Industry Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2024

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Staffieri, if I were a potential Rogers customer who called in and was looking for a contract that guaranteed a price for two years for TV and Internet service, and let's say you were a sales rep for Rogers, what would your pitch to me be?

[Tony Staffieri]

There are a few things. We highlight the benefits and the competitive advantage of our features, the value proposition in terms of price, and the key conditions and terms.

Bret can walk you through what some of those key items are that we cover off with the customer—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I don't want Bret. I want you.

Would you proactively tell me that if I had hardware, the fee could go up outside of a guaranteed price? Would you proactively tell me that?

[Tony Staffieri]

We're very clear with customers—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

As a sales rep, in your script, would you proactively tell me that my monthly fee, that guaranteed set rate, would not include potential increases to rentals? As the sales rep, would you say, “Hey, you know what? This is the monthly rate, but that could increase”? Would that be in your sales rep script?

[Tony Staffieri]

We're very clear on what's included in the term commitment that a customer enters into and what is outside of it. The things outside of it don't have the price guarantee.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I'm still pretending to be one of your customers here. Right now, what you're doing to me is, I think, what you're doing to your clients; you try to dance around the salient details.

Would you proactively tell me, as a potential client, that there's a guaranteed price for this thing, but the hardware fee could increase? Is that something you instruct your sales reps to do?

[Tony Staffieri]

We make it very clear, and that is part of the communication that we have—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I'll take that as a “no”.

Did any of the government relations firms that advise you tell you to say that you were coming to the committee and then sub in Mr. Leech at the last minute? Was that advice that you received from any sort of professional firm?

[Tony Staffieri]

I'm very respectful of this nation's government and the work of this committee as part of that. As I said in my opening remarks—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Arguably, you're not answering my questions.

Would you table with this committee the script used by the sales rep who sold Cathy Cooper her contract?

[Tony Staffieri]

Yes. Our frontline script is something that we can table with the committee.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Would that conversation have been recorded for quality assurance and training purposes?

[Tony Staffieri]

We do record our customer interactions.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Would you provide to this committee the conversation that your sales representative had with Cathy Cooper?

[Tony Staffieri]

We will table that with this committee.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you.

As part of the CBC exposé on this issue, a couple of folks have suggested that you need a minimum of a university degree education to read the fine print in your contracts. Given that, I'm going to take it that your answer is that you do not provide proactive disclosure to potential clients on increases in fees, because you didn't answer my question directly. I'm happy for you to refute that, but I'm going to say that your policies do not proactively disclose that information. It sounds like you rely on the fine print, and now you have experts saying that you need a university degree to understand the fine print.

Would you recommend that the committee recommend to the government that the CRTC regulate that Rogers—and Bell and all telcos—proactively disclose potential increases in costs associated with fixed-rate contracts, as well as the requirement for plain-language contracts?

[Tony Staffieri]

Legislation and the regulatory environment are clear and mandate a minimum level of disclosure that has to happen today in terms of what is included, what is excluded and what is subject to potential price adjustments.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

There's no plain-language requirement. Is that something that you would recommend? I mean, if you're clear about this.... You say that you provide clear advice. Would you support...? Would Rogers issue a press release saying that it would happily issue contracts in plain language?

[Tony Staffieri]

We do that today. We aim and strive to communicate in very simple language. It's in our interest.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Would you table with the committee—of course, with personal details redacted—the contract that you made Cathy Cooper sign so that we can evaluate whether or not we think it's in plain language? Would you be willing to do that?

[Tony Staffieri]

We'd be happy to do that.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

If I reviewed that contract myself, do you think it would be reasonable for me to say that it's a plain-language contract?

[Tony Staffieri]

I think you would find it straightforward. More importantly, if there were pieces of it that you didn't understand or that you found confusing, as I said, we have a 10-day period.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

How long did Cathy Cooper have to wait on hold with your representative to get answers to her questions? Could you table that with committee as well?