After only being in existence for less than five months, effective January 16, Rogers is eliminating its price matching policy, which was part of its Freedom Advantage program. Under the program, Rogers would match any competing price from its competitors on both the price of the smartphone and the contract terms of a competing carrier. Rogers would rather ‘give’ you other items besides a break in the price on anything as a way of ‘adding value’ in order to come over to Rogers. According to an internal document that our source received from Rogers, they stated: “We are always looking for innovative ways to better serve our customers, and we frequently update our marketing and programs to reflect this. You’ll notice we’ve added more value to the overall Rogers experience with Rogers NHL GameCentre LIVE, Roam Like Home, Rogers First Rewards, and other great perks!”
As Rogers rings in the new year by taking away one of their ‘perks’ they also wanted to remind everybody that up to 10 devices can still be shared through its Share Everything plans. Subscribers can upgrade or make changes to their plans at any time during the year and that Rogers will “continue to offer competitive pricing for all devices.” Sounds like a lot of public relations garbage to me…what about you. From the sounds of the comments at our source, nobody feels that Rogers gave up anything because the Big Three – Rogers, Bell and TELUS – all have about the same pricing…they went so far as to accuse the Big Three of price fixing.
Several are wondering where the CRCT is in all of this mess – where is the Federal Government that keeps promising increased competition, even though the prices keep rising. Rogers claims that they are offering ‘value added’ features such as GameCentre Live and Roam Like Home, however, you only benefit from these products if you pay extra each month to participate in the programs. Please hook up with us on our Google+ Page and let us know what kind of ‘added value’ you believe you are receiving from Rogers or is it just a lot of smoke and mirrors as far as you are concerned…as always, we would love to hear from you.