MobileSyrup has the goods on the newest fee Rogers customers will face on July 10th, according to an internal document. The fine print for this new fee reads as follows:
Beginning July 10th, new or existing Rogers customers activating or upgrading any wireless service with Rogers will be charged a $35 Connection Fee to activate the service on the Rogers Network. The Connection Fee will be charged to the customers invoice at the time of activation or upgrade. The $35 Activation Fee and the $35 Hardware Upgrade Administration Fee no longer apply.
At launch, the Connection Fee will be the same for new and existing customers, cannot be waived by agents, and will appear on applicable materials and contracts going forward. The Connection Fee will be introduced at a promotional rate of $15 for New Activations and Hardware Upgrades, and the promotional rate will be valid until further notice.
So this new $35 Connection Fee will apply to new and existing activations or upgrades on the network. It essentially replaces the old $35 Activation Fee and $35 Hardware Upgrade fee. The document is specific to say at launch, the fee, which will be set at a promo price of $15, “cannot be waived by agents.”
Thoughts on this new fee? Necessary nowadays for the company to run its wireless business, or do you think it’s just another cost being passed to customers?
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If they had a decent signal, I could agree but the signal service is so awful that we should all sue like the man in BC
you must be in the boonies? get telus or bell then if you’re in an isolated area where there is limited Rogers coverage. Otherwise ask for a blanket rejection number to be added to your account or whatever it is called. It allows you to roam onto Bell or Telus should your coverage be poor.
What do you mean, “it’s just another cost being passed to customers”? It clearly isn’t.
YES it is. it is a completely unnecessary cost that the consumer has to pay. it is nothing more than a cash cow for Rogers. If the customer stays with Rogers on a month to month there is no activation fee, if he renews his term and even opts out of electing a HU he is charged $35.
But nobody can go on a contract unless he s getting a device. No device no contract.
well actually…3gs locked in with two more years left even though original 3 year lock down ended long long ago in a Rogers universe far far away.
Rogers red – ????
Who says? And why the sudden urge for a new contract? People have been fighting that for years. You don’t need one.
They added one fee (on a service that people rarely if ever would do) and took away two fees (one of which people used every 2 years on average), plus the new fee is, for an indefinite time, $20 less. So what exactly is your problem with this?
A service hat nobody ever uses? Who says?
We’ve heard that before….can’t be waived by agents. Agents regularly “stack” credits to the customer’s account depending on who you get. This actually happens quite a bit with hardware upgrades for example, even with the iPhone where the price is supposed to be fixed. As always, it’s YMMV
This is bullshit. A step back exactly when we are all hoping for steps forward with the wireless code. Way to pop that dream Rogers (did anyone expect any different). Man some other big company needs to come up here and shake things up. And hopefully not just jump into the status quo.
This 35$ fee is simply a hook, if they need more money, bring up the prices on the plans, make it easy to see how much you expect from your customers instead of these bs charges you like to make up to stack up some extra cash.
/rant
Does this apply to plan changes? The wording might suggest it does …
Yea it does and no Rogers wont be giving out the gold knee pads anymore as the new powers that be have declared we’re only to be given tin plated from this point on.
I have repeated reading it a few times. No where does it says customer will be charge on plan changes.
“So this new $35 Connection Fee will apply to new and existing activations or upgrades on the network.”
Upgrades would be plan changes.
We will wait and see.
So are you saying if I change my plan to a lower price plan, I will get charge? I “downgrade” my plan.
From the news, this fee is to “replace” the $35 Activation Fee and the $35 Hardware Upgrade Administration Fee.
An upgrade is a change in equipment not a change in your service plan. Only a fucking idiot who is too stupid to live would confuse a plan change and an upgrade.
No it doesn’t when you change plan, please indicate where you saw this cause I did not!
No. Just hardware upgrades and new customers. We’ll find out soon as more details emerge.
??? That’s not what I read (what you wrote).
So they just essentially renamed the ‘hardware upgrade fee/ new activation fee’ to ‘connection fee’?
Yes!
Finally… Someone with some common sense intelligence. Everyone else around here is running around like the sky is falling or something. I’m no fan of the big 3, but this is nothing and everybody just needs to chill instead of being a bunch of whiny sucks.
Well maybe you might missed something so check out the article from October of last year regarding Telus and activation fees.
The HUP fee was in many cases waived to loyal customers. Now, Rogers is trying to convince us that its going to be fair? Right. You watch. The Rogers Retentions rep will stack credits to offset the HUP fee just like they often do for the iPhone even though they aren’t suppose to.
And while you may smoke your money or spend it on massage parlors or escorts, others know the value of hard earned money.
Just Rogers being Rogers. Not very retention friendly. Maybe it’s time to switch.
Buying out my plan with Rogers soon. This is just another reason to avoid them like a disease. Now when Verizon buys Wind or Mobilicity I’ll be happy. I’ll get to tell my kids about the fall of the evil giant Rogers. 🙂 If Canadian carriers can’t smarten up then let’s get the US carriers here! F$#k patriotism with regard to cell carriers, all its gets us is screwed. Especially in Ontario.
Think you should check out the Verizon blogs on their pricing, I will not say anything to taint your opinion until you check it out. Please read and have a follow up comment. It would be interesting to see what your opinion is…
My contact ends next month… I tried to give them a chance to keep me.
Went through retention… 3 different managers right to the office of the president.
They couldn’t even match the two $60 deals at Koodo or Virgin Mobile. Plus I get a 10% discount if I bring my own phone.
I’ll be switching away from Rogers as soon as possible.
Well I went to get my phone unlocked.. they asked why.. and I said changing carriers.
And then, they finally came down in price. 45$ for unlimited local, voicemail call display, call waiting. 1 Gig data. Total monthly $50.85.
This is not new
You always get a good rogering when dealing with Rogers
Hold a second if I’m just upgrading my phone, then there shouldn’t be a charge,right?
It would be great if they could explain in detail what this $35 charge is for, what it covers and why it is necessary. Seems like a “because we can” fee to me.
$35 so some clown at Rogers (with apologies to real clowns everywhere)
can type the identifier number of a phone into their system to
‘activate’ it – or worse, just to move to a newer phone on a current
subscription? Their old fees were a scam at the best of times, but this
just gives them a new name for a charge that should be free. I mean,
they want subscribers, right? And you can be certain these ‘service
fees’ won’t be front and centre in any of their posters / ad materials
promoting their Plans or ‘Upgrade Anytime’.
All this hand ringing is due to North American, and especially Canadiens need for a subsidized phone. All these additional charges stem from tools to subsidize our iPhone, Samsung, HTC phones. We as Canadiens really need to set our priorities pay for the phone full price or sign on to any subsidized plan whether you call it a FlexTab or Contract and this is what you get…..so which one will it be…pick one, but it will be foolish if you think you are going to get a reduced price subsidy without any strings attached. As long as we crave for a subsidy, whatever carrier will take advantage of us new or old…… But we do like our subsidized phones don’t we…….
I get what you’re saying, but really, how many subscribers would Providers get (and hold onto) if they only charged full price for the phones – with expectation from consumers that at that price the phone would be unlocked?
I daresay most are unwilling to fork over $700 – 900 for a smartphone, so the only way a Providers is going to get a subscriber is to subsidize (and lock down) the phone. Over the course of a 3 year Plan, the subscriber is paying the retail full cost of the phone – say, $20/month for a $700 phone – as part of their ‘subscription’, but as warranties crap out on these devices after the first year, their real ‘value’ drops significantly after that time. Not that you’d know that if you tried to buy out an contract early.
Regardless, the Providers are making more than enough profit on the services they offer without needing to add spurious ‘administrative’ or ‘system access’ fees.
The connection fee is NOT defined. I’m pretty sure this goes against the CRTC rules in which the fees must be clearly defined. There is no such things as connecting a new phone if you already have a connected SIM card. Logic dictates this fee should only apply to new SIM cards, not to all phones and upgrades.
anyways just ask for retentions and complain until you get a rep who will waive the fee for you.
p.s. anything can and will be waived if you threaten to cancel