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Review by speckledfrog 
Posted: 16 days ago
member for 17 days, 5 visits, last login: 3 days ago
 Orangeville,ON
 $57 per month
 about 4 days
 Bell Canada
 "nothing right now"
 "Inconsistant, very slow"
 "not worth it"
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Mostly bad experiences have stuck
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
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 Review by vitesse
UPDATED: 40 days ago
member for 6.9 years, 638 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu,QC
$60 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
Bell Canada
"Not to date"
"very bad customer service, Expensive, Cheap equippement"
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They ordered the service before I started to work for the company.
They send us 2 defective modem so it take 1 month to have a connection.
We had a contract the first year. We wanted to cancel after the first year, but the CSR had made an error. The CSR forgot ton cancel the service for an unknown reason, they admit it, but refused to cancel the "new" automatic contract. We stayed with them 1 more year, we could have gone to the court, but felt this was simpler to stay with them.
The second year we added a router. the router never worked with their "cheap" modem, I say cheap because of low quality of construction. They never understand why we wanted to add a router, nor why the modem wasn't working with it. they refused to give us support because we was using a router. We finally borrowed another dsl modem to find out that the problem was with their modem. They send us 4 modems, but we only received 1, they lost to order for modem replacement, (so it took 3 month to receive a working modem from them.
The modem is speedstream 5200 or 4200 (reconditioned and not always in working state)
We used their low speed dsl service (the line was good ans stable)
The main problem is with their CSR, not speaking French or English, and having for most of it, no knowledge at all in computer technologies (we talk to some CSR that had no idea what was a router, nor what was a pppoe connection and that's pretty basic technology today)
--- updates from another experience ---
Another problem with one of my friends. It was paying for their 6mbps package and was feeling is Internet was slow. He call many time the customer department to see why it was not really fast and they say everything was fine and he was receiving 6mbps service. Last month I took one of my modem to his house because the speedtest was showing only 2mbps. He is only 500meter of the CO. the attenuation in upstream and downstream was 6db / 8db the SNR value was 34 db for downstream and the RCO was 12% occupancy. So we call Bell to tell that. The first CSR was insisting that he was on 6mb profiles and that my modem was "defective" the second one tell me that it was an incompatible model (I have an ST516 v6) and that using another modem then what bell give was illegal. We finally talked to a third one that explain us that it is an up to 6mbps service and that bad electrical apparel inside the house on inside the neighbour house is preventing us from going faster. They all refuse to admit that the line quality taken from the ST516 was good.
He only wait is contract finish to go to a third party DSL provider.
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Review by graniterock
UPDATED: 46 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 372 visits, last login: 3 days ago
London,ON
$48 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
Bell Canada
"Reliable and stable"
"installation was significantly late"
"Average ISP... but you could do better."
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Overall happy with the service but with some serious thorns in my side:
When I first got the service moved to my house it was significantly late (by about a month) from the date they said it would be activated. The account was in my wife's name who had the account for many years before it came to my house. Initially 12 month contract but then month to month.
I have found using the Broad Band Report direct support forum and the chat suport very useful in solving my problems. I wouldn't recommend telephone support due to hold times and their inability to give me solutions to my problems.
I had an unlimited package but was forced out of it due to raising the cost of it. I was also very annoyed becuase they promised me a 7 meg sync rate if I changed to a capped package. I specifically said I know you guys say up to, but what will the actual rate at my house be. The guy on the phone said after clicking a few buttons it would be 7. After getting changed to the 60 gigs per month package, I found it was slower and the direct support guys on the forum confimed I would only be getting 6 (5015 actual speed).
I have now changed over to a different ISP. I would have been willing to take a retentions offer. However the offer was one of the packagees listed on the homepage. No special deals. The kicker was this new package they offered me had a 25 gig cap. My usage the previous month was also right around 25. I wasn't going to risk overages. So instead I cancelled the service and went to a new ISP.
Followup comments:  graniterock
join:2003-03-14
London, ON | re: rare case There would have been a time I would have agreed with Jakob. But those days are long gone. | |
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 Review by Talon88
UPDATED: 57 days ago
member for 6.2 years, 2724 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Toronto
$30 per month (12 month contract)
"Speed Is Stable 5Mb Service"
"Except BT Throttling From 6pm-1am ET, Price Error, Need to call every month to Fix."
"If they charge me more than $30, I will Leave Bell right the way."
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Before BT Speed is good. But now they have
BT Throttling From 6pm-1am ET. Sad, But at least
not the Whole Day like Rogers. I am still have
unlimited. If you sign new contract, you will have
60GB Cap. Bottom line is, Internet service at Canada
is stepping back. Other country in the world is moving
Forward. It's Sad!
Renew the Contract after the first year. Still can get
$30 a month with unlimited cap.
Disconnect Bell at 2009 Sept. It's Because they want to
charge me ~$5x with 25GB Cap. They don't want to
keep good old customer.
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 Review by JHeuer
Posted: 65 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 361 visits, last login: 65 days ago
Brampton,ON
Contract price not specified. (6 month contract)
about 3 days
Bell Canada
"Good documentation for basic use"
"Horrible customer service, in India. Replacement modem takes days."
"Good enough for Ma & Pa, but if you're anywhere near a power user, forget it."
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HEAVY throttling of Torrent.
Modem died, took 3 business days to replace. Shipped from 3km away from me.
Phone support is horrible. Call scripts are frustratingly condescending.
Hardware is all-in-one Modem/Router/Wireless. One fails, they all fail.
No idea what brand... Heavily customized by Bell.
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Review by Noname
Posted: 66 days ago
member for 77 days, 62 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Etobicoke,ON
Contract price not specified.
"There isn't any!"
"Rude customer service, lying employees"
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When I left Bell for Primus, Bell decided to charge an extra month when I already gave my 30 days notice. The cancellation number didn't do anything for proof. When I asked to credit the charge they confirmed 3 times yet I still got the bill. Bell employee was rude to me when I was trying to figure out why I couldn't connect to Primus.
Constant lies, rude employees, trying to rip me off, have made me think twice deal with this company.
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 Review by siljaline
UPDATED: 75 days ago
member for 7.1 years, 741 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Montreal, QC
$47 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
Bell Canada
"Generally fast DSL High Speed package"
"310-SMURF is bad unless you get a Canadian Call Centre which is not often, unfortunately."
"Still staying with Bell although Techsavvy *is* a good alternative, I do not wish to move all my services over to them."
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Followup comments: Stojko
Premium
join:2007-10-20
St John'S, NL | Canada does have a better ISP TekSavvy. | |
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anonymousse
@teksavvy.com | better isp absoluement teksavvy | |
| audiofool
join:2000-11-22
London Ont | what they said ^ +1 | |
| 
WaitForGodot
join:2009-01-07 | Anything is better than Bell Bell forced me to make the best decision, I switching to Teksavvy. (Read my reviews). | |
| 
renton
Come On You Spurs
Premium
join:2002-01-05
North York, ON | TSI Teksavvy is indeed better. | |
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 Review by MacGyver
UPDATED: 76 days ago
member for 8.1 years, 3913 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Orleans,ON
$40 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
Bell Canada
"Reliable"
"Must rent modem, useless tech support, constant price increases, service decreases, billing headaches galore"
"I've had it, cancelled because I was sick of being abused as a customer."
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I've been a Sympatico customer for almost eight years. The primary reasons that I've remained a customer so long have been:
1. Sympatico used to be the only DSL ISP in Ontario, but that was eight years ago!
2. The pain of changing my wife's and my @sympatico.ca email addresses. We both got over that and terminated our service.
3. Bundles. Really this was the only reason I remained a customer so long. If I bundled land line, DSL, Satellite TV, I used to get a killer long distance plan that more than paid for the Satellite TV. My monthly bill used to be $116. But with all the creeping price increases to DSL, Satellite, and the long distance plan, this becomes less and less attractive. I'm now paying well over $135 for worse service. Plus the array of programming available through satellite has become repetitive, drab, and boring, but that's not particularly Bell's fault.
The service has been great overall with very few outages during the entire time I've been a customer, but here are some of the negative issues I've experienced:
1. Every time I move, Bell and/or Sympatico manage to screw something up with the DSL service. This results in me having to yell at them to come and fix it tomorrow instead of maybe in the next week or what's left of my lifetime.
2. A lot of secondary services offered have been changed or removed. Sympatico removed binaries from it's newsgroup servers a few years ago and then terminated the service altogether sometime later. This is annoying because I found newsgroups to be useful for a few things like local classified ads. Sympatico also got MSN to provide their email service and is in the process of moving all customers over, and discontinuing their own POP3 service. I personally haven't had any problems with my email being hosted my MSN, but email is one of the most basic services an ISP can provide and in my opinion there's no reason to outsource it.
3. Price increases! Every few years the price goes up. What's dumb is that you can get a better price on a one year contract, BUT you need to call in and demand it. I guess they hope you're stupid, ignorant, or so loaded with money that you don't care what amount the bill is and will just pay it to line the pockets of their new owner, the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan. And a lot has changed in eight years. Sympatico is no longer the only DSL ISP in Ontario; other ISP's have non-contract prices that are $5-10 lower than Sympatico's best contract.
4. Lack of communication with the customer. Bell is a big company and as most big companies go, they don't give a lick what one customer thinks. Sympatico used to have a server that the community used to host a web forum called Sympaticousers.org. On that forum, end users could help each other out with support problems, discuss issues, etc. Well, Bell got rid of it. They recently got rid of the forums on their own website, too. The Direct forum on this site is probably next. Nice going. It's only been recently that Bell has opened up to alternative support channels such as their own forum or the Direct support forum on this site. Meanwhile, the president of some other ISP is going out of his/her way to personally help their customers any way they can.
5. Tech support treats you like an idiot. I know this problem is not unique to Bell, but come on! I am a customer of Bell, not of the call centre that got the contract to provide tech support for Bell by being the lowest bidder and priding themselves on dumping me after 15 minutes even if my problem isn't resolved! And hopefully they can speak a derivative of the obscure language called English or you're up the creek without a paddle. I'd be better off trying the French support line with my broken Francais. Disgraceful that a Canadian company outsources tech support overseas.
6. Mandatory modem rental. Do you think after being a customer for eight years that I've paid for that modem at least two or three times over? And how much is it worth now, anyway? Oh, they are increasing the rental cost just because.
7. Throttling. It hasn't affected me that I can tell, but I have heard about how for other this underhanded practice has caused major headaches. If my work VPN gets throttled, I'm gone.
8. Caps. They're in, they're out, they're in, they're.... Again I rarely go over 5gb a month so a 60gb cap is none of my concern, but it's the principle of the whole thing. Now the cap is being reduced to 25 GB. Yipee.
9. Contracts are one way carrot-on-a-stick variety. Sign up for a contract for $xx per month for xx months, and watch Bell take that stick and beat you senseless with it, as they increase your prices in a way that won't void the contract. So you're stuck.
10. Last but not least, the worst part of Bell - billing. In all the years with Bell, I think the most I had was three invoices in a row that were the same amount. If they screw up, they will never issue you a new invoice. Even the executive office will not issue corrected invoices or apply credits to the current balance. If you're being overcharged, you must pay the whole thing or get late payment charges. And you'll likely wait months to get a credit applied on a subsequent bill. Heaven help you if you gave Bell authorization to suck whatever amount of money out of your bank account or credit card whenever they feel like it. I feel absolutely insulted when Bell gave me this song and dance. "The customer is always right" as the saying goes but in this case I was right and they basically told me to jump in lake.
So overall, I do not know why anyone would go with Sympatico as their ISP of choice. There are much better deals out there, not to mention better service on the product side and support side. Particularly when you consider all the services that Sympatico has discontinued over the years.
I have terminated our service when our contract expired on August 18th, 2009 and moved to another ISP that values us as a customer, instead as one digit in one line on their annual report to shareholders. Goodbye Bell and good riddance!
Followup comments:
Bellundo
@teksavvy.com
| Dsl prices should be falling not rising Dsl prices are decreasing everywhere in the world all except Canada. You're being shafted as the base costs as well as bandwidth prices are falling sharply. Combine this with a falling US dollar and the ramifications are all the more blatant. This country stinks! | |
|
PCcertified
@acanac.net
| Bell Free as of today and HAPPY! To comment on MacGyver's review and correct a few things about bells services from a Quebecer's stand point. I was in the same boat...until this afternoon.
I agree with points 1 and 2 I was an 11 yr member of bell.
As for point 3, you can do better if you contact each dept of bell and threaten to cancel. ExpressView went as low as offering me 50% reduction on a month by month no contract deal to stay with them. Unfortunately all new sympatico plans have download caps and I had an unlimited plan so they couldn't offer me anything and would only give me a deal if I switched to one of their other capped offerings.
I negotiated a deal for telephone and satellite tv for now with no contracts and canceled sympatico. (it takes 30 days to cancel sympatico here, likely the same for you)
As with the next few points, I too experienced billing issues and service interruptions every time I moved without fail.
I'm also angry the newsgroups are no longer supported and they switched to MSN for email. I however, got myself free GMAIL accounts from google and have pop and imap services and don't have to worry about my 5 sympatico email accounts. It took a few weeks to get my email changed with everyone and all my subscriptions but it was time well spent. I suggest you do the same, so you won't be tied to a poor ISP in the future.
The deal with price increases at bell is a scam. They set me up on a contract at a discount and don't notify me when the contract ends. Then they hike up the price until I notice and call them screaming about it. It usually takes 3 calls and a threat of cancellation to get offered a deal and then they only offer contracts. I don't need that headache. And to think I would go through this song and dance with them EVERY year.
SympaticoUsers.org was NOT run by Bell, it was created by the disgruntled users of bell to create a voice and a central point of contact to negotiate with bell to solve our problems back in the day when bell was the monopoly. It worked, Bell responded and when most of the major issues were corrected the site was disbanded because it served its purpose and people lost interest. It was a year or 2 after the closure of SympaticoUsers.org that problems began to arise at bell again, but not as severe as today. Fortunately now we have the option to voice our opinion by switching to another ISP and canceling bells service forever...Muahahaha
About the tech support. I've been repairing and troubleshooting PC and Telecom issues in the industry for 20 years now. I agree that the sympatico techs treat you like an imbecile, more today than ever before. I would usually start the conversation by explaining to the tech that I'm clearly qualified and even point out in technical terms how I came to my conclusion that it's their issue. The tech usually replies with, but you still have to follow the steps please click on Start then Control Panel. ARGH!!! if I hear another tech tell me to click on start I'll....(too graphic to describe) Every call usually ends with a supervisor or second level support confirming my hypothesis and explaining that bell is working on the issue.
Regarding the modem rentals, I must have paid more than a thousand dollars for my modem in the past 11 years. (rental prices have changed over the years.) Worst part is, their modem just sits in a box, I use my own.
Throttling, man that affected me a lot recently. I haven't had a torrent download at over 25k in months and the torrents I grab, like Linux OS, usually have more than 2000 peers and always more than 200 seeds.
I noticed you said you have a 60gig cap, I'd love that, they offered me 10-20 as a max cap on the 5 meg service to lower my price by 2 dollars if I take a contract. What a laugh, they just raised it by 12.
I also noticed you didn't mention that sympatico tech support is almost impossible to reach on weekends. For example this afternoon I called tech support 310-7378 and got a message saying the offices are now closed then I got disconnected. It didn't even offer me an option to choose the tech or sales dept, just a message saying the offices are closed. not to mention that the service/sales/billing dept have changed their hours and are closed when I get home from work. Bell seems to be offering less and less service and charging more and more for it.
I had 5 meg service, unlimited downloads no caps and do not use thier antivirus services and I was paying 32.95 a month on contract. which was recently hiked to 44.95
When canceling I was informed I was supposed to have service for 30 more days, but the next day my email was already canceled and they already scheduled my line card disconnection, according to the tech I spoke to. I was told I had to call the service/billing dept to straighten it out but at 6pm they were already closed so I called them the following morning. It got straightened out but they had to extend my cancellation deadline by a couple of days due to the mix up. They can't even cancel my service without a problem.
A couple of weeks later an agent called me up to see if there was anything they could do to keep my business. After explaining a few of the issues I experienced the retention dept agent apologized to me and said she was surprised I didn't cancel sooner. And to think, her job was to try and convince me to keep my service.
A few days later I received an apology letter in writing from bell for the inconveniences I endured while using their services. I think they're just trying to insure I don't cancel any other bell services. Hmmm, VOIP is looking pretty attractive. 
With the bandwidth throttling, cancelation of newsgroups (Usenet) services, use of MSN for email and the fact that they hiked the price on me without warning each and every year and that they no longer offer 24 hour support, it was an easy decision to switch providers
I switched to Acanac for 18.95 a month and being in Quebec I saved one tax too. For me thats more than $300 savings over the next year.
My cancellation with sympatico was completed today Sunday Aug 3 at noon and it took me only 30 seconds to get reconnected with Acanac.
This service doesn't have the size of Bell but I can tell you the speed is amazing and my torrents finally fly again (only tested one torrent so far and got 450Kbs..alot better than the 25Kbs I was doing with bell) I can't wait to try out their other services like their BETA of the Online virtual PC that offers up 10Mbs Upload and 10Mbps Download. They even give you a free 100GB of space on their servers to store your files. Imagine a torrent flying at 1000Kbs 
I've also had some time to evaluate their phone sales and tech support. I'm pleased to be treated like an intelligent human being again by a knowledgeable staff. I can't say enough good things about them and I've only been a member for a few hours. (signed up for service 1 week ago) Even their email support was fast and informative.
So, if you decide to join Acanac or have any questions about the service, please send me an email. Even though I'm just a new member, I would be more than happy to answer any questions I can.
I should also mention that Acanac offers a referral program to all it's members. If you refer someone to acanac, you get a free month of DSL service. If you refer 10 friends you get FREE DSL service as long as you're a member.
So, if you found this information useful, please consider sending me an REPLY to let me know when you signed up to Acanac. That way I may earn a free month of service for my efforts.
Thanks,
I guess I should have written an article  | |
| |
colonel
@bell.ca
| Re: Bell Free as of today and HAPPY! Interesting...
Almost some situation with me. My contract with bell finish in 1 month 1/2
But the review on the net about acanac worry me....a lot of bad review...
But in my situation, I have a phone line with rogers and dsl with bell. It is what they call a "dry" line for my dsl ?
Will it be complicate to "transfert" my "dry" line dsl to acanac ?
SO if you can help me, and decide to change, I will be glad to "get" you a free month.
I will call bell tomorrow to see what the will offer me but I know that the price is going to jack....
| |
| | | PCcertified
join:2008-08-04
canada
| Re: Bell Free as of today and HAPPY! Well, I can't say Acanac is the BEST provider, but...
The price is right 18.95/m on a 12 month contract.
30 day money back guarantee.
The sales dept is very informative and helpful.
The Tech support is easy to deal with and knowledgeable.
They offer some amazing additional services at no extra charge like 100GB's of storage space on-line and a free Virtual Linux PC as well as all the standards like email and such.
Transferring to Acanac from Bell was easy and I had no downtime.
The only problem is that Bell is still in control of the line speed. In my case, that meant Bell reduced my speed profile from 5Mbs to 3Mbs even though Acanac asked them to set it to 5. I called Acanac and they confirmed that BELL will fix this problem tomorrow around 10:00.
Other than the fact that Bell still controls the line speed, Acanac is the best internet provider I've been with in my 15 years on-line.
I highly recommend Acanac.
If you would like to use me as a reference when joining please include my name in the referral box.
PCcertified
Happy surfing. | |
|
oh well
@videotron.ca
| "I've had it, I'm cancelling as soon as my contract is done! Bell won't let you go. They will either offer you some "deal" to keep you locked in, or they will bill you with stuff and drag you down for months, or they will send you bills with 0.00$ owing for 3 years so you don't forget them.
On another note. Hope you find greener pastures. | |
|
MacGyver
Bell Sucks
Premium,ExMod 2003-05
join:2001-10-14
Orleans, ON
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Bell Sympatico
| The deed is done... So I finally did it. After probably too much thought, and almost being suckered into another one of Bell's promotions, I made the call and cancelled. No retention offer was made. There's no going back now.
Anyway, looking back on this review, I noticed that not all the followup discussions were displayed, with a tiny link "View ALL 24 Comments". Funny enough, here is something I wrote back in 2003:
said by MacGyver on June 5 2003 :
I can assure you that I do not work for Bell. I am just a very satisfied customer. Contrary to what a few people shout so loudly that it seems like popular belief, there really are satisfied Bell customers. They didn't get to be the biggest and the best by accident. And now the "monopoly" is over and competition has sprung up, Bell continues to be increasingly successful, not less so.
»Re: People who work for Bell
Hard to believe I went from very satisfied to completely dissatisfied in six years. I guess all those new customers jumping on the blue couch might be in the same boat six years from now, too. | |
|
Bellinator
@videotron.ca
| They'll be back They will send you love letters almost every month and call you a couple of times per year. They will want you to know how much you are "valued" as a sucker and pretend they have some sort of quality service to offer you.
Unless you get on their do not call list and call them to get on a do not mail list, they won't stop harassing you. | |
| |
MacGyver
Bell Sucks
Premium,ExMod 2003-05
join:2001-10-14
Orleans, ON | Re: They'll be back You were right, the first love letter they sent was in the form of a bill for $100. »Bell, YOU SUCK | |
| | |
hehNeverEnds
@videotron.ca
| Re: They'll be back LOL
Off to kevin.crull you go to tell them to get lost with the extrotion.
Then they will ask why you left, where you went to blah blah blah and milk you for any info you can give them.
But, you know what to say.
You moved to china. | |
| | |
ah forgot
@videotron.ca | BTW, you should update your review with what happened and the hoops you will have to jump through to fix it. | |
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Review by happysavvy
Posted: 77 days ago
member for 77 days, 1 visits, last login: 72 days ago
Waterloo,ON
$52 per month (month by month)
"fairly reliable connection and speeds"
"incompotent, untrustworthy company tries to rob you at every turn"
"ditch Bell immediately and switch to Teksavvy"
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I've been a loyal customer of Bell Sympatico for 3 years. I finally made the switch to Teksavvy and I'm never looking back.
Everyone knows how bad a company Bell is. Let me add my story to the pile.
The connection reliability and speeds are good, and the installation was fairly painless (probably because that's what makes them all their money). However, Bell is a totally incompetent and untrustworthy mammoth bureaucracy.
Bell's tech support is infamous. Everyone knows about the call centres in India, where "technicians" are trained only to read standard responses to you over the phone. Getting something done about a breach in service takes days and often requires the customer to spend hours on the phone.
Bell likes to slip in new charges and fee increases every now and then. Naturally, they don't inform the customer of these increases. If you don't keep a close watch on your bill each month then you'll end up paying through the nose. On several occasions, I called Bell and yelled at them for adding fees without notice. Sometimes they gave me a temporary discount, sometimes they didn't.
Finally, I made the decision to switch to Teksavvy. (I've been with Teksavvy for only a few days now, but so far they stand head-and-shoulders above Bell.) Naturally, Bell offered to meet Teksavvy's competitive prices once I informed them of my cancellation. But I do not patronize firms that give me a good price only when I yell at them or threaten to leave. If Bell can't be honest enough to give me the correct price up front without haggling then they do not deserve my business.
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Review by mattb9432
UPDATED: 87 days ago
member for 94 days, 2 visits, last login: 72 days ago
Etobicoke,ON
$43 per month (12 month contract)
Bell Canada
"I have a connection."
"Not much faster than dial-up; connection took much longer than expected; Bell managed to cut off my telephone service while tryi"
"Bell's usage caps don't matter because service is so slow that I'll never download 25gb in a month."
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I ordered a $29.95 Performance package; according to Bell's website, I'm going to be charged $43.95 per month.
My DSL modem arrived on time with a letter stating that I'd have Internet service by 5:00pm on July 31. At 9:30pm on the 31st I didn't have Internet service. Tech support told me to power down system until next morning because connections are often not established until midnight of the day on which the connections are supposed to be established. I powered down and began picking up the packaging in which the modem had been shipped. I found quite a bit of useful information in an instruction booklet that I'd previously ignored because it was titled, "Wirless Home Networking Reference Guide." I hadn't ordered wirless networking and so hadn't bothered with this booklet. On the inside cover of the Wireless Home Networking Reference Guide I found the information that by installing Bell's system I had agreed to be bound by a Sevice Agreement, a copy of which was included in my installation kit. I looked carefully and found a copy of the service agreement inside a cardboard sleeve that had been wrapped around the box in which the modem was shipped. I had slid the box out of the sleeve and so had not seen the service agreement. I had found all other documentation inside the box with the modem, and had been surprised that there seemed to be no service agreement. It appears that the service agreement is carefully packed so that the customer won't see it until after setting up the system. The service agreement basically requires me to pay Bell whatever Bell feels like charging me whether Bell delivers the service or not.
On the morning of August 01 I not only didn't have Internet service but found that Bell had managed to cut off my telephone service, too. The only number I could call on my home telephone line was 310-BELL.
Bell said on August 01 that they'd send a technician to my home on August 05 to check the connections in my home. I told Bell that there was nothing wrong with connections in my home and I had ordered Bell service because I didn't have time to wait around for a technician to show up and would they please just disconnect all Bell services and I'd find another provider. I was told that the person to who I was speaking couldn't arrange a disconnection and I'd be connected to someone else and I was then kept on hold until I had to hang up because I'd been on the phone for nearly 45 minutes and had to leave to attend to other business.
On Tuesday August 04 I arrived home and found that my security system had recorded a Bell technician knocking at my door and getting no answer because no one was home. I plugged in a telephone and found that Bell had reconnected my telephone line.
At 6:30am on the morning of Wednesday, August 05, I reconnected Bell's DSL modem and reinstalled the phone line filters and found that I had an internet connection. I went through the setup process and then logged off to attend to other business. At about 10:00am I tried to log on and found that the usernames and passwords I'd set up earlier were no longer recognized. At 12:00 noon I found that I once again didn't have an Internet connection. I then got another runaround from Bell, asked to have service terminated and was left on hold until I had to hang up.
On Friday, August 07, I found that my telephone line was still working. Phoned Bell and was told that I had telephone and Internet service. I again plugged in Bell's modem and found that I had an internet connection but could not access most of Bell's website and could not use the e-mail account I had previously established. I later found that it seemed that Bell's system had remembered some of the setup information I'd given it on the morning of August 05, but had "forgotten" other bits of information.
On August 12 more of Bell's website became available to me. I downloaded and installed the Bell deluxe security package that was included with the Bell Performance package. Internet Explorer suddenly became unable to find a connection. A third-party two-way firewall told me that Bell's software was constantly trying to call home. I found that I couldn't turn off Bell's security programs. I had to use Task Manager to stop Bell's programs. Control Panel couldn't remove Bell's software, so I did a system restore.
I tested the download speed of my connection and got a maximum of 2.3 megabits per second, which was faster than dialup but a long was short of Bell's claim that I'd be able to download at "up to" 6 megabits per second. Actual download speeds are seldom above 200 kilbits per second, and usually a lot less.
Bell tech support briefly took control of my computer and could find no reason for the slow downloads.
On Thursday, August 20, I'd done everything possible to speed up downloads, but speeds hadn't improved noticeably. I phoned Bell and asked to have the service disconnected, and was switched from department to department and was offered discounts to keep Bell service and was finally told that I'd have to speak to another department to arrange a disconndect and was again left on hold untill I finally guessed that I must have been forgotten and I hung up.
Today I find that I still have a very slow Bell Internet connection. I'll have to phone again and try to get disconnected, and I'll try to get connected by Acanac or Telcom.
I don't intend to pay Bell for Internet service. I just don't see why I should pay pay full price for a service of which I've received only a small fraction.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
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