The IT Nerd

Things really aren’t really going well with those who want to activate an Apple Watch on the Rogers network. On top of corporate customers being shut out entirely at this point, those who should be able to activate an Apple Watch on the Rogers network are sometimes running into issues. Based on the angry emails that I am getting, here’s a list of error codes that people seem to be getting:

• “Your Rogers account is not eligible to enable cellular on your Apple Watch. Contact Rogers for more information.”
• Error codes WS300, WS201 and WS501

On top of that, people are also reporting that when they enter 911 info, the activation process kicks them back to the start of the process. That sounded familiar as my wife and I experienced that several years ago when trying to set up WiFi calling on Rogers. The only recourse that seems to exist at present is to phone Rogers. I’ve been told by various customers who have called in that this can be very painful as the front line reps seem to be only able to open a support ticket and beyond that they can’t do much for you. I’ve also heard that in some cases it may take days for Rogers to get back to you. That’s highly frustrating to customers. Some of whom have asked me what my experience has been like on Telus. Rather than answer them individually, I’ll do a write up about my experience with Telus in the coming days.

Rogers really needs to get a handle on this and quickly. They have already taken a PR hit by being a year late to the Apple Watch party unlike Telus and Bell. Then when they show up their corporate customers can’t join the party. Again, this is unlike Telus and Bell. Now this. If Rogers can’t get their act together, they will find it difficult to convince customers that their Apple Watch business should go to them rather than to Telus or Bell. After all, Apple fans are an intensely loyal and highly vocal group. And getting them mad enough to defect from Rogers is a really bad idea if you’re Rogers.

Well, just when you thought that Rogers was about to get past their ongoing issues of bringing Apple Watch support to their network comes news that business customers can’t get the Apple Watch added to their plans. I came across this Tweet a few minutes ago while monitoring reactions to the launch of Apple Watch support on the Rogers network. I had to blank out some of the content as I like to think this is a safe for work blog:

Upon seeing this, I pinged some of my contacts within Rogers who speak to me on background. They confirmed that Rogers doesn’t support business customers at this time. The thing is that Rogers had to have seen what happened to Telus who tripped over the same issue and who had to scramble to get that sorted in a hurry. Thus for Rogers to not take that into account and launch something that is strictly consumer focused is incredibly short sighted on their part. You have to wonder what they were thinking. In the meantime, if you’re a business customer who wants an Apple Watch, Telus seems to be your only option at the moment.

UPDATE: I got this from a Rogers customer.

I am guessing that’s what business users are seeing when they try to activate. If that’s not enough, I am now getting reports of people of all account types having issues activating period. There’s an example of that in the comments section. This is clearly not going well for Rogers at all.

UPDATE #2: Thanks to the loyal readers that pointed out that Bell supports the Apple Watch with LTE on business accounts as well. Unlike Rogers who continues to quote 2019 as a date that business accounts will be supported:

You really have to wonder what is going on at Rogers HQ these days as this is just mind blowing that this is happening at all.

I just finished watching the Apple event where the new Apple Watch Series 4 was announced along with the iPhone Xr, Xs and Xs Max phones. And one thing popped up that will be of interest to Canadians. Unlike last year where Rogers was missing from the list of supported carriers of the Apple Watch Series 3, Rogers was finally listed as a supported carrier for the Series 4 which implies they now have support for eSIM technology. Here’s the proof:

Better late than never I suppose. I say that because so many Rogers customers left Rogers for Bell or Telus primarily because of how poorly Rogers handled this. Myself included.

Now one thing to keep in mind is that the support eSIM not only is relevant for Apple Watch users, but it is relevant for iPhone Xs, Xs Max, and Xr users as well as those phones use eSIM technology. Thus Rogers was likely forced to do this.

As I type this, there are no details. As in price or when it will be available. Thus stay tuned to this page for updates as I get them.

UPDATE: iPhone In Canada is reporting that one of the key features of the new iPhone Xs and Xs Max which is dual SIM technology which uses a physical SIM and the built in eSIM technology is only going to be supported by Bell when those phones are launched. That’s going to be disappointing to Rogers customers. And perhaps Telus users as well. So it seems it may not the good news that Rogers customers are looking for.

UPDATE #2: Another data point is that Apple lists Rogers as supporting carrier for the Apple Watch here.

However, there is still no announcement from Rogers of any sort. This is perplexing as this is a chance for Canada’s largest telco to make up for almost a year of negative press and they are not taking it. Bizarre.

UPDATE #2: A reader pinged Rogers about this via Twitter and got this response:

Hmmm…. This is plausible. Given this which is showing up intermittently on Rogers.com:

When I clicked learn more, it takes me to a page for me to sign up for email updates…. For the iPhone Xs. Weird. And I say that it is showing up intermittently because if you refresh enough times you may or may not see this. My guess is that Rogers is still trying to get their messaging straight on this.

UPDATE #3: A reader found this page on Rogers.com with instructions on how to set up your Apple Watch with LTE for cellular usage. As I type this, it’s clear that it is still under construction. But it’s the clearest indication yet that this is finally happening. Though it would be nice if Rogers would just serve up a real announcement with pricing. That would really be welcome.

UPDATE #4: If I bothered to page through the instructions found on this page I would have seen this:

So based on this screen shot it looks like you will need a Share Everything plan. That isn’t a shock as that’s in line with Bell and Telus. And you will pay an extra $10 a month which is $5 more expensive than Bell, but in line with Telus. Although Telus gives you 1GB of data as part of their Apple Watch plan. Bell doesn’t give you any data and there’s no clue if the boys in red are going to do the same thing as Telus or will they go the Bell route. And Rogers gets to extract an extra $30 from your pocket as a one time connection fee. Lovely. So now we have some idea of what Rogers has planned. It would be nice if they would just come out with a statement a lay it all out for us.

UPDATE #5: Rogers has finally posted pricing on their website. In a bit of a surprise to me, they offer up plans for $10 a month with or without a Share Everything plan.

Rogers is also serving up 1GB of data as part of the plan and it looks like they will be giving you three months for free. If Rogers offered this up at this time last year, I would have stayed with them and not moved to Telus. Apparently this all kicks off on September 17th and you’ll need a Apple Watch running watchOS 5 to make this all work.

For months now, I have been writing about the lack of Apple Watch Support by Rogers along with their total mishandling of the situation. With no timeline, no clear statement from the telco in red about what their plans were about if they would ever provide support for Apple’s wearable device, many people trashed Rogers on Twitter and many others bolted to Bell and Telus who both have support for the Apple Watch. In my case, I bolted to Telus.

But it now seems that maybe Rogers is going to be finally providing support for the Apple Watch. A reader of this blog provided me this URL which I promptly went to and screen shotted. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, and check the above circled area, the URL is “https://www.rogers.com/consumer/wireless/apple-watch-series-4”. Not only that, if you look at the circled area, you’ll see that the page is titled Apple Watch Series 4.

What this appears to be is a placeholder of some sort that is meant to be filled with whatever Apple announces in a couple of weeks. It’s also clear that their webmaster screwed up as this likely was not intended to be visible to the public. Thus we can draw two conclusions from this. It implies, and the key word is implies that Rogers will support the Apple Watch. Not only that, it implies that they will likely sell it as well. It also says that Rogers saying for months as to the fact that support for eSIM devices would come in 2018 was accurate. Now there’s no timeframe as to when this support could show up as it could be on the day that Apple launches their latest watch, or it could be much later. But it’s something.

Now I have been around long enough to not even to bother asking Rogers to comment on this. But if they want to tell their customers who have waited for a very long time for anything that makes them not bolt from the carrier, please do. I think they deserve that much. In the meantime, I’ll be watching developments very closely to see what comes next.

UPDATE: A reader alerted me that the link has been removed. But too bad for Rogers that screenshots live forever.

Since the Apple Watch was announced last fall Rogers has been on the back foot trying to tap dance around the fact that their chief rivals Bell and Telus can support the eSIM technology that it uses and they can’t. Last week Rogers problems increased as Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Guess what? It uses eSIM technology as well. Thus it’s not available on the Rogers network. Something that is confirmed in this Tweet:

If that response sounds familiar, it’s the same one that they’ve been using for months as they’ve tried to tap dance around this issue. But to be fair, Samsung hasn’t announced availability outside the US and Korea. Thus Rogers can’t really comment on a product that technically doesn’t exist yet. But the fact that questions are already popping up about whether Rogers supports this watch, and the fact that Rogers is serving up similar answers isn’t going to help the perception that Rogers is behind the eight ball when it comes to supporting the latest and greatest tech. Plus you can bet that because Telus and Bell who already support eSIM technology are going to be quickly pushing that narrative the second that the Samsung Galaxy Watch does pop up in Canada. Not to mention that we’re likely a month or so away from an Apple press event where the latest version of the Apple Watch will likely appear. All of that will crank up the pressure on Rogers to support eSIM.

Let’s see if Rogers can actually follow through on their promise to get this done in 2018. I for one am skeptical they can, but I am free to be proven wrong.

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:

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:

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:

And:

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?

Even though I am no longer a Rogers wireless customer so that I could get an Apple Watch (review to come in the next couple of weeks by the way), I still follow this story as I get a lot, and I do mean a lot of comments from frustrated Rogers customers on this. As I watch Rogers try to deal with what must be a public relations nightmare, I note a very disturbing trend in terms of how Rogers is responding to this. Rogers seems to be responding in a way that seems to be incredibly tone deaf. Take this response that Rogers served up to a Twitter user:

Justin Prest has a point here. Rogers from what I could tell didn’t even try to say anything to keep a 25 year customer. I point that out because I have seen the people behind Rogers social media accounts try to jump in to save a customer who is talking about leaving. Instead they stuck with a modified version of the party line which is “We don’t currently support Apple Watch. Keep an eye on our website for updates on our products and services.” Now I guess you can’t get in trouble for repeating that. But it really doesn’t help them to give their customers the warm and fuzzies. And now customers are even trolling them on that:

Now the second tweet was sent two minutes after the first one. Keep that in mind as I post what Rogers replied with:

Well. Mr Patrick called it. Either Rogers didn’t see the second Tweet, or they simply don’t care and are sticking to the party line. Also, by the time customers start calling the responses from Rogers on Twitter like Babe Ruth calls home runs, Rogers has a major problem on its hands. As in, they have lost the plot when it comes to managing this from a PR perspective. That’s not good if you’re Rogers.

Then there’s this:

Now this could be fact, or a salesperson in a Rogers store or authorized dealer going rogue. But in the absence of actual facts, it allows this sort of thing to happen. That’s not good for anyone.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Though I will say it again packaged slightly differently. Instead of these incredibly lame and tone deaf responses, Rogers needs to simply come out and say what their plans are. Or, if they’ve not going to support the Apple Watch with LTE, just say so and put an end to this so that customers can make decisions on the telco that best meets their needs. If they are going to support it, say when. Cookie cutter responses are not winning the day for them, thus they really need to demonstrate that their customers matter to them by not giving them tone deaf responses.