 bud341
join:2001-10-31
Kitchener, ON |  Heya
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techther
@sympatico.ca | Re: Heya download.sympatico.ca | |
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| alcapb
join:2001-03-01 | I don't think you have Sympatico, do you? Access Manager comes included when you get the service. As I mentioned above, Access Manager is terrible and makes your service slow. I am using NetVoyager and NOW get 960 down. | |
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ryguys
join:2002-01-23
N. Ont Can
 ·Shaw
| Bell Idiots Bell has got to be the most F***** up company ever.
I have Shaw HSI right now (cable). Received a flyer today in the mail from Bell about a $24.95 mnth promo that they are offering.
So I call them up and tell them that I currently have Shaw but was thinking of switching to them if the speeds/service was better. I suggested that they send out a kit and give me a free mnth of service and that if I like it I would switch. Then they could get my $40 mnth instead of Shaw.
You think they would do this. Not a chance. You would figure that they would jump at the chance to steal a customer from Shaw.
Oh well what can ya do. | |
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Alde
@216.208.x.x
| Re: Bell Idiots It is not as easy as sending you a kit so you "can hook up to the internet".
Bell must do some configuration on your phone line at the Central office. This is why there is a lead time of about 5 days to get your service started.
For them to send one out to you so you can send them your $40 dollars a month? Hmm, not sure if they really need your $40 dollars.
Try that with another local DSL provider and you will see the same result. | |
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| ryguys
join:2002-01-23
N. Ont Can
·Shaw
| Who cares how they do it. Config the line come out and run a new one who cares. My point is why would they pass up a customer when they know damn well the that Shaw is a much faster Cable provider.
I guess I just have to stay with my current ISP.
SPEED NOT TO BAD
»/speedtests/31···32280576 | |
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| melanjean
join:2002-09-25
Montreal, QC
| Well why do you think Sympatico is now offering the last month of a promotion free. Because they are not stupid enough to give you the service free of charge and have you cancel it after. Sympatico offers great service and currently is losing a lot of money for idiots that order the service on monday and cancel it on tuesday. They make the prices increase. So does people that take the month off and f*ck off. I have been with other providers and god Sympatico is the best. I have nothing bad to say to them. You hear things like they do not know how to bill... If you investigate you will realize that people that pay with CC cant even check there statements. So anybody can be using them and they would realize it six months to a year later. So I completely aggree with them refusing your free month, maybe if they applied there terms and conditions to the letter they would be losing less money and able us to get a fast service (by getting rid of people download/upload too much) and people that hop from one service to another to have a great deal. If you cannot pay 44.95/month stay on the fu**ng dial up and shut up. Anyone that had bad experiences with Bell did not give them half a chance. They are respectful and ALWAYS corrects there mistakes. There human, like us. So buddy, try it first before judging it. | |
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| WTF99
join:2002-10-14
Sutton West, ON
| And just WHO is the idiot? Why not try that at MacDonalds? Order a Big Mac, large fries and a shake. Tell them you'll pay for it after after you'v eaten it.....just in case you don't like it. Looks like someone needs a refresher in Business 101.
For the record. Cable-delivered broadband is going to be inherently slower than DSL....it's not rocket science. The more users on the pipe the less bandwidth you'll have. DSL's limit is the pipe from your ISP's network to wherever you wanna go. NOBODY else will be on the pipe between you and the ISP ( unless there's a few foreign drops on the way) | |
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sswilson
join:2002-09-26
Shearwater, NS
| Re: Bell Idiots I greatly doubt that anybody's throughput would drop below the caps currently placed on MTT (the Nova Scotia version of Sympatico) service, so theoretical benefits of DSL vrs Cable are moot at best in this case.
The telcos dropped the ball in the high speed provider wars.
They provided an inferior product (low speeds, constant disconnects, & caps), & now that the cable co.s have their hardware in place the telcos are paying the price.
--
Hell, I only just got here & you want me to think of something witty???? | |
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Danimal11
@sympatico.ca
| XP and Sympatico Sympatico High speed has been Ok but have had a few unnessesary disconnects and down times for sympatico maitenence.
But with XP you do no tneed the Access manager. Which is 10x better
also the 5 gb d/l limit hasnt been an issue yet but could be for some heavy music lovers.
Also the free webspace is nice to start but has no availiblity to upgrade to a better package.
%mb storage thats it no fp extensions or cgi or perl or anythign useful.
Besides that it will be fine for me until this town gets cable if they ever do. | |
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| melanjean
join:2002-09-25
Montreal, QC
| Re: XP and Sympatico The 5GB limit is solved with the new service Bell Canada and MusicMatch introduced witch is www.musicmatch.ca By being a member of Sympatico and using this LEGAL MUSIC service you get an additionnal 25% off all additionnal bandwith used. MusicMatch.ca regroups all major records label to one service witch ables you to stream the music, CD quality to your computer. There Jukebox ables you to burn to a cd. all that for 7.95/month. Cheaper then a freaking CD !! For your website, use tripod.com that ables you to do more. I am now with HOMESTEAD PROFESSIONNAL »www.tvhall.com is my website and it works great !
Cable shares your connection, and all ISP's in canada will have banwith caps. It is better to get use to it now and then go with the one that offers you the most ! | |
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Beileys
@bellglobal.com | Re: XP and Sympatico you do not get an additional 25 bandwith.... you get 25% reduction on the price for going over the bandwith! | |
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divine8
join:2002-11-19
| Always fast.....? Yeah well I had onlink cable before and I never liked it the speeds was very sucky and there was download limits basically your whole connection was capped. So I switched to ADSL on Sympatico... At first everything was very nice and fast and all now after 4months later or so Their pipeline is recently FLAT line whitch means I get download speeds that are like 20kb/sec at most. before I had very nice downloads going at 210kb/sec believe or not... And it says right on their website that they shall service you 1mbit/sec for downstream... well thats some bullshit. I just think that everyone switched to ADSL in this area and everybody is taking advantage and its just eating more bandwidth so in the end everything will be really slow... unless sympatico decides to add more bandwidth , they finally realize that 100000 new users join's them... And they just sit there and say nah... theres lots of bandwidth out there.... I like their new commercial there "always fast thing" thats some lame ass quote if you ask me. | |
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SkyDude_dc
join:2002-10-15
Woodstock, ON
| BELL service stable - policies not I was a Bell DSL customer for almost 3 years and the speed I received was always at or slightly above the posted speed of 1MBps down load. When I purchased my own modem I called Bell to return their rental modem and have the $10.00/mth fee waived. They said I can return the modem but they will still charge me the rental fee, policy prevents them from allowing no rentals.
Well I switch to a local 3xDSL service (Skynet.ca)- 3MBps download 640KBps upload for the same price as Bell ($44.95) with my own modem. They lost a loyal customer from bad policy. | |
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MrSkills
join:2002-07-19
Gatineau, QC
| Some of you are just venting! There is something you guys must know, most Broadband ISP's in Canada offer very good services, the problem is always related to your location's cabling, distance, your sucky computer or network outages. Some people says Rogers rocks, some people say they suck goat balls, same thing with Sympatico. Cable is faster at optimal performance, but DSL gives you a variety of Speed packages depending on your needs. And please, stop complaining about your bandwidth limit, most people that are going over it, are 1- Spending too much time on the internet, 2- Download too much porn and warez, though you're still saving on rental fee and software cost.
MrSkills | |
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MacGyver
Bell Sucks
Premium,ExMod 2003-05
join:2001-10-14
Orleans, ON |  Re: Some of you are just venting!
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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! | |
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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  | |
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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....
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| | 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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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 | |
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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. | |
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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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