The IT Nerd

Yesterday I posted a story where Rogers had reached out to me and said this:

Some of our Home Phone, TV and Internet customers who have recently activated or had a new product installed may be experiencing a delay in connecting their services to the network. We are now processing transactions and are working to restore all services by later this evening. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

But what became clear as the day went on and transitioned into night was that Rogers wasn’t going to deliver on this promise as there was no evidence that customers were coming back online. As I type this the client that I mentioned in this story still has no Internet. And neither do other Rogers customers as evidenced by this:

@RogersHelps day 5 now and rogers said all would be good by last night. Still no internet after over 90 hours.

— RickZimmerman (@Rick63714173) October 23, 2017

https://twitter.com/Cristina_Avila_/status/922414646379679745

still no internet. Been waiting since Friday. Everyday Rogers says today. Please can you tell us the truth????

— shai burstein (@shai_burstein) October 23, 2017

@Rogers @RogersHelps now without internet access for almost 4 days. Was told it should have been available yesterday evening. What now?

— Richard Marks (@richardmarks) October 23, 2017

85 hours now and nothing. Called and got the same generic answer. The problem still isn't fixed after 85 hours? get better workers!

— Jen 🌙 (@JenKenda92) October 23, 2017

I’ve also got emails from Rogers customers asking me if they should dump Rogers at this point and switch to another telco. Well, my advice goes something like this. While there are smaller telcos out there, if you want a telco of the size and scope of Rogers, it means that you’re dealing with Bell Canada. There’s also Telus if you’re in Western Canada as well. You can always reach out to them to see what deals they have and what it would take to switch you over. I’m pretty sure that they’d be more than willing to help you out.

In the meantime, the failure to come through on their promise to get customers back online by yesterday evening really creates a credibility issue for Rogers. Any sort of latitude that customers might have given the company is gone now. I fully expect things to really go south for them today even if customers come online in short order. After all, I first posted a story on this last week, and we’re still here talking about it. That’s not good for Rogers. But it’s even worse for the customers that are affected by this.

I continue to monitor the situation and I will provide updates as they occur.

UPDATE: Things are going from bad to worse for Rogers as angry customers are now reaching out to the news media to shine a light on this situation:

@CTVNews Rogers new high-speed internet still down. I got my modem Thursday and still no service.

— Sandy (@moccaberry61) October 23, 2017

@CBCNews day 5 no internet service #rogers #help 95000 people affected

— Luis Lopez (@luchomaple) October 23, 2017

@CP24Breakfast @CP24 Rogers internet issue. No Internet from last Thursday for new modem activations & its not in the news?

— ~ s h a f l i n g ~ ®️ (@shafling) October 23, 2017

@CTVNationalNews Day 5 and 50k Rogers customers still without Internet. Promises from Rogers have come and gone

— john colling (@VoiceLondonOnt) October 23, 2017

Sooner or later, a news outlet will pick up this story and then Rogers will have a bigger PR disaster on their hands. That will make things far more interesting than they already are. On top of that, at least one person has decided to reach out to the CRTC about this as well:

Hi John! You can file a complaint concerning your Rogers Internet service with @CCTS_CPRST: https://t.co/O9lpCQW1gv

— CRTCeng (@CRTCeng) October 23, 2017

Chances are others are doing the same. This isn’t good if you’re Rogers as it shines a big spotlight on this issue that I am sure that they don’t want at this point.

UPDATE #2: Rogers just put out a series of Tweets:

The majority of Rogers Home Phone, TV and Internet customers who were experiencing a delay in connecting 1/3

— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) October 23, 2017

their services to the network are now up and running. The remaining transactions will be processed as quickly as possible. 2/3

— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) October 23, 2017

We appreciate how frustrating this is and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience. 3/3

— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) October 23, 2017

The problem with these series of Tweets is that nobody who is experiencing issues is getting their service back. Thus there’s no evidence that this is actually happening which would go a long way in terms of calming the waters. Thus I would ask if you are suffering from this issue and you get service back, please let me know on Twitter or via e-mail so that I can update this story accordingly.

UPDATE #3: The above Tweets are not resonating with Rogers customers who have been offline for days:

How can u mislead customers so

Ive been without internet for 5 days and still doent work

Lie lie lie lie lie

— john colling (@VoiceLondonOnt) October 23, 2017

That's a load of crap! Still no internet into day 4!

— Amber (@AmberPhoenix86) October 23, 2017

@RogersHelps still no internet since Friday. I was told it would be last evening, then late that night, now no one knows – any compensation?

— Steven Michael (@stevejev) October 23, 2017

Still no service and no repose to my requests for updates. They said they will text when my case is closed,no text. No one is back online

— Heidi (@hlynch667) October 23, 2017

The only thing that is going to reduce the noise is if people come online quickly as this is clearly spiraling into a place where there is no scenario where Rogers comes out on top of this situation.

UPDATE #4: Canadian tech blogs MobileSyrup and iPhoneInCanada have picked up the story. In both stories, they indicate that some customers are getting back online. Thus again I would ask if you are suffering from this issue and you get service back, please let me know on Twitter or via e-mail so that I can update this story accordingly.

UPDATE #5: Evidence exists that customers are coming back online SLOWLY. Details here.

This entry was posted on October 23, 2017 at 8:36 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Rogers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.