But let’s rewind a bit. Many years ago, Rogers, my internet service provider, discontinued a service known as Usenet newsgroups, citing lack of popularity. When I wrote to them to protest, they retorted that they had entered into a new relationship with Yahoo which would provide all sorts of new features to make up for the lack of newsgroups. Well, I didn’t want or need any of the new features, I just wanted my newgroups back. No dice. One of those new features, however, was Yahoo Photos.

Fast forward to October 2007. Rogers and Yahoo decided to discontinue the Yahoo Photos service and replace it with the superior Yahoo-owned Flickr instead. They bestowed all Rogers customers with a free Flickr Pro account (worth $24.95US/year), which was actually pretty cool of them. I used the service extensively since then, sharing my photos with other Flickr members, uploading hundreds of photos, posting them to my blog, etc.

And that brings us to yesterday, when I received this from Rogers:

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. 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.

In a nutshell: they’re canceling everyone’s memberships which were only instituted a year and a half ago.

However, as is the case with many of these things, they didn’t provide a reason. I started searching and came across this nugget on the Flickr FAQ:

Why do Rogers Internet Service subscribers no longer get free Pro?

The Flickr Pro account included with your Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed service will change to a free Flickr account on July 1, 2009.

They go on to detail prices and account restrictions, but nowhere do they answer exactly why we “no longer get free Pro” as stated in their own question. That they wrote. I wrote to Flickr about this and am still awaiting a reply.

Some more digging around resulted in a post at the Digital Home forums from someone claiming to work for Rogers. The reason for canceling Flickr Pro service?

A very small number of our customers (less than 2 per cent) took advantage of the Flickr Pro service.

To recap: years ago, Rogers takes away a service, citing lack of popularity. They replace it with unrelated services, one of which gets superceded by a newer and better service. They then discontinue this new service, replacing it with nothing, once again citing lack of popularity. Does any of this make sense? And if those services were indeed so unpopular, then what possible time, expense, or resources could it have been costing Rogers to keep them up? Zilch.

The silver lining in this cloud? Some time ago, I won myself a free one-year Flickr Pro account from my friends at MOO* and have been saving it for a rainy day. I engaged the gift code this morning, meaning it will become active on July 1, 2009 when my Rogers-provided account dies a sad little death, and be valid until July 1, 2010. Except for one little problem. Flickr now reports that my Pro account is only valid until May 15, 2010. WTF? It’s six weeks short.

I wrote Flickr another email to ask what was up. Extracted from their response:

Thank you for your recent email enquiry regarding Flickr Billing. I understand that you need information regarding the status of your Flickr pro account.

Let me help you with your concern. I have checked your account and it shows that your Flickr pro account in [sic] valid until May 15, 2010. Please be informed that Flickr pro account is valid for one year only. Since you have activated your Flickr gift pro account dated May 15, 2009 that means your pro is valid one year from the said date which is May 15, 2010.

Um, what? I’m pretty sure they didn’t even read the sections of my email where I detailed very clearly the July 1 versus May 15 discrepancy. From their own gift page:

If your gift recipient currently has a Flickr pro account, buying them another year of pro allows them to enjoy pro status for that much longer!

Except me, apparently.

* Speaking of MOO, here’s another great deal I can share with you. If you’re a first-time MOO customer, then you can save 20% off any single MOO product as long as you order before May 29, 2009. Use referral code WETYFM. Hurry to the MOO site before it expires!