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So I decided to make the switch to Rogers Home phone to save a few pennies on some bills...

They schedule an appointment to 'install' the line, and the tech arrives last saturday to do the install. He crudely staples some more coax and places the cable modem where he thought it should go.. not where I wanted it to go and then proceeds to tell me that he has to come in again to activate the phone as activating it will cause my DSL to disappear.

I told him I had 2 circuits in the appartment and due to a wiring mistake by bell, the second, innactive circuit goes throughout the appartment, while the active (DSL) circuit only goes to one room... so if he just plugged that box into the second innactive circuit, his job would be done, and I wouldn't have to dedicate another 3 hours of my time on another weekend.

Anyways, in the typical contracted-techy-bullheaded, he told me I didn't understand and that he had to come back to 'bind the phone' to the cable box...whatever.

A day after he leaves, I notice that the cable modem box is active (remember that even tho Rogers won't tell you outright, it's just VOIP like any other VOIP, but without any of the roaming tools other providers would give you--but I digress)...So I hook up my phone to the box, and lo-and-behold, I can dial out with my phone number!

it was the following Monday that I received a call from Rogers saying a tech would have to come by to finish installing my phone... so I did the only sensible thing a man can do. Call Rogers via their cable box.

I explained to the CSR that I didn't need a tech to come in as I finished the wiring (plugged my phone in -- duh), and was calling her from the line.. that it wouldnt' interfere with my DSL because it was on a separate circuit already... so she activates the inbound calls, and tests it.

it works!

in 5 minutes with a CSR, I got more phone working than a half hour of arguing with a clueless and uncooperative tech.

Now, I have to get them to stop calling me to arrange an appointment.

and I have to get them to stop calling me about my paid unpaid bills.

Rogers is whacked.

They're still bugging me for money I paid on my LAST cell phone 4 years ago.

4 YEARS AGO!

I've heard many horror stories... enough to keep me away from their cell phone plans. Glad it got sorted out Steve, kinda.

Hahahah... I feel your pain puppet... .

for the last week i've been working on customers coming back from digital because the CSR's dont inform them that they will lose their circuit phone line....


Bah!


EDIT: did you get your free vtech cordless phone? (not sure if that promo is still on)

Wow, they ought to take a page from Cogeco. I never, EVER get flak from those guys... even when I'm wrong :lol:

VoIP is very cool, we've had ours for almost 1 1/2 years now. I can't go back, it's just too sweet.

scoobasteve,Aug 23 2006, 12:51 PM Wrote:Hahahah... I feel your pain puppet... .

for the last week i've been working on customers coming back from digital  because the CSR's dont inform them that they will lose their circuit phone line.... 


Bah!


EDIT: did you get your free vtech cordless phone? (not sure if that promo is still on)
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They had a couple of promos.. .it'd be cheaper for me to buy a phone than take the free vtech.

well, people don't have to lose their phone lines.. like I said, i was able to convert my phoneline to roger's and keep my DSL without any service interruption... but they and the tech need to know what they are doing...

unfortunately the Techs I get are idiots.. I'm going to videotape the next one to post on the web for all of us to get a chuckle.

the difference between rogers and cogeco is Rogers is 82340832 times larger.... and they service much more densley populated areas...

when youre that much larger, youre sure to have many many more problems.

scoobasteve,Aug 23 2006, 01:05 PM Wrote:when youre that much larger, youre sure to have many many more problems.
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yup

if I had one complaint about Rogers Home Phone is that they pretend it's not VOIP.. that's half their problem right there.

Of course if people knew for certain it was just VOIP, they'd wonder where all the features of the other carriers are...

darkpuppet,Aug 23 2006, 01:04 PM Wrote:

scoobasteve,Aug 23 2006, 12:51 PM Wrote:Hahahah... I feel your pain puppet... .

for the last week i've been working on customers coming back from digital  because the CSR's dont inform them that they will lose their circuit phone line.... 


Bah!


EDIT: did you get your free vtech cordless phone? (not sure if that promo is still on)
[right][snapback]203536[/snapback][/right]

They had a couple of promos.. .it'd be cheaper for me to buy a phone than take the free vtech.

well, people don't have to lose their phone lines.. like I said, i was able to convert my phoneline to roger's and keep my DSL without any service interruption... but they and the tech need to know what they are doing...

unfortunately the Techs I get are idiots.. I'm going to videotape the next one to post on the web for all of us to get a chuckle.
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Good Call, Most consumers dont know about unbundled DSL. Most customers try to use their DSL modems plugged into a jack on the digital box.


EDIT: Its all about the marketing i guess. Most customers have heard bad stuff about voip. and usually end up coming back to circuit after a brief stint with vonage, etc.

We also have a seperate voip product with all the voip features as well.

Since i'm on the circuit side, i dont know too much about digital... Does the modem have cable jacks as input? or does it take an ethernet connection off of your high speed modem?

If it takes the cable jacks, I'd imagine thats why they can get away without calling it voip, because it really is a standalone product.

scoobasteve,Aug 23 2006, 01:05 PM Wrote:the difference between rogers and cogeco is Rogers is 82340832 times larger....  and they service much more densley populated areas...

when youre that much larger, youre sure to have many many more problems.
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But there's no excuse for incompetence at any level or in any profession. It's not specific to ISPs, either. You'd be surprised what I end up teaching IS/IT staff at client companies some days. It's getting better, but jeez :o some of the stuff that REALLY large and "respected" companies go through on a daily basis... :unsure:

NOS2Go4Me,Aug 23 2006, 01:09 PM Wrote:It's getting better, but jeez :o some of the stuff that REALLY large and "respected" companies go through on a daily basis... :unsure:
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I work for one, been burnt by the same, trust me, I dont need to hear it. :rolleyes: :lol:

Flofocus,Aug 23 2006, 01:10 PM Wrote:

NOS2Go4Me,Aug 23 2006, 01:09 PM Wrote:It's getting better, but jeez :o some of the stuff that REALLY large and "respected" companies go through on a daily basis... :unsure:
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I work for one, been burnt by the same, trust me, I dont need to hear it. :rolleyes: :lol:
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Ditto...

I hate telecom :(

scoobasteve,Aug 23 2006, 01:09 PM Wrote:Good Call,  Most consumers dont know about unbundled DSL.
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If you're a sympatico member, Rogers will call to make sure you arrange the dryloop DSL.

But the Rogers tech still needs to know so they can rewire the remaining outlets in the house to pull off the 2nd circuit, not the DSL one, as tapping back in with the cable modem's MTX will interfere... pretty simple.

Of course, I wonder if you could just put the DSL filter between the MTX and the jacks and share all one circuit...

NOS2Go4Me,Aug 23 2006, 01:09 PM Wrote:But there's no excuse for incompetence at any level or in any profession. It's not specific to ISPs, either. You'd be surprised what I end up teaching IS/IT staff at client companies some days. It's getting better, but jeez :o some of the stuff that REALLY large and "respected" companies go through on a daily basis... :unsure:
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The thing you to remember is that many large companies add stuff in as they need it. They don't build a future proof infrastructure. This causes a lot of grief along the way, and it's not the employee's fault... People should be able to go into a job and do their job without having to know all the fundamentals of why they have to do that job.

The bad news is that most large companies are in the same mess. There's this thing that an automotive manufacturer sells that I'd love to tell ya's to stay away from...

The good news is that it keeps me gainfully employeed.

darkpuppet,Aug 23 2006, 01:22 PM Wrote:There's this thing that an automotive manufacturer sells that I'd love to tell ya's to stay away from...
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Onstar?

I thought OnStar was a cool idea.

My friend uses it religiously and It's quite neat.

So how do you like the Roger's home phone? Why did you go with that over something like Vonage?

I agree darkpuppet, the level of inteligence of some of the contracted technicians who do outsourcing of the installs and repairs for rogers are clueless dumbasses is pretty low...

Did I tell you guys, One of those Install companies, was interested in recruiting me, it was either CCS or CanCable.. I even went on the road with them for an entire day to see how they install, and I kept telling them I am an actual rogers Employee so I know my sh!t.. they didnt think I was right. oh well, im glad I didnt bother working on that side of things.. When Rogers had their own in-house techs, it was much better..

Well, I for one dont think its fair for a company to have a bad image, when the people who are representing them are not even working for their company, theyre outsourced, but the consumers would not even know that and will make their own assumptions, which makes rogers look bad..

As for Rogers DPS, never tried it yet, but apparently, If I refer you to it, you will get a $50 discount I think... let me check my papers somewhere... I HAVE seen the Rogers Telecom VOIP, which is a completey different service, i might want to give THAT a try since I have rogers Portible Internet (im a betatester for them) and would love to have a dialtone where ever there is cellservice..

nass,Aug 23 2006, 05:37 PM Wrote:So how do you like the Roger's home phone? Why did you go with that over something like Vonage?
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the whole reason I went with them is because Rogers offered the same monthly deal as Vonage, but with the added bonus of saving $30+ /mo on the other Rogers Bills.

But now that I have dry loop DSL, I could switch anytime I want to... so it's just a matter of seeing if I'm happy with Rogers.

But to be honest... if you're playing videogames online, would you want VOIP cutting in on your bandwidth?