My experience with Rogers, need advice on what to do now.
 

The following is basically a rant of my frustration.. don't read it if you're just going to "cool story bro"

Events:
1. Call Rogers Friday, talked to a nice guy. He helped me order an iPhone 3gs as a hardware upgrade, even though I had 1.5 months left before I was eligable. After upgrading to a data package he put an iPhone on hold for me until we were done with the transaction. He told me that I would be e-mailed a tracking number and updates etc etc with 3-5 business days before arrival.

2. Tuesday/Wednesday, Wait patiently by the door, because I'm the only adult in the house who can sign for the phone, if nobody is home I have to wait another day (my current cell phone is fucked btw, so i need this asap).

3. Wednesday afternoon, call Rogers to figure out tracking info so I don't have to sit at home all day if my phone won't be here until Friday. Woman on the phone told me that the order had been cancelled and I would not be receiving an Iphone for about a month if anything because they were back ordered. She transfers me to customer service to figure out what I should do.

4.Customer service lady, apologizes many times over and over, but then gives me a couple phone numbers to local rogers stores, she says if one of them has an iPhone in stock, I can go pick it up, no questions asked, just show I.D and put my sim card in.

5.Luckily out of 2 stores, one had a single iPhone 3gs left. So I drive there to pick it up. When I get there I told them the situation and they said thats fine we will just check the account to verify. So when they check out my account, it shows I haven't upgraded hardware, or changed my plan at all. Makes it seem like I'm just trying to get a free phone now...Then they tell me I'm not a primary name on the account (which I have been for 3 months) so a parent would need to be here to sign for the phone anyway.

6. We call Rogers from the Rogers store to see what the hell is going on. Basically the rogers rep on the phone bitched out the rogers store and said yes, the plan was updated, yes the hardware is on there, yes he is a primary member, your computer is just wrong. But, while convincing the girl to hand over the iphone, the Rogers woman on the phone found out that the upgrade was given 1.5 months early by the customer service guy originally, which means you HAVE to have the phone mailed and there is no local pickup available.

7. I am then transfered to another relations rep (while still in rogers) who continues to apologize over and over for all the mistakes and tells me multiple mistakes were made and the information I recieved from two people was incorrect and I now do not get an iPhone. I asked her what could I do because I need a phone. The best she could do was offer a p.o.s phone for $150 (More than I was payign for the iPhone) So I asked her if I could just wait for the 4g (I would use my work phoen as personal for a month) and pay the difference, she said she can't do that I would have to pay full price because I'm not eligable. So i asked her If I could just straight buy the iPhone sitting in front of me for a reasonable price. She told me $699. I just said thanks but no thanks and got off the phone because it wasn't going anywhere.

Now here's where I am, I need to call in to rogers to cancel the $40 data plan (I don't have a smart phone) as well as make sure they take off the cost of the iPhone. Should I just do that and not bitch/complain because I wasn't suppose to get an iPhone in the first place? Or should I threaten to cancel the account after 15 years?

Thanks for reading my rant, really frusterated at the moment....

Update: Turns out they still have lots of 8gb 3gs iPhones in stock ready to be sent out... not sure why the person didn't tell me this was an option on the phone earlier fuuuuuuuuu. Just waiting for their system to back up and I can call and order one :)

Easy solution: tell Rogers to get bent; switch to any of a number of competitors. Bell and Telus both have iPhones now.

This was the original plan, but I don't have authority to cancel the plan, only parents do. I'm waiting to hear back about the 8g instead.

I still have 2+ years left on my term, so I will have to pay quite a bit to cancel correct?

$400 if im not mistaken.

basically, salescentral and the call center POS isnt as linked up as quickly as people think
it happens
and the call center people are just ignorant

Yea i thought it was near that. Well my parents pay the bill, and they won't wanna pay that lol..... I just hope that they can send me an 8gb 3gs instead... (I dunno why the fuck they didn't just offer that in the first place)

by salescentral you mean a rogers store?
and I've talked to about 10 different call centre people, and only 2 of them were understanding/helpful.

You sure about that? Seems Rogers isn't - you must have been close to the end of the term if you were due for a hardware upgrade... now they won't/can't give you the phone you signed up for when you re-upped, but they expect you to stick with that plan? Sounds pretty hinky to me.

Worst case, you don't get any phone... just drop your plan to the lowest, cheapest plan available with call forwarding, and forward the Rogers number to your new provider.

With rogers I get a hardware upgrade every 1 year, even though the contract is three years. So basically everytime I'm down to 2 years left on my contract, I re-sign to 3. I still have 2.5 years left on current term.

Like I said above, things are looking okay now, I'm fine with an 8gb one.

I wouldn't ditch Rogers. There's nothing wrong with the service (that you mentioned), just the customer service. IMO, that's not worth ditching your plan or any tenure (i.e. bargaining power) you've accumulated with them. Having tenure with Rogers can go along way, so long as you speak to the right department about it.

My suggestion, call in and ask to speak to Customer Relations. You may get told that you can't talk to them for xxx reasons. That's ok, some of them are stupid, and will refuse to transfer you to that dept. If that's the case, ask them to transfer you to whoever they can, then ask THAT guy to transfer you to customer relations (it worked for me). When you reach customer relations, explain to them what has gone on, and demand satisfaction. Customer relations has the power to get you discounts on plans/phones that no other dept at Rogers has.

I'm fairly confident that customer relations can get you a discount on your phone and/or your plan, plus maybe some other features that you may not necessarily need/ask for.

I've never had a problem with getting to customer relations, I actually have a direct number for them now lol. The last guy I talked to in customer relations listened and told me it would be fine to send me an 8gb instead(which Im fine with) but they're just waiting for their server to go back up so they can order it.:)

Rogers ppl are fuckung retards I called one time to see if I could get an update for my current iPhone this chicks like oh you can't upgrade bc we changed 1 yr to 2 yrs so then I complainer and asked how come I wasn't told this and she said they did tell me but long story short I told her to screw off took myself to a local Rogers store upgraded to my iPhone instantly no problems. I hate talking to the ppl on the phone there always such bitches except for the last 2 times a called iPhone repair guy and this girl that changed me to the primary owner where super helpful.
Posted via RS Mobile

^If that's the way you talked to them, the Rogers people probably couldn't understand a word you said.

Lol I hate trying to explain things on my phone.
Posted via RS Mobile

call the Relations one more time and tell them that you were treated unfairly with Their Mistakes and that you wasted your time. Stress this point.. and see if they can budge on the cancel fee. or at least give you a free phone or upgrade you to the iPhone4...

thats if you want to but if you think its just a hassle, then just buy a used phone from like CL or on here, Revscene.... and just wait out your contract with rogers and then decide if you still want to stay with them.

honestly, if you are happy with rogers service, then its probably better to stay with them.

When I wanted the 9700 my story was similar to yours sans headaches.
I wasnt eligible for a hardware upgrade for another year or so but I really wanted the new bold, so retentions told me that if I renewed, I could get the bold at a discounted price.
They also said that my retention plan that I was currently on was no longer offered so they worked with me to get me what I had before, with a few extra features but for a few dollars less per month.

I dont see why you couldnt just do that? I'd be pissed if I was you, 2 ppl told you incorrect info, you drove to get the phone and was turned down AGAIN.

I agree with what ferrarienzo said, complain that they wasted YOUR time.
Maybe they'll give you a discounted price on your data or something

I think its really a luck of the draw. Retention department seems to be somewhat better though. After bargaining my phone plan, I had to follow up at least 5 times to make sure my bill was correct.

I can't stand talking to the billing department (they probably deal with jerks all day though) since they never seem to be able to read notes left by the retentions team. I have to explain every detail with the exact time and date when I spoke to the last rep to get anywhere.

final update

8gb iphones were only in stock for the sales dept, retention dept has a different stock and was completely out, theyre offering a new phone of my choice instead as compensation, so I will just trade for an iPhone