Rogers cancelled flickr pro account

[yronnen]

My beloved ISP sent me this email:

Dear Rogers Yahoo! customer,

We are writing to inform you that on July 1, 2009, your Flickr Pro account included with your Rogers Hi-Speed Internet service will change to a free Flickr account. The free Flickr service has many of the same features as Pro, but is subject to some limits.

Your existing photos or videos will not be deleted as a result of this change. If you have more than 200 photos in the free Flickr account, only the most recent 200 are displayed. Other changes include:

• 100MB monthly upload limit (10MB per photo)
• 2 video uploads each month (max. 90 seconds and 150MB per video)
• Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)

If you enjoy the full flexibility and storage capacity of your current Flickr Pro account, you can maintain your Pro account by subscribing directly to the service for $24.95 (USD) a year. Subscribe before September 1, 2009 and get two months free. Click the link below to subscribe:
http://flickr.com/upgrade

For additional information or questions, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/ca/rogers/flickr/index.html

We want to thank you for being a Rogers Yahoo! customer. It is our pleasure to provide you with an enjoyable online photo experience.

Sincerely,

Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet Customer Service

Unfortunately, I can't get any other ISP provider here (in Thornhill, could you believe it?!).

[Torontoblue]

Their customer relations just get worse and worse. I've over 700 photos on my Flickr and am now being 'forced' to buy a Pro account. There's absolutely no explanation to why they are doing this either.

[hugh]

So let me understand this.

Rogers used to give you a flickr pro account free of charge.

Now you have pay $24.95 USD to keep it.

If you don't, you get a "lite" version that is insufficient.

Does that sum it up?

[EmmEff]

Correct.

The free Flickr account was to replace the Yahoo! Photos feature that was eliminated when Yahoo! bought Flickr.

[keithmcarthur]

I'm in the communications group at Rogers and wanted to provide a bit of an explanation.

A very small number of our customers (less than 2 per cent) took advantage of the Flickr Pro service. For the vast majority of our customers, the bigger priority is faster speeds and more reliable service.

Last week, we doubled download speeds for hundreds of thousands of customers. We continue to invest in our network and look forward to bringing increasingly faster speeds to all our customers.

[Torontoblue]

Originally Posted by keithmcarthur

I'm in the communications group at Rogers and wanted to provide a bit of an explanation.

A very small number of our customers (less than 2 per cent) took advantage of the Flickr Pro service. For the vast majority of our customers, the bigger priority is faster speeds and more reliable service.

Last week, we doubled download speeds for hundreds of thousands of customers. We continue to invest in our network and look forward to bringing increasingly faster speeds to all our customers.

Thanks for the reply, but it still doesn't explain why it's being taken away. If a relatively small amount, 2% of subscribers are using the service, then it can't be costing that much to keep some customers happy?

[hugh]

At two per cent that is 30,000 subscribers that are being forced to spend U.S. $25.

[james99]

$25 seems fair. I pay more for my webshots account.

[sharpnfuzzy]

I was wondering how long this would last before they yanked it away, and they almost managed 1 year. Bravo.

They probably couldn't plaster a Pro account with their own ads like they do with our webmail because Flickr wouldn't let them so it's just being scrapped. Fully keeping in line with Rogers' motto of "Less service for more money!".

[EmmEff]

Most definitely it's fair... I was a Flickr Pro subscriber before Rogers gave it away for free. Having it included was nice but I am still willing to pay for it.

[EmmEff]

Originally Posted by sharpnfuzzy

Fully keeping in line with Rogers' motto of "Less service for more money!".

I still cannot believe they have the gall to post ads on the front page for PAID SUBSCRIBERS. Any complaint about this is ignored. I hate Rogers.

[hugh]

$25 seems fair.

I don't think anyone is arguing that $25 a year is unreasonable for Flickr Pro, the point is that it used to be bundled free into a $30 to $60 a month (HSI extreme which I think is there #1 service at $60 a month) service.

For people who use the service, their internet service just went up in price by another 4% to 8% after price increases earlier this year. HSI extreme jumped 10% earlier this year

As recently as August 2006, Rogers Extreme customers were paying $46.95 with no bandwidth caps. Now they pay $59.99 plus $2.50 a month for Flickr with bandwidth caps.

[james99]

Gotcha. All the little increases, over a short period, would probably cause me to get a little ticked as well.

[hugh]

Also in the last couple of years, Rogers has introduced DPI, bandwidth throttling, caps, now hijacks failed DNS lookups, and will alter users webpages when they want to "inform" you of stuff.

Add it all up and, what was once a feature laden service at a reasonable price, has become an expensive, feature less service with caps and intrusive Orwellian features.

Add in the savimize and the featailor campaigns and what's not to hate!

[Toolatecrew]

Originally Posted by keithmcarthur

I'm in the communications group at Rogers and wanted to provide a bit of an explanation.

A very small number of our customers (less than 2 per cent) took advantage of the Flickr Pro service. For the vast majority of our customers, the bigger priority is faster speeds and more reliable service.

Last week, we doubled download speeds for hundreds of thousands of customers. We continue to invest in our network and look forward to bringing increasingly faster speeds to all our customers.

Except when we decide the throttle down the "faster speeds"