- Rogers has finally done it. After years of sticking it out, complaining, and dealing with the poor performance of their network most places I've lived I've finally decided to vote with my dollars. No more cable TV services, and no more Rogers Hi-Speed.
- Instead, I've switched to Bell ExpressVU, and IStop.com (who I work for, so there's a bit of a bias there). ExpressVU, which costs us ~$40/month offers incredible picture quality and sound on our Samsung widescreen TV -- in comparison to Rogers cable, whose signal shows up with interference or snow on almost every channel. Taking into account the huge difference in price (even basic cable is $25/month, any package worth while will cost more than $70/month, and the bundles with highspeed run about $100-110/month) and the fact that ExpressVU offers a guide, and unrivaled quality, it makes a lot of sense. Yes, for some households with multiple TVs the fact that you need to buy multiple receivers from Bell might be an issue, but at $5/m extra (excluding the initial cost of the receiver) it's still a better deal in my opinion. Plus, digital cable (which is only digital present-day on channels above 100 or so) requires a digital terminal on every TV as well, so there's no difference there.
- The final straw for me with Rogers stems from their policy that their service is "unlimited" when in reality, it's limited, but at their discretion. They have no defined limits anywhere, but instead, use the clause in their Acceptable Use Policy that claims that one's use of their network can't affect the ability for fair use by other subscribers in the neighbourhood/area.
- Back in February, I got a call and an email from Rogers Hi-Speed claiming that the usage on my connection was deemed much higher than normal. In fact, they claimed that I was one of the 1% of their subscriber base using 2000% more than the average bandwidth. They said that if I didn't change my usage patterns with 7 days, they would suspend my account. At this point, I didn't bother to argue -- I cut back on my usage, and 7 days passed with the account still active.
- A few weeks ago, my connection suddenly stopped working one Friday morning. Upon calling Rogers tech support, they claimed that my account had been suspended and that they'd have to forward me to the operations group. Operations promptly explained to me that I'd received a warning in February (3 months ago) and now since my usage patterns had gone up again, they'd suspended my account. The tone in the representative's voice with whom I was speaking was as if I'd committed a crime, and he was going to arrest me. So I asked him what it was that I was doing, how much bandwidth was it, when was it, for how long, etc. I said that if my patterns were excessive, I needed an explanation as to what excessive use was, so that I could adjust to remain within "normal" limits. The representative told me that they don't have that type of information, they just know that I'd been abusive. I explained to the representative that this situation was analagous to pretending he was a police officer, and I'm driving down a street with no posted speed limit (we'll also assume that assumed speed limits don't apply) and he pulls me over for speeding. When I ask him how fast I was going and what the speed limit is, he responds that he doesn't have that information and that he's not sure what speed I was going, just that I was breaking the speed limit.
- The representative responded: "Sir, I understand your analogy, but it's wrong.".
- I promptly asked to speak to his manager, to which he replied that there are no managers, everyone in his department is a supervisor.
- Eventually, after asking whether or not I was speaking with Ted Rogers (to which he replied that "Ted doesn't deal with issues like this") he agreed to have a supervisor return my call.
- A day or two later I spoke to the supervisor, who explained to me that they don't have information on what your usage patterns are, just that somehow you get flagged based on patterns in your neighbourhood. He also explained that the problem with my usage is that it affects other people's ability to access the network in my area. I explained to him that without knowing what their limits or average usage in my area is, I can't attempt to remain within those limits.
The escalation process for this type of problem is:
- Rogers sends you a warning via voicemail and email the first time there's an infraction
- The second time, they suspend your account until you call in and someone talks some sense into you
- The third time, they suspend your account for 7 days
- And finally, like a company geared towards ultimate care of their customers, the fourth time it happens, they terminate your account on your behalf.
- It's also interesting to note that seemingly any time frame is allowed to pass between infractions, and the escalation steps continue. For example, if you receive a warning, and then a year later you're deemed in breach again, your account is suspended, with no prior warning.
- Towards the end of our conversation, I asked the supervisor how I was supposed to remain within my limits if they can't provide those limits to me, and obviously, every neighbourhood has different averages and patterns. My worry as I explained to him was that my idea and my efforts to be more reasonable would still be seen as "above average use" and I'd end up with a suspended account (which, I might add, you're still paying for while it's suspended). I explained that if this was going to be the case I'd take my business to another ISP who monitors bandwidth use, has set limits and either cuts you off when you reach them, or bills you for usage over limit.
- He told me that that's what I'd have to do -- this policy was and is an initiative that came down from Ted himself in order to maintain the quality of their network.
- The days following, I thought about cutting back -- don't get me wrong, my usage is excessive, I'll admit. But I'm paying for a service that is deemed as unlimited. If you want limits, instate some. My problem is that if you don't want to define limits that people can use to self-police themselves, you should at least be able to provide quantifiable numbers to subscribers you see as abusive. When I thought about cutting back, I thought, what exactly constitutes cutting back? Just checking my email? Just checking out a few web sites? Is that online game or MP3 I'm downloading going to get me suspended? If that's the case, why don't I pay $5/month for dial-up? If my usage can affect other people's ability to surf the web or download in my area, it's the ISP that has problems and should build out their infrastructure to accomodate or change their policies, not deal with it by cutting off their customers. So I decided that I'd put my $110/month towards ExpressVU instead and save some money.
- If only there was another GSM provider in Canada that actually had reasonable coverage, I'd love to not have to use any of Rogers services. But, for the time being, we're stuck having to continue to use them for wireless.