Have you had problems returning a damaged iPhone to Rogers Wireless? If so, I’d like to hear about it in the comments.
It has been a year since Apple and Rogers Wireless launched the iPhone 3G in Canada. It was that summer, in 2008, I unloaded my first-generation unlocked iPhone for a legit iPhone 3G from Rogers Wireless. One of the benefits of having a carrier-supported iPhone is, of course, supposed to be seamless warranty replacement. Shortly after I got it, my iPhone began dropping calls and failing to dial out on the network. I assumed this to be A) a problem with Rogers’ network, B) a firmware bug in the iPhone itself, or C) a combination of both.
I had heard things about chipset problems afflicting AT&T iPhone customers so I assumed this would be remedied in a soon-to-follow update from Apple. By October of 2008, I had given up. I called Rogers tech support and was walked thru the usual “wipe it clean and pray it’s fixed” procedure and tried it for two more weeks but no joy, so in November I instigated the phone swap process from Rogers. The call was short and sweet and all seemed to be well with a new iPhone winging its way to our house.
On the Friday before my iPhone was to arrive, my SIM suddenly stopped working and my iPhone could not connect to the Rogers network at all. I later found out that this was due to the fact that my phone number had been reprovisioned to a new SIM that was in the box accompanying my iPhone. Odd. It was obviously my iPhone that was broken, not the SIM, and I just couldn’t fathom why they wouldn’t just give me a 1-800 number to call to activate the new SIM when it arrived versus forwarding my phone service to a brown box in the back of a UPS truck, leaving me without my phone service for 3 days. I called Rogers (from my Vonage line) to complain, spent an hour and a half on the phone, and could not get this resolved after bouncing around 3-4 agents.
On the following Tuesday, the replacement iPhone arrived. I tried starting it up, but it wouldn’t boot. It had a substantial hardware problem that led to garbage on the screen and all kinds of other garbage, but in effect the replacement phone was DOA. As I had to go on a business trip that day, I put the new SIM in my old iPhone and left the new iPhone for a week or so before I tried it again, this time putting the replacement thru all kinds of hardware resets and software reloads. I could not resurrect it from the dead despite hours of trying.
So I called Rogers. Again. After two hours bouncing around various agents in various departments, I could not get an agent to take responsibility for my problem, instead each agent dispatched me to another department as I (admittedly) became increasingly irate. One agent accused me of lying, and/or not knowing what I am talking about. Finally I threatened to QUIT Rogers, switch to Telus, and sue them for breach of contract — I was transferred to a magic save department where I met a very nice lady who calmed me down, promised to solve all of my problems, and who would call me the following week which was, now 7 weeks after the Odyssey began, Christmas.
Needless to say, she never did call back. Never solved my problem. Probably got laid off. Might be working for Bell Canada right now, for all I know.
Next I began to receive a torrent of threatening letters demanding that I return my old, somewhat functioning iPhone or I’d be charged $780.   I called Rogers again in January trying to resolve the issue, but to no avail: Rogers Wireless wouldn’t take the badly broken replacement iPhone back without also sending my other one, leaving me phoneless. I gave up after the best I could do was an agent telling me I had to send BOTH iPhones in one shipment to their call centre. Fuming, I waited another few days to call back.
Eventually on my next call, an agent relented: I kept the semi-working iPhone, sent back the badly broken replacement iPhone. I packaged up the replacement phone and sent it back, recording the shipping tracking number from UPS.
Then the predictable happened. They charged $780 to my card. I was furious, but sugar-coated my attitude and called back AGAIN to ask for a refund. After bouncing around to various departments, each complaining about the slowness of their computers, they could not track the whereabouts of the iPhone I had returned, despite the fact that I could even tell them the name of the signing agent who had received the package. I nearly hit the ceiling. I threatened a complaint to the CRTC (which, in fairness, I have every right to do). Finally someone agreed to help me. One quirk: They couldn’t refund the $780.Instead I got a credit — in effect I was loaning Rogers money — against future use. A compromise that irritates me, but was under the circumstances acceptable.
Now it was March. By my logs of various telephone calls to Rogers, I had now spent about 9 hours on the phone with Rogers attempting to address a single issue spanning more than 6 months. I was so exhausted with the process that I accepted the neutrality of being exactly where I was technically, and further behind financially, than when the problems began — with an iPhone that didn’t fully work and with my wallet $780 lighter but an account credit.
It wasn’t until late last month that I mustered the courage to call again and try to get a new replacement iPhone. I had assumed that these processes, immature at the time I first endured them, may have seasoned and smoothened with time and experience. I called again, had a very pleasant half-hour call with an agent, who whisked me a new iPhone 3G toot sweet. As before, my phone service was disconnected for a couple of days after they shipped the replacement phone, but by now Stockholm Syndrome was taking effect and I was becoming numb to the varied mistreatments by my captor.
The very same day the new iPhone 3G arrived, I cracked open the box, dropped in the new SIM, zeroed my old iPhone, and boxed it up for shipping. UPS picked it up that very day, May 28, 2009. I expected to hear nothing of the issue further. According to the UPS tracking data, the package arrived the following week, on June 6th. On June 14th, Rogers sent me a letter threatening to charge me $730.
I cannot fathom that within 8 days, Rogers could not process and acknowledge the receipt of my RMA’d iPhone 3G. I furthermore cannot fathom that when they do overcharge you due to their own error, they cannot refund the excess back to your credit card (which is how I pay for my phone service).
Rogers is a company clearly hampered by its own hugely restricted billing, provisioning, and customer service systems. Ted Rogers, five weeks before his death last year, spoke to an audience marshalled by the local YEO chapter, which I gratefully attended as a guest of Mario from ShowTime Tickets. Two thoughts of Ted’s permeated his frailly-voiced speech that day. He said, of customer service, that “the secret to good customer service is always saying yes” and that his success as CEO was directly tied to the number of layers that existed between him and his customers — the fewer the better.
I know that it’s difficult dealing with the kinds of customers iPhone brings to the table and the scale of operations necessary to support the volume that a device like the iPhone can generate for Rogers. Not easy. But I wonder what Ted would think after reading this story?
I was absolutely stoked to read your piece. And, I may even make myself look like a bit of a fool here, because I am looking to find someone who might spare a bit of their own personal time directing me also in the steps it takes to create a blog. I am of course a complete stranger. Somehow for whatever reason, I stumbled onto your site, and began reading what you had to say……..and from there on in, I thought what the heck, I’ve got nothing to lose by just asking this guy for pointers….. I have been running in circles with Yahoo’s website development and web hosting services, which also included utilizing their own tech people to guide me when I wished to establish my blog. It has been the beginning of my 3rd year using (or at least trying to use this service), but alas, zero success. In fact, there appears to be no known telephone number available, so that I might clear this entire thing up in a matter of hours, is Yahoo all internet exclusivity???…It must be that I am just too old, too far gone to “get it”, which was a written comment posted back to me when I initially attempted the process of setting up the blog, that was to partner with my website……. So, I am ruthlessly impatient at this stage, having had to swallow over 2 decades of utter nonsense from service provider corporations whose stock values have reached the stratosphere (just several seconds of panning the daily TSE.index is enough to understand precisely what motivates every corporate entity)…….And yes, all corporations do in fact have a daily damaging effect on our well being as paying consumers……..This comes from the stress we all feel when our own time is wasted, being strung along on computerized phone systems, whose only purpose is to have the customer eventually give up, WHENEVER any issue we have needs to be dealt with!
A blog which is going to be brutally detailed and one which is about not only Rogers, but Bell, and other corporate giants, that feed daily as a matter of “company policy” on every single struggling individual who happens to need clothing, food, a place to reside, and yes modern day communication equipment! I have been a contributing writer for a Toronto publication which was founded back in the day when politics, policies, public opinion were at their collective peak, and today it seems that facts are regurgitated gossip about people who I care nothing about and who live in such vacuous states of being, that I am almost certain that they couldn’t dress themselves in the morning were it not for their household employees! So if you can take that leap of faith even once for me, I would truly be appreciative more then you could ever know.
This is a little different than what you all are writing about… I’m actually looking for a way to get Rogers iPhone customers to check their bills for wireless time and charges. Ever since I got the 3Gs, they have been over-billing my usage each month. And, each month I have to call and get the charges reversed. This month they billed me for more minutes than there are Lifetime minutes on the phone! I can’t be the only one they’re doing this to! Today, the rep couldn’t even find calls for half the minutes they were billing me for. Something is wrong. They will not supply me with details of the calls. They keep saying they will but they don’t. Would it be the CRTC that I would complain to?
Sorry, my previous post was as per an Apple Technician, I wasn’t suggesting that I am one. But in any case, I went through the same thing, and an Apple Store rep in Calgary educated me on that process.
Just to correct some of the replies here, the charge is being applied on your bill by Apple, not Rogers. When your phone is mailed back to Rogers, it is immediately send to the Apple Facility for verification. They check the phone, and if they deem it customer induced damage or that a restore would have resolved the issue, they will fire a letter to Rogers to push the charge. You can complain to the CRTC is you’d like, but 90% of the people that call into Rogers refuse to properly do the 7-steps to deem it defective, or lie to cover up customer induced damage. Rogers is the middleman when it comes to this, the charges are directly applied at Rogers request as Rogers will not see much of that 750$ much like when you buy something from the iTunes store, Rogers sees nothing of it. If you could view the contract written between Rogers and Apple and you may understand better. The CRTC has jurisdiction when it comes to Rogers, Fido, Bell, and Telus charges, but this is being applied by an American computer company. So before you go on complaining about Rogers charging you for the iPhone, consider that it is Rogers applying it on your bill at Apple’s request, as it is their technicians deeming it unworthy for a swap.
-AppleCare iPhone and iPod Technician
Apple – Cupertino
18880 Homestead
Cupertino, CA 95014
Wow. Now I’m really scared. I have a similar story of atrocious service and I hope it doesn’t get as bad as yours. My iphone, along with my wallet, keys, watch and clothes, were stolen out of my gym locker on June 30, 2009. After cancelling all my credit cards and changing my locks, I discovered that the Rogers Plus store was open on Canada Day, July 1. So I went there first thing at 10 am and was told (a) they were out of stock of the new iPhone — or any iPhone for that matter, and (b) they could not give me a courtesy/temporary phone until they received new ones. Problem is I don’t have a landline anymore so not having a wireless means my only way to contact the outside world is through skype, which is dodgy at best.
Nevertheless, I went home and called Rogers through skype. They confirmed that there were “no iPhones in Canada” — apparently we live in a third world country. And they confirmed that they only hand out courtesy phones when phones are being repaired. I would consider “stolen phone” as sort of “phone being repaired to infinity” but no phone to give me. I was fuming. I asked what are people supposed to do when their phone is stolen? The answer I got: they buy a new phone. My answer: But I WANT to buy a new phone, you just don’t have it available. It was like an Abbott and Costello routine. All I could do is put my name on a waiting list and wait 7 to 21 business days for them to send me a new phone. (As of today, July 4, I have no iPhone. I hope it doesnt take the full 21 days, or longer.)
The next day, July 2, something dawned on me, so I called Rogers back. I wondered: now that I have no phone and they can’t give me a phone, iPhone or otherwise, I hope they would not be charging me for my service for the (up to a) month with a phone. I asked. The answer, predictably I guess, was that yes, they would charge me because that’s the only way they can keep my number and if they cancelled or held it there would be all sorts of penalty fees. Seriously.
Now, I know Rogers isn’t responsible for my iPhone being stolen. (I hope.) But for a company that sends me direct mail telling me what a “valued customer” I am, they have a funny way of showing me my value. Except if by value, they mean the $300 I spend on Rogers services every month and the $30,000 I’ve spent on Rogers services in 13 years. The very least they could have done, the very least, was loan me a cheap piece of shit phone, like a Nokia or a Sanyo until the new phone arrived. What would that have cost them? $20? And they would have avoided creating a customer who now hates their service and policies so much that he will switch to Bell for cable and internet shortly. (I’m stuck with Rogers obviously for wireless because they offer the iphone exclusively — yay monopoly!)
Anyway, that’s my story, as of now. I hope I get my iphone soon. And i hope I never have the problems listed above. God, I hope.
I have read your story and i feel for you. I hope that this does not happen to me. I have a little story to tell though. Some time late May or early June, I called rogers from my fathers phone and asked for help with some problems on my iPhone. After around 30 minutes of useless restarting they asked me to restore my iphone and if that did not work they told me to call back and they gladly replace it. The problem with my iPhone is that it would not turn on. It would stay at the apple logo for around 2-5 minutes and then restart. This problem made it impossible to restore my iphone as it would restart before the restore was finished and sinced it kept restarting it would be disconnected from my computer and therefore could not complete the restoration. So i called back and they said they would send me one in the mail. A couple of days later i recieved my replacement and around 2 days later i placed my old iphone in the gray package and droped it off at my local ups store. 3 weeks later, I get that stupid letter that you got about threating to chard me $750 dollars. I immediately called there 1-800 number because that was the only way i could contact them as my fathers had canceled his phone because his contract was over and he had problems himself with rogers so he decided not to continue it. So back to my phone call to rogers. As i was saying i called there 1-800 number and after pressing a few buttons and 15 minutes on hold i finaly got to speak to someone. I told her about the letter and how i sent it back like 2 days after i got the replacement which worked prefectly fine. She told me she would go check on it. After another few minutes on hold, she tells me that there system is down and she cannot find the tracking number and she cannot tell if they have recieved the package already. She tells me to call ups to see if they can give me the tracking number as i did not have it because i lost it. So after calling the ups 1-800 number i did not get any help at all because all i got to speak to were a bunch of computers and pre recorded voices. So after all that nonsense i decided to go back to the ups store. This was a huge mistake as the lady there said after they ship it they cannot get the tracking number or anything or find it and thats why i was supposed to keep the tracking number. So now its 3 days after i called rogers and i do not know what to do. Im 13 years old and my family isnt rich or anything so we cant pay the 750. So i really dont know what to do. Im pretty f-ed up right now. Yeah thats pretty much it and thanks for letting me share my story.
I also took my iPhone to the Apple Store in Pacific Centre. They didn’t have one available but called me within 3 days to let me know they had it in stock again and replaced it. I feel bad for people that don’t have an Apple store in their city.
Um, that story made me feel sick as I was reading it! What an EPIC FAIL on Rogers’ part. I have an IPhone and now I pray that nothing goes wrong so I don’t have to deal with that mess. I hope that you are happier now, Ian…. sheeeesh!
I would go ahead and file a complaint with the CRTC. I’ve had good luck getting problems resolved with Telus and Fido by getting the CRTC involved. As useless as they are with every other aspect of their mandate, telcos do seem to be frightened by them. Also, not sure if this is the kind of thing for which you can request a chargeback with your credit card company, but another avenue to explore if you haven’t already.
When my iPhone had troubles I just took it to the Apple store in Pacific Centre. 15 minutes later I had a new iPhone at no charge. No problems since.