The iPhone 4 launch was a huge success depending on how you acquired your iPhone. For those that purchased outright unlocked units from Apple Stores, your transaction was completed in a matter of minutes (including those that ordered online). I entered the Apple Store in Vancouver at 7:30am (after waiting in line all night) and I was out the door with my unlocked unit 10 minutes later. I noticed employees were only plucking “device only” people out of the line up–and people looking to upgrade with Rogers were at a standstill.
For those that were upgrading/activating through Rogers, your dreams of an iPhone 4 probably turned into a nightmare. Why? Because history likes to repeat itself when it comes to Rogers, and for the third iPhone launch in a row their systems crumbled like a deck of cards. Just like the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS launch, the systems went down coast to coast and caused many hours of waiting for customers. I feel bad that I couldn’t be a part of that waiting this time around.
Not only did the systems go down on launch day, but I was inundated with emails about how the Rogers iPhone 4 sign up page did not send any emails to notify customers about plans. People relied on iPhoneinCanada.ca to help them with their iPhone 4 launch preparations instead of the websites of the Big 3. Funny how that works, eh?
On a side note, I’d like to give credit to @RogersMiranda for personally contacting me to help solve a customer’s concern that was voiced in the comments on our blog. Well done Miranda!
How did your Rogers/Bell/Telus launch go? Were you one of the lucky ones to activate when systems were still up? Sound off in the comments!
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For those of us planning and upgrade through Rogers the most annoying this is we can't order online on the Rogers site. What is the deal with that! That would have saved so many people such anger. Yes it would mean not having the phone right way but I wouldn't have minded waiting for it to be delivered.
Buying the iPhone from Fido was easy- transfering service to the microSIM card took 6 hours!
I went to the local mall to get my iPhone 4 on Friday, from Telus. I was actually switching away from Rogers to do so. I walked past the Rogers outlet, there's this huge line. Nobody at Bell across the hall. I thought “Suckers, lining up to sign a contract with Satan.” then got to Telus where they had plenty of stock and I was in and out in about 10 minutes. Was a wonderful experience. Transferring my old number from Rogers to Telus was not, as Rogers screwed it up royally, effectively justifying my decision to switch, and Telus fixed everything up.
I would call the iPhone 4 launch a huge failure. I know in my city we barely received any iPhones. I dare say the total in the entire city was close to 100 in total. Literally 1000's of people lining up at all carriers, yet hardly any stock at all. Rogers themselves had less than 20.
The problem with this is that these carriers need to get their act straight fast because the free case is only until the end of September. With they only get 100 per shipment to the entire city, a lot of people are going to be unhappy.
Switching from rogers to telus will be your new regret. Good luck tho
Can't be any worse than the regret I had not long after I switched away from Telus to Rogers in the first place, for the iPhone 3G.
Yeah, I switched away from Telus for many different reasons. None of which I have yet to run into with Rogers.
Lined up at 5am, was 70th in line. Mall opened up at 7am Finally got into the store at 3PM (!!!) and left the store with two phones @ 4. Activation didn't take 'til 8pm. Rogers dropped the ball big time but to play devil's advocate we can pretty much agree that they were hammered with an unpredictable amount of requests nation wide. Of the “big 3”, Rogers is the only one at is truly nation wide (no bell or Telus activations here in Manitoba) so I'm sure they had more numbers to deal with. That said, that is two years in a row that they have been unprepared (I give the first year grace as it would have been difficult to predict how busy the first launch would have been) and if the next qualify-able launch has Telus or anyone else in the running, I would consider switching to save my time in line. 10 hours in line is a lot to be overcharged for a monthly contract.
I love rogers! They are the best carrier, PIRIOD!!! My plan is: 6g of date 300 minutes 6 pm early evenings and weekends free, unlimited incoming, Rogers to rogers free, Voice mail, 2500 txt, caller id for below $50 a month! My rogers experience is amazing, they screwed up ones in 5 years but it took me 20 min. to get them to fix it and give me 10 of my bill for 2 years.
yea i got screwed out of getting an iPhone 4 all together… really reallly really fustrated about it..ive been looking for one for the past 2 days..i waited in line all night and i got to the counter and they wouldn't give me an iphone for the promotional pricing even tho i bought my 3GS on LAUNCH DAY and 3G on LAUNCH DAY .. and have consistantly payed more than 100$/month.. i was considering cancelling my contract and paying 400$ then starting on telus.. as they are the carrier i've had the least problems with…bell i have to go through for my DSL .. i use TekSavvy.. but they use the bell lines..and everyone else on bell sucks..people only complain about rogers and now after 2 years of being on rogers i DEFINATLY know why….they're customer service does suck.
Lined up at a Rogers for 1:30 hours and was 4th in line only to find out my store didn't even have a 32GB model in stock :-(. Now I'm stuck waiting for a few weeks.
Rogers? Nationwide? You've never been to Newfoundland.
Lol u so mad.
rogers has kinda bad customer service, telus has NO customer service. rogers kinda tries to give you a cheap-ish deal, telus only does if everyone else did too. (6gb plan for example)
I had a great experience with Bell. My only complaint would be for people who were upgrading (I was doing a new activation), because the Bell store I was at, had a pre-determined waiting list that people didn't even know about and they weren't doing upgrades on launch…only new activations or the people on the waiting list. I am really really glad that I went in the day before and the guy there put one aside for me. I was the first person to get it at that location. However, I think the plans on Telus might be better. Oh well…got mine on launch, didn't have to wait all night…so all in all, very happy 🙂
I have rogers an F- because they only had about 10 phones in stock, the line up was stupid and going nowhere and they should have planned this out. You really think they would learn from the last 2 iPhone launch days.
We drove 5 hours to get to the West Ed Mall. Rumours in my town said noting was coming in . Got in line up with 70 head of us at 4:30 am made it to the front of the line at 9:00 and thats when Rogers and Fido shut down. They pulled 50 people out behind us who were with Telus, Bell or buying an unlocked phone. This went on for an hour plus so I didn't get in till 10:00 am. Rogers went up and went down again in 2 min. I spent from 10-11 in front of a blank screen with an apple guy. I got tired of waiting so I just bought my IPhone 4 32GB unlocked, and that took 5 minutes. I'm really glad I bought it unlocked. I got home and sold my 3GS for $300 bucks and my 3G for $200 bucks and I didn't have extend my contract. In my option i came out way ahead. LOOOOOOOVE my new IPhone 4
PIRIOD!
Telus is the worst of the worst. For clear reasons which led me to leave them after 7 years of service on Friday. Wasn't getting a phone from Rogers as they only has 11 phones but I was very lucky to get one of 2 iPhones Virgin mobile received. 😀
lol. Why didn't u check online first? I don't know why all you people complain about rogers. My family is with them for more then 5 years and we had great experience i got 3 iphone 4's on a lunch date being 5th in line 2 hours before store opened there were 32 phones: 7-32g and 25-16g Calgary SW
While my experience in getting my iPhone 4 was delayed because of Rogers and their total ineptness at making sure their system could handle the load that was about to be placed on it, I must say that the Apple store did a fabulous job (all things considered). I have never seen a manager so apologetic for something that he could not control. And, as much as it sucked leaving the store with a slip of paper instead of the phone I waited around for 6 hours for, the fact that Apple guaranteed your phone upon return was a tremendous relief. To sum it all up, kudos to the Apple store and it's staff, massive fail for Rogers.
i gave rogers an A+ cause as soon as the eligibility program was online it gave me the rigth price and since i was second in line at laval apple store i got my iphone4 activated before it crashes and burn . they only down side of the launch for me is that i was stuck with a noob for my purchase at the apple store…never activated and iphone before i had to tell him what to do …come on now … scanning a little card he had in is pocket for the serial number of the phone…lol…and thnaks to you iphoneincanade.ca for keeping canadians informed as soon as u did…A++++++++++
Anyone know when the next shipment of phones will come in to Rogers?
I waited from 4am till 10:30 for the rogers store I was at to recieve their shipment. when it finally came, they had all of one 16 gig iPhone. I was in line for the 32. So stupid considering the store across the street got 15 iPhones. Time to wait for the next shipment.
I had to wait in line in Edmonton for 8 hours just to but an unlocked phone. They should have had 2 separate lines or something…..
All the providers suck. If you look through these post you will see a 1000 plus comments telling us why Rogers, Telus and Bell suck big time. I just plan to keep buying unlocked phones till I'm out of my contact and then make them want my business. If anyone ticks me off I''m just gonna move along to the next one. I don't know if we understand what kind of impact that buying unlocked, commitment free phones is going to have on our market.
I believe this is going to be the change that will make the big three wake up. ( over time ) If no one was in a contract we would have the power to choose for a change. That's gonna make all the difference.
Apple Store in Ottawa was really good. They did raise some complaints when Rogers/Fido systems were down because they only had one line for everybody, but they had great people dealing with the crowd and it went as smoothly as they could make it go. I ended up after 8 hours of waiting with two slips to get my phones at another time after four straight attempts to process one upgrade failed. I went back Saturday and was served immediately without waiting and both phones were operational within about 20 minutes.
After three launch dates in a row of server problems, Rogers gets an F. Even if it's only one day a year, it should be fixed.
As I was buying it outright, I got plucked out of line at Yorkdale just before noon. Got home and used the Rogers online tool to transfer the SIM. It took about 45 minutes or so, but then it came up and all was good. BUT, even though that worked for me, I was in the minority. I give them an F for holding up thousands of people across the country, and more importantly, for making the same mistakes THREE STRAIGHT YEARS. You'd think at this point, they'd know how to handle an iPhone launch. How have they not learned from the past?
Anyone know if Rogers is going to compensate and “offer” their customers any kind of incentive deal??? Inquiring minds want to know…..
the part about relying on iphoneincanada was right
i had signed up to be notified by rogers, but heard nothing
I was lucky to be second in line at a Rogers Plus in Etobicoke and I was in and out within 15 minutes. 🙂 I know people after me who were in line experienced problems. I knew this would happen, that's why I came early (6am).
they did….kind of. I inquired about buying one outright and then they took me right to the front…20 min, and out the door i went. Rogers system was down initially when i went on my computer to change sim #'s, but i refreshed and it worked within 5 minutes. personally i couldn't have been happier with my outcome, but i can understand the pain and fury upgraders felt.
My Experience with Bell was amazing! I walked into Pickering Town Centre around 4:30pm on the 30th. I proceeded to the desk (no other customers were in there) and asked if they had any 32gb models left, they said yes, I walked out 20min later with my new iPhone. There were no slow downs, hang-ups, or problems at all! The data plan did take about an hour to start working, but other than that I'm really happy and I love the phone!
Don mills and steeles (Toronto) Rogers store is the absolute worst store in the GTA. The stupid peasants that work there think they are gods gift because they work at a Rogers store. They let people wait HOURS and wouldn't inform anyone of how many phone they had until people started getting really angry. Finally after calling Rogers head office, the peasant told us he only had 4 phones left (2 customers were inside getting theirs already). But in general.. I have been to that store and the workers there are cocky for no reason. I went to uptown communications in Richmond hill.. Was greater in line with a bottle of water and after 20 minutes of waiting, was handed a piece of paper to fill out my info. 3 hours later I was called and picked up my phone. That's how you do business!
Rogers pulled a real insincere move at least in my city (Halifax) I passed the main downtown store at 7:30AM on my way to work and their were roughly 15 people in line. My long shot hope is that I could grab one on my lunch. I get to the line at roughly 10AM and there are roughly 20 people ahead of me. 40 minutes later , only 3 people have gotten in, most likely to the systems being down. Thats fine and all but the real cruelty was that they would not let the line know how many they had left. So many ended up waiting hours and hours just to get a peek into the store before a Rogers representative came out and said “Sorry, all gone”.
Luckily I wasn't under a contract with anyone at this point. I tried going to a Telus store whose shipment was late and whoever was at the store when the shipment came would get them but the shipment never came.
Sad to go home empty handed, I walked by a mall with a tiny Virgin Mobile kiosk and thought it was worth a shot, turns out they had one left. Lucky Me!
Yes they plan on giving you a black dildo for your troubles. What do you think!!????
Rogers customer service is 1000% better than tells and 1000000% better than bell. I one called bell to place an order for Internet and was placed on hold for over 15 minutes. My gf is locked to telus.. Sometimes my text messages get to her 20-25 minutes after I sent them.. And that's a normal occurrence for her! Sell your 3GS on craigslist for $400.. Upgrade yourself to the iPhone 4.. And stop crying
I stood in line Friday morning at a Rogers store for an hour, they only had 15 so I put my name down and left. I went to the Southgate Apple store here in Edmonton at lunch on Friday and there was still over 100+ people in line.
So I went at 8 AM on Saturday morning, was 10th in line at the Apple store, and got a 32 GB model right away, NO problems with activation at all.
A friend of mine went this morning to the Apple store in West Edmonton Mall and was in and our in 10 minutes with a 32 GB iPhone, activated it with NO problems.
Apparently both Apple stores here in Edmonton have lots of stock left, each store had MORE than enough for anyone who wanted one.
I went with Rogers here in Ottawa and it went pretty well. maybe 20min in the store. waited in line all night.
I got my i4 from rogers, they set me up and basically sent me home with the phone, which pretty much acted as a ipod touch with a camera until about 9:30PM when the SIMS finally switched.
LMAO!
I ordered my iphone online through the apple store itself, it only took a few minutes, set up the billing and shipping addres, and will be here by the 27th.
Virgin is actually quite decent. The plans are similar to bell since they are owned by them now but CSR's are great and maybe because they are still one of the smaller guys they do things right. I don't have anywhere near the amount of money to buy one outright, a lot of people are in this position and I think that's what the big 3 are counting on. It's unfortunate. Yes, over the 3 year contract you will end up paying more but that's over 3 years not one big chunk. I will however look into it when I have the funds and my contract is up.
So you switched to Virgin? How do you find them? I've been with them for awhile and love the service. This is my first iPhone and getting it was a breeze, can't say enough things about them.
telus is crap. I tried to upgrade and they weren't having any of it. they said I'd have to wait a week or two PLUS pay 150$ upgrade fee. what the crap is that?
Virgin is better imo
Lets see…I signed up for info via the Rogers page and was never notified of anything. I relied on this site for ALL information. I made a call the day before to cx service and was assured i could call on launch day and be taken care of. Launch day, the Rogers website barely worked, and when it did it gave me two different HUP charges after two tries. A call to customer service on launch day i was told i couldn't do business over the phone with my own carrier and i had to actually goto a Rogers store, i was also given a different HUP price.
I can honestly say, this coupled with my previous experiences with Rogers, has made it the most despised of all companies i've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. I will NOT buy the iPhone 4, i will wait until my contract is over and i will be going back to Telus.
I was pleasantly surprised with my experience. I went to the Apple store in Calgary on July 31st and waited in line for 5 hours. I was in and out of the store in under 10 minutes….and I got it at the $159 upgrade fee. I thought it would be a lot more difficult.
Rogers Sucks! Bell has the best customer service. Rogers is outright rude, obnoxious and ridiculous. Sorry but I think you work for Rogers.
Waited in line from 11pm Thursday, got to the front of the line around 1pm Friday and Rogers was down…made us wait there till around 5pm, sent us home…got a voucher, came back saturday morning at 8am, walked out with my phone at 9am. All at the apple store, fairview mall, Toronto ugh