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 Review by squircle 
Posted: 48 days ago
member for 158 days, 20 visits, last login: 39 days ago
 Oakville,ON
 $30 per month
 about 8 days
 Bell Canada
 "Great customer service, better price than most"
 "Throttled by Bell, last mile by Bell, Bell in general."
 "Passable speed DSL and great people & customer service"
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When I moved to Oakville, I decided I wasn't going to put up with any more cable crap (had Rogers in Mississauga). I looked at Bell, and read terrible reviews, but then CanadianISP showed there were other (cheaper) resellers of DSL, so I decided to go with Velcom, after being promised there wasn't any throttling. After it took Bell 8 days to set up the connection (and three separate failed attempts), the connection was great, and friendly people all around.
But when I heard that Bell was throttling resellers, I genuinely thought I would be making the switch to cable. However, Cogeco (the incumbent carrier in my area) announced extremely low bit caps. I had no choice but to stay with Velcom, as I have, on average, about 240GB/mo network I/O, which would cost me hundreds with Cogeco. However, I'm glad I stayed with Velcom, and as soon as I rewire the phone lines in my house to achieve a passable SNR, I'm sure I'll get even faster speeds.
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 Review by adisor19
Posted: 60 days ago
member for 5.1 years, 1758 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Saint-Constant,QC
$34 per month
about 7 days
Bell Canada
"Great price, great service great speeds and free MLPPP access"
"Still depends on Bell for last mile connection and potential subject to future caps and throttling"
"Best bang for the buck from all the small DSL providers"
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Some of you may have noticed my rants about TekSavvy charging an extra 4$ a month for MLPPP access and my promise to look for another ISP that would offer MLPPP at no extra charge. Well i didn't have to look far 
I signed up with Velcom and i was up and running in a matter of days. I changed my PPPoE account in my router and presto : i was up and running with 10Mbps down and 1.6Mbps up just like i was before with TekSavvy using MLPPP.
Speedtests are consistent at any time of the day and since both my lines sync at 5Mbps, i get full speeds as well just like i used to with TekSavvy. As a bonus, there are no caps ! (for now at least)
The connection is reliable so far and it only froze on me 1 time although i am not 100% sure it was Velcom's fault. I rebooted the router and it was back up.
Overall i'm very happy with Velcom and i recommend them as a solid and free MLPPP alternative ISP.
Adi
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Review by ChampUz
UPDATED: 126 days ago
member for 288 days, 73 visits, last login: 17 days ago
Mississauga,ON
$29 per month
about 7 days
Bell Canada
"5"
"Bell is hell 'Cause it smells like dell so don't yell or your connection will swell-Young Mulla"
"Velcom is a great ISP"
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Ordered it a weak ago and I am getting 3mbps( the max my line can handle) and 250 upload.
I was up and running a couple hours ago and so far so good.
Support is ok, not bad , and not as good as teksavvy
The Price is defiantly worth it, unlimited bandwidth. up to 5mbps speed 800k upload.
I also get the RFD discount which gives me a total price of 29.87
Overall Great service, recommended.
WAY BETTER THAN BELL.
Update: disconnections are GONE, With a combination of moving there servers locally and fixing my telephone line in which bell tech came five times to my house, but i complained to there manager , and a F1 Pair was bad.
Followup comments:  cutuzov
join:2007-11-21
Mississauga, ON |  "Way better then Bell"
I am using Velcom for a year already. Happy overall. | |
| 
sachinator
@velcom.ca
| velcom not so good recently I've had quite a few problems with Velcom recently. The connection repeatedly drops. I used to have a very stable connection for over two years with 5056/800 speeds, but recently this connection has been so shoddy, that I'm having my doubts about Velcom.
A ticket was opened, and nothing was discovered with the line, so I was told that it is my modem. I replaced my modem, but issue persisted. The connection goes down repeatedly, and sometimes my modem just cannot connect to the service for hours. I tried manually assigning the IP/DNS servers since I have a IP, but same issue.
I don't really understand how the service can go so bad. I used to recommend Velcom to others, but now I'm skeptical of the service myself | |
| | Partizan
join:2009-07-27
Canada
| Re: velcom not so good recently Is it possible something is wrong with your wiring inside the house? Since you already eliminated modem as being the culprit, you could also try eliminating your house wiring as the problem.
Go to the Bell box outside your house, unscrew "Customer Access" bolt, open the box and unhook the phone jack that feeds into your house. Get a long, long phone cable. If you have a small laptop, that's great otherwise you'd need long network cable or wireless router. Plug your long phone cable into that phone jack in Bell box and attach your modem to it. See if you get good connection and speed. If there's still a problem, then it's on Velcom/Bell side. Otherwise some wiring in your house is bad or some connected equipment is interfering. | |
| YoungMulla
join:2009-07-17
Mississauga, ON | lol Thanks for the credit in the negatives  | |
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Review by cutuzov
UPDATED: 192 days ago
member for 2 years, 186 visits, last login: 12 days ago
Mississauga,ON
$30 per month
about 5 days
Bell Canada
"No cap 5MB Support is quick and efficient"
"Had some issues with IP last week, seems resolved"
"Recommended"
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I have been TechSavy customer for 4 years, but have to walk away after I moved to my new house. They was seem to unable to solve my connection problems on the new line. To get it fixed I went to the evil Sympatico for 1 month. Line was fixed, but I am being billed for there "services" cancelled 3 month ago ever since
So for 3-4 month I am a Velcome happy customer. Customer support is useful and quick. I had some problem with my IP assigned to other modem in the network. Best part is tech support honestly admit there have a something messed up on there side. I can live with provider which is working on network problem, instead of advising me how to hook modem I been using for 8 years. No stupid "reboot your comp" advices.
Issue was fixed so far. I am getting solid 4200/500
I will definitely stay with this provider, and recommend it to my friends and relatives.
Upd. half year later......same ISP
Hmm I am either lazy or there is not enough competition in this area... Anyway still buying DSL from Velcom.
Followup comments: VelcomJoe
join:2007-09-07
Brampton, ON | Thank You Thank you very much for your feedback welcome to Velcom! | |
| VelcomMatt
Premium
join:2006-01-26
Brampton, ON | Thank you :) Hello,
I would like to thank you for taking the time to provide an honest comment/feedback about our service. Also, we're happy to hear that everything is working well for you.
Regards,
Matthew L. | |
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Review by Bablo490
UPDATED: 198 days ago
member for 4.2 years, 170 visits, last login: 90 days ago
Montreal,QC
$29 per month
about 7 days
Bell Canada
"Constant connection. Fair customer service. Monthly billing. No limit."
"No modem with monthly plan, unless pay extra. It's a small company with a few agents."
"A fair deal."
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I've been with Velcom.ca for over 6 months now. There were only a few blackout of DSL service which they said was due to some upgrading on their end. As long as $ell Canada is not capping your line, Velcom.ca won't cap and they'll give you what your line is capable of, up to 5mbps.
Over all satisfied.
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Review by avin
UPDATED: 207 days ago
member for 4.8 years, 183 visits, last login: 105 days ago
Brampton,ON
$29 per month (month by month)
Bell Canada
"Great price, unlimited bandwidth, MLPPP supported."
"Initially - frequent disconnects (FIXED NOW), Tech support leaves a lot to be desired."
"Initially, really frustrating b/c of disconnections, but since that has ceased, I am loving the service."
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EDIT: Frequent disconnections have ceased. Haven't had to contact tech support for a month (awesome!!!). Loving the DSL service now.
OLD REVIEW: Currently been a customer for just around a month. Switched over from Acanac. So far, speeds have been good and the price is good too for unlimited bandwidth. The connection was setup exactly on the day that they informed me it would be. Initially there were no problems with the connection. Then I started noticing some dropped connections. Contacted tech support but they had not been very informative as to what the problem was, they seemed to do something on their end that got the connection back up. Modem DSL light would be on but the PPPoE light would not turn on. On my end, they just asked me to restart the modem and try again (which I did prior to the call without any luck). Tech support has been easy to reach and they actually called me back once after I called them to ensure that everything was working. Problem is, during the last week of March, I had to contact them on five separate days because of frequent disconnection.
Further and more frequent disconnects now.. but some people in forum are suggesting that it may not be an issue on Velcom's end. No way to tell where the issue lies but I'm pissed that the tech support people left it at "its probably spyware or a firewall on your computer" when I have already isolated my computer as not being the issue.
I guess in terms of tech support, you get what you pay for.
Overall, company is not bad. Definitely beats going w/ Bell but there may be better alternatives for a little more $$$
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Review by deusex
UPDATED: 359 days ago
member for 1.4 years, 6 visits, last login: 359 days ago
Scarborough,ON
$33 per month
Bell Canada
"Mostly good service"
"Some terrible tech support people"
"Early experience was A++ but noticable decline in support"
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Been with Velcom for over 2 years coming from Sympatico. Matt (I assume is the same Matt that's been responding here) was the guy who set me up and completely took care of me. He responded personally to any issues and I raved about their support and their service for the first year and a half.
But, over the past year I've noticed a change. Getting hold of Matt became difficult and emails and phone calls weren't returned. Service has been mostly excellent, but over the past 6 months there have been connectivity issues and slowdowns. Getting hold of support is easy and there's rarely any waits, but some of the support people seem to be reading off a list and if the problem falls outside the list you may as well be talking to a brick wall.
One memorable example is when I was working on a Mac at my partners office (also with Velcom) and we were having some difficulties. The tech support girl asked me to access the command prompt by clicking the start button. I explained I was on a MAC and there wasn't a start button - this seemed to throw her into a panic. She regained control and told me "let's start again" and told me to go to the bottom left of my screen and click the start button. I told her again - I'm on a MAC there's no start button. I was told another two times to click my start button until finally I was told I'd be called back. At one point during this issue I explained that we're running a business and if we can't get the issue resolved we'd have to find another ISP and the support girl actually told me that that would probably be best. I'm not sure If I'd want someone like that on my Staff! Matt eventually did get involved in the issue and it got resolved (thanks Matt!)
Around a month or so ago (during all the Bell throttling issues were coming to light) we were having slowdowns every other week at my home Velcom setup, something I wasn't used to with my service with them. The support people however, dealt with the issues very fast, mostly resolving it by changing my IP address on their end.
Yesterday, however, I had more support people issues. Over the past week I've been experiencing sporadic web browsing stickiness (email was fine). I was waiting for things to work themselves out, but yesterday there was an hour long period that was unbearable. I called support and was told to go to speedtest.net. I did, and reported that the test wouldn't finalize, as the connectivity was so bad. She told me that they'd have to check with Bell to see if there was something wrong with the lines and they would get back to me within 48 hours. That in itself seems odd for the symptoms i told her about and I thought 48 hours was also unacceptable, but hung up and waited for the reply. Someone called me today (12 hours later) and told me the lines were fine (duh!) and that it was probably a problem with my modem. I stopped him right there and told him connectivity was back to normal at the moment and also that I was moving in 12 days and shutting off the service, so replacing a perfectly functional modem wasn't an option. I also told the support guy that when I take possession of my new house in August I would be basing my decision on what Internet service I'd be installing in the new house on my experience over the next 12 days. I figured that would prompt him to at least look into the issue a bit more closely, but instead said ok, and hung up the phone.
With all that said, Velcom has been pretty amazing. The first year and half there were no issues and everything was lightening fast. Matt at one point even reduced my rate and sped up my bandwidth at the same time without any prompting.
I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt and just hope that I've just been unlucky with the support staff that I've been getting.
I have a few months in a furnished rental house that comes with Uniserve and will most likely get Velcom in my new house. And would also like to add, that I called Unserve's tech support to find out if the service I was moving to had static IP addresses, and I had to wait almost 15 mintues to get through to them. I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes for Velcom, but most times it at most 2 minutes - but for those longer waits, Matt, please change that one looping song that plays, it drives me nuts!
---------added notes 3 months later and moved into new place with Velcom----
I just want to report that other than a 5 day delay in getting hooked up at the new place, our connection has been perfect. Over 3 months without interruption and speed is phenomenal. I'm not sure if their support has gotten better as I've had no need to call them. Thanks Velcom!
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Review by cs982005
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 1.3 years, 9 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Brampton,ON
$37 per month (month by month)
Bell Canada
"good value, short wait for techsupport line, occasionally helpful staff"
"they have not yet successfully enabled my service"
"remains to be seen - but so far a very painful experience"
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UPDATE: after giving up on Velcom ever calling me back, I decided to get my hands dirty and do some experimentation on my own. I found that the connection works outside at the demarc (modem connects right away). I then went to the basement and examined the wiring work the tech they sent made and found that one of the wires was broken and barely making contact with the wire coming from outside. I re-spliced it and hooked them together and now it connects. I have updated the scores I gave to reflect their failure to ever call me back and the poor job the tech they sent did (I realize that he is Bell's, but I am a customer of Velcom and thus from my perspective it is their responsibility to provide proper service as they are the ones receiving my money every month).
I write this review while being extremely disappointed and hoping that someone from Velcom might read it and decide to do something about it. I have been a customer of Rogers for several years (in a rental apartment first, and for 18 months now in my house).
I never had issues with Rogers except perhaps a single outage every 6 months or so when they are performing maintenance and only for a couple of hours each. However, once they began using traffic shaping, port blocking, and bandwidth capping I decided that it is time to be freed from their clutches.
Based on the reports I saw here, I was final on either Velcom or Teksavvy. However I chose Velcom due to their good dry loop service offering. I called them about a 3 or 4 weeks ago and made the order. They said they'll have a tech come over and wire me up (as I did not have a land line whatsoever initially). I emphasize this because it was VELCOM who wired my house, not me.
The tech showed up no earlier than one day before the actual activation day, he made a phone jack for me to use with my modem and proceeded to wire it down to the basement (and out to the demarcation). He made no attempt to even unpack the modem they sent me and thus never showed me that I have service. He packed up and left.
This was the beginning of my pain:
1. First, the modem would not connect. So I called and they claimed that Bell has not activated the line yet.
2. Next day they said that line was activated already 2 days ago (i.e. prior to when they claimed that it was NOT YET activated - proof that whomever I spoke to that day was simply providing bogus info)
3. Then they claimed that the line IS active BUT admitted that they can see massive sync issues and will send a tech the next day to investigate.
4. Tech never showed up or called at all (there were people at home at all times)
5. Upon ME calling, they checked with Bell and Bell claimed that they were not informed of any need to send a tech beforehand!!!!
6. Then they gave me another appointment that was never met!
7. They then sent a tech yet another day later, who showed up, never even came into the house (and downright refused to do so), simply said that there is only a max of 3Mb sync at the demarc, and then claimed that he is HE IS NOT EVEN A TECH AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. That was yesterday July 9th.
8. I thus called Velcom to complain about that, and after trying to pass the buck, they promised to call me back and NEVER DID.
9. I then called them for the last time prior to writing this review, explained the whole situation, was informed that they are not responsible for the wiring in my house (even though THEY installed it) and that I should call Bell to complain (which I find ridiculous, given that I am a VELCOM customer, not Bell, and should only be contacting Velcom for support). I asked to speak to a supervisor, a request they downright REFUSED to fulfill until I made it clear that this is the only way to proceed, they then handed me to someone who simply reiterated what the agent said and provided no further insight. At which point I ran out of patience, gave him the option of either getting things right, or provide me with a full refund and cancel the service, and asked to call me back with their decision.
In light of all this, it is difficult for me to recommend Velcom's service to anyone, knowing that at the first sign of trouble they will attempt to pass the buck. I work in tech support myself and I know that when there is an issue with a service I provide (even if I am simply selling it, and in reality getting it from a 3rd party) then supporting it is MY responsibility - as the client has no direct contact with the 3rd party.
I hope that someone from Velcom (possibly the gentleman everyone has been praising so far, Matthew) will read this and attempt to get things right. I am surrounded by a very large group of techies at my workplace who would love to move to a tech-friendly service that doesn't block ports or throttle traffic and I assure you, they will all hear about the outcome of this experience. So far, Teksavvy appears to be the superior option.
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Review by gigi6ro0
Posted: 1.4 years ago
member for 5.1 years, 3 visits, last login: 1.1 years ago
North York,ON
Contract price not specified.
about 4 days
"reliable speed and service"
"so far so good"
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I’ve been with Rogers and Bell for 4 years and I had a lot of bad experiences with them.
I’ve switched to Velcom 2 days ago (then my agreement with bell expired) and I’m very happy that I did it. The service was up and running in 4 day, time required by bell to set up my dry-loop and less them 5 min over the phone with Velcom to get my user and password and set up my router. I’ve start testing them, 20GB downloaded in the first day and 10GB in the second, the speed is very good, 350-450KB/s, most of the time over 400KB/s.
There is a small issue about the modem: then I’ve subscribed and paid it they didn’t tell me that it is a used one and I didn’t asked, because I’ve expected a new one with full warranty. I’ve called them and they agreed to reimburse me once my new modem will arrive.
I’ll be back at the end of the first month with an update.
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 Review by Quake110
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 5.9 years, 2623 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Ottawa, ON
$31 per month
Bell Canada
"Extremely good customer service, not bittorrent throttling, they ALLOW servers ;)"
"hmm... can't think of any..."
"One of the best DSL ISPs"
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Update: 06-13-2008: Still happy with them after almost a year, no problems. They reply quickly to my inquiries.
When I first called them, they answered all my questions regarding the ISP, plus they even informed me of a special deal of $26.99 that I didn't know about.
At first, when my DSL line was activated, the 2wire modem that I brought from canadacomputers.com didn't work. So Velcom offered to send a technician to test the line. And lo and behold, the Bell technician was actually on time and confirmed that it was the modems problems.
So I've brought the speedtouch 516 V6 from Velcom.
But for some reason, I didn't receive the modem even tho Canada Post said the item has been shipped.
After I talked with Matthew, he concluded that since the it will take 5 days to know what happened, he'll send another one (that's what I call service!)
At first, my profile was 3008/800, after talking with Matthew about my profile, they tweaked it to a 4032/800 interleaved, the pings might not be good but I'll try to rewire my demarc before demanding the Fast path profile.
All in all, the customer service has been brilliant. They answer e-mails in a few hours (sometimes in minutes) and VelcomMatt is always in dslreports.com, ready to help with any difficulties you might have.
So right now, I'm a convert and I recommend anyone to sign up with Velcom.
Followup comments: VelcomMatt
Premium
join:2006-01-26
Brampton, ON
| Thank you for your feedback and review. Hello Quake110,
I would like to thank you for taking the time to write a review about our company. For the modem shipping it's unfortunate that sometimes Canada Post can misplace the parcel.
However we didn't feel that it was fair for you to wait an additional 5 business days which is why we shipped you out another modem while we worked out the dispute with Canada Post.
Kind Regards,
Matthew | |
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