Time To Say Goodbye

[a084299]

Shortly after upgrading my Bell Fibe Internet Service in mid-August,I received the following letter from Rogers.

It's time to upgrade your equipment

Thank you for being a valued Rogers customer for so many years.We're grateful for your loyalty and commitment to us.

We're dedicated to providing you with our best TV experience.To ensure you receive the highest quality of service,we occasionally upgrade our equipment to provide you with the latest technology.

We've reviewed your account and noticed that your Tv box(es) needs to be upgraded before October 7,2024.

We're here to help you stay connected:

Please call us at 1-800-738-7891 or visit your local Rogers store to discuss the options available to you.

If no action is taken ,the equipment will no longer work,and your account will be cancelled after October 7,2024. Learn more at rogers.com/digitaltvnotice.

Thank you for being a Rogers customer.

Today,Sept 16th,I called because my next billing period will be from Sept 21-Oct 20 and I wanted to know the date my account would die if I did nothing.I told the rep that I did not want Ignite and I did not want to pay for that billing period if my account was going to die on October 7th.The letter is ambiguous with respect to my account dying.The rep told me that I have to pay for the whole month and then I would be reimbursed.Also I could call and tell them when I want to cancel.All I wanted was a commitment to the actual date my account will die.The rep more or less indicated that it would be October 7th.If that is the case,then my next billing should reflect that.The rep asked me if I wanted to talk to some other department(I couldn't understand who because she had an accent and my hearing is poor).She then asked if she could transfer me and I said yes.What I got was the line where you sit and wait for someone to talk to.After waiting over 10 minutes,I got disgusted and hung up.

The sooner I get Bell Fibe and get rid of Rogers the better. 

***Edited Labels***

[RogersZia]

Hi @a084299,

Welcome to the Community!

I am glad you reached out via the forums. We can review your account to answer all your questions pertaining to your service. Please send us a PM @CommunityHelps and we'll be happy to assist you. You can click here to get started.

RogersZia

[a084299]

I did not see anything to assist me on your link.

I received a second letter from Rogers on Tuesday;basically a repeat of the original.

I said that I was not going to take any action which means,according to the letter,my account will be cancelled after October 7,2024.

All I want to know is confirmation of the date my boxes and account are to be  cancelled.

If cancellation occurs before October 20th,I want my next and final billing to reflect the true time frame.

[RogersYasmine]

Hello @a084299 ,

Thanks for getting back to us and we're genuinely sad to see you go. I'm sorry hear that you had trouble when trying to send us a Private Message via the link that was provided by RogersZia above. Once you have logged in here, that link should take you directly to our Private Messaging window so you can send us a message directly.

In answer to your concern, if the account is scheduled to be automatically cancelled as of October 7th, but your billing period goes from Sept 21-Oct 20, then you will likely be billed for an entire month of services since the bill will be processed before the cancellation of the services. As mentioned by the person you spoke to when you called in, once the cancellation is complete, you will receive a final, revised bill in October which will show the cancellation of your services along with the appropriate adjustments. 

I do want to advise that if the September bill isn't paid in full before the payment due date, then the October bill may have late payment fees added. To avoid any late payment fees, you can pay your September bill in full and then you'll get a refund for the difference after your final, revised October bill is released. 

I hope this helps! Let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns and we'll do our best to help out.

Kind regards,

RogersYasmine

[a084299]

I received a call from Rogers on Friday.My hearing is not very good so I could not understand 80% of what the rep was saying because he had a heavy accent.I re-iterated my position as above and now,based on your last reply,it looks like I should switch carriers sooner than expected.

[-G-]

@CommunityHelps  Customers have already been told that older set-top boxes would be retired on April 30, 2024.  What is the significance of the October 7, 2024 date?  Will this finally be THE retirement date for Digital TV?

[RogersTony]

Hello, @-G- 

We have not been advised of a retirement date for the Digital TV service. The October 7th date is when the TV boxes on @a084299 account will stop working.

RogersTony

[a084299]

I think that I already know the answer to this,but,whar boxes are available that would allow me to keep my Digital TV service beyond October 7th?

[-G-]

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@a084299 wrote:

I think that I already know the answer to this,but,whar boxes are available that would allow me to keep my Digital TV service beyond October 7th?

---

That's a good question.  Do you have any boxes that are NOT on the list of boxes to be retired?

I have seen posts on reddit and DSLReports where customers reported being told that Rogers had plans to retire more (newer) set-top boxes at the end of August.  They were rumours at the time but apparently this information came from Rogers tech support agents.  Some customers have also reported problems with newer set-top boxes going down or not activating due to "signal issues", but that's about it.

As far as I know, newer boxes, such as the Cisco 8642, Cisco 9865 and the NextBox 4K are still operational but who knows for how long.  There are a number of business and technical reasons to retire legacy set-top boxes and the Digital TV service.

The common thread in the first wave of set-top boxes that Rogers retired is that they only support MPEG-2, not MPEG-4, so retiring those old boxes will allow Rogers free up some bandwidth and spectrum on their coax plant and potentially retire some old infrastructure in their headends.

At some point, boxes using PowerKEY for conditional access and content encryption will stop working sometime in November, unless Rogers has taken steps to extend their lifetime.

At some point, Rogers will also want to get rid of all the QAM-encoded channels on their cable plants.

Rogers can't keep Digital TV around forever.  I just don't know what is still keeping the service alive.  Clearly there is still a critical mass of customers that is allowing them (or forcing them) to keep the service around until they absolutely cannot support it any longer.

[a084299]

Today,I received my latest bill for the period Sept 21-October20.There was not a single word on the bill about Rogers cancelling my account after Oct 7th.The payment is due by October 17th.I have been in the habit of paying it well before the due date,but not this time.

[a084299]

On Monday the 7th my boxes were supposed to stop working.They did not.

On Tuesday the 8th,nothing was done so,using a phone sequence I got from a link,I was able to get a rep who agreed to cancel my account.I also requested an e-mail to confirm.I never received one.Shortly after this,I received a call from Rogers who admitted seeing the cancellation,but  continued to push ignite which I continued to say I didn't want.I had already had my new provider installed.That is why I decided to pay my bill now instead of leaving it to the last minute.Since I have another account  with Rogers(not TV),i signed in online and my TV account was gone.

On Wednesday the 9th,my boxes were still working,but a lot of channels,but not all,were not available.

ANECDOTE:On July 3rd,I had a lot of channels,but not all,that were not available,just like now.I called Rogers and the rep supposedly did some checking and indicated that it was a borderline signal problem with certain channels with my old boxes and nothing could be done.I told her that I did not want ignite and indicated my intention of cancelling my account.She asked if I wanted to cancel then and I declined because I would wait for my boxes to become obsolete.This was months before I upgraded my internet with my other provider.Well,surprisingly the next morning,all my channels were back and I did not have any further problems to when I got the letter as referenced above in my first posting.

Today on the 10th,the situation hasn't changed;the boxes still work and there are a lot of missing channels.I tried to call Rogers,using the last number that called me,but all I got was a message saying all the reps are busy and I would be called back.

What kind of game is Rogers playing?

After 47 years of cable tv,mostly with Rogers,they want to treat me like dirt.

My only conclusion that I can draw is that Rogers professional ethics appear to be centred around  threats and lies to achieve their goals.

[a084299]

Surprise,surprise,I did not get called back.I did get an e-mail from Rogers to get a survey for my call  on Tuesday.I normally don't do surveys,but I will make an exception tomorrow.

[a084299]

One day in October(I cannot remember the date) after my walk,I had a message on my answering machine from Rogers with a phone number and extension number.Therefore I called back and had a brief conversation with a gentleman who confirmed that my account was indeed cancelled and a cheque for the unused portion of the last billing would be sent to me.He also told me that the reason that I did not receive an e-mail confirmation of my account cancellation was due to the fact that I did not have any Rogers materials that had to be returned.Since then,I have kept the two SA8300 HD PVRS plugged in but turned off.The boxes continued to be on as indicated by the time on the display.Well,last week on October 30th,I received the cheque in the mail.Yesterday on November 5th,the boxes still showed the time first thing in the morning.A couple of hours later the numbers showing the time had been replaced with 4 dashes;the boxes had finalled been completely disconnected.I don't know if that was a sign that all boxes with that model number had been killed or if it was just mine.

Regardless:complete closure.