TORONTO – Rogers Communications is denying customer allegations that it counts Internet traffic made on a customer’s internal network towards their monthly usage allowance.
Accusations that Rogers charges overages for Internet traffic made within a customer’s network – for example, moving a file from one computer to another – surfaced online Wednesday, after a customer posted a complaint on social site Reddit.
“Just got off the phone with Rogers. It is their opinion that all traffic that goes across your network is Internet traffic to count against your usage cap even if it is internal traffic from computer to computer or computer to network attached storage device,” said Reddit user ‘spammeaccount’.
The user posted the complaint in the Canada subreddit after he alleged 60 gigabytes of usage “came out of nowhere.”
“In my opinion this is outright theft,” the user wrote.
Other users joined the discussion to report that the same thing had happened to them using Rogers’ Internet services, including one user “MaxxDelusional” who said, “Once they replaced the modem, I stopped getting charged for internal data.”
In an email to Global News, a Rogers’ spokesperson said, “We’re aware of the Reddit thread and have been engaging with customers directly to let them know that the only traffic counted towards a monthly usage allowance is the traffic that leaves the customer’s modem and goes across the Rogers network.”
The Rogers spokesperson added that the customer was “misinformed” by the customer service representative.
“We’re following up with our front line reps to ensure they have the accurate information,” the spokesperson said.
“We encourage any customer who has any concern to reach out to us directly.”
In an email to Global News, the Reddit user – who did not identify themselves – said about 13 hours after he posted the complaint on Reddit he called Rogers to cancel his Internet and cable TV service, but was offered changes to his account.
“They offered to lower my monthly fee for two years and upped my cap to 500GB with no contract, which also wiped out my alleged overage as my cap went from 80 to 500,” the user told Global News.
The user noted that at the time of the overages their computers were connected directly to the modem, using it as a hub for the network.
Though Rogers did not suggest that the user’s modem may have been defective or malfunctioning, the user noted that they will be exchanging the device and installing a new system to better track their usage.
“I will be exchanging the modem and putting in my own router and turning their modem/router combo box into modem only mode so that I can get nearly instant info on cap usage instead of having to put up with Rogers reporting which is delayed up to 48 hrs…” the user said.
But the Reddit post has created a firestorm for Rogers’ social media customer service representatives, who could be seen responding to tweets from users outraged over the post.
“.@RogersHelps – are you stealing from your customers by counting LAN traffic ag. monthly usage? I backup, you jackup?,” tweeted one Twitter user.
https://twitter.com/heywriterboy/status/421057653108781056
To which a Rogers’ representative responded, “No, only the traffic that leaves the customers modem and goes across the Rogers network counts against usage limits.”
Two of the members of the @RogersHelps social media team continued to respond to tweets like these through the day Thursday.
https://twitter.com/73rhodes/status/421117185369440256
In the meantime, Reddit moderators have flagged the initial post as “potentially misleading.”
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