When Cathy Cooper signed a contract with Rogers Communications four months ago, she says a sales rep told her the monthly price for TV and internet service was guaranteed for two years.
So she was shocked to see her monthly bill increase just three months later, and called the telco giant to find out what was going on.
That’s when she learned that the TV boxes in her house were going up $7 apiece, except for one which would still be included in her monthly package.
Cooper had six TV boxes, because her grown children and a grandchild live at home with her.
“They [Rogers] are gouging people,” Cooper said, sitting in her kitchen in Sidney, B.C., on Vancouver Island. “It’s not right.”
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On the phone with Cooper, the Rogers rep explained that equipment such as TV boxes are considered a monthly rental — separate from the base TV service — and the fine print in customers’ contracts says rental fees can change.
“Basically, they’re allowed to do it,” said Cooper. “I’m frustrated.”
A public policy and technology expert says how the Rogers contract is presented appears to be misleading to customers.
“It’s obviously a bait and switch,” said Vass Bednar, executive director of McMaster University’s Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program.
“You sign up, you lock in, and then suddenly you’re out of luck.”
Bednar considers the price hike a “lazy” move by Rogers — to squeeze more money out of customers after its merger last year with Shaw Communications.
Rogers customers are speaking out to CBC’s Go Public after believing their monthly charges were locked in for two years, only to find out TV boxes weren’t part of the promised price. Now their bills are going up and Rogers won’t budge.
“Like, ‘Hey, we already have this [customer] base,'” she said. “‘Why don’t we increase the price of something that they’re already locked in for and see what happens?'”
Rogers spokesperson Zac Carreiro told Go Public that no one was available for an interview.
In a statement, he said the company is “committed to delivering the best entertainment experience” and making “record investments” in technology.
‘Rising costs’
All customers with Rogers TV boxes, called the Ignite Entertainment Box, received a notice on their monthly statements this summer, explaining that the price increase would be effective mid-September and was due to “rising costs to deliver the latest technology.”
But Cooper — and other Rogers customers who contacted Go Public — question what technology has been upgraded. They say their TV boxes are the same ones they’ve had for several years as previous Shaw customers.
“They’re three to four years old,” said Cooper. “It’s all Shaw equipment.”
Carreiro, the spokesperson, did not address why some customers’ TV boxes are several years old. He said the company will spend $4 billion on capital investments this year, including upgrades to equipment and software for hundreds of thousands of TV customers.
Paul Greenberg of Toronto signed a contract for internet and TV with Rogers in March — believing he, too, had a fixed price for two years.
Instead, his bill for two extra TV boxes went from $10 each a month to $17 per box.
“This is unacceptable,” said Greenberg. “No one told me the boxes weren’t included.”
He spent several hours on the phone with Rogers and managed to get $5 taken off his monthly bill and a $100 one-time credit, but says he still feels ripped off.
“I think it’s disgusting that you have to call and fight,” he said.
The fee hike comes on the heels of record-breaking revenue for Rogers which, apart from its telco and wireless holdings, also owns radio and TV stations across the country and stakes in several pro sports teams.
Last year, the company brought in $19.3 billion — an increase of 25 per cent over the year before, although profits were down nearly 50 per cent due to the Shaw acquisition.
Cooper, Greenberg and others all say they asked Rogers if they could purchase the TV boxes instead of rent them, and were told that’s not an option.
That concerns Bednar.
“It’s not even a rent-to-own model, where you’re paying for the cost over time,” she said.
“You’re simply paying to rent a piece of infrastructure that is necessary for the services you want to receive.”
Carreiro said renting the TV boxes is “industry standard.”
Controversial merger
When Rogers announced plans to buy Shaw, Canada’s Competition Bureau fought the merger, citing concerns that the elimination of Shaw as a competitor would lead to harm for consumers, including price increases.
At the time, Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri pledged lower prices for customers and brushed aside competition concerns.
Earlier this year, Rogers upped the price of some cellphone, internet and home phone plans.
But Carreiro said Rogers customers who bundle TV with internet have seen prices “come down five per cent since the merger” and says “the cost per 5 GB of cellular data has dropped 50 per cent.”
A spokesperson for the Competition Bureau says it stands by its opposition to the takeover.
“We have … observed that Rogers no longer offers pricing comparable to that of Shaw on bundled products and that no competitor has emerged in Alberta and British Columbia since the merger to replicate the competition brought by Shaw in that regard.”
Bednar watched the Rogers/Shaw merger closely, and says the takeover led to a lot of customer frustration and anger.
“A lot of people felt quite defeated,” she said.
She says federal authorities should empower consumers by demanding that telcos give customers better options when they become dissatisfied with pricing or services.
“I’d love for [customers] to find affordable ways to be able to exit that contract,” said Bednar.
Currently, all telcos have clauses that require customers to pay hefty fines to cancel their contracts.
In Cooper’s case, she’d have to pay $720 to get out of a contract she says she was misled into signing.
“That just compounds the … defeat and the constraint that people feel,” said Bednar.
Go Public requested an interview with Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, but was told he was not available.
In a statement, spokesperson Justin Simard said the government “is committed to promoting competition in the telecommunications sector” and pointed to data from Statistics Canada that shows overall prices for cell phone and internet services have gone down over the past year (Ignite TV requires an internet connection).
Rogers complaints growing
Rogers customers appear to be growing more and more frustrated with the company.
According to the latest data from the Canada’s telecom mediator, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), Rogers is the most complained-about service provider, accounting for more than a quarter of all complaints — most about wireless service.
In the second half of 2023, the CCTS reported that complaints against Rogers skyrocketed, rising 118 per cent compared with the same period the year before.
One of the top complaints was that the contract didn’t match what the customer thought they agreed to pay for, or the rules around the agreement were not clear.
A spokesperson for the CCTS said the organization “has been closely monitoring” equipment rental fees increases and has received “a handful of complaints about Rogers’ changes since September.”
She said if customers believe an increase contravenes what their provider specifically promised, they should try to get their concerns addressed and if they are not satisfied, can file a complaint with the CCTS.
After calling Rogers “countless, countless, countless” times, Cooper says she managed to negotiate a one-time $315 credit.
She also returned two of her six TV boxes to try to keep costs down, but says her frustration with Rogers is far from over.
She expects she’ll have to keep calling and keep fighting to get her monthly bill under control.
“I have not had one bill that has made sense since Rogers has taken over,” said Cooper. “The last one came yesterday and it still isn’t right.”
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