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Review by Mos Def 
member for 2.2 years, 3 visits, last login: 1.5 years ago
lodged 2.2 years ago
 Oakville,ON
 $47 per month "Consistent download speeds, decent reliability..." "HORRIBLE bandwidth caps with HORRIBLE pricing; don't allow own modem" "Only ISP for cable in the area..."
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Since they are the only internet cable providers in the area, you don't have much choice when it comes to internet. They are pretty much a monopoly in the area and are intent on it being that way by rejecting other ISP's the ability to use their lines to provide service.
As such, they cripple you with their extremely low caps and unfair pricing. On top of that they don't allow you to use your own modem which adds an unnecessary fee of $5 every month.
Comments:
 MarcerPremium,VIP
join:2007-07-08
Hamilton, ON
kudos:12 | "modem rental fee" There is no "$5 modem rental fee" | |
| | | | Re: "modem rental fee" So $41.95 magically turns into $46.95 on my bill? | |
|
 jeisenbergNew Year's Eve
join:2001-07-06
Windsor, ON | Not a very objective rating From your own summary, Cogeco has consistent download speeds and reasonable reliability. By "reasonable", does that mean it's only available 50% of the time?
Otherwise, why would you rate Cogeco at only 50% in that subcategory?
I suppose your gripes about bandwidth caps might justify a 0% rating in the "value for money" category. But how do they compare with their DSL competition in that regard? | |
| | | | Re: Not a very objective rating First of all, I didn't use the word reasonable in my assessment. Second of all, I think you need to check out the definition of 'reliable' for your own good...
"reliable |riˈlīəbəl|
adjective
consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted : a reliable source of information."
And finally, I rated it ~50% because that's what I feel like I am receiving in terms of connection reliability. Do I receive reliable speeds all the time? No. Do I receive an adequate connection without consistent outages (which requires hard resetting of the modem to fix)? No. The second one most likely has to do with the ancient modem that they make you use.
I'm not sure of the competition regarding DSL as I have never used DSL. I can tell you that TekSavvy's DSL service offers unlimited cap... | |
| | | | | Re: Not a very objective rating You could say my angst toward Cogeco is a bit biased in some regards... but it isn't totally out of line. And I say that for one reason... I have been a customer of theirs for nearly 15 years, and yet I can't get any leeway in terms of cap or speed upgrades (while remaining at the same price point)? | |
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Review by jeisenberg
member for 11.8 years, 3368 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 2.2 years ago
- Windsor,ON
- $52 per month
 about 3 days- "Excellent speed, continuous speed improvement"
- "None for me, though some complain about caps"
- "High Availability and Excellent speed - the only way to fly!"
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I've been a satisfied Cogeco customer for years. I was one of those who attended the Cogeco rollout in Windsor (still proudly wear my T-shirt) and have been a fan since the beginning. Cogeco started out slowly here, with frequent outages and lacklustre speed.
But as the kinks got worked out, speed and availability increased to the point where I can't think of a reason why *any* other carrier in this city has any clients.
As a standard package residential user, the Cogeco website currently promises up to 5000/640 performance, with no rise in price. I have been recently getting speeds in excess of 4500/600 on the Cogeco Speedtest. And that's without any tweaking or other attempts to optimize the connection.
When I moved to this residence, I prearranged to have Cogeco come on moving day to install the cable/internet service. They came when promised (at the beginning of the installation window timeframe) and had me up and running in under an hour (the wiring in this old house was quite complex, and they managed to crawl through the attic to do the wiring).
I have the full Digital Bundle with Internet, and wouldn't ever want to switch.
When I got a wireless router, I had problems setting up a network connection. Despite their policy of not providing support for networking, they still were able to suggest procedures that helped me work out the problems.
Update: Recently (June 2004), Cogeco began experimenting with 5500KBps download speeds. My Samsung Inforanger modem did not seem capable of supporting the higher speeds. Cogeco support suggested I trade in the modem for another, and Cogeco staff at the Windsor storefront offered me an RCA DCM315 modem without my asking. I am now getting the full speed available to Standard HiSpeed customers.
Update: (September 2005)
I'm still extremely satisfied with Cogeco's internet offering. The speed and service I get are phenomenal (this extends to Cogeco Digital Cable as well - and soon I'll be getting Cogeco VOIP). I specially enjoy being able to see the free credits I've earned for recommending Cogeco to family and friends. So far, no one has been unhappy with the Cogeco service.
Update: (March 2006)
Cogeco continues to be an awesome ISP. Since my last review in September, Cogeco has increased download speeds twice... it now sits at over 7Mbps. I've been a Cogeco VOIP customer since October or November and am very satisfied with that service, and now am using the HDTV channels upgrade to my digital cable service.
Update: (December 2006)
I just got a tickler from DSLR asking me to consider updating my review. And well I should, since the official supported download speed has increased to 10mbps, and I regularly get between 7800 - 9200 during speed tests. I'm pretty satisfied for the most part, and Cogeco service continues to be helpful (both the official and unofficial channels). Monthly fees have risen about $3/month since my last review, but it's the first increase in some time.
Update: (October 2007)
I understand Cogeco has recently begun enforcing the bit-caps and I couldn't be happier. As a customer who very rarely downloads anything and who doesn't use peer-to-peer file sharing networks, I've always been annoyed that a few bad apples can ruin the entire node's performance. Now that Cogeco is cracking down, I'm witnessing several acquaintances getting the warnings and service suspensions that I believe have been long overdue. This can only result in a network with perhaps fewer clients, but significantly less bandwidth stealing -- resulting in significant improvements in network performance. It's still the only game in town for serious speed.
Update: (March 2008)
My only real complaint about Cogeco has been the software fault in the PVR series record feature. I received assurances in a confidential communication back in January 2007 that the problem would be fixed by November 2007 - and then the deadline was pushed to February 2008. The problem persists, and my confidence in Cogeco's ability to either fix the problem or exert influence with those who can fix the problem is now completely eroded. My downgrades in the area of support, services, and value for money reflect my frustration with television service, not internet.
Update: (July 15, 2009)
I just ran a series of speed tests, and can confirm that my speed (both upload and download) have improved by about 10% since last week. Monthly cost for the service has increased fairly dramatically over the past 18 months, with the internet package now running at around $52 per month. Uptime, speed, and quick response to technical questions are still among Cogeco's best features, however, they are starting to take more grief from those clients who are running into trouble staying within the caps (not an issue for me).
Update: (July 24, 2009)
I started a thread about seeing improved speeds with Cogeco. The thread has been running for nine days at this point. When I started the thread, my speeds were about 9400/600. Nine days ago, they improved by about 10%. Today, my speeds are 14500/1050. That's a 50% increase (upload and download) from two weeks ago. I am quite happy!
Update: (February 7, 2011)
Download speed has been a bit spottier than normal since mid-December. My speeds, which had been pretty consistently in the 14000+ range since my last review have been all over the map of late. They've ranged from 3800 - 14900+ since December. Still, I am satisfied overall, primarily because Cogeco extended me special reduced pricing to keep me from looking elsewhere for lower rates. Frankly, I think they should do this with more long-term clients as a gesture of appreciation.
Comments:
 EH
@cgocable.net | Horrible Cogeco support. Speeds dropped from 16K to 1K. Horrible support with Cogeco. Download speeds dropped to 1080 and below from 16K after they did some upgrades. I think they should have called them downgrades. Looking for other cable providers in Windsor. Cogeco doesn't deserve our business.
Took them 4 days so far and no solution. | |
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain cogeco.ca)
lodged 2.3 years ago
- Purgato
- $64 per month
- "Fast speed"
- "The advertised price is 41.95, but I am paying 56.95 plus taxes?"
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My only choice for a cable provider is Cogeco. I am very annoyed that
they can advertise a price of 41.95 For Standard Internet, yet they are
charging me 56.95?!
Time to start shopping around for DSL?
Comments:
| | pricing They charge the lower price if you are new customer. Gosh forbid loyalty counts for something these days. It is quite the opposite. | |
| | | it's better then paying 76.95 and only getting 3mbps when I'm paying for 16mbps, oh and apparently it will be fixed sometime in 2011 ugh | |
| | dwathey
join:2010-08-01
Peterborough, ON | Re: pricing Do you live in Peterborough by chance because I'm in a similar situation except I'm getting lower than 3mbps on a nightly basis? | |
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 2.3 years ago
- L0S1P
- $100 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "Very reliable"
- "Very expensive"
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I have been using Cogeco for about 8 years now. In the beginning the only
service they offered was unlimited North America calling with all the smart
phone features and an internet service without a cap. In the last few years
they put a cap on their internet service, you have to pick from several
different internet packages, which are rather expensive. The phone service
is also now split up to 4 different packages, and the unlimited long
distance is very expensive considering there are quite a few voip companies
out there offering much cheaper packages. I am considering switching to a
different provider. As far as the quality and service goes, I had been very
satisfied over the years. If you don=B9t mind paying the price, Cogeco is
probably one of the most reliable provider I have experienced.
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 Review by rjbrake
member for 2.9 years, 295 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 2.3 years ago
- Petawawa,ON
- $85 per month
- about 7 days
- "Customer service is very knowledgable and understanding"
- "Speeds are improving slowly."
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I started out in Kingston with Cogeco, and the service there was phenomenal. I'm an average user who rarely exceeds bandwidth limits and I do a lot of surfing/netflix and xbox gaming.
When I moved to Petawawa I subscribed to Cogeco as soon as it was available.
The service is getting better, and they're working on expanding more into the area with better equipment. I hope to see the Ultimate packages here eventually.
Comments:
cmazurskiPremium
join:2009-08-24
Peterborough, ON | Peterborough Its a tough call here, I can get speeds up to 16M on the 3 IP Pro plan often but then every few months it slows right down like currently until I call in and ask them to check my line. They go and check and come back and say, "no, everything looks fine here", then I go run another test and my speed is back up over 13M almost guaranteed so I'm starting to think some monkey business is creeping into their game now. I was losing service all the time with my phone or one or two of my IPs, they have promised credits and never came through with them but they never miss nabbing me if I go over a few Gigabytes now and then. | |
| | Reviews:
 ·Cogeco Cable
| Re: Peterborough That sounds like a billing issue, so why not follow up with the billing department and reference that tech you spoke with.
Have you tried creating a thread to obtain support for your issue? If you provide your MAC address to a Cogeco employee, they can look into it and publicly explain the issue so there's no possibility of any 'monkey business'. Give it a shot! | |
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 Review by Airwolf
member for 11.5 years, 4407 visits, last login: 132 days ago
updated 2.3 years ago
- Windsor,ON
- $130 per month
- "Latency is good. 30Mbit/1.5Mbit"
- "Line issues since the start, but that's been fixed now."
- "Service is alright. Could be cheaper, but it's still better than DSL here."
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- - - Updated on January 27, 2011 - - -
I've updated my service to Ultimate 30 once it was available here and it's been fine for my needs since.
Arris TM722G modem was supplied. Works fine.
- - - Updated on July 20th, 2010 - - -
Well, it's been some time since I last updated so here it goes.
The price has increased since the last time, but the service quality has been alright. I had a problem with the modem, brought it in and exchanged it for another one. This one did not work either. Went back, got it replaced again, went home and it worked.
The modem was rebooting itself and long a downtime in between syncing. They tested on their end and said that the modem was rebooting itself too much. They wanted a tech to come out a week later or something, but it's not far to the storefront from here.
I never used to reach the 60GB cap. However, I'm listening to streaming audio, watching streaming videos online, downloading games through Steam, movies on Xbox Live, plus with 3 computers active on the internet is starting to rack up the coin since I'm going over the cap by a few GB.
Once TekSavvy cable internet is deployed here, I hope Cogeco will re-evaluate their caps to make it more competitive with TekSavvy's 200GB or Unlimited plan.
As it stands, the service is good, but I feel the caps are way too low for today's entertainment needs.
Last time I had DSL, the service was crap here.
Latency has been fine. A hickup one day, but that's all.
- - - Updated on April 8th, 2008 - - -
Not much to write here other than the download speed issue has been fixed. Few down times since the year started.
No complaints really. *knock on wood*
- - - Updated on October 8th, 2007 - - -
Well, the download speed went back to crap. Started around the 3rd. Same deal as before. Sort of fast in the early morning, slower as the day goes on. I'll leave the rating as is...for now.
- - - Updated on September 17th, 2007 - - -
Well it looks like the problem has been resolved. Apparently my node was split and started to receive speeds well above 9000kbps all day. Even hitting 9500+kbps which I don't think I've seen since the 10mbps upgrade. So the average I'd say is around 9300kbps all day. Didn't get the good results right away after the split, still had some issues, but over the past 6 days the results were what I mentioned above. So hopefully it's 99% resolved.
I didn't really want to leave Cogeco in favour for Bell or a third-party DSL service as the last time I was with the service, it wasn't pleasant.
I raised the rating back up to 4 overall. Will still keep an eye to see if this was truly resolved or just a fluke, but I'm hoping for the former.
If all is good well into October, I'll update this review to let you know.
- - - Updated on March 31st, 2007 - - -
Still having the same issue.
A couple times lasting maybe a day or so it would be about 8500kbps in the morning and drop down to 3000 or so.
Now it drops down to about 700-800kbps in the evening.
Tech came over to do some work for our digital cable issues, bypassed the line underground to go overhead and tap into the neighbours line because there was a crack in the line. They said they will wait until the ground thaws to do the repair. The tech said our lines inside were fine.
Called tech support about the internet issues and they said there's nothing wrong on their end to my end and that if they were to send a tech out during the time that it's not acting up, I will be charged for the visit. Yea, considering I have no control over when it will act up and what's acceptable to Cogeco as good service, I'm not taking that chance.
I have verified by formatting the computers, replacing the splitter that the one tech left for us for the digital cable issue.
So I'm either convinced that there is an issue going on in this area and not being told about it or the line is possessed.
I don't know what's going on, but like I mentioned below, this started just after the 10mbps upgrade in the summer of 2006. Before that, everything was peachy.
The fact that prices are going up and service is going down...I'm afraid I'll have to re-evaluate the ranking.
- - - Updated on Oct 1st, 2006 - - -
About a couple weeks after the 10Mbps upgrade, I've been getting less than acceptable download speeds. Just took a speed test from »speedtest.cogeco.net and the result was less than 1mbps. These seems to have been the worse result so far. Other times it's either somewhere in between 2000Kbps - 7000Kbps. If I'm lucky during the very early morning I'll see anything above 8000Kbps. Upload and latency is fine. I hope it gets resolved sometime this year.
- - - Updated on July 13th, 2006 - - -
Download was increased to 10Mbps. Getting at least 1MB/s real world downloads. In....sane. Don't forget that real world speeds are not going to get to 10Mbps, you have to account for overhead. Nevertheless, the boost is nice.
»sd.wareonearth.com/~phil/net/overhead/
- - - Updated on June 12th, 2006 - - -
Had to bring in the modem to the storefront to get replaced after the the 325 pooped out. Came home with a 315 and the Ethernet port wasn't working so I had to go back only to return with another 315. Fine now for the time being.
3 modem swaps this year and few minor latency issues. Due to this I bumped my rating of 5 for Connection Reliability down to 4.
Cogeco just upgraded the download rate to 7.5 Mbps (7500 Kbps).
Ideal, affordable solution if you have more than one computer on the network.
3 dynamic IPs that are MAC bounded. However, I'm using the same IP for a year now with a router. It has only changed once back when I wasn't using a router. Even then I had that IP for a lot longer than what you have with a dynamic IP with an ADSL service; they could change each time you establish a PPPoE connection.
I also like the idea that Cogeco has a dedicated FTP or HTTP repository for Fedora Core. »less.cogeco.net (The bunny with the pancake on its head will give you the option to choose which one you want.)
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Review by cmorey
member for 4.3 years, 2 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
lodged 2.3 years ago
- St Catharines,ON
- Contract price not specified.
- "I like how its 3 things for one price"
- "Cost of things is way too much"
- "Do not frown on people using PS3s and XBox and Wii to connect to the net"
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I really want a digital receiver but am told I am unable to have one for reasons. However, the only way that I am told I can one is if I purchase one from them for a huge amount of money that I do not have.
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 Review by Chromac
member for 11.7 years, 2052 visits, last login: 8 days ago
updated 2.3 years ago
- L'Orignal,ON
- $45 per month
- "Fast as a bullet"
- "None so far"
- "Cable rocks"
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I guess you could say I'm slightly biased because I work for Cogeco and actually was the project coordinator for the 2 way upgrade that brought HSI to our community. We went live about 4 year ago and since then speeds have been awesome. We're getting 14 mb down 1000 kb up constantly. The service has been solid since installed not one glitch so far but like I said I'm biased.  Now I work in the Cornwall area as the Tech Ops Lead
Chromac
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Review by dgorgan
member for 10.3 years, 47 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
updated 2.3 years ago
- Kingston,ON
- $55 per month
- "High speed"
- "Cripplingly low bandwidth caps, Painful billing once caps are exceeded"
- "Avoid Cogeco!"
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Cogeco has several high-speed packages, but they have recently implemented usage caps and billing on their plans.
The plan I'm currently subscribed to (High Speed Internet Standard) has a ridiculously low cap of 60gb up/down a month. Beyond that, you'll pay $1.50 per gigabyte transferred. There's a stated limit of $30 of charges for usage over the cap, but there are still questions about having service cut off after exceeding the cap.
If my hard drive were to crash, I would need at least 40gb to re-download all the content (Steam purchases) and patches (WoW, Windows security updates) that I have today, and that number is going up. That would block out any use of the streaming video I would want to watch or buying any downloadable software using digital distribution.
Simply put, the transfer cap is too low to keep up with the future of the online marketplace. Avoid Cogeco if you plan on actually using your InterNet connection.
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 Review by WiFi
member for 10.9 years, 257 visits, last login: 14 days ago
updated 2.3 years ago
- NiagaraFalls
- $39 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 8 days
- "I get something from my broadband connection."
- "Bad ARP traffic affects overall performance, Mostly reliable although they now throttle and speeds are nowhere near advertised!"
- "Poor value for money. If you need broadband, don't need tech support, and always want overage charges, Cogeco is for you!"
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Updated 15Jan11: TEKSAVVY, HERE I COME! Hey Cogeco, say goodbye to a 10+y broadband customer. I dumped Bell in 1999 and never looked back, I'm dumping you, too! Since when do your "customer service" "unprofessionals" have the right to call and THREATEN me? I was in the hospital and recover for over a month from a serious accident, I live alone, was not home for weeks. Cogeco called and said if I didn't pay up on the spot, I would be disconnected. They didn't care that I had been away for many weeks. They don't know what empathy is! I got behind in other bills (everything OK now) and even my electric utility, that sent a disconnect notice, was easy on me, removed the order and told me to pay whenever I was ready! I was in a week later and they told me they were sorry to hear what had happened and that they made sure that the order did not affect my credit rating. Things happen, they recognized that, but NO, not Cogeco! This Quebec company is a DISGRACE to business and actually makes Bell Canada look good Finally, Cogeco won't admit it but they are throttling. MY VOIP has not been working consistently ever since Cogeco started enforcing bandwidth caps. That tells me they are discriminating against services competing with their own VOIP phone service!
Updated Mar15/10: Got screwed by refer a friend yet again. I did it according to the Cogeco requirements, they have no record, my friend gets HSI, I get zip! I'm now referring friends to teksavvy where I'm moving to shortly.
Updated March 10, 2010: Speeds not as advertised and they tell me it's "up to". Oh, yeah, I forgot that minor detail...duhhhh! I'm just a dumb consumer that likes being taken to the cleaners. BANDWIDTH CAPS SUCK! NEVER went more than 10Megs/mo EVER in the more than 11 years I've had Cogeco HSI and now they want me to believe THEIR proprietary meter that says I'm going over every month?
Updated July03: I referred a friend, the Cogeco referral page says that I will be contacted, they havn't done so, I called them, there are no records of a referral. So they get a new client because of me, I get nothing. PROGRAM IS flat out FALSE ADVERTISING!
Cogeco just began offering Lite service (lower bandwidth, lower speed, fewer email accounts) and Pro (higher bandwidth, faster speed). Good feedback from senior techs on DSLr Cogeco forum which is the only reliable tech support available. Cogeco outsources installation to another company in Niagara whose employee (in my experience) was not familiar with Internet technology nor interested in customer service. The techs are on quotas, in my case there were problems with the building wiring, the tech left after his allotted time with no apology or gaurantee of when they would be back. I had to wait all day for that appointment and was then expected to wait another day later in the week to finish installation.
I was also forced by FUTURESHOP St.Catharines (where I signed on) to purchase an old "Wave @Home" CD before they would sign me up - I recently learned that Cogeco does not permit the resellers to give away let alone sell these CD's anymore! BE CAREFUL! DO NOT LET FUTURESHOP RIP YOU OFF LIKE THEY RIPPED ME! **If Cogeco has regional marketing reps, why they wouldn't be aware of this?
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Reviews:
·Cogeco Cable
| You didn't pay your bill, they disconnected, you're mad? I was in the hospital and recover for over a month (...) Cogeco called and said if I didn't pay up on the spot, I would be disconnected
I get why you'd be unhappy about that, from your point of view, an accident, hospital visit, lots of stress to be sure... but you're mad that you didn't pay for your service for months and you were disconnected? | |
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