Rogers should have sent a warning to the user that this was happening, but given the unethical and predatory nature of the telcoms in Canada it does not surprise me.
Move to Wind Mobile...that's the answer.
Laurie - 12 years ago
It is not reasonable to expect the parent to have known that the app would result in text messages being routed to the U.S. Nor is it reasonable to expect Rogers to incur charges for the ignorance of the child/parent.
Maybe the lesson learned is that kids shouldn't be doing so much texting! This lesson might be worth the $400 cost alone. If I were Rogers, I would have offered to split the charge.
As for cutting the customer off and making them pay the cancellation penalties for all the phones....what an idiot action on the part of Rogers! So this is how much you value your customers? Sigh!!
Jared - 12 years ago
As much as I sympathize with him, you wouldn't believe the number of calls rogers gets on a daily basis regarding usage. They are 99% unwarranted (not rogers fault), too many people who refuse to do their due diligence to find out if certain types of usage are covered, they use first, ask questions (sorry demand compensation) later. If you bought a life insurance policy, then you became disabled, you wouldn't call your life insurance provider demanding they cover you for disability expenses as well - because you took the time to understand what you purchased. Do it with your cell phone plans (you can get ALL the details on rogers my account, and on the right margin of your bill breakdowns every month!) Educate yourselves like your life depends on it. Rogers shouldn't be on the hook for the cancellation fees either - he broke the contract when he refused to pay what he owed, and Rogers refused to carry that delinquency as a liability forever (he received many many communications letting him know full well what was going to happen without payment, or even payment arrangements that would have prevented that.) Why don't people man up and accept responsibility for their mistakes, and if you don't, at least treat the agent on the other end of the phone like a human being, after all, they hate that company more than you could possibly imagine - they will be your best chance of a resolution if it is within their power, and if its not, they will plead your case to the higher ups convincingly (more than yelling and screaming)
lucille - 12 years ago
I feel that The guy should be glad he wasn't in the situation I was with bell. I had aparantly used data when i thought I had a data plan although I didn't, which caused them to charge me on a per kb basis, resulting in an $8200 bill that I am still paying due to the fact that bell has no heart for forgiveness! I have since switched to Rogers, and haven't had a problem. I have noticed that Rogers service/call quality is far superior to that of bell. I can actually understand what the person is saying on the other end of the call on my iPhone. Bell should be avoided, their customer service is beyond pathetic, all you ever get is a foreigner on the phone when you call and the most they can give you is a $5 credit! Not to mention they are downright ignorant and you can't understand a word they say. This is no doubt a result of them outsourcing to other countries for cheaper labour!
Jonn - 12 years ago
Ultimately he should be held responsible for this. Had he have done his research, he would have realized that Rogers has some very reasonable text plans that include unlimited international texting! I am currently on a Canada wide plan, although occasionally I text a friend in the us. To me it would be a hassle if they notified me after every txt I sent to the us. The son should have done the smart thing and realized that the area code wasn't the same as his, and quickly googled it to verify where it was! Ultimately the father is responsible for not discussing the plan terms with the kid, simply telling him it only includes Canada texting and If the area code isn't familiar then google it! Simple solution but many people don't get it these days...
Adriano P - 12 years ago
Why would anyone download a texting app? Aren't cell phones already equipped to send and received text messages?
ansell - 12 years ago
rogers should have text him to say he went over his text limit when he had gone over it .they do it every time to me when my account need to be refill or every time i try to make a long distance call to the states or even in Canada .and am on pay as you go .
Bob - 12 years ago
I agree with albe, pay up. I made my kids pay for their over usage and made sure they were aware of what costs THEY were incurring.
Jim - 12 years ago
Rogers ripped me off years ago in a similar manner. It seems their 3 year contract magically renews itself at its conclusion, thereby enabling them to produce more" valid" bills. One of their social workers informed me they would ruin my credit if I did not pay up, a threat they followed up on. This was about 15 years ago and it seems they havn't changed a bit. At the time I contacted the provincial and federal ombudsman, but they informed me that Rogers were not breaking any laws, but was one of the record holders for the number of unfair practice complaints they were receiving. Nothings changed, check out the competition, Please!
Jim - 12 years ago
Rogers ripped me off years ago in a similar manner. It seems their 3 year contract magically renews itself at its conclusion, thereby enabling them to produce more" valid" bills. One of their social workers informed me they would ruin my credit if I did not pay up, a threat they followed up on. This was about 15 years ago and it seems they havn't changed a bit. At the time I contacted the provincial and federal ombudsman, but they informed me that Rogers were not breaking any laws, but was one of the record holders for the number of unfair practice complaints they were receiving. Nothings changed, check out the competition, Please!
albe - 12 years ago
Why should he not pay? he read the contract,didn't he, he let someone else do the calling.
Did the contract have to take him thru the consequences of his choice, by the hand.
He did not know the app went out of the country, well man up boo hoo. Again entitled are you ?
The loss if forgiven , like shoplifting will be absorbed by the other shoppers. Why ? Cause he's disturbing the- what. Another freeloader.
connor - 12 years ago
glad that this has become known i have recently been looking at rogers for my next phone but now i see what horrible service they provide yes the app company should be blamed but these texts should have a warning stating extra cost can be added. Me being soo close to the US border we cross frequently and my current provider sends a warning to me stating that i am crossing and i should turn my phone off i find it very usefull.
Tiana - 12 years ago
I would never subscribe to a company that would be so inflexible and unreasonable.
Robert Roll - 12 years ago
Let Alex Dunsmore of Kamloops, B.C., find a good class action lawyer who takes the case on contingency and see how fast Rogers backs down, cancelling all charges, issuing complementary credits and legal charges absorbed by Rogers. Great bad publicity for Rogers and the cost of possibility of losing.
dA PI - 12 years ago
Oh ya those people,I gave up on them along time ago. Should maybe use another provider,ban the use of ROGER's.Get a more HONEST provider.
Rick K - 12 years ago
If the son had replied to the text using the same app on an iphone or ipod there wouldnt have been any charges.
I did attempt it once using my blackberry replying to a text from a friend, Actually he was standing right next to me and we did want to see if there were any problems. That evening I did my usual check on "myrogers" and found the charge. Needless to say, I do not reply to texts if I don't know how they are being sent.
I think there is a lot of ignorance on the part of the consumer as to how the texting system works.
My overseas friends either use BBM or I use my free texting app on the Itouch to text them.
Should he "the plan owner" be responsible for the whole bill, I dont think so but at least some of it, just to keep him on his toes.
Charles - 12 years ago
I believe ultimately the father should sue the app company for false advertizing - if indeed his son was texting to a US number (even if he didn't know), the app claimed to offer free texting. This claim was not made by Rogers, who was only offering free texting in Canada, so while it would be "nice" to forgive the charges, this HeyWire company is still expecting their pay cut from Rogers.
Jonas - 12 years ago
Dear CRCT, the public needs protection from these extremely profitable service providers and their convoluted data plans.
Nichole o - 12 years ago
This happened to me with Bell Mobility. They waived 1/2 the charges for me.
Janet - 12 years ago
There should be a warning when picked up by an American satellite or something that will cause extra charges ! How are we suppose to know !
Rogers should have sent a warning to the user that this was happening, but given the unethical and predatory nature of the telcoms in Canada it does not surprise me.
Move to Wind Mobile...that's the answer.
It is not reasonable to expect the parent to have known that the app would result in text messages being routed to the U.S. Nor is it reasonable to expect Rogers to incur charges for the ignorance of the child/parent.
Maybe the lesson learned is that kids shouldn't be doing so much texting! This lesson might be worth the $400 cost alone. If I were Rogers, I would have offered to split the charge.
As for cutting the customer off and making them pay the cancellation penalties for all the phones....what an idiot action on the part of Rogers! So this is how much you value your customers? Sigh!!
As much as I sympathize with him, you wouldn't believe the number of calls rogers gets on a daily basis regarding usage. They are 99% unwarranted (not rogers fault), too many people who refuse to do their due diligence to find out if certain types of usage are covered, they use first, ask questions (sorry demand compensation) later. If you bought a life insurance policy, then you became disabled, you wouldn't call your life insurance provider demanding they cover you for disability expenses as well - because you took the time to understand what you purchased. Do it with your cell phone plans (you can get ALL the details on rogers my account, and on the right margin of your bill breakdowns every month!) Educate yourselves like your life depends on it. Rogers shouldn't be on the hook for the cancellation fees either - he broke the contract when he refused to pay what he owed, and Rogers refused to carry that delinquency as a liability forever (he received many many communications letting him know full well what was going to happen without payment, or even payment arrangements that would have prevented that.) Why don't people man up and accept responsibility for their mistakes, and if you don't, at least treat the agent on the other end of the phone like a human being, after all, they hate that company more than you could possibly imagine - they will be your best chance of a resolution if it is within their power, and if its not, they will plead your case to the higher ups convincingly (more than yelling and screaming)
I feel that The guy should be glad he wasn't in the situation I was with bell. I had aparantly used data when i thought I had a data plan although I didn't, which caused them to charge me on a per kb basis, resulting in an $8200 bill that I am still paying due to the fact that bell has no heart for forgiveness! I have since switched to Rogers, and haven't had a problem. I have noticed that Rogers service/call quality is far superior to that of bell. I can actually understand what the person is saying on the other end of the call on my iPhone. Bell should be avoided, their customer service is beyond pathetic, all you ever get is a foreigner on the phone when you call and the most they can give you is a $5 credit! Not to mention they are downright ignorant and you can't understand a word they say. This is no doubt a result of them outsourcing to other countries for cheaper labour!
Ultimately he should be held responsible for this. Had he have done his research, he would have realized that Rogers has some very reasonable text plans that include unlimited international texting! I am currently on a Canada wide plan, although occasionally I text a friend in the us. To me it would be a hassle if they notified me after every txt I sent to the us. The son should have done the smart thing and realized that the area code wasn't the same as his, and quickly googled it to verify where it was! Ultimately the father is responsible for not discussing the plan terms with the kid, simply telling him it only includes Canada texting and If the area code isn't familiar then google it! Simple solution but many people don't get it these days...
Why would anyone download a texting app? Aren't cell phones already equipped to send and received text messages?
rogers should have text him to say he went over his text limit when he had gone over it .they do it every time to me when my account need to be refill or every time i try to make a long distance call to the states or even in Canada .and am on pay as you go .
I agree with albe, pay up. I made my kids pay for their over usage and made sure they were aware of what costs THEY were incurring.
Rogers ripped me off years ago in a similar manner. It seems their 3 year contract magically renews itself at its conclusion, thereby enabling them to produce more" valid" bills. One of their social workers informed me they would ruin my credit if I did not pay up, a threat they followed up on. This was about 15 years ago and it seems they havn't changed a bit. At the time I contacted the provincial and federal ombudsman, but they informed me that Rogers were not breaking any laws, but was one of the record holders for the number of unfair practice complaints they were receiving. Nothings changed, check out the competition, Please!
Rogers ripped me off years ago in a similar manner. It seems their 3 year contract magically renews itself at its conclusion, thereby enabling them to produce more" valid" bills. One of their social workers informed me they would ruin my credit if I did not pay up, a threat they followed up on. This was about 15 years ago and it seems they havn't changed a bit. At the time I contacted the provincial and federal ombudsman, but they informed me that Rogers were not breaking any laws, but was one of the record holders for the number of unfair practice complaints they were receiving. Nothings changed, check out the competition, Please!
Why should he not pay? he read the contract,didn't he, he let someone else do the calling.
Did the contract have to take him thru the consequences of his choice, by the hand.
He did not know the app went out of the country, well man up boo hoo. Again entitled are you ?
The loss if forgiven , like shoplifting will be absorbed by the other shoppers. Why ? Cause he's disturbing the- what. Another freeloader.
glad that this has become known i have recently been looking at rogers for my next phone but now i see what horrible service they provide yes the app company should be blamed but these texts should have a warning stating extra cost can be added. Me being soo close to the US border we cross frequently and my current provider sends a warning to me stating that i am crossing and i should turn my phone off i find it very usefull.
I would never subscribe to a company that would be so inflexible and unreasonable.
Let Alex Dunsmore of Kamloops, B.C., find a good class action lawyer who takes the case on contingency and see how fast Rogers backs down, cancelling all charges, issuing complementary credits and legal charges absorbed by Rogers. Great bad publicity for Rogers and the cost of possibility of losing.
Oh ya those people,I gave up on them along time ago. Should maybe use another provider,ban the use of ROGER's.Get a more HONEST provider.
If the son had replied to the text using the same app on an iphone or ipod there wouldnt have been any charges.
I did attempt it once using my blackberry replying to a text from a friend, Actually he was standing right next to me and we did want to see if there were any problems. That evening I did my usual check on "myrogers" and found the charge. Needless to say, I do not reply to texts if I don't know how they are being sent.
I think there is a lot of ignorance on the part of the consumer as to how the texting system works.
My overseas friends either use BBM or I use my free texting app on the Itouch to text them.
Should he "the plan owner" be responsible for the whole bill, I dont think so but at least some of it, just to keep him on his toes.
I believe ultimately the father should sue the app company for false advertizing - if indeed his son was texting to a US number (even if he didn't know), the app claimed to offer free texting. This claim was not made by Rogers, who was only offering free texting in Canada, so while it would be "nice" to forgive the charges, this HeyWire company is still expecting their pay cut from Rogers.
Dear CRCT, the public needs protection from these extremely profitable service providers and their convoluted data plans.
This happened to me with Bell Mobility. They waived 1/2 the charges for me.
There should be a warning when picked up by an American satellite or something that will cause extra charges ! How are we suppose to know !