[kasm]

Rogers ruined my lawn and will not return my calls

I also had Rogers dig up my lawn and left it in a mess. On Jan 9, I came home in the middle of the afternoon with a crew digging up the easement on either side of the drive way. I am not a Rogers customer but they said the problem was for the folks across the street. They said they would clean it up before they left. Well, they left it in a mess. Pics are below.

I called Rogers the next week and logged a complaint. They said they would get back to me in 48 hours. Well, 72 hours passed so I called back to find out the ticket was closed saying it wasn't an issue. They did this without any communication with me. I escalated to a manager who was very sympathetic, and said she would escalate and I should get a call back within 48 hours from service rep. She said she would also call back to check in with me.

I did not get a call back from the service rep, but did from the manager. She seems surprised that no one called and said they should. That was 2 weeks ago and no communication since.

Three things that bother me:

1) I would expect it to be standard proceedure for Rogers to notify the owner in writing about the work that was done and why and if there will be a follow up. If I hadn't come home in the afternoon, I would have just come home to a messed up lawn without knowing why.

2) I understand that technically the easement doesn't belong to me and that any utility company can work on it without my permission, but I would expect them to return it to it's original condition. If the weather prevents them from doing it immediately, at least put in writing they they will fix it with an estimated date and a number to call if I have questions.

3) I don't appreciate them closing tickets without my agreement nor completely ignoring me or providing any follow up.

Bottom line is - Rogers customer service is horrible and I am glad I am not a customer.

Any ideas on what I can do from here?

 

[57]

It's winter. I doubt they are going to put down earth and sod now. You may need to wait until spring and remind them once the earth is thawed. If you call again, get a reference number so that they know about it and you can reference it in the spring.

You may wish to ask them to "level" the dirt/stones that they have left there now, until they can do a proper repair in the spring.

Just as an FYI Bell did exactly the same thing to my neighbour in the fall. He complained to Bell and they said it was Toronto Hydro (since they have the pole and the digging was a support to the pole, requested by Bell). After several phone calls back and forth and finger pointing by Bell and Hydro, my neighbour fixed the earth himself in 20 minutes and had no more aggravation.

 

[alebowgm]

Agreed. Its unfortunately the sort of thing where in many cases your better off doing it yourself.

 

[urbanlegend]

kasm, my advice is escalate, escalate, escalate. From manager to office of the president to ombudsman if need be. escalation process is on their site.

good luck, be polite, and don't let them go.

 

[becks]

Yes, escalate it. I'm sick of Rogers & Bell just doing whatever they feel like and make it so difficult to get a resolution (esp if you're not a customer) that people just drop it.

 

[99semaj]

A few years ago I lived in an urban area that Rogers serviced...I watched the tech pour gallons of antifreeze into the ground to soften it up so he could dig it up....in a garden planted around the pedestal!

 

[yyzlhr]

Why would anyone plant a garden around the pedastal?

 

[Jake]

Some people prefer the look of flowering plants over a grey metal pedestal. Crazy I know.

 

[HDTV Junkee]

I would agree with many of the comments. It is an unfortunate situation. People who walk by (on the sidewalk) also risk injury if they were suddenly to slip on ice.

I also agree that due to seasonal factors, it is pretty hard to repair this properly. Though if we get a decent thaw in late March, I am sure that Rogers would at least fix it better.

If you are not a Rogers customer, you may need to rely on help from your neighbours across the street.

On the other hand, the way I understand it, the boulevard land technically belongs to the City or the Township, which is why you have insurance in case you have work done on your property where there are big trucks that damage the curb or sidewalk (city permits for decks as just one small example).

If a reasonable time passes and the problem is still not fixed by Rogers, then I would suggest filing a complaint with the city.

 

[kasm]

Thanks everyone for their opinions and suggestions. Based on someone' suggestions, I went back to the rogers website and found a place to escalate to the President's office. You need to have already contacted customer care (which I did) and also escalated to a manager (which I did). I sent them the link to this forum as well as my reference number for the prior communications.

I received a callback within 24 hours from someone from the President's office with a direct phone number to call back. I called back and provided additional information and they indicated that they would escalate the issue again and contact me within 5 business days (worse case scenario).

I will update as things progress.

 

[vmstek]

Definitely you had a distribution cable go bad under the driveway and they had to push another cable across, or dug down far enough to reach it.

Perhaps the box was originally in the driveway when cabled before the house was built, and was moved over to the correct position (lot line) later. In that case a splice may have gone defective.

The location will be on a list to be cleaned up and sodded in the spring when sod is available.

The problem is, if they level it now they would need to remove some of the frozen chunks. And when it thaws, it sinks, and leaves a dangerous shallow pit. Someone hurts themselves and Rogers is liable.

Best solution would be to remove the excavated frozen soil and replace it with sand...but that never happens.

 

[kasm]

So I received a call from CCS (Cable Control Systems) who Rogers outsourced the job to. They mentioned that the lawn would be cleaned up in the spring. I asked why they didn't communicate that to me. He said normally they do. I have his number and he said to call if needed. Will update in the spring.

 

[kasm]

Update: I came home last Monday to find the lawn was leveled out and grass seed spread over top. While not ideal, it's better than nothing. Hopefully I'll be able to restore it to its original condition.

 

[Hooter]

They should have laid new sod! I would not have been satisfied with this at all! I know it is better than it was, but it should be restored to its original condition.

 

[barrie]

Posted in its own thread, but waiting for mods to post it:

Rogers wants to repeat service line work that damaged our driveway

Last night I returned home to a paint sprayed lawn and a letter rolled-up on our door handle. As soon as I saw the paint spray lines I already had a good idea what was happening, but the letter confirmed it.

HTS (Hermes Technical Services) left a letter notifying us that they intend to dig under my driveway to "repair/replace" the service line. They are performing this job on behalf of Rogers, and not for our benefit but our neighbours.

Less than two years ago, the exact same work was performed. Only then I was not informed by the company - they simply showed up and told us they had to run a new line for our neighbours. When I saw the crew, I walked outside and spoke with the person in charge.

I had worked in the field of landscaping in the past and know quite a bit about grading, site preparation and paving (both asphalt and stone). I have worked with companies and worked with crews on hundreds of driveway jobs alone.

I communicated my concerns about what seemed to be a job that was going to inevitably produce damage to my driveway. The person in charge handed me their card and told me if anything happened to contact them.

A few months after they completed the work, I started to notice cracks in the exact area where they had tunneled underneath my driveway to run the service line. When I tried to contact the person, the number was no longer in service.

So that's the backstory in nutshell, and now, near or around two years from when the first service line work was carried out and caused damage to my driveway, HTS wants to perform the same work.

So last night, after reading through the letter, I contacted HTS and left a message.

I then proceeded to contact Rogers and spoke with Lisa of their service department (reference number of the call C72283610). After speaking with her on the phone for twenty minutes, she told me she was escalating this with their service manager.

So earlier today, HTS called wanting to speak to me about my concerns. I called them back and they essentially ignored my concerns, and in a roundabout way told me they are going to go ahead with the work as per Rogers instructions.

At this stage, I have a contractor that hears but doesn't listen to homeowners with valid concerns, and a supposed complaint logged with Rogers with no assurance anyone is even going to arrive on site to inspect the damage to my driveway from the previous work performed. As it is, I'm on the hook for the existing damage to my driveway as the previous contractor is nowhere to be found, and HTS told me to take up the problem with the city.

So Rogers hires these contractors, they cause damage to people's personal property, and then when damage occurs, they not only disappear, but it seems Rogers hires new contractors who are all to ready and willing to ignore homeowners concerns.

I am livid at the way both HTS and Rogers are handling this matter.

Why does a less than 2 year old service line have to be repaired/replaced again? Wouldn't the utility or service company keep a log of maintenance or repairs on the service area/box in question?

Here is a photo of the crack damage that was left behind from the last "service line" repair/replacement:

Anyone experience anything like this? Any suggestions? I am so appalled by the way our property has been treated by these incompetent contractors that I refuse to allow them to perform the same work which caused damaged once before.