by Sarah G
I am a victim of the text88588.com fraudulent charges passed on by Fido/Rgoers. I started receiving these texts back in April without knowing that I would be charged for them. In fact, the first month wasn’t charged at all so I just assumed Roger’s was doing some kind of promotion and I never responded to any of these texts. But, TWO months later, my bill started showing an extra $36+ taxes for these texts and when I called to explain that I had never signed up for this, the Roger’s/Fido representative insisted that I had returned the messages and would have to pay the charge. She claimed that I had returned them at a day and time I was booked with and treating a patient AND my phone was turned off as it always is during these times. When I told her this, she suddenly changed her tune and said she would credit only one month as a ‘goodwill act for a valued customer’. She knew at the time that a second month of charges was on my next bill yet she did not tell me this at all and now Roger’s will not credit the second month back to me claiming that they will be losing money. Furthermore, I asked her why none of the so-called texts apparently returned from my phone showed up on the bill and her response was, ‘We don’t provide those details’. I firmly believe this is a scam that cell phone companies have going, expecting that they just have to harass the customer a bit and most people will pay the charge even if it IS fraud, particularly since they refuse to provide exact details of any apparent ‘replies’ coming from my phone. I warn everyone to avoid Roger’s/Fido because they WILL stick you with the charges; they even continued to charge me for 2 more texts they claim I sent on July 5th, nearly a full month after I clarified the situation and they still refuse to provide any details on these so-called ‘premium texts’. Roger’s has no interest in treating their ‘valued customers’ well at all but would rather spend millions advertising in the hopes of ensnaring new customers that will give in to their arguments & simply pay the fraudulent charges. They have lied by omission, which is somewhat better than my first contract with them where they outright lied about the long distance capability on their plans. Two contracts with Rogers and two very big problems that end up costing me a lot of money. This is the last time! Buyer beware!!!!
lalita1985 says...
When I first signed up with Rogers I was very happy with their plans and rates, however their customer service / training of staff is horrible. I have been outright lied to by the customer service agents on the phone and was signed up for a one year contract on my cable/ cell/ home phone with out agreeing to it. I would never have agreed to such a thing considering I was moving half way across the country around that time and wouldn’t be needing cable or home phone.
In order to get out of the one year contract my mother took over two of the services and we have had issue after issue. For some reason the agent on the phone listed my mother’s name on my new account with my new account number and when I called to fix an issue they refused to help me because of the mistake. All the security information listed was my information, but her first name. The agent on the phone even asked me three times if I had another first name. To which I responded, “No, I only have one first name, but how many first names do you have?”
Now that the name mix up has supposedly been fixed, I’m still encountering problems with it depending on which branch of Rogers I’m getting directed to. It seems that not all of the brances update their systems/ user accounts at the same time so somtimes they still ask me if I have another first name. When my contract is up for my cell phone I’ll be switching to another company.
JSAM_S MOM says...
I NEVER, EVER deal with Roegrs directly. I have lived in 3 major cities in Ontario, and each time have made a point of befriending staff at secondary retailers who sell Rogers (IE Wireless Wave, The Telephone Booth, etc). These guys know what they are talking about, know how to get around the idiots who work for Rogers, and more often than not know how to get directly to a person who can help you with whatever problem you have. Keep in mind, they are only human, and can’t fix everything, but they have saved me tons of time and headaches. I seriously recommend anyone who has a problem with Rogers to bring their last 3-6 months of bills down to one of your local mall outlets and ask for a FREE audit of your Rogers accounts, and they will tell you if you are on the right plan.
pear says...
Call Fido and ask for their fraud department — they’re in a separate division and are generally very helpful (relative to the rest of their service departments) in sorting these things out
kduever says...
When you call “Rogers” you are actually calling an outsourced call centre that they have hired. The woman you spoke with may truly not have known that the charges were on your next bill.
Remember to use this phrase when dealing with them “I would like to cancel my cell phone”.
You will be immediately transfered to their retention dept. and will most likely get some really good deals! (There are people who pay $8/mo for their plan!)
Source: someone who works at a Rogers outsourced call centre.
Heather says...
I HAD A VERY SIMILAR ISSUE WITH ROGERS…. 3 YEARS AFTER I MOVED AND CANCELLED MY CELL PHONE,,, I RECEIVED A BILL FOR OVER $1200 ….NEEDLESS TO SAY,,, I FLIPPED… AFTER A LOT OF HEADACHES AND RED TAPE I FINALLY CLEARED IT ALL UP ,,, I HAD TO PROVE THAT I HAD MOVED FROM THAT ADDRESS 3 YEARS AGO AND … ALTHOUGH THEY HAD WASTED NO TIME PUTTING MY NAME IN COLLECTIONS,,,, IT TOOK 6 WEEKS TO CLEAR MY NAME,,, NEVER AGAIN WILL I DEAL WITH ROGERS…………
Adrenalyne says...
These spam text messages have nothing to do with Rogers/Fido - my first question is did you add your number to the national do not call list? That is where most of this spam garbage is coming from. Unfortunately signing up for the national do not call list created a telemarketing nightmare - since once you register Canadian companies cannot spam you but they provide the companies with all of the registered phone numbers. Companies that do not reside in Canada can take these lists of numbers and market you - since they might be located in other parts of the world there is nothing protecting us from them. This is possibly what happened to you or your number got entered somewhere online and these horrid companies got a hold of it. Saying that Rogers is adding these charges to your bill is highly unlikely. There is soooo much fraud out there today, take care to protect yourself.
Eric says...
Re: Kduever’s quote: “Remember to use this phrase when dealing with them “I would like to cancel my cell phoneâ€.”
This ONLY might work after being with them for 4 months. And, at least with Fido, they will attempt to appease you some other way first (they have to, it’s employee policy.)
As for the text messages, sending “STOP” to the number generally ends them. Not to mention, that most likely, someone signed up for them using your cell phone number. The first text you receieve from them is an “Info text.”
We were always told (when I worked for Fido) that “the customer has to reply to that text before he starts getting charged.” However, after some research, I KNOW this to be false. On the other hand, the text clearly states that you would be receieving them on a regular basis, that it is a subscription, etc.
I can assure you that this is not from the cell phone company and, it wouldn’t matter what provider you are with. Also, it’s not really fair to lump Rogers and Fido together as, they are only sister companies and the agents that handle one provider does not have any info or connection with the other.
Ahh, I’m so glad I don’t own a cell phone.
Monique.b says...
I used to work in a call center that represented AT&T and Cingular Wireless. There are key phrases you can use to get what you want from wireless providers.
Call them and ask about your Early Termination Fee, and if there’s anything you need to do before you port your number (that means transfer your phone number to a different company). This will bring out their good manners, and they may even transfer you to their customer retention team. Threaten to leave, even if you don’t mean it, on the principal of the situation. That will very likely change their tune and take care of the situation. Be as nice as you can to the person you’re speaking with, remember they’re inheriting the situation.
The thing is this, people never call in to their phone company because they’re happy. They call when something is wrong, and generally those customers are irritated at best. It’s a very stressful job. If you can crack a joke, or get the conversation off to a really good start you’ll relieve some stress and often get way more service that way. Failing the nice approach, escalate to the boss and try again.
Dave says...
I’ve been a Fido customer for ten years and have had no major issues with them.
Sab says...
My parents got a phone through Rogers, and they had nothing but trouble. We were promised that a tower was going up in our area for the type of phone my dad got, and it did go up, but it was actually for digital instead of analogue (which dad asked about and was assured it was for analogue). So, in our area, the phone was pretty useless, although it was good for town/or city 15-45 minutes away. My phone (they got it for me on some buddy plan) was fine. No problems. Went the whole year with no issues at all. My parents phone ‘automatically’ signed up for ‘another’ year (I don’t understand how that happened) and my dad tried to cancel due to other issues with it/service and such, and got charged a cancellation fee… after his 2 year plan was supposedly over. Then he tried to work it out with them, and they signed him up for a ‘cheaper’ plan (which was $15-20 more/month than what they claimed it would be) where if he did this, the cancellation fee would be forgiven, and he got a bill in the mail for that plan… charges and all… and he didn’t even have a phone. He called them to complain, they cancelled that plan (it had only been a couple of weeks, and he didn’t use it at all) and sent him ANOTHER cancellation fee of $200, on TOP of the previous one which they said they had forgiven. He stopped corresponding with them. THey tried to take him to claims court, he lashed into them about his ordeal, and hasn’t heard a thing from them since.
Needless to say, I’m staying away from Rogers.
Wence says...
You should try sending your complaint to their head honcho:
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=112383
800 de la Gauchetière West
Suite 4000
Montreal, QC H5A 1K3
Phone: 514-937-2121
Fax:514-937-2554
I HATE FIDO.
Client services do not exist with FIDO. The company makes it as difficult as possible for their customer agents to assist with your requests and/or difficulties because they are forced to work without the necessary tools. Consequently, they are always UNHAPPY or ANNOYED to talk to you which results to a bad experience altogether. This is a vicious and unacceptable cycle.
I’ve been with FIDO for quite a number of years especially because they’re now the only company that uses SIM cards (my experience with Rogers was not ideal either to say the least). I’ve been good and paid my bills on time. The only other time I had a serious complaint (since I don’t like paper wastage) is when I couldn’t log-in to the client portal (after they migrated to their most current interface) which took forever to get fixed and several phone calls much to their dismay (as they thought the problem would just simply go away). Since I couldn’t (or wait to) print out my invoices to submit my company expenses, I had to order a paper copy which costed me something like $10.00 CAD. Of course they would not re-imburse me even after saving them $$ by choosing online billing and the fact that it was their fault I couldn’t print out my invoices. Imagine how upsetting that is!
This time, I requested to cancel my account when my contract expires on January 31, 2009. Apparently they can’t process an advance notice and I HAVE TO CALL ON DECEMBER 31ST TO ENSURE THAT THEY CANCEL MY SERVICES 30 DAYS LATER. The customer service agent on the phone even said, “Well I would put it on my personal task list but I can’t be sure if I’m even working that day.” (I was not only APALLED but very DISGUSTED by this comment.) They require a 30-day notice for cancellation BUT YOU CAN’T CALL IN ADVANCE. How absurd can that be? Based on my experience with them, I can bet you a million dollars that if I call on New Year’s Day that they will refuse to cancel it on the expiry date. Don’t count on me paying you a million bucks though since it is as fake as their customer service.
Diddy says...
IMO Rogers is literally the worst company in existence, they lie, cheat, steal etc. but it is the consumer to blame they keep returning why wouldn’t they? don’t expect companies to have morals particularly Rogers. The more money a company makes the less morals they have that is how they got rich in the first place, after having a cell phone for over 15 years I can tell you this, the only way to not get ripped off by these assholes is to use pay as you go with a company like Telus that offers unlimited on pay as you go eg. the plan I had included free eve and wknds 7am-6pm, free incoming, unlimited wknds, unlimited text, unlimited pic text, call id and voice message all for $35 for 1 month again this is pay as you go and you can set it up on credit card so you dont even have to buy the cards, this is the only way to not get ripped off…
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Barbara Soutar says...
I have been fending off FIDO attack dogs all week. Today I got 5 calls from their collection agent about a false claim that we cancelled a contract in 2008. Here’s the story: my 19 year daughter went in to the FIDO store trying to get a phone two years ago, they turned her down because she didn’t have her own credit card, and was using mine. I went in with her a few days later to sign her up and they bill my credit card every month for that. Then they claim we cancelled the first phone she signed up for! They one they refused! Now a collection company will not stop phoning me about this fiasco and they are trying to get hundreds of dollars for cancelling a phone number that we never had. I have been chased by FIDO’s dogs of and on for two years now. They are one of the most disreputable companies I’ve ever seen. I don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars to get rid of them, I am thinking of going to the media with my problem. I am convinced they took the contract my daughter filled out (the one that was rejected) and then tried to charge us for CANCELLING IT, which is totally a scam.
shopaholyk says...
I have been working in the telecommunications industry for more than 10 years as a Customer Service Consultant with 3 major brands in Canada and I am also a consumer.
As per my experience in the field, I can say the common reasons why people complaint.
* MISUNDERSTANDINGS: I agree that many mistakes are done by unexperienced representatives. Sometimes is a consecuence of a Customer changing his/her mind and keeps making changes or calling several times trying to get a better deal over and over.
* IGNORANCE: Not knowing the product (plan, minutes inlcuded, areas of coverage, fees involved for roaming, long distance, overusage, cancellation fees, etc.)
Do your own research, get familiarized with terms, services and technology. Ask questions and request changes only when you are absolutely sure on what you want/need.
* ASSUMING: That all Canadian cellphone companies work in the same way as in Europe or Asia is wrong. Different country, means different laws, services and products.
Thinking no errors in the bill is WRONG too!!
As a Consumer you are responsible to check your bills every month, to monitor your usage/charges. The invoice usually provides all the information on WHY or WHAT is being billed.
* IMPULSIVE DECISIONS: People go crazy to get the latest gadgets even if they have to commit for several years to be able to get the lowest prices or free things. Make sure you know you can commit or get ready to pay the price later on.
* NOT KNOWING HOW TO PROPERLY USE THE PHONE: Is normal when using a new cellphone people get some extra accidental charges. Read your instruction manuals or call the manufacturer.
Fight for your rights and get issues corrected as that’ how things should be, don’ expect a compensation… Get real!
felipe says...
I had similar charges on my solo cell phone. Stupid messages from usa about nothing. Then $40 bucks, first month and then 10 the next. Called the company and they say i should have answered(which is a no no in any mind)with the word “stop” to get off that list that i bet they had sold to the world!!! they get the business on both ends!!!
Concerned Consumer says...
Well there has been 3 phones issued to someone using just a SIN number, this number was stolen. There is fraud alerts but Fido still issued cells under this SIN and an address. We’re waiting for the outcome. When I myself signed up for a cell phone I had to provide photo ID and a valid credit card. Fido didn’t require either of these. If it doesn’t get corrected we will take it to court. As far as I know in Canada any credit products have to go through a credit check or at least check if the credit card is still valid. Not with Fido. I will only ever use MTS from this point on. I know they check your credit and accts prior to issuing you a phone.
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