Some months ago I wrote an article on this site about the great difference between Rogers Wireless and Telus Mobility customer service.
At the time a rep from Rogers commented on the post. (you can read the comment below the original article)
He apologized for the trouble I was having with Rogers and promised to share the post internally so that they might work through a solution to their customer service issues. Chris the rep, appreciated my comments and did a great job at engaging me via my post.
Skip ahead 3 months to today and guess what? No more word from Chris, nothing even approaching customer service from Rogers.
But wait, it gets a bit better.
Have you heard of Haywire? Haywire is an app that kids with the ipod touch can use to text back and forth with each other for free. However, if a Haywire user texts, I dunno, say 12 year old friend with a regular, let’s call it a Rogers, phone, guess what happens?
The kid with the phone is charged 75ยข/text incoming and outgoing. There is no warning that comes with any of these texts and by the time we realized that she had wracked up a $200 texting tab on her “unlimited texting” plan there was another month of texts.
So I called Rogers.
Of course there was nothing Rogers could do about these charges. “It would be the same with every other company ma’am” was the answer.
How many times have you heard that? “It would be the same with all the other providers”?
What would happen if one company decided that enough is enough? What would happen if one company went above and beyond the bottom line and absorbed the first month of any unexpected charges? (after that it would be the customer’s responsibility to monitor)
What if?
It’s a bold notion. The idea that one company could see the benefit of providing their customers with the kind of customer service that would cement a loyal relationship for years to come. That’s crazy!
Think about how you would feel if you had a bill arrive that was meant to be $40 and was $230. What if you could call your provider and have them take off those charges because they came from a service that no one had heard of previously? Would you be thankful? Would you sing their praises? Would you be loyal?
OF COURSE YOU WOULD!!!
I have heard many other comments about Rogers and their inability to provide value to their customers. Rogers works on the old model of make money at all costs, damn the customer, there’s another one waiting in the wings.
I am still fighting with them about this bill but I’m less annoyed with that than with Chris not following up. If Chris is on the team to engage via social media and blogs then he should have followed up.
Social Media is all about engagement. Talk to your customers, find out what they need/want, be human, be receptive, be reasonable and be smart.
Sorry Rogers, as long as you continue to provide horrible customer service and allow that model to run your social media as well you will be in my FAIL pile along with a few others. I’ll be posting my TOP SOCIAL MEDIA FAILS in the next few days. Watch out for it!
