To: [email protected]

From: Sean C.

Date: July 9, 2003 11:31 AM

Subject: In My Professional Opinion

Hi There,

I just wanted to start off by saying that I don't hate www.ihaterogers.ca and that I am not a big fan of Rogers.  One thing I do hate about your site is your responses to the hate mail that you receive.  It seems that when you don't have a decent argument to someone's comments, you just flame them.  In one of your responses, you said that "No where on this web site is any one individual person singled out by name and then insulted."  This is not entirely accurate if you include the individual people you are calling a 'jackass', 'whining bitch', 'completely retarded', or 'moron'.  I'm sure you will have some equally colourful name for me if you post this. 

Now on to the real stuff.  Rogers does suck.  I am a former Technical Support Agent for the company that is (or was?) contracted to Rogers.  The problem with contracting out (which they do for installers as well) is that they save money by taking it from the pockets of the employees.  This takes the form of vacation pay, medical benefits, etc.  Not to mention lower wages.  This, in turn, translates to a lower quality of service.  The other problem with contracting out the work is that these contract companies get paid by the call.  That means there is a push for quantity over quality.  Call centre agents are pushed to watch their "metrics" which means answering as many calls as possible in a day, regardless of the level of service they are providing.  As a technician with more than a decade of experience, this is very frustrating because I am not allowed to do my job to the best of my abilities.

I left the call centre to start my own business providing "real" support to customers on-site and I can tell you without a doubt that Rogers high-speed internet is the fastest residential internet service available.  At least for the price.  I have close to one hundred customers on every type of ISP service and one of the checks I do on every one of them is a bandwidth test.  Rogers cable internet averages about 40% faster than DSL.  I am currently on DSL and miss this 40% increase but have no plans on switching back.  DSL is scalable and will eventually become faster than cable.

I have dealt with tech support for most of these ISP's and have found that however bad Rogers is, they are not the worst.  That title goes to Bell Sympatico.  Every time I call tech support, I identify myself as a Technician and explain the steps I have taken to try to solve the problem.  They proceed by asking me to do the same things I just told them I did.  They also give instructions as though I've never seen a computer before.  Rarely are they able to resolve the issue.  They have to put in a service call for someone else to look into it.  By the time I call tech support, I usually know it will have to be escalated to the network group but that doesn't stop them from taking up 20 minutes of my time reaching the same conclusion.

In conclusion, I would like to point out that Rogers and Bell are two peas in the same pod, both with pros and cons and that any alternatives are worth looking into.  If they don't work out, that's a lesson learned.  Personally, I'm waiting for a satellite solution which is both affordable and reliable, something as yet lacking in microwave technology.

Thanks for your time,

Sean C.  C.E.T., M.C.P. (Computer Engineering Technology & Microsoft Certified Professional)

P.S. As a webmaster of 5 sites myself, I have to compliment you on the design of this one.  It is very clean and well organised.  The only thing I hate is that pop-up box every time I go to the home page.

IhateROGERS.ca Comments

You’re taking the name-calling thing out of context. I responded to the comment, "Many of the rants posted on this sight are really just personal attacks on people." He was referring to ROGERS’ employees being referred to as "morons", "monkeys", "weenines", "idiots", etc. I was trying to illustrate that it was a generalization and that no one was being attacked personally. And I completely stand by those generalizations and my name calling of submitters herein or referred to as anything conceived as insulting.

The truth is though, I have no colourful name for you Sean. The reason is you have a good argument and it’s well supported. Also I must commend you for seeing a problem and doing something about it. That is the lesson to be learned from this site.

However, still making excuses for the problem like, "they save money by taking it from the pockets of the employees" or "Call centre agents are pushed to answer as many calls as possible regardless of the level of service" does not provide a solution for the consumer. If you’re sinking in quicksand, do you want me to throw you a rope and pull you out, or do you want me to explain that rope is very expensive and I am very busy, so here’s some dental floss and good luck to you?

Making an excuse for bad service does not make it good. Telling me you’re underpaid and under a time restriction and can’t fix my problem is just "throwing me dental floss".

Please correct me if I made an error in the abbreviations C.E.T. & M.C.P. I think that’s what they stand for. If I’m wrong, please let me know and I’ll make the corrections so we will all know what you’re talking about.

Adam S. G.W.S, I.H.R.C. (Guy With Starchoice, IhateROGERS.ca Creator)

From: Carmen

Date: July 10, 2003 2:10 PM

Subject: Do I Have a Story to Tell

Yes, I hate Rogers.

I am a Rogers' VIP which just means I have cable, Internet, and cell phone from them.

Since January of 2003 we have had problems with both the Internet speed and our cable connection for television.

We must have had at least 10 service calls. (just the amount of times I was so fed up I could not take it any more.)

Digital cable receiver replaced two times, new modem, ( mine was still from the days of Shaw), new cables laid inside the house and outside the house. Booster connections at the outside box. Still the same problems. Slow Internet and freezing picture on the TV when it worked at all.

Finally they decide to tell us that the whole area is a mess and they are upgrading the service. We are still paying the full price for this non-service. TV and Internet are cut off many times during the up-grade with no notice, even though the phone reps say we were informed on our monthly bill that this would happen. I could not find it in my bill. They offer to refund two out of the six months of no-service but I have yet to see the refund.

The only good thing I can say about this company is that their phone people are great. They really try, but I sense that their supervisors are the problem. I have never been anything but calm and kind to the phone reps.  Even the service people are great but what can they do?  They kept promising me that whatever they did would now fix the problem but it never did. It is now July and the TV works but my Internet is still slow. I think they have had enough chances, time for a change.

Rogers should have informed us of the problem, given us a break on the price of the non-service for 6 months.

If they had been honest they could have saved a lot of money in service calls and probably had a loyal customer.

Many thanks to the service team who were very sympathetic and even offered their own cell numbers if we had a problem.

Thanks for listening?

Carmen S. in Maple

IhateROGERS.ca Comments

Perfect example of the ‘We Have a Monopoly Mentality". It sounds like you have been overly patient and accepting of their double talk. Since there are alternatives out there that don’t have the monopoly mentality and realize there are bigger companies to compete with often these companies go the extra mile to assure satisfaction. If you’ve had enough of ROGERS…make a change, it’s that simple. It sounds like you’re ready.

To: [email protected]

From: Alex J.

Date: July 14, 2003 10:58 PM

Subject: cable tv filters?

Whut's Up!

I thougt you would be the best place to start with regards to removing cable filters from basic t.v.
After removing the cover from the cable box, what procedures should I follow?
I have a Hi-speed internet connection, is that going to be affected once the filters are removed?
Does Rogers have anyway of detecting these changes?


Anyhelp is VERY MUCH appreciated!

IhateROGERS.ca Comments

Why am I posting this you might ask? It’s not really a rant…I realized that. I read this e-mail, looked at the HOTMAIL address it came from, and thinking with a dash of paranoia I started to think (aside from, why ask me this question) maybe it came indirectly from ROGERS. Maybe they want me to advise on removing a filter so someone can steal cable? That would be enough maybe to shut me down…

First off, I couldn’t even tell you how to open the stinkin’ cable box, let alone remove the filter. Secondly (Ted’s robot monkey) doing that would be illegal and I’m not here to give that type of advice. You don’t like what you’re paying for? Find an alternative that can make you happy. Check http://www.ihaterogers.ca/cable2.htm for cable alternatives.

And finally, give me a break…there are probably 500 web sites that can tell you how to do what you claim you want to do, and this is not one of them. Please don’t ask me how to build a bomb, hire an assassin or sell your grandmother either.