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yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON

yyzlhr to Pesterd

Member

to Pesterd

Re: Another Rogers Rate Increase

said by Pesterd :

What's the actual increase for all of the services? Didn't receive any mail yet from them and can't find any info on the website.

All internet tiers are going up by $3 except for 150/10.
Sunfox
join:2003-12-14
Stouffville

Sunfox

Member

Phone Essentials up 7.0%
Phone Favorites up 5.2%
Phone Deluxe up 4.6%

Cable Basic up 2.9%
Cable Digital Plus up 5.7%
Cable VIP up 2.9%

Internet Lite up 7.8%
Internet Express up 6.1%
Internet Extreme up 4.8%
Internet Extreme Plus up 4.2%

So if you're unlucky enough to subscribe to Phone Essentials, Cable Digital Plus and Internet Lite, your service will be going up 6.7%, or $8 per month/$96 per year.

Of course, all this is because of Rogers' horrible profits. I mean just look at these dreadful numbers:

Q4 2011: $327 million profit
Q1 2012: $356 million profit
Q2 2012: $400 million profit
Q3 2012: $466 million profit

I mean clearly something had to be done. Any reasonable person can see that 1.5 billion profit in 12 months isn't anywhere near enough, so it was time to significantly increase rates for their customers.

jduffy
Premium Member
join:2006-08-20
Cincinnati, OH

jduffy

Premium Member

said by Sunfox:

Of course, all this is because of Rogers' horrible profits. I mean just look at these dreadful numbers:

Q4 2011: $327 million profit
Q1 2012: $356 million profit
Q2 2012: $400 million profit
Q3 2012: $466 million profit

I mean clearly something had to be done. Any reasonable person can see that 1.5 billion profit in 12 months isn't anywhere near enough, so it was time to significantly increase rates for their customers.

Last I saw, companies are still allowed to make a profit and that is their goal - profit generation for the benefit of their investors. Too many people are under the wrong impression that corporations are supposed to benefit society and their employees. That is not the case at all. Just about all products and services are elastic. So if you do not like the price, discontinue purchase of those services and products. If enough people do it, the price will come down to generate demand.
Sunfox
join:2003-12-14
Stouffville

1 edit

Sunfox

Member

Indeed they are allowed. However, when times are tough for many people, and a company's profits are already growing at a steady rate at the current pricing structure, what is the moral justification for a mass price increase far above the cost of inflation, at an earlier schedule than usual?

Are they in danger of going bankrupt? Have they seen a sudden and unexpected increase in the cost of doing business? Are you getting an equal increase in service for the extra money?

I know I wasn't in March 2012 when I cancelled Rogers internet after 15 straight years. $2 more per month for all the upgrades done during the past year. But oh wait, I was still on a D2 plan, meaning I was stuck at 10mbit and 95gb while the rate increase that I had to pay along with everyone else was being justified by the increases to 28mbit and 120gb on my Extreme plan. But if I wanted to see those new improvements, I'd also have to rent a $7 modem they wouldn't let me buy (and refused to provide gratis). So, to get what I was being charged for, I'd have to pay a total of $9 more per month.

No thanks. Rogers was very disagreeable to negotiate with on the phone, and told me that because I was under contract, they were allowed to increase the rates to whatever they wanted and I could do NOTHING ABOUT IT except pay the new rate or break the contract and pay the full penalty (in direct contradiction to the text being used on this year's rate increase notice).

I was so turned off by that attitude (combined with my experience the prior year where I discovered false billing where my bill said I was getting X% discount but if you did the math it was actually less than half of X% - and they refused to correct more than 3 months overbilling), I broke the contract and paid the penalty anyways.

Over the past year I've further cut down my Rogers television service to about half of what it once was, so now I don't need to be held hostage by their contracts to get 20-35% off in order to bring Rogers service rates down to the same price levels as other companies.

So tell me, since you're in Cincinnati, jduffy, and don't have to deal with the Rogers and Bell duopoly... what are your choices for internet service and television there? What do you pay for that service, and what were you paying say 3 years ago for that same service? Let's compare notes.
yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON

yyzlhr

Member

said by Sunfox:

Indeed they are allowed. However, when times are tough for many people, and a company's profits are already growing at a steady rate at the current pricing structure, what is the moral justification for a mass price increase far above the cost of inflation, at an earlier schedule than usual?

Are they in danger of going bankrupt? Have they seen a sudden and unexpected increase in the cost of doing business? Are you getting an equal increase in service for the extra money?

The cost of doing business is typically pretty high for Rogers. Rogers sits on massive amounts of debt and they probably took on even more by joining forces with Bell to acquire MLSE. They need to ensure that they have sustained revenue flowing in to ensure that they can continue to finance their debt and not head into bankruptcy.

jduffy
Premium Member
join:2006-08-20
Cincinnati, OH

jduffy to Sunfox

Premium Member

to Sunfox
I am always surprised that people use the "tough times" comment to object to price increases. Why?

Because when times are good and a company is not doing well, customers to not flock to the company and buy more or pay a higher price to help out the company.

Second, morality does not figure into pricing of a product or service. It is totally demand driven when it comes to elastic products or services. Should a farmer price his products low because they are food and everyone needs food, thereby endangering his ability to make a living?

You did exactly what should happen in a capitalist society. They increased prices, you did not feel you were getting any value, so you cancelled the service. If enough people would have done what you did, they would have been forced to lower prices. But it appears that demand thus justified the increase because people stayed with the service.

Remember, a product is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

elitefx
join:2011-02-14
London, ON

1 edit

elitefx

Member

said by jduffy:

But it appears that demand thus justified the increase because people stayed with the service.

Remember, a product is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Yea, you don't seem to realize here in Canada we're the victims of a duopoly because of government deregulation of telecommunications.

It's not like if we don't like our current Telco we can go somewhere else for service.

Things have degraded to the point the 2 dominant telcos actually bought an NHL franchise together. Trust me, there's a rotten stench in the Telco barrel here in Canada. Price fixing has become a national sport. And the CRTC regulatory commission just bends over and takes it dry from Rogers and Bell.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues to jduffy

Premium Member

to jduffy
The problem is when those services are provided by an oligopoly(monopoly in their particular offerings), its like chowing between two evils, which is going to hurt more?
Joe1419
join:2007-10-31

Joe1419 to Sunfox

Member

to Sunfox
Anyone who wants to shove it to rogers, you can cancel your services without penalty due to this rate change, even though you are on contract.

See here for proof straight from the robber's mouth:
»www.rogers.com/web/conte ··· rt-terms
(or »www.rogers.com/terms )

"Residents of Ontario who do not wish to accept any applicable rate increase may choose to cancel the service(s) affected by the rate increase(s) without any early cancellation fee, device savings recovery fee or service deactivation fee, as applicable, by sending us a notice to that effect no later than 30 days after receiving the rate increase notice."

Show them you won't take this increase by voting with your wallet!

Beermage
@rogers.com

Beermage

Anon

said by Joe1419:

Anyone who wants to shove it to rogers, you can cancel your services without penalty due to this rate change, even though you are on contract.

See here for proof straight from the robber's mouth:
»www.rogers.com/web/conte ··· rt-terms
(or »www.rogers.com/terms )

"Residents of Ontario who do not wish to accept any applicable rate increase may choose to cancel the service(s) affected by the rate increase(s) without any early cancellation fee, device savings recovery fee or service deactivation fee, as applicable, by sending us a notice to that effect no later than 30 days after receiving the rate increase notice."

Show them you won't take this increase by voting with your wallet!

It's 30 days after receiving the rate increase notice. I think most people received their notice in late December early January. So that would mean it would be too late for most people to cancel without a cancellation fee.