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Buying An iPhone From Rogers? – Don’t Believe A Word They Say

I recently wrote about my experience buying an iPhone from Rogers. To summarize: when I called, I had only planned on trying to get the $35 activation fee waived. I was fairly confident I’d be able to accomplish this since I’d read online that it was fairly common for new clients to get this. To be honest I didn’t really care about the $35, but I would have felt like I didn’t negotiate hard enough if I didn’t try to get something. I’ve always been a poor negotiator so I wanted to try to improve on that skill.

When I called, the guy I talked to didn’t even let me try to negotiate – he just started giving me stuff; activation fee waived, first month free, upgrade data plan from 500mb to 1 gig. Of course I agreed thinking that I had done quite well. In a similar vein to my Swiss Chalet story, I thought that giving the first month free was a bit dumb, but I wasn’t complaining.

Unfortunately, it turns out that while I thought I had been talking to the ol’ Gil of Rogers, in fact I had actually been talking to the Lloyd Braun* of Rogers.

*In one Seinfeld episode, Lloyd Braun worked for a short time for George’s father, Frank Costanza, allegedly selling computers (although the phone line he was “using” to make sales wasn’t even connected). He was the superstar salesman that George couldn’t be.

Things were fine the first month – no charge on the visa and everything was great until I got charged $126 in the second month. I called up to see what the deal was and the girl I talked to said that it was for the monthly charges and the activation fee. I told her about what I had been promised and she said that my account had none of those things noted. She couldn’t do anything for me – couldn’t waive the activation fee and would only upgrade the data plan if I paid $5 per month. I told her that I was pretty annoyed that I had been promised all these things and none of them happened. She documented my claim and promised to escalate to a manager who would get back to me within 4-24 hours.

Still waiting for that call.

Young and Thrifty (an excellent new blog) recently wrote about her experiences with “negotiating” with Rogers. Her take on it was a lot more upbeat than mine, but it seems that the same modus operandi was used in her case – a deal was reached (with Lloyd Braun*), but later on it turns out that there were “no notes” with any details about the deal.

Maybe someone should tell the Rogers reps that the “notes” screen is actually the equivalent of the Springfield power plant pneumatic tube system.

Homer drags Marge away from her paperwork for lunch. He takes her
form, puts it into a canister, and sends it through the pneumatic
tube system.

Marge: But where does it go?

Homer: Don’t worry Marge, the tube will know what to do.

The canister takes a wild ride through the tube
system, eventually being deposited… outside, where a nearby beaver
collects it and adds it to a dam built entirely of message canisters.

I hadn’t really thought about it before, but when someone promises you something on the phone then you really have no way of making it happen. Now that I’m an existing customer, Rogers can treat me like shit like all their other customers so I can’t get anything done until my 3 year contract is up

FU Rogers! You won’t be getting my phone business next time around.

I did learn one thing from the call – apparently I had been given the upgraded data plan for a couple of months free. I didn’t even know that. Oh well – I think that time frame is almost over so I better get going with some downloads.  After 2 months, I have yet to download an app.

44 replies on “Buying An iPhone From Rogers? – Don’t Believe A Word They Say”

This is lame, especially when all these companies record conversations “for your protection”.

Two ways to fight this sort of thing would be: 1) Take notes right after the conversation. If you can tell them that you detailed your discussion, tell them the date, the service rep, and precisely each point that was agreed to, you might get further than saying “hey, that’s not how I understood the deal!”

2) Record the conversation. You can buy hardware that lets you record a phone call (or make calls with Skype or some along those lines and usually there are multiple ways to record the call). Not sure about the law – you may need to inform the person right away that you’re recording the call (you could tell them it’s for their protection 😉 ).

Wow, what a scam. Very unfortunate. I know of some people being offered this and that on iPhone plans – presumably because there is now competition.

Maybe that has been Roger’s response to Bell and Telus selling the iPhone. Cheat and lie to customers.

The problem is, where are you gonna go? I’ve had Bell reps and managers deny deny deny that “online operator chats” took place even when I’ve saved screenshots, among other things. They’re all liars! If and when our employers stop paying, I’m thinking of changing from cellphone to smoke signals or messenger pigeons or something.

I love dealing with rogers cell phone people. It’s a little like a game – if you find that the CSR you’re dealing with isn’t being cooperative, or isn’t able to “find those notes”, simply hang up and try another one. I’m definitely in the minority though, I understand that most people despise talking to phone support.

That being said, be sure to get all the relevant call information from the CSR for every call. they’ll have call records, the CSR’s name, etc. Ask them point blank if the next CSR is going to be able to find their notes and if there’s any info you need to know to help out the next one. Definitely make them repeat a summary of the call from their notes before you hang up.

I don’t understand the CSR structure at Rogers – I’ve had CSR’s tell me they can’t even give me a 10% discount on a package as it’s simply not allowed, and I’ve had CSR’s that happily changed my contract end date based solely on my word that it was incorrect (and it was).

For the record – I did write down all the details and asked *Lloyd* to give the info back to me at the end of the call.

Guinness – I’m confident that I’ll have completely forgotten all about this in 3 years and will happily buy a new phone with Rogers. 🙂

The annoying thing about this whole fiasco is that they had me at “iPhone”. All they had to do was politely turn down my pathetic attempt to negotiate the activation fee and everyone would have been happy.

I have one rule, never sign a contract. And if you ever have to sign, sign only within 1 year. In the fast changing world, new technology and ideas change every 3 months.

I rather pay the phone and get the low cost deals. You can buy phone in the states 50% lower than what they sell here in Canada.

My phone, cell phone, cable, Internet are different company with no contracts. Every one of them are 30% to 50% lower than what the average people pay. I have high speed internet with no cap and only pay $26 per month. Combine that with FreePhoneLine.ca and MagicJack and I got unlimited calls through out North America.

I had the same experience with Bell when working a deal for our phone, tv, and internet. The price that was agreed to was not the price I was charged and I fought them for around 6 months…6 months where my charges changes every single month. It stabilized for a year and now the charges are changing again…

If you record the convo and then they try and screw you, can you sue them in small claims court?

Jess, you make reference to great deals you have struck…who is your internet provider?

I suppose the lesson here is to not only have the rep repeat what has been offered, but ask to talk to a Manager to commend the great work they did for you (an also confirm you are getting what was promised ;))

@Matt,

TeckSavvy.com and eSuite.ca. At this point, I’m using eSuite.ca.

If anyone needs some deals with Tollfree, MagicJack, Domain, and hosting, just give me a shout. =)

Hello Mike,

I’m MJ from Rogers online help team.
I saw your post and I believe I can help.

Can you please send me an e-mail with your full name, a phone number along with the best time to reach you.
As soon as I’ve received it, I’ll look into this for you.

Hope to hear back from you soon…
Have a good day!

MJ
@Rogers_MJ

@ Jess: I have an iPhone and from what I can gather, you still have to sign a 3-year plan, regardless of whether you pay for the phone outright. It may sound corny, but the iPhone is a great machine and the apps are proving to create an industry of its own and is becoming something of a phenomenon; its not going away anytime fast. I also find ways to reduce my utility bills as you mention, but sometimes ya just gotta have an iPhone or an iPhone Touch :0)

@Mike. I previously commented on youngandthrifty’s post on her related thread, and there seems to be a recurring theme that you are not the only one. On the positive side, looks like MJ wants a chat!

Best of luck
P.S When things get ironed out, get downloading on those apps – they’re freakin’ awesome! (I did a thread on some good apps, check out my archives if you like).

The Rat

I am a little old fashioned. I like going to the stores and ordering it so that if they give me free stuff, it is on the order in writing. I think call centres, both for receiving calls and ordering things, is a huge landmine for the customer.

I am interested to see a follow up post on your dealings with MJ. It is Dilbert-esque that a customer with reach has to resort to profanities to actually get customer service. It is like putting a lock on the barn door after the horses have left.

Sheesh, Mike. I can’t believe you have no recourse here. Doesn’t the company you are dealing with record all of *their* phone calls? I find it hard to believe they don’t. If they do, ask to get a transcript.

This is an outrage! I’m really pissed off and I’m not even the one who got scammed here!

From what I can tell, it sounds like you entered into some sort of verbal contract? Is that true? Is that really allowed in Canada? Those are virtually worthless and hard to enforce here in the States.

I would fight this tooth and nail. Don’t roll over and give in! Stand up for yourself!

Does Canada have something equivalent to our small-claims courts here in the US?

Oh, yeah – and one last thing… I’m with Mike: FU, Rogers!

What a travesty.

Len
Len Penzo dot Com

Thanks for the link Four Pillars! Oh my goodness. I’m really mad at Rogers for you! I can’t believe they did that to you. That’s terrible customer service.
It’s almost like they lured you with their false bait and now you’re trapped in a cage with your hands tied (ball-and-chained to a three year contract).
I was really appalled that Rogers did that to me, that they told me outright that they would include Rogers to Rogers and when I called back, they said it wasn’t noted. I was also annoyed that the guy I talked to didn’t tell me the specifics (that he’ll take out the SAF and put in the lower $2.50 fee) and I had to ask for it myself.
Does Rogers train their CSR’s to cheat and lie to you? Is that their strategy?… because it sucks! I find that Telus is much more honest- when they say they’ll note it, they will.
It’s almost like you need to record the conversation yourself (which is pretty sad, might I add that we in society need to do this now!)
I know that Rogers has social media people that might help. @RogersMary is her twitter name, and I see that @Rogers_MJ seems to want to help you too.
Anyways, good luck and hope Rogers helps you out somehow!

MJ – Too late buddy, I,ve already wasted enough time trying to fix this.

Len & Matt – Small claims court is a good idea if I had a recording of the conversation which I don’t. 🙂

Young – The reality is that I was going to buy the phone without any incentives so I didn’t get trapped. I just find it hard to believe that they would just lie about everything.

As for recordings – yes, I’m sure they have one but I doubt they will share…

Mike: Why not take MJ up on his offer if he’s willing to fix it? Courts will sometimes accept documentation (like you made after your call) as evidence. I wouldn’t say your lack of a recording means you can’t go the small claims route.

Mr. Cheap – I don’t really want to spend the time. I doubt MJ will do much of substance and I definitely don’t have the time for small claims court.

The purpose of the this post was really to warn people that agreements over the phone are worthless (especially with Rogers).

Actually I had a productive time talking to Rogers about getting my monthly expenses with them reduced. I found the key to it was talk to someone in the Client Retention Department. Apparently Sales representatives can’t give discounts after the fact. My efforts for the 1/2 hour or so resulted in about a 20% monthly decrease from what it was. To get the Client Retention Department, I called the regular line and said I had a call interrupted with someone in that department and can they transfer me again. Good luck in the future 🙂

I hate Rogers. Similar reasons. Currently on Telus. Any better? Only marginally. We need more cell phone competition!!!!!

I’ve found that not being in a rush and being ambivalent about the offer pays dividends 🙂 I called to get a quote to switch my bell internet and phone to rogers where I already had TV. They gave me a quote which was really pretty decent, so I said I’d think about it. they called back a few times in the next week and I said I was still thinking about it. Almost a month later, I get a message on the phone saying my appointment is in a couple of days.
Turns out they book an appointment to “hold the quote”. This annoyed me since it wasn’t mentioned, so I called to cancel it. My attempt to cancel it got me connected to the retention department (or somewhere anyway) where they *really* discounted the offer even more.. so much more that my annoyance vanished and I am now switching 🙂 I couldn’t afford not to switch.
We’ll see what the bill shows, but all we ever talked about was the final after-all-taxes/expenses everything number, and it was clearly attached since it was there every time we talked.

Strange. I’ve actually found Rogers to be one of the easier companies to negotiate with.

I would agree that they do make a lot of “mistakes” in their favour, but when I call and complain, I’ve always gotten it corrected. When dealing with phone reps, I find the secret is to always be polite, but persistent. They deal with people all the time, and it’s not like the person behind the phone is someone personally trying to screw you over. So be nice to them and you’ll have an easier chance getting what you want. Keep driving your point across and assert that you are correct and why (but be polite about it), and if they can’t help you ask to speak with their manager.

Anyway, if you want to really get nasty about it. You should call to cancel your plan completely. When they ask you why, you tell them that the bill you’re getting is NOT what you signed up for. I’m not a lawyer so don’t take this as legal advice, but I believe that nullifies the contract. So then they’ll either correct the bill or cancel it. The only downside is that you’ll probably have to spend a lot of time to do all of this, and it seems like you’re already pretty frustrated.

Hope this helps.

I am a Fido customer for over 13 years and I really like their system. I brought my iphone in Sept. and I got great deals with them. What I really like is the Fido dollars. In a three year period I have enough fido dollars to buy a new phone for almost free.

I have an absolute hatred of Rogers myself.

It all started before the dawn of time, almost 10 years ago now. A rogers rep came to my door to sign me up for cable. Well I was not home but my stepson sure was and he graciously signed us up. It wasn’t until the bill came in a month later that I saw it was in my name for about $100.

So I called them and said ” I didn’t order this and I’m not paying for it either” They said we’ll send you to collections and that’s what they did.

After several years I wanted to switch to VOIP phone. Well Bell claimed that they were unable to do a dry loop connection in my area. They kept me waiting for two months while they tried to fix the problem. So then I was more ticked at them than at Rogers.

So I decided to switch over my internet to Rogers. They said you have to pay for your old bill and buy a modem. So I did $300 in total. I was really ticked at Bell.

So a few years later I order my credit report and the Rogers bill is still on there. So I try to straighten it out to no avail. Over and over. Every once in while I go through a period of self loathing and try again. Not only that I am way past the 6 year limit on the original bill but they have sold the debt I don’t owe, to a new collection agency thereby extending the time period to have something on your credit report.

So I really hate Rogers and I hate them more now that my internet is costing me $50 extra per month because my husband downloads too much crap.

So Rogers guy, I don’t owe you a cent. I paid you take your crap off my credit report.

Rogers is garbage, but some are lucky and do manage to get away with not being bent over by Rogers.

When I first for my house I went and got the entire rogers bundle, and with the help of a naive roommate got all singed up with deals on a 3 year almost everything contract.

And to think I’m legally bound to bend over for Rogers, as heartless a company as it gets. One more year ! just one more !!

oh just to add to the fun.

Rogers signed me up with a 2 year contract. When I lost my phone and couldn’t afford a new one, I cancelled by plan and they sent me a bill for 222$. As a highschool student I did what I thought was right… I ripped it up and threw it in the garbage… A while later I received a letter saying Rogers was sending it to collections …. Here’s the fun part … I was only 16 when they signed me up for a cellphone, luckily, illegal, to protect naive minors from getting shafted by the heartless faceless rogers.

I did a credit check a few years ago, and my 222$ owed to rogers disappeared in thin air… Take that @ssholes !

i hate rogers…they just try to put extra charges or what?i don’t know but i hate rogers…
i hate service and customer care too…………..
don’t buy rogers..kindly inform you people

Yes, there can definitely be challenges and frustrations dealing with the big cell phone conglomerates!…

Since realistically the cell phone plans are all over the map in terms of pricing, I decided to set up a website called Dealboasters (smartphone edition) to give the premier negotiators out there a forum to boast about their best hard fought negotiated cell phone plans. In turn, everyone else can have a frame of reference to help in the dreaded re-negotiation process! Please drop in to share your incredible cell phone plan negotiation stories…After all, inquiring minds (especially those who are paying through the nose for their own plans) want to know!

I was a happy Rogers customer for about ten years until tonight. In fact, I’ve always referred Rogers to my friends and clients. Not anymore. Today, I found out from CSR that by upgrading a phone in a family plan, Rogers extends the new three year contract to all phones in the plan, even if some phones were purchased many years ago!
Back in Dec 2010 I upgraded three phones in my family plan, with the assumption that I was purchasing a new three years contract for those three phones. Rogers never communicated to me that I am renewing the contract for the fourth phone, even if no changes whatsoever were being made to that phone line!
Now I am trying to cancel or suspend the old phone (as the family member will not be using it for at least six months). Rogers says tough luck, this phone is on a new contract until December 2013, and any deactivation costs $400. I have never signed up for this crap and I am preparing a class action lawsuit against Rogers.

This happened to me too. The guy I initially spoke to gave me an awesome plan with caller ID, voicemail, 500mb data, unlimited text etc. for $55. Then I received my first bill and went through hell because no one at Rogers would believe that this guy would give me that plan. They made me feel like a criminal, trying to weasel out of paying my bill. I should have taken the first guys name… after a couple months (and escalating my complaints) I ended up with a similar plan for $67/month which I hate, but I’m too tired to fight with them anymore.

I got my lesson. I have been a rogers customer for almost 10 years but got charged an activation fee of $35.00, a 3 years contract and an invoice of almost $120 first bill. If you visit a rogers store, be prepared that this is like a “sub-trade” of rogers wireless. If the sales person is telling you what sounds to good it’s most a white lie. Before you give them you phone number or you phone, be insist of having a printout with the features they offer. Always remember, you are the customer.
If you call in, use your monitor camera to record the conservation with a speaker land line or mobile phone.

THIS IS TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE- INFACT THERE IS NO SERVICE HERE WHATSO EVER. I purchased 2 roaming packages from Rogers while I was away, only to come back to a 750.00 bill. I called Rogers to enquire why my phone wouldn’t call out. They couldn’t tell me. They changed my plan, changed my 5 to my 10 – and that was about it. No word about the bill. I have tried several times to contact Rogers again, and cannot dial *611 or * 567 or any other number to contact customer care. I have spent hours of my time in the car with my grandson or while I am at work – only to be transferred to the wrong department or cut off. I have requested someone contact me by email with the response saying, that I have contacted the wrong department and I can try calling another number. She apparently didn’t read my email because again, it states that I cannot call Rogers – ANY DEPARTMENT. I called again today and the man said I could use *611 – AGAIN tried explaining that, No, I cannot, and this is wasting more of my time while I am at work, He insisted that I could use * 611 or * 567 to call, I played the ‘Call Failed’ tone in his ear, he still didn’t understand my problem. I asked for his supervisor and got Nabeel, who would only say the common phrases of, ‘I’m sorry that you feel that way, you can contact customer solutions. So I did. Diane in customer solutions said that roaming charges are very high and that’s why she doesn’t’ take her phone on holidays. I asked if I bought the plan, why I had additional charges. She said that even in ‘airplane mode’ the apps still update.
I asked how many Rogers customers know that? How much money is Rogers ‘stealing’ from people who put their phones on airplane mode and still get raped.
I asked her if she could put my phone, my rocket stick and tablet to the minimum plan so I do not incur further charges. She said no, that wasn’t her department. So I asked her if she knew why Nabeel transferred me to her? No. she didn’t. I asked if I could make payment arrangements through her. She said no, she took one time payments only. Well, I told the first gentleman on the phone, I would NOT be making a one time payment. I asked if she could take off the money for the plans that I purchased that really didn’t help minimize any charges anyway.
Diane said she could transfer me to the accounting department to make payment arrangements
Today alone, this has now been over 45 minutes of my time AT WORK today – with NO HELP or RESOLUTION from Rogers.
I have not found one person, via email or telephone that is willing to work with me. I am not asking for my bill to be put to a Zero balance, but a compromise – or at least being able to contact Rogers on my own time – not work – would be helpful. This is not customer service at all, I will cancel my account as soon as possible and never recommend Rogers to anyone that I know.
I will also forward a copy of this letter to the CRTC.

I too have been lied to by Rogers to get me to sign up. I have had cable/internet/home phone for a couple of years and had always been fairly pleased with Rogers. Six months ago I called to negotiate my terms and ended up agreeing to a cellphone plan. Part of the deal was a $100 credit on my account. I verified with two separate representatives at the end of the call that I was getting a $100 credit.

A month and a half later I had not seen the credit on my bill and called back to find out what was happening. They assured me it was coming and should be on my next bill. I allowed 3 more bills to pass without seeing the credit before calling again. This time they told me that the $100 credit was not in the notes and thus there was nothing they could do about it.

My time with Rogers is over at the next convenient moment to drop them.

I just went through the same ordeal today with regards to what I was promised and what I was charged on my VISA … $340 yes it’s not BS.

So finally someone at Rogers founds the reps notes of just giving $10 off for 4 months to of set the cost of 4S which is $160. WOW I want learn the math from that rep forsure. I wish someone gives me the same deal when I buy a new car. NOT Rogers wireless is the biggest BS org out there. As a matter of fact I’ll report this to BBB tomorrow.

Don’t fall in there trap. Makesure you get an email of what they offered you.

rogers is the worst telecommunication company out there. they are con artists. steer cleer….no matter what they “promise” you. Their practices and policies are almost criminal.

Just call your credit card company and contest the charge – tell them you never agreed to this deal. The onus will then be on Rogers to prove that you did – since you never signed anything and if they have a recording it will show in your favour, they won’t be able to prove you agreed. If they fail to prove their case to the credit company and still fail to refund your charge, the credit company will refund it for you and then go after them itself. Sort of like sending two sharks after each other while you get out of the water. It can take months, but will make you feel better.

I had a very bad experience with rogers today…. I’ll make it quick.

1 year ago, they phoned me and wanted me to sign a new contract. I was eligible for a phone upgrade at the time. At the time they called me, I was NOT under contract and owned my phone outright. I purchased it full price earlier. I had the iphone 3gs.

The rep said that if I signed a new contract I could get a new phone upgrade. I said that I was wanting to wait for the iphone 5 and did not want to sign a new contract yet. I was told that I could sign the new contract and wait until the iphone 5 came out, then go into any rogers store and pickup the phone and the discounted price since I was signing a new contract… She swore that this would no problem. I even went into a rogers store the next day and spoke with someone in person to make sure this was ok and they would honor the phone upgrade. I was assured I could just wait until the 5 was released and they would give me the phone and the discounted price under my current contract.

Well, I walked into the Rogers store today to pickup my new iphone 5, 32gb for $279. I was told that I would have to sign a NEW contract for another 3 years and that I would have to pay an additional $35 activation fee?!?!?!

Well what the hell did I sign a new contract for a year ago? What the hell did I pay the activation fee then for?

Spent an hour on the phone with a rep trying to explain this. She told me that she was sorry I must have gotten wrong information or confused a year ago… It’s always soo friggn’ easy to say a year later I must have mis-understood, it’s somehow my fault… Then when I want to cancel, she says I have to pay $480… Now normally, they say this is to recover the cost of a subsidized phone, but I didn’t get a new phone!!!

Rogers Customer service was terrible. I was either lied to a year ago to sign a new contract or I am being lied to now and screwed over. I will never sign a contract with rogers ever again if this is how they treat loyal customers who pay $100 for service.

Rogers. F.U.

Let me tell you how I was cheated and lied by rogers from sales rep to office of president. I have been with rogers for 5 years now. I had everything with them, my internet, cable, 2 wirless and home phone.

The story begin on sept 17 2012 where I know all of my service except one wireless is not under any contact with them. During the phone call first I spoke to the wireless dept where I inquire about iphone 5 and I told the sales rep that I don’t want to change my plan and how much would It be for iphone 5 32 g white. She said 279 and I reconfirmed this with her and even proceed to sent me a text (general text about hardware upgrade) after. Then she transfered me to another dept where I made changes to my cable and internet.

On October 16 12, I went to the store to pick up my phone. The dealership won’t give me the phone cause I don’t have a data plan, they put to me customer detention where the moron there won’t even check the notes. Make the long story short. In the end we were chatting with the office of the president where he (at this time not mention any name yet) said there were no note in the system regarding my iphone 5 conversation with the rep, so I ask check the recording and this is what he said “ we have the recording for the modification you made on your cable and internet but the call with the wireless rep isn’t recorded.” . then I ask “ so I am paying around 3000 year to your company every year isn’t that worth something. And he said “ no” after that comment I feel there is no point to carry on anymore.

In a way I am glad this happen. Coz during this show which took in my workplace at least 40 to 50 of my co workers were all around me saw it play by play. Then they all decide to change seeing how I am being screwed by them.

My lesson – never ever do business with roger. And tell everyone else rather pay a little more at least you wont’ get lied and cheated by rogers.

Reading the guy about Rogers experience, it happens that I am at the end of the contract with them, so i ask for a new upgrade ( I share a plan with my wife), at first there was no problem we agree on a Samsung S4 at two years term, ” 0 peso “, what they send me it was the cheapest Nokia, so I send it back without open it. They said it will take a week for them to get the phone back. ( I been a customer for 15 years ), so I call ,they hadn’t received yet.
Well I phone back today, and for first time they said that in order to get the phone, I need to get on a premium package. I’m looking for a different carrier .

Well, I work as a CSR at Rogers, and many of my colleagues in customer care complain about having to clean up the messes of sales agents, as many of them are straight up lying to customers to get their commission – especially in wireless. So these customers then call customer care screaming in a month when they see their bill, and the care agent hears about how they were promised the sun, moon, and stars with it barely documented. Not a fun call, as it means either the agent lied, or the customer is lying (at the time, the care agent doesn’t know which it is, and admitting to either is bad customer service).

Now, the line of business I work is internet technical support, and the biggest lie these sales agents are telling is that the range and speed of the wifi on the modem is guaranteed. Router manufacturers don’t guarantee speed and range of wifi, most of the time there isn’t even a range estimate. And I get customers who are told by the sales rep that it totally is, and now I have a screaming customer that thinks Rogers is capable of rearranging the equipment in their house and of their neighbours around them and even controlling the very air itself – which we would need to do in order guarantee ‘service’ (its not a service by the way, its a feature on the modem).

Now, as for this awful culture of deception, this is, like with a lot of companies, sales is pushed hard, so much so that one can be fired for not making their sales quotas, and those quotas can be insane (one company had it where you had to have two new service activations a day in billing or you would be sacked). Sales reps as a result go to dishonest lengths – and lengths that are not productive to the company – to get their sales numbers up.

It isn’t helped that many tier 1 agents work for third party call centres, and as a result are paid minimum wage and are poorly trained warm bodies nabbed at the bottom of the barrel because smart talented people cost money these outsourcing firms don’t want to pay. The call centre racket also has a high turnover rate, so you are likely talking to an inexperienced, nevermind badly trained, agent that can barely navigate the system because they don’t know how to use the shitty software that is used on their crappy 5 year old workstation.

I’ve been with Rogers since they were Cantel and never had a problem. 20 years or so. 3 wireless, home phone, Internet and cable.

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