Evidence of meeting #149 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rogers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
Go ahead, Bret.
President, Residential, Rogers Communications Inc.
Thank you, Tony.
Customers have a choice. As Tony mentioned, for some customers the first set-top box is included with their service, as we outlined, but some customers choose to have that premier experience across a greater set. All customers have the opportunity, as Tony mentioned, to use the app free of charge, which they can use across multiple viewing devices. Others choose to engage to have a more premier service.
We absolutely have the best indexation that allows people to use our voice remote and engage in a manner that allows them to get the easiest path to consume the content that they would like to consume.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Mr. Graham, I'm going to ask you more or less the same question.
When a customer asks about the monthly fees associated with their television or Internet service, why are the rental fees for the set-top boxes not mentioned or taken into account in the response given to them?
Senior Vice-President, Legal and Regulatory, BCE Inc.
Thank you for the question.
As I mentioned, we have a different approach to our TV service than Rogers. We disclose on our website and in all our communications with the customer, in their contract and their critical information summary, that prices may change for their service. As I said, in the case of set-top boxes specifically, we have not increased those prices in the last five years.
Liberal
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the witnesses for being here.
One thing I just heard you mention, Mr. Staffieri, is that customers can get that content “for free”. I would suggest that nothing a customer of Rogers gets is for free. They've paid for it one way or another. I think it shows the distance between where your lifestyle and life are at versus those of the customers we represent, because this nickel-and-dime approach is significant.
The simple question I want to ask you—I really want to know—is this: Do you think it's ethical, from you and your team at Rogers, to have different prices for different customers based upon their advocacy? When you're looking to talk to your customers right now, you have persons with disabilities who may not be able to actively engage and try to get this. You have people who can't leave a job because they don't have the time to actually spend three to five hours on the phone trying to get a better rate. You have other people who are able to negotiate a different price.
Explain to the Canadian public the ethics of you and your board allowing your own customers to be divided.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
What you see playing out is the dynamics of a competitive marketplace. We have to compete. This past weekend alone, Black Friday weekend, was a busy period for our industry. As we compete for customers, we are compelled to make sure we put the best value proposition in front of the customers, and—
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
That's a predatory practice on your own customers.
Explain specifically, if you can't fight for yourself and be on the phone because maybe you're a single mom going to work, why should you pay more? There may be people with disabilities, or individuals with English as a second language, or people who don't have the skill set and don't have somebody to advocate for them. Why do they have to pay more than the people who have been identified to get the actual reduction?
I can tell you that not only has CBC recorded many of these stories, but I have a whole bunch here that people have emailed to me.
Can you specifically tell Canadians right now why some have to pay more for the same services?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
As I said, we strive to provide the best value proposition for every single customer. The pricing will depend on the time of year and when it was purchased. It will depend on the services and products that were included.
However, it's important to stress that we aim to make it easy for customers to interact with us, whether it's by phone, whether it's digitally, or whether it's through electronic chat.
Most importantly, I want to—
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Okay. I want to make sure I get this straight. You're okay that if a single mom is not able to be on the phone and get a discount, she can pay more. It's also okay for somebody with a disability or for somebody else. You guys are okay, in your boardroom, with having different Rogers customers pay different amounts of money based on their individual situation.
Are you okay with that?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
We work with customers to make sure that we can get them the products and services that fit their budgets. Recently, after closing Shaw, we expanded our connected for success program. For deserving Canadians on low incomes, we have programs where they can get Internet for as low as $9.99. We have wireless plans at $25.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
That's not the question, though. Again, you've answered, I suppose, that the culture of Rogers is that it's okay to be predatory on your own customers. There can be different prices under the same situations for the same product.
Quickly, I'll go to Bell for a moment.
I'd like to specifically know the items that you can increase unilaterally. Can you table that for our committee, so we can have a comparison of that? Is that something that you'll be able to do, please?
Senior Vice-President, Legal and Regulatory, BCE Inc.
Yes, we can provide that information to the committee.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
I will go back to Mr. Staffieri.
I have a situation here where somebody had Rogers come to their household—they play for Bell, too—and they were stuck in a contract they didn't want for another two years. What's your suggestion for the people who didn't want the service they got? They got no satisfaction. What's your suggestion? Where do they call, and what do they do?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
For customers who enter into term commitments with us, in the first instance, we want to be very clear on what's included and what's not included. We provide the customer up to 10 days to look over the contract and think about it, and they can cancel within that period of time with absolutely no penalty. That's the flexibility. We want to make sure customers are getting into products and services that they want. It's not in our interest—
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
You don't know what a person can do. I'll table some of these stories for my other colleagues to have, so that they'll see them.
With regard to the story that the CBC broke, there are all kinds of people who are actually complaining about this practice. Basically, do you just assume that your customers are stupid? Obviously, there is enough evidence here that people were confused. They had different expectations, and you haven't relented from this practice, as opposed to saying, “Well, you know what, some are getting it and some aren't. Some are paying for part of it. Some might be paying for all of it. We don't know.”
Why don't you just end this practice altogether? Why do you think it is that so many of your customers never understood your own process? Are they that dumb?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
As I said at the outset, in terms of you referring to the price adjustments on set-top boxes, the majority of our customers are not impacted by the change. One set-top box is included, and—
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Make it all of your customers, then, and treat them equally. Why don't you just treat them all equally and not have any of them be disadvantaged?
By the way, just because you have the app, that doesn't mean that it's free. You're paying for service anyway, and it's of different quality than what you're paying for with the set-top box, so you're actually discriminating among your own customers. Why not just stop this nonsense right now and stop doing those extra billings?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
As I've said, the set-top box provides premium features. Bret has walked through some of those—award-winning voice remote and a number of other features—which are beyond being able to experience and view the content through the app.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Sadly, you understand how tough life is for some people out there, and this all matters to them.
I'm sorry. I'm done with my time.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
Thank you, Mr. Masse.
I'll give myself one question before I turn it over to MP Rempel Garner.
Mr. Staffieri, based on your knowledge of your customers, what would be your estimate of the percentage of your customers with set-top boxes who knew about the possibility of you adjusting the price along the way? Is it 50%, 60%, 100% of your customers who knew about it? What would be your guess?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
In advance of making the change, we notified the customers, as we do with any price adjustments. That's first and foremost. I'm having difficulty answering your question in terms of how many customers knew that price adjustments on set-top boxes could happen. I wouldn't know that, but what we do when the customer feels confused is to work with every single customer to make sure that they have options and to look at what those are. If it's a cost that they don't want to incur, then we look for ways to work with that customer. It's in our interest to make customers happy.