When Anil Sedha decided to cancel his company’s Internet service in Rogers, he expected to log on, click a few buttons, and be done. But the customer support link was broken. A chatbot told him he could only cancel by calling.
Thus began what the Winnipeg man estimates was a seven-hour ordeal spread over several weeks last summer, trapped in a maze of music on hold, dropped calls and endless transfers between departments.
“It was a constant theme: ‘We’re having a high volume of calls,’” Sedha said. “I tried calling at different times of the day and on different days.”
No matter when he tried, he says the result was the same: hours of waiting, talking to representatives who couldn’t help, being disconnected in the middle of a call and starting all over again.
“How many days should I call someone just to cancel a simple Internet service?” asked.
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Sedha’s experience is not unique. Dozens of disgruntled Rogers customers recently wrote to Go Public and posted on social media, complaining about long wait times, complicated cancellation procedures and poor service.
Many question the recent layoffs at Rogers call centers and complain about how three major providers (Rogers, Bell and Telus) dominate the industry. Together they control most of the country’s mobile phone, television and Internet market, a problem that critics say has worsened. when Rogers was allowed to take over Shaw in 2023.
Customer service experts say this lack of competition is precisely the problem.
“It reduces the need for these telcos to compete and provide good customer service because they think, ‘Customers need us, so we don’t really need to do anything to improve our service,'” said Eugene Chan, associate professor at Metropolitan University of Toronto’s Ted Rogers School of Management.
A spokesman for Rogers declined to speak on camera, but said in a statement that the company has millions of customer interactions each month and works hard “to deliver a great experience.”
Recent call center layoffs
While customers complain about poor customer service, Rogers appears to be reducing the number of people answering those calls.
The company recently terminated its contract with Foundever, a Miami-based company that employed hundreds of Canadians who answered Rogers’ customer service calls. Neither Rogers nor Foundever will say exactly how many people were laid off or whether those positions were moved elsewhere.
Two former employees who lost their jobs in those layoffs say they were told in staff meetings that Rogers, like so many other large corporations, is “driving digital adoption,” which they believe means greater use of AI.
Both said they spent much of their time over the past year training artificial intelligence systems.
Rogers customers tell CBC’s Go Public they’re frustrated after spending hours on hold trying to resolve basic issues. Meanwhile, experts say the company is increasingly relying on AI assistance to handle customer service calls.
Using a tool called Agent Assist, the AI would listen to calls, generate notes, and even suggest troubleshooting steps to employees. Agents had to approve or correct the AI’s responses, a process closely monitored through their performance metrics on each call.
“Recently, they posted something that actually tells the agent what steps they need to take to fix the issue,” one former employee explained. “It’s about listening to the customer’s problem, so the agent doesn’t have to solve it.”
CBC is not identifying former employees because they fear professional repercussions.
While AI can streamline Rogers’ operations, the former worker said it risks removing the human element that many customers need.
“I think it will make customers feel the coldness, not the warmth, of an agent,” the former customer service agent said. “If a family member passed away and someone calls to close an account, how can AI have compassion?”
Another former employee echoed the concern, saying Rogers’ policy often requires agents to present offers or upsell customers, even during sensitive calls. He says human agents can decide not to do that, even though they might get into trouble, but he suggested AI agents wouldn’t make the distinction.
Rogers says its investment in AI is “improving” its customer service by making it easier for agents to find solutions “more efficiently.”
Rogers promised to create jobs
Rogers is under scrutiny by regulators because, as part of the conditions for the merger with Shaw, the company must create 3,000 jobs in Western Canada by 2027.
The telecommunications giant says it is on track to achieve this, with more than 1,800 jobs already created. But the conditions of the merger do not prevent them from reducing staff in other regions. The recent layoffs at Foundever do not count as a workforce reduction at Rogers, because they were contract employees.
At the time of the merger, Rogers also promised to move overseas jobs to Canada to provide “100 per cent Canadian-based customer service.”
But now, a Rogers spokesperson says “most” agents are based in Canada. He did not specify how many jobs have been moved abroad.
Customer forced to turn to the telecommunications ombudsman
Dealing with Rogers has also been infuriating for Fran Munro of Pender Island, BC.
A few months ago, a technician came to replace your old modem—a routine service call that turned into a billing nightmare because he created a new account while the old one was never closed. As a result, Munro and her husband received bills from two separate accounts.
Despite paying the new bill each month, they continued to receive overdue notices on the old account and eventually received a warning that their service would be disconnected if they did not pay.
Like Sedha, she spent hours on hold, was repeatedly transferred between departments, and still couldn’t find anyone who could fix the problem or even explain what went wrong.
“I wasted a lot of time and some sleepless nights wondering, ‘What am I doing wrong here? Why can’t I contact anyone?’ “Munro said. “It’s just extremely frustrating.”
Rogers then cut off the couple’s television service, which Munro suspects was due to the billing mix-up.
Only after she contacted the Complaints Commission for Telecommunications and Television Services (CCTS), an independent ombudsman that deals with unresolved telecommunications disputes, did they finally get help. The CCTS does not handle general customer service complaints, but was able to intervene because the issue involved billing errors.
Rogers apologized for the “frustrating experience,” reduced Munro’s monthly bill by $40 and offered a one-time $250 bill credit as a “gesture of goodwill.”
Munro said she is relieved the situation has been resolved, but remains frustrated by how difficult it was to reach a solution.
Call for regulatory reforms
Meanwhile, other countries require minimum levels of customer service and force companies to make it easier to cancel contracts.
Spain is drafting legislation to force large companies to answer 95 percent of calls within three minutes and limit the use of automated systems. The EU is adopting rules to make it easier to cancel contracts, and Germany already requires companies to provide “two-click cancellation” for many contracts.
Canada has no such llegislation, as well as a law that allows users to cancel mobile services simply by signing up with a new provider. Chan says youTelecommunications companies do not need to provide good customer service, because there are no rules for doing so.
“They can get away with it in some ways because there are very few federal regulations governing the customer service experience,” he said.
Keldon Bester, executive director of the Canadian Antitrust Project (CAMP), says there should be legislation to ensure customers don’t experience unnecessary friction when ending a service.
“It should be as easy to cancel a service as it is to sign up for it,” he said.
Sedha agrees.
“What’s so complicated about just giving a simple ‘I want to cancel’ button?” asked.
In a statement to Go Public, a spokesperson for Canada’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development said the government has taken steps to make the industry more competitive, such as allowing telecommunications providers to see Internet on their competitors’ networks.
7 hours to say goodbye
After weeks of frustration, Sedha finally learned that to cancel her service she would have to send an email, something no one had mentioned in her many previous calls.
“My first reaction was, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” said.
A Rogers agent then said he would be given another month’s service because he had to return the equipment, but Sedha resisted and got the charge waived.
Sedha’s ordeal ended in August only after he sent that last email and returned his equipment, after spending about seven hours trying to reach someone at Rogers who could help him. The experience has left him with a lingering worry about how others might have to deal with the same problem.
“What if it was one of my family members? An older person? Or a new immigrant?” asked. “How would you handle it?”
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