Rogers, Fido and Bell call centre workers penalized for reducing plans, offering credits

[saje_ward]

This is why we are staying with Public Mobile news article from cbc. I watch my peers have endless drama, including regular frustrating phone calls, with their post paid carriers. *shudder* 

We came on almost 2 years ago during the fall 2016 promo and once we got it set up we have never looked back. No weird billing, no frustrated phone calls...it. just. works.

I had never tried pre-paid before, but there is something nice about knowing that I wont get any surprise charges on my bill! If I have not paid for a service (say...international roaming) then I wont be able to access those services and I wont be charged for them.

[computergeek541]

I doubt that the tactics discussed surprised anyone.  I've long believed that customer service at cell phone carriers deliberately waste customers' time just in the hope that the customer gets frustrated and gives up.  I mean how many times can we get tranfsered back and forth, supposedly to a higher-up department, only to find out that it's just someone else in the same deaprtment?  And to make it worse the second and third person often know nothing about the situation and you and up explaining everything from the beginning again.

I know this article focuses on Rogers and Bell, but my opinion is that Freedom should be mentioned too. 

Freedom Mobile customer service has long had a policy of doing nothing for the customer, and if the customer calls in about anything but with the most basic question, a response is always given of "Back Office will call you back in 3 to 5 businesss days".  Back Office then calls the customer back and knows nothing about the situation.  Freedom Mobile's idea of front-line customer service is to provide an answering machine/message taking service.   And then if you fail to answer Freedom's Back Office return phone call, they just close the ticket as solved and leave a message for you  you to call 611.  You call 611 to get things done and they won't transfer you to Back Office (which I've long suspected isn't even a real department but might just be the same group of customer service reps), but then tell you again you have to wait 3 to 5 business day for a call back.  I'm almost certain that Freedom Mobile does this just to frustrate the customer so that they do not want to call in and so that the customer eventually just gives up.  So, it's not just the Big 3 guilty of this stuff.

[HeatherHowe]

It’s unfortunate that these companies as well as others are treating their employees in this manner. I was with Rogers for 10 years and when I asked what they could offer as far as plans go, I was shocked that they weren’t giving an inch. Even with the threat of moving on they held strong. So long Rogers.....please stop penalizing your employees. 

[Gonzo]

Thanks for sharing this article... I’ve wondered if this were the case, given the service I’ve got from some call centres (put on hold after a brief conflict- yes, I really do want this cancelled- and somehow lost the connection two times in a row). I am very glad former employees are going public on this kind of treatment.

[will13am]

This is not just for cellular service.  Same treatment for home services like cable TV and internet.  These services can bundle with cellular service to obtain bundle discounts. 

That said, the way this service offers deals is transparent.  All customers generally have access to announced promotions. 

[lilsweetie]

Given that employees are penalized for cancelling lines, it is odd that they don't offer you a better plan to get you to stay. This just happened to me last week. I tried several times to talk to Rogers to get a better plan explaining that I would have to switch if they couldn't match it. They couldn't even come close. Their best plan was still $30 more than Public, so I ported out my number out. Only AFTER I ported it out and after they had lost me as a customer did they start calling me and offering plans that came close to the Public Mobile plan. I think it's unfair that they penalize their employees when they are not fully giving them access to the tools and discounts to keep customers.

[deepblue]

To bring more insights on this topic, i actually worked for one of the call centers for some time.

The worst thing is they have hiden promotions to specific customers, especially new customers or customers at low plans, they will induce you to go higher plans with cheap price and when the plan expires you will stay at a high price... while for the loyalty customers they won't tell you that there are cheap plans with the same features. and as a regular staff we do not have much authority to give out credit or reduce price.