Toronto Photography Meetup Group

This finally nailed the coffin, switching to Bell!

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Dear Rogers Yahoo! customer,

We are writing to inform you that on July 1, 2009, your Flickr Pro account included with your Rogers Hi-Speed Internet service will change to a free Flickr account. The free Flickr service has many of the same features as Pro, but is subject to some limits.

Your existing photos or videos will not be deleted as a result of this change. If you have more than 200 photos in the free Flickr account, only the most recent 200 are displayed. Other changes include:

I got this today as well. I was wondering whether this applies to everyone...I guess it does?

check the forum before double posting the same topic!

http://tpmg.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11812&highlight=

You subscribe to Rogers = it affects you.

Yup, I got the same message a couple of hours ago. While it doesn't really affect me much, as I hardly use my account, I'm still annoyed at this constant paring down of services while the monthly charges continue to rise.

Unfortunately the topic is "Boooouurns!" which is not very descriptive don't you think? I think OP did no wrong in this case.

I'm disappointed, but in the end... $25 USD or CDN isn't much per year. Spend more on coffee in a month!

Rogers Sucks


If you are planning to switch internet, I would take a look at other "smaller" internet providers such as Tek Savvy. We need more competition than the two big bullies, Rogers and Bell.

I wouldn't bother switching to Bell, seriously, it's not like the service over there is going to be all that great, but i guess if you want to switch to make a point, that's a good way of saying it.

I'm just gonna email Rogers saying how I'm a bit disappointed. As a consumer, what value do I see really when they increase their monthly fee and now they're getting rid of the flickr pro account? $25 isn't a lot but it's the whole idea of value for your money.

I highly doubt it. Flickr = Yahoo and Yahoo has a relationship with Rogers.

i wonder if you can move you account to another yahoo ID once the free pro is finished. i rather not have my rogers email associated with flickr if i'm going to pay for it myself.

that's a great point, actually. anyone know?

If you check your account settings, you'll see that you can associate your account with as many email addresses as you like. You can then set a new address as "primary"

true crap...

$25 here... $2 / month on detailed billing over there... bank withdrawal fees...
it all adds up. If you guys want to blindly pay for it, go right ahead. I'd rather save my money and spend it on lenses.

The only reason my family's with Rogers is the bundle discount we have with internet, TV and one cell phone.

Internet has been painfully slow intermittently, HDTV has its moments...

Bell has always been consistently faster, we used to use DSL in our old neighborhood.

Bell has a few promos for switchers, but I can always use that against Roger's customer service and threaten to switch. Switching over we would save about $120 a year.

Also $25 USD isn't a whole lot of money but FlickrPro adds value to the internet service. Other crap I can do without like 'online storage space' or 'pop up blocker'

It's all about value. When Roger's offered it, I was happy like pig in mud. I almost paid for Flickr at that moment.

Try CIA. No not the spy agency but Cybersurf Internet Access. I'm a subscriber for 4 years now and never had a problem. For $33/month you get a 6mbps and for $10 more you get 10mbps. They used to provide dial-up internet for free. Remember those 3web CDs you get from Canada Post? They're the same company.

They also offer home phone service for $39.95/month and the 10mbps internet is free. I think I will switch my regular internet service to home phone service with them.

from https://www2.cia.com/products/phoneBasic.html

Package includes:

* Free High Speed Internet, up to 10 Mbps
* Free local calls
* Free calling to Canadian cities
* A new phone number (or keep your old one)
* All the popular calling features

All this for just $39.95 per month.


No, I don't work for them.

I switched to 3Web a year ago from Rogers, and been as happy as I could be here with Canadian slow internet ever since. No shutdowns, no limiting bullsh*t. How's their phone service?

I love to point out the fact that at least you guys had the chance to take advantage of this Rogers bundling when you had the chance.

Living out here in the boonies, there is no Rogers (or DSL for that matter).

Wow. People are awfully quick to put the blame solely on Rogers.

Yahoo! hasn't been doing very well for quite some time now. I think it's just as likely that Y! has more to do with pulling this arrangement.

I was a flickr Pro member before the Rogers/Yahoo! arrangement put this together, and will likely pony up again.... unless the the M$/Y! deal goes through. In that case I RUN!

I spoke to the rogers customer service representative and Yahoo as changed the contract they have with rogers and have advised rogers account holders that they do not want to dish out for Flickr pro account..

I already posted this in the other thread:

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT- ... unts-99524

So in actuality it may not be Roger's fault.

Blame yahoo.

True enough - new competition is required.

Problem?
Where do you think Tek Savvy (and everyone else) leases their connection from? Bell Canada.

If there are problems with the service, you are now stuck in a tier 3 service level because you're not a direct customer of Bell but a customer of a customer of Bell.

So when there's an issue and the same issue happens with a Bell customer, the Bell customer gets the "preferred" service and then Tek Savvy and then the Tek Savvy customer.

Happens all the time with people who lease from, what they believe, is a true competitor to one of the big Telco operators.

Dave

I know Tek savvy uses bell lines. But I do think supporting them is the only thing we can currently do as a consumer if we want to change the monopoly. Bell "owns" the lines.

Also, my dad worked for Bell for 30 years and when the bell telephone lines went down, his TOP priority was getting the lines of the resellers back up and running FIRST. It defies logic but that is what Bell was doing for telephone lines. Do they do the same with internet? I dont know. But I dont believe that Bell customers are always considered "preferred". It all amounts to who makes Bell the most amount of money with the least effort. If Tek Savvy becomes bigger, it will have more influence over Bell.

I don't know. I'm just getting their internet service. Since the phone service uses the internet, I guess it's as good as their internet service. I will try to switch to phone/internet package as soon as a get a chance. Then I'll let you know.

That's because Bell has SLA's with the resellers and major clients & will have to pay them back for down time. I know we(@work) charge back to them for down time. Wish it was the case for home users as well.

Exactly - SLA's with the resellers, depending on the resellers contract, yes. The reseller, if (that's a big if) they actually have an SLA stipulated in their contract with the end user, usually ends up "pointing the finger" at the line owner (i.e. Bell or Rogers).

It's happened with us (also @ work) - and it can be an exercise in frustration mainly because we used Allstream who leases from Bell. When there's a network problem Allstream does their checks and claims the issue is on Bell's end. Bell does their checks and states the problem is with Allstream. And the "blame game" is played for quite some time before any resolution comes from the issue.

The same thing can (and does) happen with many of the smaller (and not so small) resellers across the country.

Until the government actually regulates the industry, this will continue to happen. Look at the cell phone situation, same thing going on there too.

Dave

Being in the computer support business I'm well acquainted with the blame game. Hardware blames software. Software blames hardware. Support is stuck in the middle, because no one will answer the question.

The truth comes down to one simple point; the entity that provided the product or service is responsible for it. The end user doesn't care who screwed it up, he just wants it to work. He's entitled to that. If you acquired one service over another based on the bundled perks, then the provider clawing those perks back is unacceptable.

This is also just one in a long series of things that have been undone for Rogers customers. Not so long ago I had 4 email addresses, each with a specific purpose and listserv memberships. Those accounts were unilaterally killed off.

Interesting. The email I received from Rogers says my Flickr Pro account will change to the free account on July 1, 2009. But I logged on to my flickr account and the message on the main page says January 1, 2012 (that's in 960 days).

Mine says July 1st 2009. Hope it works out for you, that would be awesome.

On a side note in this FAQ they don;t even answer their own question.

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Why do Rogers Internet Service subscribers no longer get free Pro?

The Flickr Pro account included with your Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed service will change to a free Flickr account on July 1, 2009.

Don't panic! None of your photos or videos will be deleted, but if you have a free account you will be subject to a few limits. If you upgrade again, all of your photos will be waiting for you. Any of your sets that disappear will magically reappear when you renew or upgrade.

If you decide to upgrade to Flickr Pro at the regular price of $24.95 (USD), you