Apex81

Dear Rogers Wireless…

I’m sick and tired of calling your customer service reps. Every month there is a new issue and every month someone has to rectify something. I just got off the phone with a Customer Relations representative, and she told me that I’ve been fairly reimburst for every one of my issues. She fails to see that my anger is not about the individual issues. It’s about me having to repeatedly call in with new issues every single month. It has been 8 months of calling Rogers once a month to complain about something wrong with my bill.

First, it was getting charged long distance between the two accounts on my “couple’s plan.” Some how they were being marked as calls coming from outside of my calling circle (the two phones on my account), and  then from within some business circle. What the hell. I only had a couple’s plan. So they fixed the problem, and reimbursed me for the charges that were incurred.

Then, it was a continuously increasing long distance bill. I called in a number of times to find out the best solution to my problem. First it was, “change your numbers for one of the phones on the account, and give it a new home area”. So, I moved the phone to another city-region. Due to a transfer of regions, the fee for the number change was supposed to be waved. This, as I was told by the Rogers rep, would substantially reduce the long distance charges. Sweet… Right?

Well, the next bill rolls around and I have a charge for the number change, and my long distance charges are now through the roof. My bill is more expensive at this point than when I called in to figure out how to bring down the cost. So, I call in again. This time I’m told that I should not have been charged for the number transfer, and that they would reimburse me for the charge. Great. Then the rep I spoke with decided to view my bill… Put me on hold. When she came back she couldn’t believe how much money I was spending on long distance. I then proceeded to explain to her how I had called in three or four times and talked to reps in an attempt to get the cost down on my bills. I think she took pity on me, and got me on a long distance plan that should meet my needs. Sadly, that plan wouldn’t kick in until my next billing cycle. So I still have no Idea what kind of impact this will have on my statements, but I’m confident that it will help.

Then, last month after three weeks of waiting past the usual time for my bill, I decided to phone Rogers once again to find out why my bill was not being posted on the internet. Turns out there was some type of glitch in their system and they had to send a note to the engineering department to get my bill back online. So, I said thank you and waited patiently for it to be posted. It took a couple of weeks, but eventually it was posted.

Then, a couple of weeks ago one of the phones on my account stopped holding a charge longer then 3 hours. So, I called Rogers once again to find out if the phone was still under warranty and what steps I should take to send it in. I brought it down to a wireless store at the St. Laurent Mall in Ottawa, ON and they sent it in for repairs. About a week later I received a call telling me that it was ready for pick up.

Two days later same problem. I brought it in again, and after a bit of a fuss, and trying to get the attention of the employee, who seemed much more interested in what the blonde at the booth outside of the store was eating then helping the customers in the store, they finally sent out my phone for repairs again.

And this takes me to today. Once again I don’t have a bill posted online. So, I called the billing department to figure out what was going on. They found it strange and put in another note to the engineering department again to look into the matter. The Rep I spoke with was super friendly, something that’s rare these days. He agreed that it was ludicrous that I had to keep calling in with new complaints, and decided that the best course of action was to transfer me to customer relations. This is where things went horribly wrong.

The rep informed me that I was well compensated for my previous problems and that the billing issues was not really a problem. She told me I would just have to wait until it appears, and that their was nothing she could do for me. I could not believe it. So, I brought up the whole broken phone debacle and she informed me that it was a manufacturing warranty and that if I wanted that phone replaced I would have to be in contact with Motorola. That was my breaking point. Eventually she tried to get me to “upgrade”, and I told her that under no circumstances was I willing to extend my contract, and that it was her responsibility to provide me with a working phone for the duration of my contract considering that the phone broke while it was still under warranty. She eventually caved and offered me two free upgrades that would not require me to extend my contract.

Now I would not expect someone reading out of a manual, who probably barely graduated high school, to be able to draw the same conclusions that I did, but I was hoping that they could nonetheless. This call was not about the individual complaints I made. This call was based on the culmination of the complaints I made. Having to complain once a month about obvious errors on my statements and shady business practices is pathetic. I’m glad they resolved all of my previous concerns. But, they seem to be missing the point entirely. They wouldn’t have had to “compensate” me if they hadn’t made the mistakes and errors in the first place. How is it my problem that their employees were carrying out their jobs less than adequately? I’m sick and tired of having to explain to new people every single month a new error. My business is a privilege not a right. Stop treating your consumers like dirt, and start treating them with a little bit of respect. You wonder why the turn over rate of employment in your call centre’s are so high? Maybe if you treated your consumers with some respect they would treat your employee’s similarly.

One final thought… props to the gentleman that took my call in the billing department today. It’s people like you that make believe that bureaucratic companies have a chance!