Comments on: Rogers Wireless iPhone 3G = FAIL

By: J.Sharp

J.Sharp — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:58:53 +0000

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.

By: karenv

karenv — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:33:26 +0000

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?

By: Matt Murphy

Matt Murphy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:26:36 +0000

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.

By: Matt Murphy

Matt Murphy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:10:29 +0000

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

By: Terry Levine

Terry Levine — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:39:54 +0000

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.

By: Marco Orcullo

Marco Orcullo — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:41:34 +0000

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.

By: Simon Kan

Simon Kan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:03:03 +0000

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.

By: Elaan

Elaan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:29:18 +0000

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!

By: Patrick Gibson

Patrick Gibson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:34:25 +0000

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.

By: Shawn MacIntyre

Shawn MacIntyre — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:38:20 +0000

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.