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
Youre 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 its 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 youre 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 heres some dental floss and good luck to you?
Making an excuse for bad
service does not make it good. Telling me youre underpaid
and under a time restriction and cant 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
thats what they stand for. If Im wrong, please
let me know and Ill make the corrections so we will
all know what youre talking about.
Adam S. G.W.S, I.H.R.C.
(Guy With Starchoice, IhateROGERS.ca Creator)
To: [email protected]
(Again,
NOT HATE MAIL for me)
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 dont have the monopoly
mentality and realize there are bigger companies to compete
with often these companies go the extra mile to assure satisfaction.
If youve had enough of ROGERS
make a change, its
that simple. It sounds like youre 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? Its 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 couldnt
even tell you how to open the stinkin cable box, let
alone remove the filter. Secondly (Teds robot monkey)
doing that would be illegal and Im not here to give
that type of advice. You dont like what youre
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
dont ask me how to build a bomb, hire an assassin or
sell your grandmother either.
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