A Winnipeg business owner says canceling his Rogers business internet should’ve been quick, but it dragged out for weeks and turned into a total headache.
Anil Sedha tried to start the process online, but the cancel button didn’t work. When he turned to the chatbot, it told him the only way out was to call in. That kicked off a cycle of long waits, dropped calls, and getting bounced between departments. One of his calls stretched past two and a half hours, and he figures the whole thing added up to around seven hours on the phone.
“It was the same thing every time,” he told CBC News. “Long waits, then getting disconnected, and having to start over.”
Plenty of other customers have shared the same kind of stories online (everything from failed cancellations to billing problems, for example) and say it’s become way too hard to reach someone who can actually help. Rogers wouldn’t do an interview, but the company said in a written statement that it deals with millions of customer interactions every month and aims “to deliver a great experience.” It didn’t address Sedha’s situation directly.
Behind the scenes, Rogers has trimmed its outsourced call centre workforce and is leaning more on AI tools that help agents write notes and offer troubleshooting steps. The company says the tech is supposed to speed things up for customers.
Sedha eventually found out for the first time that cancellations are supposed to be done by email. After pushing back, he also got an extra month of charges removed. His account only closed once he returned the equipment.
He says the whole thing left him thinking about people who might not be able to push through the process. “What if this were one of my family members? A senior person? Or a new immigrant? How would they handle it?”
And if you scroll the Rogers subreddit, none of this will sound surprising, as long waits and stalled cancellations show up constantly. Telus and Bell get complaints too. If you ever hit a wall with your provider, your best option is usually the CCTS, which handles telecom complaints in Canada.
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