Katie MarsalAfter raising the ire of its customers with what are believed to be overly expensive iPhone 3G plans, Canadian provider Rogers Wireless is allegedly being punished by Apple with fewer shipments.
Stores may be getting just 10 to 20 iPhones each and are being told to "exercise caution" not to promise ample stock on launch day, according to the rumors.
At the same time, Rogers is also claimed to be promptly firing the part-time staff that had been hired to handle an expected deluge of customers at some stores.
With the story breaking on the weekend, neither Apple nor Rogers officials have commented on the allegations. However, the provider in recent days has faced a steadily mounting backlash against its planned rates with approximately 42,000 would-be iPhone buyers signing a highly-publicized petition for lower rates that they plan to deliver to Rogers in person.
Rogers itself has already made an about-face regarding some of its plans. A statement issued to the press clarified that customers will now be able to pick and choose from separate voice and data plans as well as to order extras such as caller ID a la carte rather than as part of mandatory $15 and $20 value packs.
A separate statement from Rogers has also alluded to "tweaking" data plan sizes, although it stops short of offering the unlimited data demanded by some of the company's critics.
While readers should take caution in accepting the rumor at face value, at least one other carrier has been forced to loosen its Internet access restrictions after facing similar criticism: TeliaSonera has been pushed into extending its Swedish iPhone plans with an unlimited data option after previously giving even its highest-end iPhone plan just 1GB of data per month.
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
129 Comments
Sounds like Apple deserves a pat on the back if true.
The last paragraph is just not true. The option to add unlimited data for 199SEK more was always there, and charges for using more than the allocated amount of data were and are capped at 9SEK per day ($1.5). The prices are still awful compared to the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Switzerland, however.
/Adrian
They need one of those sanctions in Australia. Our plans are no better.
What really must be bugging Apple is that they have now completely and utterly failed to transform the Canadian market in any way -- Canadian users looking for unlimited data plans will be buying Samsung and RIM/Blackberry devices, because not only has Rogers dropped the ball, they have managed to deftly drop-kick it into a giant cesspool of their own making. Personally, I'm very glad not to have waited for an iPhone -- Rogers can actually be a half-decent company, but it will probably be a long, long wait until they fire the tremendous idiots who prevented the iPhone from making any inroads in Canada.
On the plus side, what's good for RIM is good for Canada :-)
One thing that should be clarified is that it has since become clear that the firings were not company wide. Instead, it appears that only certain dealership channels (a type of franchisee division) hired additional help for the launch, mostly in urban areas. And then only some of the principals of these dealerships decided to let their new staffers go before they even started, because of whatever stock reductions have come down the lines. AI might want to change the text to reflect this as well, as one thing Rogers corporate can't be blamed for is firing people it never hired.
(Unless of course your line of reasoning = Rogers gouges customers>Apple pulls units and funding for extra help>Rogers corporate pulls funding for extra help to Dealerships>Dealerships fire extra help. In that case, carry on
Daniel Smith
Smithereens Blog