The IT Nerd

As frequent readers of this blog will know. Rogers has been very unwilling to say one way or another if they will carry the Apple Watch with LTE. I personally had to switch to Telus to be able to use one, and many others have switched to that carrier or Bell for the same reason. Well, the waters in regards to this may have been muddied further as Rogers have appeared to have altered their talking points. I cite this Tweet as an example:

I'm so sorry Thomas that this is the case, and, as we know by now, Rogers will not carry the Apple Watch. However, we have plans to launch the technology for cellular-enabled wearable tech in 2018. We’ll update our customers as we get closer to that time. ^yg

— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) May 31, 2018

So, this is how I interpret this:

• Rogers isn’t going to carry the Apple Watch. Which isn’t the biggest deal in the world as you can get it straight from Apple.
• Rogers still plans to roll out “the technology for cellular-enabled wearable tech” in 2018. Which I assume means support for eSIM

However, that isn’t how the universe seems to interpret this. Based on the e-mails that I’ve received over the weekend, the universe interpreting this as “Rogers isn’t going to carry the Apple Watch. So you should move to Telus or Bell.” This impression is being played out on Twitter as well:

Seriously? You’re not going to carry or support the Apple Watch ever?! Thanks for the confirmation. I’m going to go to the Bell and Telus stores tomorrow to find the best plans they can offer me. Bye bye Rogers.

— Justin Prest (@Justin_Prest) June 1, 2018

Now, not carrying the Apple Watch is not the same as not having support for it. But because Rogers messaging in regards to this issue has been just so horrific from the moment that the Apple Watch with LTE first appeared, it has been conflated to be the same thing. Perhaps if Rogers took my advice which was to come out with a clear statement in terms of their plans for eSIM support ages ago, perhaps we would not be talking about this now. However, there’s more as evidenced by this Tweet:

I hear what you are saying Thomas! I have cascaded your comments to our Centre Of Excellence for review. Once new information is available, rest assured we will share right away! Hang in there! ^yg

— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) May 31, 2018

And:

Centre of Excellence?! Hahahahaha! What a joke!

— Justin Prest (@Justin_Prest) June 1, 2018

At this point, Rogers customers really don’t believe what the telco is saying. That’s a problem as customers are assuming the worst and bolting as a result of that.

Rogers, here’s some free advice. You can clear this up right now by coming out with a  clear statement in terms of your plans for eSIM support. Some contrition would be nice as well as I can tell you that your customers are incredibly frustrated. Because what you’re doing isn’t helping you to retain customers. And even if you do, they clearly don’t trust you.

So how about it Rogers?

This entry was posted on June 4, 2018 at 9:44 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Rogers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.