BEWARE of Rogers family plan and need advice

[Marlene_the_bean]

Hello all, I just wanted to vent and share my experience and ask for some advice on what to say when I speak to management.

My husband and I have been with Rogers for 8 years. We use to have a home phone with them and a cell phone (my DH cell).
We decided it was time to change the home phone to another cell phone and keep the exsisting phone my husband has.

Recently my husbands phone stopped working (touch screen went). I called Rogers and asked if I could use the key pad to retreive his full text msg, and was advised to take the battery out and put it back in. I did so, then asked what does the phone say? I said text msg FULL. This is why I am calling, and explained the issue again (im thinking in my mind take the battery out? are u dumb?) He then says, oh sorry no can't do anything. So I asked what could be done. They advised me my DH has 2 more years left on his contract before he could get a full free phone. I asked why 2 more years as the contract was bought in 2009 (suppose to be 3 yr contract). They advised me, since we changed to the family plan they added another year to the contract. I was also advised if I want to update his phone I would need to update mine (mine is 1 year old) I asked why? I was told because a family plan everything is done together, meaning if he gets a new phone I get a new phone. So I said, well he would have to pay for the new phone but I would have to pay more??? Because I still have 2 years left on it. If I do not update my phone I would have to wait another 3 years when my DH contract was up for a new phone. I asked since we are sharing everything on the plan why do I have to pay more for an upgradE? is it only beneficial for rogers when it works in their favor? but when it works in mine, I'm screwed? Or if I am sharing a plan, why am I not sharing long distance or vm? I asked why I wasn't told this before. (sorry moved on to another rep at this point) She told me I should have read the terms (but I do not see the terms on line as she directed me to their website) If I just want to change to at 10$ phone for my husband It would extend our contract for another 6 months and push us back. This was hard to get this info out of the rep as she failed to inform me of that part. Here I am thinking oh, 10$ crappy phone done. Until I asked what it does to my account. Then she tells me (SNEAKY)

On top of that, my Iphone has been dropping calls like mad.
Eveerytime I call rogers they have a hard time finding my account because it use to be a home phone but is now a cell phone. When I asked to speak to teir 2 about my issue, I was advised they had to fix the issue with my account showing cancelled that could take 72 hrs before they can send me to tier 2.
I said every single person I have previously spoken to knows about the issue about the account, BUT not one person said to have it fixed until now when I need to be moved up. She said, well you just changed to a cell phone. I said NO it has been like this for 3 YEARS!!!!!! she then said, I don't know why this was not fixed. I then said I am going right to management. I said my cell phone is my only phone and I have a father who is very old, if something were to happen to him and he can't reach me because my phone keeps dropping calls this is very bad. The other day, my phone wasn't working for hrs, no one could get a hold of me.
So when I asked for management, I was told they were closed and to call back tomorrow. So, I wanted to share this with everyone to be careful with the family plan as basically I am screwed!!!!

But also what would you do? Please no negativity, I'm already peev'd about this already and my blood pressure is at its max.
Thanks

[matchstix]

I'm not sure what to say to that, other than rogers is stupid. The last time I tried to call about an issue I was transfered, told one thing by one person, transferred, told something different then I just hung up.

I wish there was another solution. I dont see how buying a $10 phone extends your contract?

[tootsan]

if they extended your contract, you have to be advised and accept those terms, all this should be noted on the account, if you have not accepted those terms, you may request for this to be escalated and have them listen to the conversation from that day, if they can prove you have not been advised of this or have not accepted those terms, they will fix things for you.... i would suggest the fastest way to get this escalated, is to go on rogers.com and write an email, they will forward your concerns to the right department that will help you....

[FrugalNotCheap75]

We have the family plan for my oldest DD and myself, I was told that she could change her phone at a later time , nothing was mentioned about me having to change mine as well. I would call back and speak to someone else about that just to make sure. And I'm going to have to agree with you on how FRUSTRATINGLY slow they are on correcting account information. Everytime we've had a problem and we've had to call back we have had to go through the issue again, explain what happened only to be told they're putting a note in the system, well thanks buddy but unless you're going to be stapling that note to the forhead of someone that can fix it, that doesn't help me at all

[awalkman]

Whenever you buy something from Rogers, like upgrade a phone, they renew your contract. They hide everything in the fine print, which no one reads (anyone see the iPad South Park episode? lol)

Just a note about Rogers cell phones, unless you're planning on getting an iPhone or don't care much about how up-to-date your device is, don't be fooled by the marketing. Rogers competitors offer much better, up-to-date devices. I wish I knew this before I got this piece of crap which Rogers discontinued immediately after I got it.

[Tantum]

We've had our issues with Rogers too. We did have our internet, tv, cell & home phones thru them, and just found that when we tried to complain about our service (our house seemed to be a "dead" zone, meaning we couldn't use our cell phones OR a cordless phone) we just got hassle after hassle. DH finally had enough and cancelled all oour services with them, and switched it all to Aliant.

Fast forward 3 months, and even though they were told to cancel everything they were still trying to charge us full price for all our services!!

Now we're in collections because obviously we refuse to pay for service we didn't receive / use / want.. and it's just a big huge hassle. He's fighting with the collection agency, its going to look bad on our credit...what a PITA!! And no we didn't have a contract... well we did for our cell phones only and we were in the last 2 months for them, so even going by a cancelation fee or even charging us full price on whats left of the cell phone plans, it only comes to about $250...not the over 1600 rogers is claiming.

Funniest thing, we still get calls from the Rogers telemarketers offering us great deals to come back to Rogers, and they just can't seem to understand why I say no friggin way (I'm not that polite tho)

You couldn't pay me enough to ever return to Rogers.

I also heard a rumor that Rogers has applied to be a financial institution recently as well.

[mulock]

Rogers....no thanks.

[Marlene_the_bean]

We have the family plan for my oldest DD and myself, I was told that she could change her phone at a later time , nothing was mentioned about me having to change mine as well. I would call back and speak to someone else about that just to make sure. And I'm going to have to agree with you on how FRUSTRATINGLY slow they are on correcting account information. Everytime we've had a problem and we've had to call back we have had to go through the issue again, explain what happened only to be told they're putting a note in the system, well thanks buddy but unless you're going to be stapling that note to the forhead of someone that can fix it, that doesn't help me at all

That's just it....there was no mention I needed to upgrade my phone. UNTIL I asked what were the pro's and con's of upgrading the phone for my husband as his does not work. That is when she said, well the family plan does have its bad and good. Then said about the bad, how if you upgrades, I don't need to, BUT I will not be able to upgrade free of charge for another 3 years as my phone would be considered starting back at day one. (Not sure if that makes sense) So She said to me, really the best option would be to upgrade with him, or I would be screwed.

Also, I explained to the lady I did not sign a contract allowing my phone to be extended for another year. She then explained that when ppl hear they can upgrade they're like ohhhh new phone, but don't think about the negatives about it. Which this was one of them. She said, it's up to the customer to read everything! And referred me to their website. However I cannot find the info.

Thanks for all the help. I'm worked up again, and about to call their management dept.