Ranadok …doesn't have much better to do

Rogers Tech Support and Android: The Saga Continues

It has been almost two months since I made the post about the trouble with my Android phone on Rogers (or any post, for that matter; things have been busy...). This is the inevitable follow up to that. About a week after I made that post, I finally got fed up with the official Rogers ROM (slow, crashing, non-standard UI, everything I mentioned in the last post), and decided to install a more up to date custom ROM. Rogers had just released an online waiver that would allow people running custom ROMs to keep their data service, so it was an easy decision.  The rest of this post outlines the headaches that resulted from that. In a nutshell, I talked to Rogers six times and was without data for about three weeks.

These are the notes that I took while dealing with Rogers, with minor edits for clarification.

Feb 20 (Sat)- Update ROM to Cyanogen. Tried to sign waiver (with phone number and IMEI), but it did not accept my phone.

Feb 21 (Sun)- Data working properly until late evening/early 22nd

*Feb 22 (Mon)- ~6:30pm No data in the morning, Call #1 to Rogers. Told they will add the IMEI to the waiver, should work in 24-48 hrs

*Feb 24 (Wed) - ~7:00 Call #2, told it was escalated, told to wait an additional 24-48 hrs

*Feb 27 (Sat) - Call #3 (Afternoon, do not recall exact time), told that IMEI was added on the 25th (3 days after original call, day after second call), should work by 9PM that day. Rep suggested talking to customer care after to get compensated somehow. Waiver still did not work that day at 10PM.

Feb 28 (Sun) - No data, form still doesn't work. Didn't call in.

**March 2 (Tuesday) - ~10 AM Get call telling me waiver should work
- ~11 AM Try waiver, doesn't work
- ~7 PM Try wavier, doesn't work. Call #4, tech gets info and re-escalates ticket. Told to wait for someone to call me.

*March 4 (Thursday) - Try waiver, no go. Call #5. Told there was an ongoing issue with about 84 affected users attached to the 'master ticket'. No solution or ETA, just wait. Transferred to customer care, discussed compensation. Rep agreed that it was unacceptable, offered 2mos unlimited data (I turned down, would not use) or some sort of monetary credit. The rep suggested I wait until situation was resolved to make sure I was fairly compensated, I agreed. Also discussed the previously promised 1 mo data credit from the issue in Jan. He mentioned there was no record of it that he could see and made a note on the history, told me to wait for the next bill to see if it shows up.

March 5-11 Checked waiver every day, no dice.

March 12 (Friday) - Missed call on my phone. Assumed it was Rogers, checked waiver again, it worked!

March 13 (Saturday) - Data! up and working all day. Got a call mid-day (after getting data back) from Rogers telling me that the waiver should now work.

*March 15 (Monday) - Called customer support (#6), get month of data credit ($25). Told no on the 911 fee thing (unrelated issue), but decide not to fight that fight.

So now I have my data, my own ROM, and a little over a month's bill waived (between the two credits). I'm not totally pleased with the way it turned out, but at least it's over. I think that may have been Rogers' plan all along, to just wear me down until I gave up.