As of May 5, Rogers will introduce a new upgrade policy that allows Rogers customers to renew their contract early and get a new device earlier than normal, however it comes with a fee.
Normally, Rogers customers must wait at least 12 (consumer phone) or 24 (smartphone) months into their current contract term to receive promotional pricing on a handset renewal/upgrade. Now, by paying the “Early Upgrade†fee, users can get a new device at promotional pricing earlier than normal.
This new early upgrade fee is calculated using a set dollar amount depending on which device you currently have multiplied by the number of months remaining before the customer’s upgrade eligibility date.
The new upgrade fee first depends on which device you have and then on how many months are remaining before the customers upgrade eligibility date. Let’s look at the device groupings:
Note that this Rogers upgrade fee system only applies to customers that are six months into their contract or are six months after their last discounted upgrade.
If you have a “classic” Rogers phone with 8 months until your upgrade eligibility date and wanted to upgrade early to an iPhone, you would pay:
If you have a “premium” Rogers phone with 8 months until your upgrade eligibility date and wanted to upgrade early to an iPhone, you would pay:
If you choose not to upgrade early and reach your upgrade eligibility date, you can upgrade at promotional pricing and do not need to pay an early upgrade fee. As per the Rogers document, the company is also changing eligibility dates to vary from 18-30 months depending on the customers current device.
What do you think of this new Rogers upgrade policy? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
Think you typoed on the “premium” phone section because in your example you say $20 per month, but in the list you say $15/m for both smartphone and premium phones.
I don’t have a problem with this, but it looks more like they are just abolishing the program and renaming their “early cancellation” fees to “upgrade” fees.
do you think rogers will wave this when the iphone4s or iphone 5 comes out like they have in the past?
Don’t count on it
I don’t think they will. They’ve been loosing out on upgrades for a long time now and they need to recoup their money. Albeit the money they make from the contracts should definitely recoup their money in that manner, but they are just trying to make more.
Corrected.
Thank you.
Except that now I can get better 3G coverage from SaskTel, so when I buy my new unlocked phone, guess where I’m going? Pretty hard to recoup money from migrating customers…
In Quebec this would be really a joke since for an iPhone
500$ rebate so 500/36= 13.88 per month
x 8 months = 111.11$ instead of 160$!!
Yet the US customers get their nearly the same promotional pricing on a 2 year plan, which would make sense. I can live with a phone for 2 years, but not 3.
If you had you iPhone 4 for a year wouldn’t you only need to pay for 12 months to qualify for an early upgrade?
I’m guessing they’d be able to charge you based on whatever you agreed to when you signed your contract, which I believe is higher than $13.89. I thought I remembered $20 per month left?
In Québec, you only pay what’s left on the PHONE to pay. That’s a new law that started around July 1st 2010. So, Bine is right (assuming he lives in QC).
You are correct
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Will Fido be next? I just cracked the screen on my iphone 3g and am 2 months away from upgrade eligibility so this would be perfect.
Yes I’m in QC. I didn’t know it was a Quebec only law.
Anyway to figure out if someone has the 18 month eligiblity or 30 month eligibility.
I guess premium devices are 30 months? This is up from the 24 months that we have now? Blah
Hmmmm…anyone tried doing an ‘equipment change’ from their iphone to a ‘classic’ phone and then tried to upgrade???
Wonder if that would work…
Lucky. Wonder if the rest of Canada will ever follow?
You pay that AS WELL as the price of the phone, not instead…
You pay that AS WELL as the price of the phone, not instead…
Since when is the iPhone a “premium” phone as opposed to just a smartphone? Looks like a money-grabber for people who want to upgrade to the white iPhone 4 or iPhone 5. Their website lists them as “smartphones” only. Ridiculous. Also annoying is the fact they never take into consideration how long you’ve been a customer. I shouldn’t have to ever pay a fee to upgrade if I’ve been with them for 10 years.
WHAT!!!? This is a Total rip off!!
Dammit rogers just trying to take every last penny from its people.
I really hope this doesn’t go through..
So because I have an iPhone 4, I can look forward to my upgrade eligibility date being pushed from 24 months to 30 months?? Meaning 6 months before my contract expires? That’s terrific.
Makes it easier to consider another provider, if nothing else.
That means that if you want to change your iphone every a year for the new one, you would have to pay 24×20 = 480 + price of the iphone and renew for 3 years… It is almost cheaper to buy it unlocked at Apple !
For a few dollars more, you have the phone from Apple and unlocked with no contract.
Exactly. If the HUP period for an iPhone is still 24 months, I don’t see how this is worse. Now you pay $240 to get promotional pricing, so it might be a small difference.
If the HUP is still 24 months then this shouldn’t impact people much. Hopefully the upgrade fees are waived during the promotional period though.
the early upgrade fee for iphones is kind of redundant. the majority of iphone users upgrade within the first few months of the devices release, and when that happens its heavily subsidized anyways. even if you aren’t eligable for an upgrade yet, you qualify for promo pricing if you have gotten an iphone in the last year and if you are currently buying the new iphone.
That’s a promo that Rogers releases. There’s no guarantee it happens again.
all carriers who got the iphone 3gs, and iphone 4 around the canadian launch dates had that promo (alot of them had the $30/6gb promo also….rogers had it back when the 3G was launched as well). you’re right, it might not happen again, but i can guarantee that alot of people won’t be happy if they dont. its in their best interest to do it…i’d be very surprised if they took that away. lately rogers really depends on their iphone users. in fact when they blocked fileape (file hosting site that hosts majority of cracked app store apps) ALOT of users were upset and complained. low and behold its back up. (it wasnt an isp outage on fileape’s side because if you changed your dns address on the iphone while on wifi to 8.8.8.8 the site magically worked….8.8.8.8 is google’s dsn address.
No. You pay $111.11 and you’re out of the contract, so you don’t pay any more than the 3 year plan price for the iPhone with any carrier you choose. OR, you could pay Rogers $160 and not have a choice of carrier, and therefore not have any negotiating leverage for perks on your new monthly plan. What do you think people (in Quebec) will choose? This is ridiculous on Rogers’ part and people won’t stand for it, clearly. It will be changed once the outrage picks up. And I’m sure they will have the same iPhone promo plan, unless they want to lose a shit-ton of customers.
Might as well buy unlock from apple rather than paying early upgrade fee plus another 3 years contract.
Been through several contracts with rogers and after this 3 year i signed with my iphone 3gs couple years ago im done. Buying an unlocked iphone 5 from apple when they drop. No contract + higher resale value= selling iphones off 1 month before they drop new ones on kijiji for 100$ less then what apple charges. Rogers can take there contracts (that they can change in there favor at any time, more like a contract to be rogers’ bitch) and keep it for the slow dumb and blind.
Haha so true
If you wanted to change your phone every year for a new one, it would be 12 x $20 = 240 + new phone price. It is $20 times the months remaining until eligibility (24 months from the start of a 36 month contract).
I am finally eligiable for an upgrade and still can’t find an IPhone 4 at any Rogers locations
It would be calculated off of your last upgrade that Rogers provided you with.
I upgraded to iPhone 4 yesterday.
My “normal” upgrade eligibility date was June 22 (I had checked it numerous times) so I expected to pay 2 months early upgrade fee ($40). Nope. Seems the upgrade renewal term for premium phones increased to 30 months (from 24) at the same time as the early upgrade came into effect.So now my upgrade eligibility date is Sept 22. And they want $120 early upgrade fee.One hand giveth and the other hand taketh away!
Would it not just be cheaper to cancel your plan and go somewhere else !? I think they will lose a lot of customers this way.
No, because canceling your contract costs the exact same, except you don’t get a new phone out of it.