Many of you may have seen this article from iClarified and have been asking questions about it. I just wanted to clarify it a little and give you my thoughts on it. If you haven’t read the article yet, here it is:
Rogers and Fido customers may be in for a huge shock when those with blocked Internet access receive a bill for thousands of dollars.
Rogers customer service has reached a disgusting new low. Customers with the 2G iPhone are being billing for thousands of dollars in data access fees. These charges are being placed on customers who not only have edge turned off but also those who have requested Internet access blocked on their cellular account.
As an example, a fido customer recently related to me that he was called by customer service demanding $1600 in data access fees for only 29 MB. This was impossible he said because his iPhone had edge turned off and he had called 5 months earlier and requested all internet access be blocked on his account.
The fido rep informed him that background applications on his phone were accessing the Internet via a new apn they setup for the iPhone 3g! Apparently Rogers has opened a new port to connect to the Internet and did not block it for all those customers who requesting their Internet be blocked. Even after a lookup to confirm a call was indeed made to block Internet access, the rep refused to admit this was an error of theirs and is holding the client responsible for the charges unless he agrees to sign up for a data plan.
Through further investigation a source working at fido has informed me that this is a common and intentional practice. Rogers is purposely not fully blocking Internet access when requested by it’s customers. This isn’t only for the users of a 2g iPhone. Those purchasing the 3g iPhone without data will soon find a huge bill on their hands. By this method Rogers is pressuring iPhone clients into signing up for their over priced dataplan. My source says he is swamped with these situations on a daily basis.
And to make things even worse Rogers is increasing the price of a data plan from $30/month to $100/month at the end of August. Since Rogers has a GSM monoply in Canada customers have no other alternate even if the 3G iPhone is unlocked.
Alright, so it sounds pretty crazy about how someone could get charged $1600 for data for only using 29mb after they had asked for the data to be blocked. Here are the facts. The person was using a first gen iPhone. They asked that data be blocked on the internet.com gateway which was used for the edge network to work on first gen iPhones. Once the iPhone 3G came out as well as firmware 2.0, Rogers had created a new data gateway for the iPhone. If you updated to 2.0 firmware, the phone would recognize the new data gateway from the network and therefore the data would be unblocked.
This is why I created this video on how to block data on your iPhone. When I updated my first gen to 2.0, I didn’t realize it was using data until I had hit about 5mb’s of usage. Good thing I still had the 12mb data plan from the $18 value pack at the time or else I would be the one complaining to Rogers.
If you have an iPhone 3G and have asked Rogers/Fido to block data on your account and/or you used the APN blocking method as described in the video, you do not have to worry. I repeat, do not worry, you won’t get a surprise bill. This applies to those with first gen iPhones who upgraded to 2.0 without a data plan.
The article is basically a month old. There were lots of warnings out there that firmware 2.0 activated data on your first gen iPhone once you updated. I almost fell for the trap. It’s too bad the person in that situation was charged.
Now should the person have been billed $1600 for 29mb? I have always thought that if you are using an unlocked phone, use at your own risk. But, should the person be punished for something like this? No. I think they should pay something like $100 for the data and be told to be more careful next time. This is an extenuating circumstance on how data magically activated once updating to 2.0. But if someone tries to use a first gen iPhone on the $7 unlimited plan or anything else that is not supported, I have no sympathy for them.
Obviously I think the pay per use data rates they charge are total highway robbery but in some cases where people knowingly break the rules, I think they should have to pay. What are your thoughts?
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August 28th, 2008 at 3:45 am
So, Rogers charges $1,600 for 29 MB of data and you blame the users? Come on man! Your solution to Roger’s BS is to make a video and educate users how to cripple their phone’s features???
August 28th, 2008 at 3:51 am
This has been the story of my whole last month. $330 Data charges dropped down to $290 by a lot of phone calls and whole lotta headaches.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:13 am
@ Bryan
“Now should the person have been billed $1600 for 29mb? I have always thought that if you are using an unlocked phone, use at your own risk. But, should the person be punished for something like this? No. I think they should pay something like $100 for the data and be told to be more careful next time. This is an extenuating circumstance on how data magically activated once updating to 2.0. But if someone tries to use a first gen iPhone on the $7 unlimited plan or anything else that is not supported, I have no sympathy for them.”
People using first gen’s with no data have chosen to cripple the features.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:22 am
The pay per use rates are highway robbery. Everyone who has blocked data on their 3G or has a data plan is fine. I say charge the people who are trying to abuse the system and give those a warning who didn’t know (like the person in the case above).
August 28th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Sounds like Bryan was a victim to me :-0
ruffdeezy you should know I sort of went your route, like I paid a fee much less than what I was actually billed, but damn did it ever take a lot of pointless phone calls to get it - I finally just took the cheap way out and went for guts or glory - I threatened to cut my account and tend elsewhere, I wasn’t on a plan so this worked to my advantage beautifully.
Anyone who’s fighting to lower their charges - Threaten to leave, this will change the playing fields, the ball will be in your end of the court- but only if you’re on a monthly plan or your contract is winding down.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:35 am
@Teebs, it costs $400 to leave! YOU are going to become a victim.
@ruffdeezy, $1,600 for 29 MB is under no circumstnaces acceptable!!! Even if the guy called Fido/Rogers and demanded he pays that much, they should prevented him on grounds of common sense, let alone them billing anyone that much.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:38 am
@Bryan
This is business with a monopoly. Common sense need not apply. Is it criminal? I’m pretty sure the courts would say no. We’re all bound by whatever terms and conditions they create, even to the point of them stating that they can change the terms and conditions at any time. We all signed or acknowledged some type of contract to be on Rogers. We’re all suckers for using them as a service, especially considering we know how much they like to gouge us. However, there’s no other choice if you want the newest, greatest GSM phone. So, as ruffdeezy mentioned, “…if you are using an unlocked phone, use at your own risk.”
August 28th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Unfair practices from rogers. No the user should not pay. First gen or not…unlocked or not.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:22 am
@Matt, the user asked Rogers to block his access to internet! Read the whole story!
August 28th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Being billed that much for so little data is pure highway robbery anyway.
August 28th, 2008 at 10:56 am
i gotta question ruffdeezy.. had the individual in the article checked the cellular network data sent & recieved as displayed on the iPhone
(in settings->general->usage), would he have noticed that it went up? i’m currently not on a data plan, so i personally check the cellular network data sent & received every now and then because i figure that is a guaranteed way of knowing whether or not i can expect to incur any data charges. like if it always shows 0 sent and 0 recieved, then im in the clear.. right?
August 28th, 2008 at 11:02 am
ROGERS HAS EXTENDED THE DATA PLAN TILL THE END OF SEPTEMBER !!!!
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/08/28/tech-iphone.html
August 28th, 2008 at 11:04 am
@ kamranhsiddiqi
Yep it would have showed data used. If it doesn’t show anything, you are fine.
August 28th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
The customer shouldn’t pay anything. If it was up to the customer to re-request block on the new APN, then it was up to Rogers to inform all customers a new APN was open on the iPhone and that to block data they would need to call and ask.
I used to use a 1st gen iPhone for almost a year with it having internet blocked on my account. So saying they should be monitoring their usage on the phone after 6 months of proof that it was totally blocked is as an insane statement as Rogers charging you that data in the first place.
The customer requested data be blocked. That means ALL DATA BLOCKED at ALL TIMES. Rogers is responsible for the user using 29MB of data and therefore should credit the user the $1600 and eat the $.50 it actually cost them to provide that 29MB of data.
The customer now knows, and should be calling Rogers to ask for a full data block (Rogers should have done in first place). If it happens a second time after being notified, customer is on hook. Otherwise its Rogers negative option billing all over again.
Cheers,
August 28th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
It’s a tough argument for both sides. Rogers isn’t required to block data, you are asking them for a favour. This is something that is a rare and I bet they will be credited back.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:18 am
@ruffdeezy, I cannot believe you are still defending Rogers, man!!!
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
I got the iphone today and I called Fido before I activated my phone to block both the 3G and Edge. She did and I asked for a confirmation number. After I got home, I activated my phone and tried to download the APN with wifi as suggested. It automatically went on 3G and I saw that on my usage for data it went up right away. I was wondering in this case, when I receive my bill later, can I call and argue with them about the case? Will they waive the extra charge for me? Has anyone done it before?