Holy friggin’ let-down’s Batman! Rogers, if you thought we’d be happy with your announcement, just for the record WE’RE NOT!!!
Rogers Social Media Manager, Mary Pretotto announced on Twitter that Rogers has 2.1 for testing, and MIGHT have it to us by the end of AUGUST! They are claiming that it also has to be approved by Google.
Argh! This is ridiculous! After all the crap Rogers CSRs and the “office of the president” put us through in November and December of last year, after all the work we had to do just to get Rogers to understand why we wanted the update, they still insist on “playing catchup”.
Just to be clear, so it doesn’t seem like simple whining, WE ARE STILL ON ANDROID 1.5!!!!
The MyTouch in the US on T-Mobile (the US version of the Magic, but with LESS MEMORY) received Android 1.6 in OCTOBER 2009, and now they will be getting Android _2.2_!!! The French version of the Magic is getting 2.2 THIS SUMMER, while we still wait for 2.1, and languish on 1.5!!!
Rogers, this is NOT acceptable! You continue to treat us like second-rate citizens next to your beloved fucking iPhone lusers!
We have waited for so long, stuck on Android 1.5 while the rest of the world passes us by (you want the coolest new apps? TO FRIGGIN BAD!) and now we have to wait ANOTHER 2 months!
Rogers, in the computer/smart phone world, 2 months is a loooong time. I imagine about 4 or 5 new awesome Android phones will be announced in that time, as well as a release date for Android _3.0_!
So, it’s time to start letting Rogers know how pissed we are.
1. Call customer service and tell them you want 2.1 sooner than the end of August. If they say no, or even better, if they claim not to know anything about it (or that it’s not coming, cause they are pretty ignorant) ELEVATE THE CALL! Keep elevating, and maybe even threaten to leave.
2. Contact the office of the president… repeatedly.
3. Pester ALL the Rogers reps on Twitter.
4. Write on blogs, in blog comments, and in forums. Make sure that any potential Rogers customer knows what they are in for if they buy an Android phone from Rogers.
Mary Pretotto on Twitter: @RogersMary: http://twitter.com/RogersMary
Miranda on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RogersMiranda
Office of the President:
| Fax: 1-877-331-1573 | |
 |
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| By mail: | Rogers Communications Inc. Office of the President 855 York Mills Road Don Mills, ON M3B 1Z1 |
Email by going here: http://www.rogers.com/web/content/contactus
Rogers Red Board (let’s pound on them in the comments): http://redboard.rogers.com/
Here is my email to the office of the president:
As a long-time (18 year) Rogers customer with an HTC Magic STILL running Android 1.5 I am VERY angry that we have been told today that Rogers has received (finally) the update to Android 2.1, but that we will have to wait until MAYBE THE END OF AUGUST before we MIGHT get it on our phones!
This is unacceptable! We have been using an old and outdated version of Android 1.5 since June 2009, while the same phone on other carriers (T-Mobile in the US, and SFR in France) have already received updates to 1.6, 2.1, and now (this summer) to 2.2!!!
Don’t tell me that 1.5 is a stable, great Android experience, because it’s not. Every day more and more apps in the marketplace are added or updated requiring Android 1.6 or better to use, which means we can’t use them.
The rest of the world is passing us by! we paid for SMART phones that would be superior technology, and instead we are being left behind because of Rogers’ inability to understand just want Android is, and how to use it.
I will be working hard with others in the Canadian Android Community to bring this problem to the attention of existing and potential Rogers customers, so they can make an informed choice about whether or not to choose Rogers for Android, or any other phone.
Regards,
Michael Schmidt
www.iwantmyonepointsix.com
www.leavenodroidbehind.com
The email addresses and phone numbers for many Rogers managers, including the President, can very easily be found online. Perhaps I’ll post them here soon enough if we don’t get some better “feedback” from Rogers.
[...] response to Mary and Rogers here: I Want My One Point Six – Demanding Android 1.6 for our Rogers HTC Magic & Dream, and LG Eve Pho… and here: Rogers says MAYBE 2.1 by end of Aug! Leave No Droid Behind __________________ [...]
WTF! LMAO THIS HAS TO BE A JOKE!
this is a joke…like there rattling the chain…this is crazy im with Mor10 We deserve new handsets. DEMAND NEW HANDSETS! This waiting game is not fair. Honestly.
New handsets mjschmidt!!
NEW HANDSETS! We deserve it this time. We have switched phones to get this update now they lie to us and tell us to wait longer. This shouldnt be so hard.
I bought a Nexus One. 2.2 works. AND it didn’t need Rogers to make it work. Imagine that…
I never thought it was possible for anything to work without Rogers. Flabbergasted.
This is truly astounding. I don’t have the mental power to process just how beyond reason this is. The disconnect between Rogers and their Android customers is almost complete. All that’s missing is for us to return our handsets en-masse claiming defect because they are not upgradeable.
[...] Rogers just announced that Rogers has indeed received the “draft 2.1″ software from HTC and that it will be [...]
I question whether the statement “draft 2.1″ is accurate. As far as I know HTC rolled out a fully working upgrade. The “draft” portion would be the missing Rogers branding and custom apps. Will be interesting to compare the upgrade (when it finally comes) with a phone from a different country to see what kind of programming they needed to do that took them two months.
Google doesn’t need “approval”, this doesn’t make any sense.
If it’s going to take that long, just release a regular 2.1 upgrade without the Rogers “customization” and branding (aka forced features few of us actually want).
I hope this update doesn’t restrict future rooting like the last one. My wife’s Dream could be running 2.1 via cyanogen if not for the update I thought was mandatory.
THIS IS CRAZY!!! OTHER PEOPLE ARE ABOUT TO GET FROYO AND THINKING OF GETTING GINGERBREAD LATE THIS YEAR. AND LOOK AT US…. WE STILL HAVE STONE AGE 1.5 ON OUR PHONES AND WON’T BE BLESSED WITH 2.1 UNTIL AUGUST.
VERY VERY ***PATHETIC*** SERVICE FROM ROGERS
I WILL MAKE SURE THAT THE PEOPLE I KNOW STAY AWAY FROM THEM.
Everyone just calm down. I know the reason why it’s going to take two months. They want to give us the best Rogers experience possible by giving us what we’ve been salavating for… all new redesigned icons!!!
I dare you to tell me the wait won’t be worth it.
This is so bad! I’ve been waiting for this update for too long.
Why are we treated by Rogers so poorly, I think it’s because they DON’T care! We should try to come up with something more visible like a protest in front of their headquarters…
Everybody knows they have poor customer service, but all these lies and delays?!
Never fear Rogers users because you’re not alone. Bell is worse with the Galaxy. Hell, it’s not even getting a 1.6 update and has only been available in Canada since last December.
Painful. My next phone is an unlocked one and I jump ship at the slightest sign of this crap from Rogers. Their useless add-ons and customizations could all be taken care of with their ALREADY EXISTING app from the market place – and this is the BS that we are waiting for.
Think I’ll just root my old Dream with the latest cyanogen and accept that Rogers does not care about the Android experience.
This is probably not Rogers fault you know. After all, it’s HTC that codes the roms for Rogers. But I do believe communication with customers is a key issue here..
I have an HTC Dream and I purchased under the impression that, like every other Android phone, I would receive firmware updates. When I found out it wasn’t true and that earlier Rogers offered the Dream -> Magic swap (again, not an upgrade, I lose my keyboard), I called in.
It took 40 minutes of bouncing around Rogers tech support until they found someone who understood what I was talking about. And after her, I had to request a manager callback. Only received a voicemail two days later. Had to call back, bounce around, and FINALLY get a manager on the phone, who knew nothing about Android versions. After explaining the issue, she had to talk to tech support, and then basically told me I was lying to her about the Dream being left behind. Even after I explained that these were Rogers’ and HTC’s OWN COMMUNICATIONS!
Unbelievably, she said IF I was right (which I know now that I am) that they would replace my phone with a Magic, even though my 15 day grace period for exchanges was over. Like Rogers was doing me a favor in allowing me to switch to and then supporting a lesser phone. What about the money I ponied up for a QWERTY keyboard?
They didn’t appreciate me when I paid them $60 a month for 5 years without fail. And now I’m just a dishonest customer who’s trying to pull one over on them. What a joke.
So I’m a few steps behind all of you, but it looks like I’m in for another ride once this update rolls out.
@Fredrik: The fault is two-fold. HTC installs their “Sense UI” layer over Android, and then Rogers had HTC pre-load a bunch of Rogers customizations (apps and branding).
It is also important to keep in perspective that as individual users _HTC_ does not see us as a concern. Our voices are small.
Rogers, however, _does_ see us as important. we can affect _their_ market-share directly, and _Rogers_ had sway with HTC.
HTC won’t listen to us, but they _will_ listen to Rogers. We bought the phones from Rogers, we will go after Rogers to support them. Rogers can go after HTC, and we can see change.
Remember, this is how we got them to commit to an update in the first place!
@Shifty: Remember, NEVER believe anything a CSR, Manager, or Tech support rep tells you when you call. If you want the truth, and real help, contact @RogersMary on Twitter.
Unfortunately (and fortunately) for me, I’ll never be on Twitter. I can read what she says but that’s about it. At the end of the day, I did get promised a new phone WHEN the update rolls out. Until then I’ll just twiddle my thumbs I guess.
Any news on Android 2.1 for HTC Magic? Wish Rogers was honest with its customers…
Just so you all know the updates are pushed out by individual retailers so all this bitching and moaning while relevant…is directed at the wrong group of people. You SHOULD be upset that it took HTC this long to just get an update TO Rogers. Also 1 month of testing isn’t even unrealistic. I love it when people who have no idea what goes into creating/testing software like to pipe up and pretend they suddenly have this degree in software development and get pissy.
@Joe Smoe: Hey, Joe, you know what I love? People who post utter crap under a fake name and without their real email address (I call those people “cowards”) who make idiotic straw-man arguments which only demonstrate that they haven’t read the article(s) and don’t actually understand the issue.
(your straw-man argument) We aren’t criticizing what goes in to creating/testing software as if we have a “degree in software development”. We’re criticizing Rogers and HTC’s likely _FINANCIAL_ decisions not to update the Magic until we started complaining. Oh, and for the record, there are are readers of this blog (and commenters) who _are_ programmers. Would you be willing to demonstrate for us _your_ programming bone-fides?
Even though I am guessing you are just a troll, against my better judgment I will feed you if only to try to correct the flaming ignorance you demonstrate to others.
1. You said “the updates are pushed out by individual retailers”, however the _retailer_ IS Rogers! I assume you meant manufacturer.
2. While it is necessary for the manufacturer to create the update, the decision to do so is actually a decision of the wireless carrier, in this case Rogers. During all our discussions with both HTC and Rogers, this was made clear to us repeatedly, by HTC who said it was up to Rogers to request an update, and Rogers who have basically admitted they didn’t really understand Android and OS versions for it, and that there had really been no discussion by Rogers with HTC to provide future updates.
3. The Android OS on the Rogers phones was customized for Rogers by HTC. Thus, any future updates would equally need to be updated with those customizations AT ROGERS REQUEST! So, again we see this is not just up to the manufacturer, but to Rogers (the carrier) who must ask HTC to do it. While Rogers would never confirm, I think it’s pretty safe to speculate that there is a cost involved, one HTC probably did not want to incur, and which Rogers hadn’t expected since they didn’t understand the platform.
4. HTC is a HUGE company. They don’t care what individual users think because they don’t sell their phones to _us_, they sell them to the _carriers_. So to have any influence at all on HTC, we must put our pressure on Rogers who will feel it directly, and use _their_ influence as the bulk purchaser to put pressure on HTC to get the update done.
5. As for how long it takes to test the update, we understand that it takes time, but like they say “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”. If you say nothing, you get nothing. We want to keep the fire under Rogers’ feet to make sure we are not forgotten.
Consider this, it has now been 1 year and 1 month since the Magic launched in Canada on Rogers and while we are STILL waiting for 2.1 (having NEVER received 1.6) the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G, and the French version of the Magic in France will soon be getting _2.2_!!!
So, please, Joe Smoe, unless you’re willing to man-up and give us 1. your real name, and 2. a real email address OR proof of _your_ professional qualifications, I humbly recommend you STFU and RTFA.
Have a nice day, Mr. Troll.
Personally I think Rogers is to blame for this…how come other carriers managed to get their HTCs updated way earlier? Sincerely I feel like Rogers doesn’t respect their customers and if there was another company on GSM I would move in second 2…
I decided not to wait for Roger’s never coming update…they are really bad liers! Does anyone know how bad is CyanogenMod5.0.8 affecting the battery life?
[...] that we have 2.1, we’re behind all the people with 2.2 (an even better version of Android). As we pointed out previously, T-Mobile in the US confirmed they would give 2.2 to owners of the MyTouch 3G, which is the same as [...]
So us dream owners are at last, well and truly screwed. We have been forcefully obsoleted by Rogers despite the fact that we KNOW these devices can run newer releases. Well magic owners, enjoy this little victory…until the next time Robbers leaves you high and dry.