Just when ya thought Rogers was starting to "get it" with lower data prices, reasonably priced devices and boasting of their HSDPA network, Rogers has gone and pulled some dirty tricks on BlackBerry users basically over night. As some of you Rogers customers out there may have noticed if you frequent the Rogers site often, is that all of their BlackBerry devices have seen a price increase. The Curve 83xx is back to $149.99 (up $50), the Curve 8900 is at $224.99 (up $25) and the Bold is at $299.99 (up $50). And of course we're talking the Canadian standard of 3yr contracts here. But there is a little bit more to the story then just a general increase as BGR pointed out from information he recieved from a tipster allegedly sent out by a Rogers VP.
On Wednesday, the senior executive team realized that they were over budget $30 million dollars on their cost of acquisition. How I don’t know why it took so long. [sic] They then did their knee jerk response. Your DBM’s and other local managers know nothing more than this and are in the dark as much as we are on this other than we were told VERBALLY that in market quotes would be honored for 30 days from today. The exception lists are due Monday and only for non named accounts. I have requested in every region for a positioning statement and to this moment have not heard a response. If it makes you feel any better the retail has even more uncertainty.
Which begs the question, what exactly did Rogers spend $30 million dollars on? And why was it only passed on to BlackBerry users? It sure can't be atrributed to credits back to customers accounts that's for darn sure. Rogers claims acquisition costs even with revenue generated of over $4 billion dollars. Oh please, Rogers fix it, make it all better, make it all go away and maybe we'll forgive you....Oh, no wait. You are also asking your already existing customers to eat your $30 million by changing their hardware upgrade eligibility and pricing. Thanks Rogers... Bell and Telus thank you as well, considering how many customers you will be pushing their way!!
[ BGR ]
