Jul 13 2008
Is Rogers Wireless Dishonest or Incompetent
I want to write this little blog post about how frustrating it is to deal with Rogers Wireless. I am going to go back and recant a bit of history here so please bear with me.
Last September I went to a wireless retail kiosk, I purchased a phone and added a number with a basic plan to my existing Rogers Wireless account. We have been with Rogers since 1999 and had been contract free for quite a while.
I paid full price ($300) for a basic bluetooth phone so I could avoid a contract. Naturally, when I selected the least expensive monthly plan, the sales rep asked me if I would prefer a 1, 2, or 3 year contract, quite an interesting question since I was paying full retail price for the phone. I told her that would be without a contract thank you very much. First problem came within a day, my new phone did not work too well. I could make calls but those that I talked to could not understand what I said whenever I used my bluetooth headset, I tried several different headsets with the same result so that led me to believe the problem was with the phone. It took several days of talking with various managers in this retail outlet, eventually they begrudgingly gave me my refund on the phone.
We had a couple of very old gsm phones lying around at home, so I dug them out and transferred my new sim card into an old phone and carried on without bluetooth, just happy to be getting the cheapest possible cell plan for my limited needs.
Several months later, Linda called up Rogers to make an adjustment to her plan. Since our contract with Rogers had expired some years earlier and we were paying on a simple monthly plan. She selected a plan that would include frequently called numbers, it all made sense, the problem is, the Rogers representative made the change to my phone number instead of hers. We did not realize this until an ugly cell phone bill arrived a month later. Linda phoned Rogers back to get them to correct the problem but since they had made the change to my number, and discontinued the plan that I was previously on, I could not have my low rate back, so to appease us, they gave Linda unlimited minutes on her plan for some period of time.
Another month later, we start exploring replacing Linda’s phone which had been giving us problems, Linda phoned up Rogers to inquire about Blackberry plans. Rogers informed her that she is not eligible since she is so early into her three year contract, they also informed her that my number was also not eligible because I was on a contract as well. Several hours later, talking to several departments, I finally had the Rogers retention department “correct” the problem, by removing the contracts and changing my plan to a monthly plan at a the same rate a I was originally on. It appears that whenever you call up a Rogers representative to make a change to your plan, they decide to put a contract in place on your plan without telling you.
With the annoying problems apparently behind us, we went ahead and replaced Linda’s phone, she now has her Blackberry and it appears to be working fine as expected.
Now fast forward to this weekend and I decide to inquire about an iPhone. The Rogers representative tells me that I am not eligible, because I had already bought a phone within the last year, it doesn’t matter that I paid full price and returned it. After about an hour on the phone with their sales, customer support, and some other department that I cannot remember the name of, they simply cannot fix the problem. So when I explained to the customer service rep that what they are telling me is that the only way I can get a new phone and keep my phone number is to go to another wireless carrier, she replied that I would have to pay a hefty fee to break my contract. It was useless trying to explain that I am not on a contract since the service rep insisted that I was.
All I can say, is that Rogers is extraordinarily capable when it comes to not being able to “fix” the problems that they create. I am pretty sure that I will have to get into yet another long conversation with their retention department. I can’t believe how many chances I have given this company, and they know that if I go to one of the two other national wireless carriers, I will likely have an equally poor experience.
This is the essence of Canada’s wireless industry, it is no surprise that Canada has the lowest adoption of cell phone users and among the highest rates in the developed world.
