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In my first adventure at Rogers on launch day, nothing seemed to go right. In the spirit of fairness, I thought I should report on day two. When we last left off, I had signed a three-year contract but had to leave the store without my iPhone as they were unable to activate it due to network issues. So, the next day I called at roughly 11 am to see what the status on my order was. The girl on the phone was very informative and told me it would be a couple of hours before my phone would be ready to go. They brought in an assistant to help with the activations and had planned to have all orders processed by the end of the day.

I received a follow-up call within the hour stating my phone was ready to activate. I went down to the Rogers dealer and it was a stark contrast to the day previous. There was only one other customer in the store and it was just a very casual atmosphere. I met with the same sales rep from the day previous who had my phone out and was preparing the paperwork. He apologized for the day previous and was overall very pleasant. I was concerned that I had signed up for the wrong value pack but he made sure I had what I wanted before he input it into the system. Throughout the process, he explained my contract to me and had my number ported from another carrier within a matter of minutes. Another sales rep came over to explain the basic operation procedures to me so the first guy could keep working on the activation, to get me out of there sooner. She seemed very knowledgeable and answered all of my questions.

In the end, I was up and running in about fifteen minutes. The only issue I had was with my voicemail. We couldn’t seem to get it activated. (A problem I later rectified by simply powering the phone down.) It’s a day later and everything is working fine. I’ve had a chance to use my phone over WIFI and the Rogers network. I’ve set up my voicemail. I’ve added some apps. I’ve used the GPS. Everything is working just as I had hoped. This is the experience I wanted. It took an unpleasant launch day to get there, but I’ll give credit where it is due. The staff at Rogers were very apologetic and and helped to erase what was a less than stellar first impression. My monthly bill is a little more money than I would ideally like to pay but I feel the 6 gig data plan at least makes the cost reasonable. Viva la iPhone!

Before I get started… In all fairness to Rogers, Friday was an insane day up in Canada with the iPhone launch. From all accounts I heard, they were having major troubles with their systems going down, in-store systems needing rebooting, etc… it was a mad-house.

On the morning of July 11, I had half a dozen friends emailing me from a lineup at a Rogers store, or from directly in the store. Each account was different. A few said the process was flawless. Most said it was chaotic and unorganized. Others yet complained that their computer systems kept crashing and couldn’t process or activate new phones fast enough… often times as slow as 1 new iPhone per hour. Seems as though the situation was a patchwork of similar experiences across the country.

That said, I certainly hope Rogers has learned from this. Overall the customer service rating has to be horrible for all of those that braved the lineups on Friday. 75% of the folks I talked to were either disappointed or disgusted with the whole process. Frustration levels were high.

On the positive side, it seems as though they’ve turned things around. Over the last few days more and more people are coming to me telling me how Rogers delivered on their promises to deliver iPhones, activate new accounts, etc… Initial delays and frustrations were wiped out with better customer service in the following days (no doubt because of the less chaotic atmosphere in which to work).

You do have to somewhat feel for the lowly Rogers (or any other providers) sales people. Most of the time these staffers receive limited training, and are paid horribly with a huge focus on sales commission. Sell, sell, sell… and get that 3-year contract signed. That’s what it boils down too. I’m not sure how it works in other countries, but in Canada that seems to be the norm. Rogers would appear to be happy with their model. Go into any Rogers store in Canada and I’ll bet you that you find an 18 year old kid with spiky hair pushing phones as fast as you can. Just hope he or she knows what he’s talking about. Half the time he/she does not, and things get a little tricky.

I’d better stop this ‘rant’ here before I get too carried away. All I can say is I sincerely hope Rogers better prepares for events like this in the future. Rogers needs more competition. They’re getting complacent and it really does show. Can anyone out there hear me? Jump in the market against these guys, and guaranteed rates will go down, customer service will improve, and overall, EVERYONE will be the winner!

Are you Canadian? Do you want the iPhone? If you do, there’s a new petition site out there that may interest you.

RuinediPhone.com was recently setup in an effort to collectively say NO THANKS to Rogers/Fido for giving Canadians poor (terrible) data/voice plan options for the new iPhone due out shortly.

You can view the data/voice plans for the iPhone in Canada here.

On July 11th (date of the iPhoen 3G release) the site will be sending a printed copy of all messages and signatures collected on the site in an effort to show all Canadians’ displeasure with Rogers/Fido. There are some really interesting comments on there… and I’m sure the more word gets out about this site, the more that signatures will skyrocket! As I write this the site has just over 25,000 signatures. Not bad…

To sign or view the petition head on over to RuinediPhone.com

Rogers Wireless in is planning to nearly match AT&T’s pricing when the iPhone goes on sale in Canada next month. According to a leaked data sheet a standard personal data account of $30 would provide unlimited web, normal e-mail and visual voice mail when tied to a voice plan that includes voice mail. Corporate users would pay $45/month for a similar offering plus access to work email.

Voice plan rates will apparently remain unchanged on Rogers and sub-brand Fido.

I know Canadians are dying for a break on data plans, as Rogers is notorious for gauging consumers on their data plans. Lets hope and pray that the iPhone does indeed bring more reasonable rates for Canadians into play… Not only for new iPhone users but for other ’smartphone’ devices as well.

Continue reading after the jump for a transcribe copy of the ‘leaked’ data sheet from ehmac.ca

(more…)

The folks over at electronista have just reported some very interesting information, especially if you’re a Canadian mac user.

They claim that Apple Canada is gearing up representatives in advance of an upcoming unknown event. Some staff are being asked to travel to Apple’s Markham Ontario regional headquarters for discussions taking place today. The discussions of course are the closed-door, top-secret kind. Apple staffers when questioned on this would not comment. This is a tad strange, because Apple usually arranges conference calls to bring important reps up to speed on developments. Must be a biggie. Can you say Canadian iPhone launch?

Take this rumor for what it is… but keep in mind the ever present rumors of a huge international iPhone launch extravaganza at WWDC in early June. The timing would be right and make sense for key Apple staffers to get the skinny on the launch. I know Canadians want the iPhone and have been waiting for what seems like forever…

[via electronista]

Ok Canadians… can I get a w00t!??? It’s official, Rogers has announced that the iPhone will be coming to Canada this year.

In a brief statement, Rogers Chief Executive Ted Rogers announced:

“We’re thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can’t tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned…”

Now we’re getting somewhere! With Rogers making an announcement like this, we know that they have obviously hammered out enough details with Apple that the release will be before the end of 2008. What should be very interesting to see is the rates that they offer. Data plans are notoriously expensive in Canada in comparison to unlimited plans found in the US. They iPhone could very well help bring down plan prices, not only for iPhone users, but hopefully for BlackBerry and other smartphone devices as well. I know there will be a collective thank you nationwide from all Canadians if the iPhone does indeed have a positive effect on data plan pricing. Lets hope for the best.

Calling all Canadians! Join me to discuss this in our Forums >

[via Financial Post]

A Mexican newspaper has reported that the iPhone could be headed to Mexico as soon as June. Apple is apparently in talks with the Mexican telecom giant Telcel. A number of calls have been made to Apple US customer support, and they were told that while iPhones cannot be currently shipped to Mexico, the phone should become available in Mexico for June.

On the Canadian front, member mpancha recently commented in the forums about a talkitive Rogers employee. It’s all heresay and rumor of course, but the employee basically told mat that he should be patient because the iPhone would be in Canada come June. Check out the thread here.

I certainly hope both rumors are true. Would be nice to have the iPhone up and running across all of North America!

What do you think?

Talk about this in the Forums >

[via MacNN]