Back in June it was noted that Rogers hardware upgrades will require $80 plans for premium devices like the iPhone.
There was an exception to the rule, which allowed store managers to allow one-time upgrades for plans within $60-79, to transition customers over to this new policy. There was no word on when this exception would phase out at the time.
But now, the transition policy appears to have ended, according to what Rogers stores are telling customers. According to the following email sent to iPhoneinCanada.ca reader Chris, stores are now “100% required” to implement $80/month plans (emphasis ours):
I wanted to make you aware that as of last week we are now required to change people to current in-market price plans in order to receive subsidies on premium phones like the iPhone. You are correct that we had the ability to make a one-time exception during a transitional phase while we moved into this new system. At this point however, we are 100% required to make the change. We’d be happy to sit down with you and try to find a plan that will suit your needs.
We reached out to Rogers for clarification to see if the exception policy had indeed been phased out for good. Here’s the following statement response from the company via email (emphasis ours):
“In June we made a change so that when a customer upgrades their smartphone and receives a device subsidy, they’ll move to an in-market Share Everything plan. We’re working to improve customer service, including making our plans and processes as simple and straight forward as possible. We have thousands [of] wireless plans- Old plans are in many cases out of date and don’t always provide the best value. This change was introduced to simplify our price plans and create a better experience for customers. Current plans are easy to understand, designed for how customers use their phones and include services like unlimited Canada-wide long distance and texting, voicemail and call display- features customers on many older plans have to pay extra for. We’re phasing in the new policy and introducing more tools to help frontline reps assist customers in finding the plan that best meets their needs. The exception policy is being used less and less as our new policy and the benefits of Share Everything plans are more understood. Our trending suggests it will soon no longer be needed and we will phase it out. The full policy will take effect shortly, no date to share at this time.”
So if you’re looking to upgrade or sign a new two-year contract for an iPhone, and were hoping to fall into the one-time exception with your existing plan below $80, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anymore, according to the statement.
Below is the entry Share Everything Plan starting at $80 with 500 MB of data, which is an ‘in-market Share Everything plan’ most people would have to subscribe to in order to meet requirements for a subsidized iPhone plan on a two-year contract:
For those unaware, you’re better off buying unlocked and going with a cheaper plan and taking advantage of 10% off BYOD discounts.
What’s your monthly plan going to look like when you acquire the iPhone 6 this fall?
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that doesn’t make any sense
It makes complete sense. Since contracts are now only 2 years, they are trying to make sure they secure more revenue to make up for the lost 3rd year. All the mobile carriers have made their plans worse since the change to contract lengths.
The third year loss is an exuse. Real reason is the tv supscriptions are down as people continue to cancel services, they bought MLSE for half a billion dollars and NHL broadcast rights for five billion. They just want to past the cost on … Three years to two year contract changes was just a convenient excuse.
don’t forget they just paid WWE a ton of money for exclusivity of the WWE Network. Rogers sure likes to throw their customers money around.
You’re right! I wonder how much they put out for that … It wouldn’t be cheap that’s for sure.
Third year isn’t a loss, it’s the first year of the renewal. That’s not a reason to try to lump all of the third year revenue into the first two years.
It is complete robbery, they have already over compensated plans when the government mentioned the move to 2 year plans. Robbules should have increased plans $5 to compensate the difference of the device subsiddy, instead they increased all plans by $20 – $40 a month. This is just further highway robbery, the moment my agreement ends, I will be moving over to wind.
That is a bullshit excuse that Rogers likes to use.
When new iPhones are released, Rogers always offers a subsidy of about $470. On a 3 year term, that means that $13.06 per month is going towards the phone. Switching that to a 2 year term means that $19.58 per month goes towards the phone.
In other words, by switching from 3 year to 2 year terms, the subsidy cost to Rogers went up by about $6.53 per month. Yet over that same period, prices have gone up by around $30 per month!
There is no excusing this behaviour. It is a cash grab by an oligopoly, plain and simple.
Rogers, Bell, and Telus were screwing us over with 3 year contracts when most of the world was on 2 year contracts, we complained about this terrible treatment, and in response to our complaints, Rogers/Bell/Telus found a way to screw us even harder.
“Old plans are in many cases out of date and don’t always provide the best value”
Best value…. for who? Rogers, obviously.
wow, Rogers is applying reality distortion to the max!
Makes me mad just reading those words. How they hell can they pass off such BS and expect us to believe it?!
I agree. It’s better for Rogers. Well I for one will slowly migrate to other service providers over time. I have been with Rogers for 20 years and if now this? I have put up with the 3rd party gorillas who do the cable installation damaging my furniture and walls to this crap now? A really rough calculation on what I’ve spent with Rogers $54, 480.00 in 20 years. That ain’t chicken feed.
Is it $80 before monthly discounts or $80 after monthly discounts?
Will this affect me because I’m on a 75$ plan thru my employer? I’d imagine it wouldn’t cause rogers and my
Employer agreed to the deal they made?
Still have the 30$ for 6gb with 45 voice plan. Am thinking of buying outright to keep a decent plan…
Diddo. I figure they will catch up eventually though.
Didn’t Rogers say they are raising the price of the 6 GB by $5?
No way is an extra $5/month enough to make the new plans as good as grandfathered plans. I’m still saving a bundle buying devices outright.
Wait what? When? I haven’t seen this.
https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/carriers/rogers/rogers-6gb-30-data-plan-5-price-hike/
Thanks for linking! My price didn’t get raised, that’s why I was curious. After reading the article looks like it’s only for month to month customers that got the raise. I’m still contract tied.
I have a $85 2gb, canada-wide plan with a $10/mo discount. Just ordered the s5 as an upgrade from my iphone4 and with the rogers rewards points applied to the cost, $69!!
🙂
5s
How does it work in MB where the Rogers plans are $65 for a 5GB and $75 for a 10GB? The plans here don’t hit the $80
Plans are seen to offer more and are cheaper where there’s more carrier competition for MB there’s MTS.
Just to let people know, when we followed up with further clarification on the statement received, the Rogers spokesperson was unable to comment further on the matter.
unlocked thanks and i will keep my retention plan 🙂
Hello Videotron for me, when I will buy my iPhone 6
My plan as well
Definitely ditching all the carrier voice plans for a voip plan on ipad.
I’ve been using Fongo on my iPad for voice. It works perfectly now (had some issues when it launched but no more thanks to regular updates). I get my own local number and unlimited calls, free. I use it on wifi at home, but I have also used it on a wifi hotspot on the go and it works just as well. I’ve been keeping my phone alive for the few people I need to text on a $10/month pre-paid plan, and if I ever need internet on the go I have a wifi hotspot I can reactivate on a flex plan. Saving a good lot of money compared to what I was paying before and I don’t miss the old service one bit.
Remember people Rogers will charge you a full month after you port your phone number over to another carrier. I gave 45 day notice that I was leaving them last year. I was off contract. I had to file a complaint with the CCTS to get my $ back. Only took 10-12 days. Still best decision I made was to leave them after 9 years.
Yeah, thats shit. However, you can’t bitch about Rogers on that one, THEY ALL DO IT! Bell did it to me a few years back.
Really! Thought it was just Rogers. Hadn’t heard of another carrier doing it until now. Thanks! Good to know.
They tried to do that to me…I had to fight for 45 minutes to make a note on my file stating that I was giving my 30 days notice, then they charged me anyways and I had to fight another 45 minutes with them to get reimbursed. And even then, they only did it when I threatened to cancel my cable.
It’s unbelievable that they haven’t been sued for this practice. It’s outright theft.
Uhh yeah okay… Upgrade my @$$! I bought the iPhone 5 outright two years ago and I plan to do that with the iPhone 6.
Hope this rule won’t apply to corporate plans.
Anybody know about this?
According to our account exec, corporate customers have a 60$ monthly fee threshold vs 80$.
Wow! What a load of BS from Rogers. If I want to get a “preimum” phone subidy I now have to spend 40% more a month than I’m paying now? This’ll be the second time I’m buying an unlocked phone from the manufacture. Not paying rogers one red cent more than I have to.
I guess somebody has to pay for that big hockey deal. Not my family.
I hope Fido dooesnt follow suit since you know, Rogers is Fido’s Parent company……..
I renewed with Fido, I wasn’t going to but they renewed my 6 gigs for 30 bucks plan and improved my voice as well. With my fido dollars, and trade in, I got to 5s for 100 bucks.
I wonder if this will affect corporate plans? I’m on a $50 corporate plan and plan to upgrade my iPhone to the 6 this fall.
I still can’t believe how expensive North America’s cell plans are. I wish Videotron will come in to Canada and drive down the cost of monthly plans.
Lol! Last time I checked, Québec was still part of Canada. Did you mean to say you wish, Vidéotron comes to ‘the rest of’ Canada, or were you talking about Verizon? I can see how one can easily make that mistake, as they both begin with the letter ‘V’! Interesting Freudian slip, mon ami 🙂
WTF!!!! Again this is why after having a cell phone since 1999 I will be buying a new iPhone unlocked to keep my old $60 a month plan and I’ll still save money
The day the government let a US company do competition in Canada. the BIG 3 will be in BIG trouble .. is incredible how in the US you can even get unlimited ALL included data for 40-45$ a month. Straight Talk is one of them and uses AT&T towers
You’re expecting too much. If a us company came here, their range would initially be very restricted, quality would be sporadic, and would mostly be fixed to urban venters or wind mobile. Don’t expect a miracle until decades pass and by then, they’ll be corrupted and join the big boys collusion club.
You’re are defiently expecting to much, if a US company came to Canada, they would charge the exact same amount. Just like any other company that moved to Canada, Target is a great example. Videotron is our only hope, or as a country we give up our phones.
I had been a Rogers customer since Cantel days. The recent plans are a ripoff. I jumped to Koodo – Manitoba rates $49.50 per month after BYOD discount – ported my Ontario number and retained the plan – unlimited calls, unlimited txts including international and 5 gig data. Best deal I could find. The days of getting your iPhone from Rogers are over.
Hey Gh I live in Montreal and have a 514 number. How did you port your ontario number?
I would like to do the same, how do I can i get that plan?
I used to use StriaghtTalk when I lived in New Jersey for a few months – it is Walmart’s brand. The problem with them is that they use T-Mobile’s network, meaning they will have very poor performance and coverage…
See you later Robers!!
80$ for 500MB!?!?!? Happy that I got unlimited voice and messages (CA/US/Intl), and 6GB for 79$ with Fido before this madness.
Now we understand why Fido upgraded their smart plan for a short period of time… You get 2Gb for 75$ instead of 500 Mo and 4Gb for the 80$ plan at this time. Nevertheless, let’s keep the 3Gb plan for 60$, unlimited talk in Canada and free international SMS plan with the iPhone 5s.
And Videotron still offering unlimited calls to canada and usa with 3GB for 50$. My wife and my iphone contract are expiring soon, going to leave rogers for videotron. We both pay 60$ for canada only
“We have thousands [of] wireless plans- Old plans are in many cases out
of date and don’t always provide the best value. This change was
introduced to simplify our price plans and create a better experience
for customers.”
This is an outright lie. I changed away from Rogers last year when they forced me into a price plan that provided LESS value than my existing one. MUCH less value. I bought my phone outright and went with Wind. Yes, coverage isn’t as good, yes I don’t have LTE. But the coverage and service is certainly good enough to justify my $40/mo savings compared to what Rogers offered. AND, I wouldn’t even have qualified for an iPhone under what they offered me!
I’m not with Rogers but Fido, which I guess will be essentially the same so I guess Apple will be getting my business! No more 2yr term and I’ll stick with my unlimited canada/3gig for 60$.
I thought my plan of $69 Rogers unlimited local talk+text+ Cid and VVm with 6 GB data was expensive.
Doesn’t videotron request to have a 79.95$ plan to get the 5S at 100$?
Here’s what you do guys/gals. 2 Options:
Option 1) Buy the phone outright. Get a cheap Fido Smart Plan. Whenever a better plan is released from Fido, switch to that one and just keep it. Way cheaper in the long run, and you don’t have to worry about being locked to a carrier if you move (or want to switch).
Option 2) Call Rogers your seriously considering cancelling, and that your outraged you have to switch to an $80 plan. You want to cancel your services. They will switch you a department for cancellation. Tell those guys you rather stay, but you need a better plan than that, and explain your good customer. They will offer you a much better plan than what’s online. If they refuse to give you anything acceptable. Just say you will keep thinking about it and call back. At that point, I’d go with Option 1 (unless you will pay a huge cancellation fee).
Checkout “redflagdeals retention plan rogers” to see what plans you could get if you are about to cancel too. There is a long thread about it there.
IMO The easiest route is Fido, and outright. Every once and a while they have some great plans, and with no contract/phone restrictions you can capatalize any time.
Great tips!
You can also switch from Rogers to Fido without having to give the advanced notice. As long as the Rep knows how to do it, they will just switch you over and not charge you (assuming your contract is over). I did this with my mom’s phone.
That work only once. I did already. Once from Robers to Fido and Once from Fido to Robers. Now, i’m “flagged” as a customer that can’t use that “tactict” anymore.
How is Fido different from Rogers?
Screw you Robers !
You’r lucky that my old corporate plan from my union is good! 52$/month, with 6GB LTE. I won’t change that and never buy your Overpriced hardware, i’ll always buy Unlocked from manufacturer from now on.
I had the $52 6GB that you’re speaking of until 3 months ago when my -$15 ended. Apparently when I negotiated my contract 3 years ago and they told me the cost of my plan was to be $52 per month they actually meant $60 bundle minus $15 loyalty discount (which would expire at the end of my contract but I wasn’t informed of this) plus $7 voicemail and call display. Sooooo this so called discount expires and I’m now on the hook for $67 per month plus tax for the exact same plan.
Fought and fought with retention and they will not change it! I have been with Rogers for 10 years now and they won’t budge!
If you work for Federal Government and live in Québec, they have a 42.50$/mo if you bring your device, you can add a 2nd line for additional 30$, so 72.50$ for 2 unlimited Line with Caller-ID and Voicemail + a shared 6GB on the 2 lines!
Rogers could have easily let it stay at 60$ plan minimum and raise phone prices when the iphone 6 releases. They didn’t because clearly the monthly plan earns them more revenue. Don’t fall for it people!
I think that when a new device comes out, Apple mandates that all carriers sell the new iPhone for $199 or something similar. This is part of the appeal – that price is “forced” on all carriers world-wide.
That would be illegal. It’s called price fixing.
If you look at any of the Apple iPhone announcements (at the WWDC), they ALWAYS say, that the phone will be available for $199 at all carriers world-wide on agreement..
No they don’t. They say it will be available at $199 US at all carriers (in the US) of that device. Case in point: Canadian price does not correlate to the US price. Furthermore, very often in the Canadian market you’ll see one company drop price before the others do. That means it isn’t Apple setting the price but carriers who all copy each other as quickly as possible.
Last year, me and my wife bought the 5S, 32GB unlocked and outright from Apple. We both save well over $85 a month using the Wind Network of the $30 plan. With much improved roaming agreement ahead and I rarely travel outside of Wind zone, buying the iPhone outright from Apple is the way to go. For the last 10 months with Wind, we save $850! That is equivalent of a brand new 32GB 5S. If I am spending the same amount of money anyway, I will make sure Rogers does not benefit a single penny from me.
The problem I have is that the Wind network is terrible though. I work in downtown Toronto and the guy who sits beside me has a Nexus 5 running on Wind. He finds himself with no bars at least once a day, sometimes for long periods of time. In addition, even when he does have a connection his 3G speeds compared to my iPhone’s 3G speeds on Bell’s network when subjected to the speedtest.net app is about 0.8MB down for him(typically) vs around 5MB down for me(typically). If I hop on the LTE network my speeds go up to 15-20MB down whereas Wind doesn’t even support LTE.
Yes, Wind has spotty signal in buildings not only downtown. I work in Wellington and King area at 17th floor. Wind signal is not as bad as I think. When I was with Rogers, I Did not get a good connection either, only 2 bars. To me, saving $ is more important.
However, Wind data speeds have been tested to be considerably slower than Rogers. Besides, WIND lacks LTE. That is a deal breaker for many.
It depends on how your value speed vs saving $. I don’t mind slower speed or spotty coverage in exchange for almost 59% savings per month,
On my corporate plan, I am currently paying with taxes et al around $55/month and that includes 6 GB of data and LTE speeds which is very important. At this time, it’s hard for me to switch to WIND. However, when it’s time for renewal I may have no choice.
Actually, you do. If you want to maintain your awesome $55 plan, just buy the device outright and you can keep the plan. Rogers won’t force you to change to a new plan if you buy your device outright or using or your unlocked device. If LTE and reliability to you is important, this is exactly what you need to do.
Has me wondering if this is a step towards phasing out device subsidies altogether? They see how huge the demand for high end devices is, so why subsidies if you dont have to? Gotta keep growing profits somehow.
LOL! TMobile is in the US. It has a worldwide ROAMING plan. It doesn’t operate in Canada and to sign up, you need a US address. They have agreements with Canadian carriers and absorb the cost themselves. They definitely have permission. You seriously need to learn about how it works man, so innocent!
well this forum is not about who knows more but to give some advices. with all the respect to you my friend you can’t talk about an iPhone if you don’t own one. and what i mean is I’m giving facts and not what i think.
i travel a lot to the US and i use roam mobility and also straight talk plans when i do that. but that is when going down there.
when my brother comes here from the us he uses his Tmobile international date and uses Fongo app to make canadians calls here and google voice app to call back there
so i guess you didn’t read the Tmobile link that i put there
the only thing i agree with you is that you need a US address to get that service from Tmobile and of course who will not know that?
i will let it like that and like i said before this is just an advice to somebody that needs to know about that and not to people that knows everything without trying something
There’s a fundamental difference between operating in Canada and working in Canada. I never said what you said wasn’t true – I said it was incorrect. Of course a tmobile phone works in Canada but it doesn’t OEPRATE in Canada – meaning when he uses it here, it switches to the local carrier frequencies.
I own two iPhones so don’t pretend to think I don’t own any. Your “facts” are wrong. Your explanation outright proves you were wrong. If your brother is using apps to make calls, he’s not using cellular voice.
I know you know what you’re talking about but you are using such incorrect terminology as to make yourself sound ignorant of how things work.
Having international plans only means you don’t pay for roaming – it means NOTHING about where a carrier operates or competes with.
Bravo!!! You are the one…
Like it’s hard to get a US address. There are tons of parcel pickup/mail forwarding companies along the Canada/US border, many in Blaine if you live in GVR.
He never said it was hard or impossible. It still changes nothing about how a carrier operates.
Corporate plans with the 6GB plans are the biggest one’s to suffer. Hello WIND?
F*** you Rogers.
I admire your courage Rogers! You know of course that you handling clients to Telus and Bell with a decision like this, right? I’m with Telus so it’s all good with me! Good luck Mr. CEO!
Rogers does have a price match guarantee which states it has to be on similar terms. One could argue that Bell still only needs a $60/month plan, so Rogers must match those terms (and price).
Bell still requires that Data-add on in order to use the full subsidy.
Rogers has a price match guarantee with a statement that it has to have identical terms. Bell only requires a $60/month plan, so rogers should have to match the price and the terms.
This actually also applies to any smartphone with a subsidy. Not just an iPhone.
Why is this post stickied to the top?
It’s important news that we get asked a lot about.
Has anyone specifically confirmed that a new ‘share everything’ plan is required and that an older plan at $80+/month will not qualify for a HUP?
Remember when iPhone was first released in canada? There was an outcry of expensive data plan. And that was my first time seeing the power of consumer unity.
We should do the same for this!
Odd. I had no trouble upgrading a device on a much cheaper plan two weeks ago. The salesman was cackling when it let him put through an upgrade on our plan (without even asking for an override).
I love the fact that you keep the article pinned on the front page! This kind of news has to be insisted upon!
Thanks!
Yep. Though I’m not with Rogers, if we don’t make a noise out of this, other company will follow suit.
I heard that Bell and Telus had already implemented a similar policy last winter.
It’s clear that now that the contracts are 2 yrs, they need to make up the money elsewhere, so screwing their clients (loyal or not) is the only option.
Does anyone know if previous Share plans $100+ would be considered?
I am eligible to upgrade since March but waiting…I should be able to fall under old rule in this case right?
They have put out a mandate that pops up when you access a customer’s account that shows “Recommended Share Plans” that are not nearly as close in value.
Hello i’m a rogers customer since 1996.current plan 60 dollar 6 super plan -15 dollars loyalty credit.Just got an iPhone 5s for 99 from rogers no problems with keeping the plan and discounts.I’m not a rogers supporter but if you don’t get the right rep try again be polite and try again eventually you’ll the right rep that has the right codes and has learned to outsmart rogers billing system.
Is there somewhere to submit a complaint but not about a specific representative? I just found all of this out when I noticed my plan went up as my contract is about to end so I dont get a some of the savings that were attached to my monthly bill. The representatives that I spoke with were great but its just that im starting to dislike the company’s doings in all of these changes and what appears to be the giant force of trying to move us all to the share everything plans (as a hardware upgrade is impossible I want to keep the 6gb/$30 (soon to be $35 for me). I just want to express to rogers that that seems very crazy if they have any sense of how to allow loyal longstanding customers to feel valued want to remain loyal – when apparently this is treating us almost like anyone else.
I wasnt aware there were plans under 100$ with Rogers 😛