Rogers "high" speed internet service provider, Canada - trouble with service

# 30 for January 24, 2002

Complaints.com received the following e-message on January 23, 2002:

From: Shawn [Email User]

Rogers "high" speed internet service provider, Canada - trouble with service

Rogers is a "high" speed internet provider here in Canada and my DNS lookups were taking 1minute making surfing almost impossible... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ An open letter To: Mr. John Torrey, Alek Krstajic and Rogers Inc.

As I enter my second week of unusable Internet service, I wish to comment on your company's service, problem reporting procedures and commitment to customer satisfaction. Please consider this Rogers Inc. last chance before I contact Bell regarding their HSE. Initially, while living at a previous address, my service was usually available on a consistent basis. After moving to my current address multiple issues and problems have occured. To get the service working at this address, in September, it took no less than 10 phone calls to the customer service/technical support departments. Twice, my problem tickets were closed without resolving the issue and without informing myself. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. Industry protocol dictates that no ticket be closed until the user is contacted and/or the service is verified to be available. Feel free to review the problem tickets for 905-813-xxxx for the month of September, 2001. Regarding the email "conversion", multiple phone calls were made to customer service due to this issue. After having one agent say "They are working on the server, it should be working tomorrow", I patiently waited and tried the next day and again the service did not work.

I again waited through very long hold times to report the same problem. After describing the issue to the agent, the agent then asked if I had a LanCity modem. I replied that in fact I did. She then indicated the posted settings on Rogers website and transition video were incorrect.

Once she provided the correct information, the service was working. I find it inconceivable that once Rogers Inc. determined there was an issue with these modems, they had time to inform the agents but not update the website with the information. This is also unacceptable. Shortly after that, my wife received an unsolicited automated phone call from Rogers regarding email conversion. As Rogers was aware that my conversion had been completed (a helpdesk operator indicated that I had successfully converted after viewing my account information before the automated phone call).

I cannot fathom why Rogers would call everyone when they had the information available regarding who had converted. I regard this unnecessary invasion of privacy to be unacceptable. This week, another issue came up regarding the changes made to the smtp server. I phoned on Tuesday, January 15th, initially regarding the ability to send emails, as I was unable to do so. The agent indicated there was work being completed on the server and if the changes listed on the website had been completed it should work the next day. (They had.) I also reported the problem I am currently experiencing and was assured I would receive a call back the next day "in the evening". No call was received. I then called back on Wednesday, waited through a very long queue, and spoke with an agent about the two problems I was experiencing. Regarding the inability to send, the agent asked if I was using a Mac, I said yes, and then the agent indicated that the AT rogers.com must be removed from the Account field.

I again could not believe that Rogers had informed its agents of an issue and not updated the website in a timely manner, forcing its customers to sit through excruiatingly long queues to fix an error caused by Rogers. It had been necessary to add the AT rogers.com during the initial conversion process to get email to work, contrary to the website. I then started to discuss my current issue. This issue should be documented in your problem management system under ticket #3940608. Please reveiw this ticket before proceeding. This ticket was created Wednesday, Jan 16. The agent who took the call assured me that he would personally call back the next day, as turnaround on these type of network issues is usually under 4 hours. I provided my work telephone number for purposes of call back. Again, no call back was received and I was forced to sit through the queue just to get an update on the ticket.

After unnecessarily going through the same basic troubleshooting techniques as the first call, the new agent determined that yes, there was a serious Rogers problem (even he could not ping the DNS that the DHCP server was providing to my machine.)

He indicated the 3940608 was still in "new" status, which he claimed meant no one had even opened the ticket. I found it astounding that a serious network problem could be logged and not investigated for 24 hours. As he was not receiving the same error as the agent on Wednesday (which was a "source quench" error), he decided to open a new ticket. That ticket number is 3945301/WSR889650. As the problem is still occuring as of Friday night (tonight), I sat through another queue to get an update. The agent indicated the ticket was now in "open" state, indicating that the "network group" had acknowledged the problem. As no updates were in the ticket, I can not assume anyone is actively investigating the problem. As presumably the router/network device with the problem is not dedicated to myself, many customers are experiencing this issue, and mostly likely gave up after recieving busy signals on the "2" option on your help 1-888 line.

As the call had been received successfully by Rogers, a busy signal after that would indicate a misconfiguration of your ACD system. This should also be addressed. Regarding the phone system at Rogers, why do you have to confirm your telephone number if the agent is just going to ask you for the same information once the call is presented? As no update was in the ticket regarding a problem reported about 72 hours previously, I requested the issue be escalated. The agent indicated that an email to yourself, Mr. Torrey, was appropriate. He also indicated that an update may not be recieved for another 48 hours. This is unacceptable. According to the Rogers transition website, maintenance was completed in Mississauga last Friday, which is where I reside and that is the day the problem started. I have had unusable internet service for over a week, with

*no* indication that the issue is being actively investigated. Again, Mr. Torrey, the ball is in your court. Should you fail to respond to this email in a timely fashion (end of business day next Tuesday), address the above documented issues and WSR889650 is not resolved or at the very least actively being investigated, with regular updates in the ticket, you will lose a customer. Shawn

905-813-xxxx

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Their *** and useless reponse: Dear Shawn, We apologize for the delay in responding to your email. We are currently receiving higher email volume than normal, and are attempting to answer all email as quickly as possible in the order they arrive. As our intention is to always improve the level of service we provide, we would like to thank-you for the documentation of the events that have transpired during your contact with our company. Your email has been forwarded to management for their review.

By reviewing your email and the details of your account we hope that we can identify areas for future improvement. We again thank-you for the information you have provided and apologize for any inconvenience that you may have experienced. If you have any further questions or comments regarding our service, please contact us by phone at 1-888-288-HOME, or fill out the online form on our Customer Support page listed below. Sincerely,

Lucy C. Rogers AT Home

Electronic Support Group Conversion Site: http://www.rogershelp.com Customer Support: http://rogers.home.com/help

Email: Email User

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