mrbrimi
join:2000-02-15
Woodstock, ON
| Flickr
Dear Rogers Yahoo! customer,
We are writing to inform you that on July 1, 2009, your Flickr Pro account included with your Rogers Hi-Speed Internet service will change to a free Flickr account. The free Flickr service has many of the same features as Pro, but is subject to some limits.
Your existing photos or videos will not be deleted as a result of this change. If you have more than 200 photos in the free Flickr account, only the most recent 200 are displayed. Other changes include:
• 100MB monthly upload limit (10MB per photo)
• 2 video uploads each month (max. 90 seconds and 150MB per video)
• Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)
If you enjoy the full flexibility and storage capacity of your current Flickr Pro account, you can maintain your Pro account by subscribing directly to the service for $24.95 (USD) a year. Subscribe before September 1, 2009 and get two months free. Click the link below to subscribe:
»flickr.com/upgrade
For additional information or questions, please visit:
»help.yahoo.com/l/ca/rogers/flickr/index.html
We want to thank you for being a Rogers Yahoo! customer. It is our pleasure to provide you with an enjoyable online photo experience.
Sincerely,
Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet Customer Service |
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spaterson
Premium
join:2001-09-02
Gloucester, ON | I just got that email as well. Sucks. Less and less for more $ every damn time. I'm pissed.
Scott |
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dtsang
join:2003-08-16
Kingston, ON |  reply to mrbrimi
Those bums. Cheap as hell. Though it could also have something to do with Yahoo's financial woes... |
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robbers
@gc.ca | reply to mrbrimi
awesome.. next cut will be cap of overages, there's nothing else left with this service |
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golucky
join:2001-02-28
Woodbridge, ON | reply to mrbrimi
You'd think they may have, on our behalf, negotiated with Yahoo for a Rogers group rate - maybe half price.
Next Rogers will be charging us for the use of our Yahoo email accounts. |
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tomsupport
join:2008-02-16
Toronto, ON | reply to mrbrimi
Yet another perk trimmed from your Rogers service. It seems that their ultimate model is to provide just the pipe into your home without any extras. Perhaps Yahoo email, which many of us don't use anyway, is next. |
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Sempronius
join:2008-09-18
Toronto, ON
| Flickr
said by tomsupport  :Yet another perk trimmed from your Rogers service. It seems that their ultimate model is to provide just the pipe into your home without any extras. Perhaps Yahoo email, which many of us don't use anyway, is next. Right on about that. And consumer's will continue to pay more for less. That's how huge corporations work. Rogers only objective is to gouge the consumer's pocket book, and in return provide nothing. And as we continue to pay the yearly fees that Rogers hit consumer's with, all the while we're continuing to make Rogers a wealthy corporation. Whose to blame, Rogers or the consumer for allowing this to happen? |
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Keith McArthur
@rogers.com
thumbs down from:
Sempronius
| reply to mrbrimi
Re: Flickr
I'm in in the communications group at Rogers and wanted to provide a bit of an explanation.
The fact is that a very small number of our customers (less than 2 per cent) took advantage of the Flickr Pro service. For the vast majority of our customers, the bigger priority is faster speeds and more reliable service.
Last week, we doubled download speeds for hundreds of thousands of customers. We continue to invest in our network and look forward to bringing increasingly faster speeds to all our customers. |
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sbrook
Premium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
H0H 0H0
 ·Rogers Hi-Speed
Host:
Rogers
Bell Canada
| You doubled the download for people on light ... but squat for people on Extreme.
This is really poor PR.
To be honest, I get the impression that the branding with Yahoo! is going down the tubes. First Rogers dropped the name Rogers Yahoo! HiSpeed Internet in favour of just Rogers. Then Briefcase goes (granted it's no huge loss), Then Geocities goes (no huge loss) but nothing to replace it Then Yahoo!'s internet radio goes and nothing to replace it that makes sense, and now Flickr goes with nothing to replace it except the freebie service that everyone gets.
In other words Rogers isn't doing enough for Yahoo! so Yahoo! is saying tough bananas Rogers.
Just wait ... mail will be next. |
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Lemurific
join:2005-01-17
| reply to Keith McArthur
What speed increase? I've been on Extreme service for years and the only thing that's been added is a higher cost and a traffic crap that frequently restricts my use of the network or costs me an extra $25 per month. I was thinking of dropping to the lower service and just thinking of $25/month as an option for unlimited traffic but then the upload speed is halved to 500k. With increasing usage of syncing between computers on different networks, I find the upload speed to be more and more important and 1 Mbps is barely enough at this point.
At least the co-Yahoo branding in the past had a few perks. I don't really use my Rogers e-mail for anything seriously but it was nice that it was offered with no advertisements and the Flickr Pro account included is something I do make use of. Now Rogers/Yahoo mail contains advertising and is therefore no different than Yahoo's free mail service. And to add the final insult to injury, no more free Flickr Pro!
So this raises the question, why on earth are you still co-branding with Yahoo? You're not offering anything above what any Internet user can get from Yahoo for free!
Why not just be honest and end the relationship with Yahoo since it offers your customers nothing? If you're just going to offer someone else's free e-mail service with no additional perks, I'd rather you switch to Google. At least their ads are less intrusive and they offer IMAP support.
I just heard one of the cable companies in the states (I can't recall off hand which) is planning to offer 100 mbps service with NO caps for $!00/month. Rogers offerings are a joke in comparison.
In fact, the only reason Roger's Internet is vaguely attractive is because the main competitor Bell is even worse. There are no cable wholesalers and Bell is doing everything they can to enforce prohibitive throttling and caps on their wholesalers.
Nevertheless, I've been looking at TekSavvy and it looks like I can get a double line, with no caps, no throttling, 10 mbps down and 1.6 mpbs up for around the same price I'm paying for Rogers right now. (Less, when you consider I'm not overcharged by going over caps.) It's getting harder and harder to resist changing. I think this Flickr thing may be the last straw. At the end of the day, it may not be a big deal, but it's just one more in a long line of insults to your Internet subscribers. |
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Sempronius
join:2008-09-18
Toronto, ON
| reply to sbrook
said by sbrook :You doubled the download for people on light ... but squat for people on Extreme. This is really poor PR. To be honest, I get the impression that the branding with Yahoo! is going down the tubes. First Rogers dropped the name Rogers Yahoo! HiSpeed Internet in favour of just Rogers. Then Briefcase goes (granted it's no huge loss), Then Geocities goes (no huge loss) but nothing to replace it Then Yahoo!'s internet radio goes and nothing to replace it that makes sense, and now Flickr goes with nothing to replace it except the freebie service that everyone gets. In other words Rogers isn't doing enough for Yahoo! so Yahoo! is saying tough bananas Rogers. Just wait ... mail will be next. Agreed to on all accounts. If the so-called speed increases have taken affect, the company's website does not indicate any such changes in speeds to which Keith McArthur duly mentions. Perhaps it might be within Rogers best interest to update the company's website according for the benefit of all parties concerned. |
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Sempronius
join:2008-09-18
Toronto, ON
| reply to sbrook
said by sbrook :You doubled the download for people on light ... but squat for people on Extreme. This is really poor PR. To be honest, I get the impression that the branding with Yahoo! is going down the tubes. First Rogers dropped the name Rogers Yahoo! HiSpeed Internet in favour of just Rogers. Then Briefcase goes (granted it's no huge loss), Then Geocities goes (no huge loss) but nothing to replace it Then Yahoo!'s internet radio goes and nothing to replace it that makes sense, and now Flickr goes with nothing to replace it except the freebie service that everyone gets. In other words Rogers isn't doing enough for Yahoo! so Yahoo! is saying tough bananas Rogers. Just wait ... mail will be next. And let's not forget to add that the interface webmail of Rogers Yahoo! paying subscriber's is plastered with advertisements. . . |
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AnonymousKwalish
@grouptelecom.net
 from:
i286
| reply to mrbrimi
Bah, can't find my login info atm... oh well.
Anyway I just want to chime in and say that this is BS, pure and simple. It may very well be that not a lot of people used their free Flickr Pro accounts, but I know I did, and I sure do love how my internet fees keep going up and I keep getting offered less and less in return for my money. Also I was unaware that free Flickr and higher internet speeds were somehow mutually exclusive.
Also this reason of offering "higher speeds" is really just a farce... higher speeds to do what with... to hit the monthly bandwith cap sooner? Seriously?
If there was a reasonable alternative to Rogers in St. John's (Aliant does not count) I would have canceled my service months ago. This is just beyond ridiculous. |
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mrFlick
@platform.com
| reply to mrbrimi
No more Flickr Pro? I have just started using the service last week, and I was so pleasantly surprised that Rogers offers free Flickr account (I didn't know that before). Last weekend, I even told to my friend that it is probably the first time I'm happy with Rogers, and that maybe after all they are not all that bad. How ironic... |
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Sempronius
join:2008-09-18
Toronto, ON
2 edits | reply to AnonymousKwalish
What goes around, comes around. Ultimately, the same thing will happen with Rogers and Yahoo! that happened with Rogers and Excite; a divide of the two. It will come down to Rogers just providing you with an Internet connection while customer's will be left to provide their own email address with popular web portals such as Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail, etc. You'll pay more for your internet connection with no extra bonus added to your montly subscription fees. . . |
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sbrook
Premium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
H0H 0H0 | Rogers and Excite went their own ways for significantly different reasons. Excite imploded along with @home and were nearly the Enron of the portal industry. |
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harzack86
join:2004-02-03
Gloucester, ON
| reply to mrbrimi
Dear Rogers Yahoo! manager,
I am writing to inform you that on July 1, 2009, as you are removing the Flickr Pro account included with my Rogers Hi-Speed Internet service I also reduce the amount I pay you for the service.
As, ever since I became your customer in 2000, your service has only been reduced with an increasing price, and as I need to find other ways to reach the same level of service, it is only fair that we both share the costs of your continuous shortcomings:
- You removed access to Usenet
- You provide me with a Yahoo mail full of advertisements and with a lame spam filter, and doesn't allow me to use another smtp server
- You add and then remove a Flickr pro account
- You increase the cost of my monthly bill
- You add some caps to my monthly usage
- You throttle my connection if it's encrypted, without telling me
Therefore, I'll reduce the monthly fee accordingly in order to reach a fair cost for the poor service you are providing me.
I don't want to thank you for being my internet provider, but given the non existence of any competition in this country, your abuse of this dominant position should come to an end once your customers get fed up with your practices and take the matter in their own hands.
And you can' t be pleased about the "enjoyable online photo experience" as you're not providing it to your customers anymore.
Sincerely,
Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet upset customer. |
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Kdee
join:2005-08-26
Etobicoke, ON | reply to mrbrimi
This story has hit the blogasphere now:
»itnerd.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/···pro-wtf/ |
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Sempronius
join:2008-09-18
Toronto, ON | And I've just sent wind of this to The Toronto Star, and CBC. |
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spaterson
Premium
join:2001-09-02
Gloucester, ON
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to Keith McArthur
said by Keith McArthur :
I'm in in the communications group at Rogers and wanted to provide a bit of an explanation.
The fact is that a very small number of our customers (less than 2 per cent) took advantage of the Flickr Pro service. For the vast majority of our customers, the bigger priority is faster speeds and more reliable service.
Last week, we doubled download speeds for hundreds of thousands of customers. We continue to invest in our network and look forward to bringing increasingly faster speeds to all our customers. I really don't know what to say to this. All I can do is shake my head at your half-assed attempt to justify the move. Brave, but not too bright.
Scott |
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