Nikon-Guy's Blog Site

In July of 2010, I received a call from Bell to get me back as a customer.

A little more was offered for my Digital Cable TV, Hi-Speed Internet and Home Phone, all for the $119 a month.

I would get 1500 long distance minutes with the Bell Home phone, 100 HD channels with a free PVR rental for 3 years and the ADSL Internet would be 12 mBit per second with an 80 GB cap per month.  This was not a promotional offer.

Since I was paying a lot more with Rogers, I called them up and told them about the offer.

They offered me the same services that I had (Internet, 10 mBit per second with a 60 GB cap, Rogers Digital Cable with their measly choice of HD channels, and 500 long distance minutes for home phone), which I was happy with, for $115.

One year later, I’m being told that the discount offer I had was only for 1 year and that the second and third year would go from a 30% discount to a 20% discount.  And that these were the terms that I agreed to.

After the calculations, I figured that I would be paying $145.00 a month for the 2 years after that.

Doesn’t it seem silly that I would agree to paying more in the future?!?!  That’s just putting off the inevitable of me switching from Rogers to Bell or another media company.  Like Teksavvy, which, by the way, have amazing deals on highspeed internet.

Of course, Rogers Customer Relations, being as rude as hell this time.  “These are the terms you agreed to, is there anything else that I can do for you tonight?  Have a good night.”

Even after a discussion with another customer service agent, he said that if they were to apply a totally new discount, I would be charged an early cancellation fee, which could be $400.00

I’m contemplating on paying the early cancellation fee, just so I can save a tonne of money in the future.

Seriously, why the hell would anyone agree to pay MORE in the future?  I told the person on the phone that I was not told it was only going to be one year.  I had to “commit to a three years”, therefore, I believed I was getting this price for the three years that I agreed to.  Not this 30% for the first year, then 20% for the next two.

But of course, they just said that their notes don’t reflect what I have said.  Of course they don’t reflect what I said, these are “YOU’RE” notes that your employees enter.  They can totally disregard what I had said or leave out some things they have said and enter them or change them as they see fit.

I’m more pissed off at the fact that their customer retention/relations department doesn’t seem interested on keeping my business or in trying to help me out.  I have been a Roger’s customer for the longest time, even before they were called Rogers, CANTEL!  And this is how they treat long standing customers?  Hey wait, I think I’ve said this before in a previous BLOG post.

Teksavvy is also now providing home phone services for a more reasonable price.

-NG

Just wanted to let some of you know about the convo that I had with Rogers Customer Relations department.

To start, I’ll have to tell you about the recent past.

When the iPhone3G came out, I was 3 months into my new contract, I was bummed out, since at the time, I would’ve liked to have an iPhone, but was told I wasn’t able to upgrade.

Quietly, less than 2 weeks after the launch of the iPhone3G, the newspapers released an article saying that Rogers was allowing some that was 3 months max into their contract to get an iPhone3G. I went immediately to the Roger’s Plus store, only to find out that ALL the iPhones in the city had been sold out. You know, this really pisses me off. But I lived with it. I had my Blackberry 8900 and I started enjoying it more and more.

I especially enjoying talking with my friends in South Carolina and Georgia over Blackberry Messenger, at no extra charge. $0.75 per text for long distance texting, if I had gotten the iPhone.

Recently, my 8900 took an unfortunately ‘dive’ into the Ottawa River. Suffice it to say, even if I could retrieve it, it’s most likely dead now.

I called Rogers about their Handset Protection Guarantee. The girl, being very friendly, I should’ve gotten her name. Most friendly person that I have ever talked to on the Roger’s Customer service call centre.

She offered me a free replacement of a Blackberry Pearl. Well, after having a 8900, I really didn’t want a Pearl. She then offered me a BB9100 for $249.99, well, the 9100 is still a Pearl, just an updated Pearl.

She took a look at my HUD eligibility. She saw that I only had 5 months to go until I was eligible. So she said because I’ve been a long standing customer of Rogers (1991), they would let me upgrade early to a 9700 for $99.00

When I was talking to her, it was only 12 days til the launch of the 9800. She did say that was my option, however, I do still have to go in store to pick it up since that is the only way to do a HUD and that I would have to purchase another SIM card.

So I went to get a SIM card anyways, since I have an old Blackberry 8130 that would hold me over until launch date. Well, the girl at Carlingwood Shopping Centre sold me the SIM card, but refused to activate it, because their system showed that the account was under my english name and that it didn’t match my ID.

She went on to tell me to call customer service to have them activate it. Which is what I did.
They did see that my name was different on the system. But the person I was talking to was Roger’s Blackberry Tech support, he activate my SIM got me going on the older BB. And transferred me to customer service to have my name changed.

I spoke with another girl, who I explained the whole situation to, about losing my 8900 and was hoping to upgrade to an 9800 early, etc. etc.

‘She’ told me that I would have to talk to Customer Relations. So she transferred me there.

Now, the next guy I was talking to, he said that only Customer Relations was the only people that could allow an early upgrade and that they would have no problems upgrading me to the 9700 for $99.00 as spoken to before. But when I mentioned the 9800, we got into this small tiff about how the 9800 ‘might’ not be available available about a Customer Relations upgrade and that I could not go into the store to pick up the upgrade, because Customer Relations would have to ship it out, even if it ‘is’ available on launch date. He said that there were no guarantees.

Oh c’mon! I was told by one person that I could go into the store to pick it up on launch date and then by someone else that I can’t?!?

After a bit of bickering back and forth (the guy still being friendly), he asked that if he could be ‘blunt’… And to give Customer Relations a call back (on the 27th) to see if it is available for them to upgrade me to. My response was “So, you want me to call back, 3 days after the launch, when it could be possibly sold out? Like the iPhone3G?”

He responded by saying “Or you can call back on the launch date, but we might not have anymore information than we do now…”

What can I do? ‘Settle’ for the 9700? Continue on for the next 5 months with this 8130 (which doesn’t have wifi, btw, and can’t upgrade to the OS5, so apps are just crap, compared to my 8900) until I can properly upgrade?

With that ’sorta’ behind us, he wanted to make sure that everything was still in order. The name change. Well, they still screwed that up as well (even though I just talked to the girl about 15 mins earlier). They missed spelled my name and there was 4 other names attached to my account. All of them a different variation of my legal name and my english name.

He did apologize and looked into my account to see there if there was something that could be done. Again, since I’ve been a long standing customer and that BELL has been calling me with offers to entice me to move to them, I’m pretty much extended on any discounts that I can get. He did work something out for me, but I’m not at liberty to mention this out in public.

But I’m still a little miffed about the ‘possibility’ or the ‘impossibility’ of me upgrading to a 9800. I was so psyched about going in to the store on launch day to pick up one.

Now, I’m sorta dreading the call back to Customer Relations, because of a fear that it won’t be available as a Customer Relations upgrade.

I don’t blame the people, they’re just doing their jobs.  But I sorta feel that they could’ve done more in this case, getting my hopes up and all.

So, this is how long standing customers are treated?