The IT Nerd

First it was Bell Canada who was accused of telling employees to aggressively sell to customers. Now the CBC is reporting that Rogers employees are saying that they’re being forced to do the same thing:

“You’re supposed to look at a customer’s account and sell them cable, home phone, home security, a credit card — whatever is missing,” says an employee who currently works at Rogers’ major call centre in Ottawa and has asked CBC to conceal his identity to avoid retribution in his workplace.

He says even when people are off sick, their sales targets aren’t adjusted unless they go on short-term disability, “so you’re at home, trying to get better, but stressing about how you’re going to keep your job.”

He admits when he is “desperate” to earn sales points, he signs up seniors for internet service, and then tells them a technician is going to come to their house “to install a modem for their TV” — modems are required for internet, not TV.

“We’re giving internet service to customers who actually do not have a computer,” he says.

Well that’s not good. And not surprising if this is accurate. Which given that CBC decided to run the story, they thought it was accurate. Another hint that there might be something to it is Rogers response:

No one from Rogers Communications would give an interview, but in a statement to Go Public, spokesperson Paula Lash wrote, “While we do not believe the concerns raised represent our values or sales practices, we take them very seriously and we will work with our team to respond to these concerns.”

• Rogers’ full statement

Lash also wrote that sales targets are achievable and that employees may be placed on performance improvement plans, which can lead to termination, for a variety of reasons including low attendance, concerns about behaviour, customer feedback, low sales, or a combination of reasons.

It’s because of Bell and now Rogers that I recommend to my customers that they check their telco bills closely, aggressively go after telcos to get the best deal possible, and fully understand what a telco is offering. The reason being is that you have to assume that telcos are going to try and slip one undertone goalposts so to speak. Stories like these seem to back that up. And that makes this call for a public inquiry more relevant to Canadians.

This entry was posted on January 14, 2018 at 9:19 pm 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.