Rogers customers grow increasingly frustrated on 3rd day without cellphone or internet service

After waiting for hours on hold to speak with a Rogers representative, Rosanna Minicucci still isn’t sure when her landline, internet and TV service might be restored.

« I was on hold for five hours, on the line. People are obviously calling — there’s obviously a lot of people out there still without service, » said Minicucci, who lives in Vaughan, north of Toronto.

She is among many Rogers customers who told CBC News they are still struggling to use their phone, internet and other Rogers services more than 48 hours after Friday’s national outage caused major disruption. , including 911 lines and banking services.

Your Internet connection or your telephone still does not work following the failure of the Rogers network? We want to hear from you. Email ask@cbc.ca

In a statement on Sunday afternoon, Rogers said its networks and systems were « nearly fully operational » with service restored for « the vast majority » of customers.

“We are aware that some customers continue to experience intermittent issues with their services,” Rogers said.

The company did not respond to questions about how many customers were still having issues. He said his technical teams were working to resolve the remaining issues and affected customers would receive credits to their accounts. Rogers did not specify the amount of the credit.

Earlier, it blamed the outage on a maintenance update that caused some of its routers to malfunction early Friday morning.

Some Rogers customers who have been waiting more than two days for service to be restored say they are unhappy with the company’s lack of communication and are now considering switching providers.

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With her internet down on Friday, Minicucci was unable to work from home as she usually does, and on Sunday afternoon she was unsure whether her service would be restored in time for work Monday morning.

« Will I stay with Rogers? How can I? I don’t trust their service, » she said.

Jen Dieleman, a DoorDash driver in London, Ont., said she couldn’t work Friday or Saturday because her Rogers cell phone couldn’t connect to the app drivers use to pick up and deliver orders. Her serve was spotty again on Sunday, she said.

« I’m trying to work right now, and there are always glitches and problems, » Dieleman said, adding that she missed taking orders due to issues with her cellphone data.

In Whitby, northeast of Toronto, Justine Creagmile and her parents are still waiting for their home phone, internet and cable to get back to work – even though service has been restored for their neighbors.

« It’s absolutely frustrating, honestly, » she said. « We’re all connected to the same wiring. How does theirs work and not ours? »

Creagmile said his family had « absolutely no chance » of trying to resolve their issues with Rogers over the phone and on social media, and that their future as Rogers customers « will depend on what Rogers does. to solve the problem ».

Resumption of service but uneven

Other customers told CBC News their service appeared to be returning on Sunday afternoon, but remained spotty.

Adriano Burgo said the Wi-Fi at his home in London, Ont., had « slowed down significantly », while his cellphone calls dropped intermittently and he was unable to text.

He described Rogers’ communication with customers about ongoing issues as « very poor », but he was unsure about switching providers.

« My problem is that it’s such a monopolistic market, especially in London, » he said. « We don’t really have a lot of options when it comes to internet and cable. »

Rogers’ problems were also affecting other businesses that depend on its network, including internet provider TekSavvy, which was notifying customers in Ontario and Quebec of the ongoing issues Sunday afternoon.

In a statement, TekSavvy Vice President Andy Kaplan-Myrth said thousands of customers were still reporting slow or intermittent internet speeds, or having difficulty connecting to the internet.

The company recommended that customers try restarting their modem and contacting TekSavvy if problems persist.

Ottawa orders meeting with telecom bosses

Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne is due to meet with Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri and other telecom company executives on Monday « to discuss the importance of improving network reliability across the Canada, » according to a statement from Champagne’s office.

The statement did not provide any details about the executives of other companies who would attend the meeting.

Champagne called the outage « unacceptable » and said he expressed that view directly to Staffieri, his office said.

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