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I am not saying its the fault of Rogers or other cable tv providers but I have noticed consumers attitudes have changed over the last few decades with what their expectations are of a cable TV package, but yes I also noticed the price of Cable TV services has changed over the last 3 decades as well. I am really glad I have been born during this time so I not only see how people act now but I had the luxury to see how people acted in the past with their television bills.
Back in the day, my parents called up Rogers (back then it was known as Maclean Hunter Cable before it was aquired by Rogers cable)
Rogers (or Maclean Hunter as it was known as back then) would tell them, this is your monthly price, this is your cable package, and this is how many channels you get and that was it, no one called in every month or every two years to negotiate a good rate, they all paid their cable bills regularily, yeah the bills did go up from time to time but they were happy with the "standard advertised price" for the cable package, and when they did get a promotion and it expired, they left it as is and paid the regular price, why? because that is what consumers did back in the day and they had no internet nor online forums to complain to, and customer services was not open in the evening nor weekends, life was pretty simple back then yea it has changed significantly, not sure for the better or worse but I miss the good ol days of one price and paying it and moving on in life. don't you?
Back in the day, my parents called up Rogers (back then it was known as Maclean Hunter Cable before it was aquired by Rogers cable)
Rogers (or Maclean Hunter as it was known as back then) would tell them, this is your monthly price, this is your cable package, and this is how many channels you get and that was it, no one called in every month or every two years to negotiate a good rate, they all paid their cable bills regularily, yeah the bills did go up from time to time but they were happy with the "standard advertised price" for the cable package, and when they did get a promotion and it expired, they left it as is and paid the regular price, why? because that is what consumers did back in the day and they had no internet nor online forums to complain to, and customer services was not open in the evening nor weekends, life was pretty simple back then yea it has changed significantly, not sure for the better or worse but I miss the good ol days of one price and paying it and moving on in life. don't you?
- last edited on by
RogersMaude
I have a few comments that may be helpful.
1. Rogers is a corporation and the mandate of that corporation is to maximize profits and return for their shareholders.
2. This means they will try to maximize the amount they obtain from their customers. The customers have several options available to them.
A. You can pay "full" price, which is not acceptable for many people.
B. You can negotiate a new "contract" every year or two for the next year or two (depending). Depending on the number of services you have and what you pay, you can usually negotiate a discount if you're willing to stay for 1-2 years. Your negotiating skills and who you talk to play into your "discount".
C. If you're willing to leave Rogers, you can call retentions and tell them that. Retentions will usually then offer you an incentive to stay.
D. You may leave for another provider who may, or may not have everything you want and may or may not have better (long term) pricing.
E. Most providers have "loss leader" pricing, so when you start with a new provider, you usually get a pretty good deal. After a while this "loss leader" expires and you're expected to pay a much higher price, again depending - see note 2 above.
F. I believe there is a certain amount of time (3-6 months) before you can come back to Rogers and qualify for "loss leader" pricing.
G. You can cut the cord, but most people still need internet and often require "more" internet, which may or may not save $ depending on internet costs and costs for what you stream.
H. Long term customers (I never use the term loyal - I've also been with Rogers for decades) should realize this and be realistic, but knowledgeable about what you can negotiate.
- last edited on by
RogersMaude
I think the biggest problem is also reflected in the mislabeled title of this post: "Package Expiring" The package is NOT expiring, the customer will keep the same package, the same channels, the same receivers, etc. What's expiring is the "PROMOTIONS" are expiring. I think society has also become a bit "numb" to the term "Promotion" and forget the meaning of it. Promotion means "limited time offer or discount" When you go to Loblaws and see your favourite orange juice for $2.00 its on sale, the sale is a promotion, you buy a few, but next month you go there and the Orange juice is back to its regular price of $4.00. People seem to forget promotions are designed to expire, but they are also designed to get people hooked onto a product and if people are happy with it they will continue to pay for it even when the promotions / discounts expire.
But I'm not here to defend rogers I am just here to state something important about the meaning of Promotion that everyone else forgot to mention.
By the way, try your best to get the best deal if it does not work out, oh well, you tried, there are other companies out there who are looking for business.
@Paulywrote:
But I'm not here to defend rogers I am just here to state something important about the meaning of Promotion that everyone else forgot to mention.
Actually 57 did cover that point , he just didn't make it sound so sanctimonious and Rogers friendly . 
The aspect of promotion that you seem to have ignored regarding the OP's apparent situation seems to be that it sounds like it was a negotiated term pricing and not a limited time offer so when the package expires his beneficial pricing expires as well .
I'd say go shopping if you feel Rogers is overpriced for your needs... I did ... and I have no reason to return until they become competitively priced for the services I am looking for .
I am not saying its the fault of Rogers or other cable tv providers but I have noticed consumers attitudes have changed over the last few decades with what their expectations are of a cable TV package, but yes I also noticed the price of Cable TV services has changed over the last 3 decades as well. I am really glad I have been born during this time so I not only see how people act now but I had the luxury to see how people acted in the past with their television bills.
Back in the day, my parents called up Rogers (back then it was known as Maclean Hunter Cable before it was aquired by Rogers cable)
Rogers (or Maclean Hunter as it was known as back then) would tell them, this is your monthly price, this is your cable package, and this is how many channels you get and that was it, no one called in every month or every two years to negotiate a good rate, they all paid their cable bills regularily, yeah the bills did go up from time to time but they were happy with the "standard advertised price" for the cable package, and when they did get a promotion and it expired, they left it as is and paid the regular price, why? because that is what consumers did back in the day and they had no internet nor online forums to complain to, and customer services was not open in the evening nor weekends, life was pretty simple back then yea it has changed significantly, not sure for the better or worse but I miss the good ol days of one price and paying it and moving on in life. don't you?
Back in the day, my parents called up Rogers (back then it was known as Maclean Hunter Cable before it was aquired by Rogers cable)
Rogers (or Maclean Hunter as it was known as back then) would tell them, this is your monthly price, this is your cable package, and this is how many channels you get and that was it, no one called in every month or every two years to negotiate a good rate, they all paid their cable bills regularily, yeah the bills did go up from time to time but they were happy with the "standard advertised price" for the cable package, and when they did get a promotion and it expired, they left it as is and paid the regular price, why? because that is what consumers did back in the day and they had no internet nor online forums to complain to, and customer services was not open in the evening nor weekends, life was pretty simple back then yea it has changed significantly, not sure for the better or worse but I miss the good ol days of one price and paying it and moving on in life. don't you?
@Lashwrote:No, no one misses the "good ol [sic] days" you wax poetic about. ........
It's just that we've gone from complacent monopoly to a predatory, deliberately-confusing, bait-and-switch marketplace. Published prices are stupidly high, by any measure, because they know a large share of consumers are going to aggressively push for discounts, and with crowd psychology that makes anyone who blithely accepts published rates a rube.
I miss them ...so call me a rube .
That was why I took one account to a different company ....the new company started at the lower price and no games ...less issues and time spent on my part negotiating .
I would expect that back then would have been a whole lot better time to be in customer service as well ... the price was the price so that was it . If you open the pricing up to negotiation like now there will be more stress and more aggressive customers as they try to get the best deal. Not to mention ... with all this negotiation going on how do you not need way more staff ?
There is also the chaos caused to the website for regular customers .....how many times have we seen in the last couple months that the system here has been overwhelmed due to "customer response " to supposed deals.
I miss them ...so call me a rube .
That was why I took one account to a different company ....the new company started at the lower price and no games ...less issues and time spent on my part negotiating .
I would expect that back then would have been a whole lot better time to be in customer service as well ... the price was the price so that was it . If you open the pricing up to negotiation like now there will be more stress and more aggressive customers as they try to get the best deal. Not to mention ... with all this negotiation going on how do you not need way more staff ?
There is also the chaos caused to the website for regular customers .....how many times have we seen in the last couple months that the system here has been overwhelmed due to "customer response " to supposed deals.
I agree 100% with you, yes even tho the previous poster disagreed with me that no one misses the good old days, its been proven that that was a lie and people do infact miss the good old days, things were very simple as you pointed out, billing was on point, you are told this price, you pay it and are done, simple as that, not like todays billing plans with oh you pay this price for this many days then the price goes to this price, then there is an increase on this day, etc, but if you call back you get this discount applied which lasts untill this day.
See how confusing thtat can be? what ever happened to pay one price and move on? this is what the competition is doing and a lot of people are opening their eyes to it, but also back then Rogers WAS the only cable provider (or it was Antenna with bad reception in some cases), but now we have lots of competition so people are FREE to move to a different company with attractive pricing
@funnybunnywrote:
We are caught because there's not enough competition.
I keep hearing that ....but I think it is very site and "needs" specific . Our family started out with four Rogers customers ... there is only one phone of the four left with Rogers because other providers had better price points for their needs . Ironically two of the providers use the Rogers system ....just not the Rogers pricing schedule .
You also have to remember, things were much simple back then, you had cable and most TV's were CATV Ready you would just plug it in and go. In today's day and age, you would need to Rent or purchase a STB or STB PVR device for every tv set you want cable connected to. This adds to your monthly costs. Yes that is also one of the reasons promos were advertised, to make the prices look more attractive.
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