I had been with Rogers as a customer for many years. I was one of those people who signed up, and just stuck with the contract; I didn't move, I didn't shop around for something new, I was satisfied with the service provided (the actual delivery of internet), and couldn't be bothered.
Until recently, I had to reach out to them via the phone to cancel my services with them as I was moving. At the same time, I signed up for more Rogers internet with a very nice sales person in reality (Surprise right? When you're purchasing a product in person, they are readily reachable and can offer you all kinds of perks. But you can't cancel services with the person you sold you the services).
So I called last Tuesday afternoon; and as soon as I was connected, they informed me the wait time will be about an hour; and that I can receive a call back. Oh, okay, fine. I signed up for the call back. - Nothing.
Wednesday afternoon: Try again, this time, I waited. I allotted a good 30 minutes to Rogers because I have other things to do with my time after work. I had to hang up.
Thursday mid-noon: (Because, hey, maybe it's my fault to call during normal, expected, tracked, peak times right?) Another hour of wait. Wow.
I tried again Saturday, and Sunday; both with abhorrently long wait times.I don't have hours of weekend free time for Rogers; especially since I had already been robbed of hours of my free time prior to this.
So, my most recent, and only successful attempt: TUESDAY, MORNING, 08:04 AM EST time. -- Yes, I timed it to be 4 minutes AFTER their "cancelation department" will start their shift. The automated machine finally told me the wait time would be 1 to 2 minutes, because it is a TUESDAY MORNING AT 08:04 AM. The LEAST busy possible time I can imagine.
15 minutes. I still waited 15 minutes.
It may sound petty that I am complaining about the 15 minutes of wait time. But please, recall all the other hours that I had invested into this company. But please, it is a TUESDAY MORNING at 08:04 AM.
So, in anger, I cancelled both services; the one I had for years (65$ just home internet), and the one I recently signed up for (115$ a month! cable + internet). -- The agent didn't even sound sorry that I was leaving, which I understood, because even they know Rogers is a smelly piece of foul bodily discharges. Who will take your money with mediocre deals, and your time and energy (like pulling tooth) when you reach out to them.
Then I wrote an email to their customer service department, explaining all of the above -- Hey, this time they did reply within the same business day! -- Their explanation is as follows:
"I am sorry to hear that you had some trouble with hold times recently.
We have been busier than usual and I can certainly understand the
frustration. We do actually do all of the things you suggested in your
email; recently, we have had more calls than expected and there are
always concerns with agents not arriving when expected. These issues
combine to make it extremely difficult to accurately predict the needed
numbers of agents."
This is what it sounds like to me:
1. We are a multimillion dollar corporation, but we are busier than we thought? (I hope you'll stop being busy.)
2. We treat our staff like how we treat our customers (bodily discharge), therefore, our staffing levels are consistently low, with talent retention problems, even on multiple, nice, May weekdays + weekends, they still don't go into work in droves!
3. It is "extremely difficult" to predict the needed number of agents, because you can NEVER have "TOO MANY" agents, because the idea of not over working your staff, so that they can service customers in a timely and professional manner, is very, very difficult, for a corporation that's been operational for many decades.
4. They do not track their peak operational times/staffing levels properly (I swear, data analysis is a very real industry, please use their services), and therefore, consistently make poor estimates, and hey; they enjoy robbing hours of your time; whether or not you are a loyal/current/potential customer.
I do have very good news to share though; One of their competitors, whose name start with a V, who is a subsidiary company of a company that starts with a B, offers fantastic, FIBRE OPTICS, internet services in the Southern Ontario region. How do I know? I cannot be happier about: NO ACTIVATION FEES, NO MODEM FEES, NO CONTRACT for 30$ A MONTH. Here's the best part: UNLIMITED usage. And can it get even better? YES. At 50mbps download speeds.
So, Rogers, enabled me to shop around! And I found something that's overwhelmingly better, significantly better service interaction; and just, wow, it IS possible for Internet Service providers to treat customers like, customers!
P.S.: The V company? I contacted them via phone, I talked to a live agent, on a Tuesday afternoon, within 10 minutes of being on hold. The FIRST and ONLY call I had to make to them. read more