Shaw to Rogers Transition- May God help us all

[btrest]

I'm one of the individuals in the Hamilton Mountain area that's had either no Internet connection, a connection that even when it works is so slow that the Internet is barely useable, and in most cases the connection is lost for most of the day. I've spent a total of 10+ hours on hold and eventually went down to the Rogers Hester St. office (formally Shaw). The office was literally packed with a constant flow of people all having poor/no Internet connectivity, no TV, and in some cases no phone service. When I say packed, I mean as in standing room only crowds that even at 1PM or so in the afternoon were almost out the door. I noticed a large number of elderly people at the office and I can only imagine if they have no phone service at phone thanks to Rogers and need to call 911. Rogers could now be placing lives in danger. In most cases, the reps at Rogers are claiming faulty equipment/firmware is the problem but based on the conversations and message forums, replacing equipment does very little to resolve any issues.

I've spoken to the Hamilton Spectator and CHCH News about the situation and they will most likely pursue a news story about what is occurring. If you are one of the countless people having an issue in the Hamilton area after the switchover, please contact the Hamilton Spectator and CHCH News to express your concern in order to ensure that this news story get the coverage it deserves. Hopefully, this will force Rogers to act on this situation ASAP and fix the issues. Guy Laurence, the current CEO of Rogers, should be made aware of this situation and ensure that a resolution is found immediately.

Hamilton Spectator Newsroom 905-526-3420
CHCH Newsroom 905-522-1101

[RogersMichaelT]

Hey guys,

We sincerely apologize for the disruption to your services.  There have been some technical issues for some customers who have been switched over to our services, and we’re taking every possible step to fix the problems.  The experience you’ve had doesn’t meet our standards and we’re working hard to restore your services as quickly as possible.  We have brought more staff into the call centre and have extra technicians on the road.

We’ll keep working until the problems are fixed. We really value your business and will work to make this right.

Thanks,

~RogersMichaelT

[Arlichv]

New modem = no internet at all. Wired or wireless.

Cable out too.

At least before I could surf the Web like it was 1994. Maybe Rogers can supply me with a speaker that wails out dial up noise and charge me for the "Nostalgia Package".

And I was in the Hester St office and can confirm this. Many upset customers with all sorts of issues.

And I've remained polite and courteous with the poor buggers who have to deal with this nonsense. But I quite enjoyed the fellas leaving the back office after a big important meeting in their dress shirts and khakis holding giant binders who didn't have to deal with a single customer, but are likely more responsible for this mess then the front lines. And probably off for a 2 hour lunch and a beer or two at Kelseys, while the nice folks behind the desks (probably former Shaw employees, maybe even Mountain Cable) sweat and deal with the chaos and irate customers.

Again, I wouldn't be so upset if I wasn't assured of how simple the switch was claimed to be and then subsequently lied to when delivered a message saying how successful the switch was.

Hate to be a rabble-rouser but the "B" word may get tossed about soon seeing as there are plenty of alternative options to the big wigs at least when it comes to Internet and phone services. 

I don't get the feeling that Rogers does business with this fact in mind and most likely hopes for people to remain uninformed of their options. Dslreports.com has plenty of info. I urge others to investigate this site. If you ever get your service back. 

btrest, I believe I was the one who spoke to you and will be following up with what you spoke about.

Will report on any developments.

[Gdkitty]

I completely understand, if people dropped ship and went with another provider after this mess 😞  Obviously some things have been handled poorly.

Really in the end, each person needs to do what is right for them.  Do your research and get all your info, and make an informed decision.
(always remember though.. a person is more likely to leave a BAD review somewhere, than a good review.  A person with a bad experience is more likely to complain, vs a happy person just goes on with your life.  EVERYWHERE you will find possible bad reviews of every service/provider.   Best bet is to talk to someone with that companies service in your area)

IF for whatever reason you did choose to stay through this... you could try and use it to your advantage.
Keep a record of downtimes, and issues.  Keep calling in.. every day if it needs to be.. have them keep it all on record.
When resolved, you can use that information to hopefully get some credit back for the outage.

[kawz]

Getting the same thing.

I did receive a call letting me know my switch date, but they subsequently called back and cancelled that saying it wouldn't be done that day.  I thought ok, I'll get another call at some point -- never did, but I was switched much to my surprise.  Oh well no biggy there I guess.

I too was subscribed to Shaw's Broadband 50 (50 MBps down/3 up) with 400GB/month data transfer, and my welcome letter/package did say it would remain the same for 1 year after which rates/packages were subject to change.  I thought cool...because truth be told you can't find that package anywhere for what I pay for it.  

The switch happened a few days ago, and at that time everything was perfect.  Speed was there.  In fact I did a speed test just last night and it was amazing -- actually went over 50MBps.

This morning all Wifi connections didn't work, so I reset my router and things came back fine.  I have the Cisco 3825 as well.

Check the speed now and...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/3634816985.png

Huh?  

Odd that the upload speed is there, but the download is atrocious.  What has changed between last night and this morning?   Inquiring minds would like to know.

I did the factory reset (hold for 10+ seconds), no change.

Of course, I can't get a hold on anyone at tech support...just don't have the time to sit on the phone for hours on a Saturday.  I'll likely give it another week or two, but if things don't right themselves I just may give one of those Bell representatives that keep coming to the Shaw-to-Rogers area doors the time of day.

[Arlichv]

I feel your pain, kawz. I had exact same issue. Went to Hester St office, waited in line for a bit and chatted with my fellow disgruntled customers. Got a new modem from them, no internet access. Just the ol' yellow exclamation point. Called tech support, they didn't know what to do so they booked a service call. Two friendly young fellas from a subcontracted company came by and realized that the modem serial # wasn't registered to my account. Something that seems fixable by tech support over the phone. Apparently it was a weird mix up. Old modem serial # set up with new account info, and new modem set up with old account info, or something to that degree.

I hope you can explain this to phone tech support and perhaps avoid a service call.

Besides that, the internet seems to be down entirely right now for a good portion of customers ( Sat July 19 @ noon).

I am at my wits end.

I think it's obvious to say, and I hope others who have had a similar service interruption that I have had feel this way as well, that I am certainly not paying my bill for July. And I better receive a pretty awesome offer from Rogers if they want to retain me as a customer.

Side note, waaaaaay too many people paying their bills at the office. I saw one woman paying in cash. Didn't think that happened anymore. I think it may be time to discourage this, given the ridiculous need for customer service and tech support, not to mention how much easier and cheaper other methods of payment are. I think some money should be spent on informing the public of this rather than wasting money on welcome packages that are literally useless and contain false information and unfulfilled promises.