[if(is_geek)…]

This is the last post on my battle to get an iPhone for myself and a Blackberry Pearl Flip for my wife from Roger’s wireless. Previous episodes: Episode 1: The Phantom iPhone, Episode 2: A Lack of a Phone, Episode 3: Revenge of the Pissed, Episode 4: A New Phone, Episode 5: The Empire Bills Back, Episode 6: Return of the Mad Guy, Episode 7: Seeing Red and Episode 8: Resolution

Altogether it took several months and endless frustration for me to get everything sorted out with Roger’s. Going just by the numbers, I actually made some money on the whole ordeal, if you assume that all of the time I wasted was without value. Of course, all of the time I was forced to waste on this is time that I wish I had not lost. Despite the massive amount of time I have lost to this, I still think that they got the worse end of the deal. I have heard from about a dozen people who have sworn, after reading this saga, that they will never deal with Roger’s themselves. Countless other people have told me that they have made similar oaths prior to ever reading of my experiences. I just cannot understand how a company can be so cavalier about treating customers so poorly.

So, where do I find myself now? Well, there have been a few more phone calls to the beast since the official end to this saga (I consider getting them to refund half the cost of the phone to be the true resolution). First of all, it took me a while to get the two $10 / month credits working properly. At some point along the line, someone removed and re-added these credits, but they only managed to get them to stick to one phone, not both. Also, I have found it more and more difficult to actually contact them when needed. It appears that they have made it so that their 1-888-ROGERS1 number is not accessible from devices on their network. I even had a couple of other Roger’s customers I know try and they got the same “this call cannot be completed” message that I did. The number works perfectly from a land line, so they have obviously blocked access in favour of calling *611 from a Roger’s device. That would be great if they still had the *611 number listed on their site anywhere. Useful.

Finally, and perhaps most depressing, it turns out that the Blackberry Pearl flip is a ripe piece of shit. The Pearl was the sole reason why we went with Roger’s for the iPhone instead of Fido, like a few people recommended. Lindsay has had no end of trouble with the damn thing. So, maybe I didn’t come out on top after all.

I will now finally be able to get back to blogging about tech stuff without this mess hanging over me. There has been plenty I have wanted to touch on but have not because, well, I really wanted to finish this damn story once and for all. As the final word on it all, I’ll quote from a comment on Episode 8…

Here’s your epilogue, “Don’t Buy From Rogers”
–Ralph Marchildon