roger's cable: a true story

When I moved into my new place in April, I had free cable. I guess they forgot to disconnect it, so I was getting it for free.

Several months later, I received the dreaded little red card from Roger's explaining they had cut off my cable service because I was a "new" owner of the unit. This was on October 16, 2003.

On the same day in the evening, I called Rogers to have it reconnected. They told me they would reconnect on Tuesday, October 21, 2003.

On Tuesday, I came home from work to find the cable had not been reconnected yet. I called to complain. Rogers told me their network was down and they could not contact any of their service guys to see where they were. It was 6pm, and they told me that the service people work until 8pm, so they might still be coming. I did not receive a cable connection on Tuesday at all.

On Wednesday, October 22, 2003 (6 days after I ordered cable) evening my cable was reconnected.

On Friday October 24, 2003 cable was out again. I noticed there was a message on my machine. It was fuzzy but I could make out the words "Roger's Cable". I called Roger's to complain. These people were surprised and shocked that I had been disconnected. To them, it made absolutely no sense that someone would come in and disconnect me. They were sorry and told me that they would reconnect me immediately the next morning (Saturday October 25, 2003). They told me I had to be there to get the cable, so I had to cancel my plans for the morning.

Saturday morning came and went. I called Roger's again. They told me that according to my file, someone was supposed to come on Saturday and they didn't know why no one came. They apologized for keeping me in the whole time and asked if I wanted to reschedule. The best they could give me was Thursday October 30, 2003 (14 days after I ordered cable). So I agreed.

Every day leading up to Thursday I started researching on alternatives to getting Roger's cable. Bell Expressvu, StarChoice, Look. None of these are an option for me for two reasons.

1) I'm not allowed to attach a satellite externally to my condo.
2) Even if I was, you need a balcony facing south (CN Tower).

On Wednesday while browsing through Roger's site, I came to realize a cool deal they had for digital cable. Rent a box for $8.95/month, and you still get whatever you ordered before, but then you can get extra stuff. Plus all the channels are free for 2 months as a trial period, and there's no commitment required.

I called Roger's to see if I could add this deal onto what I already had. The lady was nice, she said I could tack on the order for the digital box with (tomorrow) my current order. The difference is before I could just have the cable installed, whereas now I had to stay in so that I could answer the door and let the guy deliver the digital box.

Thursday night, the big day! 14 days after I ordered cable, it was time to get my order, plus digital too! 5-8pm, so I rushed home after work and waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Well, turns out cable was connected while I was home, but no one showed up to give me my digital box, so I had no idea cable had been hooked up. I called to complain once again. The guy checked my file, and found NO RECORD OF ME ORDERING DIGITAL CABLE! Unbelievable!

This is my account of dealing with Roger's cable. This is by no means a warning or anti-Roger's rant. After all, these bastards have a monopoly on cable, so even if you wanted to find an alternative, you can't! The friggin bastards have 100% share on cable, so they can screw around with you knowing full well you'll come back begging for more!

Even better is their lovely phone service. They put you on hold, reminding you to stay on the line because you are in a queue. 30 minutes later you hear a "click" and you've been disconnected. How wonderful! Another time I was on hold for 20 minutes, talked to a guy and give him all my information (home number, address and postal code, full name, the problem i'm having) and he tells me he's going to transfer me to someone who can help me with my problem. At this point 3 things can happen. I could be on hold another 15 minutes and then get the wonderful "click" again. OR, I get transferred to the other guy and this dude asks for my info AGAIN, and then asks me, why that other guy transferred me to him! OR, I get transferred again!