RETentions Dep’t – Usefulness of, and Contacting (/retentions)

Update: 2012/10/22

Some time ago, say maybe almost a year ago, Rogers massively clamped down on what they’d offer in terms of credits, especially on RET plans. So what follows was more relevant when there was much to be reaped since the effort to learn and implement it all was considerable.

A rep told me that nowadays they’re allowed to put on 3 credits max :

• one ‘plan’ credit (e.g. MSF credit $15)
• one feature credit (e.g. free unlimited incoming)
• one data credit

so with that in mind perhaps lower your expectations compared to what you might have read about in the past, in terms of gazillions of credits.

And nonetheless, the RET dep’t is still the place to get the best of Rogers’ pricing.

Good luck to you!

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What follows is detailed info about general negotiating & finagling, esp in the context of Rog having lots of credits available. And no longer fully accurate : (

Not surprisingly Rogers has no SWC page at rogers.com/retentions, because it would make it that much easier for cx‘s to get much superior plans & add-ons (from the RET dep’t) than are the current, advertised ones (aka ‘in-market’ plans).

There have been good posts made about general techniques when dealing with RET; these come immediately to mind:

– Ignore the specific deal mentioned, and direct RET phone number since the post is from 2006, but has good tips:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merged-hot-deal-rogers-wireless-customers-111887/

– Both of:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/what-say-retentions-883460/#post10737283
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/what-say-retentions-883460/#post10809357

– Another:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/859401-The-Retention-thread-for-all-your-retention-needs.-No-corporate-plans?p=13815042#post13815042

– Still another:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/859401-The-Retention-thread-for-all-your-retention-needs.-No-corporate-plans?p=13816211#post13816211

– Avoiding notes on account, re crappy offers:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/859401-The-Retention-thread-for-all-your-retention-needs.-No-corporate-plans?p=13820862#post13820862

– ‘Order of Operations’ – haggle new phone as LAST step:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1558419-The-Fido-Loyalty-Thread-All-threads-related-to-retention-loyalty-and-winback!!?p=13819442#post13819442

– The Art of Persuasion – A Generalized Essay:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merged-hot-deal-rogers-wireless-customers-111887/843/#post11255650

– Somewhat Fido specific but has some good tips on general negotiating techniques for RET, esp re quoting offerings from competitors:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/10969156-post7288/

– Good, general RET strategies:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/11366363-post36751/

Usefulness:

The RETentions dep’t is the group of CSR‘s within Rogers (containing individual reps called CxR reps) who has the ability to give highly-discounted plans and add-ons as well as recurring credits: contrast with the slop that is Rogers’ ‘in-market‘ plans and add-ons (and the fact that ‘wimpy’ CxS reps can only give small, one-time, or short-duration credits).

Knowing of the existence of RET dep’t, and how & when to get in touch with them, can usually help a cx save some real money on their monthly bill.

Ostensibly Rogers has this dep’t (sometimes called Loyalty & Retentions, or ‘Saves’) in order to be able to offer cx’s who are considering cancelling their service an enticement of something better than the just the crummy ‘in-market’ plans & add-ons, so that the cx will a) stay with Rogers and not cancel and b) usually end up with their CP renewed for another 3 years (esp if cx accepts an offered RET plan).

Details:

RET plans usually come with a CP renewal obligation (though sometimes a wily cx can induce a CxR rep to offer a RET plan without any CP renewal). And sometimes the CxR reps simply don’t mention any CP renewal at all, during the call (in which case: IMO the cx is not legally bound to any CP renewal [the onus is on Rogers  to prove that the cx knowingly elected to extended their CP – see my /Recording page for more info on that]).

CAUTION: AIUI the Rogers internal cx-admin systems default to any RET plan activation causing a CP renewal unless the CxR rep overrides it. So if you get a sloppy rep who neither speaks of any CP renewal nor overrides the default then you’ve been hooped there, dear customer. FYI.

If you can help it you’d rather not hear about any CP renewal (since in absence of a CP renewal discussed as part of the ‘deal’, there is no legally-binding CP renewal) so I’d suggest not bringing up the topic  – don’t ask, don’t tell. (If the rep does mention a CP renewal then of course address it, as part of the offer/counter-offer dance. Naturally you’d very much prefer to get that RET plan with no CP renewal tho.)

Also note that even if the Rogers cx-admin system won’t let a rep do or enter something into the computer system then encourage the rep to override that computer-only limitation this way:

• leave whatever information as is, in the cx-admin computer system, so as to make the computer system happy, but in addition
• have the rep add a ‘written note‘ on your account to explain what the ‘true’ agreement actually is (i.e. what the rep actually offered you, and which you accepted)

For example if the cx-admin system won’t let a rep put a recurring credit on for a full 3 years have the rep put the credit on for 1 year and also add an explanatory note on your account so that you can call back in again in 12 mos (and one more time, 12 mos thereafter) and have the credit “re-provisioned” for another 1 year each time.

Contacting RET, the Usual Way:

The usual way for a cx to get in touch with a CxR rep is to call the Rogers regular CxS number and indicate that they want to cancel their service. Caution though – sometimes a CxS rep will respond (to the cx’s bluff about wanting to cancel) “Ok, then, let’s put that cancel through right now.” Ooopsie!

IMO it’s recommended that a cx merely say they have questions about porting & canceling your number (since when you port that causes your account to become cancelled) . AIUI a properly-functioning CxS rep will then transfer you to the RET dep’t since CxS reps are not ‘trained’ to answer such porting or canceling questions.

Specifically I’d suggest asking the following sort of question: you…

“have questions about canceling the service, or maybe even porting it, and need to know how much notice must be given and how long it takes and stuff like that and any possible fees involved – are you the right person to tell me all about this?“

The CxS rep will usually just right away transfer you to RET since you sound like you have a bunch of broad, complex questions that are outside their domain of knowledge.

Contacting RET, the UNusual Way:

The ‘unusual’ way to get in touch with a CxR rep is to check to see if a direct number for the RET department is on my /contact list and if so, just call them directly yourself.

Note that those direct RET numbers become disabled by Rogers from time-to-time so knowing how to get past (even a recalcitrant) CxS rep, to a CxR rep, is useful – see above!

Caveat:

A cx might think that they can sign up for a 3-year plan and get a ‘free’ phone on day 1 and then on day 2 call in to Rogers and hop onto some sweet RET plan. Not quite.

There doesn’t seem to be a single, fixed amount of time that a cx has to be into their current CP before they can get some sort of RET offering. Instead it seems that different offerings require different amounts of time having elapsed before that RET product can be offered by a CxR rep. Times seem to range from 3 to 12 mos (12 mos particularly in the case of RET plans?).

For the general case though, it seems to be worthwhile to get in touch with RET 6 months into the CP to see about starting to save some money or get some features added inexpensively or for free.

Some popular or nifty RET plans:

• [No longer available as of Mar 2011!] $35/$50 UNLIMITED airtime/airtime+LD
  • SOC:
    • $35: SAV36440A (36-month version; 24-month version is called SAV24…, etc)
    • $50: SAV364409 (36-month version; 24-month version is called SAV24…, etc)
  • $35: unlimited (local) airtime minutes
  • $50: you also get unlimited Can & USA LD and unlimited SMS to Can & USA
  • Normally all voice credits will be lost upon assumption of either of these plans (data credits stay intact)
  • Note that THESE TWO PLANS DO NOT INCLUDE FULL DETAILED BILLING (which is available for $3/mo EXTRA)
  • seen: user xStrats on Hofo

• [New since Mar 2011] $45/$50/$55 UNLIMITED airtime+SMS/airtime+LD.ca/airtime+LD.ca+LD.usa
  • Slightly different plans now, see this HoFo post

• $25/250 min, unlimited EW @ 5pm
  • SOC: SAV360806 (36-month version; 24-month version is called SAV24…, etc)

Some popular or nifty RET add-ons:

• $5 “Double Your Data“
  • SOC=???
  • ONLY: If on a 500MB plan, puts you at 1GB (and tethering is permitted)

• $10+ “Flex Rate Data” Add-On:
  • Use vs Pricing Scale:
    • $10 :::      0 ->   100 MB
    • $15 ::: 100 – >   150 MB
    • $20 ::: 150 – >  500 MB
    • $25 ::: 500 – >1024 MB
  • Misc:
    • $51/GB for overage, up to $500 max overage charge
    • SOC=RETSRE0PS (that ends in ‘-zero-pee-ess’)
    • NOT permitted on Blackberry data plans (at least for Rogers)
    • No website info available (this is normal for all RET plans)
    • NO tethering permitted
    • Fido has this plan too

• $10 “RET’ Value Pack“:
  • SOC: RTVP10R
  • Caller ID + NameDisplay
  • Voicemail (enhanced!)
  • 2500 sent, domestic text SMS msgs (receiving is unlimited and free, worldwide … as with ALL text-msg add-ons)
  • Matching, feature credit SOC=???

extended their CP.which

• $5 “Unlimited Rogers2Rogers (R2R) Calling” (covers airtime  only … NOT LD charges … ???):
  • SOC:???

• $10 “Unlimited Incoming Calls“(covers airtime  only … NOT LD charges!):
  • SOC: RNWINC08 (ends with ‘-cee-zero-eight’)
  • Matching, feature credit SOC=???

• $5 “100 Canadian LD Minutes“(covers LD only … NOT airtime charges!):
  • SOC:???

• $10 “1,000 Canadian LD Minutes“(covers LD only … NOT airtime charges!):
  • SOC: RETSRE0E2

• $20 “Unlimited Canadian LD Minutes“(covers LD only … NOT airtime charges!):
  • SOC:???

• $30 “Unlimited Canada + USA LD Minutes” (covers LD only … NOT airtime charges!):
  • SOC:???

* Hat tip to RFD user super25 for some of these