I discovered this by accident. I was late in paying my latest Rogers internet bill, and I'd received a phone call to make me aware of it.

I decided to downgrade my internet speed to cut costs, so after speaking to the billing department, I spoke to a customer service rep about changing my net service down to 'ultra light'

I was told that the option was unavailable to the representative, because the account was in arrears. So I asked her what would happen if I couldn't pay my bill at all - she said the service would still be billed to me, even with it shut off for non-payment, in perpetuity until the bill was paid.

Imagine being forced to pay for potentially months of 'services' that you don't receive, simply because you couldn't pay a previous bill.

Entrapment.

[ 07 November 2008: Message edited by: Kevin Laddle ]

I like to call this the advanced "drug dealer" school of selling goods/services.

At the front-end it looks like this: Rogers is introducing a bunch of new channels, one is Deja View from the US. Very bad reruns from the 70s and 80s. It's "free", for now. Until one is "hooked" on Cosby and Roseanne, then one has to pay for it.

They do technically have better reception/coverage in Toronto than Bell, my former service provider, but I'd switch back in a split second, given the opportunity. Can you imagine how totally fucked up an organization has to be to make one nostalgic about Bell Canada?

quote:

---

Unfortunately, I'm tied into a 3 year contract with Rogers, and I'm only halfway through serving my sentence.

---

But when the country would like to attract high tech business, it doesn't serve us well that we are the lowest consumers in the Western World of high tech gadgets because companies like Rogers act like pirates.

quote:

---

Unfortunately, I'm tied into a 3 year contract with Rogers, and I'm only halfway through serving my sentence.

---

quote:

---

They have screwed up my billing repeatedly, and were unable to rectify the situation - so that at one point, they had raised my credit limit to $1000 so that I would no longer have to worry about being disconnected (as they'd done, twice) due to their errors. Totally incompetent, and 4 out of 5 times, obnoxious and rude to boot - they seem to be able to screen out the sensible, sane and sympathetic in their hiring process.

---

In Rogers defence (not that I like defending Rogers), call centers like these have exceedingly high turn over rates. About half of the people you'll talk to are likely fresh from training and not really sure what they're doing. I'd suggest that ThePB probably found one of the many that didn't know what they were doing.

quote:

---

I'm sorry to hear about that, LTJ. I'm a cellular commitment-phobe myself. That's why I'm with Virgin pay-as-you-go. Reception sucks outside major centers, and the cost per call/text is quite high, but it fits my usage, which is low.

---

Me too... You can get monthly rates as well, no contract. After Virgin... You'd be better going off with the big 3's cell companies (Fido, Solo, and Kudoo. Cell phone marketers like ending in o's?) over the big 3 themselves.

N.Beltov:

quote:

---

In a related vein, I recently discontinued my account with a large telephone provider in Manitoba. They charged me for about $40 of service that I did not receive; when they credited it back in the final billing it only came to $30. Apparently, I owe them around $10 for service that I never received. Gangsters never had it so easy.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Polly Brandybuck:
....Hello, you have reached Rogers Wireless Customer Service. We're sorry, all our representatives are busy at the moment, please stay on the line and someone will be with you shortly. Your business is important to us. Estimated wait time is, 47, minutes...

---

Aaaaauggg!! Flashback!!! Why are you so cruel Polly? Hasn't ThePB suffered enough? Haven't we all?

After my most recent move two years ago, I took the morning off work to wait for Bell for phone jack installation and hook up. We're in a walk-up apartment building that doesn't face the front of the street, but our doorbell is very loud. They were supposed to come by noon. At 12:30 I called them (on my cel) and they LIED and said the installer had come, rang the bell, and nobody answered. I said, um, no, I've been here and the doorbell didn't ring. I asked to reschedule for another day and was told no, the installer could come by later that day. I think you know the rest of the story: nobody ever came, and when I called later was told "you were down for a morning appointment".

Fucking hell fuck. I couldn't leave the apartment to do laundry or groceries, and I missed a full day of work. Grrrrr.

quote:

---

Who's working on the cool progressive phone/cable/internet service provider?

---

The second something sends you a bill it becomes powerfully uncool

quote:

---

Fucking hell fuck. I couldn't leave the apartment to do laundry or groceries, and I missed a full day of work. Grrrrr.

---

Hey, send them an invoice, see what happens.

On one level, the anger expressed against the piratical practices of Rogers or Bel seems missplaced, when we look at many of the other past and continuing injustices in this country.

But, on another level, it takes on a symbolism all it's own, and we're right to be pissed off to the max, even if it is over things that in most instances are not the essentials of life or liberty.

Thing is, the lack of consumer protection in this country not only endangers lives it costs lives. And it costs us jobs and is a serious drain on the finances of the nation when we have to clean up the mess.

And it goes beyond lack of consumer protection. Corporations are frequently given a pass on the criminal code, too.

I'd rather we got the torches and pitchforks out over issues like Arar, or Fantino the wire tapper, etc, but if it's over cable bills and cell phones..... hey, as long as we get the toches and pitchforks out, I'm happy.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Noise:

Might change with White Space line of thought, but I'm not sure how that fully works yet.

---

Larry Page in Support of Whitespace?

Just thought I would attach this link above since it helped to insight a continuation on the line of thought.

Maybe your Government will change it's mind as to the money it made by auctioning off the airwaves, to pushing faster on the outcome of connection in rural places.

I will show later on "how all of us can save money" in terms of using this new White Space connection and appropriate software.

Best,

[ 08 November 2008: Message edited by: admin ]

quote:

---

Both Bell and Rogers are fucked. Who's working on the cool progressive phone/cable/internet service provider?

---

I would support good market regulation if the infrastructure was considered a public asset and the services were regulated to ensure the best access to services and features for the benefit of the Canadian public and Canadian industry. But its not. The regulatory system serves to protect the telcos from market competition.

I would argue the market needs to be opened to competition as it is in other countries. We can revisit it after the revolution.

One aspect of the current regulation that really pisses me off is the control of hardware. When you switch service providers, you are expected to also switch phones. Your current, perfectly good, and likely expensive phone becomes fodder for the sock drawer and in the meantime a thousand more lives are lost in the Congo over coltane. It is an absolutely repugnant practice.

[ 08 November 2008: Message edited by: Frustrated Mess ]

Remember the 15 cents on text messaging? The two companies announced the exact same fee at the exact same time.

Price fixing.

quote:

---

Our 2007 study is a comparison of cell phone prices offered by service providers in different 10 cities across Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

Our conclusions? Heavy users in Canada pay, on average 1.5x more than a customer with similar usage, opting for equivalent plans, in the United States.

Other major findings are as follows:

* A heavy cell phone user (he or she who uses approx. 1,200 minutes a month & certain data services) in Canada pays roughly 56% more than the same user in the United States. Average users pay about 33% more than his American counterpart.
* If you are a light user of cell phone services, what we refer to as a ‘survival user’, you pay 27% less per month than the average American. The news for the light user isn’t all good – that same user would pay 42% less if he or she lived in Stockholm.
* If you are a heavy cell phone user and are searching the continent for the best deal, consider moving to Athens, Georgia – there you can sign up for an unlimited North American calling plan for approximately US$95/month – about half the cost of a Canadian plan which doesn’t include the benefit of unlimited long-distance calls.

Canadian wireless penetration rests at 58%, second last in the OECD. It's a full 20 percentage points behind the United States, the country's main trading partner.

Seaboard believes relatively high cell phone prices in Canada suppress demand for wireless services.

---