Mediocre support from Rogers Wireless

It's funny. I've been a Roger's wireless customer for almost four years. It's actually been longer, more like seven or eight years (with a switch to Telus in between) but in the recent past it's been four years. That may not seem like a long time but in terms of financial impact it's actually huge because for three of those four years I was the decision maker for a corporate account. And a corporate account that spent a lot of money.

In any case, Rogers seems to have forgotten that inside sales, that is, sales that come from existing customers, is bigger than new customers. Whether those new customers are brand new mobile customers or customers coming from another provider, those customers are, nine times out of ten, looking for a deal. Existing customers like me, well we're looking for a deal but we're here. But we are also willing to spend. Yet when it comes to keeping us happy, it's a full FAIL.

As I mentioned, I've been a Rogers customer in one form or another for at least four years so when my current device, a BlackBerry Bold 9000, crapped out I thought they'd take care of me. Instead, I got the run around on the phone and after a string of phone calls and two and a half weeks of wait time I got a replacement. A week longer than normal and two weeks longer than I was used to in the corporate world. But that was only after I used Twitter to reach out and complain. And even though the replacement delay was Rogers' fault, I was only offered a small compensation.

Long story short on my replacement, according to Rogers, was that they were out of stock on Bold 9000s. And they lost more replacement order. Or the replacement order didn't go through properly. Whatever the case, that's where someone with some clout should have said "let's offer this guy the next model up". Or something.

So when this evening my replacement Bold decided that a couple of keys would fall off, even though I take great care of the device and keep it protected at all times using the faux-leather case, enough was enough. I was angry -- I'd waited 2 weeks for a replacement device and the replacement device they send me starts losing keys after just a month of light use? I kid you not -- my BlackBerry Bold sits in the charging station for most of the day while I work, coming out only when I have meetings or in evenings (like tonight) that I'm expecting something. And of the four years I've been using a BlackBerry device I'd never had any keys just "fall off". But, in classic fashion, and as expected according to the postings on the Internet, my "refurbished" BlackBerry seems to have been substandard and here I am again.

To make matters worse, I called Rogers Tech Support immediately only to find that their system is down (maintenance or otherwise) and I should call back.

So Rogers, I leave it up to you now -- do you go out of your way to make me happy (a brand new Bold 9700 would be best but at this point I'd settle for a brand new device period) or do you allow me to continue to feel mediocre and hope that when my contract is up at the end of the year that I stick it out with you instead of moving over to some other mobile provider?

The ball is in your court.

Update: I was contacted by via Twitter by someone from Rogers and they are going to escalate my issue. We'll see what the end result is.

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