My grumbles with Rogers...

[Colin McGregor]

This is the letter I dropped off at Rogers head office
this morning... Yes, I am annoyed with them... 

This afternoon a Rogers Technician found that
squirrels had attacked the cable where it left the
left the utility pole, and the cable from house to
utility pole was replaced... Who knows if that will
actually fix the problem... I do know it has come time
to move on from Rogers...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

151 Roehampton Ave.
Toronto, Ontario
M4P 1P9

March 4th, 2008




Ted Rogers
President and CEO
Rogers Communications
333 Bloor Street East
Toronto, Ontatio
M4W 1G9

Dear Ted Rogers,

This letter is to share my great and profound
frustration with the sort of high speed Internet
service I have received from your firm since November
2007. I have served on the board of the Toronto
Free-Net, so I am very grateful for the assistance
your firm offered the Toronto Free-Net over the years,
and it is that gratitude that has kept me as a Roger's
high speed Internet client over the last few months,
but even that has limits.

In November my Internet connection went down and with
only brief interruptions stayed down for two weeks.
Since November my Internet connection has alternated
between being down and typically running at speeds
that have made me wistful for the days I had a dial-up
connection into the Toronto Free-Net. 

I have spent a great deal of time talking to Rogers
technical support which has been memorable for the
wrong reasons. One support person suggested the
problem was my home router, and that replacing that
would likely solve the problem. A replacement changed
nothing. A different support person told me he was
unable to help because I was running Linux at home. A
purchase of a used Macintosh, that I had been told was
supported, taught me that your Macintosh support is
almost as non-existant as your Linux support. Yet
another support person told me to exchange my cable
modem at the nearest Rogers store, which also changed
nothing. A fourth support person told me that I didn't
know anything about computers since I was not running
Microsoft Windows, a comment that left me speechless.
I would be happy to compare your support department's
output the technical articles against the articles of
mine that have been published in “Linux
Journal”, “Free Software Magazine”,
“Linux Format”, “Linux Pro
Magazine” and “Tux Magazine” among
other publications. Along the way in talking to Rogers
technical support has become something I have come to
dread.

Among the technicians that come to my home, I have had
technicians who have refused to anything when they saw
there was a connection, if a slow one available at the
time they arrived. One technician refused to look at
the cable because there was snow on the ground. All of
the waits for technicians have become a severe
annoyance and a waste of time.

In talking to your billing department I was given a
$50 credit for the aggravation the lack of service has
caused, but it was made clear that was a one time
credit that would not be repeated. This does not come
close cover the consulting work I have lost through
not having a reliable Internet service provider. In
the wake of late submitted projects, it also does not
cover the aggravation of having to apologize for my
choice in an ISPs.

So, where does that leave me? Well, the quality of
service I have received has forced me to reevaluate
all aspects of the services I have received from
Rogers. This reevaluation has caused me to cancel my
extra cable outlet. An note as to how to set-up a
central in-house server to stream video content over
Ethernet to computers through the house is part of my
most recently submitted article to “Linux
Journal”, to allow others to get rid of extra
cable outlets. I am evaluating which of the ADSL
providers I will use to replace Rogers High Speed,
currently the leading contender costs more than your
service but at least appear to offer reliability and
speed that your firm lacks. I am also evaluating
satellite TV provider options. Finally, in spite of
what I was told earlier I expect a further credit to
my account for the lack of service I have received.




Yours truly,




Colin McGregor

--
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