I had noticed earlier in the day when try to stream some radio on my Blackberry that I had a very slow connection. I had presumed that it was because I was outside the house and not in good range of the wireless modem.
A couple hours later after our garage sale I came in to check in to Facebook and see what was up with the world. After booting up the computer, my "Weather Eye" program wasn't displaying the current weather info. This only means one thing. No connectivity. The network was still working because I could connect via wifi, but there was no internet access. First step, unplug modem, wait a few second, plug modem back in and cross fingers.
No Luck.
Second step. Go online on phone and ask Facebook friends if anyone else was having any issues.
Nobody was. Not even my parents that only live a block away.
Hrm... I don't like it when we're the only one having issues.
So I call Rogers - 1.888.ROGERS.1
Rather than follow all the prompts I just hit "0" to get a customer service agent right away.
She asked for my info, asked what the problem was, asked if I had tried rebooting the modem and then claimed that she would try resetting it from her end.
No Luck. She had been very helpful but had done all she could do. She then transferred me to Tech Support. After a brief couple minutes of "we are currently experiencing a higher than normal call volume"** and "your call is important to us", I got a friendly female Tech Support Rep. Again she asked for my info, and again she asked if I had reset the modem, and again suggested she would reset (kick start) the modem on her end. When she tried to 'kick start' the modem from her end she quickly realised that she couldn't even connect to the modem. Ding Ding Ding. We have a problem.
CSR - "Well, it appears I'm going to have to send a technician out"
Me - "What are the odds of having an available technician on the Saturday afternoon of a long weekend?
CSR - "Let's just see what I can do here"
Pause
CSR - "Darn I'm good. I have a technician in your area with an opening between 4pm and 6pm" (It was currently about 3:20pm)
Me - "Set it up"
CSR - (I'm paraphrasing slightly here) "Okay sir, I just have to let you know that if the problem is our equipment or our lines there will be no charge. However if the problem is your equipment or you've somehow managed to bugger up our equipment, you will be charged for the service call and the cost to replace the equipment"
Me - "Yup, send the Technician"
At this point I'm not expecting to receive a call from the technician till almost 6pm. So I figured I had time to hop in the shower and go grab a bite with Kelly. Neither of us had eaten anything significant yet and were both rather hungry.
Before hopping in the shower I left my phone with Kelly on the off chance the technician called whilst I was washing.
I shower and head to the bedroom to dry and dress.
Before I even have a chance to dry off my phone starts ringing (3:52pm).
It's a number I don't recognise. Geez, could it be the tech already?
"Hi, this is Barry from Rogers. I'm just heading over and want to confirm that someone is home"
I confirmed that we were indeed home and he said he would be here in 5 - 10 minutes. Well I had no sooner hung up the phone and dried my right foot and I hear a vehicle pull up. A Rogers van. That was a quick 5 - 10 minutes.
Luckily he decided to start his diagnosis at the pole, so I had time to finish drying and dressing.
As I was heading outside to say hi he was already at the demarcation point (the box on the side of the house) and was opening it up to check the connections. He told me there was good signal and the pole and there's good signal in the box. Time to check inside.
I bring him inside our thoroughly messy house (all the leftovers from the garage sale had just been tossed inside), and show him to the office. As we walk into the office I notice all the proper lights are lit on the modem and they're the right colours. I said "I don't know what you did, but it's working now" I tried to hop onto Facebook and we saw the modem go down again. He disconnected the cable from the modem... perfect signal strength. He re-attached the cable and the modem came back online. As soon as we tried surfing it went down again.
His suggestion was to replace the modem. Luckily he had a new one in his truck. As he was disconnecting it he noticed that I had been given the wrong power supply. Well, this unit came from the Rogers store in Midland and was sealed and packaged as if new. It seems it was not a new unit, it was a refurbished unit that had been packaged with the wrong power supply. So although it worked for a couple months it seems the slightly different amperage slowly fried the modems circuitry. Kind of like a smoker slowly frying their lungs.
After he grabbed the new one from his truck I could clearly see the difference in the power supply and have no idea how the wrong one could have been put in the package I had original receive. The differences in the two were like night and day.
Once the modem was online we tried surfing the net. Ba-da-bing, we have internet.
LESS THAN AN HOUR FROM MY ORIGINAL CALL TO CUSTOMER SUPPORT I HAD A NEW MODEM AND WORKING INTERNET.
The kind of customer service is unheard of. Kudos to Rogers. (Shame on the Rogers store for giving me the incorrect power supply)
I have to give props to Rogers, it really seems that over the past few years they have completely rewritten what customer service should be. They seem to be trying now.
Thanks Barry
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** in 95% of the phone calls that I get put on hold I hear "we are currently experiencing a higher than normal call volume". Well, if this is always the case then doesn't that higher volume of calls become the new norm? I think it should be an honest statement, "we know that for a few hours a day we have a spike in calls, but it just doesn't make logical sense to bring in extra staff for the few hours of more calls. Please be patient and wait your turn. Thank you" At least that'd be an honest statement.
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