Negative Word of Mouth - A Rogers' iPhone Case Study in The Making

I'm sure everyone has either heard of or had been following the negative sediment surrounding Rogers' iPhone pricing plans for the upcoming launch on July 11th.  To me Rogers seems to be greatly taking advantage of the monopoly they have on the iPhone and didn't think about the longer term impacts on their brand and company or the opportunity they had.

Everyone talks about how WOM can work in both directions and this along with so many others we have seen will probably end up being another case study on "How NOT to do things".  The best example of the negative sediment surrounding the Rogers rate plans for the iPhone and how it has polarized a fairly passionate and, I would assume, high value customer is RuinediPhone.com. (Fixed the Link - Thanks Nick!) This site is acting as the hub for 43,258 and counting consumers of which many will no longer purchase the iPhone and will probably start looking for other alternatives.  If Bell and Telus were smart (and listening) they should swoop in and start talking to this group trying to win them over.  I also can't imagine that Apple is very happy with all of this negative grassroots level publicity, given that the launch happening in less than a week.  I was in the US over the weekend and almost everyone I talked with was aware of what was happening in Canada with Rogers and the iPhone. Word travels fast when people are passionate about something, love it or hate it.  To have such a negative pricing strategy and term commitment over a product that the Canadian consumer and die hard apple devotees have been waiting for is not a good move - Rogers you now may be in trouble.


So the moral here is that Rogers potential lost an opportunity to drive a postive WOM campagin that could have helped position them as leaders in Canada for years to come.  Now, because they didn't understand how the message would be percieved and re-communicated by the larger community, they have a disater in their hands that will require clean-up.

From my point, I'm pretty annoyed with the pricing. I won't be getting an iPhone when it comes out on July 11th and will be looking for other options, either Bell (maybe this one) or Telus.  I'm also going to be signing the petition as soon as I'm finished with this post!  Sorry Rogers but it looks like you didn't win me over from Bell.