To: [email protected]

From: DJ & DF

Date: August 5, 2002 6:24 PM

Subject: Rogers Rant

Howdy!

I discovered your site when it was being discussed on the Residential Broadband Users Association (RBUA) - http://www.rbua.org/ , which has a forum where tons of people discuss their problems and disatisfaction with, most notably, Rogers.

I'm impressed!  You have a lot of entertaining reading.  I too have had some memorable experiences with Rogers, and detailed them in responding to a questionaire they had e-mailed me.  Here's my original text:

Having insufficient space to put my comments into the Survey, I will list the 4 issues that I have encountered with my service that has lead to a "less than optimal consumer experience" on my part.

PROBLEM #1

I was "sold" the service by a door-to-door marketer (my area had just been serviced with high-speed).  I signed up, and booked an appointment for the following week.  After waiting for ~6 hours on the appointed date and time, with no installer showing up, I called support, and (after an hour) was disappointed to find that my only option was to reschedule. Attempt #2:  The installer showed up 4 hours earlier than I had scheduled, while I was at work.  I had a message on my answering
machine from an unidentified individual (from Rogers) that told me this.  After being told, many times, over the space of 1 hour, by Rogers support, that my only option was to reschedule a THIRD TIME, I was finally given a long-distance number to call, at my expense, to try to solve the problem.  I managed to convey my disappointment with the lack of service to an individual at this new number, and within 45 minutes she was able to get a technician to perform my installation, at the appointed time.

I was extremely dissatisfied with the customer support staff, after Rogers had screwed up my installation appointment twice, and person after person told me that "my only option was to re-schedule".  If the "low-tier" customer support staff do not have the authority/ability to resolve issues like this, it would be more pleasing for the customer to be transferred to a higher level, rather than just being handed off to another person that also has insufficient authority.  I spent a total of 2 hours talking to various customer support staff - none of whom had the authority, ability or (seemingly) willingness to solve my problem, before FINALLY speaking with someone who could make things right.  I would have been much more satisfied if I had spoken with this last
person after 20 minutes, not 2 hours. On a positive note, I had a minor problem with configuring the settings in my e-mail program (actually, I had made a small error typing them in).  The technical support person I spoke with was quite knowledgeable, and helped me fix my problem quickly.

PROBLEM #2

About a week or so after signing up with the high-speed internet service, I was suddenly unable to access any of my 7 e-mail accounts.  I called tech support, and was told that "someone" (at Rogers) had "screwed up" (their words, not mine) my account, and they had had to "re-start" it, with a new primary address.  Reading between the lines, I inferred that "someone" was either too lazy or incompetent to correct a mistake in their information, and felt it would be easier to just cancel
all 7 of my e-mail accounts, and then simply activate a new one.  Once again, I was happy with the technical support staffer's help in solving the problem.  I was able to, one-by-one, re-activate all 6 of my "secondary" e-mail accounts, albeit by signing up for them again, myself.

My main issues with this are as follows:
1.  Rogers screwed up, and should have been able to solve this problem without interfering with my service.
2.  I definitely should have AT LEAST been informed of the fact that all 7 of my accounts were shut down, and that my friends and colleagues were receiving "invalid address - returned mail" for everything that I was supposed to receive.  Additionally, any mail that had been recently sent
to my "old" primary address, that I hadn't had an opportunity to access was, I was told, "lost".

PROBLEM #3

I was familiar with the Rogers High-Speed service before I signed up, since several associates of mine already had the service.  I managed to get about 1 month of TRUE high-speed service (at 3 Mbps down/500 Kbps up), before being throttled down to 1.5 Mbps down/192 Kbps up, along
with the rest of your subscribers.  As internet content, software updates, etc., etc. have driven users' bandwidth needs up, Rogers has (ironically) reduced the bandwidth available to its customers by half. It's a moot point, having read the End User Agreement thoroughly, but, like everyone else, I was promised up to 3 Mbps/500kbps when I signed up, and I now feel that I'm getting half of the product I'm paying for. In a cable vs. DSL comparison, for the same price, cable has traditionally offered higher bandwidth, while DSL has offered lower, but guaranteed bandwidth.  Rogers cable has now lost their advantage in that comparison, since the new reduced speed is similar to DSL, but by no means guaranteed.

I would have, at the very least, appreciated being informed of the reduction in my bandwidth, rather than sit at my PC for over an hour trying to diagnose a problem at my end that didn't exist.  I realize that, according to Rogers publicity people, I wasn't supposed to notice a change in my service, but, I assure you, I DID notice the quality of my service decline dramatically.
One needn't be a genius to figure out that Rogers can now have double the paying customers (at half the speed) on their existing networks, without spending a penny upgrading it.  Lousy way to do it, though, if you ask me, considerring that, realistically, less than 5% of your subscibers are the "problem" when it comes to bandwidth usage.

PROBLEM #4

I know that, officially, Rogers has no plans institute "bit caps", to limit the amount of data a user can up/download in a month - but we all know that these bit caps are coming.  Just like with the speed issue, this is a disappointing reduction in the level of my service, and I feel that 95% of your subscribers will now be unilaterally punished for the "crimes" of 5% of your subscribers (so-called "bandwidth hogs").  It is getting really annoying, having all these limits placed on my "unlimited" service.  These limits are stifling growth in many important burgeoning industries.  Canada is a world leader in terms of high-speed internet use and accessibility, but that may change.

In summation:

Rogers needs to make some serious improvements in terms of customer support.  The vast majority of customer support staff that I have spoken with have been unable (or unwilling) to fix the problem to my satisfaction, and have been extremely reluctant to allow me to speak with a person who actually has the authority (or willingness) to solve the issue.  I have wasted hours listening to "low-tier" support staff telling me that "there's nothing they can do about it", only to be handed off to another person with the same tired, rehearsed response.

Rogers also must put much more effort into keeping customers informed of changes to their service.  I have had my bandwidth cut in half, and, had my 7 e-mail accounts de-activated (as a result of a mistake by Rogers personnel).  In neither case was I informed of these changes, by Rogers. I both cases I spent hours fruitlessly trying to find a problem, at my end, only to discover that Rogers had done this to me.

Overall, switching from my old dial-up service to Rogers High-Speed has been a frustrating experience, and despite the fact that I am very much a computer-savvy individual, has required an enormous amount of my time. I remain a loyal customer, though, if only for the blind faith that "it
can't possibly get any worse" for me.

Just as a closing remark:

I recently received a call from a Rogers telemarketer, telling me that since I have cable TV, high-speed internet, and cellular phones with Rogers (along with being a "VIP"), I could get Digital TV for next to nothing.  I had often thought of upgrading to digital TV, and it was an offer that was hard to turn down, but I did, and here's why:  My recent experiences have lead me to believe that a) Rogers would find some way to foul it up, and b) the product would not live up to Rogers' promises,
let alone my expectations.

Sincerely,

Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx

Naturally, I haven't recieved any response.....

Additionally, about two weeks after I had sent this to Rogers, they called me, asking for an overdue payment.  I wanted my Internet added to my existing Rogers account, which has direct payment (I know it's suicide, but I'm too lazy to sent cheques every month!).  Obviously, when I set up the internet, I told Rogers to do this for me.  They assured me "no problem".  Well, as it turns out, the lackey that I spoke with didn't bother to set the account up properly.

I think (hope) I have everything sorted out - for the moment.  At any rate, I'm keeping track of all the time I've spent dealing with this bullshit, and I am considering taking Rogers to small-claims court if they screw up again!  And incidentally, the only reason that I have stuck with Rogers is that I don't have any other broadband option.

Obviously, I wouldn't want you to publish my e-mail address, since that would certainly put me at the top of Rogers shit list, and then I'd start getting REALLY bad service!

Keep up the good fight!

---Dave

IhateROGERS.ca Comments

Dude, my head hurts from reading all of that and I feel your pain…oh how I feel your pain. By the way I think the length of this rant knocks the previous leader Hi-Volt in to second position. You can read his rant on http://www.ihaterogers.ca/rants4.htm

As I’ve mentioned previously, I have StarChoice for a cable alternative and it’s awesome.