Advice for Rogers plan and new phone

[taco.vidal]

Im a current Rogers customer with two phones on a shared plan. The term of my contract is up. Id like to replace the phones with two iPhone 6 or 6+. My current plan is pretty crappy. I haven't negotiated a new plan in quite a while and haven't followed things since the new two year terms came into play.
-how should I go about trying to negotiate a better plan? can you still call and ask for retentions? is there much room to negotiate or will they give me their best offer?
-is anything negotiable on the price of the phones or is what I see on the website the best they can do?

Im looking for any advice for someone who has gone through this relatively recently rather than generic anecdotal evidence of what they've heard or what they've done years ago.

Thanks guys.

[DoubleF]

I believe retentions has been shut down. At least that's what my SO told me retentions told her was happening when she called a few months ago with Rogers. They hooked her up with a plan 2 weeks before it was released and told her they were shutting down. You might not need to polish up your negotiation skills.

I suggest buying your own phone and getting a savings. Even if the plans are close in cost over the 2 years, I personally believe that the option to change plans whenever I want without penalty is worth it. Who knows? Maybe an even better plan comes out and you can hop on that and save more. Bring your own phone savings as easy as going to buy the phone and hopping over to one of those kiosks in the same mall.

I've also heard a rumor that Telcos are phasing out the discount of bringing your own phone to their smart plans. You will save only if you go on a more expensive data plan. So you might have to jump on a smart plan as soon as possible before it's phased out if you're interested in those.

I personally use Fido and have little issue with service. My SO uses Rogers and has little issues (minus hardware, but that's a different story). As far as I know, Fido and Rogers has the same coverage. However, when Rogers has weird connectivity issues/blackouts, I have never noticed anything. Vice versa. Blackouts I don't recall anything over 10 minutes. I'm biased. I like Fido more than Rogers. My SO has had a lot of grief with them.

Sorry it's not exactly what you wanted. Just me rambling about a few things I think you should look into.

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by taco.vidal

Im a current Rogers customer with two phones on a shared plan. The term of my contract is up. Id like to replace the phones with two iPhone 6 or 6+. My current plan is pretty crappy. I haven't negotiated a new plan in quite a while and haven't followed things since the new two year terms came into play.
-how should I go about trying to negotiate a better plan? can you still call and ask for retentions? is there much room to negotiate or will they give me their best offer?
-is anything negotiable on the price of the phones or is what I see on the website the best they can do?

Im looking for any advice for someone who has gone through this relatively recently rather than generic anecdotal evidence of what they've heard or what they've done years ago.

Thanks guys.

Be aware that the carriers have pre-made "loyalty plans". They'll try to offer you the standard in market plans but you'll have to politely decline the first Rep you speak to in order to talk to retentions themselves.
With the first bit being said, you can see what the pre made loyalty offers are like and if you have the patience, stand your ground to see if there's a second level of offers (I don't know what it's like exactly with the current 2 year plans) but expect something around the likes of 80-90 for 2-3gb of data and unlimited nation wide everything else as their first offer. It'll be tailored to a degree based on your accounts so knowing your usage and what you want in the plan will help.

Generally the price of the device is very much set. You may be able to get a bill credit as a discount of sorts on the phone. Don't forget to also check other retailers like Bestbuy and such to see if you can get a sale price on top of that. Rogers bills you directly for the price of the phone hence but in order to have sales, retailers also offer additional bill credits (Rogers technically doesn't have anything to do with this part). Your mileage may vary depending on the store and sale.

Only other piece of advice I have is to be prepared to read a book or have something you can do in between the inevitable wait times and being put on hold.

[taco.vidal]

Thanks for the tips so far. Still looking for answer as Im hoping to get something done this week.