Rogers Home Phone by Rogers Communications: Do not get!

- 911 AND EMERGENCY SERVICE NUMBERS (ambulance, police department, fire department, etc) WILL NOT WORK WHEN ROGERS HOME PHONE EXPERIENCES TECHNICAL PROBLEMS. Our Rogers Home Phone has (this time) been out of service for five days (due to an 'outside box' it was eventually stated). That means, for over 100 hours, no incoming or outgoing calls can be made from Rogers Home Phone-- i.e. if there were a fire or serious accident that required the fire department, the police, an ambulance, no calls can be made. (We have two small children.) Rogers Communications states, after chasing down a 'customer service executive', that in the fine print of the Rogers Home Phone contract, it states that emergency numbers will not be available... as if that absolves Rogers of bad service, of incompetent technical support, and indifferent customer service.


- IN SIX MONTHS OF SERVICE, ROGERS HOME PHONE HAS BEEN DOWN COMPLETELY 4 TIMES. For 8 hours, 16 hours, 24 hours, and recently as long as 5 days. Additionally, there has been intense noise on the phone (radio station), so loud it's sometimes hard to hold a conversation. Each time technical support comes (to once again swap out the modem) we have to wait for them to arrive 'sometime between 9 am and 5pm.) Most recently, when the tech guy arrived, he didn't buzz a neighbor (as explicitly instructed) and didn't come in to fix as he stated 'he could not contact the customer'... of course, that was because the Rogers Home Phone was down.

The reason for this blog is to let anyone know that Emergency numbers will not work with Rogers if there are problems-- this should be stated in all their publicity and promotions, not buried in the fine print.

-IF YOU TAKE BUSINESS CALLS OR DO BUSINESS AT HOME DO NOT USE ROGERS HOME PHONE. You will be unable to receive important business calls. You will be unable to buzz in customers to take meetings at your live/work space if the phone cuts out.

-IF YOU LIVE IN A CONDOMINIUM OR APARTMENT WITH AN INTERCOM OR BUZZER, DO NOT USE ROGERS HOME PHONE. The phone connects to the intercom/buzzer. When the Rogers Home Phone goes down, you will not be able to use you intercom or buzz anyone into your building.

-ROGERS CUSTOMER SERVICE IS EXTREMELY BAD It took 3 hours on the cell phone one day to finally reach someone in authority in customer service. I was passed on, disconnected, put on hold, past the wrong departments, told their was only one manager on duty (one!), etc etc. Eventually I called the head office. On this occasion (when our phone was done for 16 hours), the customer service rep was okay and listened to the problems, solutions I suggested, etc. HOWEVER when I recenlty called with the ongoing 5 DAY OUTAGE, the person I got at customer service initially made it sound like 1) the phone problem didn't exist and if it did it was my fault 2) that Rogers has been providing service so good that there is no room for improvement (and had no need to listen to customer complaints or suggestions) 3) His response was, when I said "If I go to a restaurant and get horrible food and service, the manger comes and admits the food and service was bad, and corrects it", his response was... wait for it... "We're not a restaurant".

-MORE BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE: Suggestions ignored, dismissed, belittled: such as providing an emergency cell phone (with liability waiver) until the problem is fixed; faster troubleshooting; a SIMPLE ADMISSION THAT THERE IS A PROBLEM; statements that 911/Emergency Services not working when the phone is down should be stated on ads--like disclaimers on drug ads, etc--; pro-active not argumentative customer services (i.e. "let me credit your account for the problems" vs implying my complaints are invalid), etc etc.

-DO NOT USE ROGERS HOME PHONE SERVICES PROVIDED BY ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS IF YOU WANT: a reliable phone that won't cut out unexpectedy and completely; 24/7/365 access to emergency numbers like fire, police, ambulance, 911... at least with Bell, you can always access 911 (even if the power is out); good customer service