This will be quite lengthy. I am not looking to get any compensation from Fido. It'll be just a waste of time going down that path. But I just wanted to get this on record.
I have been with Fido nearly 10 years now. I know that mobile and internet plan costs are much higher in Canada compared to anywhere else in the world, but I could live with that. I just want consistent service, without any major interruptions.
Last Tuesday (July 11th), my internet stopped working. My wife informed me that she saw two Rogers truck outside, and they were working on the cable box outside of our apartment building. I thought nothing of it. It's not the end of the world. Give it a day, it should be restored. But it didn't. I thought I'd give it another day before calling, but it didn't.
I checked online for a Fido internet outage, but nothing was showing up. Everything was 'up and running'.
So I called tech support on Thursday (13th), and they were friendly enough. My wife is a stay-at-home mom, so she doesn't have much need for data, except when we have an outage. She only has 3gb (which is ridiculous for the price we're paying, anyways..) and it was almost depleted. So the agent gave her 5gb bonus for two months, which isn't much with three kids in the house.
I thought I'd take this opportunity to get a more affordable plan for my home internet. The agent suggested Rogers Ignite 150 for $45 on a two year contract. I don't care about the download or upload speed, I just wanted something cheaper. So I went ahead with it but realized next day that I never got a confirmation email.
So on Friday (the internet was still down) I called again, and the agent told me that she sees no such order on my account. I could let that pass. And the agent told me that I had to create a Rogers account to get the Rogers Ignite plan. So I didn't want to do that, and she offered me another plan under Fido home internet, so that I could keep things consolidated. She told me to visit a Fido retailer and pickup a new modem.
I went to pickup a modem on Saturday (15th), and the service rep looked confused, saying 'why did they make you pick up a new modem?' and 'why did they assign you two new internet account numbers that are inactive?'.
The service rep gave me a new modem (which is exactly the same modem as the one I had previously, which meant that I had to set up the whole wifi id and password again. Not a problem, but annoying).
So I came home with the new modem. Set it up. But still no internet.
I needed some answers.
I called tech support again.
After some probing, the agent told me that there was a scheduled outage for technical upgrade, which should be resolved by 2:14AM on Sunday the 16th.
I asked them why I wasn't informed about this if it's a scheduled outage.
I asked them why my neighbours' (plural) internet (all Rogers and Fido) are working and not mine.
I told them that it stopped working since the Rogers truck fiddled with the cable box on Tuesday morning.
I didn't get a satisfactory response. "It's an outage. It'll come back".
BTW, the internet wasn't restored at 2:14AM on Sunday, 16th (my kid was sick, so I wasn't sleeping)
I received a text this morning (Sunday, 16th) saying that the problem has been resolved.
But it still wasn't working.
Time for another call.
I asked why Fido sent me a message saying that it's been resolved when it hasn't been?
He told me there is still an outage in my area, but everyone I know in the neighbourhood seemed to have internet. IN THE AREA. EXCEPT ME.
He refrained from responding to any pressing questions I had and scheduled a technician to come out.
He even said that I'm lucky to have same day service. Lucky? The nerve!
Anyways, I had to wait 4 hours for the technician to come by, and when he did, he checked my coax for signal, which it had not.
He went outside to the cable box and I followed.
I saw him open it up and look through the cables and plug it back in.
VOILA!
Internet again.
Internet was working fine until Tuesday morning, until the Rogers technicians came by and played with the cable box.
Hmm... Something smells fishy here...
What was all this BS about an outage.
Scheduled outage (for 5 days) for technical upgrade (I'd like to know more about these upgrades)
It'll be resolved by 2:14 AM SPECIFICALLY, not 2:15 AM, 2:14 AM, on Sunday July 16th.
You'll need a new modem, but it'll be exactly the same modem that you had, which was working fine.
All this BS, waste of time, wild goose chase, being put on hold, being transferred from department to another department.
All because some douche-bag unplugged my internet cable.
I tried to file a formal complaint directly to Fido, but customer service agents do not have the contact information for the escalation department. How convenient.
It'll add to the wasted time trying to go down that path so I'll let this slide.
Some things to take away from this experience.
If you see a Rogers truck outside your place, keep an eye out.
And if you get aggressive with customer service, they'll just lie to your face to get the call over with.
Just ask them if they know what they are talking about. If not, ask to be transferred to someone who knows what they are doing.
JUST DON'T LIE TO ME.
