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Fido offers 4GB for $40, Vancouver loses its mind

Jenni Sheppard
Jenni Sheppard
|
Nov 23 2016, 2:03 am
Fido offers 4GB for $40, Vancouver loses its mind
Lineup at Fido in downtown Vancouver on Monday night (Jenni Sheppard/Daily Hive)

Fido customers in Vancouver were fuming on Monday night, after finding it impossible to get Fido’s limited time $40 for 4GB promo for existing customers.

Fido ran the offer for four days only, to compete with Virgin Mobile, which had begun offering new customers the same limited time deal.

The Virgin Mobile deal itself came after Telus-owned Public Mobile offered a $38 for 4GB promo plan – and like a house of cards, it all fell down on Monday.

On Monday, the final day of the deal, Fido customers formed huge lineups outside stores across Vancouver, including their location at Pacific Centre Mall.

Lineup at Fido in downtown Vancouver on Monday night (Jenni Sheppard/Daily Hive)

Lineup at Fido in downtown Vancouver on Monday night (Jenni Sheppard/Daily Hive)

By 5:30 pm, there were about 50 people waiting to get the deal, having been unable to get through to Fido by phone or via online chat despite days of trying.

At about 6 pm, the store manager decided to arbitrarily cut off the lineup, turning away about a quarter of the customers waiting, seemingly for security reasons. This, despite the fact those people had arrived well before closing time at 7 pm.

Cue lots of angry customers who now had no way to get the deal.

It was a similar story at Fido locations across the city as customers clamoured to get a piece of the cut price action before the deadline.

What happened?

So what caused the long line ups and angry customers?

Did Fido simply underestimate the demand from their customers to get a better deal? And will those who were turned away before the deadline still be able to take advantage of it?

Daily Hive asked Fido these questions. In response, Lisa Rossington, manager of regional public affairs in Western Canada for Rogers, which owns Fido, sent us this statement:

“We regularly have limited time offers that expire within a certain timeframe. Interest in this four day promotion was huge and resulted in a higher than normal volume of enquires in store, online and through our call centres. While not all customers were able to take advantage of this promotion, we often have special offers on the go and encourage them to keep an eye out for upcoming deals.”

Social media outrage

In the meantime, of course, customers all over Canada are losing their minds over this. Fido’s answer so far seems to have been to DM people responses and say nothing publicly.

Jenni SheppardJenni Sheppard
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