A Toronto couple spent four days on hold, in chat, and in Rogers stores trying to cancel a $140 CAD internet plan, according to the Toronto Star.
Sarah Brooks and Nick Williams were moving into a new house in the Junction and figured cancelling Brooks’ condo internet would take a day. Instead they hit dropped calls, chatbot loops, and a recording that said the queue was too long to even wait on hold.
Store staff told Brooks that internet cancellations have to happen by phone. A Rogers spokesperson later confirmed to the Toronto Star that this is industry protocol.
“I don’t even know how many chat specialists I’ve spoken to,” Brooks told the Star. “I’ve lost count.”
The Star‘s analysis of Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) data found accepted complaints about being unable to cancel telecom service rose 64.9 percent between 2022 and 2025. Rogers and Shaw accounted for the largest share. Telus complaints in that category jumped nearly 300 percent, and Bell’s rose by 50 percent.
OpenMedia executive director Matt Hatfield told the Star the barriers are the point. “They throw up barriers because people do give up.”
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) already moved on this. In April it ordered carriers to offer ways to change or cancel internet and wireless service that do not require a phone agent, with a deadline of April 26, 2027 and fines of up to $10 million for a first offence. That digital cancel rule still leaves Canadians stuck on hold until next spring.
Rogers spokesperson Christina Salituro apologized for Brooks’ “frustrating experience” and said the company is “working towards” the 2027 deadline. She also said cancellation issues made up less than 3 percent of issues reported to CCTS in 2024/25. CCTS told the Star that “unable to cancel” complaints still grew about 4.9 percent faster than overall complaints.
The timing lines up with front-line support cuts at Rogers and a petition asking the CRTC to cap hold times. Hatfield said customers are getting stuck in AI loops, and he expects the next year of CCTS numbers to look worse.
Williams cancelled his own condo internet with Virgin Plus in one 20-minute call and is paying about $65 CAD a month at the new house. Bell stopped offering Virgin Plus Home Internet to new Ontario customers as of January 2026, but honoured the price on his new plan.
After the Star contacted Rogers, the company called Brooks and confirmed the cancellation. Rogers would not explain why so many customers still hit the same wall.
Until the 2027 digital cancel rule kicks in, the workaround is the one the CRTC has allowed since 2011: ask your new provider to cancel the old service for you.
A similar seven-hour Rogers cancellation maze landed at CCTS last year. The regulator’s latest switching-fee fight with Rogers, Bell, and Telus is still open too, after the CRTC rejected an attempt to stall that probe on August 16.
The phone-queue decision is Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2026-78.
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