Last Updated on: 22nd October 2013, 10:33 am
I always knew the folks who worked the phones at Rogers were a bunch of zombies, but this pissed me off more than anything else.
The other day, I got a call from a 1-800 number. I knew it was a telemarketer, but when a new number comes through, I like to pick it up once to see if it’s a business I do deal with, or whether it’s garbage so next time it calls, I know what to do. I picked up the phone, and a voice said “This is Tom from Rogers. You are a valued customer and we want to offer you a $5 discount on your bill. Press 1 to speak to a Rogers advisor.” I pressed 1, and a computerized voice said “Transferring your call.” That gave me a creepy feeling, since there is such a thing as vishing, or phishing over the phone, and some of them use electronic voices to automate the process. I got my defenses up, deciding if they asked me for any personal information, I would just hang up. But a voice then said they were experiencing technical difficulties, and hung up on me.
For a minute, I was relieved, but then I wondered if I had been the victim of some other scam that I didn’t know about. So, I thought the best thing would be to call Rogers and ask them, right? Why not ask the business if such a promotional program was being carried out? Then I would know that in fact I was contacted by Rogers, they are just being sucky as usual and can’t get their phone system to work. It wouldn’t surprise me. Part of me said this was futile, because most Rogers phone drones are lucky if they can carry out basic requests. I didn’t think they could handle something unusual. But what else could I do?
So, I phoned up Rogers and asked for Billing. I didn’t know what else to do. I got a guy who rattled off the usual Rogers greeting, and I asked him my question. I even read him the number off the caller ID and wondered if he could look up that number and see if it was associated with Rogers. He wouldn’t even try! He said I shouldn’t worry about it, but he didn’t know of such a program and didn’t recognize the number. Then, shouldn’t I worry? I asked him to check with someone, and he wouldn’t!
Then, to top it off, he tried to sell me shit. he told me he could give me more than a $5 discount on my bill. He could save me $15. I asked him how, and he told me about this package of TV channels I could get. It was $41, but for the first three months, it would be free for me. I asked him what would happen after that. He said it would go up to its usual price and I could decide whether or not to keep it.
Then I got mad. Not only did he refuse to make sure I hadn’t been scammed, he tried to scam me too! If I wasn’t paying attention, I would have been in for a real surprise four months down the road when my bill spiked and I didn’t know why.
Damn you, Rogers, why do you and Bell have to be so comparable in service options and shitty agents that it’s not worth switching? That kind of shit makes me want to take all my business elsewhere. Why do you bother to ask that stupid question, “Have I resolved the reason for your call today?” I did notice that this dickweed didn’t ask that question at the end. I think he knew the answer was a resounding no.