Rogers Communications: Deceptive Business Practice
This was the attitude that greeted me when I took my complaint
to the Rogers office in Vancouver.
January 2015. I brought this post forward as this scam is still active with Rogers.
The Scam: Originated from a Call Centre in Ohio (March 2012)
A few days back I was caught short during a Rogers Communications Customer “Satisfaction Survey” being conducted from a Call Centre in Ohio. Although I don’t usually take these calls near dinner, I was in a bubbly mood so decided to let the woman ask away (ah, I can be led so easily).
After a few questions about my degree of satisfaction with Rogers, she went on to ask if it was OK to check and see if any savings could be found in our account (a reward for doing the survey I suppose). Well, why not, I had fun with the survey? She then spent considerable time (20 minutes or so) going over various options and I was feeling bad for taking up so much of her time trying to find so little in savings. She stated: “no problem, Rogers is here to provide you with the best service we can” or words to that effect.
We finally settled on $4.00 or $5.00 saving on the combined cost of both phones in our family plan and 
the deal was struck — Not!
I was passed along to the ‘call clincher’ (Mike, I believe) who went over the details. We had almost finished when he said something that piqued my interest (about the ‘contract’). On probing, I found by accepting the “deal” my contract was being extended to 36 months. That was never explicitly mentioned at any point in either conversation and I was not told until I point blank asked the question.
I explained that I was very sensitive about again being ‘locked in’ as I was burned on a 36 month contract with another carrier and even when I came to Rogers I was not given ‘the best’ on my original three year contract. Then the bomb shell. I thought I was currently on a “month to month” plan but the ‘clincher’ told me ‘no”, I had locked to a “36 month” plan some 18 months earlier. I knew immediately what had happened – it was a similar “plan change” some 18 months back. They had given me a $4 or $5 reduction, but it was never made clear that automatically extended my contract to 36 months.
Was I livid? You bet. I asked how much to cancel the contract for both phones immediately. The answer: “$700 per phone”. Unbelievable! The whole purpose of this 30 – 40 minute call was to have me make a very small change in the contract, but the real purpose was an extended contract. Such deceptive practice by a major company dedicated to providing top notch customer service is unforgivable.
Customer Service in Vancouver, BC
After numerous tries, I was able to contact a Rogers Representative (a guy named Desmond) in Vancouver, who as much as stated the Call Centre should have more clearly stated the purpose of the call, but, unfortunately, there nothing he could do, that Rogers simply contracts out some of the work.
Over the course of our conversation, I even suggested that he might do a little something -like clear off that existing contract that was also obtained in a similar circumstance – as s show of good faith. He said he could not do that, but he could offer me some inexpensive Long Distance perks. Ah, yes he could do that, but if he did, I would then be locked in to a new 36 month contract as that was the standard. The price of making any change, no matter how small is commencing a new, 36 month contract. So much for customer service.
If you have had a similar call from Rogers, please let me know as I will be sending a written complaint to Rogers and the CRTC in addition to making this post.
Please feel free to repost the link if you wish. The type of call I received is likely repeated thousands of times every day across the Rogers Network and I have no doubt other carriers have the same policy.
Harold
March, 2012
Note: One further point about the calls – each was preceded with warning “this call is being recorded for training purposes”. Really? I bet it was being recorded so they could show that somewhere in that 30 minutes exchange of words, the customer (me) was given some kind of statement about ‘the new contract period’ being the purpose of the call. I doubt it, but if it was stated, it was well covered in other words.
March 20, 2012. Thank you to all who have responded via FB and thank you for reposting the link to your homepage.
PLEASE DISREGARD THESE PHOTOS. They were somehow attached when the blog was transferred over to the new platform. I do not want to remove them as the photos are now linked to this story on the Google Photo Index.
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Comments (2)
I tossed my rogers phones in a drawer after two years of the contract, they were chargeing us $300.00 to $600.00 per month and we signed a contract for a family plan with no internet no long distance no texting for $140.00 per month. I found out they had another contract with my number but they wouldn’t release any info to me on why they had two contracts under one number. I have now heard so many horror stories about rogers that I want to study vodoo and put a spell on them, LoL.
Hi Terry. Not the first complaint I have heard. I would have felt better about the whole thing if the senior Rogers representative in Vancouver had not just brushed me off by telling me there was nothing he could do. Last week (May 4, 2012) I spoke to a Rogers rep in Kamloops about another issue with programming one of our family IPhones (he was very helpful by the way) and I asked him about the practice described in this article. He told me it was common practice as Rogers sub-contract these matters to third parties and generally wash themselves of responsibility for shoddy buiness practices. Not much I could do beyond writing this article and then not getting caught out again. Harold