Why does rogers hate pay as you go?

[multiplemike]

For the past few years I have been bombarded with annoying texts to upgrade from my cheap perfect plan I was very satisfied with. They ended up increasing the prices by about 30% without informing me/asking for consent. All cool, I get that it's a publicly traded company and you want to earn more and more.

What isn't cool is that my billing access is now entirely restricted (can't even see the history! https://i.imgur.com/fDfMVh3.png )  unless I speak to a specific hotline for pay-as-you-go customers. I am now effectively locked out of using my phone until I waste time on hold wasting my time waiting to talk to someone. This is a big problem since I use 2-fa for my brokerage and bank account.

Once I access this hotline it's obvious they will try and upsell me instead of actually letting me continue using prepaid once I get to a person. Do you think I am going to upgrade to a plan after this? Or is this genuinely just meant to make me switch to a different carrier because you aren't squeezing enough from me? LOL. This is a level of greed I was completely blindsided by. It's actually impressive how customer hostile this was. Who was responsible for this decision? I want to see what else they've done in their career I am genuinely curious. I bet they worked for a private prison before Rogers.

Best regards, Michael

[57 · Accepted solution]

Here are my comments regarding PAYGo and their CSRs.

1. The issue regarding transaction history was discussed in the following thread:  @zolker provided a workaround in post 5 of that thread to see your transaction history.  I just used it and it still works.  I also don't like the fact that this was removed back in June.

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/No-Call-Transaction-History-on-PAYGo-Account/m-p...

I will outline the workaround again below:

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1. Login to MyRogers.  Open a new tab in your browser and click the link below:

https://www.rogers.com/web/RogersServices.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel

2. Click on Bill & Payments.

3. You may be taken to your overview page for PAYGo or Cable. Click the PAYGo account and you should then see the transaction history, just like before.  Sometimes you may get an error message in red. Try again at a later time if that happens.

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2. I have always found the PAYGo CSRs to be extremely helpful.  I just called them a few minutes ago and got a credit for all my charges for spam calls for the past 3 months.  I do this every 3 months or so because that is how far back the CSRs can easily see.  No upsell or anything, nor have I ever encountered an upsell in all my conversations with PAYGo CSRs.

3. Price increases are always texted to your phone before they occur.  I don't know why you missed them, but a lot of people don't take notice of these sorts of things (which also happens with Rogers on-line cable bills where channel changes or pricing updates are also always advised a few months before they happen)

4. Of course Rogers doesn't make much money off PAYGo customers and these customers probably now represent less than 10% of their Cell Phone customer base and probably about 2-3% of their cell phone income since post-paid customers spend much more per month.

[OLDYELLR]

I have been a Rogers PayGo customer  for maybe 20 years on the grandfathered talk anytime plan. For years I've had the $100/year plan, rolling over my balance when renewing and using $100 from it whenever there is enough left to get me through another year. With my usage, I estimate it costs me under $5/month overall. However, I have never been approached to upgrade, nor would I.  And, yes, the cost per minute has increased tremendously over the years.  

That screen you see,"Are you an existing Rogers prepaid customer?" is something that started to appear recently. I just hit my Bill Summary bookmark again and it takes me to my call history. The Rogers site has always been buggy, you just have to keep finding workarounds.

[multiplemike]

Thanks for the help. I think I'm just going to switch carriers though, since I need a new micro/nano simcard anyway for this upgraded phone I got that doesnt take the same size I currently have. Seems like a perfect excuse to finally transfer my data to a different sim.

And yes you are probably right I just didnt notice the messages about the increase, but that's partly because they send me a lot of ads and i never read them.

Have a great christmas/winter holiday

[sharonanneb]

"The grandfathered talk anytime plan. For years I've had the $100/year plan, rolling over my balance when renewing and using $100 from it whenever there is enough left to get me through another year. With my usage, I estimate it costs me under $5/month overall. However, I have never been approached to upgrade, nor would I. And, yes, the cost per minute has increased tremendously over the years. "

I believe there are more smart people like you out here, mournfully I am not one, but this is why Rogers hates pay as you go. For that matter Rogers hates anything that is not unfairly advantageous to their board of directors bottom line.

[OLDYELLR]

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@sharonanneb wrote:

Rogers hates pay as you go. For that matter Rogers hates anything that is not unfairly advantageous to their board of directors bottom line.

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For Rogers PayGo has been the entry level to the big bucks subscriptions. When I began, my landline (now called home phone) was something like $13 a month and cellphones were only affordable by business people. So a $25/month PayGo subscription was a huge luxury. My grandfathered $100/year plan today is a good deal. But today most people have $100 to $200 a month smartphone plans they spend all day on instead of using a computer. Rogers would like you to do that, plus subscribing to Ignite for TV. 

[Pauly]

I just found out something, though Rogers owns the trademark in Canada for "Pay As You Go" they stopped using the "Pay As You Go" branding for their website some time ago. As of current when I check their web site, it advertises their Prepaid service simply as Rogers Prepaid.  Any links on search engines for web pages pointing to rogers Pay As you Go, work partially or do not load properly or work at all.  This tells me they have re-branded their service and are in the works of removing outdated links.  They also stopped using the PayGo branding on their web site. After doing a trademark search PayGo was never trademarked by Rogers Communications, but some US carriers tried to trademark it but eventually abandon their application.

I came across an old link that said the benefits of switching from Prepaid to a monthly plan, Rogers is actively promoting this because they said it provides you with a greater level of service, more flexibility in managing your plan and even your device too.   So this is one of the reasons they want you to switch.

[OLDYELLR]

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@Pauly wrote:

I just found out something, though Rogers owns the trademark in Canada for "Pay As You Go" they stopped using the "Pay As You Go" branding for their website some time ago. As of current when I check their web site, it advertises their Prepaid service simply as Rogers Prepaid.  Any links on search engines for web pages pointing to rogers Pay As you Go, work partially or do not load properly or work at all.  This tells me they have re-branded their service and are in the works of removing outdated links.  They also stopped using the PayGo branding on their web site. After doing a trademark search PayGo was never trademarked by Rogers Communications, but some US carriers tried to trademark it but eventually abandon their application.

I came across an old link that said the benefits of switching from Prepaid to a monthly plan, Rogers is actively promoting this because they said it provides you with a greater level of service, more flexibility in managing your plan and even your device too.   So this is one of the reasons they want you to switch.

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In fact, it's not easy to find the Prepaid plans on the Rogers site anymore. And when you do, the cheapest one is $15/month.  https://www.rogers.com/plans/prepaid

Of course they would like you to migrate to the more profitable Postpaid plans.

[HowardL]

Since the billing info no longer available online (the workaround in this forum is not working now, I just tried), and cannot top up online, those are really not friendly.

Even, just now, I tried to call for top-up (1 time top up), I was asked to register my credit card (this requirement did not exist in June), and the address info of the credit card primary holder must be same to the Pay-as-you-go owners'.

IMO, I agree to the OP, to some degree, as a Pay as you go user, I can clearly feel Rogers hate us.

The process:

Can top up online, view bill online, change plan online > no longer to top up, change plan, view bill online > workaround to view bill online > can top up 1 time by using phone number, using any credit card (of owners) > must register credit card even just wanted to top up 1 time AND the address info requirement.

I am not sure how many Pay As You Go users frequently have international travel, or prefer to stay out of Canada for weeks to months, but to those preferred users, e.g. stay out of Canada for months, how the Rogers treats Pay As You Go user is really not friendly.

I am currently in my vacation for months out of Canada, because I was wrongly charged many times by Rogers, I wanted to just top up 1 time (not auto-top-up) by using a credit card other than Canadian one coz the bank service and representatives are more easy to communicate, but now, after trying to call for top-up, I know that the only way to top up is to find someone in Canada, to purchase the voucher.

[57]

For me, the workaround I outlined in the solution post to this thread still works (link below).  I can see my balance and my various transactions.  I just checked.  One cannot top up as one once did though - you need to call for that.  I'm on Auto-top-up, which I currently have suspended for a year, and it will simply resume at the end of that 12 month period.  I usually call in every 3 months anyway to get credits for the various spam messages I receive during those 3 months.

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Why-does-rogers-hate-pay-as-you-go/m-p/500973/hi...

[peterinvan]

Pay As You Go - 2nd class citizens?

I got an unexpected charge on my credit card from Rogers for $112. 

Now it may have excess usage, but there was no way I could find on line to see the details of the charges on my account.

Live Chat won't discuss PAYG accounts.

My local Rogers retail outlets could not access my transactions.

I am left feeling that Rogers deliberately make it difficult for PAYG customers to get support or see their billing transaction details.

[57]

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@peterinvan wrote:

Pay As You Go - 2nd class citizens?

1.  there was no way I could find on line to see the details of the charges on my account.

2. Live Chat won't discuss PAYG accounts.

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It looks as though your post has been moved to this existing thread. Both of the issues you mention have been discussed extensively in this forum, but I will repeat them again below:

1. There is a workaround to see the transaction history outlined in the following post. If you follow the directions exactly, it should work for you. It works for me.

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Why-does-rogers-hate-pay-as-you-go/m-p/500973/hi...

2. No, they won't.  The only way to contact PAYGo CSRs is outlined in the following post. No other parts of Rogers will discuss PAYGo.  This has always been the case and is nothing new.

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Pay-as-You-Go/Pay-as-you-go-improper-data-charges/m-p/440166/h...

[bg47]

Hello 57. Yes that worked for me, thank you. I have printed it. There are no numbers associated with the calls, other than one entry  to tell the robot?which shows 49988. I believe you are telling me the local store will not be able to help. This will mean calling in to the PAYGO toll free number. Would you by any chance know the correct selection