Rogers Wireless Pay-As-You-Go customer service = FAIL
I lost my cell phone last year (November 2007) and spent a few months without one. I bought a Rogers Pay-As-You-Go cell phone in the hopes that I can better communicate with my friends and obviously also for business/work purposes. I did not want a plan because I know that the penalties are humongous, and given that my job search may take me anywhere in the world, or within Canada, I wanted to stay non-plan. That’s why I did pay-as-you-go.
I wanted to switch my plan as I have discovered that I don’t talk on the cell phone that often, so I phoned the *611 number. Two days in a row, the system has been down and “Melanie can’t help me at this time” (their automated voice system). After an hour struggle today, where I was unable to actually speak to a live person, I phoned the other line (for cell plans instead of Pay-As-You-Go) and found out several things.
1) The Pay-As-You-Go customer service representatives work from 9:00am to 6:00pm Eastern Standard Time. So, I am technically SOL for today.
2) Using standard voice requests (“agent”, “customer representative”) does not work.
3) Different customer service representative phone lines operate in a way that they don’t talk to each other. So the person for cell phone plans couldn’t help me get through to the pay-as-you-go people.
4) I hate all cell phone plans in Canada, period. The cell phone service here has been the WORST in each of the different countries where I have lived.
5) Even if the phone conversation is recorded, chances are that nobody is going to contact me to correct their absolutely horrendous customer service.
6) Even though I have MORE THAN ENOUGH credit on my cell phone, they still want me to pay $ 20 to make the switch (that’s the minimum top-up for the plan I want). So no easy plan switching.
7) They charged me incorrectly for downloading two ring tones that I did NOT download.
Just as an example, in Mexico, any incoming call (be it long distance or local) is FREE (the caller pays). That means that you can actually have a cell phone just for emergencies or receive calls. Obviously, this has a lot of international phone companies up in arms, because their customers have to bear the brunt of international phone calls to cell phones in Mexico.
Anyhow, I wish the customer service culture here was better. And on that note, Darren from Timing and Delivery has a blog especifically focused on customer service. I probably should go over there and rant. I am also hoping to harness the power of Web 2.0 to see if Rogers listens and changes some of their policies. Feel free to link, Tweet or just discuss on the web.
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Fact: Several third-world countries have better cellular plans and service than Canada does.
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Don’t even get me started…once I start ranting about the Canadian cellular plans I might just never stop.
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Rogers, in fact, all Canadian cellular companies are worse than third world standards. Canada was waaaaay ahead of Japan in cellular service back in the mid 90′s. Heck, Canada was waaaaay ahead of Japan in home internet service back in the late 90′s as well. Bet most think that Japan is always first. Not so! Now, we have crappy but MEGA expensive cellular service plans and crappy, slow as a slug going over salt internet service while in Japan they’ve had 100Mb home internet service in major cities for more than 5 years. That unlimited 100Mb service now costs less than $40 a month in Japan and the just launched a 1 Gb home internet service in 2008.
Anyways, Rogers is so lazy that they do nothing after they build something. They just wait until they get so many complaints that they then have to do something. By then everything is so slow and broken that they move onto the next technology which the rest of the world has been using for years. Rogers’ excuse is that Canada is so vast a country so they can’t be compared to places like Japan. Really, so they couldn’t even cover metropolitan areas such as Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal with such services? Those areas are dense enough but then it’s just an excuse which they think you’ll buy. And you do, hook, line and sinker.
I was in Chile in 2007 and was surprised as all hell when my cellular phone’s 3G icon lit up after arriving at Santiago’s airport. Chile already had 3G service BEFORE Rogers had it in Vancouver and most of Canada. Entel PCS, as they are called in Chile, had pay as you go plans than made Rogers pay as you go plans seem a rip-off no matter how you looked at it. Rogers gouges us all because we put up with it. So I guess for those of you that don’t b*tch loud enough every time something goes wrong with Rogers and the likes HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN because you too are part of the problem. If we all don’t take this crap then the government has to change, the CRTC needs to go, Rogers and the likes need to be watched closer and rules imposed.
Rogers even to this day makes comparisons to how their high speed internet is so many times faster than dial up. Really, dial up?!? When was the last time you used dial up in a big city? Yet they make that point because they think you’re so stupid that you’ll go and buy it. BTW, in select parts of Vancouver there has been a company providing 100Mb home internet service for years now. They also provide TV but their battle with the CRTC was only caused because Rogers and the likes didn’t want the competition. How do you think this company won?
The CRTC and the these snot nosed bullies (Rogers, Bell, Telus, etc.) need a swift kick in the arse. They are nothing short of a legal mafia holding us (Canada) back and turning us into the digital ghetto!
Exercise your right and cut back your service to reflect your dissatisfaction with “just good enough” if you can even call it that. Do nothing and you’re the reason Canada goes nowhere. Enjoy your digital ghetto!
We have two pay-as-you-go cell phones in the family for emergency calls only, with a monthly addition of $10.00 each. Last November I spoke to a Rogers agent who lead me to believe that they could take $100 from our rather large balance and feed that into the account each month so that I wouldn’t have to phone each month to add the $10. NOW, I’m told that this is a SERVICE CHARGE and in effect I have lost that amount of money. In no way did anyone at Rogers mention that was the case, otherwise I wouldn’t have been such a fool to agree to it. We’ve been with Rogers for years and have had no end of problems – even to getting into our on-line account and it refusing our passwords. Yes, I agree they SUCK and after using up our current balance we shall be off to greener pastures.
The Rogers Pay as you go program is a poor excuse for a company like Rogers. Take your customers money and treat the customer like crap! It is impossible to get anyone to resolve a problem if you run into problems with your plan on a weekend because Rogers messed up.
It is intolerable that a company like Rogers takes money for this service when there is no way to get it working.
Looking for alternatives. Does anyone know of better plans I can switch to?