MTS vs. Rogers

I had an interesting experience getting a new iPhone 5 over the last couple of days.

My initial inclination was to go with MTS. My iPhone 4s is with MTS and I’ve been satisfied with the plan and their network. I also have all the other MTS services, home phone, TV, Internet and one consolidated bill would be nice. But just to do my due diligence I had a look around at other carriers, well just one actually, Rogers. I really wanted good network coverage and I’d heard some things about Telus, and I really didn’t want to spend the time to figure out who or what Fido is or some of the others, so I just looked at Rogers.

Plans seemed basically similar for a similar cost. MTS touts unlimited data, Rogers seems to have flexibility and a better web self-serve presence. Phones seem similarly priced on 3 year terms…. whoa, not exactly. MTS iPhone 5 32GB $279 and Rogers only $149.  Surely this is some sort of mistake or MTS will match the price, so I’m off to an MTS retail outlet to get the phone.

Well, at the store it’s no deal on the phone, they can’t or won’t price match. They vaguely suggest that if I call MTS directly, somebody might help me with the pricing. Well long story short, after 15-20 minutes and explaining my issue to 3 levels of call handlers, MTS is firm, they won’t match the price. Oh well, say bye bye to a customer.

I’ll just swing by a Rogers store and pick up the phone and we’re done. 1st store is sold out, no iPhones. No problem, I’ll be walking right by another Rogers on the way back to the office. Store #2, no 32GB phones, just 16GB, but some great advice. The Apple store at Polo Park is also a Rogers dealer and despite having no Rogers signage at the Apple store, they can hook you up! Saturday morning, shortly after the 9am opening we’ re at the Apple store which is already buzzing with activity and after a very short wait we’re getting the phone and an iPad mini set up on the Rogers network.

Time will tell about the Rogers experience vs. the MTS experience with services and network etc. They do share the same network and towers etc. so the coverage is similar. MTS is hyping LTE, but it’s not up in Manitoba yet, and it seems that Rogers will get in on the LTE action when they get access to the MTS LTE towers, apparently in a month or two.

The surprising thing about this is that MTS would not budge on the hardware price, couldn’t or would’t offer me any other reason to stay with them, and lost a customer over it. Not only that, but if the Rogers experience is good, my 4S renewal is likely to go their way, which might lead to dropping the MTS home phone and Shaw is always trying to get the TV & Internet business back. Why did they open the door to all that. In fact I made that scenario clear to on of the senior MTS folks I talked to. A big risk to customer satisfaction and loyalty over $130.