nice pr guy, I almost believed you.

Bottom line: cell phones are luxury items for 85% of the population. Smartphones are even more so. Yes, yes, they can be vital for some lines of work and they’re great if you’re stranded that 1 in a million time that there’s no houses/gas stations/payphone around and you actually have service (pretty rare especially if you go with a smaller company or live outside the GTA). But if most of your calls are “Hey, what’cha doin’?” while you’re standing beside a payphone in a mall then I don’t have much sympathy. Even less if you’re over your monthly minutes and into the $0.35/minute charges. And it is great to get emails on the go but you probably have a computer collecting dust at home that you can read the latest forwarded chain email on. And do you really need to Google Prince’s Discography while riding the Sky Train? How often has lack of mobile internet been fatal? There are still such things as maps and phone books!

All these things are great, I’m even guilty of it a bit: my work provides me with a crackberry that I use to answer work emails while I’m traveling or field work calls but who really needs these in their day-to-day lives? And who needs the latest and greatest version of these? I had a cell from Rogers previously and I paid stupid amounts of money for it and meanwhile they had horrible coverage for my area. It was never anything that wasn’t outlined in the contract though (except the particularly crappy coverage) so I had only myself to blame for making this a necessity in my life. I dropped it and I didn’t die. Amazing.

It’s like the people that max out their VISA at the Sony Store and then whine that they’re getting charged 21% on “ridiculous debts”. Evil corporate giants… C’mon. The only power these companies have is that which you give them. If everyone who didn’t need (not want, need) a cell or smartphone dropped it these companies would scramble to drop the prices or fold up completely. Cell commercials always talk about the freedom their service provides. Where’s the freedom in having people be able to reach you anywhere anytime? Drop the damn phone. You’ll be happy you did. so will the guy you just cutoff on the overpass.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=192012118972057552&ei=ooMQSZvOF4n0-wHk1YmiCg&q=the+corporation

Or for the full length version – http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3203253804055041031&hl=en

“If corporations are legally human, what kind of people are they?”

Cheers!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=192012118972057552&ei=ooMQSZvOF4n0-wHk1YmiCg&q=the+corporation

enjoy

btw legal and free to distribute support the artists buy the dvd at http://www.thecorporation.com/

I agree customer service is one of the highest demands of any consumer in any industry but the facts are simple Corporations are for profit before anything and new gadgets (the iphone for example) generate huge profits!

If you need a better understanding of why rogers/fido or any other major service provider doesn’t give 2 shits what you think watch a canadian documentary entitled “The Corporation” or a film starring john cusack called “War Inc”. Your concerns may be shared by others and significant but unfortunately they are falling on deaf ears.

“I am pushing just ahead of the “boomer” population. You likely have not missed the fact that they represent a huge demographic and will dominate the population for several years. I fail to understand why it is that corporations like yours and others have so narrowly focused on the “youth” market to the extent that the rest of us have been dismissed. I do not understand why there is not a wide range of choices of equipment and service plans from which to choose. I do not understand the ethics of turning away from the needs of customers such as elders and disabled people. What does it say about corporate values and administration when so consistently customer’s needs are unmet? I happen to know that this issue has been presented to Fido and Rogers before. I know that many of your sales people have let you know that they get requests all the time from people like me or from people who simply want a functional telephone – no camera, no mp3 player, no movies, no games – just good reliable phone service and an efficient and dependable phone. I have sometimes wondered if the answer to my questions may be that the people making the decisions that we all have to live with are mainly very young people. If that is so, I still do not understand how it could be that such a huge corporation as Fido and Rogers represents does not have administrators that can see the bigger picture, and who have lived long enough to understand the variability of customer needs and can, as mentors, help young staff see beyond their excitement about technology and speed and bling and teach about service. (And I do not mean what passes for “customer service” in your world.) You can serve the “youth market” AND the rest of us. Seems like that would help grow your business.”

This is not news. It is standard operating procedure.

thats why i go with tin cans and string now!