YOU’D THINK THAT headline is just common sense, given the glut of propaganda on Facebook but visitors to the social network site of late have been faced with ads from a company called iPhonenow.ca which promises to sell you an Apple iPhone for $549 that will work in Canada.
They offer “Extreme Limited Quantities” and promise delivery in three to six weeks. The web site also says “telephone support is extremely limited,” so don’t go looking for any help when you try to unlock a phone that both Apple and Rogers aren’t willing or able to offer in Canada yet.
“We have absolutely no relationship/partnership/arrangement with this company,” said a Rogers Wireless spokesperson in an e-mail response to Cartt.ca.
“With respect to their claims that the iPhone would work ‘perfectly’, we would differ. Since non-Rogers phones are manufactured with unknown specifications and they are not tested internally, the quality of performance on our network for such grey-market devices is unknown,” says the spokesperson.
The iPhonenow.ca does say the “unlocked” phone is “guaranteed to work in Canada or your money back!” but notes that Rogers (which is the lone GSM carrier in Canada and the iPhone is a GSM device) does not offer tech support. The site also warns about its own service: “Telephone support is extremely limited and should only be used as a method of urgent contact with customer care. Most major web sites don’t offer toll-free support, so for those of you who are displeased about our hold times, we’re very busy…”
Adds the Rogers spokesperson: “We do know that customers experience more dropped calls using grey-market devices and customers may also experience network or application issues while using a non-Rogers phone. For example, some data applications may not function or function well or may not be available.
“Apple has also indicated they would utilize software to disable unlocked iPhone devices.”
Buyer beware, indeed.
– Greg O’Brien
