New Pay As You Go Maximum Balance

[lmcjipo]

Had my prepaid phone off during the holidays and just turned it on today to receive the following text from Rogers:

Rogers service msg: Starting at the end of 2018, our prepaid services will have a maximum allowed balance of $150. Any balance above $150 will no longer be available as of end of 2018. We will be in touch with more information on how you can use your balance soon, but in the meantime you can continue to use your balance as normal. Questions? http://rogers.com/contactus

What are the options? The option that I think that they will do is to force those high balance users to go to postpaid. Unless they give me the option to get a new phone, there is no way that I would be able to use my balance or reduce it to under $150 before the end of 2018. The only other thing which would reduce my balance is for me to take options/services that I don't need (like data/SMS/addon services) that I don't need for the sake of just reducing my balance.

This seems ridiculous.

***EDITED LABELS***

[Sarcee]

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@barndoor wrote:

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@Sarcee wrote:

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The balance is like a gift certificate, waiting to be spent on air time.

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Sure, makes sense ... a limited time gift certificate whose terms you agreed to . Either you buy another gift certificate  at renewal time or you lose the remaining  value of the gift certificate  .... why wouldn't you trade in $100 worth of gift certificate instead of paying $113  in cash ? 

Isn't this all irrelevant anyway @Sarcee  ? Aren't  you going with the $10 /month T&T plan anyway ?  You should be able to just transfer your balance and  use it up at the rate of $10 a month  ... with that plan you just have to be sure your balance  is over $10  when you get to renewal time . 

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Rogers changed the terms, so neither I nor anyone else are in a position to agree to them.

Yes, I am leaning toward the $10. / month T&T plan. However, as I previously mentioned, the Rogers CSR told me my transferred balance would expire after 5 months.

[barndoor]

Aren't the only terms that Rogers has  changed  , how big a balance you  can carry and as I beleive  @BS pointed out terms and conditions  you originally  agreed to was 30 day  notification of change and they have given at least 10 months notice . 

And your balance  isn't too high anyway . 

I just called and asked as our balance is about $75 now  ... they try to confuse the issue with expiry dates  but when asked specifically  I was told the balance could be transferred and used up completely   over there . 

If they want to play games with the expiry  for you ...top up with $100 bucks at the end of the 5 months and that should extend your expiry and balance   to the point it is all used up anyway . 

And there I go violating the rules again, eh Bruce ... but if Rogers isn't going to supply staff that are willing to answer these questions  here where they can reach a lot of customers at once what do you do ? 

[RobTheGob]

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@barndoor wrote:

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@RobTheGob wrote:

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 In return for me purchasing $100 credit per year ($10 per month in the beginning) - they allowed me to access their system (without *much* cost - maybe the 911 fee?). 

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Yup that's right  ... it cost you $100 a year or $10  a month  to access their system  .... you have to give them that value from somewhere to renew  or they don't let you access the system  ... like I said  don't pay that $100 /yr or $10/month   for the system access and see how far you get with that free airtime they gave you .  

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No - a credit of $100 per year or a credit of $10 per month is NOT the same as a charging me the same amount to access their system... In the past - it was closer to me putting money in a bank account and agreeing to pay a charge for each cheque I write.

In the 15+ years I've been on Rogers Pay-As-You-Go, the only fee I've paid to access the system is a $0.75 911 fee...

[barndoor]

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@RobTheGob wrote:

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 In the past - it was closer to me putting money in a bank account and agreeing to pay a charge for each cheque I write.

In the 15+ years I've been on Rogers Pay-As-You-Go, the only fee I've paid to access the system is a $0.75 911 fee...

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How is that bank analogy  anywhere close to being comparable to this situation ?

You  said yourself you had to pay them  $100/yr  or $10/month   to use the system ....   but now

you say the only fee you paid  was the 911 fee .... that's not making a lot of sense to me  
 

[Sarcee]

Just to let folks know how my Rogers PAYGO cap max saga ended:

So after talking to a series of CSRs over the past few weeks, each of whom seemed to be giving me a slightly different option, I finally got a CSR who a) wasn't Filipino b) was able to offer me a reasonable option.

I ended up deciding to switch to the $10.00 / mth talk and text plan. With the expiry date being 8 months, instead of 5 (as told to me by previous CSRs).  And instead of the $10.00 coming off my credit card, it will come off my current balance, transferred from my talk all day plan (i.e. my balance was $82.00, so $10.00 from my balance for the next 8 months = $80.00). If my usage suddenly fluctuates upward, and I eat through my balance too fast, I can always top up at that point.

[barndoor]

Sounds fair to me .... but you'll have to spend more time on the phone  now to get your moneys worth  !  

[lmcjipo]

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@wleadie1 wrote:

lmcjipo:  you said "Rogers willing to refund the entire balance of my account and let me go elsewhere".  This afternoon, I spent over 15 min on the phone with an Office of the President rep, and they REFUSED to give me a refund when I explicitly asked.  Why is Rogers making private, SECRET deals with selected customers; that's UNFAIR!  And who is CCTS ?

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Sorry for the delay but since I switched to postpaid and don't have to worry about the $150 maximum balance, I don't often come onto this forum.

The person I dealt with at the Office of the President played hard ball with me as I mentioned and our phone call lasted over 60 minutes. What I wanted was fair to both Rogers and myself although as the representative stated to me, it isn't about what is "fair". Close to the end of our 60 minute call, she implied or seemed to offer a refund but I didn't think it was a firm offer since she phrased it as a question and I told her that I would accept the refund at this point only if I was able to port my number out and then get the refund. From memory, her question was "So would you be happy if we refunded you your entire balance and closed your account?" instead of saying something like "If you want, what we will do is close your account and give you your money back"

Some people mentioned that they got refunds earlier in the thread or maybe I misread what they wrote so I might be mistaken. During our call, without me mentioning refunding my balance, she mentioned it to me that there is no mechanism to refund prepaid account balances. I think during our call because I had topped up with $100 a few months prior to Rogers having sent me the "maximum $150 text", she mentioned she was willing to refund me a pro-rated amount of the $100 based on my last top up.

[lmcjipo]

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@wleadie1 wrote:

curious, who has the highest balance?  Mine is $498 ...

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Mine was significantly higher than $500. I took a screen capture for my records. Switching to a postpaid plan, I will have over 3 years of service assuming Rogers doesn't increase my plan's rate.

[lmcjipo]

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@BS wrote:

@lmcjipo  Congratulations on knowing your rights under the wireless code and that in no way is any word from Rogers the last recourse.

You still had the Ombudsman, or CCTC as you suggested, and it has been reported by CRTC that CCTC will review reported concerns around this, but that the CRTC was reported in this thread to have questions about whether there was a breach of the existing contract in the original submission that was redirected to CCTC if unresolved with Rogers.

I can't see that a member of the Office of the President, or at least I hope that is not the case, would not know that the customer has other options - the Office of the President is just another level in the customer issue resolution process, but definitely, they are not the last place at all.  Your response was similiar to what mine would have been, except I would have asked if she knows the Wireless Code and its reference to publically stated escalation process and what that process is for Rogers (it is found in various places on the web site, and often on our bills for those who don' know).

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Bruce

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When she said that to me, I think she was just trying to play "hard ball" (like take it or leave it)... hoping that who she was dealing with didn't know that the buck doesn't stop with her. 

[lmcjipo]

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@Sarcee wrote:

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No, remember I said they told me my balance would still expire in 5 months if I switched to the $10. / month plan. They'll transfer my balance, but the balance would still expire. I was hoping any expiration would be cancelled once on a different plan.

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Only way that I know of to really cancel the expiration of the balance is to transfer to a postpaid plan where the entire balance gets moved over. However, if you have a large balance, it generally means that you don't use your phone a lot so going for a postpaid plan (even the lowest plan that you can get/negotiate) will generally not be as cost effective as what you used to have with pay as you go until Rogers put the cap of $150 balance going forward.

[Sarcee]

Rogers is just trying to get everyone off the prepaid plans. If you fight really hard they will let you stay on. But otherwise, they will 'manage' the weak cases off through individual bargaining.

It might have been better for them if they had just told everyone that by the end of 2018 (or 2019) that the prepaid plans were ending, period, no exceptions, and to start making plans to migrate to another plan or carrier.

[OLDYELLR]

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@Sarcee wrote:

Rogers is just trying to get everyone off the prepaid plans. If you fight really hard they will let you stay on. But otherwise, they will 'manage' the weak cases off through individual bargaining.

It might have been better for them if they had just told everyone that by the end of 2018 (or 2019) that the prepaid plans were ending, period, no exceptions, and to start making plans to migrate to another plan or carrier.

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I don't agree. When I read here that the talk anytime plan was going to be switched to a $10/month plan in March unless you called, I did and the CSR was happy to grandfather me and agreed it was my best choice, no fighting at all. If Rogers ended the prepaid plans they would lose a lot of customers because there are other carriers with cheaper plans.

[barndoor]

@Sarcee , are you talking prepaid plans in general  or  the prepaid plans that let you carry your balance forward ?  I can see the latter being phased out  over time . I think to do it suddenly , there are still  likely too many customers using it  and the backlash for Rogers would still be too significant .  

[Sarcee]

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@barndoor wrote:

@Sarcee , are you talking prepaid plans in general  or  the prepaid plans that let you carry your balance forward ?  I can see the latter being phased out  over time . I think to do it suddenly , there are still  likely too many customers using it  and the backlash for Rogers would still be too significant .  

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I just meant plans like the PAYGO Talk All Day Plan. I don't know if there are other legacy plans people are on. I think they want to gradually get people off these plans. That seems to be the end goal.

[JoCo1]

I just got off the phone with a very helpful person about this issue. Going to a monthly plan doesn't make sense for me as the lowest monthly plan is $10/month. If I use $30-$50.00/year that's lots. So every year I would topup until my balance was well over $500.00.  I was told by a neighbour to call Rogers and they would deduct $100.00 from my balance and extend my expiry date.  So I've done that until last year when I was told my balance could not fall below $100.00. So last year when my balance reached$137.00 I topped up again (Jan.19/18) but unfortunately I missed the message about the max cap before I did it.  The person I spoke with today told me that as long as I contact Rogers before Dec.31/18 that option of reducing my account by $100.00 is still available and my expiry date will be extended to Jan.20/20.  Unfortunately for anyone who has a really large balance right now, that may not be an option. I suggest that everyone should contact Rogers to discuss options available for each individual case. I hope this helps.

[JoCo1]

Agreed...CSR was more than helpful today on both occasions I called re: migration to $10/month...they grandfathered me as well without a hassle or sales pitch and re: balance cap. If people call CSR will be very helpful

[barndoor]

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@JoCo1 wrote:

 I was told by a neighbour to call Rogers and they would deduct $100.00 from my balance and extend my expiry date.  So I've done that until last year when I was told my balance could not fall below $100.00.

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Not sure if you got the memo then  ....but Rogers sent me an email  saying that once a year you can use a $50 renewal that extends your expiry for 6 months ,if the $100 renewal won't work for you .  I think that is to help people stay under the $150 cap likely .....to me it would have been less hassle if they had set the cap at $180 or $200 and  then the $100 renewal would have worked fine for just about everyone,  saved renewal time hassle and kept those happy  that want a little extra balance for emergencies . 

[RobTheGob]

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@barndoor wrote:

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@RobTheGob wrote:

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 In the past - it was closer to me putting money in a bank account and agreeing to pay a charge for each cheque I write.

In the 15+ years I've been on Rogers Pay-As-You-Go, the only fee I've paid to access the system is a $0.75 911 fee...

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How is that bank analogy  anywhere close to being comparable to this situation ?

You  said yourself you had to pay them  $100/yr  or $10/month   to use the system ....   but now

you say the only fee you paid  was the 911 fee .... that's not making a lot of sense to me  
 

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The bank analogy is very close to the situation that I've been in for over 15 years...

I've never said (or paid) $10/month or $100/year to access their system. I agreed to add $10/month (later $100/year) to my account to be used at a later time. The only amount to come off of that account credit was the 911 fee. Years later I added the $5/month SMS add-on (just like adding a feature to a bank account).

*Exactly* like putting money into a chequing account and agreeing to pay $0.75 for each cheque that I write. I assume others went on a $10+/month plan - not me, I've always been on the "All Day" plan...

Make sense now?

They're changing the rules - but that doesn't mean I have to happy about it. I still haven't called them to decide how to proceed.

[barndoor]

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@RobTheGob wrote:

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*Exactly* like putting money into a chequing account and agreeing to pay $0.75 for each cheque that I write. I assume others went on a $10+/month plan - not me, I've always been on the "All Day" plan...

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The only way that scenario would come close to being comparable  would be if you paid a ten dollar a month  service fee to the bank for  that chequing account   and if you only wrote 6 cheques per month  they let you   carry the remaining  $5.50  per month over to spend on some other bank related business .

The $100/yr or $10 /mo.  has to be spent  at Rogers  or the bank  ... it just depends what you want to spend it on ....you can stockpile it ...but it is still committed  to the bank or Rogers ... it is not yours to withdraw  ...all you can do is direct them on what service you would like to purchase from them with it . 

[jdshang]

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why wouldn't you trade in $100 worth of gift certificate instead of paying $113  in cash ? 

To me, it's like I purchased a $10 GC with no expire date. but later on, they told me I need to use $5 to keep the remaining $5 of that GC active. It's unfair. Is it legal?

[barndoor]

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@jdshang wrote:

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why wouldn't you trade in $100 worth of gift certificate instead of paying $113  in cash ? 

To me, it's like I purchased a $10 GC with no expire date. but later on, they told me I need to use $5 to keep the remaining $5 of that GC active. It's unfair. Is it legal?

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Why would you suggest that it is a GC with no  expiry  ?  Your Rogers account has an expiry ....and if you miss it you loose your whole balance ...thats the way it has been since the beginning has it not ?