Rogers Wireless has developed a very poor reputation for customer service in Canada, where it is the largest wireless provider. They have also gained an unfortunate reputation for prices that are higher than the competition: competition that they have tried to keep as far away as possible with quite aggressive lobbying against wireless expansion.
I currently have a couple of grumbles against Rogers which have not yet been sorted out. One is the exact opposite of that experienced by Ms. Gabriella Nagy from Toronto. Her wireless account with Rogers was in her own name, her maiden name. The family cable TV supplier was also Rogers, and that account was in her husband’s name. No problem so far.
Unfortunately, Rogers decided (and how is unclear) that the wireless account and the cable TV account should be billed together when the husband decided to add home telephone and ADSL service to the cable TV account. There was probably a customer service bonus involved, allowing the company to get closer to that magic bundled package that makes the consumer very nervous about making any changes at all – for fear of losing all the services, with discounts, when you try to change even one of their services.
It would probably have been reasonable for Rogers to assume that husband and wife talked to one another about their joint telecommunications needs. But the company only made an assumption about their relationship based on the use of a common address.
Oops…
Rogers was not to know that Ms. Nagy was having an extramarital affair. The husband also didn’t know – until he started to see her wireless phone bills. A particular number caught his attention, particularly as the calls to that number totaled many hours in duration during every billing cycle.
Checking for infidelity on a telephone service is a fairly well-documented practice, but being handed the evidence on a plate is probably not.
The husband left the marital household and she subsequently lost her CAD $100,000 a year job, she has claimed, because of her tears at work. She is now suing Rogers for CAD $600,000 over their billing practices, claiming that they released personal information about her (and how personal can you get?)
Rogers claims that a customer service agent was told, when the extra services were being added, that the wireless account could be bundled with the others. If the husband actually said that, then he obviously had no right to do so; and the probability that the wife would wilingly expose her peccadilloes in that manner is extremely slim.
Whichever way it went down, Rogers is potentially going to be held liable. How the CAD $600,000 damages can be justified is a little more difficult to imagine, although it is claimed in terms of loss of earnings rather than anything emotional.
My main problem with Rogers is exactly the opposite of this. I have been unable to get them to combine two different wireless accounts, both in my name, which were requested as one. Having had, also, problems with prepaid billing details, it has rapidly become a mess.
After two days out of town I returned to find a dunning letter from Rogers. Dated six days ago, it gives me five days to pay one of my accounts before they suspend service. OK. I’m just about to get really mad and give them their required thirty days notice to cancel service completely. No doubt they will try to hit me with a penalty of some kind, and my daughter will be really mad with me about having to change out her iPhone. But, you know, I have the benefit of Editorials to vent my anger. And I’m sure Bell or Telus will welcome my account with a smile.
