The real problem, ladies and gentlemen, is US.
We have allowed and even encouraged this behaviour. Every three years - oftentimes less - we allow ourselves to be bought off with a token discount off the published service prices. And then we’re surprised when, for the ensuing contract term, Rogers treats us like mushrooms - keeping us in the dark and covered with manure.
Customer service is dead. Mega-corporations care about executive compensation, share price and the bottom line. Customer needs, wants, and desires are at the bottom of the list, when they are considered at all. Rogers isn’t alone in this, they might not even be the worst - but they are right up there.
When I was a teenager, oh, so many years ago, I worked part-time for Zeller’s. Everyone was assigned to department - my first was toys. God help you if a manager or, worse, a customer, came looking for you and you weren’t in your department. It was all about customer service.
If you’ve been in a Toronto area Wal-Mart lately and seen someone walking the aisles yelling “Hellooo, is anyone working here?”, it was probably me. I just wanted to give them money! The last time, I got from “tools” (which is in the back corner of the store) to the front door where the greeter told me the floor staff was all in a meeting. I made my purchase at Home Depot. It’s STILL about customer service.
I wrote earlier about cancelling my television service with Rogers. At one time we had it all, VIP package, premium movie channels, complete digital lineup and HD PVR. In fact, we had a couple of PVRs. We cut back a couple of years ago but still paid a couple of hundred a month for TV. I’m quite busy and my wife has MS and tries to go to bed early because of fatigue so anything we want to watch gets recorded. We went through 4 or 5 HD PVRs. Once, all the recordings were there they but stuttered all through playback and so did live TV. I didn’t think that was the box so we placed a service call - that took several days. Each of the other times I took the box to the local Rogers store where it was replaced without question. But every time it happened, we lost all of the recorded programs. No one ever offered to swap the hard drive into the unit or try to copy the content onto the replacement. With the last failure, again the stuttering issue, I called to cancel the service - they needed 30 days notice. The service was unusable but I needed to pay for 30 more days because what? They needed to process paperwork? They lost me right then. At that point it didn’t matter what they offered - I was gone. It’s about customer service even when you have a monopoly.
Previous to that, I cancelled my Business Internet service. You might not know this but businesses only get support from Rogers Monday to Friday. I’m a network specialist, I’ve been in this business since 1977. I’m not sure, but I think I might have picked up a thing or two over the years. One Saturday morning, my Internet service was down. I called Rogers. Of course, when you call Rogers for support, it is ALWAYS customer equipment that is the problem. This is especially true when dealing with residential support - and it was a Saturday. Fortunately, our TV was out too so I called Cable support. “There are no problems in your area, it must be your house wiring. We can have someone there on Tuesday.” I went door to door to see my neighbours - the 4 beside me and the 5 across the street. All out. I call Rogers back to report that the whole neighbourhood is down. “No it’s not.” I tell them that there are 10 home affected and they need to roll a truck. That apparently is not a big enough outage - there need to be 30 homes affected before they’ll send an emergency truck. I tell them they’ll be getting calls except from my neighbour 2 doors away because “she was stupid enough to get your home phone service so she can’t call you to report it.” I don’t have Rogers Internet anymore. Even when dealing with a business, it’s about service.
And so, for the moment, I am left with my 5 cell phones with Rogers Wireless. Reception wise, it’s the best service in this area. I’ve got a reasonable service plan but I’m locked in so Rogers is mushroom farming.
If I could find a company that could provide decent service at a fair price and treat me with a little respect, I would be their biggest booster.
As difficult as it is to believe, I don’t think there is such a company so I'll likely end up staying where I am.
We have seen the enemy... and he is us.
RogersMay
