Starting in Sept. - Price Increase for Each Additional Ignite Entertainment Box

[Rjagger]

Now the Extra boxes are going up to $17 per month....Bell is still at $8

***Added Labels***

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@57 wrote:

OK, but I don't want to change my package and you're leaving the app if you press it.  I tried pressing all the other app menu items where I thought it might be.

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It's kinda the same thing on MyRogers.  You would not have seen that notification had you not clicked on the Manage link for the TV service.

The official notification will presumably be on our next bill, with the price increase appearing on the bill that follows.

[Hwaiting]

I saw this message about a week ago and thought it was just some system error.

If this is true, this is crazy. I negotiated a price for 24 months which includes 3 additional boxes which show up as $30 ($10/additional box) and then a free box credit for $30. I still have another full year left.

If they are saying it's going to be an increase of $7/box = $21/mo for me, how can they say the contract is still valid and keep me locked in with a penalty if I attempt to cancel early?

I hope whatever price they increase it by means they will also increase the corresponding credit that's already been negotiated by so many of us in a contract where the additional boxes were essentially not being charged. I'm not optimistic.

I can't believe they are doubling down on the box rental prices given how other carriers have Google TV apps that allow you to use your own device.

I'm still in disbelief and half thinking this has to be an error or something.

[-G-]

I really, really do not know what to say.  As a customer, I am definitely NOT happy about this price increase.

Even from a business perspective, I cannot fathom what could have prompted or forced the Ignite product team to impose such a drastic price increase.

Are they planning to release an Ignite TV app for (Apple TV, Google TV, Roku, Fire TV) streaming platforms and Smart TVs and trying to offset potential lost revenue?  Okay, but their competitors are not doing this -- they offer these apps and still charge only $8-10/month for STB rentals.

Will they be offering Ignite set-top boxes for sale and trying to offset potential lost revenue?

Is Rogers losing a significant number of Ignite TV customers and feel that they need to do this to boost revenue and inflate ARPU?  Is an executive's bonus at risk unless certain KPI's are met?  The problem is that increasing (what pretty much amount to) mandatory rental fees just make you uncompetitive, and will surely drive away both current and prospective customers.

I also feel really bad for those who are locked into multi-year contracts.  Technically, the 2-year lock-in and early cancellation fees apply only to the base Ignite Internet+TV bundle.  You are not locked into keeping extras, such as Theme Packs, set-top boxes, and other add-ons such as Ignite Pods.  However, in most cases, customers need those extra set-top boxes and do not have any choice but to pay that extra $7/month; they have no other alternatives.

@CommunityHelps  Right now, customers will only see the STB rental price increase as a blatant cash grab.  If there is another aspect to this story, that will be beneficial to customers, now would be a great time to share that information.  Customers are bound to react to this news swiftly and emotionally... plus your competitors are currently offering some great "back to school" specials to attract new customers.

[jays77]

I'm still having a hard time getting my head around the mind boggling size of the increase.  

[wayner92]

I checked the Rogers services for my area and it still showing $10 per box.  I live in Scarborough.

This is from the Rogers web page

Package Includes:

• 1 Ignite Entertainment TM Box rental (additional rentals are $10/mo each)
• 200 hours of Cloud Storage (recordings stored for up to 1 year)

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@wayner92 wrote:

I checked the Rogers services for my area and it still showing $10 per box.  I live in Scarborough.

This is from the Rogers web page

Package Includes:

• 1 Ignite Entertainment TM Box rental (additional rentals are $10/mo each)
• 200 hours of Cloud Storage (recordings stored for up to 1 year)

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That won't change until the new set-top box pricing comes into effect on September 17.  However, if you add the Ignite TV service to your cart, you will see the following:

[NATHAN55]

Rogers has inserted this in with your monthly bill. They start you off by signing you up for a bundle stating that one box is included and then offer some additional boxes for your other tv sets as an incentive. For me  in less than 2 months, they want to add $14 for the boxes that they gave me. They also offer to remove the boxes if one does not want them. Logic here being when one in locked into a 2 year bundle, no one is going to give up the boxes as they are tied to the Rogers TV service. " Nice one" Rogers!

[emveepee]

Hopefully we will hear a reason here soon before we all have to start phoning to complain.  Totally insane pricing Getting multiple boxes was clearly part of my initial decision for cable so I consider they have voided any agreement that was made when I ordered cable.

How do I change the I plan to stick around note?

The streaming box is for those without cable what a crazy price to watch the constrained OTT services that Rogers provides.   The only reason it should be cheaper is if we get more cloud storage and that isn't written anywhere.

Martin

[wayner92]

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@NATHAN55 wrote:

Rogers has inserted this in with your monthly bill. They start you off by signing you up for a bundle stating that one box is included and then offer some additional boxes for your other tv sets as an incentive. For me  in less than 2 months, they want to add $14 for the boxes that they gave me. They also offer to remove the boxes if one does not want them. Logic here being when one in locked into a 2 year bundle, no one is going to give up the boxes as they are tied to the Rogers TV service. " Nice one" Rogers!

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When I switched to Ignite six months ago I got them to give me a deal where I get three extra boxes for $5/month for two years.  But the way they did this is giving me a $15 discount every month.  So with this increase my $5/month goes to $12/month. 

For people that were on the fence and thinking of cutting the cord, this could be the last straw.

[aricher44]

Insane. Price will more than double for boxes I have had for years. Bell has offered me a bundled plan at a cheaper cost and no need for additional boxes. After 30 years as a loyal customer, I guess it is time to move on.

[JessicaG]

As of September, additional boxes increase by $7. A shocking 70% increase, now $17/mn.... if there was anytime to launch that app that we all know is possible, now would be the time. (Allow customers to purchase Ignite STBs even). If Rogers makes the business decision to lock down to a rental STB, that speaks loud and clear to me. I've had Ignite a long time, so my additional STBs are currently $5. After September they will be $12. (INSANE) Having 6 additional boxes, that is a $42/mn increase. This is the straw that broke the camels back for me. Not fond of Bell TV packages, but I'll be reaching out to them tomorrow.

[warped77]

Well if this is true, and it's looking like it is, Rogers has helped me make up my mind to finally leave. It's not like my wages are going up by that much, and I cannot afford the high prices of everything. Corporations are so clueless.

[asturias7]

*THE INCREASE IS INDEED FOR EVERYONE, INCLUDING THOSE OF US WITH 2-YR DISCOUNTED BUNDLES*

On the last page of my current bill...

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...with the rising costs to deliver the latest technology, we'll begin charging an additional...

Really???  What latest technology?  The XiOne set-top box was introduced more than two years ago and the Xi6 has been around for 5+ years, and they are basically interchangeable.  In the back-end, Rogers has not made any improvements to signal encoding or made any improvements to improve sound or picture quality. Over the years, we have lost more channels than we gave gained and Rogers has really done nothing to even justify the price increases that they have made to the base Ignite TV bundles.  Ignite TV is a lesser product today than it was when it first launched... and our current set-top boxes, quite frankly, are NOT worth more than $5/month.

Rogers has signed a new 10-year technology licensing agreement with Comcast and has alluded that we may soon see a new set-top box (see this post) but unless we are ALL getting some kind of new amazing set-top box and content that is actually worth watching on our current TV service, I don't know what could possibly justify such as massive price hikes.  (There are technically ways that Rogers could make our current service even worse.  Perhaps behavioural tracking of our TV viewing habits coupled with dynamic ad insertion.  Even tracking who is in the room based on the Bluetooth "heartbeat" of smart phones in the room.  I sure hope that they do not go down this route.)

[Hwaiting]

Does this constitute a misrepresentation that would allow one to successfully cancel the contract without penalty? 

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@Hwaiting wrote:

Does this constitute a misrepresentation that would allow one to successfully cancel the contract without penalty? 

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I don't know about misrepresentation but it might constitute a material (adverse) change, especially if the change was unforeseen and knowledge of it (or even the possibility of it) would have changed your decision to enter into such a contract in the first place.... but I'm not a lawyer.

[asturias7]

All of what you said, not to mention the fact that Rogers doesn't even provide FTTH (and it's almost 2025) as an option to all its customers... if it weren't for the fact that Bell are even worse crooks than Rogers, I would have jumped ship long time ago. They've basically been trying to get me to switch ever since they dug and buried lines for FTTH (2018) and the roll of cable is still on the side of my house ready to be hooked up...

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@asturias7 wrote:

All of what you said, not to mention the fact that Rogers doesn't even provide FTTH (and it's almost 2025) as an option to all its customers... if it weren't for the fact that Bell are even worse crooks than Rogers, I would have jumped ship long time ago. They've basically been trying to get me to switch ever since they dug and buried lines for FTTH (2018) and the roll of cable is still on the side of my house ready to be hooked up...

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Please don't get me started about their Internet service.  Rogers abandoned their plans to upgrade coax in established areas to FTTH.  Instead, over the last 18 months, they have been upgrading their DOCSIS infrastructure with the intention of eventually rolling out DOCSIS 4.0.  However, the new gear has not been entirely stable, their technology vendor (Casa Systems) went bankrupt five months ago, and now all that new gear is pretty much a write-off.  Yes, our modems have a more stable signal and we have higher download and upload speeds.  However, with the new infrastructure, we also have higher latency and more jitter, more frequent (and longer) intermittent outages than we had in all the years before... and I see that they have now also increased the price of their Internet service.

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@aricher44 wrote:
Insane. Price will more than double for boxes I have had for years. Bell has offered me a bundled plan at a cheaper cost and no need for additional boxes. After 30 years as a loyal customer, I guess it is time to move on.

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I know that emotions and frustrations are at a high but please evaluate your options carefully before switching providers.

I used to be a Fibe TV customer and I still think that Ignite TV is a superior service.  There are also a number of ISPs that resell EspialTV (which, from what I remember, offers a pretty good TV service) but with TPIAs (Third-party Internet Access Providers, who rely on Rogers/Bell/whoever for last-mile connectivity), if you run into serious problems with your connection, getting support can be a miserable experience, especially if the problem is outside their control and their service partner is uncooperative.

[warped77]

I checked this to verify it for myself, and as we all know now, it is true. Whenever my bill is coming up, I get a text and an email. I wish Rogers would do the same for any price increases and also if your bundle is coming to an end. Instead they put it on the 3rd page of your bill, which most people don't bother to download. I also noticed that the flex packages are gone. I have the flex sports package. On the website now they only offer 3 . packages. When I signed in, an offer popped up that costs more than what I already have. With so many other options out there now, it's time to jump ship. 

[gduesbur1]

New Pricing 

Starting Sept. 17, the price for each additional Ignite Entertainment Box on your account will be:

• Streaming: $12/month + tax.
• Bundles: $17/month + tax.