customer service or as Rogers say customer care.
jeand

Sep 7 2008

I want to complain about The Pay As You Go service, which I find deceptive and overpriced. To date, I have paid $178 for a phone, which I have used a total of 5 minutes for 1 phone call.

I bought the phone at a retail store. It was advertised at about $70, but I was shocked to find that by the time I had activated it the bill was about $148. There was supposed to be a $50 credit included, so I consoled myself with thinking I could use that to compensate.

I had bought the phone to use in the country in a zone that they showed had service, though it was not the highest rated. I was never able to use the phone over a period of two months and when I came back to the city and tried to use it, I got a message that the time had “expired”.

I was not pleased to thnk that time I had paid for had “expired” as if it were old food. Just why the time had expired I couldn’t understand, as it seems they are able to keep the cards, which cost $100, active for 1 year. But I found, in visiting the stores and reading the fine print, that all cards under $100 would expire in 30 days.

Since I need the phone only ccasionally, I bought three $10 cards that I could use as necessary (without expiry too quickly). Lo and behold, when I tried to call and validate them, getting though the whole process and finally succeeding on the 5th try, I heard a message from the automated system: “$10. I can only accept cards from $20 to $40 on this phone.”

Yes I’m sure they would love it if I paid $40 and let the card expire, getting perhaps another 5 minutes of use in a month.

I am annoyed with the rules allowing a company to sell cards with minutes that expire. If I pay for something, I don’t expect it to melt away in a short time. How is it that this retail practice is allowed?

If I buy a sweater and it disintegrates, I think I could get my money back.

Most other cards don’t have expiry dates or have much longer periods to use them. The fact that they sell $10 cards and then don’t allow you to use them is also annoying. They shouldn’t be selling things without stating right on the cards the limits of use.
Brandee

Sep 8 2008

I am so frustrated with Rogers right now because they are trying to force me to add text messaging to my plan by sending me text messages that they charge me for!

I do not have text messages in my plan, so therefore I get charged not only for text messages I send out, but also text messages I receive.

I recently started getting messages directing me to a website, then sending me weekly questions that I could answer online for a prize. However, I get charged for each of these messages.

It said that if you wanted to stop the messages, you should respond with a text message in all caps stating STOP ALL.

So, I called Rogers… and the messages are from them! I will be charged for each one received and the only way to make it stop is by texting a response, which I also get charged for. They will not let me cancel it over the phone.

So I asked the customer service representative: “You are saying you just send me text messages I haven’t even asked for, which I get charged for, and the only way to stop them is if I reply with another text message I will also get charged for?”

He said “Yes, but you can add text messaging to your plan for just $11 a month.”

He also said that texting will only stop one kind of message, but at any time at random they might start sending me another kind of message.

How can these companies just get away with robbing us? It’s the principle of the thing!!!!
Kyle Shulman

Oct 16 2008

A letter to Rogers:

On Oct. 1, 2008 I moved out from my parent’s home and began life on my own. I have been a loyal customer of Rogers for over a decade with my wireless service and my father has bought services with you including wireless, home phone, PVR and digital boxes, for over two decades.

My first task on my own was to get a PVR box. I went to your Rogers plus centre located at Creditview and Eglinton, only to be told that they were out of stock and to contact your 1-888-rogers1 number and they would be able to assist me.

I became disappointed from that moment on. I have been on an extremely frustrating journey that has continued to this day.

On Oct. 4, I scheduled an appointment for a technician. A gentleman from Dependable home service arrived and installed my digital box in my bedroom with ease. Upon installing the PVR box in my living room, it turned out the box was an outdated 3rd generation model that did not work. He put in a work order for Sunday, Oct. 5. I was told I would receive an updated model.

The next day I waited for the technician to arrive and he had the SAME model that did not work the previous time. He told me that he would put another work order in and it would arrive on Monday, Oct. 6.

I had a friend wait at my house for 4 hours and no one arrived. I contacted Rogers call centre to find that no work order was in place. The customer service representative contacted several Rogers plus Centres in my area to find that there was one HDPVR 3200 remaining. I picked it up and installed it myself.

From Oct. 6, I have attempted several times to speak to a senior supervisor. I was not immediately transferred. Instead, I was offered 3 months of unlimited programming (a slap in the face). The Representative also made a note on my file to have a superior contact me within 48 hours.

I waited till Thursday, Oct. 9, but did not receive a call, so I called back. I was told different things by many representatives. Up until this point I was patient, very patient, but I had a need and it was not being fulfilled.

I got angry and was told they would finally patch me through to a supervisor. When I spoke to this gentleman and explained the story again, he apologized and told me that he would express mail me an updated PVR box that would arrive on Saturday, Oct. 11.

I rescheduled my arrangements for Thanksgiving with my family to await the arrival of the box. To my surprise, another Technician arrived — without the upgraded box!

I thought that the effort required to get a working PVR box would be simple. Instead, this became a nightmare that has shaken my confidence in Rogers’ ability to meet the needs of ALL their clients.

I do not feel like a satisfied customer, I am not happy with the service I have received and I am strongly debating switching my services and acquiring my internet and home phone service through another company.

I have also forwarded this letter directly to the CRTC and Ted Rogers.

The amount of HOURS i have wasted does not seem worth it, but I am in this deep and plan on pressing it further!

Unimpressed
Liling Wong

Oct 16 2008

I called a Rogers wireless customer service agent more than one month before my cell phone contract expired on Oct.2 and told them about my decision to leave Rogers when it expired.

The agent told me it was OK and also reminded me to tell my new cell phone supplier to pull out my phone number before the new billing circle started (Oct.2).Otherwise, a new monthly charge would apply.

Then I ended my service with Rogers on Sept.30. But later I found I was still charged a new monthly fee (about $80).

I called back to the agent (different person) to ask why. She said she could only credit $50 to me.

Although I accepted that offer, it doesn’t mean I agree with that. I have no other choice. Otherwise I’ll pay the full amount. I don’t know why I’m still charged more, even if I have abided by all the terms with Rogers.
John Connelly

Oct 19 2008

One of the most annoying factors in dealing with companies like Rogers is what I like to call the Left Hand/Right Hand Syndrome, i.e. the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

When we purchased a new home this past August, we crossed our fingers and signed up for a Rogers bundle (Home Phone, Internet, and Cable services). I should have realized the potential pitfalls when placing a simple order for new services at a new address was met with confusion and incompetence.

One agent cheerfully took my order. Another left a cryptic voicemail message the following day, saying that there was a problem with our order and they had to cancel it. When I called back, after a lengthy wait on hold, a third agent informed me that yes, the order had been cancelled by an Anthony, but that he had not left detailed notes as to why. She needed to track him down and call me back within a couple of hours. No call came.

When I called back, a fourth agent said there was no mention of an investigation in the computer, but that she would look into it. She put me on hold; finally, she came back on the line to inform me cheerfully that we could not set up Rogers services at our new home because “the previous tenants” (her words) were not moving out by the date we had requested.

I informed her that her information was clearly faulty, as we had purchased the home and the closing date was several days in advance of the requested connection date. There were no “tenants.” She said, “Well, this just doesn’t add up to me, because they just ordered a new Rogers service a couple of months ago. Why would they do that if they were planning to move out?”

I said I had no idea, but I was in possession of a purchase agreement for the home that clearly listed the closing date. She said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t get into landlord and tenant disputes.” I said there was no landlord and tenant dispute. This was a simple real estate transaction. The previous owners would be moving out before the closing date, and we would be moving in after the closing date. This surely happens all the time.

She recommended that, in light of the “confusion” (of which there was none), I wait until we had taken possession of the house and then place the order for services. I pointed out that this would leave us without phone, Internet and cable services for several days. Surely, people buying a home were entitled to set up their orders in advance to coincide with their move-in dates. She sighed, said she would see what she could do, and call me back that day.

Three days later, she called back to inform me that, yes, she had confirmed with the previous owners that they had sold the house and would be moving out. Why didn’t they simply take this step in the first place? However, as they had cancelled my order, I would need to place it again. So I spent another 40 minutes explaining clearly what we wanted.

The installation of our new services went very smoothly, which I suppose lulled us into a false sense of security. The installation technician was due to arrive between 9 and 12, and he came at 9:30. All was well for about a month.

Then one day, I came home from work to find my phone, Internet and cable all not working. It seems that Rogers (forgive me — a company CONTRACTED by Rogers) had come out that day to complete repairs to a neighbour’s line, and had evidently cut cleanly through our lines in the process.

I called Rogers (on my cell phone) and was informed by a rather defensive, unhelpful agent that it would probably be a few days before they could send someone out to correct the situation. When I noted that the damage had clearly been done by those contracted by Rogers, she sounded skeptical and attempted to suggest the lines could have been cut by any number of persons or companies. Was there any construction going on? Had we been trying to tamper with the lines ourselves?

No, I responded calmly, the only thing happening today was a repair to another Rogers customer’s line two houses down.

I stated categorically that leaving us without phone services for several days was unacceptable. She said, “Well, you evidently have a cell phone, so you’re not really without phone service, are you?” When I noted that using a pay-and-talk phone as our primary phone would be cost-prohibitive, she grudgingly agreed to credit our account — for one day’s worth of Rogers services.

She then informed me that there was absolutely no way to get a technician out sooner. “I’m looking at the service schedule on my computer right now, sir. And the earliest date is Monday morning. What would you have me do, sir?”

She told me that the only way to get a technician out sooner was if several customers were affected by an outage. In other words, one customer inconvenienced by their error was not sufficient grounds to effect emergency repairs. When I said this, she was evasive and said she did not agree with that characterization of the situation. Finally, she agreed to put in an emergency repair order (something she had told me a few minutes before was completely impossible) for the next day.

So the technician came out the next day and draped cables onto trees and lamp posts and our service was restored. He assured us that the crew from Barrie had been contacted and would be coming to bury all the cables within the month.

The following week, the temporary cables all fell down and were draped across our next door neighbour’s driveway and lawn. I had to call again and have another technician put them back up. He, too, assured me that the crew from Barrie would be arriving within the next few weeks to finish the job.

The allotted month came and went. This morning, I called Rogers again to inquire as to when these cables would be buried, as they were not stable and any stiff gust of wind would probably bring them down again.

I reminded the agent that the crew from Barrie was past due to bury the cables. He asked me who had told me the cables would be buried within a month. I told him that two technicians and a phone agent had told me so. He said that was strange, because they never bury cables in October except in the case of an emergency, and we would probably have to wait until spring.

Besides, he said, the repair technicians were only CONTRACTED by Rogers and were not authorized to speak on behalf of Rogers, so Rogers was not bound by anything the technicians may have promised (Left Hand disavows all knowledge of Right Hand). Moreover, his computer system was down and would I mind calling back in half an hour to determine the status of the repair order?

I called back over an hour later, only to be informed that, unfortunately, the repair database was still down. But this second agent would be handling my case personally and would call back with a reference number for a work order once the system was back up. He told me he would have to put the request in as an “emergency repair” as cable burial was not normally treated as a priority in the fall.

So, I asked, was it their normal practice to leave temporary wires draped on people’s trees and over their driveways for 7 to 8 months at a stretch? No response to that.

Dear me. Any hope I once held that Rogers might be an improvement over Bell has long since evaporated.
JT

Oct 28 2008

Greetings from Vancouver, BC. I’d appreciate it if you could give me some guidance as to what next steps to take, as I am getting nowhere with Rogers Wireless.

I have expended much energy and time calling Rogers and then responding to their tardy e-mails. No satisfactory results thus far.

It all began in September 2008, when I realized that I had not been receiving paper copies of my bill. I had questions about the high Rogers charges when I reviewed my credit card statements.

The last bill I received was dated May 22, 2008 for the period between May 23-June 22, 2008. I have not received the bills for July, September and onwards.

This is NOT the first time the bills suddenly stopped. Early this year, I had to call Rogers billing, only to find that my preferences had somehow been changed in their system. To get them to send me the missing bill, I had to pay for it. I protested and later got a paper copy of the bill I needed.

This time, there are two issues.

1. On Sept. 25, I called Rogers and was shocked to find out that my address was incomplete. The suite number of my address was missing in their system. How did this happen? The rep could not explain, but said he would add the suite # in my address.

I asked to speak to a manager. He gave me this e-mail address to write instead: privacy@rci.rogers.com. He told me to address it to “Ken Angelhart”. The rep assured me that I would receive the 2 months’ bill within 2 weeks. This did NOT happen.

2. On Sept. 26, I sent the following email to Ken Angelhart.

I switched over to Rogers in Oct 2007 from Fido for wireless services. I have had no problems with FIDO for two years, no billing issues at all.

In January 2008, I subscribed to Rogers internet services.
Since switching over I have encountered issues with Rogers billing in these ways:

– Sometime in Q2 this year, I noticed that I had stopped receiving the hard copy of my bills for a couple of months. I phoned Rogers. I was told I had to pay for the copies. I was shocked.

I called back a week later. After being transferred a few times, I spoke to a rep who informed me that I had declined to receive a hard copy of my bill. I couldn’t believe what I heard. Who had changed my preferences?

It turned out that when I combined two bills into one account, somehow my mailing /billing preferences changed without my permission.

– Recently, I noticed that my Rogers bills were over $100, according to my credit card statement. I did not receive a copy of bills for August and September. I called Rogers on Sept. 25, only to find out that my address was incomplete in your system. I was speechless.

Do I have to call Rogers every few months for my bill because your system messed up my address or preferences?

– A couple of months ago, I noticed that I was using less than 350 minutes (+ 350 minutes bonus). I switched over to the RIGHT FIT PLAN/Anytime minutes for $25. I am shocked to find my bills for August and September were outrageously high.

I understand from reading the attached brochure that additional minutes over and above 250 will be charged at 20 cents each until I reach $35. Then my plan moves up to the next level.

I don’t have my bills in front of me because I didn’t receive them, but according to your rep, in September I used 122 minutes over and above 250 minutes. My understanding, according to the brochure, is that I was in the $35 plan that month, PLUS 12 minutes or so additional at 20 cents each. I don’t understand why my cell phone bill was $92?

I want you to show me that the calculations for my minutes is according to Athe nytime Minute Plan as per the brochure.

Date of bill - Reference # - total bill
Sep 08 — $134.30
Aug 08 — $118.50

I am looking forward to the expiration date of my Rogers contract.

– On Oct. 6, I received this email from Rogers.

Dear JT,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of online customer service.

We apologize for the delay in responding to your email. We are currently receiving higher email volume than normal, and are attempting to answer all email as quickly as possible in the order they arrive.

In your recent email, you have requested assistance with your wireless and internet account.

We would be happy to review your account for assistance with this matter. Due to our security and confidentiality guidelines, we kindly ask for you to provide us with your date of birth for full verification.

Once we receive the information, we would be happy to comply with your request/inquiry. We look forward to hearing from you.

We appreciate your patience with this matter. For additional information, please visit our website at http://www.rogers.com. You are a valued customer and we thank you for your business.

Regards,
Kristin H.
Rogers Online Customer Service
http://www.rogers.com

– I responded to the Oct. 6 email and got a response on Oct. 14. Issue was not properly addressed and remains unresolved.

– I responded to the Oct. 14 email and got a response on Oct. 21. Issue was not properly addressed and remains unresolved.

I was supposed to receive the past 2 months’ bill “within 2 weeks” (Oct. 9), but no sign of them.

– On Oct. 15, I attended a business trade show. Rogers Wireless authorized dealer, Cellcom, was an exhibitor. I told the staff that I subscribe to both Internet and wireless services and I am disappointed with the lack of customer service, to which he responded, “Rogers has the fastest internet service.”

I told him that was not my issue. His suggestion to me was to return to the store where I purchased the wireless service and give them his card.

– On Oct. 21, I returned to the Cellcom store in Oakridge Centre, Vancouver. All the rep did was dial the number for Rogers billing and hand the receiver to me. Much to my shock, my address was still incomplete. This time, the rep assured me that I would receive the bills ‘next Tuesday’. That would be Oct. 28.

– On Oct. 21, I received a response from Rogers Wireless. Once again, I wrote back to say the address is incomplete and telling them what their brochure states about the Anytime Plan.

Dear JT,

We apologize for the delay in responding to your email. We are currently receiving higher email volume than normal, and are attempting to answer all email as quickly as possible in the order they arrive.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of online customer service.

In your recent email, you have requested an explanation of your August and September 2008 invoices.

As you have stated in your email you currently subscribe to the $25 anytime plan. When going over the 250 anytime minutes, you are charged an additional $0.35 per minute.

When paying your monthly invoices via credit card, you will not receive a monthly statement. We do offer online billing where you are able to save and print your invoices for up to 18 months.

We also see a representative has issued you the August and September invoices to be delivered via Canada Post to your address. The reprints will arrive within 7-10 business days. Your invoices now include both the Internet and Wireless services.

We do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and thank you for choosing Rogers.

Regards,
Kathy G.
Rogers Online Customer Service

– On Oct. 25, I received another email.

Dear JT,

We apologize for the delay in responding to your email. We are currently receiving higher email volume than normal, and are attempting to answer all email as quickly as possible in the order they arrive.

In your recent email, you informed us that you had suddenly stopped receiving your statements. The representative was supposed to add Suite 402 to your address. You also mentioned that your price plan overage charges were supposed to be 20 cents per minute and not 35 cents.

We have added STE 402 to your address. You will receive your invoice on your next billing cycle. We have also sent you a reprint for the last 2 months at no charge to you.

The price plan that you are on does not have overage charges of 20 cents per minute. The overage charges are 35 cents per minute. On June 6, we see that you changed your price plan to the one that you are currently on.

We are pleased to have been able to address your inquiry. For additional information please visit our website at http://www.rogers.com. You are a valued customer and we thank you for your business.

Regards,
Mike M.
Rogers Online Customer Service

This I received on the day I went into the store and spoke to a rep on the phone. I made sure my address is correct. Mike M. is telling me that they will not charge me for the reprints!

– Today is Oct. 25. After a month of time and effort on my part, there is still no sign of my missing bills, nor am I any closer to resolving the overcharges.

Ms. Roseman, how can I get a satisfactory resolution to these two issues? I want to give my cellphone and internet business to another company, but of course, Rogers would penalize me for terminating my contract before the expiry date in 2010.
JT again

Oct 28 2008

I really appreciate your follow-up response and for assisting me in escalating this to the President’s office.

My conversation with Theresa from Rogers this morning was the kind of attentive service I needed. Within 12 minutes and 17 seconds, my two issues were resolved.

Thanks again for your assistance in getting the results I needed.
Teresa Crooy

Nov 6 2008

In August 2007, I went with my 15 year old daughter to get her a cell phone and plan.

My daughter wanted to get the 3-year contract and I tried talking her out of it. Because she was working 4 days a week and would be paying the bill, I relented.

In July 2008 my daughter decided to go live with her father (we split 16 years ago). Within weeks he served me with custody and child support papers. I agreed to the custody part because he swore in court they had a great relationship and because my daughter was telling me no different.

When she called me at home, I noticed that her father’s name was coming up on the call display and asked my daughter why this was. She told me that her father had called Rogers and got them to take her off my plan. He did this before we even went to court on Oct 14/08.

I went into Rogers and told them the story. They said to put my daughter back on my account, they would need my consent and the father’s to do so.

I asked Rogers why I was not called to give my consent to have her removed in the first place. Rogers could not answer that question.

In trying to get any information about my account, I keep getting asked for my postal code. I gave it to them and they said no, that is not it. I gave them my new postal code. No, that is not it either.

My ex somehow managed to get his postal code, his address and his credit card on MY account. Rogers keep telling me they cannot give me information because I am not authorized on that account. How can that be? That is MY account to begin with.

The store where I set up the account called their fraud department and was told my ex had called on Sept 3/08 (or the 5th) to have me removed from my own account.

The rep at the store whispered under his breath to the person on the other end of the line (basic gist of what was said) “Are you going to call her back because this is a serious matter and we know how things tend to be forgotten around here.”

I was finally able to get an invoice proving it was my account and finally got hold of head office that only SOLD Rogers phones. They got my original copy of the agreement with my signature on it and faxed/are faxing it to the store where this whole mess started. I need lots of ID to prove I am who I am yada yada.

They say they MIGHT be able to get my ex’s passcode removed. NO! I want to know how he managed to do this.

Calling the fraud department for the second time, the lady said that I must have given (my ex) authorization on my contract. No, I did not.

It was also suggested that “I” called in and gave my consent over the phone for my ex to change MY account. No, I did not (the only times we are in the same room is when we are in court).

I am frustrated and don’t know where to go next.
Dan Thompson

Nov 7 2008

Hi Ellen

First let me say thanks for all the info you write and publish. I have found your column helpful more than once.

A few months ago you helped me resolve and issue with my new CIBC credit card and I am coming to you for help again.

Two days ago my husband had his one month old iPhone stolen in a Starbucks. We immediately called Rogers to suspend service. We spent two days looking for the phone just to make sure we didn’t misplace it in the house or the office or the car. Of course the phone has not turned up at all.

Today I called to get his phone replaced thinking I would pay for a new phone and switch his contract to the new hardware.

To my surprise Rogers does not allow customers to buy new hardware and and activate it to their existing contracts except for once per 12 month period.

So our options presented to us from Rogers were:

1. Buy an iPhone for $700 and use it without a contract

2. Cancel the contract for $500 and sign up for a new one and get the iPhone for a discounted rate of $250 (total $750)

3. Replace the iPhone with a blackberry for $300 and add it to the existing contract (a blackberry is not an iPhone)

4. Get a regular flip phone as a replacement and add it to the existing contract (no data capabilities but still pay for the data service)

5. or continue to pay the contract without any hardware until next year

So my dilemma is this: why is the consumer being punished when their phone is stolen or lost: we paid $250 for the phone on a three year contract and as soon as we need help in replacing the hardware we get dinged any way we try to replace it.

We are happy to pay for new hardware but not at an inflated price. We would pay $250 for a new phone and happily continue with the contract. We are so dependant on our iPhones because we both travel so much and use them for everything (no other phone even comes close to user ease) Brad (my husband) uses all the features of the phone including the iPod feature because he is a singer and uses the Ipod to rehearse in small spaces.

At the prices Rogers is quoting it would be cheaper for us to make a claim on our house insurance and pay the deductible to get the phone replaced. I wouldn’t care so much except it is such a great tool and Brad is only one month into his three year contract with Rogers. I would buy a phone elsewhere but of course Rogers has the monopoly on the phone in Canada. The operator told me even if I bought an iPhone elsewhere (like a Mac store in the States) it would not be useable in Canada.

We need your help to get Rogers to help us because my experience with Rogers is that supervisors never call back and I really don’t want to argue with a front line person on the phone (I know they have limited authority and they don’t set the policies.

We don’t want something for free just what we had and at the same price we already paid.

Simply: a replacement iPhone at the price we paid for the original ($250) and have the new phone attached to the existing contract.

Part 2

Thanks Ellen

Since I emailed you this week I did find a solution.

I consulted your web site and saw a blog post about contacting the client retention department who turned out to be very helpful.

I guess I was just annoyed that as a long term customer (7 years with two cell phones, two internet services, home phone and long distance service) who had signed up for not one but two iPhone contracts in the last month (me and my partner) for a total of $800 in hardware and service upgrades and three years of service at almost $200 a month ($7200 over the life of the contracts) I thought there might be some flexibility in their policies. All said we will spend $8000 for being with ROGERS over the next 3 years. It seemed silly to me that they could not discount a phone for such a level of commitment on our part. I now realize contracts are not for service but for the hardware.

The interesting thing is that the customer service department at ROGERS acknowledged that iPhones get stolen at an alarming rate, yet they have no recourse from a customer service point of view (you’d think with the amazing GPS capabilities of the phone they could start a program to locate stolen goods).

I did learn a lesson though: I will never bill a hardware upgrade to my ROGERS (or other phone bill) again. I will pay directly with my VISA. Had I paid with my new VISA Infinite card for the phone outright I would have been covered for loss or theft under their insurance program (I would have had the phone replaced for free, basically).

The solution we did find (offered by the retention department at ROGERS) was to switch to FIDO and sign up as a new client. We ported in Brad’s cell number, got a new iPhone for $200, a slightly different service contract (but almost identical) and because we switched from ROGERS to FIDO the cancellation fee at ROGERS was reduced to $100 (instead of $500).

All in all it cost us $300, many hours on the phone with both companies and one trip to the FIDO store to get the problem fixed.

My lesson: Use my credit card to buy hardware to make sure I am insured.

Thanks for all your help.

And please keep writing your articles!
glenn murray

Nov 25 2008

Hi Ellen, I am so frustrated right now. I have nothing but problems with Rogers Wireless.

We have 4 phones with them, all on 3 year contracts. I will spare you details of the 20 or 30 calls wasted in the past, and tell you about the latest.

Two months ago, I switched to 1,000 long distance minutes per month. Yet, I keep getting bills with extra long distance charges on them. My last bill had a total of 359 calls (there were 109 long distance calls, according to the bill).

I was told by ‘Customer Service’ that I had 269 long distance charges. I told them I have the bill in front of me and if we need to, we will go over them call by call. (My long distance is used when I am out of town on business.) They said their computer says 269, so there will be no credit. I asked if it is 269, why does it not have the other 162 calls on my bill? They did not have an answer for me, yet they maintained 269 long distance calls.

I tried to go through the dates of each call. They said if we do that, we will have to go through each portion of the line — not just the date and whether it is long distance or not. I said I just want to go by the date and line # to see if we agree on whether it is long distance or not. I was told we will do it our way or we won’t do it at all. Like a fool, I got really angry, said some things, then hung up.

I am willing to bet I have spent over 45 hours or more on the phone with them over the past year. My time is how I make my living. I can’t dump them or they will charge me for all 4 plans. I have had enough of this.

How do I get out of my contracts for poor service or for lack of performance issues? Lord knows, there have been dozens. But, if you bail, they will slap an A-9 on your credit bureau and then you have bigger problems.

Is there any way other than court? I will do that if that is what it takes, but I was hoping there was a more amicable, less time consuming way. Any advice you can give would be very welcome.

Frustrated and in need of better counsel than my own,

Glenn Murray
Alberta
Julia Smith

Jan 22 2009

My husband left me and the country 2.5 years ago. I called Rogers to tell them he had left and asked if I could take over the account, which was in his name. They told me I couldn’t, so I set up my own account with Fido.

I recently requested a copy of my credit report and discovered that his Rogers bill has been reported to my credit report. When I called Rogers, they told me that they had my social insurance number on the account.

They couldn’t explain to me how they could have a SIN number of one person on an account that is in the name of another person. They say that they won’t remove it from my credit report unless he contacts them and takes full responsibility for the account (he’s dropped off the face of the earth) or if I press criminal charges against him.

I don’t have time for this. I’m a student with a disabled kid at home. I don’t even have time to fill out all the autism paperwork these days, let alone deal with this Rogers nonsense.

If anyone has any suggestions, I’d sure love to hear them. My email is geo jane 42 at g mail dot com.
Rob Walker

Jan 22 2009

I was told to fax this to the “office of the president” but of COURSE the phone number given to me was disconnected. Then I phoned Customer Service again to try and get the correct number and was told ALL computers were down and I could get it from your contacts page website. Still havent found this fax number.

To: Office of the President
Rogers Communications
1 416 466 1513

To whom it may concern:

I have been a very happy Bell cell phone customer since 1995. Since moving to Rogers in August 2008 because you were the only carrier of the iPhone, it has been a nightmare. I have over 41 HOURS of logged calls with your various “customer service” agents. All I want now is my $100 deposit back, as I will never get the hours back for either my business or my life.

I have been a Rogers customer since 1995 with digital cable and high speed internet and have never missed a payment. When I first tried to purchase the iPhone Aug 23, 2008, I waited over one hour for the Rogers Store to try and activate the phone. I had to leave after that time.

On Monday Aug 25, 2008, I went to another Rogers store (the first one was now sold out) and waited as long as it took to get the phone activated (2 hours and 20 minutes). At that time I was told the ‘Rogers System” was down and they were unable to get the BAN number to bundle the cell phone and that I would have to pay a $100 deposit because of my ‘bad credit rating’.

Since I knew there was nothing wrong with my credit, I proceeded with the purchase as I knew I could clear it up the next day when your “systems” were back on. This wasn’t the case as your business department confirmed this ‘bad credit’.

At MY OWN EXPENSE, I paid for my credit report only to find it was incorrect information provided by ROGERS for a bill that wasn’t paid in June 2006 and had gone to your collection agency November 2007. I of course have receipts for ALL payments in FULL.

Upon further investigation (with NO help from your various departments), I was able to determine this was for a different Robert Walker with a different address. The ‘customer service’ was nonexistent from Rogers, with each (uninformed and untrained) agent telling me a different contradictory story from the previous agent.

I was able to get everything corrected (after 40 hours of phone calls to Rogers) and was told that there was NO reason to keep my $100 deposit, as (1) my credit report was excellent and (2) I had been a customer with outstanding payment record for over TEN YEARS. Accounts receivable told me THEY couldn’t do the credit but activation could. (There was a lot of back and forth between the departments for me.)

Countless times though this process since August, I was told by each agent they would call me back. Even after I would tell each one that NO ONE had EVER done so in the past. To this day (January 21, 2009), NO ONE FROM ROGERS HAS EVER CALLED ME BACK.

I have the names and employee numbers for all involved back in Toronto. I did not bring this large file with me as I winter in Florida and I was assured before I left that this was FINALLY taken care of by Veronica in Accounts Receivable. Several others in that department after Activation said they would waive the fee, with the last accounts receivable agent being Julie #660271 at the end of December who ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY ASSURED ME that THIS TIME she would call back within the next few days to confirm it was completed. AGAIN no call.

Never in my 30 years of being a broadcaster in the media coast to coast in Canada have I ever been treated as poorly by any service provider. To be lied to, misled and given so many empty promises, all the while trying to run my business in these tough economic times. Why should I have to spend over 40 hours on the phone only to CORRECT YOUR MISTAKES?

The past two months, I have been unable to even see my bill online for the cell phone. As recently as Jan. 19, no one in accounting can tell me how much I owe, how may minutes did I use in Florida (so I can adjust my roaming package if needed) or even when I should expect to be ABLE to see my bill. (Last month my entire online account was deleted, but that is another story all together.)

The most recent “non information” was from your online support ref#40757499 (I thought I would see if THEY could do any better). The minutes recorded on the iPhone and YOUR minutes are very different.

I am told that the “Office of the President” is the last and final place I can try and find some restitution. Let’s hope they are correct. If Bell was able to provide the iPhone, I would pay your penalty in full just to leave this nightmare behind.

Robert W. Walker
Don Reynolds

Jan 29 2009

Do you have any advice for me?

My mother recently moved into a building for retirees in the Bayview Village neighbourhood. Rogers has an exclusive contract for telephones in the building. She could not keep her Bell telephone number of 47 years, according to Rogers, because there was a gap between the date of the closing of my mother’s house sale and the move to her new residence.

In order to retain the number, my sister had to transfer the phone service to her own home and then transfer it to my mother’s new home a week later. Rogers’ position? It was all the fault of Bell Canada.

This afternoon I called my mother and a woman in Don Mills answered. I called a Rogers customer service representative to ask what they would do to fix the problem. Their answer: to fix the problem, a technician would have to travel to the site but they would not initiate that action until they received a call from my mother at the site.

When I did speak to my mother, 90 years old and visually impaired, she told me that over a period of two days she had managed to speak to a technician. No, she said, he did not mention a need to travel to the site. She said the Rogers technician did offer this: “It might be Bell’s fault.”

It seems to me that if you live in an area captured by Rogers, you have no options. When Bell had a monopoly, one could criticize their fees and their speed but they took responsibility. The principles guiding Rogers’ phone service seem to be “evade, avoid and blame”.

I have emailed the CRTC, but I am wondering whether there are any quick strategies that you could recommend? I just want the current problem fixed.
Ellen Roseman

Jan 30 2009

Hi Don. I often hear about problems when people switch phone service from one carrier to another.

Sometimes, it really is Bell’s problem. I wouldn’t discount that argument. But Rogers is your mother’s new carrier, so that’s who you should deal with.

I have sent your information to my Rogers media contacts and asked them to help you.

Best wishes,

Ellen
Osman

Feb 10 2009

Hi - I have an issue with Rogers that I want to publicize, as I think they were being unfair to me. I could keep quiet as it’s not a huge deal, but I believe that would be irresponsible of me to just ignore this. Others may get treated the same way and cause a lot of frustration! You’ll find the string of emails below. Thanks,
Oz

——-

Dear Oz,
You have reached our Online Management Support Team. Upon review of your account, I see the charges on your account were for cable services from January 25th to March 21st. This is called proration.

When you subscribe to a service or make a change to your service, your next bill will include charges for the service for the remaining days in your current cycle in addition to your regular monthly fee, so the bill may have a different amount than you usually see.

Don’t be concerned, this only occurs on the first bill after a change. For an explanation of your bill please visit http://www.rogers.com/billexplainer. Also there were no installation fees, therefore Rogers will be unable to offer any adjustments on your account.

Thank you for contacting Rogers.

Regards,
Steven L.
Rogers Online Management Support Team
http://www.rogers.com

Original Message Follows: ————————
Hi,

I do not have an acccount PIN #. My DOB is XXXXX.

Thank you,
OZ

2009/2/10 Rogers Cable Customer Service

Dear OZ,

We apologize for the delay in responding to your email. We are currently receiving higher email volume than normal, and are attempting to answer all email as quickly as possible in the order they arrive.

You have reached our Online Management Support Team. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.

In order to properly assist you with your recent inquiry regarding the charges on your Rogers account, we ask that you please reply to this email correspondence with the following information:

* Date of Birth
* Account Pin-Code (if applicable) Note: This is not your Rogers.com password.

This information is necessary as per our security and verification procedures, as well as to ensure we are accessing the appropriate account.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Regards,
Steven L.
Rogers Online Management Support Team
http://www.rogers.com

Original Message Follows:
————————
*** Your Cable Billing Inquiry ***

Account Number –> XXX

Name –> XXXX

Email –> XXXXXX

Address 1 –> XXXX

Address 2 –> Toronto

Postal Code –> M4X XXX

Subject –> Your Cable Billing Inquiry

Comments –>

I just moved at the end of January. A couple of weeks before the move-in date, I called Rogers to request my cable services be moved from XYZ ADDRESS to ABC ADDRESS (both in downtown Toronto). The agent gave me a time for Sunday, Feb 1st, for the cable guy to come in for setting up cable at the new place.

During this phone call, I SPECIFICALLY asked if there would be ANY cost implications or anything like this because of the transfer, and I was assured there would be NOTHING unusual - just moving services.

I just checked my bill last night and it is $123.80. I was rather surprised and called Rogers to inquire about the reason. I was told that because I had “cancelled” my service at the old place and ordered new cable at the new place, I was getting prorated charges for Jan. 25 to
31, and then getting billed from February to end of March (2 months) because “new”
customers usually pay 2 months at their first payment.

I spoke to 4 people, lastly a manager. He said the same thing.

I said I DID NOT ASK FOR CANCELLATION of services and I find it ridiculous that I’m being treated like a new customer, when I only wanted my services transferred and when I was requesting this service,

I was told nothing would change. I was either lied to, or the person omitted certain facts, or just simply didnt know the process. Regardless, the manager I spoke to did not resolve the situation. He only explained how things were. I said I am NOT a NEW customer and I don’t want to be paying 2 months up front AND also getting tied into a 1 year agreement to get the discount on the VIP package.

I was extremely annoyed and I told the manager to cancel my service. He said I need to give 30 days’ notice. I said consider it my 30 day notice. Therefore, I will be leaving Rogers Cable services as of March 3.

I was told I only need to pay $84.36 and that will be it. My account will be cleared up and closed on March 3.

I am writing this for 3 reasons:

1- The agent I spoke to when I requested transfer of my services should have mentioned the implications.

2. When I explained to the manager I did not expect this, he was NOT sympathetic to my situation and did not make any effort to accommodate me, given that there was obviously a communication gap. I decided right there and then to cancel my service. I think this should
be investigated and I would like to know why this manager did not make an effort to accommodate my situation and just continue me on the same terms as the services I had at the previous address.

3. I would like confirmation via email that upon my payment of $84.36, my account will be clear. I want this documented, as I do not have faith in phone conversations with Rogers reps at this point.

I expect a reply to this message, to my satisfaction, regardless of whether I am leaving cable with Rogers or not. If the explanation is not satisfactory, I will ensure I put this on my blog - along with the response from Rogers (or lack of - in that case) and tell anyone and
everyone who will listen about this mistreatment.

Thank you,
Oz J
Tina

Mar 4 2009

I have been dealing with a problems with my Rogers bill since last June, when I moved from Toronto to Oshawa.

I was completely unaware, as are most of the CSR’s I have spoken with since, that when you move to another city, your account number changes.

When several payments when missing, it took 2 months and numerous calls to finally discover that the payments had been credited to the old account, which was incorrectly still connected, and I was paying for services at the Toronto residence where I no longer lived. I believed I had canceled all the services.

Several months later, in October 2008, after my services had finally been disconnected after 2 failed attempts (they were supposed to be disconnected at the end of June), I was told all of the money and returned equipment credits had finally been transferred over to the Oshawa account.

So, I was very surprised, to say the least, when a collection agency called in February to ask me when I planned on paying the outrageous amount still owing on my account.

After trying for 1 month, I finally got through to someone at Rogers who discovered that nothing had ever been transferred. The payments and equipment credits were still sitting on the old account with the balance on the newer account and, since it has gone to collections, there is nothing they can do, they cannot transfer my payments or credits.

Like so many others, I have been referred to the Office of the President, but no one at Rogers can give me any contact information. If someone here knows how to contact this office, it would be wonderful if they could post that for me.

When it all boils down, I never had any problems with Rogers’ product (for me, cable & internet). The service was of a good quality & reliable.

Ultimately, I have decided to terminate my services with Rogers, probably forever, because of their unbelievably poor customer service.

My average phone call was over 2 hours. I routinely got transferred to the wrong department and over half the time I was unexpectedly disconnected.

Just yesterday I was on the phone for 3 hours before I was referred to the Office of the President, spoke to 6 different agents and got disconnected twice. That’s what’s wrong with Rogers.
Rogers Phone Rep

Mar 15 2009

Hi Ellen

I’ve been reading about the various Rogers complaints on here.

Allow me to give your readers some tips when dealing with the call centre:

1. Don’t threaten to cancel all your services if you don’t get what you want. That doesn’t work.

2. Treat us with respect. No yelling, screaming, cursing, insults, or treating me like an idiot.

3. You may have been transferred ten times, but its the first time you are talking to me. I understand you’re frustrated, but I’m there to help, not be a punching bag.

4. Whenever you call Rogers, get a name, department, city, and call history number. Every single time someone opens your account, there is a call history number. This ensures accountability if your call isn’t resolved.

5. Don’t threaten us with “I’m going to the office of the president” if we can’t help you. They will tell you the same thing that we are explaining.

A lot of the reps at rogers are willing to help customers with problems. We may not get an answer on the spot in very rare cases, or may have to transfer you to another department, but when people are rude and demanding on the phone, they won’t get the customer service they deserve.

Yes we have some bad apples, but every company does. I go out of my way to offer 110% customer service on every call, for every customer, and my results/comments from customers prove that.

For those that say “Ultimately, I have decided to terminate my services with Rogers, probably forever, because of their unbelievably poor customer service”, like Tina, there is always another side to the story. If you’re being disconnected, it’s most likely because you were rude to the call centre rep and were warned. We don’t hang up on people for no reason. I’ve seen people get fired for that.
Chapatikid

Apr 6 2009

Rogers Wireless makes me feel powerless. I hate being bullied. I hate being taken advantage of. And yet, for the past year, Rogers Wireless has done exactly that to me.

After observing my cellphone usage over the last few months, I wanted to downgrade to a lower plan (which actually is a new and BETTER plan than the one I currently have and pay more for). I read on the FAQs online that there’s no charge to change monthly plans.

When I called Customer Service, I was told I’d have to pay a change penalty. When I said that I read online that I don’t, she put me on hold, then told me I’m right - I don’t have to pay a change penalty or a fee.

We changed the plan. I asked her if I should downgrade my $11 Communicate Value Pack, since with my new plan I had more text messaging capabilities, Pack add-on.

SHE advised me not to cancel, because the cheapest current Communicate Value Pack started at $12. I thanked her for letting me know, and kept the $11 add-on.

A couple weeks later, I checked my account online to see when my new service was to come into effect. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Rogers Wireless had cancelled my $11 Communicate Value Pack without informing me, along with changing my monthly plan.

At first, I thought, maybe it was an accident. I’m used to Rogers Wireless screwing up on my Wireless account since the day I signed up (it is a LITANY, all of which have kept me for hours on the phone - either waiting on hold or talking with them).

I was prepared to take a deep breath and get it sorted. (To stay calm, I like to think that Rogers is like my problem child. You tell them one thing, they do another. Just to piss you off.)

I called Customer Service, reached the right department, and before I coud say hello, had the phone slammed down on me. I called back.

Derek in Customer Service answered. I explained the situation. He told me it had to happen. It was a default cancellation. I lost my cool. I couldn’t understand why my plan should affect my add-on service — isn’t that why it’s an add-on service that I pay separately for?

He spoke to me as if I was five years old, explaining that because my Communicate Value Pack texting features conflicted with my new cellphone plan, the Communicate Value Pack effectively got cancelled out.

But that also meant I lose my voicemail and my caller ID. Derek said that I’d have to add them on separately (at $8 per service), or pay for the new Value Pack at $12 a month.

Okay, so it’s one dollar more. But it’s not just about the dollar. (And it’s my dollar.) It’s the principle.

The Customer Service Representative - a representative of the company - advised me to keep the Value Pack. She never once told me that it would be cancelled by default. If a Customer Service person tells me something regarding my account, I’m supposed to believe it, am I not?

Should there be a need for me to find the error in my account and to call up, only to be told by another Customer Service person at the same company that the previous Customer Service person was wrong! And on top of that I have to pay for their error. How unprofessional is that?

What if I hadn’t happened to check online and notice that my plan was scheduled for cancellation? What if I had just woken up on April 11 to find that I no longer had Voicemail or call-waiting or Caller ID and I was expecting an urgent call? What if someone was trying to reach me in an emergency and my phone was off and I didn’t know I no longer had Voicemail?

If I call Rogers Wireless Customer Service, and Customer Service misinforms me, and I take her word and go with her advice, it is beyond my comprehension how the onus should fall upon ME to fix the error that she made. And it is my understanding that the Customer Service person represents company policy and company rules. So by that logic, her error is the company’s error.

If any current or potential Rogers Wireless customers are reading this, I strongly caution you not to listen to anything their customer service people say. Do your own homework and make your own decisions. Best of all, don’t sign up with them at all. It will save you a heap of frustration.

They have some of the most inept, poorly trained Customer Service staff I have ever had to deal with, and instead of making things simple, they have caused me more problems than I could imagine with a simple cellphone monthly plan.

Eight out of 10 times I’ve been snapped at, spoken down to, kept on hold, redirected to incorrect departments after waiting an hour on the phone, only to be told I was at yet another incorrect department… A nightmare.

I should not be made to feel as I currently feel: like a kid whose lunch money is stolen every day by the class bully. Like I’ve been pushed into a corner and prodded in the chest by the nubby, gnarly fingers of Rogers Wireless, forced to pay for something I did not agree to, just because their technical specifications don’t allow for two services to run concurrently.

Feeling not only misinformed by Rogers, but uninformed, then misled, then made to pay for being misinformed and misled by ignoramuses who don’t even know how to do their own jobs.

Rogers Wireless makes me feel powerless. That is not a feeling I am accustomed to as a human being.

Worse than that is the added irony that I pay to be made to feel like this — totally bound and unable to do a thing because of my nebulous contractual obligations.

Huh. Talk about zero power of consumption. For one year, I have paid them to treat me badly, and it has culminated in me staying up until 2 am to write this rant.

I might be making a mountain out of a one-dollar molehill, but honestly, this is the last straw.
B. Mapplebeck

Apr 6 2009

In the last 2 yrears, me and my common law wife have had a host of problems with Rogers. Let’s start with my own.

April 2007: I moved back to Oshawa from Peterborough and my roomates and I called up Rogers to set up internet, phone and digital cable services. That call went well and I was assured I would be paying no more than $95 per month for the services I wanted. I made sure to ask about it being a limited time offer, and asked multiple times about price as well. I needed 3 digital boxes, phone service and internet. All went well until the set-up.

Due to unspecified problems at the time of set-up, all they could set up was the digital cable. I was told my internet and phone service would be set up within the week. After 3 weeks, I still had no internet, or phone service. And no reason for it. So began the litany of phone calls.

In a nutshell, it took 25 calls to find out it was a riser problem. then another 3 weeks and more calls to get a technician to come out, then another 2 weeks and more calls before someone supposedly fixed it, but still no home phone service as the “signal strength was too low, and they needed a head technicain to fix that.” So after another month, and multiple phone calls, they finally fixed that.

Two hours after all my services are finally in, and oh, btw, the bills for the months of interrupted service totalled almost $500, finally got that down to $250. After many more phone calls. Really big change from the $95 a month I was quoted. Finally it is all working, but after 2 hours I start losing my internet and phone services for hours at a time.

After many, many, many more phone calls and weeks of waiting, I finally get that resolved. Total resolution to this point was 3 1/2 months and over 100 phone calls.

So now I waited for the next bill, and when it came in they wanted over $550. So after more phone calls, I was literally told “It’s the right amount, pay it or we cancel your services.” I was told that, even after explaining all my problems I had before this bill and the previous huge bill problems. But no luck. So I finally gave up and cancelled the services. About a week later, I get a bill for over $700. I called and just told them I will deal with it in court.

The next April, I moved in with my common-law wife. She had 2 cell phones from Rogers for herself and her daughter and paid about $60-80 a month for them. We decided I needed one, so we went to the local “Radio Shack” at a mall near where we live. She decided to upgrade her phone and I got a nice new v3T, we spent well over $300 that day on the phones and accessories.

A month later, the bill comes in and it is $600. We called multiple times (at least 20) to be told the bill was right, pay it or else. So we refused and cancelled the service. A few weeks later, we get another bill this time for nearly $2,000.

Let’s just say that we never got a contract, either with my orginal problem or with the cell phone, we were overcharged GREATLY, threatened, harassed, ignored. And just treated very poorly in general.

To this day, we still have between us a rather large outstanding bill we both refuse to pay, and have filed in multiple class action lawsuits and a private one of our own against them.

This is my personal horror story with them, so be warned.
Rogers Lover

Apr 8 2009

All these stories here about them can’t possibly be true.

For you people saying you’ve have a phone slammed down, you probl’y deserved it. For the guy who called 100 times, I don’t think you did, nobody has that much time on their hands.

If you want a service, you have to pay for it. Period. Nothing is free.
Chapatikid

Apr 9 2009

Update on my situation: I didn’t hear back from a supervisor or a Customer care person by phone or email (having sent messages via both), despite having been told the night before that someone would respond to me in 24 hours.

I finally called again this morning, and spoke to a Wireless Customer Service representative who said she was the Supervisor (but wouldn’t give me her name), and said she could do nothing to help me. I asked her who could, and she told me Customer Care were the only people who could help me but in order to speak with them, I would have to say that I wanted to cancel my service. I said, “Fine then, I want to cancel my service.”

I was patched through to Customer Care, where a man with a soothing voice saw my file, and immediately offered me a $8 credit every month for the next three years. (I was startled, but politely accepted.) All I really wanted was to get the new value pack for the price of my old value pack, but this is $5 less than that. After the necessary changes were made, I informed him that I wanted to state for the record that I was extremely unhappy with the Customer Service care that I had been given, and that I felt bullied by Rogers. I told him that it wasn’t about the money, but the principle that I felt like I was being penalized for the company’s mistake. I also said that I found it shocking that I had to pay to be treated so shoddily, and I wanted him to be aware that I had written a letter to the Toronto Star about it.

At this point the rep’s tone changed completely. He was snarky (I don’t think there’s any other word to describe it), and said that he wanted me to be aware that when I used words like “bullied” and other terms, or threatened to go to the newspapers, these conversations would be picked up and “escalated” to the seniormost level, and that I was talking about a different ballgame at that point. He also said that Customer Care had solved my problem, and Rogers had taken responsibility so he didn’t see what my problem was. At this point I wasn’t sure if he was threatening me or cautioning me. The only reason I told him what I did was because I wanted to state it for the record.

I reassured him that I was not angry with him, and that my problem had been sorted out by him, but that I was frustrated and annoyed by the fact that I was misinformed, and the onus was mine to correct it, as well as the fact that I was told I would be contacted by a supervisor within 24 hours, and it never happened. I also said that as I had no other recourse to complain, and he was Customer Care, I felt that I should tell him what I thought. At this point, he calmed down again, and noted that I had indeed had a history of run-ins with Rogers, most recently last September, when they had apologized yet again for a snafu with my Wireless plan. I thanked him for helping me. I made it a point to say that I was thanking him specifically, and not the organization, for the assistance I had been given. I don’t think he was mollified (not that it was my responsibility to make him feel better about himself, after the way he spoke to me), but at least we disconnected civilly.

The part I don’t understand is why I have to be told by a Customer Service representative that the only way for me to seek adequate redressal is to threaten to cancel. Ha! To think that’s actually advice I’m given by the company itself.

I had also written a letter to Ellen Roseman, who forwarded my note to two different people in Customer Care at Rogers. That was 2.5 days ago. I haven’t yet heard from them.

Rogers Lover: pleased to know that you have had no problems with Rogers, but I don’t think it reflects well on your character to cast aspersions on people by telling them that they must have deserved being treated shoddily by customer service.

If I want a service, I do have to pay for it. Nothing is free. What I DO NOT ever want to pay for, however, is to be treated badly.
B. Mapplebeck

Apr 13 2009

TO those who doubt I called over 100 times, would you like to see the court documents of my phone bills to prove all the call times and dates I called into rogers?

Would I bother to file a lawsuit against them if I did not have said evidence? Would I have ranted here if I did not have a real problem?

This is a real problem, they refuse to address it and continue to harass us to this day. Just be warned rogers is as bad as I said it is. Period.
H. Stepaniuk

May 28 2009

Rogers’ recordkeeping problems appear to be systemic. They extend from billing to installation booking.

We received 4 phone calls from Rogers: May 23rd, 25th (twice), 26th and today the 28th.

Each call is associated with a supposed reminder for installation of a Rogers service - the first 4 from the business office and today from an installer, who is a day late, according to the information they keep giving me.

The problem: the address they give (I Mapquested it) is in Brampton and they’re calling a Hamilton phone number we’ve had since 1969. I have been calling Rogers and advising them that they are not reaching the intended party.

The response back is that (a) someone here contracted for the service here (before I found out the address was Brampton) - NO or (b) someone gave us a number to call and take a message - NO.

We don’t know anyone in Brampton! And no, my spouse doesn’t have a playmate down the highway unless he’s turned into a flying superhero.

The lady I reached on the 26th when I checked Mapquest did appear to be trying to resolve the issue. She didn’t more or less imply I was unfamiliar with what was going on in my own house. The installer today said this happens to him frequently and he’s fed up.

Surely somewhere in that business they have a name to go with an order - they could use a reverse phone # lookup with name and address and get the correct phone number, maybe.

With all the money they keep hanging onto with all the billing errors they make, you’d think they could hire more competent staff or get better, more user-friendly software.

I sympathise with the rest of the people who posted comments. At least my experience is annoying but not personally costly. But given my example, I would never consider getting involved with Rogers.
Adam

Jun 5 2009

I have an example of why you should not put all your eggs in one basket…

I ordered wireless internet on May 5 and received a text message a few weeks later stating my mail had been returned.

Following up today (June 5), I ended up in the fraud department, where a zealous agent informs me she has blocked my service.

During the discussion, my mobile account with sister company comes up and she informs that she will now block this account.

Wonderful! I started by trying to pay my bill and now I have no services. And all because someone left out my apt # on my internet order.

Feel free to call Ann Marie (416-764-8832) at the fraud department and thank her for doing a lovely job - giving customers another reason to find a competitor.

If this isn’t resolved by end of the day, I’ll be shopping for another service provider.

~ Adam
Marc

Jun 12 2009

I’m an Aurora Cable (ACI) customer and Rogers recently bought Aurora Cable.

This month, they are “migrating” customers from ACI’s systems to Rogers’ systems, and forcing a price increase upon us!

And THEIR customer service leaves a great deal to be desired!!!

I’m looking for an alternate TV provider but don’t want to put a satellite dish on my house, so Bell Expressvu isn’t an option. Any ideas?

At present, I’m considering doing without TV for the summer.
Cris

Jun 25 2009

Boycott, don’t use their services.
Cris

Jun 25 2009

When I say boycott, I mean don’t take anything from them.

I got into the same spat with Telus. I’m using Shaw high speed internet so I can game online. Telus were pretty adamant about keeping me as a customer, but they wanted $120 for terminating early. I’d only agreed to an extension in January and I tried canceling in March.

I said I would pay the fee, and the CSR wasn’t very happy, even though I had the services contract until January 2010. That’s more money a month ($35 w/tax) than a $120 fee, which I mentioned to them was just for equipment.

She said no, it’s because I’m breaking my contract. I said yeah, because you think you gave me a new modem — which, by they way, I had called in to get exchanged because the wireless didn’t work.

I got to talk to three different people, who all said to put the connection to WPA and leave the password as 1234567890. I said no thanks, so I bought my own modem and I had an old Linksys from when Telus was good.

She then says, well, it’s all set up, then you’ll get your access cut on the 21st of March. I said that gives me time to download my messages and clear out my account inbox.

I called on the 11th and on the 13th I could no longer log into my client services, erase all my data and so forth.

She finished off saying that I might be getting a charge of $5 month for the modem. I said I have two modems: One I bought when the service kit was $99 from Future Shop, and the second was free on a 2 year commitment I had just finished.

She then asked if you’re not using our service any more, why do you need the modem (wireless one)? I said because you’re charging $120 for it, that’s why, and it’s mine anyway.

That’s monopolies for you. You cannot win, so just do without their services.
KT

Jul 15 2009

I’m forwarding you a copy of a complaint I have filed with the BBB about Rogers Wireless lying to consumers and charging them for it.

—————————————————

Rogers advertises the HTC Dream through online campaigns, in-store advertising, and directly on their site. For example, http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-text/featuredphones?content3=a&cm_sp=Consumer-_-Wireless_Q2Campaign_0709_Eng-_-RevolutionBanner

One of the features presented as a base part of the package is the “android market”. In their advertising, they link directly to the android market page at http://www.android.com/market/

On this page, they list top paid and top free apps. Rogers also publishes a glossy magazine style catalogue, describing their products and ships it to my home. They archive PDF copies here:

http://urmagazine.ca/downloads/urmagazine_summer2009.pdf

On page 14 of the PDF (which is page 28 of the magazine), they describe an entirely fictitious situation as fact:

“To download an app, double-tap it or press in on the trackball and choose Download (free items) or Buy (paid items).”

I purchased this phone and signed a 3 year contract in good faith, based on applications that I expected to be able to purchase from the market, based on their small-print-free ads.

The problem is that Rogers has modified the firmware of the phone (additionally placing their branding, etc.) and in the process they have removed the ability to download paid applications from the android market.

Rogers’ tech support have been entirely unhelpful, to the point that one person said he’d never even seen the phone. Others told me that paid apps were there, and that *I* just couldn’t see them.

My current favourite is “this technology is in its infancy, maybe you should just wait for paid Apps” - which would be fine, except that I PAY MONTHLY MINIMUMS. So “waiting” isn’t just doing nothing, it’s paying for the privilege.

Finally, after more than 3.5 hours on hold one evening, I finally managed to get a tech to refer me to “the office of the president” after I spent half an hour giving him a keypress by keypress tutorial on how to use the phone. It should not be up to me to train their CSR/Techs.

I was told on several occasions that “these phones are too new, we don’t know anything about them” - by tech support. Why is a product being launched with no support?

The rep from the “office of the president” called me several times over the course of three days - on each occasion promising to call me before day’s end and failing to do so) and on each occasion I reiterated the following:

1) I want to keep my phone number.

2) I want access to the applications that I thought I was buying, or I want the contract nullified. I will happily go month to month, but a three year commitment to a broken piece of tech is ludicrous.

I was informed that essentially, I have no recourse.

1) they won’t let me out of the contract.

2) they can’t tell me how to get access to any of the applications they advertise

3) there is no one that I can escalate my case to.

4) Rogers has the right to say anything they like in their ads, but do not guarantee any kind of service.

5) they’re willing to “meet me halfway” if I want to get out of my contract and *only* make me pay a year and a half up front.

I asked for contact information (from everyone I spoke to) for any kind of consumer affairs office, customer advocacy… In the end, I even asked for the legal department. All dead ends.

Rogers offers no process for escalation beyond these tech support people who have flat out said they cannot do anything in this case.

Rogers’ customer and tech support are inadequately trained. Had any of the three sales agents I spoke to *prior* to purchasing the phone made me aware of the limitations on the service they were offering me, I wouldn’t have signed anything, let alone shelled out for the handset.

If Rogers is advertising “Google(tm) Android Market,” don’t they have a responsibility to at least have some small print somewhere saying that this service *is not* the full service (as it is referred to in any other context), and that much of the content will not be available?

I did some rough calculations last night, just searching through the market looking for combinations of keywords:

87 ahome themes (change the appearance of your phone), 110 openhomethemes, 28 dxtop themes, 351 “lite” apps, 88 “trial” apps, 540 “free” apps(free in this context is almost always a crippled demo version of a paid application).

So that’s 1,204 applications in the market that I cannot use out of 3,000. And that’s just searching through the “free” apps - not counting the paid applications that that don’t contain any of my keywords, so they don’t even come up in my searches. I wonder what percentage of the remainder they account for.

The only action I seem to have open to me is publicising this fiasco as widely as I can in hopes that others don’t get screwed as badly as I did.

Complaint filed with the BBB, posted here. BBB of Mid-Western & Central Ontario (Kitchener, ON), 354 Charles Street, East Kitchener, ON N2G 4L5, Phone: (519)579-3080, Fax: (519)570-0072, Email: info@mwco.bbb.org, Web: http://www.bbbmwo.ca.
Ashleigh Blackmore, Rogers Wireless spokeswoman

Jul 17 2009

Here is the information I have received from the Office of the President on this matter:

The customer is correct in that the advertising implies access to paid apps, though it does not specifically state that you will be able to download the paid apps in the Canadian market.

Further to this, the customer was not deterred from this understanding when he contacted our customer care department to verify the details of the advertisement.

Given these considerations, we have decided to release the customer from the contract terms with no penalty.

He has decided to remain a Rogers’ customer, but on a month to month or pay as you go basis. The customer is satisfied with the resolution.

Thanks for the opportunity to assist.
KT again

Jul 17 2009

Thank You Ellen, it is indeed great news!

Assuming that it actually is resolved as I have discussed with the Rogers rep, it is an acceptable solution.

I honestly don’t understand why such a rigamarole was required in the first place - this (recent one) seems like such a simple and reasonable response.

I have to thank you, without your intervention I would not have been able to attract enough attention from within Rogers to come to any kind of a conclusion.
JS

Jul 17 2009

I came across your Web site while searching for information regarding Rogers Wireless. I’m a customer who has been subject to rather unacceptable behaviour from their agents over the last couple of days.

With everything that’s happened, I’m not sure I want to remain with them at present, but I have 4 (and 5 if I stay with them) devices on my account.

My billing date is the 12th of the month and I checked to see if my balance was available. I was shocked to see a balance of $620.27 for just one month, when my combined bill for all devices is only around $297.

Although my bill wasn’t available online for viewing at that time, I immediately called *611 from my phone on the morning of 16 Jul 09.

I told the AVR that I wanted customer service and then specified billing. After a period on hold, I was connected with an agent. I verified my identity with him and he asked me why I was calling. I told him I had a billing issue and although I couldn’t view my bill, had been overcharged somewhat, to say the least.

He took a few seconds, literally just seconds, and said that he could see my bill and it says I owe the money so I have to pay it. Of course, I responded that I wasn’t paying the bill as-is and that I expect the billing errors to be corrected. He just kept repeating again-and-again that since it shows on my bill I have to pay it and simply asked what I expected him to do about it.

He refused to look into the issue, let alone do anything about it. Not only was I getting irritated at that point due to his unwillingness to even look into my bill, but he was grunting/breathing heavily/etc. and I could tell was upset. He seemed to care about nothing more than getting me off of the phone as quickly as he could.

I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told that there were none available and I would have to call back.

I called *611 again at around 0930. After a short hold, I was connected with an agent. I verified my identity and they asked why I was calling. I said I wanted to speak with a supevisor. They said they could get one, but asked why I wanted to speak to one. I said because I need credit for gross overcharges and to make a complaint regarding the last agent I’d spoke with.

This agent assured me they could take care of my billing concerns and would get me a supervisor after that was resolved. I agreed as long as they actually looked into my bill and corrected it. The agent placed me on hold while they reviewed my bills for both July and June.

When he came back on with me, we went over the bills together and although I still couldn’t see my bill online yet, I caught some specific errors. He placed me on hold while he consulted with his support department and when he came back told me that a credit of $177.71 ($135.33 for xxx-xxx-1007 and $42.38 for xxx-xxx-4494) was applied to my bill. This brought my balance down to $442.56.

I was okay with that for the time being until I was able to see my actual bill to verify everything, but thought there should be more; I just didn’t know how much or for what without having my bill available for me to see myself yet.

The agent said that the system had billed me a second time for a period in June and part of July which was already billed and paid-in-full on June’s bill, due to phone number and rate plan changes. Apparently, the billing sytem got confused, so I was told.

At that point, the agent looked back at the last call and gave me the name and ID number of the agent who refused to look into my issue and was so rude and unprofessional. He said the agent wasn’t in his department, nor even in his call centre. Given that fact, he suggested that I go online to the Rogers Web site and submit a complaint. So, that’s what I did.

When I disconected with him, I went online and couldn’t find a specific complaint form, even afer searching their Web site for complaints. So I went to the support area and used the e-mail contact form to submit to general wireless as I wasn’t sure where to direct it from the options.

The Web site said I’d receive e-mail confirmation when my message was received, but I’ve yet to get that confirmation that they’ve even received it, never mind get a response.

Throughout yesterday (16 Jul 09) evening, I received a text message that my e-bill was ready. So, I signed into My Rogers again and went over the 21 pages of my bill. Up until I got to page 15, all errors I’d noticed had been corrected.

However, there was an error on that page which had not been addressed. So I called *611 for a credit in the amount of $116.70 + tax to resolve this error. That was the final error which needed to be corrected for this month’s bill.

I’m not exactly sure what time it was when I called this time, but would estimate roughly 11 p.m. I told the AVR customer service and billing. After a short hold, I was connected to an agent. He verified my identity and I told him there were errors with this month’s bill; that all but one had been addressed and I was calling to have the final error corrected. At that point, the call was lost. My phone (a BlackBerry Curve 8900) said “Call Failed”. So I called *611, yet again.

I told the AVR customer service and billing. After a short hold, I was connected with an agent. She asked for my name, birth date and postal code. I have a PIN set on my account due to past issues with someone making unauthorized changes to my account. She failed to ask me for my PIN. I questioned her about it and she replied that she didn’t notice it until after the fact.

Okay, so why wouldn’t she have asked me for it then? It should have been required to begin with, but mistakes do happen. She should have at least asked for it when she saw it, but I don’t really think she knew until I mentioned it to her myself.

She then asked why I was calling. I told her I was just disconnected from another agent as my call was dropped while speaking with him. I told her there were issues with this month’s bill that were corrected with exception of one final adjustment that was needed.

She didn’t respond to this and in fact said nothing. I tried talking to her to get a response, but she said nothing more. I could hear other agents in the background speaking to other customers, so I was still connected.

Thinking that maybe she muted me and was reviewing my bill or something, I waited. After a few minutes of hearing nothing but other agents in the background, I start to hear snoring. The snoring got louder and louder.

I tried talking to the person again, but got no response. It was evident that this person had gone to sleep while on the call with me! What the Hell?!? That’s completely unacceptable.

I wasn’t sure how to record the call on my BlackBerry or if I even could. So I put her on speakerphone and put it on the table while I tried to find something to record the call with. Ultimately, I was unable to find anything to record her literally sleeping on the job.

At this point, she’d been snoring away for a good 15 minutes or so while I was looking for a recording device of some sort. I decided to hang up and call back, as I wasn’t going to sit around all night waiting for her to eventually wake up from her slumber and decide to do her job.

I immediately called *611 for yet another time. I told the AVR customer service and billing. After another hold period, I was connected with an agent. She verified my identity and I told her I wanted to speak with a supervisor. She said that there were none available as they had all left for the evening, but asked why I needed to speak with one. I told her what had just happened with the agent prior to her.

I apologized to her if I seemed somewhat upset or had a bit of an attitude with her, but given everything that’s happened and what just happened with that agent, I was very frustrated, upset and disappointed with Rogers. She said that she would defiintely put a note into my account regarding what had happened and that agent’s supervisor would coach them back.

Frankly, I think something like that would warrant more than a simple coaching.

She asked what the original reason I was calling about was and I told her about the billing errors that were on this month’s bill and that although there was a credit applied, I found one last error that needed to be corrected when I was finally able to view my bill myself. She went over the specific part of my bill with me and attempted to credit the $116.70 to my account, but was unable to do so as the system wasn’t allowing her to. She said it was because of the previous credit that was already applied.

She told me not to worry though, that she would escalate it with instructions to credit the $116.70 to my account tomorrow. She said that someone should usually call me back once it’s been completed.

Have you heard of agents falling asleep while on a call like that before? That’s completely unacceptable in my opinion.

Billing errors aside, I’ve had some good customer service and some extremely bad service over these last couple of days. After being shocked by that initial $620.27 bill and being treated the way I was by the first agent I spoke with, I was ready to completely cancel my services with Rogers and move all of my devices to another carrier that day.

After that second agent actually took the time to look into my account and correct the initial errors that we had both noticed, I decided to stay with them.

However, when I called back last night in regards to the final credit needed to correct the last of the errors and being disconnected from the first agent only to have the next person go to sleep on me, I wondered if I made the right decision staying with Rogers.

I would think that Rogers would do something to retain me as a customer, given the billing errors, poor level of service I’d received from a few of their agents and in such a short time frame at that, and the major inconvenience this has caused me having to call as many times as I did to try and resolve their mistake.

However, this is Rogers we’re talking about here. I will truly be surprised if I don’t have to call *611 again myself tomorrow afternoon/early evening because I hadn’t heard back from anyone yet.

I still can`t believe that the one agent actually went to sleep while on a call. *shakes head*
JS again

Jul 17 2009

I just received a call from the office of the president for Rogers. The final credit has been applied to my account, so the billing errors have been corrected.

As for the agents, I was assured that the issues would be dealt with, but due to privacy issues, they couldn’t tell me what would be done in regards to that, specifically.

That’s understandable and I’m satisfied with having the billing issues corrected and the agent issues being dealt with.

Thanks for the help, Ellen.
Ashleigh Blackmore, Rogers Wireless spokeswoman

Jul 17 2009

Hi Ellen, I wanted to close the loop with you and let you know this has been resolved.

The customer (JS) was disputing the pro-rated monthly service fees and the usage charges on his last invoice.

All credits have been applied and the customer has been informed of his current balance on the account and will remit payment immediately.

The customer has been assured that customer service is a top priority at Rogers.

A senior customer care representative apologized to him for the frustration he incurred on several occasions while speaking with the customer care department.

She has requested that the call records with the customer service agents in question be pulled and reviewed accordingly for coaching purposes.

The customer is satisfied with the resolution.
J Birck

Jul 21 2009

Rogers will say anything to get you to sign up, then deny they said everything.

My cell phone bill has tripled in the last year, due to too many reasons to list here. One of the worst is that they keep charging my account for hundreds of text messages that they cannot verify: when I called to request a list of numbers where the messages were sent, they said they do not keep records. But they insist I still have to pay the bill!

I COUNTED each text message and the total came nowhere near what they stated on the bill. How can you charge for a service without telling the customer what the service is? I am just supposed to take their word for it?!

There is something very, very wrong with Rogers’ business practices.
J Birck

Jul 24 2009

UPDATE regarding text messages: Wow, Rogers resolved my problems in less than the amount of time I usually spend on hold waiting for Customer Service. I had an e-mail from them within a day, and a phone call this morning — all without the usual rise in blood pressure. They were very helpful. Many, many thanks for your help, Ellen.
M Dillon

Jul 30 2009

Today I have had my limit with these people. 3 Months ago, I called their customer service line, and requested to be put on Quarterly Billing as I expense per Quarter.

So, April comes around, I get a bill, followed by June and now July. The bill I have is $150. Not alot in the bucket here.

My issues are that despite whatever services I have with Rogers, I continously have to provide my arguments to them and fax them if the billing is wrong, or repeatedly contact them to explain my issues.

If they cannot do me the SIMPLE professional courtesy of doing a warm transfer from one department to another, which again & again & again they DO NOT DO. I have to repeat my issues and start my story over and over again.

So today “against my better judgment”, I decided to get new service for Home Phone. I am told that my account is to be sent to collections for 3 months for $150.

Now I could understand if it’s like 200 or 300 bucks, but time and again and again, I tell them I expense my bills and want to do this quarterly, as this is the best option for me…

Now instead of being professional, I get some woman who won’t put a senior agent or manager on the phone and I have to wait 24-48 hours for their convenience to speak to me. NO WAY !!! OH NO !!! Not again, I’VE HAD IT !!!!

I have been in the IT and CSR business for 12 years. I have heard all the excuses, I have done them myself, so when they tell you no one is available - CHEW THEM OUT and demand to talk to someone higher.

Rogers. This is the last straw, I have had paging, internet, phone and TV with you over the years. Your customer service sucks, internet sucks, billing, and especially the mgmt.

If someone there would talk to another person who is in the industry and provides the “WORLD CLASS” to my customers the way their service claims to have, believe me folks, I’d be running the whole CSR team…

I would dare Rogers to let me handle 1 day of their worst cases for technical support, and I guarantee you I would rate higher in CSR quality than their most experienced tech’s & CSR agents.

So people, HEED MY ADVICE:

“DOCUMENT ALL INTERACTIONS WITH ROGERS TO PROTECT YOURSELVES, BECAUSE EVENTUALLY THEY WILL MESS WITH YOUR STUFF.”
Leslie Greene

Aug 1 2009

I called Rogers in March of this year and asked to have my home phone service disconnected. They told me that my next billing date was April 19th and agreed to disconnect the service as of that date.

The CSR said that I would have to return the modem as close to the 19th as possible, or I would be charged for it. This was in agreement with Rogers Terms and Conditions, which state that the unit is to be returned upon termination of the service and that I would be charged the undiscounted retail cost if it was not returned.

I waited all of the 19th for it to be disconnected, and when it still wasn’t disconnected the following day I called back. I was told that it must be some kind of glitch in the system and it would be disconnected immediately.

I work for an accounting firm and it was tax season, so I really didn’t have time to chase Rogers down. When I called again on the 22nd, I was told that the service would not be disconnected until the modem was returned.

I advised them that this was not legal - that they could not refuse my request to disconnect the service, simply because the modem hadn’t been returned (a modem that was only supposed to be returned, you’ll remember, upon termination of the service…which hadn’t been terminated).

I said, “So if I never return it, you’ll just continue to charge me the full rate, including long distance package, until it runs into the thousands of dollars and more?” I was told that this was their practice.

To this day, I am continuing to be charged the full cost of the service and Rogers is refusing to credit my account for the four months of fraudulent charges.

I haven’t used my home phone service since the agreed-upon disconnection date. Phone calls to Rogers’ Customer Service get nowhere - when I ask to speak to a manager, I’m put on terminal hold.

They come back on the line to tell me that it’s still going to be a little longer to speak to a manager, and when I *still* don’t hang up, they tell me a manager will call me back within the hour.

To this date, no manager has ever returned my calls. They do, however, call me every month to demand payment of the bills and threaten disconnection of my other services.

Now that tax season is over and I’m no longer working 80-hour weeks, I’ll be switching all of my services over to Bell and filing a CRTC complaint. And Rogers will never see any more money out of me.
Valentine Makhouleen

Oct 15 2009

Here is my horror story: http://www.new-media.ca/blog/fido-and-poor-customer-service/
PH

Oct 26 2009

Rogers has begun charging its Home Phone customers $1 per month for something called “The Starter Plan”.

I am typically pretty good with my bills and knowing what I am paying for, but in this case without any fanfare, a line of $1 was slipped into my bill in August.

I just noticed this line in my October bill and contacted Rogers to ask what it was. The girl in customer service said that “All customers are on The Starter Plan (long distance) unless they moved themselves into another plan. The Starter Plan used to cost $0 per month and in August it went up to $1.”

I asked that I be removed from this unannounced and unwanted “Starter Plan” and that I be credited for the months that I’ve been charged this fee. They obliged.

However, I am thinking about all the other subscribers that have no idea that Rogers has basically snuck this fee onto a line on their monthly bill.

Assuming 100,000 home phone subscribers on this Starter Plan, Rogers has just made themselves another $100,000 per month on the backs of their customers without the customer even knowing it. A very underhanded tactic on the part of a major Canadian corporation.

I thought it worthwhile to bring it to the media’s attention.
George R

Oct 27 2009

I opened my Rogers bill today and found The Starter Plan, at the cost of $1, had been added without my consent. Did a quick Google search and found I wasn’t the only one.

When I called, the Rogers rep asked me all sorts of “security” questions - postal code, date of birth, something else, my first pet’s name!

At that point, I told her I’d answered enough questions and wanted her to answer one for me: “Why is this charge on my bill?” She asked if she could put me on hold for two minutes. I said I’d wait one.

Three minutes later, she came back and said: “Is there anything else I can help you with?” Had she helped me? I wasn’t certain.

She said that the charge had been removed. When I asked why it was there in the first place she snipped: “Well didn’t you ask for it?” Ask for it? I don’t even know what it is!

I told her that, while I know that this bogus charge was not her doing, I reject the way in which it was covertly added to my bill without my consent with the hope that I would simply:

a) not see it or,

b) be worn down by all of the “security” questions, hang up and pay it anyway.

I pay Rogers more than $200 per month for services. I think that’s enough!
John M

Nov 9 2009

I cancelled my Rogers Cable subscription in late August and was told I would be billed up to late September. Fine.

I paid the August bill and waited for the September bill. Nothing. Then in November I heard from a collection agency to whom Rogers had referred my outstanding bill - less than $30.

I eventually discovered from Rogers Accounts Receivable that they had a new address on file and that my September bill had been sent there. But I had not moved and had not given them a new address - it was clear on the original cancellation call that I was changing companies.

I believe a Rogers employee inserted this fictional address into my file, knowing exactly what would happen - as punishment for changing companies. Now I suspect I’ll have a problem on my credit rating.
BK

Nov 12 2009

Here’s a letter I sent to Rogers’ ombudsman, Donald Moffatt:

My husband and I applied for a line of credit to help our children repay their student loans. Our bank’s financial advisor advised us that the application was approved, but it was conditional on clearing up an outstanding debt of $119 to Rogers Cable TV. IQOR was listed as the collection agency.

This was a total shock to us. We have always paid any bills promptly and we have never received any correspondence or phone calls about outstanding debts.

We have not had Rogers Cable TV since 2005, when we went with another provider.

When I called IQOR, they asked about my address. Had I ever lived at 42 Weichel Street? I told them no. They said they couldn’t give me any more information because they didn’t know who they were talking to.

They told me I had to call Rogers at 1-888-764-3661 and gave me a case number. When I called Rogers, I was referred to “pay as you go” service by the computer and was unable to speak to a real person.

I kept trying that number several times unsuccessfully. The next day I called the same number and was transferred numerous times and eventually ended up speaking to someone in Accounts Receivable.

This person looked up the case number but couldn’t find anything. So he assigned me another case number and told me to call back within 24 to 48 hours.

I called back 24 hours later and spoke to another person and she told me the case was still open and that I couldn’t get any information for several days.

Our loan application needs to be processed by mid-November.

We are very unhappy and upset with Rogers Cable and their lack of customer service. This whole situation has caused us much pain, frustration and stress, especially because we did not incur this debt.

We feel we are a victim and no one is able to help us. One thing we value highly is our good credit rating…and this has been tarnished. All we want is to help our children pay back their student loans.

———————————————————–

From the Office of the President, Rogers Communications:

Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. K,

I just want to advise you that we are closing this issue with the collection agency. I have advised our Coordinators that you were not the correct customer.

If you need to contact me for any reason or if you need further clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. I will be happy to assist you.

Best regards,

Mary Freeman, Office Of The President
Rogers Communication Inc.
855 York Mills Road,
Don Mills, Ontario M3B 1Z1
TEL 416-764-2316
FAX 416-446-1543
Kim Denyer

Nov 17 2009

Here is my issue with Rogers and my letter to president Nadir Mohamed. After spending so many hours on the phone with person after person, this is my last resort.

I have been a customer with Rogers for many years. Most recently, I decided to get a family plan (a cellphone for my son and husband). I did this to reduce my monthly bills, since 99% of my calls are to my husband.

The bills came in and were slightly higher. I was concerned and called Rogers and spoke to customer retention, where I was asked how much I wanted to spend. I replied around $85. The girl on the phone with me made a couple of changes and assured me everything would be fine now.

Imagine my surprise when I received a call from collections stating my $1,000 plus bill was overdue!!

I spent over 1 hour and 45 minutes on the phone with customer service. It seems I had been charged for all calls to my other two phones on the “Family Plan”.

After 1 hour and 10 minutes on the phone with the customer service rep trying to reverse all the charges, I asked if she could take care of it and call me back once she had figured it all out. I was told I must remain on the line.

Once that was done, I was sent to customer retention to fix the issue and was told I was taken off the family plan, unbeknownst to me! I bought these phones for that specific reason and WOULD NEVER agree to have the family plan removed.

However, the gentleman on the phone said it was done and there was nothing he could do about it. He actually argued with me about this. It makes no sense since 99% of my calls are to my husband. If this change was done, I did not authorize it nor did I want it.

Yesterday once again, I received a call from your accounts payable department asking where my payment was. I have used your online system in excess of 3 times since April 1, 2009, when I moved, to update my address. Each time, I received a message that your payment method has been updated. This feature is clearly not working!

I received my most recent bill a week ago and as you can imagine there are 18 pages for me to sift through. I was told yesterday that my next bill is AGAIN in excess of $500.

Mr. Mohamed, I called to cancel service and was offered a LOWER rate. As you can see, my monthly bills are now ridiculous and not affordable for me.

At this point, I would like my original family plan back. Ideally, I would have preferred to cancel all services but I now am told that I must pay a fee for each phone. Since all bills are paid by me and all phones are registered to me, I believe it is ONE contract.

Your customer service staff seem to love to argue with your customers.

I would like any changes that were made to give me a lower monthly bill reversed back to the date the changes were made.

I have spent so many hours on the phone with customer service and customer retention, while trying to work full-time to maintain my home and raise 2 children. Clearly, all my time has been for nothing as the issue continues.

Each time, I am also being put on a new contract and this does not seem fair.

Mr. Mohamed, I need your assistance in resolving this issue. I just want my original Family plan back!
Larena S.

Nov 20 2009

I’ve just signed up with Fido which I believe is owned by Rogers. I haven’t even had my cell phone or contract for more than 6 months and I’ve already had to change the phone 3 times (would be 4 times but they don’t replace phones at stores any more, despite what customer service said).

I’ve called customer service multiple times in order to just get a new phone that works, but apparently that’s too much to ask for. I pay my bills on time and I expect that with my bill payments my phone would work. Apparently, though, this isn’t Fido’s problem and thus it’s for me to work out on my own.

I’ve been told to just go to “any Fido location and change your phone” but this is not the case. Which is quite annoying to say the least. They can’t give me another phone (not the broken model I have now, I’d just rather have an entirely new model).

Needless to say, I’m looking for a way out of Fido/Rogers as clearly my situation isn’t worth more then 40$ worth of Fido dollars.

Is customer service just a means to push a problem around and not resolve it? I’d expect more from a company like Rogers.
Taru T

Nov 24 2009

I sympathize with Kim and Larena. Yesterday my husband was not able to make outbound calls through his cell phone and some of my TV channels were not working.

I called Rogers only to find out that my services were blocked/downgraded (Rogers has yet to decide what exactly what they have done, blocked/downgraded) because mu bill hasn’t been paid. I spent from 4:30 PM to 7:53 PM without any proper resolution to this problem.

Since my bills were up to date, I asked the customer service rep what bills were they talking about. I was told that I have outstanding balance of $900 from 2005 and $24.95 from 2001.

I told the rep that in 2005, when they took over Sprint, there was a messup with my bills and Rogers was not able to resolve it. Nonetheless since then, Rogers have offered me services and now all of a sudden they decide to block my services. But it is their customer service that has not been able to resolve the earier issue.

I asked customer service to retrieve my services until they investigate and I was told they can’t do that. I have now decided to give it a last chance and then switch my services elsewhere.

One of Rogers’ reps even accused me of fraudulently creating a file on their system to obtain services. I don’t understand how I can create a fraudulent file on Rogers’ system (hope it’s not that weak that anybody can get into it and create/change files) and give exactly the same information as before.

I was also told by the same representative that they have messed up my credit rating and I will not be able to get services from anybody else. Talk about bullying.
TP

Dec 11 2009

My husband and I have been loyal clients of Rogers for over 20 years.

I recently had my phone stolen and went to Rogers to see what my options were. They informed me that to replace my Apple iPhone 3G would cost $600.

After complaining that price was crazy, they informed me that I could report it under a lost or stolen claim and buy a replacement phone for $450.

If I was “Joe Schmo” off the street and wanted today, right now, to sign up for a three year plan, I could receive the iPhone at a cost of $99…. BUT as a LOYAL client, I was able to keep the rest of my contract and owe $450 for a new phone!!!!!!! So a new client gets a better deal than a LOYAL client!!!!

When I asked to speak to client relations, I was told this was the best they could do if I wanted to stay with the iPhone.

What if I re-signed a contract for another 3 years? Could I get the same deal as anybody else who was just signing up? They would keep me as a loyal client and I would spread the word how great they were!!!

Didn’t matter. They want no part in making sure current clients are happy. So what’s the point of getting new clients if you don’t take care of them?

Any feedback or support would be great appreciated.
BB

Dec 11 2009

Rogers is at it again (…er…still). This time it is the price of high definition HDMI cables at their retail video stores, where they sell cable TV products.

Many people will be buying new HD TV’s this time of year, and they are getting ripped off on the price of the HDMI cable that is needed to connect the TV to the high definition signal from the HD cable box or Blu Ray player.

I hope you can help get the word out to inform your readers of this and their options.

For example, a Rogers cable tv/video store in Richmond Hill was selling a single standard 6 foot HDMI cable for $79.99 last weekend. I watched them selling these cable to people as they were picking up new HD cable converters.

Comparable cables are readily available elsewhere for less than $20. Those who go to Rogers to get a HD cable box, will be presented only with the $79.99 option. Yet another reason not to trust the cable monopoly.

Future Shop and Best Buy are almost as bad. They prominently display cables at $60+ and others up to almost $200 (see examples below).

At least they do offer cheaper options: While they may offer a cable as low as $29, you sometimes need to look pretty hard to find it, and it might be in the computer department, not the TV department.

CNET is a well-respected source of information on technology products. Attached are excerpts from this article (it is US oriented, so prices here in Canada aren’t quite this cheap):

http://reviews.cnet.com/hdmi-guide/?tag=rtcol%3brelnews

“Expensive cables aren’t worth it”

“If you walk into your typical electronics store to buy an HDMI cable, you’re likely to see prices upward of $50 with promises of better performance and faster speeds. Do you really need to spend that much money on a single HDMI cable?

“Absolutely not–those cables are a rip-off. You should never pay more than $10 for a standard six-foot HDMI cable. And despite what salesmen and manufacturers might tell you, there’s no meaningful difference between the $10 cable and the $50 cable. ”

“Unless you see something obvious, such as dropouts or a flashing screen, the digital information transmitted by both cables is exactly the same–no cable can make the picture any better or any worse. We’ve used cables from many different companies in the past–such as Belkin, Accell, Monoprice, Monster, and SimplayHD–and have not run into any consistent issues with any brand of cable. With working cables and solid connections, we’ve seen no dropouts and “sparklies”–just consistent, dependable, high-quality audio and video. It’s that simple.”

“The editors at CNET are so confident that cheap HDMI cables offer identical performance, we’ve been using inexpensive Monoprice HDMI cables in the CNET Home Theater Lab for more than a year with no issues”

Example Canadian prices at retail:

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Rogers screws mother over

Dec 16 2009

Here’s one of many examples of Rogers screwing over the customer, in this case a mother of 3. Her contract states “FREE” text messages, but she was still charged for her kids’ text messages. Follow the CBC link.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/12/14/bc-rogerstexting.html

I had enough of Rogers customer service when my calls were getting dropped frequently and their technical department proved useless. I was compensated a few times in the two years, but the CSR managers failed to see how that would fix the longstanding issue and started yelling at me.

Personnel from the office of the president were equally frustrating to deal with and were just as clumsy in handling my account.

In the end, someone goofed big and I threatened to sue for it. As as a settlement, they let me out of the contract and paid the remaining bills. Never again.
rebecca

Dec 22 2009

I have been dealing, unwillingly, with Rogers for a couple of years now.

Every billing cycle, there would be some error, some overcharge on our bill, and I would have to call them and explain which plan we had for our home phone and internet and what the charge was supposed to be. After forever, they would say something along the lines of “Oh I see now!” and fix it and give us the appropriate credit.

The next month, something else would happen and we would go through the same process.

Now we are dealing with IQOR Canada, which is the shadiest company I have EVER read about, for a quenstionably inflated bill and a failure to process the box with the modem we returned upon cancelling our account. This collection agency calls my old roommate multiple times a day (illegal, by the way).

Even after she and I both made the payments that should have covered the small amount we owed them, Rogers wouldn’t process them until we called to remind them they’d been paid a couple weeks ago by online banking.

Rogers’ total incomptence and failure to update their own records are responsible for a month-long headache with a VERY shady collections agency. And this after MONTHS of terrible, completely moronic “service” during which we kept more accurate records than they did!

This company is absolutely hopeless; I will not be dealing with them ever again and will warn others against doing so as well!
Sandeep

Dec 27 2009

I have been a Rogers customer for more than 6 years. However, lately I have had some experiences which have left me wondering whether these guys really care about customer service.

I spent more than 30 minutes on Dec. 24th talking to a customer service rep to give me an update on internet service, home service, and to set up Rogers cable at home.

The appointment was fixed for Dec. 26th, morning. On the said date, when no technician arrived, I called them and was informed that there was nothing in their system with reference to the conversation.

Alright, after having waited for more than 4 hours (window given was 8 to 11 am) on boxing day, I spoke to two more representatives, spending another half hour and discussing the details. This time I was given a reference number, and 2 confirmation emails were sent by the customer service, with 2 order numbers.

The appointment for the service technician was set up for Dec. 27th (8 to 11 am). Again, at 10.30 am, just to make sure, everything was in order, I called them. Imagine my shock when they informed me that for some reason their system had purged my entire order.

They were, of course, being “helpful” by “suggesting” that I can again go through the order details (meaning to spend another half hour telling them what I want), and the first available date for the service technician is now Jan. 1.

When I asked to speak to a supervisor or a senior representative, I was transferred to cancellation department. I was in the mood to, but refrained from cancelling all my services with them, advising that someone should resolve the issue.

After having spent more than 9 hours for nothing (adding up 2 waiting windows of 4 hours each, and two sessions of about 30 minutes each) on long weekend holidays, I think I do not want to start my new year feeling frustrated and taken for granted once again by requesting technician appointment for Jan. 1.

I have written to them, but have a feeling I am not likely to get any concrete response, judging from the way they have dealt with my concerns. They have been warned that I might take away all my services, including wireless, where they would be jumping all over to impose a penalty of $900 upon me.

However, as a customer, why should I not give the same business to another company and enjoy bundle discount for the complete package?
Peter

Jan 15 2010

Have all you complainers (and there are many) ever considered a class action lawsuit against Rogers??? Just the publicity would straighten them out.

I never had a problem with Rogers — got my services, paid my bill (on time every month) — until one day this little Smurf called me from one of these call centres trying to sell me something I didn’t want or need. Finally I took them to court (I won!). DO THE SAME!!!!

All these call centres employ only commissioned part-timers who couldn’t care less about any customer good or bad, just their little commissions. Next time, just hang up the phone!!!
Jack

Jan 18 2010

I’ve had a few too many problems with Rogers to brush the problems off as “mistakes happen in big companies.” More than once, I’ve arranged matters with Rogers, only to have them mess up the paperwork.

We signed up for Rogers for home phone, Internet, and cable TV services when we purchased our home in August of 2008. At that time, I signed up for a packaged they called My Home Advantage. I was locked into a 12-month contract. During those 12 months, I was led to believe, the monthly price for my services would be locked in.

In August of 2009, I knew my 12 months would be coming to an end. I phoned Rogers to inquire about extending my existing bundle or signing up for a comparable one (again, with a locked-in price) for another 12 months. Imagine my surprise when the representative told me, “You don’t have a bundle.” After insisting very firmly that I did, he typed furiously, and placed me on hold. When he came back on, he said, “Yes, I’m sorry about that. I found it here. You have My Home Advantage.”

I inquired about extending my existing bundle for another year. He gave me a lot of fast talk about that promotion no longer being available. He then attempted to steer me toward a more expensive bundle with more services. I told him very clearly that I wanted precisely the services I already had. No more, no less. When he told me the final price, it was much more than I was currently paying. When I told him this, he typed furiously again and realized that he had signed me up for additional services I had not requested. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and called it a mistake, hoping it wasn’t a scam. He gave me a new price that was much closer to what I was already paying.

Flash forward to January 2010. I got a letter in the mail saying the cost of the home phone service would be going up $3 in March. I called to confirm that as I had a 12-month bundle contract, I would not be hit with the increase in March. The representative offered a lot of fast talk about the $3 not having anything to do with being in a bundle.

I said that the reason I agreed to a 12-month contract was to lock in my price. If the price was increasing notwithstanding my 12-month contract, I wanted out. The representative said, “No problem” and cheerfully transferred me to the cancellation department.

The representative to whom I was transferred offered more fast talk. She said the home phone was “still a great deal” even with the increase. I said I had agreed to a contract at a specific price for 12 months. She typed some more, and informed me (as had happened before) that I had no bundle.

I told her I most certainly did have a bundle, as I had spend 45 minutes on the phone in August straightening it out. She typed some more. She put me on hold. She came back on and said, “Yes, I see here that you requested the My Home Advantage Bundle back in August of 2009.” I said that was correct. She said, “I don’t know what happened here, but the representative you spoke to apparently did not finalize the paperwork.”

She apologized for the error and offered a small credit for the months going back to August in which I should have been bundled and wasn’t. When I expressed my dissatisfaction with these repeated oversights and threatened to take my business elsewhere, she offered me a significant discount for the next 12 months. I accepted.

I was pleased with the resolution, but there have been at least three problems with orders I have placed with Rogers in the past 2 years. Why do these paperwork errors keep happening, and why don’t they catch them? Moreover, I feel that I need to call and be very assertive just to get them to realize the errors at all. If I agreed to all the fast talk they offered at the start, I might never know there was a problem.
MW

Jan 18 2010

On Dec. 3/09, I received my online Rogers bill.

Unfortunately, my simple move and transfer of services was erroneously recorded as a cancellation. I was charged $531.79, including unreturned equipment charges (internet and cable) and attendant taxes totalling $379.20.

I phoned immediately, of course. But despite acknowledging their error and having several business days to correct their error, Rogers refused to recalculate my bill before the next billing date. My credit card was then charged in the full incorrect amount on December 15/09.

I made numerous follow up calls and spent at least a couple of hours of my time talking to sympathetic service reps and receiving various reference numbers. But Rogers never did provide a credit to my credit card before the next billing date, as promised.

Every time I called, it seemed another internal error had been made, which had to be corrected before they could proceed.

The last time I called, I was told they didn’t have my credit card number to issue a credit. This is rather absurd, considering they have had no difficulty billing the same credit card number on a monthly basis for the past few years.

I dutifully gave the rep my credit card number and it still hasn’t happened.

It now appears that my monthly charges going forward will be deducted from the credit owing to me, which is hardly satisfactory.

When you take money that isn’t owed to you, particularly when you know that it isn’t owed, isn’t that called fraud?
Brian

Jan 18 2010

Oh where do I start! I can honestly say that we’ve been Rogers customers for YEARS, and have never had a bill that is correct.

I must echo the previous complaint about the credit card. About six months ago, we had our credit card compromised so it was cancelled. We immediately called Rogers to change our card number.

THREE months later, they still hadn’t got it right and had been threatening to do this and that… We had to give four different teenagers our credit card number including the security code. Finally it took, but then our account was in “bad standing”. This was infuriating!!!

The next problem was with our cell phones. We bought these wonderful Blackberry’s that had WiFi access on them. That’s great, we can save on data usage. We also have “my five canada” which is 5 numbers unlimited anywhere in Canada.

Every month since, we’ve been charged for our “free” calls. We figured out that our home router (which isn’t from Rogers) is connecting as a Rogers Talkspot and charging me for the long distance on my My 5 list.

So, my personal computer equipment is connecting to my phone and billing me for free calls - clearly a problem with the Rogers Billing. So, I had to call every month for the last year to get $60-$100 credited to my account.

I finally raised a stink and their response was that I now have to turn the “WiFi” off on my phone when making calls from home. So I lose one of the selling features of the phone that THEY sold me.

On top of it all, they are telling me that any more long distance calls won’t be reversed (even though they are free on my plan). Their royal &*(%$% up system is now my fault.

There has been no offer of help or solutions, nor any incentive to stay a customer. When my contract is over, I’M GONE!
Dylan C

Feb 5 2010

I just came across your blog at work after finding out that I was being charged 400+ $ cancellation fee after being told by 3 separate customer service reps and 2 of their managers that my 3 year contract was at an end and that I wouldn’t be charged any cancellation fee.

Calling them back today, they told me that since I changed some options on my plan that it “reset it” and that I had signed for it. However, I changed it over the phone and again was reasured that it would not affect the length or terms of my contract.

Researching further on my own, I have not seen anything saying that modifying your plan will result in renewal. Despite the fact I was not told or did not give my permission to renew my plan, I was also told I was available for an upgrade, which I know is only available after 24 months, and rogers states that they will charge you 100$ or 20$ a month, whichever is more up, to 400$ max.

Well, seeing as i was able to upgrade… that means I was, if not done my contract, over 24 months… so the 400$ would still be an incorecct charge.

I know my problem isn’t as big as some, but any help would be much appreciated.
Jen Weiss

Apr 22 2010

Rogers overcharged me too. They do make many mistakes. I called them so many times but they refuse to help me. Thanks for sharing.

Jen
Janis

Apr 29 2010

I came across your blog while searching for help with a problem with Rogers. I really hope you can help me.

My mother in-law (Jan), has been a Rogers customer for over 10 years and had all their services. At the beginning of this year, due to losing the majority of her spousal support (her only source of income), she found herself unable to afford her apartment and was forced to find temporary housing with family for about 6 weeks.

She was essentially homeless. The family had an existing Rogers account. Jan had purchased outright the prior year (and has the reciept in her name) an Explorer 8300HD PVR box. This was hooked up to her fully paid account before losing her home. She moved in with family and her digital box was activated under that family’s Rogers account.

Unfortunately, the unthinkable happened, and we found out that she has a brain tumor. It was decided, due to her heath, that she relocate to our home in the middle of March.

Since then, we have been trying to get her digital box to work with my account (which is fully paid always). But to no avail.

After many hours and hours on the phone with multiple reps, supervisors, Customer Care Managers, we have been escalated to the Office of the President. But the turnaround time is 48 hours or more, and we are literally running out of time.

The problem apparently is this. When she had her digital box authorized under the family’s Rogers account, that associated her box with their account. According to Rogers reps, the box is ‘locked’ under that account because that family didn’t pay their Rogers bill and were subject to disconnection.

She was told that there is absolutely no way to unassociate her digital box with that account until the bill is paid.

I work personally as the Team Lead for Escalation Management in a customer support centre. I was aghast at how we were treated by the various representatives, especially the Customer Care Manager at Rogers.

My understanding of that job is that it is likely to be similar to my staff’s role. If my staff treated customers the way we were treated, I would have them in re-training and be making sure they understood that their job is to advocate for the customer. Not to pass the buck because there isn’t a neat and tidy process to follow. To own the problem and find a resolution. To gut check a situation and think on their feet. Is this right? Does this help my customer?

The CCM told me flat out that she was going to do nothing further to help us. So we asked to be escalated to the next level.

I even offered her an alternative solution that would solve both the inability to unassociate the box with the family’s Rogers account and remove the need for further escalation. Simply swap out her digital box.

My mother-in-law even bought the 3 year extended warranty when she purchased the box and it’s still covered under warranty. The CCM said the warranty doesn’t cover this situation. She refused to even consider the matter further.

My mother in-law is so upset over this. She can’t pay for someone else’s account, nor should she have to. This is just one more thing on her plate. She’s being punished because someone else didn’t pay their bill and we can’t get anyone at Rogers to lift a finger to help her.

How is that anywhere close to being fair? She doesn’t understand how Rogers could treat her like this.

The added stress of trying to fix this before next Wednesday is causing her physical harm. The stress makes the headaches from her tumor worse.

She goes for brain surgery next Wednesday in Hamilton. All she wants is to be able to use the digital box that she purchased outright when she gets out of the hospital and watch her shows, since she won’t be able to do much but watch TV.

If there is anything you can do to help, I’d be most grateful.
squirrel9

Jun 1 2010

I switched to Rogers Wireless in Jan ‘09 after many years with Telus because I wanted an iPhone.

After 16 months with Rogers, they have screwed up my bill five times. In 9 years, Telus never screwed up my bill.

I’d say I was happy with Telus, but this is only in retrospect, because I actually never even thought about it until I switched to Rogers. Apparently I was complacent - sorry, Telus, for not realizing that by not being a constant annoyance, you were being a good service provider.

Unlike Telus, whose customer service I can’t remember ever calling, I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Rogers’ “customer service” department. The nicest thing I can say about them is… they’re hopeless, sometimes they’re even extremely rude.

They’ll swear that they can’t understand why there’s been a problem (they never accept any responsibility for Rogers, vaguely implying that your “story” is improbable).

They have a record of previous calls, but the notes left by the previous CSR never seem adequate to explain what was actually agreed to. This is unfortunate, because… their computer systems seem completely unreliable.

I’ve set up automatic billing four times! Each time it doesn’t work, I phone them, pay my “overdue” bill and set it up again. Every time I’m assured this never happens, to which I reply that can’t be true because it’s happened to me 2, 3, now 4 times before.

I’ve also changed my contact phone number, yet they mysteriously call me on the old number (why are they saving my old number in their system??), even though I’m assured that the new number is definitely registered as my new contact #…

After another failed billing setup, I paid my “overdue” bill earlier today, only to receive a call this evening from the accounts payable department about my bill. The customer rep obviously phoned me before checking my file, only to realize as I’m talking to her that in fact I’ve already paid.

I know it’s not that big a deal, but honestly the amount of time I’ve spent on the phone trying to sort out billing issues is ridiculous - the least they could do is check to see if you’ve made the payment before disturbing you.

After realizing that I’ve paid the overdue amount, the rep asked me if “I had enough time to pay the current bill.” It was such weird phrasing I didn’t understand what she was talking about, but apparently she was asking if I’d like to pay my June bill early? Why the HELL would I want to do that? It’s not due for another 10 days AND IT’S ON AUTOMATIC PAYMENT (for the 5th time!).

The rep. was taken aback that I was P.O.’d about being called and asked to pay my bill early and said, as she was calling anyway (too bad she didn’t check my file first), it was Rogers’ policy to ask if people would like to pay their current balance even if it wasn’t due.

Again, it’s not that big a deal, but it epitomizes my experiences with Rogers’ sleazy attitude to their customers. Given the volume of their customer accounts, I’m sure if they can get customers to pay early then it saves them money. If it wasn’t for the $400 cancellation fee, I’d be happy to never pay Rogers again, let alone pay them early.

My advice: get the CSR’s name (they’ll only give you their first name), get their employee # (some seem to offer this openly, but I had an extremely rude manager refuse to provide one once) and get the call reference ID. Take notes of the conversation if it has ANY financial implications.

I’m not sure if any of this would help if you got into a serious dispute, but it does seem to help move things forward a little faster if you can list details of previous conversations.

BEWARE: For those waiting to get out of their Rogers contract, make sure you check that changes you make to your plan don’t reset the start date BEFORE you make them.

Roll on Jan 2011, going back to Telus.
Shawn Landry

Jun 15 2010

I have to say, after reading some of these posts, I at least don’t feel alone.

I had a number added to my account in Oct. 2009 and shortly thereafter was contacted by Roger’s Fraud Department to notify me of the situation.

Since the person also tried to change the account address within 30 days of adding the line, this activity was flagged, which is why the Fraud Department caught it.

They indicated to prevent such activity, I should add a PIN to my account and I did. After a month and several hours on the phone with CSRs, I managed to get all the charges removed.

Four months later, I get my bill and another phone number was added. Very angry this happened again, I called Rogers to deal with the extra charges. Of course, I had to give my PIN number and guess what? The PIN number they told me was wrong.

After many more hours on the phone and going to a Rogers store to deal with this, I had enough. Not one person I dealt with at CSR or Fraud at Rogers could explain how, after adding a PIN to my account, I still had this activity occurring.

Of course, logically it was easy to figure it had to be someone within the Rogers system, or the various franchise outlets, adding this hardware and phone line.

Rogers would never admit to this, but I have dealt with the same retail outlet for several years and the store personnel agreed that anyone at a store can do this without the PIN number.

They explained there have been problems with different retail outlets having problems of this type. Most likely, the employees are doing this for the big money in selling the hardware.

No way after going through this twice — and who knows how much of my information was compromised– was I staying with Rogers. I feel they broke their contractual obligation of safeguarding my personal information, so I switched providers. Of course, Rogers is hassling me for the ECFs, $900+ tax for 3 phone lines.

The only way for someone to add a line to my account after adding a PIN had to be a breach of my personal information; and section 29 of Roger’s T&Cs is supposed to protect disclosure of my information. As far as I’m concerned, they broke the contract and I should not be liable for ECFs.

I’m not paying them and I will fight them till the bitter end.
Chris Colville

Jun 25 2010

I too, have been taken for $28 by 1-866-257-4586.

I bought material from Home Depot, and on the bottom of my receipt I went to their website, only to be sent to this scam site. I really think the police should be looking into this.

What I want to know is if Home Depot and Rogers are getting kickbacks from this scam.
Fernie Nadon

Jul 23 2010

Approximatly 6 weeks ago, I ordered an air card and a cell phone from Rogers and received the air card four days later from the post office.

I called about the cell phone and was told it would be delivered by UPS. After a week went by, I phoned again and was told that UPS does not deliver to postal boxes and it was in Edmonton. I phoned UPS and was told it was returned to Rogers.

I then went to a Rogers store in the city and was told they could not release a phone to me till the computer told them the original phone had been restocked.

I contacted Rogers again a few days later on a Monday and was told they do not restock till Tuesday, so again I drove to Edmonton (55 miles one way) and was turned away once more.

So in frustration, I cancelled everything and was told to repack the air card in a bag or envelope they would send me. To this date (July 23rd), I have not received anything after calling twice in three weeks.

I am still waiting for information on how to return this air card. At this point, I am annoyed to the point of just putting it in the box it came in and returning it to the post office I picked it up at and be done with this massive head ache.

In total, I spent a little over two hours waiting to speak to a representative and the only satisfaction I got was “WE’RE SORRY.” I would not consider going through this again.
Kimberly

Jul 26 2010

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT PHONE NUMBER FOR ROGERS IS:

416-935-7777

CALL THEM, CALL THEM, AND THEN CALL THEM AGAIN!

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