 Review by darcmage 
UPDATED: 349 days ago
member for 3.1 years, 899 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Toronto,ON
 $35 per month (12 month contract)
 about 14 days
 Bell Canada
 "When it worked, it worked well"
 "Experience of trying to cancel makes one yearn for AOL"
 "Stay away and avoid the frustration"
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(ratings match consensus)
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I've been a Bell Sympatico customer for many years. The first time I joined and switched to Rogers within two years. I joined Bell again in 2003 and was with them until late 2007. I never really had any major issues outside of being double billed for six months in a row but I was able to get that corrected. Down time was minimal and even when I switched to dry dsl, the service remained the same.
When they decided to implement a 60GB bandwidth cap and P2P throttling this year, I decided to leave at the end of my contract. I thought it would be a simple matter of informing them of my decision and signing up with a new ISP. I couldn't have been more wrong.
For some reason, I was told my contract was not expiring but was extended another year. This was done without my knowledge or approval but they maintained they had my permission. If I wanted to cancel, I would have to pay an early termination fee of $100. After many hours of accusations and angry phone calls, I was finally able to leave by agreeing to pay the equivalent of an extra months service. At that point, I would've given them a pint of my blood if I could be allowed to leave.
It seems there is a mandate to make leaving Bell such a nightmare that people would choose to stay to avoid the hassle. I hope they continue with this tactic. It worked out so well for AOL and other companies that have seen their customers publicize their experiences. Nothing like angry customers to generate some good PR.
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