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SPEAKFREE CONSUMER REPORT
LEGALS
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Rogers Communications Inc. commits a serious privacy breach by selling a customer's cellphone to another. That other customer was SpeakFree's Jeremy Bradley. JB exposes the problem and holds Rogers accountable.
As a Rogers Wireless customer, how safe is your private information? Not very...
What does Rogers have to say about something like this?
Customer Thoughts
"Nice work. This is the problem with big business - nobody gives a s**t and everybody plays stupid..plus, why do you have to wait an additional three days for a response from their e-mail -- that's three more days without service for you."
"Why am I not suprised? As if a call centre person would know anything about the privacy act. As if they would do anything about it. I bet you that store won't even get a call. Let's see how long it takes you to get an e-mail reply back! I am sooooo forwarding this on to everyone I know. So many people hate Rogers as it is. I can't imagine what this will do. Thanks for the info!"
"Great calls! This is good to know a big company like that doesn't view customers and potential identity theft. It is very good of you to call the guy and let him know what happened. I'd be super pissed if it happened to me."
"I'm shocked you were able to get someone who speaks English. When I call Rogers I almost need a translator."
"Kinda funny that a phone company doesn't have a person to reach by phone for immediate assistance. You get the scripted salespeople who get thrown off if you ask a question that's not on the page in front of them."
"I've always wondered why people on the phones can tell you so much more than people in the store. But in this instance it's the actual Rogers employee that is clueless. What has the store had to say?"
"You're not going to get a call back from Rogers. You're one customer out of the how many million they ignore? As long as they get your money from all the useless charges, it doesn't matter much what you experience."
E-mail your thoughts: onair@speakfreewithjb.com
Rogers Privacy Breach Timeline
Wednesday, July 30- BlackBerry is bought from Rogers Plus store in Garden City Shopping Centre. Phone is found to be used with previous owner's address book, calendar and all personal information still loaded onto device. Previous owner of phone is contacted, informed of Rogers store reselling product. Rogers is called, complaint is put on file, reference number given, customer service e-mail address provided. Web link with audio from phone calls is sent in e-mail to Rogers customer service (and to local Rogers customers and fellow media colleagues).
Friday, August 1- "New" used phone still in possession until further direction from Rogers. Return to Rogers Plus store to get new BlackBerry. Sales rep said second phone can't be billed to account and device must be bought outright. BlackBerry Curve is purchased for $615.99.
48 hours after initial contact with Rogers, company has still not commented or provided further instruction.
Sunday, August 3- Another e-mail is sent to Rogers asking for comment on privacy policy and store procedures. Link to this page is given. A request is made for refund of $615.99 for additional Curve that is purchased while waiting to hear from company.
Monday, August 4- E-mail from Rogers arrives. It says:
Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of online customer service.
In your recent email, you have informed us that you would like to share a privacy related issue with Rogers.
Thank you for your email. We appreciate your feedback. Please rest asured we take our customers privacy seriously. With this in mind, Rogers has a comprehensive privacy policy. You may view this policy at the following link:
http://your.rogers.com/privacy1.asp?cm_mmc=grdrt-_-all-_-en-_-englishprivacy.html
Also you may contact our privacy officer . . .
We are glad we were able to assist you. If you have any further questions, please feel free to email us again.
E-mail sent to Chief Privacy Officer and copied to The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Wednesday, August 6- E-mail from Rogers arrives. It says:
Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of online customer service.
Customer Service is very important to Rogers Communications. We continually strive to exceed our customers' expectations. The Email Team "Ecare" would like to acknowledge and apologize that we did not meet your expectations of receiving a response within 24 hours.
Your recent emails have been concerning the purchase of a phone from a store that you understood was a new phone, but had the previous owners personal information on it.
You have reached the Management Support Team. We certainly understand your concern. We recommend that you write to the address that Steven provided in his email so that the store in question can be advised of what has happened. The issue can be dealt with from that level as they are the best method for dealing with this situation.
With regards to a refund for the second purchase, the original phone should be returned to the store for a refund to you from the store. The stores are independently owned and operated and as such, the purchase was with the store. You do not need to keep this phone and we recommend that you return it to the store as soon as possible for your refund.
Thank you for writing to Rogers.com and for bringing this matter to our attention. For additional information please visit our website at www.rogers.com. You are a valued customer and we thank you for your business.
A call to the Rogers Plus store sees the manager answer the call and be fully aware of the situation, already knowing me by name. She says, "It's not a policy to reset phones. It's the previous owner's responsibility to (secure information on the phone). If that was you, you would do the same thing. It's just in your nature before you pass it on to someone else's hands."
The manager says the sales clerk of the original transaction mistakenly sold the phone as used because a sticker had fallen off, denoting the product as used. For the record- the phone was packaged as if it were brand new with battery and all accessories still in packaging.
She offers her cellphone number to be in touch with her and says to return to the store with both phones - the new and the "new" used one - for a refund on the Visa card with respect to the second transaction, but reminded it has to be within 30 days of the purchase.
"You should have just returned the phone in the first place and got a new one," she says, once again noting the onus is on customers and to take orders from the company.
Later- Rogers Plus media rep calls JB and says he will look into the case. Media rep says he will followup but confirms Rogers has a policy about wiping clean a phone before anything happens with it.
Thursday, August 7- It's taken over one week but the phone has been ringing off the hook with Rogers Corp. people trying to put out the burning wildfire (not to mention PR nightmare) after selling a customer's information to another customer. In the past 24 hours, calls have come in from British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario from the corporate offices. Let's recap:
- This morning: A marketing captain from Edmonton calls to apologize and offers any assistance in "making me a happy customer." He also confirms it is company policy to remove any information on a phone before anything happens with it.
- Through the lunch hour: The offending Rogers Plus manager calls twice and e-mails, apparently only now finding the situation urgent, requesting the return of the "new" used phone ASAP. She also offers free accessories for BlackBerry Curve to compensate for the problems.
- Later in the afternoon, Rogers corporate security calls to apologize, but also asks for the return of the phone and a signed document stating none of the information on the phone has been used. This request is denied and so is the recommendation the phone be returned to the store as there is no trust level with those employees. The Rogers rep is told the phone will be sent directly to the security department once a prepaid shipping bag is received. The rep also confirms it is company policy to remove information on devices, again contradicting what the Rogers Plus manager and two of her staff members claim. The rep is asked when this situation was first brought to his attention and he says just recently, suggesting a long weekend could partially be to blame.
Friday, August 8- Not understanding the concept of time zones, rep from Rogers calls at 8 a.m. to followup about phone problems. He arranges UPS to pick up the phone from house after 5 p.m. but calls before then to make sure it's picked up. How could it be? UPS does not arrive so Rogers rep is informed. Shortly before 9 p.m., doorbell rings and man is standing at door and leaves a few minutes later in a 1980s car. It's later discovered he is the alleged UPS driver as a sticker is left on the door.
Tuesday, August 12- The infamous BlackBerry arrives in the hands of Rogers corporate security.
Friday, August 15- Terri Martens, director, quality management and communications Rogers National Technical Service Delivery, calls to express remorse for everything that's happened since the PR disaster for the company started. She assures me the company is taking the matter seriously and is investigating it fully. Martens is another higher-up with Rogers that says there is a policy to remove any previous information on a wireless device before it can be resold. Martens is questioned about retail staff in Winnipeg not knowing this common sense policy. She is unable to offer an explanation and said training and procedures will be reviewed with the staff at the offending store. Martens works to move ahead with the credit to Visa card for the purchase of the second BlackBerry device as it has since arrived to Alon Ben-Chorin, the corporate investigator after the second UPS pick-up. At my refusal of going to the store, Martens is given Visa information and forwards it to the store. A credit is processed to the account.
AUDIO FROM PHONE CALLS CAN BE MADE AVAILABLE TO MEDIA OUTLETS. E-MAIL FOR DETAILS.
Personal Thoughts-
Throughout all this, I'm being made to feel I'm doing something wrong: I'm not returning the phone fast enough to the store, I'm tirelessly contacting the corporation to get a response and having so many people involved. The experience has me believing as a customer I should just shut up and pretend it never happened -- kind of what the Rogers Plus store wanted me to do in the first place. I'm also asked (not in so many words) what my motive is in all this. My response: "I want to know why something like this happened and how it will never happen again." I've said the same thing to each of the corporate bodies with whom I've spoken but I still feel like I'm getting in trouble. Then I think, "Screw it. I didn't do anything wrong here. I'm doing the right thing by exposing this flaw -- be it human error or not -- to let the public know what can and has happened." I'm asked what I want to get out of it, as though to say, "What can we give you to shut you up?" Kind of a name-your-price sort of deal. (This is probably a stupid thing to do to someone with an international platform in the media, but why have any pride now, right?) Ideally, I'd want free cellphone service for life, but am I going to start making demands and hold the phone for ransom? No. I'm proving a point the company should be held responsible. It should be up to the company to decide how grateful it is to me, as a decent human being, for bringing this to the attention of the corporate giant so it can avoid being nicknamed Fraud-gers.
