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Phone Insurance Woes: Rogers Plus Chinook Calgary

What happens when the little guy gets pushed around? Well DiscussWireless.com comes to the rescue, figuratively of course. One of our regular contributors has gone through a SIX MONTH wait for a battery replacement from the Rogers Plus store in Chinook Mall in Calgary, Alberta. A new battery has never come despite over a dozen promises to fulfill the request leading to the belief this Rogers Plus is scamming their customers with their phone insurance offerings. Here is the story that takes us way back into December, 2006.

Phone Insurance Scam? Rogers Plus in Chinook Mall, Calgary, AB

The story begins two weeks before Christmas. Our user visited Rogers Plus in Chinook Mall to get a promised 'battery replacement' that was part of extra phone insurance bought with the cell phone over a year earlier. There was no issue at the time, the clerk took the name down on a piece of blank paper (no system in involved) and promised to get back in 2 weeks time.

Fast forward 3 weeks into the first week of the New Year. The extra week wait time was understandable due to the holidays. A phone call came and lo--the phone battery had arrived. Little did our user know that the New Year also brought ownership changes for this store. Intertan was bought out/sold the Rogers Plus store to Rogers Wireless. Currently Rogers Wireless is the owner of this Rogers Plus store (and many others) and manages it from a Rogers Plus division under Rogers Wireless. Here are the contact details for the Calgary regional office (we also have Rogers Plus contact info):

Rogers Wireless Regional Office CALGARY
1700 715 5th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB
T2P 2X6, (403) 730-2600

Upon arrival at the store, amidst evident confusion amongst the staff members, it became known that the phone battery had been returned to Intertan (who were apparently cutting their losses by taking back a $40.00 battery.) The battery that was supposed to be in was not. The sales associates had no idea who called (asking the customer who called is a stupid practice especially when the store does not have a policy to introduce by name their employees in return phone calls), had no record of the phone call, and had no record of the order. The confusion was obvious given the fact there was a change in ownership and the fact in this scenario all information was always recorded on the back of receipts or paper, never through a computer or form.

The story continues as our user re-submitted contact and phone info and was promised to get the phone battery in another 2 weeks. Well two weeks roll by and nothing. After a phone call a second personal visit to the office once again shows no record of the event ever taken place. Because of the poor record keeping nobody knew what was ordered or what would arrive. At the time (for the six months and perhaps still today) there is simply a box in a cupboard, if you're battery/phone/phone replacement made it safe through the mail it sits there for pickup.

This time our user spoke with an associate, took the bubbly blonde's name, and was promised she would personally handle the issue. In this case she actually phoned Rogers Wireless who clearly have a record of our user in their database because Rogers Plus had to 'check to see'. All things panned out and another battery was promised in a week.

One week past, then two. Nothing yet. By the third week in February another phone call was made and there was no phone and no record of the order. First week of March another phone call was made and this time user was placed on hold for 15 minutes before hanging up.

Discouraged the user let the issue die for a while, perhaps hoping for a battery to blow in from somewhere. Meanwhile contact details for the Rogers Wireless Plus store managers/district managers was made. Rogers Wireless provided the information above at the end of March. No contact was made to them since one item was left to do.

Mid-April rolls around with no new battery. A call was placed to speak directly with the manager. On the second call that day, and after a brief chat with the manager some progress was made. The manager would personally handle the situation and purchase the battery locally if one could not be found in time through suppliers. 'Call back the following week if you don't hear from us,' were the instructions.

The following week nothing was heard. Not wanting to let the issue die another call was placed asking for the manager. Surprisingly another twist--the manager no longer worked for Rogers Plus. The new manager was not in. Second call the following week, new manager still not in.

It is now the second week in May, 2007, and finally the new manager and our user chat. Once again, promises made. The manager promises to take care of the matter and even provides his personal cell number, 'call back in three days if you don't hear from me' are the instructions. Three days later a call is made to the store, the manager recalls the user, has not ordered the battery, but is now working to get it. That day a number of phone calls were exchanged getting the necessary information.

It is now June 29th, 2007, a full 6 and a half months after the first request and still now replacement battery for the cell phone. Rogers Plus in Calgary Chinook, and we can only surmise all Rogers Plus stores, DO NOT have the suitable capacity/efficiency to manage their insurance policies. You'll remember from one of our posts at DiscussWireless that additional cell phone insurance is usually the money making add ons the small independent stores offer and fulfill. This is the case in our instance.

After 6.5 months our user thought it was time to fight back in a sense. The chances of a new battery are gone, and the wait has been long (we'll say 4.5 months was the real time wait since there were lags in communication). This type of service is unacceptable and stores need to be held accountable when they fall dismally short of their customer service mandates. If you want to nickle and dime consumers so be it, but now people know to AVOID PURCHASING PHONE INSURANCE ADD ONS FROM ROGERS PLUS IN CHINOOK MALL IN CALGARY.

P.S. Rogers Plus managers can contact DiscussWireless.com to explain their actions and we'll be happy to post your response. Let this be a lesson to other stores trying to rip off customers, we'll rank higher than you on the web and inform consumers.

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