Cannot Top Up

[coughlan1960]

Hi,

I am trying to top up my pay as you go phone and all it does is talk about a "exclusive offer" and wants to transfer me to talk to someone!

I just want to add money on my phone!!

I saw something on here saying about the prepaid is ending on December 16th? Does this mean pay as you go is not going to be here anymore?

I am just frustrated, I just want to add money on my phone.

Thank you.

**Labels Updated**

[-G- · Accepted solution]

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@coughlan1960 wrote:

I saw something on here saying about the prepaid is ending on December 16th? Does this mean pay as you go is not going to be here anymore?

Yes, the Pay-as-You-Go service shutdown is apparently imminent and has been discussed extensively in the following thread: https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Rogers-and-Fido-Pre-paid-Phone-Service-Ending-De...

[coughlan1960]

So, I can't top up now then? That is ridiculous, I just bought a phone card and it's non-refundable.

[-G-]

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@coughlan1960 wrote:

So, I can't top up now then? That is ridiculous, I just bought a phone card and it's non-refundable.

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In a way, this may be a blessing in disguise.  Had you topped up, you would have lost whatever funds were left in your account when Rogers shuts their service down.

Rogers is currently pushing Prepaid customers to chatr Mobile.  If you migrate, you may be able to use your Rogers Prepaid phone card to top up a chatr account.  I don't know for sure if that's an option.

This is an unfortunate time for Rogers to alienate their customers because there are some great Black Friday deals out there to attract new customers.  Best of luck going forward and getting whatever money back you can from Rogers,

[57]

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@coughlan1960 wrote:  I saw something on here saying about the prepaid is ending on December 16th? Does this mean pay as you go is not going to be here anymore?

You should have received a text around October 22 outlining the fact that Rogers Prepaid is ending December 16th.  You may wish to review your texts from around that time. The only way you would not have received the text is if your phone was off for several days, since texts are only stored in the cloud for a few days.

The Thread that @-G- linked earlier has all the information you need.  Post 1 of that thread (which I will provide again below) outlines your options regarding Postpaid (Rogers/Fido) or Prepaid (Chatr) or a competitor and contains a migration team phone number.  There's lots of discussion in the thread regarding options and regarding getting (or not getting) any credits from Rogers.

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Rogers-and-Fido-Pre-paid-Phone-Service-Ending-De...

I'm also not sure if Chatr will accept your phone card. The only way to find out is to ask them.  If not, you may be able to get a credit from your Credit Card company, if you used a credit card to pay for the card.

[coughlan1960]

Thank you for the link. I used a debit card to pay, so I don't know if I can get the money back.... that is frustrating and wrong of rogers to do this because we shouldn't be able to buy cards if we can't use the money anymore. 

I don't use my phone much, I only use it for my account verifications and in case I need to phone someone when I am out.. so I did not get a text about it. I just top up every month and turn it off until I need it. 

[Evan13]

I'm caught in a catch-22 which Rogers has created for me.    I want to transfer to the chatr brand so I have to reply YES to a text from Rogers to approve the transfer of the number, but I cannot reply because my account is empty.  So I thought ok, I'll just top up then I can reply... but I cannot top up to reply because they disabled the top-up system!

Phone top-up - disabled and goes to customer service (if they aren't too busy)

MyRogers - the page is just blank now except for a link to chatr, nothing you can do there.

I played phone-tag with customer service, technical support, etc to try and get them to just accept the transfer, but when I finally reached a lady who could do it, she wanted to call the number to confirm, but of course the call would not go through because we were currently talking on that number!  I tried suggest that she could call my landline so that I could hang up on the cell for her to make her confirmation call but she said she was not allowed.

[57]

@Evan13 : The only way to contact/top up a PAYGo (prepaid) account is/was outlined in the link below.  

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Prepaid-account/m-p/521259/highlight/true#M3827

Edit 1 - I just tried that number and found out that the menu items have disappeared and that they connect you with a representative...  Hope the wait isn't too long and that this helps.

Edit 2 - You could also try the number outlined in post 1 of the following thread.  When I called, the wait was not very long...

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Rogers-and-Fido-Pre-paid-Phone-Service-Ending-De...

[User7594]

Hi! Please let us know, when you can, whether you were able to do anything about your recently purchased phone card/voucher. Was Rogers manually able to have a rep top-up for you? If not, what is their offer for your potentially unusable phone card?

Also, for anyone who has successfully migrated to Chatr (rather than stick with Rogers), are you obliged to get a Chatr SIM card? Or, does your service simply work using your existing Rogers SIM?

[57]

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@User7594 wrote: Also, for anyone who has successfully migrated to Chatr (rather than stick with Rogers), are you obliged to get a Chatr SIM card? Or, does your service simply work using your existing Rogers SIM?

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I migrated to Chatr over a month ago at a Rogers corporate store and they provided a new Chatr SIM.  I doubt you can keep the Rogers SIM if you migrate to Chatr.  See post below:

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Rogers-and-Fido-Pre-paid-Phone-Service-Ending-De...

I did negotiate "compensation" for my Prepaid balance, as outlined in the following post.

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Rogers-and-Fido-Pre-paid-Phone-Service-Ending-De...

[Evan13]

I tried talking to them on the phone, and they said they can't do anything to top up and that I have to go to a Rogers store for them to top up my phone.

When I have a chance to go to the rogers store,  my prediction is that they will say something like all they are allowed to do is sign me up for a new plan for $9999 a month or something or that I need to bring a birth certificate and sorry come back later.

If you still have money on your phone you just buy a chatr sim on the chatr site for $10 and they ship it fedex.  Then you use that to make a chatr account and to request the number be transfered, and then when you get a text from rogers asking if you approve the transfer you reply YES (Which is where I am stuck because of their nonsense)  then swap to the sim they sent you.

[57]

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@Evan13 wrote:

1. I tried talking to them on the phone, and they said they can't do anything to top up and that I have to go to a Rogers store for them to top up my phone.

2. When I have a chance to go to the rogers store,  my prediction is that they will say something like all they are allowed to do is sign me up for a new plan for $9999 a month or something or that I need to bring a birth certificate and sorry come back later.

3. If you still have money on your phone you just buy a chatr sim on the chatr site for $10 and they ship it fedex.  Then you use that to make a chatr account and to request the number be transfered, and then when you get a text from rogers asking if you approve the transfer you reply YES (Which is where I am stuck because of their nonsense)  then swap to the sim they sent you.

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1. I'm not sure if that information is correct. Before the October 22 announcement, the only way to do anything with a Rogers Prepaid plan was to use the link I provided in my previous post - link again below:  Any other Rogers CSRs could not do anything with prepaid.  Are the 1-800-575-9090 or 1-844-235-3766 phone numbers the ones you used?  Any other general number is probably useless for the migration.

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Cannot-Top-Up/m-p/538176/highlight/true#M4208

2. As discussed in my post, link below, if you go to a Rogers corporate store (call beforehand to make sure they will), they can migrate you to Chatr.  You do need ID, like a driver's licence.

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Rogers-and-Fido-Pre-paid-Phone-Service-Ending-De...

3. However, as you mentioned, you still have to answer "YES", to the text to migrate and I don't know if there's any way around it.  The fellow I had at the Rogers store was very helpful, but I'm not sure if even he could circumvent the "YES" requirement.   I guess this shows the importance of never letting your balance go to zero.  I hope you find a solution to your Catch-22.

[Evan13]

I got it sorted out,  my brother went to Walmart for me and they were able to accept the topup voucher and that let my phone reply YES to the rogers text.

[Evan13]

Thanks for trying to help, 

I can't remember what numbers I tried now, but it doesn't seem to make a difference because once you get a person then they transfer you around just the same.   If anyone else sees this and tries to get help with over the phone with migrating carriers, then I recommend starting the call with some other phone than the one you are trying to migrate so that they can phone the number without you needing to hang up your current call.

My brother and father migrated their phones chatr hassle free by going to Walmart in person.