Rogers' 7 deadly sins of wireless

I recently went through an upgrade process with Rogers, where they signed me on to a new 3 year contract in exchange for a few goodies. While they were very nice to me on the phone, let's get one thing straight, Rogers Wireless in NOT a consumer friendly company.

Lets just get this out there: all Canadian wireless carriers are bad. They do so many anti-consumer activities, it boggles the mind. Since I am a victim of Rogers Wireless, I will use them as my example of choice (but don't look so smug Bell, you've got many issues of your own)

Sin # 1: $35 "set-up" fee
Rogers tried to tell me that they would waive my so-called $35 set-up fee if I renewed with them over the phone, as though I should thank them for this. Since Rogers uses SIM cards, they literally have to do NOTHING when I start using a new phone. I could pop my SIM card into a new phone right now, and Rogers wouldn't know any different. So... what value am I getting exactly from this $35 set up fee? (And no Rogers, I am NOT going to thank you for waiving a fee you should not be charging me in the first place).

The reason they do it: Rogers slaps on the $35 activation fee to discourage you from activating with resellers like Wireless wave and The Source (i.e. little kiosks that you see all over the mall these days). They will miraculously decide to waive the fee if you register with Rogers, which Rogers like because then they don't have to pay the enormous "finders fee" to the kiosks. It's anti-competition, plain and simple.

Consumer friendly solution: No set-up fee

Sin # 2: Locking phones
If you buy a phone through Rogers, it only works with Rogers (unless you may some shady guy in the back of a discount computer store $50 to unlock your phone).

Why they do it: This doesn't even make any sense, because Rogers is the only country wide GSM carrier in Canada, so their phones couldn't work on Telus or Bell even if you wanted them too. So by locking their phones, all Rogers is doing is saying: "Don't move to another country and try to take your phone with you", which is kind of stupid really. One area where it is slightly justified is in the high end phones, where if you were to purchase the phone and then cancel it right away and pay the $200 cancellation penalty, you would actually still be paying less than the sticker price for the device, so this kind of practice is prevented.

Consumer Friendly Solution: Don't lock the phone.

Sin # 3: You have to be a fortune teller
We can buy a 100 minute plan, or a 200 minute plan, etc... and then when we go OVER, we have to pay at a higher rate, and when we go UNDER, we don't get our money back nor do the minutes carry over to the next month. I'm really not sure how they get away with this, because in any other industry, the more you buy, the less you pay per unit, period.

The reason they do it: They know you can't see the future, so they are trying to get you to buy as many minutes as possible, and then scare you into using as few as possible, widening their margins but making consumers angry. Furthermore, having a number of different confusing plans adds the illusion of "choice" to the industry.

Consumer friendly solution: Get rid of this whole "plan" nonsense entirely. Charge based exclusively on usage, where the price decreases the more you use. For example:

• 10 cents for the first 100 minutes
• 7 cents for the next 400 minutes
• 5 cents every minute thereafter

This is simple, understandable, consistent, and makes sense. If plans must continue to exist, make the unused minutes from one month transferable to the next.

Sin # 4: They keep your usage a secret
Rogers is pretty good at telling you at the end of the month how much you have to pay them, just like the utilities do. However, all of the information is kept digitally and accessible at a moments notice, but there is no way to find this information out. How close am I to my 100 minute limit? Have I used to much data? Stories about of people who find out that they used $300 worth of data but had no idea they were doing so. The technology is there to do it, but Rogers refuses.

The Reason they do it: If you use less then your allocated time, they make extra money on you. If you use more, you pay through the nose. Either way, unless you guess the exact amount of time you've used on your plan, you lose, Rogers wins.

Consumer friendly solution: Be able to look up your usage online at any time, and send an SMS message alert to the phone when it's on it's last 20 minutes of airtime for the month.

Sin # 5: Charging for voice-mail AND airtime
If I pay Rogers $5 a month to give me voicemail (they only allow 5 messages), then the only way to retrieve my messages is to call a specified number and spend more of my airtime minutes to check the message. They are double dipping, and completely ripping off the consumer in the process.

The Reason they do it: Oligopolistic greed. If there was real competition, this wouldn't happen.

Consumer friendly solution: Charge EITHER a fixed rate for voicemail, or offer voicemail for free and charge for airtime, don't do both.

Sin # 6: Per minute billing
Lets say the following conversation occurs:

• Jim calls me: "I'm going to see Spiderman, wanna come, its at 7." "Sure, I'll see you at the theatre". Total call time: 38 seconds
  
• Jim calls me again: "I made a mistake, it's at 6:30, better hurry". "Ok, I'm just finishing dinner but I'll be there." Total call time: 22 seconds.
• I call Jim: "I'm going to be late, please pick up a ticket for me". "Sure, no prob man". Total call time: 15 seconds.

Now, the total conversation time was 1 minute and 15 seconds, but Rogers would charge you for 3 minutes. This adds up very fast if you are in the habit of making quick calls. Rogers needs to go back to school to learn to add.

The reason they do it: As if it wasn't difficult enough already to guess how many minutes you've used, it becomes even more difficult when the number of minutes you use is actually more than the amount of time you've talked on the phone! And the less know you know... the more Rogers makes off of you.

Consumer friendly solution: Per-second billing

Sin # 7: Crazy expensive Data Rates
Thomas Purves has posted an interesting chart showing how obscenely expensive our cell phone plans in Canada are, especially when it comes to data rates:

Rogers is 39 times more expensive than New Zealand... need I say more?

The reason the do it: Oligopolistic greed. If there was real competition, this couldn't happen.

Consumer Friendly Solution: Charge a data rate that somebody making under $200,000 a year can afford, then maybe people would start using data services.


Well... Rogers wireless actually has more than 7 sins, but it messes up my blog title if I make more... so I'm going to pretend that it's just seven...

Sin # 7 + 1: Crappy phones:
The good phones are in Asia/Europe, and don't arrive here until years later.

Why they do it: Unlike overseas, the carriers control the distribution channels and bundle phones with plans, taking away your choice. This allows them to wait until the prices for phones are cheaper (for Rogers, not for you). This also prevents you from getting all kind of nifty features that might prevent Rogers from stealing more of your money. An excellent example is Wi-Fi access. Why pay for internet service through the cell network, when you might have access to a free Wi-Fi network at work, home or a coffee shop? If you could do this, less $$$ for Rogers, even though phones like this are available overseas.

Consumer Friendly Solution: Allow phone companies to sell directly to consumers without going through Rogers.


Sound Off: What ticks you off about our lovely Canadian wireless carriers?

The September of iMac?

Apple is now the epitome of cool, but we all know that they are still a small player in the computer market with something like 10% - 15% of the installed computer base. Call it a hunch, but I think that 2007 will be Apple's true breakout year, and that the tipping point will happen in September.

The reasons are simple:

• The iPod is absurdly popular
• The iPhone is absurdly cool (even though it can't reach even close to the popularity levels of the iPod because of it's $500 price tag), and it's coolness will rub off on the Mac brand as a whole
• I (a person who, addicted to the flexibility of the PC, previously swore I would never get a mac, and actively poked fun at those who owned one) am actually thinking about getting a Mac, because I am just plain tired of my PC not working as it should, so I could infer that a lot of other people are thinking the same thing.
• You can now run Windows applications on a Mac, so compatibility has become a non-issue.
  
• September is when School starts.

I would be very curious to walk down a dorm hallway, and see how many new iMacs are in the student dorms, I would put my money on 40% - 60% of all new computers in the hallways being Macs... and if there is a major shift in the dorm rooms, it's only a matter of time before everybody else falls in line.

How to get a Blackberry Curve in Canada

Do you want to get the sleek new Blackberry Curve, but you're Canadian so you can't find it? The curve so far is only available on GSM networks, and Rogers is the only GSM carrier. However, if you go looking for it on the Rogers website list of available blackberries, as of the day of this writing you will not be able to find it.

HOWEVER, that does not mean that they won't sell you one! If you go to the RIM homepage and visit their Blackberry Curve homepage and dig around a little bit, you will find a link that says "where to buy", and will then lead you to a list of providers. Lo and behold, Rogers is on the list! Click through and you will be brought to what seems like a secret page where you can buy the Blackberry Curve from Rogers.

Last Friday I was speaking with a Rogers rep over the phone, and he had never heard of the Curve. I found this quite surprising, as it is the hot new kid on the block. I directed him towards the RIM homepage, where he went and looked at the specs and proclaimed "Wow, that's a pretty neat device, I'm glad you showed me this sir". While looking at the page, I found the "where to buy" link, and proceeded to show the Rogers rep that I could indeed but the Curve from them. The whole process took about an hour, but my Shiny new Blackberry curve arrived in the mail today. Given that you can't even find it on the Rogers homepage, and the reps don't seem to even know it exists, I'm betting that I'm one of the first in Canada (other than RIM employees) to own one. Cool.