Customer Relations Bureaucrats

When our ISP sent us a notice that we were going to pay another 5 Simoleans a month I performed due diligence to find a better mousetrap. Well imagine my surprise at discovering that I could knock off $75.00 a month on all my comm needs. I bundled my home phone, 2 cells, Hi-speed internet and UNLIMITED long distance with Aliant for the above savings.
Slave called our ISP to cancel our service and the following letter to Mr. Rogers explains it all.

Dear Mr. Rogers:

I would like inform you about what happened when I called your Customer Service Center on Monday, February 6, 2006 at 16:48 NL standard time.

I requested the cancellation of my High-Speed Internet Service;( the only Rogers service I have) the reason being your competitor in Newfoundland and Labrador was offering a better deal overall, simply put.

Once the customer service representative took my call and after giving her my home telephone number for identification, I made the above request for cancellation. She asked for reasons why and as I started to tell her, she began to constantly interrupt me, sometimes rudely, not just once but several times. Example, I told her that we had received a notice that the internet bill was being raised $5.00. (This was also one of the reasons for cancellation.) When I told her we owned the modem, she interrupted and said that notice of the rate increase were for those customers renting the modem. Another time she interrupted me occurred when I requested the cancellation be effective immediately. She interrupted stating it would take 30 days to take effect, which would mean I would have to wait until March 7 to have the service cancelled.

Several minutes and a slight bit of frustration later, I handed the phone over to my husband, and as soon as he began to speak, she was rude to him as well. My husband checked the back of a prior statement and yes, the 30 day cancellation notice is there, and he made a comment, "Ah, yes the fine print," she then started going on about font size. The woman was most disagreeable and gave the impression that she considered us beneath contempt.

Certainly, this is not the way to win friends and influence people. The way to treat customers is to thank them for their past support and perhaps offer an incentive in case they may someday be in a position to return to Rogers. To use a "GOTCHA!" of an extra months payment is less than honest particularly after several years of faithful on time payments and no hassles even when you screwed up our account on several occasions.

The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I probably can't make much of a dent in Rogers bottom line but you can rest assured I will do all I can and this letter will be posted on my husband's Blog

May I suggest you look at revamping the link between your customer service and public relation departments as it appears that the washed out bridge may be a serious impediment to company productivity.

Sincerely,

Maricarol