I've made a decision:
I promise this will be my last post for a while on the whole Rogers fiasco!
I have decided to pay the ECF (early cancellation fee) of $500 and shop around for a new phone and plan with either Bell or Telus. Doing the math, I can easily recover the huge fee I’ve paid to get myself out of this contract (only 4 months into it) over the first year of a new contract with a reasonable plan with one of the other two providers, who will hopefully treat me better than Rogers has.
At this point, there’s little chance I’ll change my mind.
In fact, the only way I would is if Rogers reversed their position, and offered a reasonably-priced unlimited data plan. Obviously, I wouldn’t expect the EXACT same plan that AT&T is offering their clients, which is unlimited data for $30 (it was $20 for 2G!) but it would have to be close.
Knowing Rogers, it’ll be a cold day in hell before that happens.
So, I’m wondering… ARE YOU GOING TO BE BUYING AN IPHONE FROM ROGERS?
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Nope. Uh-uh. Not a chance.
In fact, I’m reconsidering handwritten letters, carrier pigeons and smoke signals as my communication method of choice.
If the pigeons decide to do a little dive-bombing… well, I didn’t TELL them to do it.
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*ouch* $500 is a pretty steep penalty but you’re pretty damn savvy in these matters, Tan. I’m sure the deal you broker will be a good one.
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Alas I won’t be getting one (at leaset right away).
I don’t think the other providers are any better Tanya. I left Telus to go to Rogers and I’ve heard Bell is as bad. I think you are hooped no matter where you go. And I have this strange feeling that when the new players come into the market, they are going to be as greedy.
Look at Virgin, Solo, and Koodo. They offer slightly better phone plans, but you don’t see a mass exodus from the other big three players.
The problem in Canada is we don’t really have competition at all.
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LOL w/ Cin
Dave… Aw, shucks! I think I’ll save enough money to ensure the stick-it-to-Rogers approach won’t really sting that much.
Gus — Hate to tell ya, guy… But Koodo and Solo are a part of the big 3. None of those 3 offer data.
Oh I know they are part of the big three, so is Virgin, but my point is that no matter which company you go with you they always screw you.
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Very, very true. Sadly, we’re screwed in Canada. But, at least Rogers, who’ve been the biggest scammers so far (esp. with this iPhone mess) won’t be getting my $4000 or so over the next 3 years.
Who knows, maybe there will be an unlocked iPhone 3G out there soon enough that you can use on the normal network without paying the huge data price.
One can dream anyways
GusF’s last blog post: WordTwit Plugin Fails Me
I was, now I’m not. Would love to hear from more people on either side of the fence as I will be writing about this exact topic in 24hrs next week.
Have a story to tell, like Tanya’s? I want to hear from you too.
Will I get an iPhone? Heck, I’d sell most of my coworkers into slavery for an iPhone (and then I could get the 16G one too!).
What we really need to realize here is that Rogers is doing us a favor. At $199/299, the iPhone is no longer an expensive toy for the elitist masses. Now, it’s within reach of everyone! If this happened in all facets of consumerism, we’d no longer be able to tell the enlightened few from the hoi polloi. Through this act, Rogers is
Rogers is testing our faith. Will we stay true to the one righteous path, overcome the trials that our Lord and Savior Steve Jobs has placed in front of us, acting through his agent, Ted Rogers? Or will we abandon the divine path laid down before us, turning away from salvation and travelling down the road of damnation and suffering?
There is no easy path in life. Only through suffering can we come to appreciate the trials that His Lordship endured, cast out from the Holy Land, destined to wander the NeXT World for years, until he returned to lead us into our new glorious age of rebirth.
Turn ye away from divinity at your own peril! My faith will not sway, and my step will not falter. And whatever your path, always remember that you can be redeemed.
OMG, you totally kill me, Dan!! You should drop Buzz Bishop a line on this topic: http://www.buzzbishop.com/blog/
I don’t know who that is or what I would say. Could he help me spread the gospel? I’m unsure of where to go. Interesting site though.
Instead of following the masses with this iPhone stuff… why doesn’t everyone just learn to think different, and go with a company that doesn’t do no evil?
Better yet…. go outside and play. If gawd had intended a phone with buttons and video to be provided, it wouldn’t have given you ears and a mouth in the first place.
Oh yeah… and while Im at it… the internet is destroying society… and i LOVED the name of the ship on “Wall-E” Exactly right!
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How exactly are you going to pay a cancellation fee for a device that you couldn’t possibly own yet because it doesn’t come out for 12 days?
And where did you ascertain that the cancellation fee was going to be $500. I’m trying to establish what the fee will be so I can update my piece on the iPhone pricing on my blog here.
cheers,
…Dale
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Hi Dale,
Welcome!
I signed up for the contract 4 months ago, in order to use my first gen iPhone. I figured that Rogers would see that I’d had my contract for such a short period of time (I was guessing they’d release the Canadian iPhones in June) that I could just buy one from them.
Until, Apple changed their strategy, and all companies now only offer their phone with a plan.
So, I have a contract that’s 4 months into the 36 month obligation, that’s why I have to pay the ECF. Which, I will do, unless something changes. The ECF is $500 because it’s $400 + $100 for the data cancellation.
Yep, highway robbery. Completely.
Vern: A mobility company in Canada that does no evil??!! Are you on drugs? And, I caught the Wall-E last night… Clever!
Thanks … so what you signed up for was a generic cell plan when you purchased a phone without subsidy? I purhcased my Nokia phone at full price years ago so I wasn’t locked into any long-term Rogers contract. If you purchased a first gen iPhone it wasn’t from Rogers and wasn’t subsidized. Since you purhcased your own phone I don’t understand how they can charge an early cancellation fee?
Also, can I presume that when you were using the first gen iPhone that features like visual voice mail didn’t work in Canada because Rogers wouldn’t have been supporting that yet?
…Dale
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I purchased a Vision phone with the contract (which I immediately sold to someone on Fido) in order to get the IMEI, and then use unlimited data for $7 a month (didn’t use that much, just in case… And I successfully was able to stay using that until June 6th)
That’s why I bought the 3 year contract — And, I had no idea that Rogers (per Apple) would be switching to subsidy based phones ONLY. But, even still, I would have found a way to buy the hardware at an increased price, without issue (see previous posts recently) if only they had REASONABLE data plans for the new 3G phone.
Nope, the 1st gen phone didn’t have visual voicemail working, and apparently even the new phone won’t have visual caller-name ID like my current ghetto phone even has. (Instead, using the stupid, non-functional “who called” which doesn’t give a name unless already in your contacts. Lame.)
OK, you can ignore my post above. I now read some of your other posts and you have that “awesome” plan that you are selling to someone else. The cancellation fee was for that “awesome” plan
and not for the iPhone per-se.
Got it.
Cheers,
…Dale
Dale Dietrich’s last blog post: A Week of Wimbledon in HD
You should wait for at least a month before you pay those cancellation fees. They might offer separate voice and data plans which customers can add to their existing plans. The chance of this happening are more after this outcry from us all here. They may just pull a rabbit out of their hats, a small one maybe…a new born you know…they are pretty small, if they feel that by doing this at least they won’t have to burn in hell by us irate Canadians and rather be suckered punched by who all but us irate Canadians in heaven instead of being burnt in hell again by some of us irate Canadians…we’ll not leave them alone anywhere now after this fiasco they brought upon themselves…lol!!
Just be a bit more patient…you may end up saving those $500:)
Welcome, Sam! Yea, I plan on waiting a little bit to give them time to clean up their mess… But, this PR nightmare will snowball for them if they don’t do something, quickly.
Wait till next month. there will be more providers from the States, coming to operate in Canada.As the gov’t wanted the Canadian have more choices to choose the provider and the price war will be fierced. So, once again, stay put Tanya. Also, the Iphone will be featured by these providers as well.
No iPhone for me, even if I weren’t a money coach! Or rather, I should say, no Rogers for me. errr… any used iPhones lying around anywhere?
Nancy, there’s a half-dozen iPhones in my office, it probably wouldn’t be hard to swing one… That said, the only networks you could use it on are Fido and Rogers, both of which are selling the new iPhone anyway.
Still, if you’ve just started a contract, you could probably find a used iPhone (if you’re in Vancouver, I’ll ask around).
No iphone for me. I depend too much on mobile communications and email. That touch screen bites for composing emails of any length. It’s a consumer device through and through, not a business device so totally outside my realm of consideration.
Plus the fanboys get on my nerves…
After hearing of the loosening of the plans I’ll spring for one if they drop the contract requirement. I have yet to sign a contract with any service provider and I’m not going to start now, even if it costs as much as I think it could with no contract.
Just saw your 3 minutes of fame on Global. What irks me is that no one bothers getting the facts straight before yapping and being negative:
There is NO WAY you can blow 1GB worth of data with the download speeds of mobile devices (even with 3G)
I have had an Iphone for just about a year now (unlocked it the day it came out), my plan is 250 Daytime Minutes, free evenings (6pm), 1GB data plan (Rogers Air Card plan that worked for Iphone, They nixed the plan about a month ago).
Last month I got 602 Emails. I browse sports, news and download applications (about 15-20 a month). I have a mobile MP3 sharing client which allows me to download songs with all that is ONLY spent 231MB.
Global mentioned that downloading their podcast would be expensive..HEEELLLLOOO at 3G speed who would download 54MB worth of video in one sitting?.
Not to mention the plethora of WiFI spots that will allow you to logon for FREE!.
Yup I am upgrading on the 11th, LOVE the Iphone, as a Business tool it is amazing
Just to comment on ‘getting your facts straight’…
Your iPhone only did 231 MB? Great. On EDGE, that’s pretty decent, so good for you. And obviously there is NO WAY you could do a gigabyte in a month. There are, however, a few things you failed to note.
1. The iPhone you have uses EDGE; the new iPhone is 3G, and supports Rogers’ HSPDA network. HSPDA can provide downlink speeds of up to 14.4 megabits. Compare that to my $50/mo contract with Shaw which provides 10 megabits to my apartment, and it starts looking interesting.
2. The 54 MB podcast, at those speeds, could be downloaded in about 40 seconds. I would have no problem downloading that in one sitting. Heck, I could download that at a traffic light.
3. Services develop to make use of resources. If the iPhone can support live streaming video, then people might start using it for that. For example, grabbing quick news bites from the news channels, downloading podcasts, apps on the app store, music and movies on iTMS, and so on.
4. Your e-mail might be different from my e-mail. I regularly get ~20 MB attachments (which frustrates the crap out of me), but I don’t always know beforehand how something is going to be. Regardless of that, I might still need to view it (many of them are PDFs of presentations).
5. Your use-case is not my use-case. A gigabyte in a month comes to only 34 megabytes a day, on average. I downloaded an album the other day from iTMS – 13 tracks, 93 MB. That’s three days worth of use. I just found an exclusive ‘Get Smart’ clip on iTunes, which is also 90 MB. Suddenly, I’ve used six days worth of data in only two days.
6. As for being around free WiFi – not everyone lives in downtown Vancouver. Not everyone has hotspots around that they can use. If all you’ve got nearby are personal networks and Fatport WiFi, then you’re hooped, and you’ll be spending more time on 3G than you’d expected.
So, at this rate I could burn through 1 GB of transfer in a meagre two weeks. Kind of makes you think, huh?
Actually… now that I think about it like that, the low-end plans aren’t that great after all. I guess I’ll need to get the higher-end ones. Oh well.