It has been a while since I have written a telecom piece, but a recent experience with Rogers has left me with the desire to write an organized rant. Before I begin, I would like to say that all of the Rogers representatives I dealt with on the phone and in person were friendly, understanding, and easy to talk with. Because of this, I never had to raise my voice or get outwardly angry in any way.

The Pre-amble. When my girlfriend and I moved to London, Ontario back in August we signed up with Rogers on a 1-year term with the first three months being free. Yes, I understand that this was possibly the first mistake, but we Canadian’s have to deal with telecommunications term contacts all of the time. We signed up with a a local Rogers representative that acts as a liaison for out apartment building. For the first three months the service was excellent with no downtime and no issues.

The Problem. The local representative had put us on a premium (and unnecessary, for us) Internet plan that could be easily downgraded after the free three months concluded. We were assured by the representative that he would perform this task on our behalf and that we should expect a Rogers technician to come by with new hardware. As it turns out, the representative did no such thing. Countless emails and phone calls to him (Rogers support was reluctant to help us at first because it was a local rep that set up the account) yielded no response. Maybe he is no longer a Rogers employee or maybe he doesn’t like to deal with frustrated customers – I am not sure.

Anyways, after a few reluctant CSR’s I managed to get through to someone that understood our situation and was able to process the downgrades. The only catch was a long wait for a technician, but the CSR took care of that by saying that we could go to a local Rogers Plus to manually exchange the hardware. I was assured that the new hardware would be plug-and-play and should not pose any issues.

The Exchange. The next day I proceeded to go to the local Rogers Plus to carry out the exchange. After a short-wait in line I was greeted by a very friendly young woman that appeared to be relatively new to the exchange process. She took my old hardware to the back and brought up a new cable box, but had a concerned look on her face. I was advised that they were out of modems and that I would have to venture elsewhere. Not the biggest deal in the world, but I would have to venture to the other end of the city to find a store that actually had stock (yes, three stores in city greater than 350 000 people did not have modems in stock). She processed the cable box and gave me back the old modem to take to the new store.

It was at this point that either an experienced employee or manager stopped me and proceeded to give her grief regarding the new cable box as apparently both items needed to be exchanged at the same time. Back to the end of the line it was for me. When it was my turn again, the young woman attempted to return the new box, but the system would not allow her for some reason and after another awkward exchange between the other employee and the young woman I was sharply and indirectly told by the experienced employee that I should have called ahead and gone somewhere that had both items in stock. At this point the girl just gave me back the new cable box, old modem and advised that I go to the other store.

At the next store I  encountered no wait time and was quickly serviced by a very capably employee. He and his fellow worker cracked some jokes about the store I was at before and even went on to show me that they gave me an incompatible (and actually more expensive) cable box by mistake. After less than five minutes I was out of that store with the correct hardware and was again ensured that these items would be plug-and-play.

Plug-and-play. First up, the new cable box! Coax in. Power in. Hooked up to TV. Crystal clear cable! That’s right, no issue here! Now it was time for some delicious Internet. Coax in. Power in. Ethernet connected to laptop (always bypass a router to ensure service is working). Blink. Blink. Blink. No connection. Power cycle. Nothing. Hard-reset. Nothing. Tech-support time!

Tech support. There have been a number of calls to tech support, so let’s break this into individual calls. All of the techs I spoke with were super-friendly and understanding, so I won’t repeat that for each call. Also, I must say that I was only had to wait for a tech once (maybe 5 minutes) and was pleasantly surprised how how easy the Rogers automated system performed.

First call. Explained that I just received a new modem, plugged it in, and had no service. Tech performed the usual tests to ensure I had it hooked up correctly and he seemed to be impressed that I had all of the information (MAC, S/N, etc.) ready for quick communication. I was advised that the router was not properly provisioned (this will come up again…and…again…) so replication might take up to 24 hours, but usually occurs within a few hours.

Second call. After resetting the modem ever couple of hours with no luck I decided to call back (this was approximately 24 hours after the first call). This tech advised that improperly provisioned modems take 24 to 48 hours to replicate and that the previous tech was incorrect. I was advised that someone would call me when the issue was fixed so that I wouldn’t have to bother resetting the modem all day and night. Not happy, but my iPhone tethering had been tying me over and could do so for another 24 hours.

Third call. This was a quick one after 48 hours in hopes of ensuring my ticket would still be worked on. This tech was very apologetic but said that no work had been done yet. With the next day being Sunday I wasn’t overly concerned about a further delay as the cable was flowing with some football. At the conclusion of this call the tech advised that when the issue is resolved I should call billing and try to get a refund on the days without service. I had previously assumed I would be refunded for the time as well as credited for the inconvenience, but no, I would have to fight for credit.

Fourth call. 72 hours with no call and no connection. As a web-designer, gamer and online rental addict my tethering was quite limiting so my patience was wearing thin. Called again with a short wait before being connected with an amazing tech. He took the time to dig deep in hopes of seeing what was going on. As it turned out, my support ticket was still open, but the provisioning guys (I really don’t know who does what) had my ticket closed the day before because they saw no issues. Clearly this wasn’t true and I never received a call. At the conclusion of this call the tech took my number again and said that this time a tech would call WHILE they are performing the work on my modem.

Fifth call. With a new work-week starting I could no longer deal with tether speeds and bandwidth limitations. I called back to see if any progress had been made and if not ask for a technician to come by as soon as possible. Another great tech that dug into the previous tickets and provisioning issues to see that the ticket from before had ALSO been closed and that there were no issues with my modem. No call. No Internet. With this tech I was a little firmer with wanting service today as a new week was starting and the wait was starting to get ridiculous. This tech was very understanding and put me on hold a few times to find out what time a tech could get here. As it turns out the wait is more than two days, but my issue would be put in priority and a tech could show up anytime within the next day or two. At this point I asked if the modem could be faulty and asked if I could take it back and exchange it at the same store. The tech said that could be the best option as most likely the modem was DOA. Before the call ended the tech kindly provided the phone numbers of three local Rogers Plus locations where I could exchange the modem.

After the last call I proceeded to call these local stores to ensure a modem was in stock (as I ran into this problem before). As it turns out, none of the stores currently have stock. As I sat here pondering what to do I finally got an automated call from Rogers saying that my Internet issue had been fixed and that service was confirmed. Like a giddy child I quickly reset the modem in hopes of a solid cable light, but alas…blinking. No service. No Internet.

I have had a few piecemeal conversations with Rogers representatives on Twitter, but 140 characters is quite limiting. I will send them links to this post in hopes of receiving some sort of customer satisfaction, but my hopes are quite diminished. I have confirmed with billing that I can buy-out my current contract, but is the grass really greener on the other side? I will give Rogers the opportunity to make things right and sincerely hope they can do so.

I’ll keep you updated on what happens.

UPDATE: RogersElise has been in contact with me. Nice to see a responsive social media rep.

UPDATE #2: A Rogers technician came by today and after wanting to rewire the apartment I said that I thought it might just be a faulty modem. Somewhat reluctantly he replaced the modem and Internet access was back! As it turns out he did not have the correct information regarding the issue, so I am glad I was home to work through it.

UPDATE #3: I received a call from the Office of the President this evening (Rogers escalated customer service) by an extremely polite and discussion-oriented individual. We talked about what happened and a very apologetic Rogers representative offered to credit my account for the inconvenience.

While not having Internet access for almost five days is frustrating for someone working on the Web nearly 12 hours per day including weekends, all of the Rogers representatives were friendly and understanding of my situation. The issue seems to have been miscommunication on the technical side as none of the tickets submitted by those reps I spoke with were handled with care. Despite these issues I am quite happy with how Rogers made things right – by openly communicating the failures that occurred and offering incentive (nothing major, but that is besides the point) to remain a Rogers customer.