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!
Well I have to thank you for this post. I am sitting with both my Rogers bill and my daughters phone in front of me. The phone bill has a whopping 378 out going text messages to several places in the U.S. I talked to 5 different people at Rogers and they said their was really nothing they could do. I called on my home phone the numbers that were texted and several are for HeyWire. The app that my daughter used was called “Liveprofile”. I don’t know what to do, I don’t want to pay $256 for these texts but I’m stuck. I’m worried there will be more charges even though I have now deleted all the “texting apps” on the phone.
Hi Jeanette. I would get in touch with Chris from Rogers customer service. chris.clarke@rci.rogers.com and explain that you saw my post and found that I was able to get some satisfaction from Rogers Escalated Support. Please come back and comment to let everyone know how things went. I’m super keen to find out! I am sorry you found my post after you were charged. I was very distressed by this as well but maybe if there are enough of us complaining, they will change their policy and publicize this issue a bit better. Good luck!!!
I am on the phone yet again with Rogers and was just told because these text messages were sent from our phone they will not do anything about it. Basically told me to keep an eye on my daughter and I should of taught her to be safer online.
The same thing happened to my child and we got charged 64.75 dollars for 256 outgoing and incoming texts. I feel as if Rogers does not support me. It seems like they profit from their customers exposure to heywire’s antics. I am disgusted by their business practices.
Well rogers is still doing the same thing its been over 1 year and they cant figure it out. Telus and Fido do not charge for the texts I can tell its very sad that rogers is so far behind. beware they will not do anything for you.
Sad
Soon not to be a rogers customer
Omg, it is now Dec 5 2012, a year after the last post and guess what, I have a bill in front of me for $267, bill is usually $25 a month. In my case, it was not my daughter that downloaded the app, but a friend who lives around the corner. So from what I am told from the Rogers Rep, my daughter texts her friend the message goes to the US and then bounces back to Canada and my daughter gets charged, 822 times in four days. I have no proof of this, as they can not send me a detailed paper trail and there is no history of these numbers on my daughters phone. I too talked to a manager who told me that it was totally our fault, maybe we shouldn’t give our 14 year old a cell phone without supervision. So I ask them how I avoid this in the future and they said it is not their problem. I found out that they do get a fee for the long distance text charge! So Chris can you help me too? Total scam and I will not pay this bill, I am still patiently waiting for someone to get back to me…