Rogers - The Demon Spawn of TelCo's (Part 2)

## If you have never dealt with Roger's, DON'T, if you are with Rogers, GET OUT while you can ##

I didn't think it possible. I mean that, literally and honestly. I didn't think they could or even would try but Rogers has gone and topped themselves earlier this evening. For a shining example of corporate gluttony, bureaucratic ineptitude, flat out greed and a complete lack of customer relations ability, look no further than Rogers.

I got a call earlier today from a Rogers manager who was looking to help me resolve my ongoing BlackBerry issues. The first words out of his mouth after introductions were

"What seems to be the problem with your phone ?"

Well, once more I have to explain it all, this time to Mohamed who I gather is a manager of some sort. He obviously had all the notes from my previous calls infront of him but he wanted me to re-hash everything. At the end of my 5 minute monologue which is basically

"The phone doesn't work, it's under warranty, 6 weeks old, I've lost time, money, data and patience and I want Rogers to make it right..."

I hear him inhale and so it begins.......

Rogers is going to offer me one of two solutions but he highly recommends the second

I request a new phone which will be shipped out to me at a cost of $35.00 but the phone's not actually new, it's a refurbished phone. This is one that belonged to someone else, Rogers/RIM think they've got it working now and are willing to let me have it. Obviously I have to give them my current handset which then goes and get's "refurbished" to get passed off on the next lucky guy. 

OR 

I go to a Rogers store, give them my current, broken handset and a $100 deposit for which they will loan me an older model. Problem is, their "loaner" phone doesn't have the same functionality as my model nor can I use the loaner for 10 days and then transfer all my data back onto my original phone when it gets returned to me from RIM.

First off, why would I want a refurbished phone ? If I bought a brand new car that didn't work, would I really want the dealer to offer me as a replacement some other guy's that wasn't quite working and had just recently been in the shop getting repaired ? Second, why in the hell should I pay Rogers $35 for the "privelage" of having them provide me with a working handset ? It's obvious that the one they sold me isn't working and I have to pay to correct that issue ?

As for the option to hand over my handset and then get a loaner for only $100 deposit.....(inset rolling eyes and confused look here). I don't know about you but I don't have $100 to give Rogers and then have them apply a credit to my account down the road. They don't trust me to return their crappy loaner and demand $100 to make sure I don't walk off with it ? That's insulting.

What's more, their loaner is an older model. By old I don't mean last year's old, I mean OLD. Like Bush era presidency old. This handset doesn't have the memory, speed or features that I've already paid for nor will it run the software that I've already purchased for my existing handheld. To top it all off, any data that I enter on my "loaner" won't be transferable back onto my returned & hopefully repaired phone. So now I've lost my original data, plus any data on the "loaner" phone and I get charged my full monthly fees PLUS $100 for my efforts ?!?

I suggest to the man from Rogers that a simple, easy and quick alternative solution would be for them to simply put a brand new handset on a truck and ship it off to me. Easy as pie..... I get the model and the features that I paid for, Rogers gets the original handset back to use as a "loaner" for the next guy after it's been "refurbished".

But no, this is not permitted. Rogers claims the handset costs them $750 and they've only made a 3% markup on it when they sold the first one to me so they couldn't possibly do that. Honestly, if Rogers is paying $750 for a BlackBerry 9780, RIM is doing better than I thought and Rogers has no business sense when it comes to negotiating what must be a volume contract with RIM.

It's only when I asked for a day to consider my options, evaluate other carriers and also my legal standing with regards to the warranties that he came back with one counter offer after another.

Splitting of the $35 fees for a "refurbished" phone, waiving the fees, loaning me a non-internet phone for a lower deposit etc...etc..etc.. When I mentioned the fact that I paid for, needed and expected an internet ready phone as per my contract he actually claimed that I wasn't entitled to anything beyond the RIM handset warranty and should just accept what he had offered.

The fact that this whole affair has cost me time, money and a great deal of inconvenience he suggested, could be written off as a business expense by me. I should write off the $35 or I should write off the $100 etc. My jaw dropped. He was actually admitting that I had and would continue to incurr expenses and inconvenience but that I should write them off as a business expense ? But Rogers was in no way obligated to compensate me for the issues with the phone & service that I have paid them to provide ?


Once again, Rogers demonstrates that once a company gets large enough, they couldn't give a rat's ass for you as a customer. They will promise you champagne service and deliver you flat ginger-ale. If you have never dealt with Rogers, DON'T, if you, like me are stuck with them, then at your earliest convenience leave. Put plainly, Rogers sucks ass.