Re: Important information about Rogers Yahoo! Calendar and Rogers Yahoo! Notepad

[Bazza1]

Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 9:10 AM
To: nadir.mohamed@rci.rogers.com ; rob.bruce@rci.rogers.com ; bob.berner@rci.rogers.com ; keith.pelley@rci.rogers.com

Gentlemen,

I received this in my email yesterday and it poses some significant challenges for me – and doubtless others who use the service.

Like others, I use the Rogers Yahoo! Calendar, Contacts and Notepad online service that came with my Rogers subscription and sync this via the capabilities that came with my Rogers-supplied BlackBerry (8520, running OS5).
Unless something has very recently occurred with your Yahoo and RIM partners, the new Rogers Yahoo! Calendar, Contacts and Notepad does not sync with the BlackBerry or its most recent Desktop. This therefore renders the online service and the service found on my BlackBerry (software almost as important as the pushed email) almost entirely useless to me – and I’m hardly about to go out and invest in a copy of Outlook to partly restore the capabilities I enjoy with the current Rogers Yahoo! service.

If it seems this change is inevitable (and your partners Yahoo! and RIM are not co-operating in sync software) than it seem my next option may be a hardware change that does work with the new Yahoo! (Apple iPhone – not even sure this will work with new Yahoo!) or moving away from the Rogers Yahoo! online presence completely to, say, a Google homepage and Gmail service with, again, new hardware (iPhone or Android). But again, these are expenses for me to cobble together a fix that is not a current problem.

It is most unfortunate for Rogers subscribers.

Yours sincerely,

[Bazza1]

To: Rob Bruce
Cc: nadir.mohamed@rci.rogers.com ; bob.berner@rci.rogers.com ; keith.pelley@rci.rogers.com

Rob,

Thanks. I look forward to hearing from you on their response. With 2 years remaining on my current BlackBerry Plan, maintaining functionality is not an incidental item. The Yahoo! New Calendar, Contacts, Notepad incompatibility issue with RIM’s Desktop is a well-documented – and long-reported – issue. And sticking with Rogers-branded products (online and hardware) makes the most sense, but clearly, if the products don’t work together, there’s little point.

B***


From: Rob Bruce
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 9:38 AM


B***,

I asked one of my team members to dig into this asap.

Rob

[RogersElise]

Hi Barry.

I am Elise from Rogers social media team. This is a typical instance where customers' feedback helps us in identifying an issue and trying to solve it, so thank you for flagging.

We have reached out to Yahoo and they are working on fixing this, although we have no timeline at the moment.

I'll also be reaching out privately to you to try and help find a solution that works for you in the meantime.

Elise

[Bazza1]

Hello, Elise -

This may be a part of the follow-up Rob Bruce promised (I'm guessing so as you have my email) and I will certainly contact you directly as per that email.

As far as Yahoo! and RIM and the lost sync with Yahoo's 'New' Calendar/ Address/ Notepad is concerned and Yahoo's reply they are working to fix this (with no timeline), I bring your attention to the thread below (among many) from RIM's own Blackberry Forums on this issue -

Still no Yahoo! Calendar sync??!!?? - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

I appreciate Yahoo! is in some trouble and RIM seems preoccupied with other devices and other, newer OSs, but those are the partners Rogers has. "Yes", in rely to your email, 'We'll talk".

[Bazza1]

To: emil.sundberg@rci.rogers.com
Cc: brian.szeto@rci.rogers.com ; Rogers.Helps@rci.rogers.com ; nadir.mohamed@rci.rogers.com ; rob.bruce@rci.rogers.com ; bob.berner@rci.rogers.com ; keith.pelley@rci.rogers.com

Hi, Emil -

Thank you for your call last evening on this situation.

To recap the situation – Yahoo! has announced it is migrating all of its Rogers Yahoo! customers currently on their ‘Classic’ Calendar service – which syncs via the BlackBerry Desktop to Rogers-branded Blackberrys – to the ‘New’ Calendar, which does not.

A test run on my own part of the New service – currently one can try the New Calendar but can roll back (this doesn’t appear to be an option soon) – confirmed the problem back in September.

And Yahoo’s response – including to your colleague Elise Ondet – has been that Yahoo! is aware and “...this feature is not currently supported although we hope to have this functionality available to you in the future.”
No word as to when – or if – it will occur. And certainly nothing to suggest this will happen before the switch. So my Rogers Yahoo! online services will be unable to communicate with my Rogers-branded device – a device that I got specifically because it did fully sync with Rogers Yahoo!

The option for all Rogers subscribers who wish to hold onto their online Yahoo! sync capabilities appears to be -

- Get an iPhone 4. This, according to Yahoo!, syncs with the New Calendar and Contacts (but not Notepad or Tasks). So 50% fixed.

or,

- Fully migrate away from Rogers Yahoo! to Gmail. There are still reports of ‘issues’ with the Google Sync with BlackBerry (and my own experience with a test confirmed that), so that isn’t a solution, device-wise. The alternative is to move to an Android device, but, like the iPhone, it will only sync Calendar and Contacts. And Android doesn’t sync with Yahoo at all. So a full migration away from Yahoo! (with all the reconfigurations to Contact info that entails), with little real benefit.


The upshot looks like that if subscribers wish to stick with Rogers Yahoo! (and Rogers’ partners of Yahoo! and RIM won’t work together to resolve issues in a timely manner), we all need to look at an iPhone to fix a problem that doesn’t currently exist. I’m not totally beyond considering that, providing Rogers can make the migration as painless (financially and technically) as possible. We are, after all, trying to resolve an issue not of the subscribers’ doing.

I look forward to hearing from you later day as we discussed.

Regards,

[Bazza1]

And then, yesterday, I awoke to a dead BlackBerry. Karma? Tried several battery pulls - nothing. Back onto the email at Rogers to explain the situation has now changed. No more waffling, please. Please email me ASAP. Brian did, letting me know he was looking at options.

Several more battery pulls, some shaking (and swearing) and I - briefly - regained control of the BB - just long enough for Brian to reach me by phone and discuss the problem -

From: Brian Szeto
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 12:15 PM
Subject: RE: ATTN: NEW ISSUE - Rogers Yahoo! New Calendar/Contacts/Notepad and RIM Sync

As per our last phone conversation, I have sent out a loaner blackberry to you via same day courier. You will get it today before 4:30pm. I have also requested an iPhone 4 32GB to be sent to my office. Once it arrives, I will contact you to pick up the unit and to return the loaner blackberry. Emil will follow up with you next week to discuss details on the iPhone replacement.

*******

The loaner (9300) arrived to cover me until the iPhone arrives. Still no resolution from Yahoo / RIM on the New Calendar sync - and it looks like the device solution is the iPhone. Not ideal, but if a product will soon no longer offer you the features you want (or simply won't turn on)...

[Bazza1]

Bu-bye, BlackBerry.

Normally, I would rather have a open running sore than invest in products from The Smug Ba*stard From Cupertino, but there's been a resolution -

To: brian.szeto@rci.rogers.com ; esundber@rci.rogers.com
Cc: nadir.mohamed@rci.rogers.com ; rmohamma@rci.rogers.com ; rob.bruce@rci.rogers.com ; bob.berner@rci.rogers.com ; keith.pelley@rci.rogers.com ; Rogers.Helps@rci.rogers.com
Subject: Re: NEW ISSUE - Rogers Yahoo! New Calendar/Contacts/Notepad and RIM Sync

Dear Brian,

Thank you for taking the time to see me yesterday and for your (and Emil’s) work at resolving this issue – at least for this one subscriber.

It should be noted that Yahoo! has not completely shifted their Rogers services over to the New plan for older subscribers – their Mail can be switched over to it, but Calendar and Contacts remain in the Classic mode. As such, the iPhone is not yet able to sync with Calendar and Contacts – however, I built a new email address from scratch (which automatically includes the New services), copied my PIM info over and this does sync. In time, when the Rogers Yahoo! Classic PIM services are fully switched over, I’ll likely move back.
The regular setup of email access of my Rogers address was easy enough on the iPhone.

Meanwhile, I have no real problem with starting my Plan over again, while the shifting of the Plan from the BlackBerry Value Pack (less discount) to the iPhone one with similar features (and price) seems to have gone head without issue.

In the greater scheme of things however, there is still the underlying issue – soon, Rogers Yahoo! Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notepad and Tasks will not be able to sync with any of your subscribers’ BlackBerrys. Yahoo! seems to be in no hurry to apply a fix and RIM only offers Yahoo! (Classic) sync as their direct 3rd Party sync option. If Rogers cannot encourage its partners to work together to find a fix ASAP, then Rogers must advise your BlackBerry subscribers (and those considering them as part of a Plan) that they will not work with the Rogers Yahoo! online PIM services. To not do so will only encourage customers to come to you for a fix – and its highly unlikely Rogers will be dead keen on swapping out (as you did for me) the BlackBerry for an ‘complimentary upgrade’ iPhone 4 for everyone affected.

In my situation, it took about a month (and, coincidentally, a dying BlackBerry) to get this resolved. Others may not have that sort of patience with Rogers.

Thanks again for your attention to this matter.

[Bazza1]

I just knew that was almost too easy -

My Rogers bill arrived yesterday and Accounts tried to ding me $305 for the 'complimentary upgrade' I received. Tcch. Typical.

Got back onto Brian & Emil at Rogers and they have promised me that this will all be corrected later today. We'll just wait and see...

[Bazza1]

Fixed. This month. But, knowing Rogers' Accounts, I'll keep an eye out.

Meanwhile, RIM - its a pity you aren't able (unwilling) to play well with Yahoo. Or that Yahoo isn't willing on playing well with you. Despite what your Desktop Manager might suggest.

The upshot is I've given up on your BlackBerry devices in order to maintain some useful functionality. And I've also gained easy connectivity (no crashing as with BlackBerry) to Starbucks/Bell Hotspots here in Canada. I know you're preoccupied with other devices and others OSs at the moment, but if you were really worried about market share, you'd be doing what you can to keep current users happy.

[Habs_fan]

I'm a current user and I'm happy,
Just thought I'd share

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Bazza1]

Well, Habs_fan, I was (mostly) happy with my BB - but when I found out that soon my Rogers-supplied online PIM will no longer sync with my Rogers-supplied BB and that none of the product providers seem in any hurry to fix things, then I decided I needed to jump ship.

Pity, but there you are.

And thanks for sharing...

[Habs_fan]

As long as you found a phone that fits your needs, hopefully you'll stick around to help

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Bazza1]

Oh, will do. While I have had to chuck my BlackBerry, I am still with Rogers. A case of modified self-flagellation (and not in that good way)...