Comments?
For the basics, see
- Website & Privacy Policies
- How To Get Involved
- The Role of the Park
Search options:
Department Site Map
Custodians:
Printer friendly version
If a pipe bursts in your basement or your roof leaks, where do you turn? Find out your neighbours' favourite fixers, where your neighbours like to go out to eat, who they go to for piano lessons, and more. This list is a compendium of listserv posts from four local lists.
posted January 18, 2007
Rogers Audit?
On Tuesday January 16, Michelle Webb posted an email to the 'Friends of Dufferin Grove' listserve concerning a strange encounter with a man in her back yard. Her account prompted some other stories and comments about Rogers' questionable business practices.
Hi all,
I had an interesting encounter today and wanted to send a quick e-mail about it.
This afternoon I was sitting in my kitchen when I saw a man in my back yard. He came into the alcove on the furthest side of the yard from the gate, rummaged around moving some bicycles, and then turned to leave. I stopped him as he came past the front door and asked him what he was doing. He stated he was from Roger’s Cable (he was wearing a Roger’s hat and badge) and said Roger’s is doing ‘audits’ in the area.
I informed him that I was uncomfortable and upset at him entering my backyard without ringing my doorbell especially since we have not used Roger’s products at this house since we moved in 3 ½ years ago.
My brother is in town and he called Roger’s as it disturbed him as well. I thought it was important to verify that the person was indeed a Roger’s employee to make a formal complaint about him entering my backyard without my permission. Also, if I discovered that Roger’s had no employees in the area I wanted to inform the list-serve of the occurrence in case it was related to petty crime.
I am deeply troubled because Roger’s was unable to verify if this man was a Roger’s employee or not (they said they would get back to me in the next 24 hours). They were not ‘able’ to offer me any phone number in which to follow up on the issue, and because I have no accounts at Roger’s they were unable to make note of my call. Also, the customer service person I spoke to said that “Roger’s employees ‘have’ to be able to do investigations and audits if an area has ‘leakages.’!!!???!!!
I now believe that this WAS a Roger’s employee in my back yard, without my permission. I am upset because it seems by making a choice not to have cable television has somehow opened me up to having strangers enter my backyard to investigate that choice, implying that it is so suspect to not to have cable that I must be stealing it.
By writing this e-mail I am hoping to inform others of the occurrence and also seeking advice on who to approach with complaints about this issue. As I am clearly and proudly not a cable customer, I am guessing any complaints I make will not be heard or taken seriously by Rogers.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Michelle Webb
From Cheryl Hawkes:
This has all been instructive for someone who is mulling over a switch to Rogers for the whole shooting match - phone - internet - cell and so on. Sympatico (internet) recently took all its tech support to India and I spend an inordinate amount of time going over my i.d. number - which I used to rhyme off quickly - b as in Bravo, not victor and so on. I'm very frustrated. But if Rogers has the same idea of "support", maybe I'll stick with the devil I know. :) Cheryl
From Catherine Roberts:
I have had similar problems, but I have found that if you call customer service and complain loudly enough about their shoddy installation services, they will discount the cost of installation from your bill. They have done that twice recently for me, without any problem. Good luck.
Cheers, Catherine Roberts
From Mike Smith:
Sounds like they might be looking for people stealing cable. Not that they're necessarily good at this. At a place I used to live, I came home one day to find the cable out - after two days of the same, I found the cable had been sliced clean. Turns out it was Rogers that did it - even though the bill was fully paid up.
I will no longer use them for internet, for numerous reasons.
.m.
From Adriana D'Arcy:
I don't know if anyone is aware of this, but Rogers enlists the services of outside contractors to do their home technical work.
I recently had Rogers installed and it was done by a computer technician rather than someone from Rogers. Needless to say, it was shoddy work that we had to redo ourselves as we were not getting any of the stations, the cable connection to the TV came off exposing the wire and we had to repair it ourselves as I was told there was a charge for in-house service.
Moreover, when I called Rogers to request installation, I asked which country was responding and they said it was India. Why not Canada? I waited two weeks for a call-back. When I got none, I called again and found their was no indication of the order, nothing was processed, no comments were found on their computer system.
Upon calling Rogers to complain, all I got was an apology with a lot of excuses and a computer tech to do the install.
Adriana
From Cheryl Hawkes
I, also, recently came upon a Rogers guy on a ladder doing something in my breezeway....When I challenged him, he gave me some gobbleygook about changing this or that and I let him proceed, given that my tenant is Rogers customer (I am not). I do feel they are intrusive and unapologetic about bigfooting all over your property and having their way with it.
Earlier in the year, a Rogers service person installed my (new) tenant's service and ended up drilling holes and feeding cable through the strangest places in my basement - We called and they came and sorted it out - but I was shocked that no one (including the new tenant AND the service person) called upstairs (where I was the entire day) to get clearance.
Cheryl
From Charlotte Elder:
Michelle, the same thing happened at our house. I was working from home, and suddenly saw two guys rummaging around our back yard moving items around. They told me they were from Roger's. I told them that I did not like that they just waltzed into my backyard without ringing the bell or trying to inform me. They said they were allowed to do this as there was an entire street that was down. When I looked back outside, I noticed they left huge wires hanging down from the, well, wire post thingie, as well as pieces of wire on my lawn.
Good on you to call--I haven't yet. I've always loathed Roger's, even more so recently as they gave my deaf mother incredibly rude service when she was trying to set my Dad up with cable in his new retirement home in Ottawa. I realize it can be one individual at an organization that can make for a poor experience--I've just never had a good experience dealing with Roger's.
Any suggestions about how best to make noise about this kind of activity would be gladly appreciated as well.
Best regards,
Charlotte Elder
From Gene Threndyle:
Down here on Queen Street West, we've had to deal with car break-ins over Christmas and an arson incident. The car break-ins while annoying ultimately cause little harm and after people have canceled any cards or id's stolen, they often don't report these incidents to the police.
The arson bothered me because the 3 plastic recycling bins (large size) were close enough to my vehicle that they could have set it on fire. My complaint ended up at 14th division. In a brief meeting with 3 constables, it was conveyed to me that all of these incidents should be reported. No matter how seemingly small it is best to let the police know. Maybe your intruder was from Rogers and maybe not. Let the cops figure it out. Better they work on solving these neighbourhood crimes than sit on Lakeshore writing speeding tickets.
Gene Threndyle
From Dave Howard:
Hi everyone - I've worked in the telecom field for some time, (not cable, but closer all the time) and I've learned that when dealing with this kind issue it's always best to go straight to the CRTC and record your complaint, and ask them to take action. The CRTC will often then contact the company you need to deal with, on your behalf, and get the answers or actions taken that you need. Hope this helps,
Dave
From Cynthia French:
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for letting us know of it. Too bad you didn't get a name or some way to identify the guy.
Seems to me that Roger's might need to rethink their business practices. What would prevent them from going to the front door first to ask if they can enter the back yard? (I'm curious what a "leakage" is too).
I would suggest calling again and asking for a supervisor - then keep asking for a supervisor until someone answers your questions properly (with an apology would be a good start). Don't worry about not being a customer - to them, anyone with a home is a POTENTIAL customer.
Might also want to contact the Better Business Bureau, if it turns out that it was a Roger's employee.
Cynthia