Now you may have heard of Rogers’ EVIL marketing schemes, and maybe you don’t really care, but hopefully you’ll take their adverts with a slight grain of salt after reading this. Most of us have seen their commercials, and I’m not going to lie, some of them can be quite appealing; however, what I didn’t realize is to what extent they actually bend and twist the truth to lure potential customers.
In one commercial, two guys are on their cellphones talking and they carelessly bump into each other, dropping their phones which end up braking. The Rogers user would take his cellphone back to a Roger’s store where he would get a “free replacement” as explicitly said in the commercial, while the other man would end up using pay phones until he finds himself a new phone. I would suppose this commercial serves as a method to lure potential consumers, as well as to provide current consumers with reason to believe they have chosen the right wireless network (or in other words to reduce post-purchase dissonance). But the funny thing is, I’m a current Rogers user, and I find this commercial accomplishes the exact opposite. The other day, a very similar occurrence happened; I carelessly bumped into a woman and dropped my phone. The text pad was completely destroyed, so logically I went to a Rogers customer service desk and asked for my “free replacement” having seen their commercial. But of course, I should have known better, they said they couldn’t do just that. I had bought the phone 2 months prior to this little misfortune, and apparently I wasn’t covered under their warranty AND that the phone is damaged. Well of course it’s damaged! That’s why I wanted a replacement! They told me there was nothing they could do for me and implicitly said I should leave. I was enraged and asked them what the heck their commercial was all about. The CS representative opened the commercial and pointed at the bottom of the screen; one can see (only were he shown) that it says “conditions apply”. The conditions: if the phone is damaged or not under the warranty timeline, there’s nothing they can do.
Well isn’t that just wonderful; I hope they’re happy, they just lost what used to be a loyal customer, and I’m sure I’m not the only who’s had this experience. I find it ironic too, what they aimed to eliminate, post-purchase dissonance, is exactly what they received.