Sharing my experience

[MadAsCanBe]

I would like to add an example to illustrate why one might feel forced to pay near or more than 1000 dollars, based on promises ROGER's made regarding their product and service; First it starts with a service not working or not available at another carrier, then a PROMISE made by the other carrier that their service will provide Text over WiFi (Not to be confused with VoLTE)  Suppose you are driving in a nice area, and you and your spouse are overcome with the thought "Gee, it would sure be nice to live here" As you drive a bit further, you see a REALTOR "For Sale" sign in the yard of a home that from the outside looks perfect. Like everyone else, you're not planning to buy, but out of curiousity you send a text message to the phone number posted on the sign. The emotions start to build a bit, and in fact, you both hop out of the car, and take a couple of "selfie's" with the home in the background, hamming it up, you both post to your "Instagram" feed. You Jokingly tag it with "Our new place!!!" After a while, you get in the car and drive on, noticing the agent didn't have the courtesy to text or call back. "It was just thought, anyway" your spouse says. ~~~ Here's what you didn't know: ~~~ The Realtor has owned the same house he lives and works from since before cellular service was added in his town. After all the infrastructure was completed, it just happened that this house was one of about 100 that are in a "signal shadow"- an area where there is no way to direct a signal--except through the internet. (Now this house in actuality is a bit more complicated, because up until January 2017, the HSPA signal actually reached the house most of the time, but TELUS shut-off that band, and had no alternative to getting signal to this Realtors house - But ROGER's promised their voice and text over internet service would completely solve that problem) The agent gets an email from a colleague (a few days after your drive that had prompted the text message) and driving toward the coffee shop, suddenly a few pings are coming from the glove-box, where he stores his cell phone while driving. Upon arrival, he checks only to find he has missed 3 important texts, one of them from you! They were at different times of the prior two days. He feels really bad, because your text says (Albeit over the top a bit): "We've fallen in love with the home at Polo Park-please call" Of course, by this time you have in fact completely forgotten about the home...but just the same the agent gingerly makes the call, if only to apologise for the fact that you felt ignored. I doubt this agent is going to tell you the back story, and put negativity in your day, but he will instead take the blame on himself saying: "I should have been sitting in a coffee shop for  the past 5 months, in case someone were to text me about that fantastic home, now I have failed you, and my seller too!" You assure the agent that it was a passing whim, and not to worry about it. The agent, having nearly two decades of experience knows that he has fulfilled nearly a thousand dreams that started with "a whim"--which by the way incuded the home he himself lives in that started with a drive by, and a phone call from a phone booth to the agent, back when wired phones were the only way to reach someone, and a pager number was on the sign! The point of this true story is that although this agent takes some of the blame, because he cannot be at the home office and receive texts (The voice over internet works fine) is it the agent or ROGER's --who made very specific promises that their service would take care of the cellular text and voice concerns that should be apologising to you!

[BS]

Thanks @MadAsCanBe for your detailed and very clear message of the experience of changes in technology, service, and miscommunicated information from sales reps.

We take companies at their word that they know and understand their products and services, but I think most of us have had the experience of learning that what we have been told is not what we are going to get, that some rep has no real understanding of the technology they are selling and the limitations, or they miscommunicate the impact of changes on pricing and the list goes on.

Wish it was a unique story.  I suspect we may find the similiar horror stories from other providers and their customers, but we have Rogers, so they get to be the target of our frustration, or as you name says, madascanbe.

We pay a lot of money to receive services that we have been sold, and we shouldn't have to become as madaswe can be, but I can commiserate with you.  I have been there too.

So we post here, we phone in, to be receive an explanation about the limitations we were never told about or told in a way that was not complete, and we get an "I understand how frustrating this may be", or "I am sorry you had this experience", and the best is that at the end of the process you may get a credit for the inconvenience.

Ahh - modern technology - we want it, we want all the benefits it brings, then companies develop it and push it out often before it is well developed and don't communicate the limitations as they exist because in my experience, not only do reps not understand it, neither do the developers or techs, because it has been pushed out with inadequate testing of the wide range of variations of how.

At least you contacted a quality professional in this realitor who takes responsibility for the inability to meet your needs and their seller and doesn't take you through the excuses of the telecom company they use, but obviously did explain what happened, then took responsibility.

I love the sarcasm of, had I known, I would have been at the local public access WIFI spot so he could serve his customers.

It is a good story, and a lesson to all of us that when we get a change in our service to immeidately test it in all of our typical ways that we may use it to see if it still meets our needs fully or do we have to workaround - like going to the local doughnut shop.

Frustrating, but great presentation of how important technology has become in our daily lives and how it can create an unexpected huge negative impact when we are not able to fully understand what we have been told, or the person telling us doesn't understand either.  Almost need to take a test drive and kick the tires before agreeing to take the product - but the 30 minutes of usage to return it does not provide any time to kick the tires.

Thanks for sharing, Bruce

[barndoor]

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@MadAsCanBe wrote:

 The point of this true story is that although this agent takes some of the blame, because he cannot be at the home office and receive texts (The voice over internet works fine) is it the agent or ROGER's --who made very specific promises that their service would take care of the cellular text and voice concerns that should be apologising to you!

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The agent  .... to be in  that type business and  put that kind of trust in a business that operates like Rogers is just foolish .  

[Gdkitty]

To put your trust in just ONE thing, i would say is foolish. (regardless of company)

While i understand the frustration on that something was promised.. and not delivered.

For the sake of a company and running a business.. one needs to make sure that everything is in its place, and that you DO have access to what you need.

If my business relied on X service (phone, internet, etc) and it wasnt reliable in that location?
I wouldnt put my business there.

On top of it, those services are part of doing that business... an expence.
While i understand saving money, to try and maximize proffits.. the number of times that i see people skimping out.  That they will go with the RESIDENTIAL internet for their business.. then complain when resolution times are taking longer.  Residential services often dont have any form of an SLA (service level agreement).  While business connections do.  They will often have quicker turn around times, more guaranteed uptime, etc.. but you do have to PAY for it.
And at the same time, have backups.  Regular internet down? Make sure you can get your email, and any other important internet related stuff accessible via celluar of some form. (ipad, hotspot laptop to a phone, etc).
(dont even get me sarted in just DATA on its own... about 8/10 private business owners i have helped with, have had NO data backups at all.  All their work info on one computer.  Guess what happens when that machine goes belly up?)

[BS]

@Gdkitty  I agree with you fully on the importance of companies making sure that the services they purchases are checked out and confirmed that they will meet your needs and redundancy is always a great idea to ensure ongoing service to your customers.

Now if we could only get Rogers to live up to that expectation that the provider of the service to us is responsible for whether their own providers can provide the services expected in a consistent manner.

Say like Yahoo email for one, Navigatr for another.

When I was responsible for services in an organization, I had a backup provider available to me that I was confident in and always tested, but for many in the service industry, their speciality is their market, like real estate, and they count on their providers of technological services to set up and test and maintain the services in an expected manner.

Unfortunately, when we deal with Internet and phone companies, unless we use a third party tech company that does all the purchase, supply and set up, we often cannot count on the service providers to do much else than sell the service to us and it is up to us to figure out whether it meets our needs.

That is why third party IT companies, software companies, and installers exist, and many of them will set up your cell phone services for you too.

Bruce