Home Phone Disconnected After Updating Plan…

[KSH4JMH]

My mother’s promotion was about to expire last month, so she called Rogers asking if someone could help her to keep her existing services at a comparable rate.  After much back and forth, someone was able to assist and she was told that the only change to her package would be an upgrade to her modem.  After that change, everything was to remain the same.  

Now, a few weeks later after receiving the new modem required to keep her existing plan, her home phone has been disconnected.  She is constantly being transferred from department to department, waiting for extremely long wait periods and having call disconnections happen during calls and still getting nowhere.  Can someone please help to reconnect her line???  She has been using my cell phone to make calls as she has no home phone.

Thank you.

***Edited Labels***

[Pauly]

I'm very shocked and surprised no one at Rogers told her that if she changes her modem to the new ignite modem that her phone will still work but phone service will be provided by the new ignite modem instead of the old existing one. The old telephone modem will cease to work.

Did she get the new Rogers ignite modem that looks like a white monolith??

[KSH4JMH]

Hi Pauly,

Thank you for your reply.  No, no one told her about this.  In fact, the modem was changed over a week ago and her phone line worked just fine until yesterday.  She has been on the phone for over 4 hours with no fix to her phone line yet.  She was told someone will contact me on my cell tomorrow.  It is absolutely ridiculous. She is a senior citizen who does not own a cell and relies on her home phone,  To answer your question, yes, her new modem is white.

[Pauly]

its not necessarily the fault of the gentleman or woman on the phone, maybe their system did not indicate to tell your mother that her phone service will be switched to a new device.  Either way, you can find the telephone line coming out of your old Telephone modem and disconnect it, then try connecting it to the tel1 port of the new modem and see if that works? if not, you should request a technician to come over and troubleshoot and solve it for your mother, they should also apologies to her for not mentioning that the change will impact her phone service, they need to take ownership of this mistake

[Datalink]

@KSH4JMH just to make sure that we're discussing the correct modem, can you have a look at the following Rogers support page which shows the various modems that are used by Rogers:

Internet Support | Rogers

The two modems on the left, the XB6 (black) and XB7 (white) are used by the new Ignite TV service.  Those modems, in conjunction with the Xi6-A and Xi6-T set top boxes provide tv services, with the set top boxes fed via ethernet and wifi.  The modem has two output ports for internet services and two output ports for telephone services although it appears that only Tel 1 works.  Tel 2 is either not configured or can't be configured by the tech reps.  This is a Comcast designed system, with Rogers, Shaw, and Cogeco (?) running these systems under licence.  

The three modems on the right hand side are modems only.  These are the white CODA-4582, CGNM-3552 and CGN3xxx modems.  Telephone service is provided by a stand-alone telephone modem which is connected to the house telephone system.  TV services are provided by separate Nextbox set top boxes (yet another modem).  These modems are all cable connected, which is  the traditional method of providing internet based services to ISP customers.  

These modems are usually located as required throughout the home wherever there is a cable outlet.  The telephone modem connects to the house telephone system at the Structured Wiring Cabinet, which is usually located in the basement.  That Structured Wiring Cabinet is where the house communication system cabling starts or terminates, depending on your point of view.  

So, Comcast in its wisdom designed a single modem and add-on set top box tv system to replace the traditional cable connected modem services.  That modem however doesn't take into account how houses are actually built.  So, that's an ongoing problem.  When customers switch to the newer Ignite TV system, and its sole modem, all of the previous modems are removed and replaced by one single XB6 or XB7 modem.  The modem ends up on one of two locations, both of which can cause problems.  If the modem is placed in the basement to connect to the house telephone system thru Tel 1, the upstairs wifi reception is less than stellar which affects the tv set top box performance.  If the modem is placed upstairs, there's a good chance that there isn't a house telephone port available to connect to the modem's Tel 1 port, so, now the customer has to connect a telephone directly to the modem via its Tel 1 port.

In theory, when the previous stand-alone telephone modem is removed, you can simply connect the modem's Tel 1 port to any of the house telephone ports and that should support the house telephone system.  That present problems for homeowners who have house alarm system as the traditional alarm system is located in the basement where it was the first device connected to the telephone modem.  That allowed the alarm system to seize the telephone line when necessary to call the alarm company.  With the new modem connected to a different telephone port upstairs, that present problems for the alarm system when it attempts to seize the telephone line which might already be in use. There are ways around this however.  

In terms of using the telephone system with the new modem installed, if its required to use a telephone at the modem's location, and use the modem to run the house telephone system as well, you would need to install a two port telephone splitter on the modem's Tel 1 port, which looks like this:

https://www.amazon.ca/Uvital-Adapter-Splitter-Converter-Cordless/dp/B07K4Q14NM/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=...

So, if your mother has been switched to the newer XB7 modem, plus set top box for tv services, then all of the existing equipment much be removed, boxed up and returned to Rogers via Canada Post.  There is a return shipping label with a return address that Rogers should provide.   Rogers pays for the shipping.  I'm assuming that you might be the one who takes the boxed equipment to the post office.  Ensure that you get a receipt from the post office for the box.  Ask the post office customer service agent if there's a tracking number on the receipt that you can use to track the box.  The post office has temporarily lost these boxes in transit.  Rogers reps have refused to contact Canada Post to resolve the issue and indicated to the customers that they're responsible for the lost items, at full cost for those items.  If the items are not received in time, or not processed due to the slow speed at which these items are handled after they arrive at Rogers warehouse, then customers will see the items billed on their next bill.  Food for thought, all of those items are several years old, paid for several times over, depreciated by Rogers until they're probably worth nothing, and are most likely destined for the recycle bin, yet, Rogers will bill the customers for the full cost of the item.  The CRTC has indicated that this is not on, however, the message does not appear to have been passed down to the customer service agents and the script that they follow appears to be unchanged at this point.  Rogers obviously has a contract with Canada Post, so any discussion about equipment losses after receipt by Canada Post, is between Canada Post and Rogers, but, Rogers reps blame the customers at this point.  So, be aware of this situation in the event that your mother has items which have to be returned to Rogers.  

Ok, I hope that this clarifies the situation.

[jc277]

Thanks for this information. These are the details people need to make informed choices.