RuinedIphone.com – The Blog

13 Responses to “What can you do to help the iPhone in Canada.”

1. Cameron Williams Says:
   June 30th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

   I’d also like to see actual protests at Rogers buildings on July 11th. That could get some great media coverage.

2. Steve Says:
   June 30th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

   This is a more detailed and accurate comparison between Canada, USA and UK (also with France and Germany):
   http://www.omni-gamer.com/iPhone3G_plans.doc

   AT&T has confirmed the 200 SMS will not be included with the unlimited data plan for the iPhone 3G, Americans will have to pay an extra $5/month if they need 200 SMS. Also, O2 in the UK doesn’t have unlimited evenings/weekend included. But in Europe, incoming calls are unlimited, unlike Canada/US! Also, US and European carriers don’t charge extra for long distance within the country… and they don’t charge for call display.

3. Alain Bolduc Says:
   July 1st, 2008 at 6:54 am

   Make sure to had Jim Prentice, our Canadian Industry Minister to your cc: lists.

   His address is: Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca

   He’s responsible for the CRTC and other telecommunications related agencies and I’m sure he will be more than happy to hear from you.

   This petition was a great idea, really can help change things…and already has.

   Keep it up!

4. Samir Says:
   July 1st, 2008 at 10:13 pm

   This is what I wrote to the top people at Rogers (from Ted Rogers and downwards) and forwarded a copy to Jim Prentice as well questioning him why we are subjected to such restrictive pricing and uncompetitive environment which does not benefit the Canadians in any way.

   —————————————————————————————-

   Dear Sir(s)/Madam(s):

   I am writing to express my disappointment regarding the voice and data packages for iPhone offered by Rogers (and it’s sister concern, Fido) to the Canadian consumers.

   I, like many other Canadians, was looking forward to getting the iPhone on July 11th, 2008. Unfortunately after understanding the plans that you are offering tied with a 3-year contract I have decided not to get the iPhone. It is unbelievable that in this day and age, Rogers (and Fido) provide only 150 daytime voice minutes which amounts to just 5 minutes of talk time per day considering an average of 30 days in a month! Since there is no mention…I assume (I hope I am wrong though) that incoming calls are not free and are also counted against those 150 minutes/month? And to add insult to the injury, your unlimited evenings start at 9 PM! As far as I understand, almost anywhere in the world 9 PM is considered night time. Surely you don’t expect people to wait till 9 PM, which is close to bedtime for many, to make calls to all their friends, family and loved ones, do you? And unfortunately most business close by 5 PM so it’s not that you can call them at night after 9 PM to take care of what needs to be taken care of as part of living life daily!

   This all cast doubts on your sincerity in your claims of these being high value plans (high value for you or for us?) to us, your existing and potential customers and leads us to believe that all your plans for the iPhone are designed to extract maximum amount from each of us through overage charges by setting such low limits on voice as well as data plans. This also leads us to believe that it seems no-one has done some realistic testing using the voice and data plans you are offering to understand real world needs of us Canadians in today’s day and age. I am not even going to discuss your nickel and diming us through additional charges for System Access Fee and Caller Id.

   Very rarely does a company in its corporate history get an opportunity like this to redeem its name and image, to lead and be a game changer in it’s field of operation and win customers, through a single product like the iPhone with so much emotional power among the masses, in such a short span of time. Unfortunately and very sadly, Rogers had this opportunity but instead of using it to your advantage for long term benefits you gave into short term greed by undermining, and to be honest, insulting the collective intelligence of Canadians through such restrictive pricing and terms. You could have earned a lot more customers by offering them reasonable and realistic pricing while earning more than reasonable profits for the company and your shareholders in the process. There is nothing wrong in earning healthy profits, but when it comes at the cost of so much anger and disappointment from the masses i.e. your existing and potential customers, there is definitely something not right. You don’t want a customer who sticks with you only because there is no competition. You want a customer who will be loyal to you in spite of competition if and when it eventually happens. And you will find those customers only when you treat them fairly at all times regardless of the market situation by offering them fair prices for the services you offer. If this philosophy is applied in your dealings with us, no contract is or will be required to keep us with you because we will happily stay with you. Not to mention how proud each one of us as Canadians will be to see a Canadian company leading the way for everyone to follow and doing well in the process.

   Reading from newspapers across the world, one can clearly see that Rogers pricing is now being used as a new benchmark, very sadly, for bad pricing, to compare how bad (or how much better) the pricing for the iPhone voice and data plan is in other countries around the world where it is being introduced simultaneously with Canada. It’s hard to believe that such intelligent people like yourselves and others in the company could not foresee this and come up with such plans. Instead of using this opportunity to encourage more customers to subscribe to Rogers/Fido services, it seems you were trying to discourage them! You just have to take a short glance at a site like ruinediphone.com to understand how disappointed and frustrated Canadians are with your newly announced plans. It is amazing how an electronic device can be a catalyst for so much anger and outburst towards a company. You could have been so easily on the other side of the fence had you used this opportunity wisely earning valuable customers from Bell and Telus, and keeping them with you in spite of the oncoming competition from the wireless spectrum auction going on currently.

   I am a current Fido subscriber and at one time I was a Rogers cable and broadband internet subscriber. I switched my cable and broadband providers long time back and am happy to get more for less price. After the iPhone pricing debacle I have seriously started considering a move to Bell or Telus for my wireless telephony. That’s something that even I can’t believe myself doing over a small electronic device. There seems to be no other way left, unfortunately, for me and other many Canadians as you will, hopefully, get by visiting ruinediphone.com and seeing the petitions there.

   Thank you for your valuable time in reading this long email. Wishing the best to all of you and wishing you a Happy Canada Day too.

   Sincerely,
   Samir

5. ChristieB Says:
   July 2nd, 2008 at 6:46 am

   I just called Rogers and wanted to make an “official” complaint about the iphone prices. Hahn told me I could not do that until AFTER July 11th. Are you Kidding?? He also said that the prices listed on the website will remain the same, but after July 11th there will be more options for plans, though he couldn’t give any details. Wow. I don’t know if I just talked to the wrong guy… or if Rogers is “refusing” to let the public have a say. Interesting.

6. ChristieB Says:
   July 2nd, 2008 at 7:22 am

   I now just wrote rogers, and emailed everyone on your list. I Complained about the rate plans… and that I wasn’t able to make a complaint. We’ll see how they respond.

7. Ryan Says:
   July 3rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm

   Sent this to all the listed email addys.

   Hey All,

   I was planning on buying two iPhones, one for myself and one for my girlfriend, but after reviewing the new rate plans from Rogers I will be buying 0 iPhones. The current plans offered for the new 3G iPhone are terrible. They are much higher than anywhere else, and are worse than a 3rd world country. Canada is the only country where an iPhone has launched without a unlimited data plan. The iPhone is marketed as a always on web device and it’s going to be very hard to use it as such with those paultry Rogers plans. The inflated number of web pages you can view is highly inflated as many websites are 500+ Kb to load the main site page, let alone view muliple pages on one site.

   I can’t wait for the mass exodus of Rogers subscribers when the result of the wireless spectrum auction breathes some new life into the mobile market and brings some new players to the table. Canada is a first world country, it’s time to stop living with 3rd world mobile rates.

   I am also very disappointed in Apple for allowing Rogers to launch the iPhone with these crappy plans. I expected no less from Rogers, but a lot more from you. You’ve always been known as being on the side of the consumer and have a loyal customers. The fact you would agree to terms like this that are clearly bad for the consumer is a surprise and quite shocking. You had a lot of leverage in this situation and could have forced their hand a lot more until they came up with something most consumers could live with. I would have much rather seen you swap the gsm chip with a cdma one and come out on either Telus or the much dreaded Bell, either of which would have been better than the current outcome.

   Hoping to one day own an iPhone,
   Ryan

8. Joe_Raby Says:
   July 3rd, 2008 at 1:50 pm

   I dunno where the heck you’re getting those prices for Bell and Telus, but those certainly are NOT the smartphone rates for data. Smartphone rates for Bell and Telus are both $100 for 1GB.

   http://www.telusmobility.com/on/business_solutions/handheld_rate_plans.shtml “Email and Web rates”

   http://www.bell.ca/shop/Sme.Sol.Wireless.Internet.Plans.page “Wireless Email and Internet plans”

   I was in a Telus store the other day looking at standalone data rates (those are the “Connect” plans) for PC use (not for a smartphone, tethered or not), and unlimited data for a PC/ExpressCard or other EVDO module costs $100. It is a rate that is not listed on their website. They will not let you activate a phone or PDA on that plan.

   http://www.telusmobility.com/on/business_solutions/connect_megabyte_rate_plan.shtml

   The prices of Rogers aren’t much different. All Canadian cellphone operators charge about the same.

9. Mike R Says:
   July 3rd, 2008 at 5:46 pm

   If you really want to make Rogers feel pain then everyone should begin downgrading existing Rogers services and tell them the reason is iPhone pricing….they’d pay attention fast. Imagine if everyone suddenly downgraded and knocked $40/month off what you already pay Rogers. I can simply downgrade the cable TV channels that I pay for but never watch…lower your high speed internet down one level….you probably won’t notice the speed difference at all…I’ll be doing that July 11th if these stupid prices don’t change.

10. dana Says:
    July 4th, 2008 at 10:23 am

    I’d like to know where you saw that Telus offers a $30 unlimited data plan? As far as I knew, NO cell phone companies in canada offered unlimited data… I had researched this a lot in the past when looking for the best plan. I actually canceled my Telus data plan because $25/month only got you 4mb… and the max was 1024MB at $100/month. Looking at this iPhone plan from rogers, it actually does look better than the other data plans I’ve seen, even though Canada’s rates for cell phones are still ridiculous.

11. Dion Says:
    July 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

    You know what’s sad because nothing is likely to change…? Rogers cannot even provide unlimited download data for cable customers. So hoping for unlimited 3G is almost ridiculous! =/

12. FM Says:
    July 4th, 2008 at 11:40 pm

    I emailed Rogers to complain about the ridiculous iPhone plans they list as “value”. Below is the laughable and “canned” response I got from Rogers:

    —

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of
    online customer service.

    In your recent email, you have informed us that you are dissatisfied
    with the price of our iPhone plans.

    Rogers has designed a pricing structure that offers high-value, flexible
    voice and data packages so that Canadians can make the most of their
    iPhone 3G experience.

    The majority of carriers offering iPhone 3G worldwide do not have
    unlimited plans for this device. Some carriers have implemented a soft
    cap so the plan isn’t truly unlimited. For example, in France the soft
    cap is 500MB where we have a plan that includes 4 times that amount in
    your bucket. Unlimited plans could end up costing you more for what you
    don’t use.

    Based on reports that the average usage for the first generation iPhone
    was less than 100MB per month, our iPhone 3G plans more than accommodate
    the vast majority of customers. Rogers and Fido customers get 4 times
    the data on our $60 entry level plan (400 MB) and 20 times the data on
    our most comprehensive plan.

    We apologize for the inconvenience.

    We are pleased to have been able to address your inquiry. For additional
    information please visit our website at http://www.rogers.com. You are a valued
    customer and we thank you for your business.

    Regards,
    Grant C.
    Rogers Online Customer Service
    http://www.rogers.com

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