Let’s imagine that you live in Toronto and, having recently seen the light, want to get an iPhone. You have two choices: Rogers, or Fido. (We will not speak of the evil third choice, having to do with hacking US iPhones.)
Let’s also imagine you already have accounts with both Rogers and Fido, and you’d like to simplify your life by consolidating those accounts to Rogers.
Since we are playing pretend, let’s also imagine you’d like to minimize your spending. (This is Pretend-World. Just play along.)
OK, ready? Great. Just a few rules before we can start:
Rules 1-3, having to do with Rogers and Fido being Entirely Different:
1. Don’t ask Rogers staff questions about Fido, or vice versa. Doing so is considered to be very rude, especially on the phone with customer support. Yes, it’s true, Rogers owns Fido, but these companies have absolutely no integration. Their sales, support, products, pricing plans, billing, and web sites are completely different. Their support staff and retail sales people seem to know nothing about each other.
2. Do not compare the web sites, for you might go mad. While both Rogers and Fido offer the iPhone, the web sites make it difficult to figure out if the pricing and features are the same. (I think they are… but after 20 minutes of studying them I still feel I may have missed some fine print.) Phone support and retail sales at both companies can’t tell you.
3. Miserly voice plans don’t qualify. Fido’s $10 a month "emergency plan" doesn’t qualify for use with the iPhone. (That’s $10 a month + voice calls and texts at a flat fee. You may be offered this as a customer retention ploy if you try to quit Fido. Makes sense for people who make very few calls.)
Rules 4-9, having to do with the Rogers retail store:
4. You must pay to activate. If you sign up with Rogers for an iPhone, Rogers will charge you an account activation fee, even if you’re "coming over" from Fido. However if you talk nicely with Rogers support, and explain that you already have a Rogers account, and now you’re considering signing up to give them even more money for at least the next 36 months, even though you’re on-principle opposed to the whole idea of long-term legal commitments to a phone company, you might find them willing to waive this fee. Maybe.
5. Data is cheap, for a little while. The 6 GB data plan for $30 is a nice plan for data. It’s almost like the plans US telco’s offer their customers. This offer expires at the end of August.
6. You can get a purchase credit, if you pay more, every month. If you maintain a monthly voice plan that costs more than $30 you will get a $50 credit off the phone itself, i.e. you pay $349 for a 16GB phone minus $50.
7. Don’t ask about battery life. Retail store staff don’t have info on battery life, which is generally acknowledged to suck. You might want to keep the warranty handy.
8. Roaming is nice for Rogers, not nice for you. You really, really don’t want to roam with an iPhone, especially not outside of Canada. Very expensive.
Rule 9, having to do with a kick in the pants:
9. Breaking up costs money. If you port a phone number from Fido to Rogers, you will still be required to give 30 days notice on terminating your Fido account, and possibly pay fees for those 30 days, just as you would for porting a number from Fido outbound to any other company.
So… now that we know the rules, what’s the least you can get away with?
$30 for 6GB data plan + $30 for voice + at least $8 for voice mail + $7 for system access fees = $75 monthly, plus taxes.
To this, add $349 for the 16GB phone itself, minus your $50 credit for having a >$30 voice plan, and a $35 activation fee. That’s $335. Plus taxes.
Finally, don’t forget your Fido break-up fee: a month’s worth of account fees, assuming you don’t call 30 days ahead of time to cancel.
The iPhone promises to be a huge winfall for Rogers, but I have to say the experience of getting one has been excruciating. I hope for the sake of Rogers and their customers that they figure this out. Lower the barriers to adoption and more will come.
