[Elect] Rogers Wireless Retention Plans

[mrperfect]

Table of Contents
[ quickTag ]: Ctrl+F the tag to jump to that section.

1. Introductions [ rgr01 ]
2. Negotiations 101 ( Noisewater )[ rgr02 ]
3. Negotiation Tutorial ( Next_godfather )[ rgr03 ]
4. Negotiation Tutorial ( Sunnycnm5 ) [ rgr04 ]
5. Negotiation Tutorial ( Mrperfect | 7XKakq ) [ rgr05 ]
6. Price range Guide for $17.50 Voice Plan [ rgr06 ]
7. Retention Features & Addons [ rgr07 ]
8. Should You Take The Offer?[ rgr08 ]
9. Magic Words [ rgr09 ]
10. FAQ [ rgr10 ]
11. Tips [ rgr11 ]
12. Rogers Contacts [ rgr12 ]
13. Glossary [ rgr13 ]
14. New Customers & TOR [ rgr14 ]
15. Beginner's Guide ( Firestorm ) [ rgr15 ]

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Introduction: [ rgr01 ]

The purpose of the thread is to assist the the community at large to discuss their wireless plans, learn about new deals and offers and most importantly to empower you to negotiate the best possible plan for your buck. The creation of this thread is made possible by the joint effort of many contributors from RFD who have taken their time to write the tutorials, guides, advice and share their expertise and we will try our best to keep this thread regularly updated.

Please be advised that no tutorial is better than the other and we all have different methods of doing things so it is important that you take all of this information and use it in the best possible way to maximize your savings and reach your ultimate goal.

What is this thread about?

This is about Rogers Wireless Retention Plans. Wireless companies do not want you to sign with a competitor. If you call in to cancel, you will be directed to the customer relations department so that they can negotiate into keeping you. It doesn't matter if you are still on a contract, after about three or six months of paying your bills on time Rogers will know that you are a customer worth keeping. It's not that easy to cancel. Don't worry about bluffing. You can always say that "you'll think about it" if the plan isn't something you're happy with and then hang up.

Remember to always be polite while speaking on the phone. They are human beings after all. If you're a ***** to them, they'll be less inclined to help you out. I cannot stress this enough. I think most people in customer service can tell you they aren't exactly nice to customers who are angry and yell.

An easy way to get out is to ask them if you would be able to keep your number if you cancel now. You are supposed to go to the competitor so they can port your number so the answer will be no. That's a good reason to excuse yourself and hang up / get that last offer from them! firestorm.


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Negotiations 101: by NoiseWater [ rgr02 ]

My Main Weapon:
Gut Check - Always go with your gut. Does your gut tell you that things are going south? End the call. Does your gut tell you that the agent who answered is not going to help? End the call. Your gut knows better than you, so listen to it.

My Process:

a) Call Rogers
*611, 4,1,3,2. Don’t be afraid of the voice on the other end of the line and make the call.

b)Name, rank, serial, and how are you!?
Once you’ve given your info, ask them how they are. How has there day been? How was their weekend? BE SINCERE. Use their name sparingly throughout the conversation so you don’t sound like a serial killer.
Be friendly, be curious, be likeable. Likeable people get likeable results, end of story.

c) Gut Check
If things seem good, keep going. If not, end the call somehow. Disconnects are wonderful.

d) How can I help you?
They’re gonna ask so you better know what to say. What are you looking for exactly? Know what you want, then bring it up in a roundabout way. Knowing what you want makes you confident, not knowing makes you sound like a turd.

Start with a problem you are concerned with, ie. Not enough minutes. Use this to lead into what you want: ie. Bonus minutes. Enquire about pricing, what the feature all has, etc.

Don’t be afraid to ask them what they can do to help you. I do it all the time. “what can we do to help me/make it cheaper..." Phrase it in a way so that the possibility is suggested. Don’t say it like, “is there anything you can do?” If you imply that something can be done, they’re going to be more willing to make something happen. If you sound like a hopeless weenie you’ll get nothing.

They will tell you “what is possible” and you respond accordingly. They will either a) give it for free, b) offer it at subsidized rate, or c) tell you the book price.
At this point you can take it, leave it, or begin negotiations. But first, GUT CHECK.

e) negotiating
Alright, if you haven’t ended the call at this point, and you didn’t immediately get what you want, you get to use the magic of your voice to woo the customer agent into helping you out.

So how do you do it? Well you get several approaches. The most common are…
a) make up a story that will get them to budge
b) be honest about it and convince them they need to budge
c) use sweet word magic to make them think that helping you was there idea
d) A combination of A to C

Let’s break it down:

1) Make Up a Story
If you use this approach, you get to tell lies. It’s not for everyone, but lord almighty is it effective. If you actually need this to be explained, here’s what you do. Come up with a story about why you need the credit/discount etc. It can be anything to back up your claims. It really doesn’t matter. If you get the rep to buy it and feel sympathetic, you win. Case closed. Getting the rep to buy it is the harder part, which incidentally is why you always want to be friendly. It’s easier to believe friendly people.

2) Be Honest
My preferred approach, mainly because it seems to work best for me (maybe I’m transparent?). Follow the steps listed beforehand, and once you reach the point of “here’s the price”, you get to tell it how it is. I will straight up say things like “look I don’t want to pay that much for this feature, because frankly I don’t think it’s worth that much.” Although as a disclaimer to that, I used that for my old plan. For this plan I have been extremely lucky by just saying that I want to keep my plan the same price, but I would really appreciate it and be very grateful if we could make it work with the new feature. It seems to work like mad for me.

3) Use sweet word magic
Oh yeah. This is the fun part. I use this in combination with being honest. What the hell is sweet word magic? It’s a combo of building rapport, embedded commands, and subconscious suggestion techniques. I really don’t feel like explaining this in depth because you could write a novel about it. Lucky for you, novels have been written about it! But that takes a long time to read. So here’s what you are going to do. Google the following and read up: Reid’s Manipulation, Embedded Commands, and NLP mirroring. Very interesting, very useful, and very effective. In fact, every time I’ve ever gotten anything it was through using these techniques to build ultimate rapport with the rep. It ALWAYS works if you do it right. If you do it wrong, it may not go as planned, hence why I don’t always get what I want every call.
Basically by using these, you direct the conversation where you want it to go without the other party realizing it. Using suggestive techniques, you plant the ideas in the convo, but the rep makes it their idea, and when it’s their idea, they will follow through. Is this immoral? In my eyes not at all. It’s a natural part of life to direct conversations in your favour. Obviously if you don’t like the idea of this, don’t use it. But just to let you know, you do it without meaning to or realizing it in different aspects of your life, so you might as well get good at it.

Combination of the 3
Basically this means do whatever it takes. Use everything in your arsenal and get what you want.

f) Finish it off
If you got what you wanted (it can take multiple calls so don’t despair), THANK THE REP SINCERELY! Let them know how much you appreciate their help. They’ll be happier, you’ll be happier, and everyone wins.
If you didn’t, by this point it’s probably too late to end the call with a *click* so just thank them for their help and call again.

g) Wash, Rinse, Repeat
If you got what you wanted, AWESOME! If not, that sucks, call and try again!

Keep altering and refining your approach until you get what you want! Good Luck!

[mrperfect]

Negotiation Tutorial by next_godfather: [ rgr03 ]

A member from RFD sent me a pm, and I rather address the question here as it would be helpful for the whole community.

Im not great at negotiating, I think I am "decent", I scored a great deal because of many things combined such as

- I have been a customer for 2 years, I got a credit or two, per each call, I didnt get to the plan I have now all of a sudden due to a really generous rep
- I have 4 services with them (consolidated customer relations reps. are more willng to negotiate with you, than regular wireless reps I find), and I always mention that to them
- I researched competition

MYTHS
I find that these below statments are myths and absured
- some reps are really mean and not helpful
- I can't do it it's too hard to bargain with them

Yes, some reps are quite difficult but it is not 'impossible' to bargain with them. Remember they have a quota to maintain. If you have ever worked in sales you would know that you have sell a number of products or you get coached, more coaching, until you get fired. These difficult reps, are the ones that can pick out the "b.s" we are giving them. Its like playing hard, if the other party whos what is in your hand, they will not fear you. Likewise, the rep on the other line should not know that you possess info from forums such as HOWARDFORUMS, OR RFD.

IF YOU TELL THEM THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT HOFO OR RFD, or the internet, these reps will care to bargain with you. They KNOW you WONT cancel. And they will call you a bluff. Unless, in certain circumstances you can mention hofo or rfd, otherwise dont mention it. Be ignorant as possible, dont mention words like "retention vlaue pack" or make sure the jargon you use is not language a person who is well verse in retention deal. Stay away from these jargons we often use in RFD, or hofo.

Another thing is, dont be afraid to be "aggressive". You have to be aggressive to get what you want.

Look up government agencies, such as CRTC, Better Business Bureau, and other agencies which the telco companies are signatories to. Arm your self with legal jargon, and be prepared to excercise your "right" to speak to a manager if you do not get what you want.

A lot of the credits I received are from the manager, or office of the pres. as they do not wish to deal with you, and give you what you want.

- things like Rogers changing the LCA, changes to the contracts you see in the bulletons in your wireless bill are GOLD. keep them handy, and call within 30 days, as those are your jailfree cards, as those contracts can help you rid you of your contract, and thus you get leverage to negotiating a better deal. Tell them either you go because they made these changes, or they give you what you want?
TRUST ME, IT WORKS

If Rogers, is gonna screw you over using loopholes, arm yourself with loopholes against them. And be prepared to speak to a manager. If they say a manager will call you back, be firm and say you wish to speak to them now. Chances are the manager wont call you back, and they just want to get rid of you.

STEPS
1. Call 611, Then 4,1,3,2 to Cancel*

2) tell the customer relations representative nicely, that you are displeased with what you are paying and that competition is offering such and such and thus you want to cancel. BE FIRM, AND ASK THEM HOW MUCH IS IT TO CANCEL.

...

The representative will say "oh well the competition is not that great"

You have to offer a rebuttal (always write down your points and rebuttals before making the call)

If the representative does not have any rebutalls for you, chances are that they will give in.

In your points, bring up what Changes Rogers made to the contract, and how you have 30 days to cancel. They will bring up things such as Rogers can change the agreement, then you bring up "cwta.ca" and how it mandates that agreements cannot be changed.

remember, if you are for say fighting for long distance minutes due to the lca change, you always have a right to request arbitration, if office of of pres. or manager does not help you

3) if you are satisfied with your deal, say accept and make sure you get an interaction id. otherwise if you are not happy say you are displeased, and tell them to make a note of the offer, and forward your call to the manager. Mention the same things, and mention your rights as a customer, and how rogers owes you a duty of care eg. not changing the local calling area

(i would google: lca change) and you will see a lot of people got rid of their contracts, or gotten freebies because they voiced their themselves

4) come back to rfd or hofo, and celebrate your success

POINTS TO NOTE
Remember you can always go ahead with the cancellation, as Rogers "will" call you back and try their best to keep you. Therefore, don't be afraid! I did that one time.

Another point to note is that REPS don't want to cancel you. The rep has like a quota to maintain, if the rep is doing a lot of cancellation, it gonna look bad on him and he will get discipline, and moreoever he is gonna do paperwork for you cancelling. No one wants to do paperwork.

The key is to be:
- Firm
- Write down what you are going to say and rebuttals
- Research competition, laws that TELCOS. have to follow
- Don't give in to their first offer the first offer is just a bait to see if you will bite. unless the first offer is great, dont take it, trust me they are train to give less, and if customer is persistant on cancelling they will give you more.

good luck guys.

[mrperfect]

Negotiation Tutorial by Sunnycnm5: [ rgr04 ]

I wrote this quickly and obviously have a ton more to add on. Later on, I plan on making this post much more coherent, add more info, and quote some other peoples posts on the subject.

Also, if anyone has any advice/info to add, or found where I made a mistake in this post, please post it/pm me!

An average cell phone contract is anywhere from 1000-3600 bucks. Over a three year contract, the tiniest difference in your bill can make a huge difference over the course of a three year period. If you are a Rogers’s wireless customer and have been with them for over 6 months; you are eligible to receive offers from retentions. This means you will be able to reduce your bill by up to 50% while adding many more features.

Customer Relations AKA “Retentions” are a department for existing customers to ensure they stay happy (and with the company). They are the only department that can give you discounts. They have special plans, and huge deals that they will happily give you, if you approach them in the right way.

How to get to retentions:
Call *611 from your Rogers phone or the Rogers number and select whatever department in wireless you like. As soon as you get on with them, tell them that you were on the phone with customer relations earlier, and would like to be transferred back to them. This is crucial because every other department can literally do nothing for you; while this one department has the ability to offer you discounted prices and deals.

How to deal with retentions:
As soon as you get on the phone with them, be as polite and courteous as possible. Act stern, but ensure that you don’t sound like a jerk. They are much more likely to deal with and help out someone who isn’t constantly yelling at them. In order to get your deals, never give demands. Explain what you ideally would want, explain how long you’ve been with Rogers, how you are with them for other services, and at times how they have screwed up. Most of the time (depending on how long you’ve been with Rogers), they will be happy to help you. If you get a rep that can’t do anything for you; most of the time it’s not even worth it and you should just call back another time. Never end off a call yelling at them because they will write it down on your account. From my experience, talking about bell/wind/ other competitors prices doesn’t really do anything. In a similar vein though, what I have felt to be really helpful is say that another rep offered you **** (pick something you want that Rogers offers) and say you would like to switch to it. Often times, reps offer different things without writing them down; in times like this, the rep will probably believe you and see what they can do (if what you asked for is realistically possible).

If you are not a quick thinker/negotiator, that’s fine. It is there job to meet your needs and they will most likely be very helpful. It is important to be knowledgeable on what is available, and what you want beforehand.

The best plans are usually not built in a day, and usually are given to long serving customers. Each time you call, don’t try and swing for the fences. Try and get a new credit added each call, so eventually you are in a position to have an "epic" plan.

From what I have experienced, the best way to speak with Rogers is to call them when they make an error. Each call should be started with something like this; I noticed XXX on my bill and was curious about, or... I was at a Rogers store and they said XXXX, but the other guy on the phone said XXXX. Moreover, every time someone screws up or is rude to you, CALL them to report it. If a guy at the Rogers store gives you a hard time and fibs, call retentions and stress how much time you have wasted and what you have been through. It is all pretty self explanatory stuff; just remember to be courteous when talking to the reps. Whenever Rogers makes a mistake; it is usually up to them to make up for it. This is an easy way for the reps to compensate you with discounts/credits/free stuff etc. Further, if Rogers ever changes the contract; CALL them. This should be easy compensation. In order to get the “epic” bills, someone is going to have to screw up. There are some credits/discounts that are nearly impossible to be given from retentions, and can only be given by a manager. Managers have the power to do a lot more, and they are essential to speak to at certain times. It is best to speak to a manager when someone has screwed up, a contract has been changed or a rep is being an idiot. Rogers mistakes should are a goldmine. Every time they make a billing error, a screw-up, change the contract; if you call, they will likely compensate you big time.

In order to get the best possible contract, it is beneficial to know what’s out there, in order to be able to attempt to get it. There is no point trying to argue for a deal that does not exist. Usually if a deal exists in the retentions system, they will be happy to give it to you. With that said, new deals are always being brought in and out of the system; so keep trying checking back for different stuff available. If you know you use a lot of data, wait till July/August when they offer the 6 gig/30 dollar deal. At all other times, you will be stuck with a max of 1 gig/30 dollars, so timing is essential. I would recommend looking here and figuring out your ideal contract, and bring this information as a talking point. There are some minimum fee’s that everyone must pay for in some part (like a voice plan), but most add-ons can be completely, or almost completely credited. With that said, there will still be some charges on your bill that can easily be reduced by receiving additional credits and discounts.

The way most good bills will work out are going to be as follows:
retention voice plan
retention data plan
retention text plan (could be credited)
everything else credited

Although this might be cheaper than an average bill, it will still be fairly expensive. It is best to use other discounts to further reduce the bill. There are three things that can be done here; credits, discounts and fee’s waived.
One can utilize up to:
(4) 5 dollar voice credits stacked (these credits cant exceed the cost of your minutes - IE can use 4 for 20, or 3 for 17.50 plans)
(2) 5 dollar data credits stacked
SAF waived
5%/10%/15% discount on bill.
Amalgamated, this should make your bill much cheaper.

Figure out the services you want, how much you are willing to pay and how much Rogers will bend. Come up with your own desired plan from the following list and when you speak with Rogers; suggest every component of it so they can try and make it for you. There are some add-ons that can only be credited in rare circumstances (and through managers) that I wouldn’t necessarily try for. There are other add-ons which are only available at certain times. With that said, it should all be fairly simple to figure out what you want.

theoretically, with this knowledge; one could set out to obtain a plan like this:

17.50 plan minutes – 2.50 after credits
100 bonus minutes – credited
1000 long distance minutes – credited
value package – credited
6 gig data - 20 after credits
rogers to rogers – credited
unlimited incoming – credited
SAF waived
15%
etc.

Clearly the plans listed below are hyperbolic and out of range for most of you, but the point is there. They have nothing special you don’t have, and everything listed here is obtainable. All this means is that if you have been with rogers long and enough and are willing to spend the time, you can more than likely receive a contract that has tons of minutes, unlimited data, all the features rogers offers for very cheap (Between 30-40 bucks on average).

[mrperfect]

Negotiation Tutorial by mrperfect | 7XKakq: [ rgr05 ]

People always ask on this board - how did some_poster get such a good deal? It's NOT by saying some magic buzzwords... it's by making a connection with the rep and getting them on your side.

mrperfect:
a) start your conversation by always saying their NAME. when you are done verifying your account and they say what can i do for you.. "

b) surprise them by asking how are you doing."

c) then say you guys having pretty busy night today i know its hard to deal with grumpy people all day long and i have so much respect for you blah blah blah.. then say moving forward the reason im calling you is for blah-blah"

d) present your case well, dont get excited or frustated, be smooth with your words and know the game,"

e) dont commit to anything untill they are done "offering" then weigh all pros and cons and if you like it ask them to document this in the file and ask for a interation number it will start something like "i300200100"."

f) However sometimes if the offer is too good to resist TAKE IT as sometimes you wont get it again even if you call back.."

Additions by 7XKakq:

a) This works because people respond better when their name is used. Human psych, 101. Don't over-do it so as to sound obvious, but use the reps name from time to time during the call.

b) works because EVERYBODY likes to be asked how they are doing, and likely so few cx's ask this the rep is PLEASANTLY STARTLED to have someone actually ask THEM how they're doing. Never mind that everybody likes to be asked their opinion. This question also has the benefit of 'breaking' the rep out of their robotic script, and you've now begun a conversation with a fellow human being. That's the way to get 'BFF' status with the rep - get them on your team, make them your friend and wanting to help YOU out.

c) Though phrased a little heavily ("respect" the reps job) what you're doing here is showing you understand them and their difficult job. Other tactics might be:
- if calling late at night, say "I'll bet you get some crazy calls from folks who just left the bar, eh?"
- if calling during the a known busy period - e.g. iP4 launch - say "I'll bet it's crazy with everybody demanding their new phone yesterday, eh?" This adds humour to the conversation, and shows you understand and sympathize with the rep's situation.

d) Yep, but this is one that is tough to 'teach' - some people can just think quickly on their feet, other people don't have that gift. If you don't, at least have an idea about what you think you want as opposed to just wanting 'mo' free stuff'. Greedy = unsexy.

If you want to just lower your bill start off by saying that cash is tight and you want to see if there's anything "that we can do" that can HELP you reduce your monthly bill - maybe even be prepared to give something up? Can they adjust you to a lower $ plan that doesn't drop your minutes too much, that sort of thing.

e) great tip - start the conversation off by wanting to 'just get an idea what Rog maybe has that can "help" you lower your bill, or let you use your phone more (more minutes, more features) since you like the service SO MUCH already. Reps get grief all day so by your saying you're a happy cx and want to use the Rog service more you're a pleasant change from their usual grumpy, demanding cx. By keeping the conversation GENERAL you avoid the rep documenting a formal offer made to you (so you can call back and try with another rep, without that later rep seeing a previous offer made to you and just parroting it) ... UNTIL it's a great offer that you think you want snaggle (then you want notes made on your account about what exactly was offered).
If you see the call heading nowhere you want as little record of that as possible - be polite and say, ok, it doesn't sound like Rog has much leeway, you'll maybe try one of the new carriers and see what other offers are out there - but don't be snarky when you say this, just say it like you're kinda sad (you don't really want to leave the Rog family, and might not, but have to see what else is out there to be fair to yourself.)

f) this is covered a little in my e) comments, but if you should get a situation where a rep hasn't fully document the GOLD offer they made to you, and you discover this when you call back to accept, you'll maybe want to have a review of the call-recording performed - for info see:
s://RogersWatch.wordpress.com/Recording

Here are some other general ideas (7XKakq):

- say you call in and rep sounds tired, beleaguered
- maybe mention to rep they sound pooped - are they are end of shift, or have had some really bad cx's to deal with today
- maybe rep says 'no, my kid is sick and was up half the night'
- A HA you think, an opportunity to ingratiate yourself...
- maybe ask, very, very gently, and say: 'Can I ask, are you a single parent maybe' (probably more single-parents at CSR jobs then in general population)
- if rep says yes, you say how much you respect single parents - parenting is such a tough job ... your sister, self, mom (be truthful!) was a single parent and you really admire them for how hard it is
- or if rep says no, they're not, make a light-hearted crack about how their hubby/wife needs to take a turn and coddling their little one and let you be rested for all the pesky, difficult cx's they have to deal with
- etc ... you're looking for chances to say something nice, yet personal and specific, about this rep - MILD flattery (or it sounds obvious like you're heaping BS upon them, which is a BIG turn-off for anyone) .. and humour helps too

All this stuff above is general schmoozing of people - use their name, respect them, understand them, sympathize with them/their job, get them on board with you (your team), etc.

Don't over-do it tho, or you sound like a BS'er.

For those who know this stuff already and want to get into the really advanced stuff, consider reading a little on the "Reid's Nine Steps of psychological manipulation" (oh, you didn't want to acknowledge that your schmoozing was, at its base, manipulation?):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_technique

You'll see stuff about, e.g.: how to give someone two choices, both of which you'd like - they get to pick one. A rep (a human in general, actually) will tend to try to give you one of the two choices instead of saying "none of the above". An example might be:

"I'd be really happy if I could get R2R with a credit to offset it, or else maybe even unlimited incoming, credited? I have a friend who has the unlimited incoming with a credit and they say it really helps to them save money and let them get way more use out of their phone, and I'd be totally THRILLED if we could do something similar for me".

(Did you notice my use of the word "we" there - remember, you want the rep on YOUR team, helping YOU solve your dilemma - think like that, speak like that ... and the rep will act like that.)

- the rep will think about the two choices you have given them, forgetting (or avoiding) the other option "none", since by way of your phrasing the invitation (you'd be just tickled) they'd be stealing that 'thrilled happiness' from you if they gave you neither - and it's human nature not to want to 'bum out' your new-found BFF.

You might not get the WHOLE R2R or Unlimited Incoming credited (maybe only get $5 off) ... but that's not bad for this call ... (and you'll be calling in again anyway, in maybe 3 mos time, to try to save a little more, or get a little more).

Great plans are not born - they are raised, nurtured, developed ... over time.

One last tip: when you're all done thank the rep - tell them how much you appreciate their help. You want them to make good notes on your account after all. And you'd also like their happy-brain-chemies to be firing away too, just like yours are. They're human, help them feel really good about what they're done for you (a "do unto others", sort of thing) ... and hopefully the cx who calls in next will get a happy rep, ready to help them out. Pay it forward.

Hang up, and THEN do the BOOYA, fist-pump into the air : )

Additional stuff by Mr.Perfect:

I use a three prong trick when dealing with the reps..
1. If you are looking for extra minutes or anything in your voice section,, i will simply complain about having so "few" minutes and how you are always worrying about overcharges and how your buddies all on rogers have bonus minutes or some extra voice goodies...

2. If it is money/credits you are going after than i would use the cancellation trick and say im paying too much this and that and have them try to apply a credit to offset my concerns..

3. If it is for some addon/goodie that you really like then I would call and enquire about it, how much it costs, and sometimes simply ask straight way for a freebie.. if this doesnt work I usually ask to try out the addon.. they should have no problem giving you one to try out or one month.. after adding this i would call back after a few days and argue and argue that this goodie was added on permanently and not just on a trial basis.. i would be persistent to have it as originally "promised" untill a rep finally caves in and gives it "forever". sometimes you need to try with multiple reps for the right rep to do this..

[mrperfect]

Price range Guide for $17.50 Voice Plan by Kirbyprime: [ rgr06 ]

Note: This is a general price guide and is not intended to indicate what you will get with Rogers. Individual plans WILL vary. YMMV. All price ranges are pre-tax.

This guide illustrates what the estimated price range you'll be looking at with the $17.50 voice plan. If you have another voice plan, the prices will vary.

[ Data ]: You can only have 1 Data option

~ $50 *
- 6gb Data [ Promotion Price, ending Sept. 30st ] [ Data ]
- 1gb Data [ Data ]
- Network 2 Network
- iPhone Value Pack [ CID | VVM | Unlimited Texting/MMS ]
- My5 Canada-wide

< $40 *
- 500mb Data [ Data ]
- Unlimited Incoming
- Rogers 2 Rogers
- 1000 Long Distance Minutes
- My5 Local
- My5 Local w/ Text

< $30
- Retention Data Flex Plan ** [ Data ]
- 150mb Data [ Data ]
- Retention Value Pack [ CID | VM | 2500 Texts ]
- 100 Bonus Minutes
- 50 Bonus Minutes
- 100 Long Distance Minutes

< $20
- 200 Anytime Minutes [ 6pm Early Evening / Weekends included ]

* At this price point, availability of each feature harder to get. YMMV depending on tenure, your representive, and negotiation skills. Most likely you will only get 1-3 out of the listed features.

** Price range determined by how much you actually use data. $10 <100Mb; $15 100-150Mb; $20 150-500 Mb; $25 500-1Gb; $25 plus $0.05/Mb for anything over 1Gb to a max of $500/month

Example Plans

- Retention Voice Plan [ 200 Minutes | Unlimited 6pm Evening/Weekends ] 17.50
- 100 Bonus Minutes Credited
- Rogers 2 Rogers local Credited
- Value Pack $10
- Monthly Fee Discount -$10
- 150mb Data Plan $15 - 10 Data Credit
- GRRF $2.58

Total: $25.08 + tax

- Retention Voice Plan [ 200 Minutes | Unlimited 6pm Evening/Weekends ] 17.50
- 100 Bonus Minutes Credited
- 100 Long Distance Minutes Credited
- Rogers 2 Rogers local Credited
- Value Pack $10
- Monthly Fee Discount -$10
- 500mb Data plan $25 - $10 Data credit
- GRRF $2.58

Total: $35.08 + tax

- Retention Voice Plan [ 200 Minutes | Unlimited 6pm Evening/Weekends ] 17.50
- 100 Bonus Minutes Credited
- 1000 Long Distance Minutes $10 - $5 credit
- My5 local Credited
- Rogers 2 Rogers local Credited
- Unlimited Incoming Credited
- Value Pack $10
- Monthly Fee Discount -$10
- 6gb Data plan $30 - $10 Data credit
- GRRF $2.58

Total: $45.08 + tax

Additional Information

There are a few soft rules in place with retention plans and how Retention Reps can give you credits and discounts. Monthly Fee Discounts (MFD) typically can not be over the price of the voice plan, which in this case is $17.50. $10 MFD are commonplace with $15 being far less common but still still doable. Most plans seen in this thread with MFD over their voice plans are because of downgrading from previous voice plans. For example, downgrading a $30 voice plan with $20 in MFD to a $17.50 voice plan.

Data discounts generally do not go above $10. Reps are more inclined to give the $10 data credit with higher valued plans such as the 1gb and 6gb data plans. You are however free to downgrade your data plan at anytime ( with a reset to the contract I believe ) and maintain your credit. A few of the plans on this board include data plans such as the $15 150mb Data plan with a $10 data credit that can be achieved with the aforementioned method.

MFD are generally far more useful than feature credits and can be used to create extremely competitive plans as long as you can live without certain features. A plan could be something such as:

- Retention Voice Plan [ 200 Minutes | Unlimited 6pm Evening/Weekends ] 17.50
- 100 Bonus Minutes Credited
- Monthly Fee Discount -$10
- GRRF $2.58

Total: $10.08 + tax

by obtaining the retention VP with a $10 MFD, then removing the VP. Doing so will keep the MFD as it is not a feature credit and drop your monthly bill by $10.

[mrperfect]

Retention Features & Addons [ rgr07 ]

It is probably best not to sound too informed about these plans, options and credits.

Voice Plans

Standard Retention Plan [ 200min | 6pm EE / WE ] - $17.50 [ NO CREDITS ALLOWED - JAN 15 ]

Max Air - 250 Mins| 8 E/W| Call display - $25
Unlimited Minutes - $70.00
500 minutes – $20.00
Unlimited Local Calling - $35.00 [ Promotion - Unknown End Date ]
Unlimited North American Call | Text - $50.00 [ Promotion - Unknown End Date ]

Data Plans - Average Discount : $5-$10

500mb - $25
Double Data Addon - $5
6gb - $30 [ Promotion - EXPIRED]

Features

Retention Value Pack [ EVM | 2500 Outgoing SMS (No MMS) | Unlimited Incoming SMS | CID | Name Display ] - $10
100 Long Distance Minutes - $5 [ Feature Credit ]
1000 Long Distance Minutes - $10 [ $5 Feature Credit ]
My5 Local - $5
My5 Local and Text - $10
Unlimited Incoming - $10 [ Feature Credit ]
Rogers to Rogers Local - $5 [ Feature Credit ]
100 bonus minutes – $7 [ Feature Credit ]
250 bonus minutes - $10 [ Feature Credit ]
Network to Network Local - $10 [ Feature Credit ]
Retentions Unlimited Network Calling with Long Distance - $5
WhoCalled - $3
6pm Early Evenings / Weekends - $7 [ Feature Credit ]
5pm Early Evenings / Weekends - $9
2500 SMS - $6
Unlimited National SMS - $10
Unlimited Canada/US SMS - $15
Unlimited Email and Messaging - $15
Caller ID Display - $8 [ Feature Credit ]
More retail options are listed here: http://www.rogers.com/web/content/add-ons

General Features Questions

What's the difference between R2R, Unlimited Network Calling (UNC) and Unlimited Network Calling + LD?

Rogers to Rogers (local) includes : Local Rogers cellphones
UNC (local) includes: Local Rogers & Fido cellphones, Local Rogers home phone.
UNC + LD includes: LD Rogers & Fido cellphones, LD Rogers home phone.

How do 100 LD or 1000 LD options work?

LD during the day will eat up your daytime minutes. The LD option just covers the LD part of the cost. Therefore, you must have enough daytime minutes to cover both your local and LD calls (except for calls to My5 National or My10 National numbers).

General observations/guidelines for credits:
- All the plans and options available through retentions are great value on their own, even without credits! When you can present a strong offer from a competitor, Rogers will add credits to your plan in order to keep it competitive.
- the stronger a competitor's offer, which you can present and use for leverage, the more credits a CSR may extend in order to create a competitive plan
- the larger the plan ($) and more add-ons you have the more credits you might qualify for
- credits are easier to get when agreeing to a contract (freedom has a price)
- when not agreeing to a contract, credits are for a shorter term (often 6 or 12 months), after which you will have to call back and renegotiate for them
- If you have two $10 add-ons (excluding data, which have their own credits) it seems pretty common to get a generic $10 credit to cover one of them
- $10 is good/$15 is very good/$20+ is pretty exceptional (and rare) as far as credits on the smaller base plans with add-ons; more have been reported on the $80 plan with add-ons. (rumored max is $32 on plans >$90)
- the rule of credits not to exceed the price of your voice/base plan has become more lax, but should still be considered a guideline. A high ratio or large amount of credits may come under scrutiny of auditors, and may be adjusted
- occasionally a CSR will give a one time credit to cover the cost (or portion) of an option for the term of your agreement, if they cannot offer more monthly credits.
- Generic credits are not tied to any one option. If you are considering removing a option, ask the CSR if you will be able to keep ALL of your credits. Removing an option may reduce the amount of credits you qualify for.
- At times credits may be more easily obtained, while at others they may be more difficult to obtain; plus some agents might be more willing to offer them than others. Read the last dozen, or more, pages of this forum to see what others have been able to negotiate recently.

Fido Offerings
For other possible retention offerings. See the following thread that lists Fido Retention deals. http://forums.redflagdeals.com/fido-.../#post10978753

Contributors: Thirstyears, cashinstinct, noisewater, stormyoutside, d_w31

[mrperfect]

Should You Take The Offer? by NoiseWater [ rgr08 ]

This is in response to the many questions of "is this offer good?", "should I ask for more?", "this plan is nowhere near as good as some of the ones I've seen..."

Here's some basic guidelines for determining if your plan/offer is good:

a) Does it make you happy?

This is the most important. Are you happy with your plan/offer? Because at the end of the day, if you aren't happy with it, it's probably not a good plan/offer. It doesn't matter if it's not as good as someone else's plan, if you're happy with it, then you did great!

Now in saying this, be realistic. Don't set yourself a goal that is stupidly unattainable. Doing so just sets you up for disappointment. You won't get a sick plan like mine* or anyone else's here in one call. And you sure as hell will not get a plan like mrperfect's in one call. So don't use them as benchmark's for your happiness. Your initial offers will very, very rarely come close (but if they do, AWESOME).

b) Does your offer/plan meet your needs and is it close to your price point?

A lot of people here are looking at fantastic offers and thinking that they're crap because they don't have every feature under the sun. You need to get serious with yourself and ask, "what do I actually need at the end of the day?" Yes it's a lot of fun to get a ton of features credited, but just because your offer/plan doesn't have my5, unlimited incoming, 1000 long distance, 600 minutes, rogers2rogers, per second billing, and the iphone value pack, that doesn't mean it's bad.

When I started, my goal was to get 300 minutes, evenings and weekends @ 6, 1000 Long distance minutes, unlimited incoming, value pack and 6 GB of data. My price point was anything below $45. This is what I needed, so if I could get it, I would be fired up. I got an initial offer for 200 min | EW @ 6 | 1000 LD | VP | 6 GB for $60.08 + tax. Did I take it? No. I would not be happy with that. So I tried again. After another call, I took it for $40.08 + tax.

Now you will notice that my offer was missing the unlimited incoming at that point. But I didn't get my panties twisted up my ***** because of it. My goal was to pay under $45. Did I manage? Yes. Did I get every other feature I was aiming for? Yes. So in my mind that was a great offer. It was damn close to my original goal, and I knew that I could get the unlimited incoming in a future call.

*Yes, this is purely opinion based. I'm stoked with my plan. Is there better ones? Absolutely, but following the theme here, I am happy with it because it meets needs.

c) Will you be happy if you are stuck with it for 3 months?

This one is also important. If I still had the $40.08 deal going, I would be happy with it. Why? Because I know that after a couple of months, they will be much more willing to look at things again and start making big changes. Lucky for me, I managed to knock it down in price and get a couple features, but if I hadn't it wouldn't matter.

A lot of people here think that they are going to be able to get everything done within one phone call. Not happening. Some people are more reasonable and think they'll get it done within a week. Unlikely, but possible. The ones who have the absolutely fantastic plans work on things over the course of weeks and months. This approach is not only more realistic, it's much more effective.

I have currently hit a roadblock trying to get a certain feature credited. But does it matter? No, because if I pay for it for a few months it's not going to kill me. I will get it credited eventually, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Look, the fact that you are reading this thread means that you very likely have a plan that is better than 95% of Roger's customers. If your plan isn't perfect right now, just be grateful that you are getting a deal at all. You could be paying hundreds of dollars per month instead of $40 or $50.

d) Is it better than what you had before?

Well is it? If you are doing better than before you called retentions, your offer/plan can't be all bad. Any savings is good savings! Keep this in mind along with the other points listed. Sometimes being too greedy isn't a good thing. If Roger's throws you a good deal, take it! Don't wait, expecting some rep to be like, "Oh you know what? I saw that some dude named mrperfect has a kickass plan. Tell you what. Today is your lucky day. I'll copy that for you." It just won't happen.

e) IT'S JUST A PHONE PLAN!

Last point. IT'S JUST A PHONE PLAN! Yeah, you may not get the very best offer, but who cares? Are you able to speak and listen? That's pretty damn good in itself. Do you have a cellphone? Hey, that makes you pretty damn wealthy relative to the rest of the world. It's easy to lose sight of the great things in our lives when you see someone else getting something you aren't, but we've all got to realize that we've got it pretty good.

Look, it's fun to get deals. But if you don't get the one you want, your world will actually keep turning! This is an unbelievable concept I realize, but I promise you it's true!
At this point, I only try to improve my plan for fun. What I've got is pretty damn good by my standards, so anything extra is just a bonus. If I don't end up lowering my bill further, and if I never get the other features credited, it doesn't matter! It is just a phone plan!

I hope that clarifies and makes it easier for people to decide when to take offers. Sorry if I sounded preachy

[mrperfect]

Updated Retention Plans and Features - Sep 2011. Compiled by TheGuyz

Current LD Offers or Non -Offers:

* 1000 LD $10 cannot be added currently, replaced with 500 LD $10 but can get same $5 credit as the 1000 LD on it. Also $20 canada wide unlimited long distance $20 can get partial/full credits on it in 5/10/15/20.

*** 17.50 plan can have no voice credits been this way for long time, yet people are trying and complaining rep says can't.

***17.50 plan does come with 6pm early calling, it is screwed up in system and you may get next bill charged $7. you just need to call back. For some strange reasoning, the plan doesn't not auto check credit 6pm, the rep but scroll to a seperate section and click on to credit.

**** Max Air $20/25 plans can have voice plan credits.

* New data credits on 500 MB, 1GB and 6GB are being capped at $5, if you had credit before $5 you can get them to bump to $10 but if no credits they will only goto $5.

* Unlimited texting can be feature credit

* $10 Value pack ( cid/vm/2500 ) no longer offered

* SAF not offered anymore

* expired credits, if you have a expiry date on a credit call before expires if still valid code can get renewed if removed from adding to accounts you can't. Don't play stupid liek before and call after and say i didn't notice on bill

***** Note: grandfathered plans that do have features/credits keep existing unless you try and change plan.

***** Audits: Many are getting notices that they have received a credit they should not and form now will be charged for this... seems 1000 LD credit and SAF credit people are getting this on recent bills. This does not mean everyones line is getting audited, just means you account came into review and rep gave you too much credit that they cannot approve.

***** Notification to Audit Department: In past months this was optional if a plan was heavily credited for a rep to report line, it is now procedure. So think twice if you have killer plan if you begging and calling in too frequent you coudl cost your killer plan any/all credits.

***** To Rich.....yes they use this term, don't prevoke just say thank you and hang up unless you need to add or remove something, otherwise will end up with above happening

***** Any credits etc. given by retentions can be auditted at anytime be it random, reported or too many calls flagging account. A rep is meant to keep you, not ment to hand everyone 20-40 in credits. Rogers can revoke at anytime, anything and everything, and make it return to your original plan and pricing making you fullfill your original contract.

***** ECF's Waived - people must understand if your trying to cancel and use audit as excuss and get approved which is not easy( see above they have just approved removal of change of contract -- retentions and resume you on your original term ), any subsidized hardware must be returned. So trying to keep the new phone you got is not happening for free.


Magic Words [ rgr09 ]

Often times people ask me what is the magic word to get a certain feature it amazes me because even-though the guides and advices do work, there are always going to be certain people who will fail to read, understand or follow the instructions.
Therefore if you are one of them and things are not working out for you for the above reasons then there is another way to to obtain your desired features or credits by just quoting these Magic words below to the agent and this involves no negotiations, multiple calls, patience and persistence and voila will get your job done!
Remember this is a limited time discount codes and exclusive to RFD due to their leveraging power. It has been made available courtesy of Robbers.

Abracadabra = Value pack credit
Alla peanut butter sandwiches = Caller id credit
Hocus pocus = Data credit
Joshikazam = Monthly plan credit
Klatu barada niktu = Monthly fee discount
Open sesame = Rogers to Rogers
Presto Chango = Network calling
Sim sala bim = Unlimited incoming
Shazam = 1000 Long distance
Boom shaka laka boom = Free unlimited Data for 3 Months

Corporate Plans:
By: Da_Way

You cannot get retention plans from corporate plans. Corporate plans are pre-negotiated and you can only add features for cost. Corporate plan can be retentioned by having the plan switch by a corporate rep switch the plan to a personal/consumer plan. Then the plan can be negotiated into a retention plan that fits your needs. Some representative will give you a hard time switching to a personal plan so tell them that you no longer work for the company or threaten to leave Rogers.

Corporate plan -> Personal plan -> Retention.

[mrperfect]

FAQ [ rgr10 ]

How do you negotiate?

Be persistent, polite and always know what you want. Never despair or discourage, try again until you succeed. You will need to be creative, relentless, shameless and sometimes need to lie too. Always remember this is pure business. You are not going to marry the agent, don’t think about how you sound or what they feel, do whatever it takes to get the job done!

Use your strengths to your advantage! If you are a funny, outgoing person, let it shine through while you call! If you are morally opposed to lying, then don’t lie! You can get killer plans by being honest. On the flip side of that, if you are a fantastic actor, make up your story and play the part well! Remember, negotiation is about confidence! Be the “you” that you are most confident as.

Will I have to resign again if I negotiate a plan?

Most times you will need to resign if they offer you a excellent plan with discounts. Remember most retention plans are only offered to you because you are an existing customer, the agent has to be convinced that you are not going anywhere only then he will give you the best they got. Don’t be afraid of signing a contract, there is no life in Canada without contracts. Unless you are planning on running away there is no reason why you should hesitate for this.

Precisely. From what I’ve been able to tell, anytime you change your base phone plan (and sometimes data plan), you will need to resign for 3 years. If you are just getting discounts or features credited, you usually will NOT need to, unless they give you an absolutely insane deal.

How can I get a plan like XYZ?

You CANT. Every plan and every individual needs are different. Therefore YOU need to know first what you want without this you can never negotiate a plan.

And always keep in mind that there is tremendous variability between agents. One can be extremely helpful and make things easy, another can be a real dicklock and make it tough. It’s up to YOU to keep calling until you get the right person.

Why can’t I get a plan like XYZ?

Most superplans are heavily modified over weeks and months of hard work and CANNOT BE ACHIEVED IN ONE CALL*. You need to start with a good retention plan and trim it down according to your needs by calling back and renegotiating. It takes a while before you will have your dream plan because one agent will not be able to offer you that many discounts and modifications.

Why can’t I get the features or credits like XYZ. The agent says they won’t do it or it is impossible?

This all depends on the agent you talk to if they are willing to help you out they will otherwise try again. Each situation varies greatly and you need to keep trying on until you find the right agent. There are several agents who are genuinely willing to help, there are others who don’t want to, and then there are some who simply just don’t care.

Exactly. I’ve been told time and time again that something is impossible, but the next call it is not only possible, it happens. If you hear the words “it can’t be done,” or “I won’t do it,” mentally add the word “yet” to the end of that sentence. Because anything can be done, you ‘ve just got to find the person/tactic that will make it happen. You determine what’s possible, not the representative you speak with.

The agent said they cannot do this or that due to a policy.

Often times the agent will invent their own rules, procedures, policies and will try to enforce them. Therefore if you are not able to convince the agent simply call back again and you will have better luck next time.

Agreed. The variability can astound you. If the agent sounds like they are a rules stickler, don’t waste your time with them, and better yet, don’t listen to their “rules”.

Should I call Customer service or Customer relations.

Customer relations have better options at their disposal to modify your plan and offer you discounts that normal customer service agents will not be able to. However some people have better luck with a CSR and some with a CXR. It all depends on the individual situation.

And don’t be misled into thinking that customer relations agents are strictly in the customer relations department. Rogers has them scattered throughout. I’ve spoken to customer relations agents when I have the hardware upgrade department, the technical support department, and the billing department.

Should I upgrade to a new phone or negotiate a plan first?

It is always a good idea to negotiate a plan that is suitable for you. Once you have what you need then you can proceed to do a hardware upgrade.

I have already signed a contract, how can I negotiate now? I’m also at so and so time into my term will I able to negotiate?

You can ALWAYS negotiate. It doesn’t matter if you are into one day or the last day of your contract. It is your money that is going out of your pocket into theirs. Therefore you need to do whatever you can to maximize your savings. There is no reason to wait for set amount of time before calling.

Exactly. They want you to be happy with your plan, so they will do what it takes to get you to stay. It’s just a matter of finding the right person to do it. As an example of this, my plan started with an initial offer of $60 and tax, I accepted at $40, and then got it to $30. Mrperfect on the other hand, haha well he went from over $40 down to $17.

How often can I call?

There is no limit to this. Contrary to what people tell you nothing will happen. You are in a market and you want the best bang for your buck. This is business pure and simple. If you are not happy for something you should always call and negotiate.

They might say something like, “I see you’ve been calling often,” but it doesn’t matter. Just politely tell them that you’ve been having trouble with your bill/service/whatever. They really don’t care, they’re just observing.

Is it better to call during the morning/day/night, or during the week/weekends?

It doesn’t matter when you call. It all depends on the person you speak with. No one day is better, and no time of day is better. Call whenever you get the urge to.

Does it make a difference if I talk to male or female reps?

No. There are awesome male reps and there are awesome female reps. There are crappy male reps and there are crappy female reps. Just go with your gut on it.

When should I say what I want?

Always let them offer you what they have. Compare two to three offers and go for the best one. Always take interaction numbers for record. Even after discounts you think you are still paying more. RESTART everything and build everything all over again. Often times this works best then asking for additional credit.

Once I accept a plan, I always take a screenshot of it from MyRogers as well. With this and an interaction ID, you’ve got great negotiation power and proof in the off chance that an agent accidently screws something up.

Agent refuses to honour a Plan I saw on this forum or from my friend

This is a bad approach. Never quote them any plans from the forums or of a friend because they would not match it . Always let them offer you what they can and then simply complain about too expensive, not much minutes or a feature that you don’t have and want it.

The only way I’ve seen the “my friend/family member has” approach work is if you have said friend or family member nearby so that Rogers can access their account.

I was polite and courteous with the agent but they still left bad notes in my account.

To overlap those bad notes you need to call customer service and talk random things. Anything that is not directly related to your account. Enquire about product and services or make up anything you can to start a positive conversation. Do this 5-6 times so that all your bad notes are pushed further down into your file and replaced by good notes. This opens the window of opportunity for you to try again for your credits/addons.

I don't like my new contract, can I opt out of it?

From when your new contract kicks in, you have 15 days to cancel it. You must also have used less than 30 minutes of total talk time.

Im a new customer how can I save?

If you are a new customer then you will be unable to qualify for Retention plans at-least for 6 months. Instead of going to the dealer and getting a new plan it is strongly recommended that you take over an existing contract from someone else. You will be eligible for Retention offers and will save a lot if you choose this route.

[mrperfect]

TIPS: [ rgr11 ]

1) Always be polite, courteous, and determined... they're humans too and there to help!
2) Take baby steps as you will not accomplish everything in 1 call
3) Don't despair, there is hope as some will offer you more/less than others
4) Be realistic, adding features/discounts is great, but taking stuff off helps too
5) You are unique and so is your plan... no price matching or plan matching
6) Have a friendly conversation about your situation and ask for help...not this feature or that credit
7) Be quick on your feet and know what you offer them... customer for xx-years, always pay on time, etc...
8) Keep your reference #, it's proof of your call
9) READ the forums... the detailed FAQs and people's recent posts are priceless
10) It's just a phone plan, there are bigger things in life to worry about!

Contributors: ICE

__________________________________________________ ______________________________________


Rogers Contacts [ rgr12 ]

Regular: 1-888-764-3771 (611 free from cellphone)
Retention: Discontinued
Corporate Plans: 1-866-727-2141
Track & Trace: 1-800-704-2474
Handset Protection: 1-800-268-7347
E-Care: 1-877-343-5745
Technical Support 1-866-931-3282
Sales & Bundling: 1-877-764-3771

Local Customer Service:
Vancouver 604-433-7811
Vancouver (Chinese) 604-435-8886
Calgary 403-730-2811
Montréal 514-734-7811
Ottawa 613-688-6105
Toronto 416-935-5555

__________________________________________________ ______________________________________


Glossary [ rgr13 ]

AA – Auto Attendant – a specialized type of IVR used to direct callers to particular extensions or people; it mimics what a traditional phone-receptionist would do

ARPU – Average Revenue Per User; start here: Q1 2010 Results

BAN – Billing Account Number (?) – this refers to your Rogers account (number), which will have the charges of 1 or more phone numbers attributed to it; contrast with CTN

BB – BlackBerry

BBM – BlackBerry Messenger – a chat-type program, used exclusively on BlackBerry devices; very popular with BlackBerry users

BCB – Better Choice Bundles – the name of the discount afforded by Rogers to cx’s with multiple services: 5%/10%/15% if you have 2/3/4 services; official Rogers info: rogers.com/BetterChoice

BIS – BlackBerry Internet Service – refers to BB service that one contracts directly from Rogers; used by consumers

BES – BlackBerry Enterprise Server – BlackBerry serice that uses Rogers’ cellular network, but has the data handling done by a (usually corporate) BES server

CID – Caller ID

CF – Call Forwarding

CP – Commitment Period – defined in the ToS as “a committed period of time”; it means your Contract’s term or duration; many of the plans from Rogers, but not all, are for 3-year CP’s

CTN – Customer Telephone Number (?) – just like it sounds; contrast with BAN

CW – Call Waiting

Cx – Customer

CxR – Customer RELATIONS (reps, and dep’t) – the good reps/dep’t who can give deeper discounts & much cheaper plans; contrast with CxS

CxS – Customer SERVICE (reps, and dep’t) – the wimpy reps/dep’t who have limited plans & credits they can give out; contrast with CxR

DM – Desktop Manager – the software from RIM, for BB‘s, that lets the user backup the data on their BB onto their PC as well as install & remove applications from their BB. DM version 5 has built-in tethering support! Download DM from here: http://blackberry.com/desktop

DT – Day Time, as in daytime minutes in a voice plan

DECF – Data Early Cancellation Fee (note: for data service) – “The DECF is the greater of (i) $25 or (ii) $5 per month remaining in the Data Term, to a maximum of $100 (plus applicable taxes), and applies in addition to the ECF for termination of your service agreement.” [1]

DTMF – Dual-Tone, Multi-Frequency [tones] – more commonly known as ‘touch-tones’ (that one hears when pressing buttons on a regular telephone)

ECF – Early Cancellation Fee (note: for voice service) – “The ECF is the greater of (i) $100 or (ii) $20 per month remaining in the service agreement, to a maximum of $400 (plus applicable taxes), and applies for each line in the plan that is terminated.” [1]

EIR – Equipment Identity Register – An international list of known-bad IMEI numbers; used by carriers to block stolen handsets from usability on a carrier’s network (and many others, internationally); Rogers implemented using the EIR in March of 2009; more info: http://www.blackberrycool.com/2009/0...imei-blocking/

EPP – Employee Pricing Plan (?) – lower-than-usual priced yet “in market” plans that are offered by Rogers; usually some special, membership-qualifying conditions attached; as with Corporate plans these EPP plans are limited in the discounts/credits they can receive

EVM - Enhanced Voicemail; More storage, call return, group messaging, and the ability to record a personalized greeting compared to regular voicemail

GRRF – Government Regulatory Recovery Fee – Rogers’ new name for the ~$3/mo money-grab (more info: /GRRF); notably not a gov’t -imposed nor -mandated nor -regulated fee; in Oct 2009 this replaced the much reviled SAF

HH – HandHeld – a generic term referring to any small, handheld cellphone-sized computing device like a BlackBerry, iPhone, etc

HPG – Handset Protection Guarantee – Rogers has a no-extra-charge, discounted repair & replacement program effective May 24, 2010 for some phones (most all high-end/smartphones) (more info: /protection)

HUP – Hardware Upgrade Program – when a cx has been with Rogers for a period of time (typically 1-2 years) and the cx elects to receive a discounted or free phone from Rogers; always causes the CP of the cx to reset, typically then ending 3 years from the date of the HUP

IMEI – International Mobile Equipment Identity – a type of unique serial number representing a physical, cellular phone

IVR – Interactive Voice Response (computer) – a computer system that accepts phone calls, and using a menu system gives info to callers and/or transfer calls

LCA – Local Calling Area – (the area you can: outbound call to, or be located while inbound receiving, without incurring LD surcharges) (more info: /LCA)

LD – Long Distance – (more info: /longdistance)

LNP – Local Number Portability – the ability to port your phone number to a different carrier (more info: /porting)

M2M – Month To Month – describes a Rogers customer who is presently not under a CP; sometimes written as MTM

MSF – Monthly Service Fee – the monthly fee you pay for your base plan (i.e. not including add-ons, GRRF, taxes, etc)

OOW – Out Of Warranty (Protection Plan) – Another name for the HPP


OTA – Over The Air – refers, usually, to data that goes to a cellphone via the airwaves; contrast with data that goes to the cellphone over a USB cable

PIN – Personal Identification Number – usually used in the context of BlackBerry devices since each BlackBerry has a unique PIN and this PIN can be used to address messages from (only!) a BlackBerry device to another BlackBerry device via PIN-to-PIN messages, as well as BBM messages

PPU – Pay Per Use – the rates one would pay if they they use a service but don’t have a plan for that service (usually very rapacious rates BTW)

SP – Smart Phone – iPhone, BlackBerry and other high-functioning phones (they can browse the web, play video, etc)

RA – Revenue Assurance – a department with Rogers that removes any credits that Rogers feels aren’t supposed to be on a cx’s account; for more info see this Hofo post by iridescence

RNA – Ring No Answer

SAF – System Access Fee – Rogers’ old name for the $6.95/mo money-grab (more info: /SAF); replaced in Oct 2009 with GRRF

SOC – Service Order Code (?) – These are the unique identifiers used internally by Rogers for each base plan, feature, add-on, credit, etc. EXTRA: Reps will be puzzled if you ask which all are the ones on your account but will generally divulge them. Not necessary for a cx to know these by any means, but like most molecules of information: it’s better to be looking at them, than for them.

TaC – Terms and Conditions

TOR – Transfer of Responsibility – when an existing Rogers cx transfers their Rogers account to be ‘owned’ by someone else (more info: /TOR)

ToS – Terms of Service – see below for more detail

UMA – Unlicensed Mobile Access – when your cellphone is connecting to Rogers over (for e.g.) WiFi, instead of via Rogers’ GSM or 3G towers

UMB – Umlimited Mobile Browsing – an add-on package ($10/mo, or part of ValuePacks) that Rogers offers, that gives the cx ” unlimited social networking, mobile browsing and application use for the month” … NOT including tethering. See this Hofo page for more info)

VM – Voice Mail

VP – Value Pack – refers to a group of add-on features that are billed as one lump sum, e.g. VM + CID (incl name display) + 2,500 SMS, for $10, from the RET department

Contributors: RogersWatch, Kirbyprime, cashinstinct

[mrperfect]

New Customers & Existing Contract Take-overs by: Phantom [ rgr14 ]


1. What is a transfer of responsibility (TOR)?

Simply put, it is transferring a contract from one person to another.

2. Why would I want to take over someone's contract?

The benefits of taking over someone's contract usually fits into 3 categories:

a) The contract offers many services at a highly discounted rate (e.g. a retentions contract). If the monthly rate is exceptionally low, you may be asked to "purchase" this contract from the seller (i.e. pay the seller money to take it over).

b) The duration of time remaining on the contract might be less than 3 years so at least you're not locked in for as long as you would be compared to setting up a fresh new plan.

c) The monthly rate might be pretty lousy for the provided services but often in this case the person wishing to transfer a contract might include a free phone or cash for you to take it over. From there, you can negotiate the plan to your heart's content.

3. Why would someone want to transfer their contract to someone else?

Numerous possibilities. Often people may have to move away or are no longer able to afford their plan. The bottom line is that if they can find someone to transfer the contract to, then at least they don't have to pay Rogers early cancellation fees for canceling the contract.

4. Why would Rogers allow a TOR?

From Rogers' point of view, the person wishing to dump their contract is going to be a customer they're going to lose anyway. If this person is able to find someone to transfer the contract to, in essence they've done all the work of recruiting a new Rogers customer so they are happy to allow the TOR to take place.

5. How do I find a contract to take over?

Try your local classifieds (e.g. Craigslist, Kijiji), the BST Cell Phone forum here in RFD, or Howard Forums. There are also websites (of which I can't recall their names now; I never did find them useful for the kind of plan I was looking for) that specialize in linking people wishing to transfer their contracts with people wishing to take them over.

6. Could taking over a contract just be a scam for someone to dump their unpaid bills on me?

No. A TOR can't take place until all the debts on the account have been paid off.

7. How do I decide if a contract is one I want to take over?

Ask the person for details. You want to know specifics -- what features, what price, what's credited, is there SAF or GRRF with the plan, is tax included, or not in their quoted monthly price. How long is the contract? Are there features that can be dropped if you like (e.g. if you want to cut the cost down)?

You definitely want to make sure that any discounts can be transferred. As examples, sometimes taking over a corporate or student plan can't be done. Some contracts are restricted to certain provinces.

You'll also want to know if you can transfer your own phone number to the account.

8. Does the existing contract have to be in the same city/province for me to be able to take it over?

Generally no, unless the plan happens to be unique to a province (e.g. Saskatchewan). If the person transferring the contract is including a phone or cash, however, generally it makes sense to do the TOR in person. Likewise if the person transferring the contract wants to be paid for it. Although of course this is always up to the individual.

If you take over someone else's contract without meeting in person, be aware that you'll have to obtain a SIM card (through whatever means you'd like) for this transfer to take place.

9. So I've agreed to take over someone else's contract -- what's next?

The person transferring the contract needs to square their debts with Rogers, and then let Rogers know that they will be transferring the contract to yourself. Once they've done that, you call up Rogers and say you will be taking over Mr. X's contract (and that their phone # is xxx-xxxx). Rogers will do a credit check on you. This is a good time to ask the rep for plan details and make sure you heard the straight goods from the person transferring the contract. Obviously, Rogers will want to know things like your billing information.

If you're doing the TOR in person, you could also meet at a Rogers store and do the TOR there.

10. Is the contract I'm taking over eligible for a HUP?

Ask the person transferring the contract about this first. Generally, if it's 1 year into the contract, the plan is eligible for a new dumbphone. If it's 2 years into the contract, it's eligible for a new smartphone.

11. Can I negotiate retention benefits once I've taken over a plan?

You can always try and negotiate your plan. However, I myself can't say if the tenure of the person's contract you just took over has any bearing on your negotiating position. If someone can fill me in on this point, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Slingshot377]

Beginners guide by: Firestorm: [ rgr15 ]

It's meant to be for beginners who just want to get a plan with voice and data for ~$50 since they're probably paying $40 for voice only right now or $80+ for voice and data. It's a way to get a realistic plan in one phone call without elaborate webs of lies.

---

You should not be paying whatever Rogers has on their website for a plan with them. Have you been with them for about six months? Good. If not, you can try but they're probably not going to give you that much.

Step 1: Call in to Cancel. (Call *611 -> Account Changes -> Cancel Service)
It does not matter if you have like 2.5 years left on your contract. Rogers would rather give you discounts to keep you than have you pay $400 and move to Wind or another company. Most likely Wind.

If you were Rogers, which of these options would you take:

1. Customer pays $400, leaves forever to go with Telus, Bell, or Wind
2. Customer pays you $50 a month instead of $80 a month for the rest of their life

Contracts are not a problem in the grand scheme of things.

Step 2: Tell them why you're cancelling
Best reason to cancel? Wind is offering an awesome student plan until October 30th and you want to get in on that.

The student plan you're comparing is:
$25

• Unlimited Calling Across Canada
• Unlimited Texting
• Caller ID
• VoiceMail

$25

• Unlimited Data

http://www2.windmobile.ca/en/Pages/students.aspx

Technically, the data is for laptops only but just listing this makes things easier. Rogers will not match this outright. Unfortunately, unless you want to put up with Wind's network, phone selection, and the fact that this offer would expire after 12 months, you'll need to compromise with Rogers.

Step 3: Explain your needs
"I don't need unlimited calling, but they're offering much more than I have now for less. To be honest, I would be fine with around 200 minutes a day, unlimited incoming, and some long distance minutes if I could make my bill cheaper. Data is important to me as well as I'm getting a smartphone, but $30 is quite expensive"

When I call for someone, I try to aim around the ballpark of their commonly offered plans:

$10 Value Pack

• Caller ID
• VoiceMail
• 2500 Sent Text Messages

$17.50 Voice Plan

• 200 Weekday Minutes
• Unlimited Evenings and Weekends starting from 6PM

Easily gained add-ons on this plan:

• Unlimited Network Calling: $10 w/$10 credit = $0
• 100 Canadian Long Distance Minutes: $5 w/$5 credit = $0
• Unlimited Incoming Calls: $10 w/$10 credit = $0
• Unlimited Network Calling + LD (Canada-wide): $5 (no credit available)
• 1000 Canadian Long Distance Minutes : $10 (no credit available)

Usually they'll give you 100 LD + network calling or incoming if you mention it somewhere that they're important to you.

$35 Unlimited Local Calling Plan

• Unlimited Local Incoming / Outgoing

Yeah, they only started offering this recently. Also only available from retentions like the above two. Hard to get discounts on top, but considering people were paying $1000 on Craigslist for the $50 City Fido plan (unlimited local calling, but only within your home city), this is pretty effing good.

$50 Unlimited North American Plan

• Unlimited Outgoing calls to Canada and the United States (roaming applies if calling from the US)
• Unlimited Incoming while in Canada (roaming applies in US here too obviously)
• Unlimited Texting to Canada and the US

Yeah. This is also a plan you're not gonna get much discounts on top of. You also can't combine it with the $10 value pack because it already includes unlimited texting so you'll want to explain that Caller ID and VoiceMail are free with Wind in their student plan so they can credit it.

Tips
You should be aware of these plans, but not tell them outright that you know about them and want them. Play kind of dumb. Use keywords like "I don't really need unlimited" if you're going for the cheap $17.50 plan or "Unlimited calling is important, but I only call locally" for the $35 plan or "I really want unlimited calling to call back home" for the $50. Just hint at them.

Be polite. If you've worked customer service, you know that *****s get treated like *****s by staff =)

Don't be afraid to say, thanks you'll think about it if it's not to your liking. Asking "If I want to keep my number, am I in the right spot?" is a good way to close the call because you're supposed to talk to Wind so you can just say "oh sorry, I guess I'll talk to them then. Thank you!"

You probably won't get everything for super cheap, but for around $50+tax you should be able to get the following after one phone call:

• 200 Weekday Minutes
• Unlimited Evening Weekends starting from 6PM
• 100 Long Distance Minutes
• Unlimited Local Network Calling or Unlimited Incoming
• 6GB of Data

Probably cheaper than you're paying right now or a lot more than you get. I remember my first cell phone plan costing me $37 a month for 100 weekday minutes, 1000 evening and weekends, and unlimited incoming. No caller id, texts, voicemail, or data.

[next_godfather]

I have tinkered up my guide a bit, and tried to incorporate everything I learned in a couple of paragraphs. I want to remind readers that you CANNOT get that “super-plan” in just one phone call, you have to ‘chisel’ your plan one phone call at a time. The reasons people get these great plans are due to reasons such as having multiple services with Rogers, any erroneous happening from Rogers end (eg. Bill Mistakes), or the customer is just plain outright aggressive (Where most of us fall under).

There are three variables (ART of negotiation, its a book), which influence the outcome of the negotiation or ‘the hustle’ as I call it. These variables are
1) TIME (ie. Able to call in, or having the time to spare)
2) POWER (ie. Having multiple services, contract ending soon, bill mistakes, or any Rogers Errors)
3) INFORMATION (Any knowledge you possess be it about the Canadian Legal system, the Rogers systems, insider info about changes, or even the ability to ‘create information’ (fondly referred to as “b.sing”)

If you have all the time in the world to call yet, you have no power or information at hand, there is no way you are getting that great deal. The same is you have power, yet no information. I know that sometimes power comes from having information, but in case of retentions I am choosing to differentiate amongst the two.
If you can make the other person believe that that what you said to them is true, you have done 50% of the work, then you have to use power and time to your advantage. You have to dedicate the time to make those multiple phone calls, making those escalations to managers. Trust me, “May I speak to the Manager button” can get you a lot of things. You have the RIGHT to speak to a manager, USE IT. Don’t be told otherwise.

A few pointers(my 2 cents):-
-Have a bottle of water when you call
-Take a sheet, blank page(you do not want your attention to be diverted) and make notes(call this information). Take notes on all the information you possess that can be used in your favour, or make stuff up that they will believe (Caution: you might burn in hell, I don’t advise you telling them that your Grandma died for a retention plan. It’s not worth it)
-Use head phones, if you require and call away. I suggest speaker-phone, or headphone, as you can more freely take notes and move around, and think of things to say on the go as your blood flow is actually circulating more freely. (Anything helps)
-Calm yourself down, if you are thinking about something else or choose to call at a later time. If you are not thinking right, you will say the wrong thing.
-Treat this like a game of poker, you DO NOT WANT the other party to know what is in your hand immediately.

THE CALL
-In the blank sheet you should have by now all the notes, this includes your current plan, your desired plan, your “information”, questions that may arise in the conversation, and rebuttals that you have to use. I truly advice that you treat the note taking part very SERIOUSLY, so you are not called a bluff. Outline in the sheet the power you have, POWER is anything that will make them bow down to you. These are things such as
1)contract ending soon
2)paying bills on time
3)past rogers mistakes
4)changes to the contract (eg. LCA Change is VERY BIG, read up on it, if you want to get free long distance)
5)Having Multiple Accounts helps, as you can call in to “Consolidated Customer Relations” and tell them to cancel everything and go to competition.
6)Be sure to always bring up any current bill mistakes you got recently and try to speak in a smart tone eg. “its a shame on Rogers part that they say they are the most reliable provider, yet their billing system is so unreliable”.
7)Your profession (they know better not to mess with a lawyer)

1) Call 611, and express your desire to call. If you call the direct number they will know that you possess some insider info, it’s always better to be introduce by a regular rep. Like a game of cards, DO NOT let them prepare anything against you.
2) Simply act dumb, “I want to know how much is it cancel?”
They Will say “Amount X”
You: “I think that’s too much, but thats okay”
They: “may I know why you wish to cancel”

This is where you LITTLE BY LITTLE, hit them with all your AMMO (information/power/time). Take your TIME, the longer the call elongates, the worse it looks on them. They have to maintain a quota, if their manager sees them talking on the phone way too long, that means more customers are waiting, you are taking up THEIR TIME. Their time is working against them, so they will more likely give you what you want. You guys may not know it, but a Bell insider told me that it costs the company nearly 10-12 bucks for every call, even if the actual price is half that amount and you taking a hell of a lot of the rep’s time, they will want to get away from you.
BE AGGRESSIVE, if you must, but BE POLITE ABOUT IT. Remember that they are people too, they have a job to keep, a family to feed, Just because they work for Rogers does not mean they are any less of a person that you or I maybe, so GIVE THEM RESPECT.
Ask them things like “how is your day”, and actually MEAN IT, if you are going to faintly ask them “how is your day” trust me, they get thousands of calls, they know a faker.


-WHAT DOES THE REP WANT ULTIMATELY?
He or she wants to end the call as soon as possible to deal with other calls, go on a bathroom break (if its near break time, usually 12pm), have a quota to maintain. Calling in the end of the month might help as it will work against their quota. If you use the “I want to speak to a manager” button, THEY HATE THAT (as the manager will be pissed off at them and call them incompetent), and once you say that, the rep will be like “hold please” and will just come back and give you what you want. During the hold, they want you to believe they spoke to a manager. At the end of the day, the rep has a personal interest not to cancel you as, they do not want to fill out paper work for you cancelling.

-Best time to call
1) are end of the month
2) Fridays are great
3) break times are good as well.

IN SUMMARY, use TIME, POWER, INFORMATION to work in your favour, and make TIME, POWER, INFORMATION work against them. Be POLITE, AND WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN.

Don't be afraid to call in as many times or escalate when necessary. And Remember ITS ONLY A ROGERS RETENTION PLAN, "ITS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD"

[mrperfect]

Painful Lessons Learned:

Noisewater: There is nothing more for advice that we can offer that isn't listed already on the first page. I can't answer any more PM's about getting feature credits or data discounts, etc. If you are unable to lower your price/get a credit, quit getting so worried about it. Give it a few weeks. Give it a month. It's just a phone plan, not the contract for your soul. The more desperate you get, the more desperate you are going to sound when you call. You are speaking with representatives who make their living talking with people on the phone. Trust me, they can smell desperation and they can tell when you are credit fishing.

Read, and reread the first page, over and over again until it becomes second nature to you. But don't look to it as a surefire way to get what you want. That's the problem people seem to be having, they are expecting there to be a 3 step solution for every credit, and there isn't one. That's why I wrote the disclaimer at the top of the first page and mrperfect made fun of it with the magic words for credits: use the advice as GUIDELINES, not as the magic formula for getting your plan.

Think of building a phone plan as building a puzzle where you don't know what the final product will look like. No matter what questions you ask, the fact remains that you need to keep trying to put the pieces together in many different ways before you ever complete the picture. Everyone's puzzle is different, so what works for one is not going to work for another. That's why there are several tutorials listed on the first page. Sometimes you need to step away from your puzzle for a few days to clear your head and let your brain sort things out, and other times you'll make a ton of progress in no time at all. Point being, don't get upset if you aren't making progress immediately.

Listen, you will see people who have better plans than you, and you will also see people with worse plans than you. But another person's results have absolutely no relevance to yours, so quit comparing and thinking you should be getting what they have. If you get a good offer, take it and work on it from there. Mrperfect has stated several times that he started with a plan over $60 per month and created a masterpiece $10 plan from it. My initial offer was $60, I accepted at $40, and I've recently taken it down to $27.50 while adding features to it (it may also be $22.50 or $25 - we'll see how next bill works out). When we started, there were TONS of plans that were far better than ours. But we did exactly what has been posted time and time again, and we kept calling, varied our approaches, and didn't get discouraged or upset. Mrperfect literally perfected this and that is why his plan is so excellent.

To finish this off, keep these three points in mind:

1) Rogers doesn't owe you, and if you are getting any sort of retention plan you are doing better than 90% of their customers. Be grateful.
2) Retentions is meant to retain customers. They don't just give away discounts because you want them, so get a little more creative.
3) Thomas Edison failed 1000 times before he finally made the light bulb. I've failed at least 75 calls in order to get the plan I have. Mrperfect failed on over 300 calls to get his plan. Each failure was a learning experience, and the lessons that came from them resulted in a success later on. Keep trying, quit whining, and you will get what you're after.

Patience and why it is important:

One of the many definitions of patience is "an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay*." It is the opposite of hastiness, and requires one to have the discipline to control their thoughts and actions.

It is important to be patient for several reasons, the main one being to avoid the consequences associated with trying to force or rush something. In most cases, the display of impatience results in negative outcomes that the impatient individual likely did not foresee or expect.

Real Life Case Study:

Over the period of several days ranging from late September 2010 to early October 2010, arcticmonkeys3 went from having a plan with >$40 in discounts to having a plan with barely any discounts and an offer for a plan far worse than he used to have. At the same time, he managed to hit the Rogers management beehive with so many rocks that the whole colony is now angrily swarming about trying to sting him wherever possible. Several times he was warned to avoid badgering Rogers, but unfortunately he did not display the virtue of patience, and instead continued to call them. The end result has yet to be seen, but one can certainly draw the conclusion that patience on his end would have avoided this unfortunate incident.

So what can we all learn from this? Patience should be exercised while trying to create a dream plan. This has been stated often by the many users with great plans. Don't expect everything in one call, don't expect everything in one week, don't expect everything in one month even. Take your time, keep your goal in mind, and for the love of God don't try to force things.


Da_Way: Don't pull an articmonkey (verb): To not infuriate and continue to pursue credits and continue to escalate it to higher management when goal is not achieved.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UncleRico: Rogers doesn't owe us anything. And they certainly aren't 'handing out' things to people for nothing. Saying 'I should get this and this and this, cause everyone else is' is just whining for the sake of whining and is not gonna get you anywhere.

The people with the best plans convince Rogers of what they want and give them reasons to provide credits to stay a Rogers customer.
The people with the best plans certainly aren't 'handed' them, they deal with the reps and 'earn' them through careful negotiation.
The people with the best plans know the lower the plan, the harder it gets, and understand the work that goes into crafting that 'right' plan.

Everyone who just looks at this thread, sees the plans and gets all googly eyed and upset that they're paying more, I get it. You are getting less, paying more, and since this is truly RFD, why the hell can't you PM it?

You have to understand, you may have to dig in, burn up the phonelines, jump through some hoops, think on your feet, become a 'people' person and things will fall into place. If you post your plan and ask for specific advice, I guarantee you, you're not a unique and special snowflake. The OP is retardedly descriptive and will account for 99% of cases (The other 1% being that guy who had a call from a manager getting his credits ripped away, I hope you call back and give them hell).

I've seen some people who come out of the woodwork and post the amazing plan they received, which is brilliant, because they didn't just get upset and rant about it here after 'missing' a few times. They went back to the drawing board and chipped away until they got what they needed, and felt they could thank the helpful ppl here.

I don't know why I'm ranting, but I've slowly given up on telling people IRL about my plan because invariably the next question is 'CAN YOU GET ME THAT?'.

[mrperfect]

PLAN OF ATTACK

Best order of attack as Mr. Perfect suggested read pag 1 of thread, 2nd order, read page 1 again. Understand on 2nd reading what you want to accomplish, read 3rd time, know your goals and what you can and can't like without ( minutes, ld, data, features ) 4th order get nerves up and call in. step 5 post your results. step 6 cool off and wait a bit if you want a bit more and call back.

Also, read last 10 -15 pages and see what current offerings are like compared to what you want. You may not get same or you may get better.

A. PAPER 1 - UR NEED:
let's make it simple, by answering those questions to urself:
(1) how many minutes u need for daytime use?
(2) which of following time do u start to calling ppl at night -- 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, or 9pm?
(3) do u call ppl often or do u get called by ppl often? (incoming vs outgoing)
(4) do u call long distance a lot or occassionaly?
(5) do u call internationally a lot or occassionaly?
(7) which of following matches ur text message habit -- 500/month, 2500/month, or even more?
(8) which of following do u use data per month -- 50mb, 150mb, 500mb, 1g, or even more?
(9) do u want to know who is calling u if the number is not on ur contact list? if u do, a number is good enough for you to know, or u want to know the owner of the number?
(10) r u making calls most often to the same 5 people, or say, 10 people? r those calls local or long distance? (thanks to Mendesb)
(11) r u making calls most often to rogers cell numbers, or to both rogers & fido's cell numbers and landline numbers? r those calls local or long distance? (thanks to Mendesb)
(12) is ur life style going to be changed in near future? which means, do u want to have flexibility to modify the plan to ur need (a VOICE + DATA plan), or it is ok to have less room to make modification (a COMBO plan which usually is already discounted but also limited to modifications)?

...... write down ur answers on the paper. it is ok u r not sure about some questions.

B. PAPER 2 - UR OPTIONS: then browse Rogers website and go over all their add-on products. so u will know ur options. write down on another paper. b aware of that one combination of features can do the same job as another combination of features. according to ur PAPER 1, u may develop different combinations of features to match ur needs.

C. PAPER 3 - BUDGET: last thing, go over this thread, especially the first page, and draw down a budget out base on info from 2 papers and posted plans here.

D. call them, tell them ur PAPER 1 & 3, c what they can do. silently check what they offer u on PAPER 2 to c if some features important to u is missing.

hopefully, it will do u good.

Good Luck!!!

==================================Thread Etiquette & Few Insights==============================


This thread is community driven where members help each other with Rogers Wireless Retention discussions. All contributors are not affiliated with Rogers or with Redflagdeals and are unpaid volunteers doing this only for the sake of helping others. Therefore I see some of you who are awaiting to be helped with you queries and others who are pondering about being ignored. Please let me offer you some suggestions and insight while someone gets back to you.

1. Supply and demand: The popularity of this thread is immense (did you know that this thread is one of the largest and most popular thread on RFD) with more people looking out for help on a daily basis and there are only a handful of people helping back - often time they try their best to keep up but at times things do get overwhelming where the queries exceeds the responses.
2. Getting involved: Everyone is encouraged to help out each other and there is no such thing as being an expert. What you may know of might be beneficial to somebody else regardless of your level of expertise any help will be appreciated.
3. Patience: This is integral either dealing with Rogers or looking for help here. Often times your query may look like going unnoticed however more than likely somebody will respond to it as long as you have the virtue of patience.
4. Repeat questions: Seriously this is THE worst turnoff where the human factor kicks in and people are less motivated to help out due to repetition as you can appreciate it can be exhausting. 99% everything you are going to ask, wondering, have enquired has been answered somewhere in the previous pages. Therefore please help yourself first before somebody can help you and try to browse earlier pages as it will offer positive rewards.
5. Appreciations & Recognition: Seriously when was the last time you have THANKED someone who helped you? I see day in and day out people ask things and does not thank. You do realize that they don't have to do what they are doing, and the least you can do is show some appreciate by clicking thanks on their post. This is the fuel that drives others and keeps them motivated to keep coming back and helping.
6: First Page: Thats the Bible of Rogers retention plan negotiations so dont even bother to ask anything before you have READ it. You can only imagine the amount of knowledge and information you will have if you take just 10 minutes of your life to go thru the first page. It will cut down almost all lingering doubts, questions and provide quick and reliable information.

I cannot stress enough the importance of above pointers and I hope that you understand, implement and follow them into your lifestyle so that it makes your life and others easier.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

MrPerfect
================================================== ===========================


This video illustrates how NOT to negotiate.