Advice on dealing with Rogers?
 

Yesterday I went into a Rogers store, willing to lay down $399 for a Bold. I haven't upgraded by BB for 3 years (have the old but reliable 7290). The sales guy says, let me check your account. I am a long-time customer, with 4 cell phones for wife and kids, 2 high speed internet lines, cable TV. My monthly bill is as a big as my mortgage.
What do I get for being a good customer? Well, the sales guy says, for you, the cost will be $749! He said I upgraded my wife's phone recently (which is true), so I am not eligible for an upgrade to my own phone. He said if I phone Rogers, I might be able to convince them to lower the price.
What should I say to the Rogers rep?
I wish there were some competition in Canada!

You need to call Rogers directly to get a better deal.

Call the regular number and when asked how can we help you say "cancel service" and stay on the line and when someone comes to help you say "I want to check my upgrade prices on a couple phones"... give them your info and ask for prices on the Bold and another one (just for fun!, seriously, do it...)

Then see what they offer the Bold to you for... maybe $399... maybe more...

Don't get upset up with them if it's more just report back here for further info :)

Thanks, eldonjr. I will give it a try and let you know.

But you may be disappointed when they tell you they don't have the Bold in stock and suggest that you try to find one in a store :-(

ErnieH: The guy in the Rogers store said that if the telephone conversation if Rogers was successful, they would modify my account information, so that I could walk into a store and pay the reduced price. We'll see...

You have to understand something, sales reps don't have the power to magically modify the information that is downloaded to them from Rogers. Like other people have said it's better to call Rogers customer service directly - I would tell them you are upgrading your phone and not your wifes phone unless I read your post wrong. :)

A.

upgrades go by the phone number... not the account... call a complain... you should be able to upgrade your line without any issues...

And best of luck. Last time I phoned I sat on hold for an hour and a half, found out that they cancelled my hardware upgrade for no reason, and tried to tell me I never requested an upgrade in the first place. I was patiently waiting for my bold to arrive and it never did. I requested to talk to a manager and they said no one was available but someone would call me back in the next 24 hours. 3 weeks later I get a call....

An entirely different experience
 

I have had a BlackBerry with Rogers since 2001. Now on my fifth: 957, 7280, 8700, 8800, 9000.

I called up, asked for the best price, and without any discussion was given this:
- $324 on a three year plan
- $50 mail-in rebate
- $30 discount for buying online (even though I couldn't because they had a software issue)

Net price: $244.00.

Then sold my 8800 on eBay for $200. Net cost of upgrade: $44.00.

Rogers is a respectful company trying really hard to turn around its reputation.

They advised me to walk into any Rogers store and request the Bold as an upgrade on my account, and in twenty minutes I had the Bold in my hand with no cash layout.

rogers
 

Rogers is the only carrier providing the Bold at this time.
If you had a recent upgrade there little you can do.
If you have a business account or belong to an association that Rogers supports you have be eligible for a reduced business account plan and upgrade. I would recommend to contact Rogers directly via telephone.

You should be able to get a deal. When the Bold was released, I wasn't eligible for a hardware upgrade for a few more months because I only joined Rogers Wireless last December. Stupid thing was, they would give me an iPhone no problem but I didn't want that. The guy at the store would not budge one bit so I called the centre and they said the same thing. I complained about how I've had Rogers internet and TV for years and that I switched both landline and mobile services from Bell to Rogers (which in turn they are getting a small mortgage out of me per month!) Then she put me on hold and then found a "Call Centre Promotion" that I was eligible for so they said I could have a Bold for $400 but my contract would restart for another 3 years.

However, like ErnieH said, they didn't have any in stock so I had to keep calling back. Every time I called back they still had none in stock so I complained about having to be put on hold so many times, this one guy I spoke to offered to text message me when they get a shipment in.

So unfortunately I had to wait a whole month but that was right after they released it so you may have a much less of a wait time. However they cannot determine the shipment times so my advice is, try to be patient. Personally, I don't know what is so great about this Bold for the money and hassle I had to go through so consider if it's even worth it.

And as my recent rant (see " :x Rogers!@#$% " post in the Rant and Raves Forum if you have time) concluded, if you don't get what you want, call back as many times it takes until you get someone to cooperate. Seems to be the way to play the system. Good luck!