Damn you, Rogers!
There is no shortage of potential iPhone users infesting the Internet with their whining and moaning about the outrageous service plans Rogers is tossing towards Canada. Not wanting to feel left out, I’m compelled to contribute two cents of my own.
Every individual has a tipping point, once that point is reached said individual will flip their potential service provider the bird and tell them to keep their f*cking iPhone. With the announcement at WWDC 2008 that Canadians would no longer be shunned, I was excited. Extremely excited.
I expected it to be costly. In fact I was certain it would cost me a fortune. Price usually isn’t an issue for me, not because I’m ridiculously wealthy, far from it. Simply, I’m accustomed to paying a premium for devices that don’t suck. The iPhone is the only smart phone that doesn’t suck for my intended uses.
Now that I’ve had some time to stew over the iPhone plans, I’ve made a decision. I am not going to purchase the iPhone until either a) The plans are made more realistic or b) Another option from another provider becomes available.
The final decision was less based on total price and more on overall principal. Let’s have a look at the basic plan and start breaking it down. $60 a month is the starting package for a pitiful 150 minutes and an acceptable 400 MB of data. Great, I’m still in… Wait, this is the the cell phone industry. We’re not near done yet, no no no. You see, in addition to paying $60 a month for a service, Rogers has deemed it necessary to screw over customers by another $5.95 via a “System Access Fee.” Apparently there is a distinction between paying for a service and “accessing” the services you’re already paying a fortune for. On top of that, let’s not even bother mentioning the extra $0.50 they want to squeeze out of me for “911 Access.”
Ok. This is getting ridiculous, but you know what? I’m still in, I’m annoyed, but I’ll pay it. I want an iPhone, the utility of this device will be extremely useful for me. I’ll allow you to rip me off to this extent, where do I sign?
Whoa, wait… Hang on a sec, what did that last bit of fine print say? All the above factored, I’m now paying $67.45 for phone service and you’re not giving me Caller ID?! An extra $7 per month to allow me to decide if the person whom is calling me is worthy of my precious few minutes?!