I am a veteran of the telecom industry – and I can tell you – not everyone in telecom is a dickhead. But I can tell you that there are those in the higher echelons of the big three – Rogers, Telus and Bell – who definitely are dickheads. And unfortunately – because they have the power – they force their minions to be dickheads just like they are.

Take this case for example. Here’s the situations. I was on a business trip to Calgary and the earphone jack in my seat was broken. So, I couldn’t listen to their inplane entertainment, nor could I listen on my phone because one, I don’t keep movies of music on my phone as I stream everything, and two, I refused to pay their Internet fee because I’m new to the company I work for and was too fraidycat to expense it.

Instead, I read while being forced to listen to the 360 lb manspreading mouthbreather beside me whine to the guy across the aisle about how Theresa was shitty for the company, and wasn’t a team player, and how they were going to have to do something about her.

I wished I’d heard what company they worked for – because I’d reach out to Theresa to let her know.

Anyway – it was still a great flight – because all flights that land safely are amazingly great – but could have been better had I had a workable sound solution.

Which takes me to this: I woke up at 4am Calgary-time with nothing to do so I started downloading music on my phone so this would never happen again. I queued up about a gaggilion songs and read for a bit, before nodding off, and woke up a few hours later.

The only problem was – my phone had somehow disconnected from the hotel WiFi – and I was using pure data to download. I had a bunch of texts from Rogers that I had missed – 1st – letting me know I was nearing my data cap – and did I want to add in a Gb for $3? 2nd – Letting me know I was over my data cap and I was being charged overages. And third, they were pausing my data access as I had reached $50 in data overage charges.

Well shit. $50 was really annoying, but lesson learned. I contacted Rogers and asked I could take the $3 offer or if there was anything I could do to reduce the charges, and they said no.

Fine.

Fuckers.

I was pissed off, but mostly at myself, and then the bill came in yesterday:

• Data 10GB Data – Included 10.00 GB
• Additional Data Usage 2.36 GB
• Total charge for Data Overage 175.00

I opened a chat with Rogers immediately:

09:52:04 AM  [Youyi] Hi, I’m Youyi from Rogers in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. How are you doing today, Gavin? 
09:52:22 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Great – how are you?
09:53:36 AM  [Youyi] I am fine, thank you for asking. Gavin, how could I help you today?
09:54:00 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] I was paying my bill and I have a data overage charge of $175 
09:54:36 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] It was from a business trip where I thought I was on the hotel WiFi – but wasn’t – and I downloaded a lot of music.
09:55:17 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Is there any chance of having it waved or reduced because $175 seems extreme for 2 GB of data
09:56:03 AM  [Youyi] Gavin, I can definitely help you with billing service. To better assist you, I need to bring up your account. 
10:01:24 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Still there?
10:01:33 AM  [Youyi] Yes, I am still here.
10:01:50 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Okee doke. Just checking
10:01:59 AM  [Youyi] Gavin, with your existing plan, the maximum I can do on the data overage is $25 goodwill credit.
10:02:30 AM  [Youyi] If you change the price plan to one which can cover the total usage, I can apply $50 credit on the overage with price plan upgrade/ 
10:03:22 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] I’ll take the credit – won’t take the plan change. So – I just want to be clear. I use you guys for 2 phones, cable, home phone and internet – which totals to $5000 a year and you offer me $25 as a goodwill gesture? 
10:05:54 AM  [Youyi] Unfortunately, without price plan upgrade, the maximum I can do is $25 goodwill on the data overage charge.
10:07:39 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] You do know that I can figure out that a price plan upgrade would cost more than the $150 one time waiver right? So – in essence, you are offering to take more of my money to solve this issue.
10:08:56 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Is there a way to escalate this please? 
10:11:05 AM  [Youyi] Gavin, I do understand where you are coming from, however, the maximum I can do is $25 with your existing plan. If you upgrade the price plan, I can adjust the data overage charge with $50, and you can use more data with price plan upgrade.
10:12:15 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] I don’t need more data – that’s the thing. I made a one-time booboo on a business trip due to being punchy from the time change. 
10:12:30 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] What I need to do is escalate this if possible, 
10:14:28 AM  [Youyi] Gavin, I will transfer you momentarily in a priority sequence to our Manager team for escalation. Please do not close this chat window as doing so will end the chat. 
10:14:52 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Thanks Youyi. Appreciate it. 

10:16:02 AM  [Anne] Hello, you’ve reached  Anne from the Rogers Management Office Live Chat. I understand you asked to speak to a supervisor and it would be my pleasure to review your account with you today. Could you please hold for 3-6 minutes while I review the information provided by the transferring agent?
10:16:45 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Thanks Anne. Will do.
10:17:40 AM  [Anne] You are welcome, it won’t be long.
10:19:35 AM  [Anne] Thank you for your patience, after viewing the previous chat, my understanding is that you have concerns about extra data charges on your current bill while you were on a business trip?
10:21:20 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Ya – I made a mistake – thinking my phone was on the hotel wifi – but it had disconnected and didn’t reconnect. downloaded some music for the return flight – not realizing I was on data. It was a 4am mistake. I admit it was my error. But $175 for 2Gb overage?
10:23:09 AM  [Anne] OK, I see and appreciate your honesty, I am sorry that you were charged for extra data and for that I will certainly assist you by viewing the account for more details.
10:23:20 AM  [Anne] Allow me 3 to 6 minutes.
:30:24 AM  [Anne] After viewing the account and seeing that you are a long time Rogers customer, about the data extra charge as a solution, I will provide you with a 50% credit of the charge.
10:31:00 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Thanks. Appreciate that. 
10:31:55 AM  [Anne] You are welcome, and please understand that this adjustment is a one time credit and that going forward you will be responsible for the total charge.
10:32:49 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] It was a one-time thing. Does the $25 goodwill waiver Youyi gave me still apply as well?
10:35:16 AM  [Anne] No $25.00 goodwill does not apply, that is the reason that you were transferred to a manager and I have provided you with an exception at 50% credit of the data extra charge
10:35:35 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] No goodwill then. Awesome! I’ll take what I can get I guess. Thanks
10:36:27 AM  [Anne] You are welcome.
10:37:27 AM  [Anne] I have completed the manual adjustment of $87.50 + taxes for the data extra charges, and now your current balance is at $406.32.
10:38:17 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Great. 
10:38:28 AM  [GAVIN MCDOUGALD] Have a nice day

When I worked in telecom, it was drilled into me that the business model was really hard to screwup. Telecom services work as a utility – we as consumers are conditioned to pay our monthly charges are rarely if ever switch. This is called churn, and it’s a number they focus on keeping lo. It’s essentially the only number they care about.

The cost of acquisition for customers is relatively high in that business, but the lifetime value for a single customer is through the roof, so the focus, once you have a customer, is to keep that customer. They are, quite literally, like money in the bank.

I’m in the process of cancelling my Rogers mobile – and will get off the rest of their services over the next few weeks. From ~ $5000/yr, for the past 15 years or so – to zero.

All over a lack of situational understanding about what turned about to be an $87.50 data charge dispute.

I churned. I feel a little better.

Oh, who did I churn too? I have a work phone, so I opened up a Fongo account and transferred my number to them. I downloaded the free app, and will pay $10/yr to get texts on my old number. I now can call and text from my long tome personal number for free (essentially) using my work phone.

Here’s the link to Fongo.