Homage to Keith who we were lucky enough to see yesterday.

Don’t do it! Just don’t. I tell you, we used to think O2 were bad, but they’ve nothing on the cell phone shower over here. Not only do you have to pay $70 for a sim and to have it “set up”, pay for 911 calls on a monthly charge, and pay to find out who’s calling you, but we’ve just found that Rogers make it easier to leave them than to stay with them if you want to change your plan. When I first set up the phone last year I worked out what I did and didn’t want to pay for in monthly fees. This gave me a bare bones rate. The woman asked if I wanted a 1,2 or 3 year contract. I asked them how much cheaper my monthly payments would be on a 3 year contract – “oh, they are the same price” she said! Now why on earth would anyone want to lock in for 3 years with no gain?

Anyroad, we are looking at changing the plan now, and they’ve told us it would cost $50 in admin fees (not bad for 30 seconds work). Alternatively, ending the plan and going into a Rogers store and starting a new one would cost $35! Honestly, they’re really crap over here! Here is an idea of our “local calling zone” – it’s the tiny black rectangle around Fernie – so long as I’m inside it I can make a local call.

Vodafone, Carphonewarehouse, you might not be very good, but you’ll find a welcome here in Canada I’ll bet.

Rant over, carry on.

Update: Bell can’t do text messaging on paygo with smart phones. Apparently it’s too difficult. bah. Mind you Fido, a subsidiary of Rogers appears to be a bit more customer focused, so there’s every chance we may jump department if not company.

Finally: We have moved to Fido. I confused the hell out of the nice lady at Rogers. “I’m sorry to hear you’re leaving, anything we can do?”, nope, “Do you mind me asking who you are going with?”, yes, you, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand”. Bless ‘er. Nice lady, poor plans.