Six Years of Frustration with Rostelecom

I've been stuck with Rostelecom for six years, and my account number is 638011204506. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but the downsides really stand out to me.

I didn't have any issues getting connected. I just called, left a request, and they sent someone over to fix the problems I pointed out. They ran some cables, set everything up, and left. Someone else had already set up the TV box and router in my rental, and the technician told me to keep them so I wouldn't have to buy new equipment when I canceled the contract.

I didn't have any major internet issues, but TV broadcasts were a different story. The picture would freeze sometimes, and support would tell me to restart the box. Sometimes that worked, but not always. Support was always responsive, though - no issues with that.

One time, my kids were messing around with the remote and accidentally bought a movie. I tried to explain to support that it was a mistake, but they just added it to my bill. The movie still hasn't been watched, because we don't watch stuff like that.

Regarding support, I've called them before, and then they developed an app that lets you chat with support, which was more convenient. However, the response time could be better. Sometimes I'd have to wait too long and switch to other apps, only to come back and find that my issue had been closed, so I'd have to start over.

There's also a feature for temporarily blocking services, which is useful when you're going on vacation and won't be using Rostelecom's services. However, this feature comes with a fee. It's cheaper than paying for a full month, but still a bit annoying.

Initially, the process for temporarily blocking services was a bit clunky - you had to go to another website, submit a request, and then confirm it over the phone. Now, you can do it through the app, but it doesn't always work. One of my requests wasn't processed, and I didn't follow up because I was busy with my trip. Another quirk of Rostelecom's... The last time I temporarily blocked my services, in the summer of 2023, they somehow added extra services to my account; I guess they're struggling to keep up with the decline in my bill.

Rostelecom's rewards system is pretty basic. You can use the rewards to pay for up to a quarter of your services, but that's about it. The rewards kick in when you pay your bills. Honestly, I don't remember any other perks for loyal customers. They'd constantly call me as a new customer, offering deals and discounts, but as soon as they found out I was already a customer, they lost all interest. It would've been nice if they at least threw in some perks for loyal customers every now and then.

I've been using their services for six years, and I've only had to call in a specialist twice. The first time was when my TV box remote stopped working, and the second time was when the box itself malfunctioned - specifically, the power supply unit. The specialist from Rostelecom tried to convince me that replacing the power supply unit would cost me, but I had to contact support again to confirm that it was a free replacement. I'm not sure if they took any action against the specialist.

Getting out of the contract was a real ordeal. It took three attempts and a lot of stress to finally cancel it. During this time, they even called my wife instead of me to try to convince me not to cancel the contract. To cancel the contract, I created a request through the app, and they promised to call me to confirm within 72 hours. When creating the request, the bot initially offered me everything except for canceling my contract, and then a live operator took over. They offered me the 'Move' service at least 15 times, despite me clearly stating that I wanted to cancel my contract and have nothing to do with Rostelecom anymore. Within the 72-hour timeframe, no one called me. I went back to the app, and this time the bot gave me a link to another website where I could create a request to disconnect my services. They called me back a day later, but I was in line at the passport office and asked them to call me back later. No one called me after that.

After I moved and left my kids at home, I went out specifically to call customer support. After 15 minutes of fighting with the virtual IVR, I was finally connected to a live person. They transferred me to Anna, a senior manager, who managed to move my request forward from a dead end. The whole process of canceling my contract was a real pain, but I'm glad it's finally over.

Here are the downsides:

- The constant spam calls;

- They kept trying to sell me additional services and stuff I had to pay for, but they never offered to recompute my bill;

- There were internet and TV outages, but they only offered to recompute my bill for services related to utilities.

I've gotta say, canceling my contract with Rostelecom was a weird process, especially since I didn't owe them anything and could've just left without a hitch. I even notified their support team about my departure.

Another thing that bugged me was their lackluster loyalty rewards system.

And don't even get me started on their virtual call center with this annoying AI assistant named Viktor. He's always trying to help, but not always in a way that's helpful to the caller.

On the plus side:

Internet and TV were still working, which was a plus.

And the mobile app was decent.

Compared to my previous experience with a smaller internet provider, Rostelecom was way less customer-focused.

Update from 12.10.2023

After moving to a new city and switching to a different provider, I noticed that their Wi-Fi connectivity was seamless – I could easily access TikTok and AliExpress on my phone. With Rostelecom, however, I had issues logging in to those sites from my home network. I could only access them through mobile internet.