Thursday, July 24, 2014

A gust of Wind, but stuck with Rogers

After yet another frustrating and irritating battle with Rogers, I walked into a Wind store with all intent of jumping ship. The sales lady was very helpful, and we were off to a good start:
- device selection - yup - Wind has made some inroads here, and offers a decent selection of (Android) devices. There's also a light smattering of BB10 and mention of Windows OS (no devices). Apparently iPhone users need not apply (unless they have their own unlocked devices).   Since Android is my favourite OS, the lack of IOS / Windows phone devices was not a showstopper for me though.
- Price - hands down, Wind has the best pricing for a global texting, data consuming fiend like myself. Ergo my trip to the Wind store.  $40 for all that texting and data! Awesome!
- Rogers cancellation fee: $300. Steep, but no problem, Wind has great pricing on their phones, I'll just sign up and away we go.
But no, fast forward a year later, and I'm still stuck with Rogers. Why?
Well here's the thing. Like most Canadians, I have a love / hate relationship with the major telcos.  Pricing is not competitive with the smaller players. Customer service is often poor, with some reps giving out false info which the company will not pull past calls to validate, and plans are often complex beasts that result in the average Canadian being nickel and dimed.
But in spite of this, there are a couple of things that Rogers has going for it over the small players.  An LTE network, and good service coverage. As a data hog with a grandfathered 6Gb plan, I'm very reluctant to give up these benefits for less coverage. 
That said - Wind, I'm keeping my eye on you, and I'm hoping that transition point is not too far in the future.