Some Canadians in the market for a new BlackBerry might have noticed that Rogers recently enacted a price hike on the three-year contract prices for some of its most popular BlackBerry devices. The price increases saw the Curve 83xx go to $149.99 (up $50), Curve 8900 to $224.99 (up $25) and the Bold go to $299.99 (up $50). While most handset price increases are done after an evaluation of a supply and demand model, it seems that Rogers decided to throw caution to the wind after some senior executives noticed the budget for acquisitions was currently $30 million in the red. One of our ninjas passed along the following email, allegedly sent out by a Rogers VP:
On Wednesday, the senior executive team realized that they were over budget $30 million dollars on their cost of acquisition. How I don’t know why it took so long. [sic] They then did their knee jerk response. Your DBM’s and other local managers know nothing more than this and are in the dark as much as we are on this other than we were told VERBALLY that in market quotes would be honored for 30 days from today. The exception lists are due Monday and only for non named accounts. I have requested in every region for a positioning statement and to this moment have not heard a response. If it makes you feel any better the retail has even more uncertainty.
Our only question is other than advertising, marketing and promotions, what the hell could Rogers have been spending so much money on to make them go so far over budget in acquisitions? It’s not like they were buying new subcribers steak dinners for signing up…
