Crazy Experience with Rogers 5G Internet
I heard about Rogers 5G Backup Internet being available as a standalone service earlier this year. I had some free time and decided to sign up for it so I can try it out. Just signing up for the service was a lot more painful than it should be. I had to call several people and wait on hold. Many didn't even know this service existed. I finally found someone knowledgeable who was able to answer my questions, sign me up for the service and ship me a SIM card and modem. The service was advertised as $10 per month with autopay discount. Sales rep. told me if I get the wrong modem I can call in and get it swapped. I unfortunately did not receive the modem I had requested when signing up. Figured it would be easy to call and get it swapped. Ended up wasting hours getting transferred between departments and talking with people who had no idea what 5G Internet even was or why I even had a modem. Some didn't even know what a modem was. The only useful advice I was given was to try using the SIM card with my own device which is what I did. That worked great and I thought problem solved.
Fast forward to the day before the return period ends. The sim card stops working. I try restarting my device, putting the sim card in a different device. Still not working. I try calling Rogers and of course their call centers are closed. I put the SIM card back in the free rental modem I got. After some time the sim card starts working again but the download and upload speeds are now terrible.
The next day I spend all day calling Rogers and speaking to various agents. I ask that they either exchange my modem or cancel the service and provide me with instructions to return the modem and sim card I have. I am told to try using the sim card in a different device and if it doesn't work call back. I explain that I have already done that but the sim no longer works outside the modem. I am transferred back and forth until an agent says the department handling cancellations is closed and that I should call back another day. AT this point I am very frustrated since this is the last day for me to cancel the service and get my money back. The agent says don't worry I will leave a note on your file.
After spending another day or two calling Rogers I finally get a hold of someone who is able to cancel my service and send me a shipping label so I can send the modem and sim card back. I am assured there will be no charges on my bill.
I send everything back and get confirmation that Rogers has received the package after a few days.
Fast forward to a few days ago. I receive an email from Rogers saying my final bill is ready and that I need to pay $56. I was shocked to see such a bill given that I signed up for a $10 per month service which I only used for 2 weeks.
I immediately started trying to contact Rogers again. After another long wait I was connected with an agent who sent me a link which I could use to request a bill review. The link did not work. He said he has no way to make bill adjustments since his team lost access to that. He told me to try requesting a review again and to contact the CCTS if unsuccesful.
I contacted another agent and tried to work with him but he was very unprofessional. He said I was billed extra because apparently I had started using the service before the activation date. I told him that is impossible since I did not receive the modem and sim card until after my service was activated. He then put me on hold and changed his story claiming I used 14GB of data which was likely more than what is included with my plan. I explained that the plan has a 100GB full speed data cap. He then changes his story again claiming I had used 114GB of data. I told him that was not possible and even if I had somehow theoretically used that much data I should not be charged an overage fee since my plan states that it comes with unlimited throttled data meaning I will not incur any additional charges after using 100GB. My connection will just be throttled. He started blaming me for not understanding my plan. I told him to open the Rogers website on his computer, go to the 5G internet page and read the fine print. He then came back to me and said he “apologizes” and that he got confused and “misunderstood” the situation. He said he will provide me a link where I can submit a request to get my bill reviewed. I asked him to dictate the URL of the link to me over the phone. As he was dictating the link to me suddenly his audio cutout and he said he was not able to hear me. He told me he will hangup in 2 minutes since he has other customers waiting. I waited for a few seconds and said please answer otherwise this call will be recorded and sent to the CCTS and management for review. Suddenly he was now able to hear me and apologized claiming he was having a “technical” issue. He dictated the rest of the link to me which was broken and did not work. I asked him to send it to me via SMS which arrived after my call with him ended but that link did not work either.