So as an aftermath to my most recent horror story dealing with Rogers, I had to call customer service to place back the block on the Internet (they took it off to try and place BBM on the account).

I have screenshots of the call length but I figured most people that deal with Rogers will believe me anyways.  The call lasted for 34 mintues and I was put on hold a record breaking 6 times!!

I don’t even know what to say anymore….the service is just so bad.   I sent a text to the customer service guy at the Office of the President asking to please cancel my second phone with them.  I am willing to hold out a little longer on my main line hoping my data and dropped calls improve.  They have a senior tech support person working on it.

I will keep you all updated and thanks for the messages of support.

I have been with Rogers Wireless for a few years now and it seems every time I contact them their service falls to a new low.  Weekend data service is terrible, I can go hours without being able to check my email or use the Internet.  I have called in a few times but each call takes 15 minutes to get through to someone and then they just tell me everything seems to be working fine.  I also get tons of dropped calls, at least 4-5 per week.  I am not sure if it is the iPhone 4 or Rogers but they are the ones that sold me the phone so I guess it does not matter.

I spent three miserable hours dealing with Rogers employees today.  First I went into a Rogers Wireless store to ask about upgrading the hardware on one of my phones (for my son).  First I was told I could not upgrade to a smart phone without data.  Then I was told that yes I could upgrade to a smart phone that requires lite service.  I was given a few choices and when my son said he wanted the Blackberry Curve as his choice we were told they did not have it in stock and they could get it next week, or I should go to another Rogers store.  Next we went to another Rogers store and were told they have it in stock but I should call and find out if they can add BBM to my plan.  They said if I had unlimited texting they should be able to just add ‘the BBM code’ and they have done it before.  I have a grandfathered plan that Rogers gave me a few years ago when they wanted me to commit to a 3 year plan after mine expired.  They were very generous and gave me a plan with a bunch of credits.  These days it is not looking that great compared with the competition but at the time I felt it was a good value.

I called and spoke to a representative that said I needed to get a data plan or a social networking plan to use BBM, this would be an additional $15 a month which would basically double the cost of my $20 base plan.  I asked to speak with a manager and was put in a cue for about 15 minutes till I gave up.  Then the store sales person called and tried to explain what I was looking for and she tried to add BBM but needed to re-activate my Internet for that account.  That did not work so I was told to use their customer service phone to call in.  I called in again and this rep said I don’t have data…..over and over again.  I asked to speak to a manager and he said he would need to get permission, I waited on the line for about 10 minutes while I heard typing in the background and was still not connected. I asked how much longer and he said he did not have permission to transfer me yet.  I asked to be put to the cancellation department instead, he proceeded to type for another 3 to 5 minutes and then I was transferred to Byron.

I explain that I had been on the phone or spoke to many Rogers employees and was getting a bunch of different information.  All I wanted to do was get my hardware upgrade and be able to have BBM working on that account without spending an additional significant amount each month.  I explained that if there was no way to add it to my plan affordably perhaps they could give me a new plan and apply some of the existing credit amounts to bring it as close to the current amount as possible. Again, he kept repeating himself, saying - your want a new feature you have to pay the full amount of $15 per month for a 50meg data plan.  I told him I had  heard different from two in-store reps and he just kept saying he could give me BBM for an additional $15 per month.  I told him that I didn’t feel like he was being flexible and explained how friendly and helpful Rogers appeared when they wanted to lock me in to a contract but now that level of service seemed to have evaporated.

So three hours and 6 Rogers employees later I still have not had this settled and had to get a refund on the phone.  I am now thinking of suing Rogers in small claims court so I can break the contract without penalty.  If any of you have had similar experiences or if there is any lawyer out  there that wants to help me take Rogers to court them please respond via comments.

I am going to forward this on to Rogers head office and see if I can get anyone there to help me out and will update this post.

December 13, 2011 update:  A couple of days ago I got a NO REPLY response from Rogers saying I did not escalate my complaint properly and I should contact customer service!  I responded to the ombudsman saying that I was told the only option I had for escalation was the Office of the President from the last person, Byron I spoke with at Rogers.  I also said it was very convenient that the email they sent can not be reply to.

On Monday morning I got an email from the ombudsman saying he would forward my complain to the Office of the President.  I received a phone call this morning from Sam, he was fairly nice but pointed out that I never started any service tickets (I was never offered that option) and I did sign a contract and receive discounted hardware.  I told him that I felt Rogers is not honoring its side of the agreement by providing me with poor cellular and customer service.  He did offer me a $5 per month discount from any data I have to add to get BBM service and he told me a level 2 technician would contact me about my poor data service and dropped calls.   I asked if he would be able to waive any of the service fees from the early hardware upgrade and he said they don’t do that anymore.  He went on to tell me how he actually cares about customer service and part of his job was to help figure out these problems from a more global standpoint.  He seemed somewhat sincere but I also got the feeling he was jaded from having to deal with so many complaints.  I have to admit I have on occasion lost my temper with Rogers but I truly believe customer service should always be about the customer.

I would be shocked if the Deal Steal of the Day lasts very long.  Kijiji has turned into a really great ‘buy and sell’ website but they are blowing their reputation by posting deals that are more than a tad shady!

When you go directly to the  Skyline Inn website you can see the Waterpark deal is only $159 so even after adding in the $60 extra value ($40 dinner coupon and $20 arcade credits) you still end up at only $219 which is $110 less than their claim of a $329 value.

I love a deal but I think both Kijiji and the Skyline Inn are trying to pull a fast one on people!

When I called the reservation line and asked about this discrepancy they tried to say it must have to do with the date I booked but for Friday’s and Saturday’s it says you add in the $20 or $50 respectively, so the value is not any better on those days.

I am waiting for a call back from Anthony, the manager at the Skyline Inn and also from support at Kijiji, I will update this as information becomes available.

I have not been to this location for the past three years because my previous visit did not go well.  Food was cold and portion was very small.  But we had a group of eight for this weekend and the choice was made for me….I do think the location is attractive looking and the host staff was relatively polite.  We waited about 20 minutes for our table to be ready, which is reasonable.  We did get jostled and shot a few dirty looks because we stood around the service bar area.

Let’s just skip to the chase - the food was not good, the pizza was bland with very little cheese, the chicken parmesean was thick, dry and mostly tasteless.  Someone that had salmon said it was good but the rest of the people in our party felt the food was not very flavourful and most meals went only partly eaten.  The bread and Cesar salad were good.  The table service was bad, I am guessing this was because on parties of 8 or more they automatically add in a 15% gratuity.  I had to ask the waitress mulitiple times to bring extra napkins and after the first table check she disappeared for quite a while and we were left with our dirty dishes on the table until one of us got up and specifically asked her to please clear the table and refill a couple of water glasses.

When I brought this to the attention of the manager he was quite rude and held his head up high saying he was the owner?  He did say he would speak to the waitress and further went on to say we did not have to tip  her but he did so in a very rude and condesending manner. I rate this visit as follows: food 3/10, service 3/10, atmosphere 7/10 - overall 4/10 I will be taking another three year break from this location and maybe from Il Fornello entirely.

Surprise, more bad service this time from Sony Canada.  I ordered a laptop online around 4 days ago and made payment through Paypal but I never got a confirmation, I never got a cancellation, I didn’t get any correspondence at all!!  I looked in my account on sonystyle.ca and no pending orders.  So they are just pretending that my order and I never existed.  Booooo!!!  Your stuff is already very overpriced.