Ramblings on IT

I bought a Rocket Stick this summer for occasional use when I needed it – meaning I didn’t want a monthly recurring bill.

Seemed like a simple enough plan.

So I bought a Rogers Pay-as-you-go Rocket Stick, and proceeded to spend a few hours trying to activate it online – a completely different story, but suffice it to say, there were some not-very-nice things passing over my lips that day.

When I did finally get the stick activated, I missed the part about automatically billing me monthly – in fact when I initially tried to buy a month’s time, it told me I couldn’t use my credit card because it was due to expire within 3 months. That should have been a red flag.

As it turns out, the 2nd month’s charge failed for some reason and gave me the chance to call Rogers and figure out I had to ‘opt out’ of the recurring charge. So I did (by clicking some tiny link on the ‘my Rogers’ account page).

Today, I wanted to ‘refill’ the stick for a month now that I have swimming and Jiu Jitsu classes to sit through as I wait for my kids. Of course, there’s the Rogers agreement I have to accept to complete the transaction, and sure enough, part of that agreement is recurring monthly billing.

OK, fine, I think … I’ll just cancel the monthly billing once done – argh. 10 minutes later, I find the ‘cancel’ link. Click it and am then presented with 2 links – one a bright shiny button to ‘cancel’ my ‘cancel’ request, and one that is a light blue text hyperlink on a white background confirming ‘opt out’.

This kind of crap should be against the law, and I’m pretty sure it actually is, but rather than complain to the CRTC’s ombudsman (who apparently does nothing anyway), I’m posting this instead.

Cellular carriers in Canada need to be more responsible with their monopolies. The day will come when it will come back to bite them, and this kind of stuff does nothing to improve the perception of their business practices. Shame.