[K1drobt]

I'm just wondering how the upgrade pricing works. I know for smart phones you have to wait at least 2 years to be eligible for a hardware upgrade and once your eligible you can buy the phone on contract but not for the promotion price listed. I remember when the 9700 Bold was $299.99 one of my buddies upgraded to that phone for $399.99 on a three year contract after 2 years into his old phone. So is it another 100 bucks on top of the promotion price when your first eligible for a upgrade?

[K1drobt]

Bump.....?

[sushistew]

they sent me my bb for free less than a year into my contract

[mdawson1]

how did you pull that off? best i got was same price $199, but had to add my wife as a family plan member to get that price. just over a year (dec)

[K1drobt]

How is that possible? What BB was it? Can't be the 9700. Might have been a device older than the 8310 and they might let you get it for free. That I can see but not the 9700. Sorry but I can't see that being possible.

[vento]

it all depends on your situation, negotiation skills. and leverage.

just call them, it's your best bet.

you won't get a definite answer here.

[lushpupp]

Hardware upgrades were (up until a week ago) based on a 5 tier upgrade. If your friend paid 400, he was likely a tier 1 or 2. Here's how it worked:

Tier 1 and 2 - much more expensive than new customer pricing
Tier 3 - new customer pricing (including $35 admin fee, same as activation fee)
Tier 4 - new customer pricing, no admin fee
Tier 5 - new customer pricing less $25

Hardware upgrades have recently changed tho, so now it is basically a standard Tier 3 pricing after 2 years, it seems as though they eliminated tiers 1,2,4 and 5

[White.Light]

Tier levels are now gone actually.

As of Jan 15th, the upgrade program is on a new platform. It's two years for upgrades still, but everyone gets tier three pricing, it is no longer based on revenue. So after two years you pay new activation pricing + 35 admin fee.

With the new program you have an option now of upgrading early if you are a high spender, between the 12-24 month range. They haven't let us know about how those tier levels work yet though. You start with being eligible for a consumer phone, then a quick messaging device, then blackberry, then other smartphone, then iphone. This way it gives the higher revenue customers a chance to upgrade early.

Hope this clears things up! And if your friend paid a much higher price, it may be that they opted to pay 200 extra to get the phone without the data term. If they process an order without a data term the shipping department will automatically refuse it but sometimes they get through. Not really supposed to happen though

[Arcanust]

The upgrade pricing is really just a scam. If what White.Light just said is true, that will be a much better system, as the revenue idea was terrible. You are still in most cases better to buy a phone outright from eBay or whatever and just switch your sim card out rather than wait another year. That's just my thoughts on it.

[White.Light]

The revenue idea was bad because of people with multi line accounts that liked to upgrade all at once, the second phone would always be a hundred dollars more.

The bad part is those high revenue users who used to be able to get their admin waived due to how much they spent will no longer have that option.

The new system rewards those high revenue users by allowing them an option to upgrade early between the 12 to 24 month period.

It's not a scam, it's a subsidy on a phone for renewing your contract without you having to cancel and resign up as a new customer to get that new activation pricing.

[daydreamer1983]

Thank you for posting this information. I was in a Rogers store last week and wasn't happy with how their answer considering we have had the same phone for 3 years without upgrading or changing anything on the plan.

I called today and the rep was really helpful (a nice change - I usually have negative experiences with their reps) and said that I was eligible for new customer pricing and whatnot and confirmed that you can do a hardware upgrade every 2 years (or less in some cases). I'm contemplating jumping ship from Telus and taking over my parents awesome Rogers corporate plan... not sure yet.

[K1drobt]

Hardware upgrades were (up until a week ago) based on a 5 tier upgrade. If your friend paid 400, he was likely a tier 1 or 2. Here's how it worked:

Tier 1 and 2 - much more expensive than new customer pricing
Tier 3 - new customer pricing (including $35 admin fee, same as activation fee)
Tier 4 - new customer pricing, no admin fee
Tier 5 - new customer pricing less $25

Hardware upgrades have recently changed tho, so now it is basically a standard Tier 3 pricing after 2 years, it seems as though they eliminated tiers 1,2,4 and 5

Oh, so even after your contract is up and you wanted to upgrade you would still have to pay the activation fee + admin fee on top of the 3 year term price? So around 80 bucks more on top. This cleared it up a lot. Thanks whitelight

[Rikter]

You are still in most cases better to buy a phone outright from eBay or whatever and just switch your sim card out rather than wait another year. That's just my thoughts on it.

While that is an option, be warned that in a lot of cases you won't have any kind of warranty coverage if your phone breaks and with all the problems of the latest phones coming out (9700, 9550, etc) do you really want to risk it?

[nthnc]

Hardware upgrades have recently changed tho, so now it is basically a standard Tier 3 pricing after 2 years, it seems as though they eliminated tiers 1,2,4 and 5

A lady at the Rogers store (actually Loudring I believe) I just bought my BlackBerry from told me that if I waited a few more months to make it past the one year mark, I'd get special, or incentive pricing on a new device. Was she simply wrong? (I wouldn't doubt it, she seemed to pull Rogers info out of her a**)

[Speedv1]

In ~10 months I received a 8220, 8900, and 9000 - all together ~$150 (and I sold the 8220 for $250, so I made money this year).

So upgrades are odd, very odd, but check your 'upgrade my phone' option somewhat often - you may get lucky

[lushpupp]

A lady at the Rogers store (actually Loudring I believe) I just bought my BlackBerry from told me that if I waited a few more months to make it past the one year mark, I'd get special, or incentive pricing on a new device. Was she simply wrong? (I wouldn't doubt it, she seemed to pull Rogers info out of her a**)

Theres a couple things that could have been the case:

1. She had no idea what she was talking about as all consumer upgrades are now only available after 2 years and receive new customer pricing (with a $35 admin being the equivalent of the $35 activation fee).

2. You may have corporate pricing, and if that is the case, you may have been eligible after a year to upgrade. Corporately reimbursed accounts upgrade times and prices may vary.

As for special/incentive pricing tho, i think she may have just been pulling your leg or she may also have been new

[jiggawhat_23]

In ~10 months I received a 8220, 8900, and 9000 - all together ~$150 (and I sold the 8220 for $250, so I made money this year).

So upgrades are odd, very odd, but check your 'upgrade my phone' option somewhat often - you may get lucky

Co-Sign

I got my Pearl from Rogers in Aug. 08 - by March 09 I had upgraded to an 8900 and the minute the 9700 went live on Rogers.com - I called and upgraded. Now I did pay new cx pricing on the 8900 and 9700 but the fact is I got 2 smartphone upgrades in 16 months. I seem to have pretty good scripting when it comes to that stuff....also it knows how to work the system after being an employee for 2 years!