Rogers Makes Positive Changes To Upgrade Policy

by Billy on January 16th, 2010

Rogers customers must read this.

Rogers has positively changed their upgrade policy. It is now faster and cheaper to get a new device through the policy change.

The new Rogers upgrade policy now states that Rogers customers will be eligible for the same pricing as new customers on all devices on or after the 24-month mark since initial activation/last upgrade.

While this is similar to what was already in place, the real change here is “the same as new customers”. Existing customers are now guaranteed promotional pricing on Rogers upgrades on or after the 24-month mark in the current contract term. Usually existing customers had to pay a little more than a new customer but, that is changing.

Based on customer’s monthly spend (amount paid per month, per account) and customer tenure (length of time as a Rogers customer), customers will be able to upgrade to a new device faster. In other words, before the 24 month mark and still at promotional pricing.

While “tenure” is rather self-explanatory, do note that “monthly spend” usually means consistent monthly bills greater than $100 for at least 18 months.

To organize this, Rogers is introducing five new device categories to the upgrade flow: voice (classic phones), quick messaging devices, BlackBerry, other smartphones, and iPhone.

As was true with the previous upgrade policy, all customers will be eligible for a “voice phone” (non-smartphone) upgrade after 12 months in their current contract term. At the 24-month mark, existing customers will be eligible for smartphones with promotional pricing and in some instances, eligible before the 24-month mark based on monthly spend and tenure.

The $35 administration fee however will remain, which is not any different than before this new upgrade policy.

One thing to note however is that this new upgrade policy does not apply to business customers and existing (pre-new policy) standard hardware upgrade rules still apply.

So what do you think? Do you like the change? Does it benefit you?

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Posted under: News, Rogers/Fido

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Androids & Sheep

2 years is too long to wait for a smartphone upgrade. :(
mancini86

another classic example of rogers implementing a change that nobody cares about
nostriluu

I was a Fido customer for almost a decade, with a brief break when I travelled. Had two lines. I switched to Rogers for Android and I don't get any tenure credit, even though they're the same company. That's what I think.

I also think it's ridiculous that Rogers doesn't let customers upgrade from their mistake, the Dream, to an upcoming device of their choice, with upgrade fee. It wouldn't affect their balance sheets at all, and people would be renewing for even longer overall terms. Their customer service strikes "just barely satisfied" when they could be shooting for "delighted," but we're well trained not to expect much and they don't have much imagination.
Guy

You have the right to get a free upgrade to the magic if you are a Dream user
nostriluu

Guy, yes I know. But now, 7 months later, why shouldn't Rogers give consumers the option to upgrade to a current model when offered (eg Xperia X10 in the spring)? They could charge the typical $200 upgrade fee, extend the contract even longer, and have *really* happy customers. As it is, unlike most people it seems, I'm not thrilled with the Dream -> Magic offer and I'm certainly not going to bother extending my contract 7 months, 1/5 of the term, for a software update that will run slowly on the Magic, whenever it finally comes out. I have no interest in SenseUI, which further proprietizes the device, and if I really want to run 1.6 or even 2.1 I could use a third party distribution.

Ultimately the Magic is about as outdated as the Dream, you don't get the newer generation features such as a current generation CPU, larger higher resolution screen, usable image and video capture, 3.5mm headphone jack, brightness and proximity sensor. And I'm losing the keyboard. So it's not an adequate compensation for the Rogers and HTC mistake in offering an underspec'd device to enthusiasts paying typically $90 a month. They could have delighted people by giving them an early chance to upgrade, instead they're just clearing out old stock for people who have low expectations.

In my opinion, those people that "upgraded" are really going to regret it when their original upgrade period has passed, who knows if the 2.1 update will even be out by then and they could have got an X10, Nexus One, maybe even a Droid with keyboard, or who knows what else.
stu

i'm betting that they are done with android devices all together. none of the reps i have talked to are even a little educated of anything to do with android. htc suckered them into buying old stock. a smart educated company would have waited and been able to provide customers with top notch state of the art smartphones. rogers is falling deep in to a big pile of shit, and i'm out. good luck!
Androids & Sheep

I don't think HTC suckered Rogers into old stock persay... if you recall, there were no other Androids phones out in the US Market except for the G1 -- which HTC had to re-manufacture to accommodate the Rogers frequencies.

Canadians actually got the HTC Magic (with better RAM or ROM) before US got the HTC MyTouch.

Sadly, Canada in general just gets old phones the majority of the time, from every manufacturer.

And while I'm not trying to defend Rogers, there is no way (in the current technological climate) to WAIT for a top notch phone. Everything is outdated even before it leaves the factory. Remember, the G1 is barely older than a year!!

Even the Nexus One with the "new" Snapdragon chip looks slow in comparison to the LG GW990 which has an Intel Atom chip in it.

Sigh... I want a new phone.
stu

I don't think anyone will ever be happy with their current android phones,as there is always a new one about to be released. As long as they can make them upgradeable to the new firmware i think i could settle for that. Magic/Mytouch are good fun phones to have, i'm hoping rogers at least inquires about getting the htc legend. there is also talk of the iphone 4g around june in the u.s.
nostriluu

Stu you could be right.. iPhone is so simple, it just works, generally has good performance and battery life because it doesn't try to be open or run multiple apps at once, and there's no intentional enthusiast community for the OS. Android is trying to be the alternative, and that's too complicated for most of Rogers reps who don't last long enough to learn anything and just want to get customers off their backs (supported by the average low expectation consumer), and Rogers don't have it in them to simply support the desire of the enthusiast community who are willing to pay more each month and more frequently upgrade. We really need more competition to make sure these carriers pay attention to more than faceless numbers. Ideally a carrier that encourages open community support and trading devices for a more efficient and thoughtful solution than the corporation.
mancini86

exactly what i was thinking....