They are head-and-shoulders above Bell Canada when it comes to customer support, but that's not saying anything at all, really. And I didn't know they've started a campaign of calling people to "remind" them to pay their bill before it's due. Gross.

What I hate is when Bell or Rogers calls up their customers on a regular basis to try to get them to add services on. I always ask them to take my name off their list of people they call for this reason. The only reason I want to hear from them is if there is a problem with my service, or I call them first and wish to receive a return call. Period.

The neo-con propaganda always goes on endlessly about how wonderful it is to have business leaders in government and how wonderful and efficient business operates as compared to government.

Bastards once sent my cable account to a collection agency about a week before the day I specifically told the Rogers rep, over the phone, that I would come into a Rogers payment center and pay my bill.

So, timeline - I get the call, I say I will pay the whole shot in three weeks' time when I get my money. They say OK. Two weeks after that, the account goes to collections and I get a lovecall from them around that time. A week later, I go to the cable center as promised and pay my bill.

So, Rogers sucks so badly it hurts. I moved recently, and in my old apartment, I had free cable, but in my new one I don't. So I decided to deBell myself (because I hate Bell more than I hate Rogers) and go with Rogers for basic cable, their second-lowest high speed internet, and home phone service.

I moved on June 14th and I booked an appointment with them to install everything that evening between 5-8 p.m. They didn't show up. I called them from a pay phone after waiting around for 3 hours for them, and they said, "Oh, tee hee, we had August 20th down for some reason." I told them, "I told the guy that I HAD to have this stuff hooked up on the day I move - I work from home online and I HAVE to have it available immediately." They told me that they couldn't book another appointment until the Tuesday following. (The 14th was a Thursday, so that would be FIVE DAYS with no phone.)

I was really pissed off, told them this was unacceptable, and they gave me $50 off for my trouble because they really didn't have any appointment available before the Tuesday evening.

Fine. So on Tuesday the 19th, the technician comes by and tells me that he's here to hook up my cable television and internet. I said, "What about my phone?" He says he has no order for phone service, but it's possible that another technician is coming later - sometimes the orders get split between technicians. Fine. He installs my cable and internet. I have a hell of a time trying to install my modem with my laptop and then trying to get my wireless to work because I CAN'T CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR HELP of course. And of course, no one comes by to install my phone.

So I call them the next day and ask what the hell is going on with my phone. They tell me, "We couldn't switch your phone over because your address didn't match the address where the phone is currently hooked up."

I told them, "YES, I KNOW. You told me not to disconnect my phone in my OLD PLACE, and I gave you the ADDRESS OF MY OLD PLACE where it's hooked up. You said if I want to keep my current phone number, I have to leave it hooked up and you'll move the service to my new address." They were all like, ohhhh, I see, well, we'll get it right this time.

I said, "When can you hook my phone up?" He said he didn't have an appointment available until the FOLLOWING MONDAY. I said, "You have to be kidding me. I have to wait another SIX DAYS to get phone service in my home? Did I mention that I have NO PHONE SERVICE at home right now, and I don't own a cell phone? Did I mention that new people are living in my old apartment now, and my phone is still hooked up there? I NEED MY PHONE IMMEDIATELY." He said there was nothing he could do. That was the earliest appointment, Monday, June 25th, in the evening.

Which brings me to tonight! Which is Monday, June 25th! I've been sitting home for three hours, between 5 and 8! I left work an hour early YET AGAIN in order to be here on time for the technician! And the technician DIDN'T SHOW UP AGAIN!

No, they didn't show up. They said that they have me scheduled for July 3rd now (they scheduled me before asking!) because there must have been some problem with Bell releasing my phone number. I could cry. Another EIGHT DAYS without telephone service.

I've decided to change my phone number so they can do it faster. So I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon between 2 and 5 p.m. If they don't show up tomorrow, after I take an afternoon off to be there, I'm going to be mightily peeved.

So my 'moving' story consists of me finding a place 3 blocks away, when I moved out, I took the modem and cable box with me, plugged it into the new place and it works perfectly (it was on the same switch, so no changes needed).

So I do the good thing, call up Rogers and cancel my 'installation' apointment since I'd done it myself. They tell me "we still have to charge you the $150 moving fee" or whatever the charge was. I tell them "No, you don't have to, I've done it for you." 20 mintues later talking to the supervisor - no need to get angry at the low level phone monkey he says "We have costs associated with moving, we have to tranfer your account (which they didn't) and we have to hold your emails (which I never used)"

My response back.

"You have two options now, you can cancel the moving charge, since you did nothing for it, or you can come by today after 5 because your modem and cable box will be sitting out on the front porch once I get home."

He puts me on hold for 5 minutes.

"Yes sir, we'll be able to reverse the charges, thank you"

For your amusement:

Who benefits if I get so pissed off at Rogers being unable to switch my line that I decide, screw it, I'm staying with Bell? Certainly not Rogers.

But hey, I can concede that they're both screw ups.

P.S. I LOVE that site! That's so funny. I should make one for Bell. I hate them both now! I'm totally putting one of those links on my blog.

[ 26 June 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]