Rogers has confirmed that a trio of alleged door-knocking fraudsters who frightened a Coquitlam family this week were, in fact, its contractors.
The statement comes less than 24 hours after Rogers said the men who knocked on Lorraine Bergen’s door on Tuesday night were not its employees. Doorbell camera footage shared with Global News shows the men wore no Rogers-branded clothing, did not produce identification when asked, and even returned to Bergen’s home later that night after being asked to leave.
“We apologize to Mrs. Bergen and her family for the confusion around this interaction with our vendor,” Rogers said in an emailed statement Friday. “Feedback has already been shared with our teams and we are taking immediate action to ensure this kind of experience is avoided in the future.”
The company further confirms that the men did not follow Rogers policies, which require all its agents in the field to show official branded or co-branded ID and wear Rogers-branded clothing.
On Thursday, Bergen and her grandson shared their story to warn the public about what they believed to be a door-to-door sales scam in the neighbourhood involving people posing as Rogers staffers.
When the trio arrived at her doorstep, Bergen said one man identified himself as a Rogers staffer, accompanied by two others in “training.” He carried nothing with him but an iPad.
In the doorbell footage, the man can be seen delivering rehearsed speaking points that touched on the Rogers-Shaw merger and a new door-to-door campaign centred around new access to “fibre-powered Internet.”
“He was very nice, very charming,” Bergen described in a Thursday interview. “The other two, he said were in training, and I felt they were sketchy. But at the beginning, I didn’t think he was sketchy.”
When Bergen told the man she had Shaw Internet, he offered her an “exclusive cellphone deal” that included a $100-credit for each new activated line, 60 gigabytes of data and unlimited talk and text for $45 per month, and a waived activation fee.
In the video, he explains the process for signing up, stating that he needs her ID to fill out an application form. He then says he’ll give her a SIM card with instructions on how to activate it. Alternatively, he offers to return tomorrow to help her out.
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That’s when Bergen asks him if he has any ID.
“I mean, yes,” he responds, without providing any. “We have Rogers codes and employees IDs and as you can, see I brought our iPads made with Rogers.”
Bergen said she was starting to get suspicious when her grandson and granddaughter-in-law decided to intervene. Her grandson had been watching the interaction from the basement through the security application on his phone.
“They felt right away it was very sketchy, which it was of course,” Bergen said. “I was relieved because they could just handle it. But I did have my ID in my hand.”
She’s not sure if she would have gone through with the deal had her grandkids not intervened, she added, but doubts she would have gone past handing over her existing phone and SIM card.
Scott Ratchford, Bergen’s grandson, said he saw red flags the moment he went to the doorstep — no Rogers branding on the jackets, no Rogers lanyards and no Rogers vehicle parked outside.
“They didn’t have ID, they couldn’t prove who they were. He just had a bunch of loose SIM cards in his pocket,” Ratchford told Global News on Thursday. “It wasn’t right … I just wanted to stop the ID from being handed over.”
Ratchford said he asked them to leave. When they did, he called the Coquitlam RCMP’s non-emergency line while his fiancée called Rogers was told the company doesn’t do door-to-door sales.
In its Friday statement, Rogers told Global News it does, in fact, employ door-to-door sales agents, including third-party vendors in B.C. and other parts of Canada.
The company said it’s in touch with Coquitlam RCMP, who were investigating the incident in response to Bergen and Ratchford’s complaint.
On Friday, RCMP said they too had identified the men, and confirmed their status as Rogers contractors.
The contractors’ behaviour, however, seriously spooked Bergen and Ratchford.
After the men were asked to leave, they returned that evening and Bergen’s husband — who has dementia — opened the door and let one of them in.
“They tried to prove that they were Rogers workers, they showed a laminated piece of paper with some stuff on it — I didn’t really get a chance to read it, they were kind of quick to show and pull it away — and I just was like, ‘We’re okay,’ and pushed them out the door again,” Ratchford said.
He described the experience as “super violating,” and wondered whether the men were scouting the house out for a potential crime.
He confirmed on Friday that Rogers had called to apologize and paid the family’s January cable bill.
“Needless to say our family is extremely disappointed with Rogers. What a shame that those kids and my grandparents had to to go through that,” Ratchford said via text message.
Rogers had told Global News on Thursday the men were not its employees
In a subsequent emailed statement, it said it takes customer protection against fraud very seriously and encourages anyone suspicious of scammers to ask for the visitor’s name and ID badge, as its employees will never refuse to provide that information.
“Never feel pressure to take the deal on the spot,” wrote Rogers media relations director Cam Gordon. “Our salespeople will give you time to review the offer and call us back.
“If you are questioning the offer, end the conversation. You can then follow up with our customer service team by phone or online, or visit a retail location.”
Bergen said she shared her story to warn others to be vigilant.
“I am speaking out today because I want other people to be wary,” she told Global News. “First of all, I’ve learned a lot from this. I will never answer the door in the dark night if it’s someone I don’t know, period, even in the day.
“I look at myself as being quite savvy, but I might have gotten sucked in … and I just want to prevent other people for from that happening to them.”
Rogers encouraged anyone who believes they are a victim of fraud or worried they may be targeted, to report it to the Rogers customer care line at 1-888-764-3771, the Fido customer care line at 1-888-481-3436, or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.
After confirming the men’s identities with Rogers, Coquitlam RCMP said Friday it has concluded the complainant’s file.
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