Rogers Communications’ network outage on Friday left consumers and businesses without service for nearly a full day — and now they’re looking for compensation.
The outages affected wireless service, internet connectivity and phone lines, as well as important infrastructure such as the Interac payment network.
Rogers eventually told frustrated consumers that a maintenance issue was behind the downed service, and promised that users would be “proactively credited” for the disruption.
Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri told Global News in an interview Monday that the company would “do the right thing” when it comes to reimbursing affected users and businesses alike.
So what are Rogers customers owed, and when will the compensation land in your account? Here’s what we know so far.
5:46 The fallout from the Rogers outage and tips to stay proactive
The fallout from the Rogers outage and tips to stay proactive
What is the status of Rogers’ network?
Staffieri said Monday that the telecom giant ran a “root cause analysis” into the system failure that confirmed initial assumptions about an error in the code of a network maintenance upgrade.
That error was pushed through the Rogers system, which overloaded the network with data and caused equipment to fail, he said.
The company is still seeing “very few intermittent issues” but Staffieri did not have an exact figure on how many customers are still without service on Monday afternoon.
He said the company’s focus is on getting connectivity back and ensuring the resiliency of the network in the days to come.
“What happened on Friday is unacceptable and we’re committed to taking every step within our control to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
How much is Rogers going to give customers? When?
The telecom CEO said Monday that Rogers will be figuring out what each customer is owed on a “pro-rated basis based on the duration of the outage.”
He confirmed that credits will be automatically applied to customer accounts.
1:26 Rogers outage leaves customers wondering how this happened
Rogers outage leaves customers wondering how this happened
The compensation should appear automatically on the next month’s bill, though he said some might be processed the following month.
This approach is similar to how Rogers handled refunds for its outage in April 2021.
Affected customers won’t have to apply for the refund in any way — text messages purporting to be from Rogers and asking users to enter information or click on links to claim their compensation should be treated as likely spam.
What about businesses?
As inconvenient as Friday’s outages were for consumers, the inability to process payments or, in some cases, answer the phone meant significant lost revenue for many businesses in Canada.
“This coming right after two years of pandemic-related restrictions and closures is devastating. Every single day of income at this period is absolutely critical,” Dan Kelly, CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), told Global News on Monday.
Many businesses were left scrambling to come up with different payment solutions after going cashless during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelly noted.
The CFIB is hoping there’s a more significant recognition from Rogers about the widespread impact of its outages on the Canadian economy.
Kelly said he’d like to see a month’s worth of charges for Rogers utilities covered for affected businesses, not just a single day, to reflect the outsized impact for business owners.
“I’m going to lose it if Rogers thinks that one day of (fees) is the adequate compensation for a small business,” he said.
Global News asked Staffieri if businesses would be treated any differently than personal accounts.
He did not answer directly, but reiterated that the company is having individual conversations with customers on a case-by-case basis to address concerns about service and compensation.
“Our primary goal is to make sure they have the connectivity and to continue to work with them and keep them as customers. It’s in our interest to do that,” Staffieri said.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a statement Monday that Rogers “has a responsibility to pay back small businesses that lost revenue during the outage.”
1:10 NDP opposed to Rogers-Shaw merger, Singh says
NDP opposed to Rogers-Shaw merger, Singh says – Nov 22, 2021
Kelly said one lesson for those affected by the outage is that while bundling services with one telco might keep costs lower upfront, diversifying phone and internet deals could protect a business when service drops.
“From a business contingency perspective, the best advice we have for business owners is not to put all of your apples in one wagon here,” he said.
How do we know this won’t happen again?
The outage has prompted swift reaction from Rogers, government and other stakeholders to ensure network outages aren’t as long-lasting or widespread.
“You can expect changes going forward to make sure that we improve the resiliency and redundancy of our networks so that this doesn’t happen again,” Staffieri said.
Rogers will announce exact changes to its network infrastructure in due course, the CEO said, but he hinted that there will be operational changes and stopgaps built into the network to avoid cases where a single error can be spread quickly through the system.
Staffieri also said the company had identified the issue that prevented some customers from being able to call 911 during the outage, and said Rogers would be sharing that information with other industry stakeholders to keep critical services functioning when any one provider experiences an outage.
Staffieri was set to meet with Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and other telecom heads on Monday afternoon to discuss ways to improve network reliability across Canada.
Interac, meanwhile, said on Monday that it was adding another network provider to its system after the Rogers outage left millions of Canadians locked out of online payments.
What can consumers do?
The widespread impact of the Rogers outage reveals an over-reliance on a few major telecom providers in Canada, industry stakeholders say, and there may be a role for consumers to play in promoting competition in the sector.
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) filed a letter with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on Friday during the outage calling for an inquiry into the problems.
The NDP also called for an inquiry Monday and suggested it would call Champagne, Rogers and Interac to committee to hold them accountable for the lost service.
PIAC is also seeking to establish a set of baseline service requirements in the event of an outage to keep Canadians informed about the issues and create a standard for compensation in these incidents.
Yuka Sai, a staff lawyer with PIAC, told Global News the lack of such standards leaves consumers in the dark about what they’re owed when their network drops.
She said the outages reveal gaps in Canada’s telecom landscape, where drops in service can have an amplified impact.
“The national magnitude of the outage really calls into question whether it’s wise to rely on one large national provider in many cases to provide a wide swath of network services, internet services, and that, in the absence of real competition, is a real problem,” she said.
Rosa Addario is a communications manager with Open Media, which advocates for an open, affordable and surveillance-free internet in Canada.
Both she and Sai said the best thing for consumers to do now if they’re upset about the Rogers outages is to write letters to Champagne and their local members of Parliament calling for a more competitive telecom landscape in Canada.
“We should be angry right now and we should be upset and we should take this as an opportunity to light a fire under us and consider how we can strive for a better system,” she told Global News.
“This doesn’t have to be the status quo.”
— with files from Global News’ Anne Gaviola and Reuters
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
