I just wanted to share this information with everybody:

Starting July 7 Rogers Wireless will be charging for RECEIVED text messages at a rate of $0.15/message. This fee will not apply if you have a text messaging bundle on your plan already.

A little while ago Rogers started advertising in their plans that you would get "Unlimited Received Text Messages", people who have this on their plans are not subject to these new rates, but for everybody else without a texting plan, you will be subject to this new billing rate.

Spam messages can be reported, and once you report them Rogers will waive any charges associated with them, however "premium" text messages (the ones you subscribe to for sports updates or whatever) are not eligible for this exemption, you will pay the $0.15 for these even if you complain. Also, any text messages sent from other Rogers customers are not considered spam and their fees will not be waived. There is an option to block _ALL_ incoming text messages which customer service can add to your account (its free).


This is not new, Bell and Telus have done this already, but what really grinds my gears here is Rogers' REASON. I am paraphrasing here (since I don't have the memo in front of me) but here is their response to the "why are you doing this?" question:

Rogers has conducted a market survey and we have noticed that all of the other leading wireless retailers are charging this fee so we are adding it to our bills.


Seriously, the answer, in THEIR message to why they are adding the charge is because everybody else is doing it.

I know when Bell and Telus introduced this people could get out of their contracts free of charge because of these changes, so I called the support line and asked about this, and they basically told me that it is in the fine print of every person's contract that Rogers can change the contract provided you get 60 days notice. They will be putting a little note on everybody's wireless bill starting this month so that they have provided at least 60 days notice. If you wanted to cancel because of this you will still be liable for the maximum of $100 or $20/month for the remainder of your contract (voice only, data cancellation fees may also apply!).

I don't know about you guys, but I am pissed, I am going through my filing cabinet right now to find my printed copy of my contract.

Think about it, if somebody you know and don't like does not have a text messaging plan, and you do, you can send them a few random texts to jack up their bill. I get billing people for things they are responsible for (roaming, long distance, data usage, etc.), but billing people because SOMEBODY ELSE is sending them text messages makes no sense.


Sorry if this came out as a rant, this really pisses me off but I thought I should share it with people as early as possible so you have more warning about this.

Oh wow, so Rogers follows suit finally - I knew it was a matter of time.... (even though I have a text plan in a bundle).

But as for the liable for the remaining contract, it's $20/month for each month left, to a maximum of $400 and a minimum of $100 - whichever is greater.

Okay, so for anybody who is curious. My old ToS which does not specify that they can add any charges they like is no longer void. In it (and in their current ToS) they have this:

Check your service agreement, it will say that you are liable for the greater of $100 or $20/month for the remainder of your contract.
*EDIT*
Depending on when you signed there may be a $400 maximum on this charge

Wow... that's gay.

I'm with rogers... but I'm sure I have some sort of bundle.

I find it kind of dumb how this is set up, so do you have to open the message to be charged 15 cents, or does it automatically charge you 15 cents for any message sent to you?

Telus started doing this to me a long time ago.

They're all bastards. Every one of them.

Text messages received, not read. They can't tell if you open it or not, the fee is for sending a message to your phone, something you have no control over.

Oh wonderful ... Thank Ottawa for regulating the industry in such a manner that corporations can work together to create a monopoly instead of creating competition.

It's hilarious how this has become an 'industry standard' ... with no real justification. I am still erked about the system access fee which has generated millions (if not billions) for these companies and nothing can be done about it.

Considering text messages are sent in a highly under-utilized control channel and do not in any way interfere with voice calls or data transfer I don't understand why they are charging for them at all? Realistically they should be able to give everybody ~1000/month and only charge the high users to keep usage reasonable. But hey, apparently I don't know jack shit since every company is charging for them.

Thankfully, I just checked, and I have 125sent/unlim. incoming text messages. I don't text much, but I have a couple friends that are avid texters. I can see how this is just a money grab, but how many people don't have texting on their contracts? I think the number of affected people may be smaller than we think.

yeah this sucks for people without a bundle, i have unlimited texts so its fine by me, i bet more then 80% of people that text have a plan for text's anyways... this more for those people who dont pay to text and do it once and a while i bet

screw rogers. i cancelled my useless HDTV theme package and the movie network as well

Fuck it, we should make a change that people who make the call or send the message pays.

There will be much less spam that way.

We just need all those people who bid on that wireless spectrum last year to get their act together and provide some much needed competition.

I lold at this, they just spent so much money advertising the no charge for received texts and then this

It's like there is no competition between Rogers/Telus/Bell. One of them add's a charge and instead of the other getting rid of that charge to get more customers, they also add that charge.

They're all working together to milk as much money as possible with nobody doing nothing about it.

What a fucking joke these 3 are.

So....even WITH a text plan, if you go over your limit for receiving/sending, you'll still be subjected to 0.15 to each text sent or received now? Instead of the old if you were over your limit you'd still get free receiving?

yea so much for all the promises of a new cellphone carrier.

im not sure about this, but i was informed by a rogers rep from saying they werent?

probably a uninformed person though

yea fuck, not to mention that I used this as a closer for quite a few sales over the past few months, lots of pissed off people i'm sure. I even remember reading an article about telus and bell doing this, with a quote from a rogers rep saying "we'll never charge for incoming text messages"

ah well, this really doesn't effect a whole lot of people, even a basic voicemail + call display package exempts you from this.