So the day has finally come. A few months ago I canceled my television with Rogers and today I canceled my Internet - I now no longer have any services with Rogers (or at least won't come Feb 28th) for the first time in what must be at least 16 years. I've jumped over to the DSL camp now through TekSavvy.
It's simply too hard to justify paying $55-65 bucks with Rogers for 95GB a month when you pay $36 bucks (after taxes) with TekSavvy for 300 GB a month. Sure, your download speed is slower (5MB versus 10MB) but you can get by with 5mb just fine.
I have to say one thing about my experience today (something PR folks should take note of). I was on the phone with Rogers and their customer service representative was amazing (warning, if you sign up with TekSavvy they treat you nice and are great folks, but they do lack the customer service polish that Rogers has - it's clear they are ramping up that division and have a lot of new folks working the lines and being trained during the call).
I was blown away by how nicely Rogers treated me and how they let me leave without trying to ding me with 50 different bullshit charges (pardon my French).
I was ready to leave Rogers today with the feeling that I was finally saying goodbye to a mob-like organization that had taken advantage of me for years (not just in what they charged me, but in the services they denied me because they were simply too expensive for me to be willing to pay them in good conscience). But because of that service representative, I'm leaving with no hard feelings towards Rogers. Sure, their billing practices border on obscene, but there is definitely a division at Rogers that seem to genuinely care about their customers.
Before that call if you had asked me if I'd ever go back to Rogers, the answer would have been - not in a million years, not even if they were giving services away for free. I'll stop using the Internet before returning to Rogers! - but after speaking with that service rep, I'd definitely listen to what Rogers had to say.
Now it's up to Rogers to one day get it's head out of its butt and start offering competitive services at reasonable costs.
And whoever came up with this idiotic idea of usage-based billing (an idea that I like if you're charging 25 cents a gig not $1.50 a gig) should be canned (that goes for folks at Bell and any other carrier that got behind UBB). Not to mention the CRTC who let it all almost happen. Someone seriously miscalculated on how much Canadians will take before taking action.
This also goes to show how consumers interests and the shareholders interests do not have to be disparate. Because of how Rogers does business (always trying to maximize profits for shareholders at the cost of consumers) they've now lost both my internet and cable tv business - how can that possibly be good for shareholders? It's not.
And while Rogers may have plenty of customers willing to pay absurd fees for internet and tv, it's really only a matter of time until they catch on (even if they are in their 60's, they have kids who will open their eyes) which will ultimately erode revenue and brand equity.
The lesson in all this for PR folks is that they need to be business savvy if they are working in the corporate world. You have to foresee how business decisions will effect long-term trends and how that will play to your brand. Neither Rogers or Bell or the CRTC have managed the UBB issue with any kind of PR tact, which likely suggests to me that their PR teams were shut out of the process (probably by the government relations and legal departments). I say this because any PR person worth their salt would have red flagged this as a major communications crisis in the making - and because it wasn't handled as such, customers like me are now leaving Roger and Bell.
And none of this would have happened if they didn't try to pass UBB. The publicity associated with UBB is what is going to give hundreds of thousands of Canadians the needed push to finally cut the cord with Bell and Rogers.
On a side note, how big do I think this is?
I went to Best Buy and FutureShop today to buy a DSL modem and guess what? They didn't have any. Which means either they were sold out or given their dealing with Rogers and Bell, don't stock a lot of DSL modems (knowing that if a customer is buying a DSL modem, odds are they are canceling their services from either Rogers or Bell).
I've got to tell you, it really ticked me off that BB and FS essentially were inhibiting me from moving to DSL (whether simply due to unintentionally under stocking modems, or worse, intentionally doing so). I just find it hard to believe that with UBB in the news so much neither BB or FS thought to stock up on DSL modems.
As a result, I think I'll be purchasing my electronic equipment online now from someone like TigerDirect. Guys in tech always buy their stuff from places like TigerDirect, but I've always enjoyed going in to Best Buy and looking at things in person before buying them. Too many times now though I go in to BB or FS and all i can get is Rogers or Bell or other blue-chip brand name stuff.
So it's definitely interesting to watch as dominant brands are losing their brand equity in the market. No longer are they being seen as the companies or stores to go to for solutions, but rather, the companies and stores you should avoid unless you truly have no others options.
It's simply too hard to justify paying $55-65 bucks with Rogers for 95GB a month when you pay $36 bucks (after taxes) with TekSavvy for 300 GB a month. Sure, your download speed is slower (5MB versus 10MB) but you can get by with 5mb just fine.
I have to say one thing about my experience today (something PR folks should take note of). I was on the phone with Rogers and their customer service representative was amazing (warning, if you sign up with TekSavvy they treat you nice and are great folks, but they do lack the customer service polish that Rogers has - it's clear they are ramping up that division and have a lot of new folks working the lines and being trained during the call).
I was blown away by how nicely Rogers treated me and how they let me leave without trying to ding me with 50 different bullshit charges (pardon my French).
I was ready to leave Rogers today with the feeling that I was finally saying goodbye to a mob-like organization that had taken advantage of me for years (not just in what they charged me, but in the services they denied me because they were simply too expensive for me to be willing to pay them in good conscience). But because of that service representative, I'm leaving with no hard feelings towards Rogers. Sure, their billing practices border on obscene, but there is definitely a division at Rogers that seem to genuinely care about their customers.
Before that call if you had asked me if I'd ever go back to Rogers, the answer would have been - not in a million years, not even if they were giving services away for free. I'll stop using the Internet before returning to Rogers! - but after speaking with that service rep, I'd definitely listen to what Rogers had to say.
Now it's up to Rogers to one day get it's head out of its butt and start offering competitive services at reasonable costs.
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| CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein (image from CBC story) |
This also goes to show how consumers interests and the shareholders interests do not have to be disparate. Because of how Rogers does business (always trying to maximize profits for shareholders at the cost of consumers) they've now lost both my internet and cable tv business - how can that possibly be good for shareholders? It's not.
And while Rogers may have plenty of customers willing to pay absurd fees for internet and tv, it's really only a matter of time until they catch on (even if they are in their 60's, they have kids who will open their eyes) which will ultimately erode revenue and brand equity.
The lesson in all this for PR folks is that they need to be business savvy if they are working in the corporate world. You have to foresee how business decisions will effect long-term trends and how that will play to your brand. Neither Rogers or Bell or the CRTC have managed the UBB issue with any kind of PR tact, which likely suggests to me that their PR teams were shut out of the process (probably by the government relations and legal departments). I say this because any PR person worth their salt would have red flagged this as a major communications crisis in the making - and because it wasn't handled as such, customers like me are now leaving Roger and Bell.
And none of this would have happened if they didn't try to pass UBB. The publicity associated with UBB is what is going to give hundreds of thousands of Canadians the needed push to finally cut the cord with Bell and Rogers.
On a side note, how big do I think this is?
I went to Best Buy and FutureShop today to buy a DSL modem and guess what? They didn't have any. Which means either they were sold out or given their dealing with Rogers and Bell, don't stock a lot of DSL modems (knowing that if a customer is buying a DSL modem, odds are they are canceling their services from either Rogers or Bell).
I've got to tell you, it really ticked me off that BB and FS essentially were inhibiting me from moving to DSL (whether simply due to unintentionally under stocking modems, or worse, intentionally doing so). I just find it hard to believe that with UBB in the news so much neither BB or FS thought to stock up on DSL modems.
As a result, I think I'll be purchasing my electronic equipment online now from someone like TigerDirect. Guys in tech always buy their stuff from places like TigerDirect, but I've always enjoyed going in to Best Buy and looking at things in person before buying them. Too many times now though I go in to BB or FS and all i can get is Rogers or Bell or other blue-chip brand name stuff.
So it's definitely interesting to watch as dominant brands are losing their brand equity in the market. No longer are they being seen as the companies or stores to go to for solutions, but rather, the companies and stores you should avoid unless you truly have no others options.
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