Customer Abuse
Greetings,
While this is a bit of a personal gripe, it really does apply to IT and on a broader scope... universally.
The player in this complaint is Rogers (A Cable, Phone (Home / Cell), Internet) provider in Canada.
The item is a Rogers PVR (I already have a generic one, but I want one that ties in with all the features of Digital Cable)
So I call up our "Local Rogers Rep" and the conversation goes like this:
Me: Hi, I'd like to add a PVR to my account.
Rep: It'll be $15 to trade in your receiver and $20 to add it extra.
Me: I'll add it.[For those keeping score I just increased my bill by $240 annually before tax]
Rep: Great, you can pick it up at a retail store.
Me: I want it delivered, if I wanted to pick it up, I would have just gone and got one.
Rep: Ok, we'll have it delivered... it's a $60 delivery fee.
Me: Excuse Me?
Rep: It's $60 to have it delivered?
Me: Nevermind then, I'll pass on getting a PVR
Now, I'm not cheap... just the opposite I love to spend money, but if I'm giving a company an extra $240/year don't you think they could deliver the item for free? After all, I'm going to be a customer for more than a year, so they will just keep making more money and all they had to do was deliver a PVR to my door. There are Rogers trucks outside my building *ALL* the time. I'm sure if I go down there right now that I'd find one. This is a great example of squeezing your customers for every last dime you can get out of them. Given that I've been investigating Satellite for quite some time now, I do believe this is the perfect time to make the switch. I'll have to spend the afternoon calling around getting prices from Satellite providers. I'm also not the first person to have this complaint, I've heard the same thing from other people, which is why I find it to be such a travesty.
This is an important note for all the businesses out there... customers won't stand around and let you shake them by their ankles until the change stops falling out. This is customer abuse... plain and simple. As a loyal customer who takes advantage of everything Rogers has to offer, I would think that sending over a PVR (which would take a whole of 5 minutes, as I'm sure all the trucks keep a few handy) would be a great way of saying, thank you for being a customer. It really is that simple.
Rogers has slowly been losing my business... My home phone was with Rogers, they wanted to charge outrageous prices for VoIP so I made the switch to Vonage (much cheaper and better quality). I had a Rogers cell phone, it was 4 years old and I wanted a new one... I was told I'd have to pay full price for a new phone, I went to Telus and said that I had a Rogers phone... they took the Rogers phone, gave me a new phone and a year of free service (on a 3 year contract).... A couple months ago (my contact was almost up) I went into a store and said I wanted a new phone. They got me a great deal on a PocketPC phone without any hassle.
So far, I'd kept my Internet and Cable with Rogers because they provided great service... now I'm not so sure, they are doing the same thing they did with my home and cell phone... They think they are the only game in town and are abusing that power. It's time to stand up against customer abuse by big business.