Newbie
Posts: 30 
Location: South Eastern Ontario
Location: South Eastern Ontario
June 22nd, 2006, 12:32 PM
I am currently in a situation where Bell has left me no alternative but to switch.... I returned a modem in January of this year with all the proper packaging but in April I received and invoice for the unreturned modem plus interest, upon contacting bell I found out that they infact did receive the modem and agreed to take off the unreturned modem charge but the interest remained.
In my opinion this is a standard bell practice and I say Damn them, Damn them to HECK!
I am currently in a situation where Bell has left me no alternative but to switch.... I returned a modem in January of this year with all the proper packaging but in April I received and invoice for the unreturned modem plus interest, upon contacting bell I found out that they infact did receive the modem and agreed to take off the unreturned modem charge but the interest remained.
In my opinion this is a standard bell practice and I say Damn them, Damn them to HECK!
Bright Spark
Posts: 443
Location: Sarnia
Location: Sarnia
June 29th, 2006, 12:37 AM
I know that the phone company does not rely on the local power companies to power their lines, but the cable company does. My concern is whether I would continue to have phone service during power outages?
As for Bell's customer service, I have an interesting little anecdote regarding that.
When I was looking to get broadband Internet service, I chose Bell Sympatico over the cable company because they offered unlimited monthly bandwidth. What a nightmare that decision turned out to be. Bell didn't activate my Internet service on the day that they said they would, and when they did finally activate my Internet service, it was awful. I was constantly getting disconnected and the speed of the service was atrociously slow.
After many calls to Bell technical support and literally hours of intermittent complaining about my service, I threatened to cancel my Sympatico subscription and move to Cogeco. The people at Bell, in an effort to keep me as a customer, offered to give me a one month free upgrade to the next highest Sympatico package. I was reluctant to accept this offer at first, as I was really just wanting good reliable Internet service, and it was becoming quite apparent that I would not be receiving good service from Bell.
Thinking that free crappy internet service was better than paying for good Internet service, I accepted Bell's offer and Bell sent a technician to check the phonelines. After having checked the phonelines leading to the demarcation point, the Bell technician concluded that there must be a problem inside my home. He called my house and left a voicemail message for me to call back and schedule an appointment to have a technician check the wiring in my home. But by that point I was so frustrated with my Sympatico service, that I was running out of patience with the Bell people and I just wanted to cancel the service.
I called Bell customer service and asked that they cancel my subscription, as I had run out of patience with them. The Bell customer support representative pleaded for me to give them one more chance, and he offered to credit my account for one full month of Sympatico Internet service. Reluctantly, I again agreed to give them one more chance.
For a little while after, my Sympatico service appeared to work fairly decently. But this was a mirage, as the problems would soon resurface, and I would be back to playing phonetag with the Bell folks. Only this time, I had made up my mind. I was not going to let them talk me into giving them one more chance, and I cancelled my service.
A couple of weeks later, I received a cheque in the mail. Bell Canada had issued me a refund for my crappy Sympatico service. Only, instead of issuing me a refund of what I had actually paid to them, they issued me the cash value of all the free credits that the Bell Customer service representatives had given me. I actually ended up making a small profit on my Sympatico ordeal, and I haven't been critical of Bell Canada since.
It's nice when the phone company screws up in your favour.
PS: When I returned the DSL modem to Bell, I kept the ethernet cables too. Ooops.
Quoting
This is one of the things that I was curious about. I had contemplated switching my phone service from the phone company to the cable company, but I wasn't sure about how power outages would affect my phone service if I switched.
In QC, for now Rogers still use bell phones. But I'm pretty sure Rogers Telecom will bring out something hot later on.
Yea.. Bell customer service is like hell.
kalok~
Yea.. Bell customer service is like hell.
kalok~
I know that the phone company does not rely on the local power companies to power their lines, but the cable company does. My concern is whether I would continue to have phone service during power outages?
As for Bell's customer service, I have an interesting little anecdote regarding that.
When I was looking to get broadband Internet service, I chose Bell Sympatico over the cable company because they offered unlimited monthly bandwidth. What a nightmare that decision turned out to be. Bell didn't activate my Internet service on the day that they said they would, and when they did finally activate my Internet service, it was awful. I was constantly getting disconnected and the speed of the service was atrociously slow.
After many calls to Bell technical support and literally hours of intermittent complaining about my service, I threatened to cancel my Sympatico subscription and move to Cogeco. The people at Bell, in an effort to keep me as a customer, offered to give me a one month free upgrade to the next highest Sympatico package. I was reluctant to accept this offer at first, as I was really just wanting good reliable Internet service, and it was becoming quite apparent that I would not be receiving good service from Bell.
Thinking that free crappy internet service was better than paying for good Internet service, I accepted Bell's offer and Bell sent a technician to check the phonelines. After having checked the phonelines leading to the demarcation point, the Bell technician concluded that there must be a problem inside my home. He called my house and left a voicemail message for me to call back and schedule an appointment to have a technician check the wiring in my home. But by that point I was so frustrated with my Sympatico service, that I was running out of patience with the Bell people and I just wanted to cancel the service.
I called Bell customer service and asked that they cancel my subscription, as I had run out of patience with them. The Bell customer support representative pleaded for me to give them one more chance, and he offered to credit my account for one full month of Sympatico Internet service. Reluctantly, I again agreed to give them one more chance.
For a little while after, my Sympatico service appeared to work fairly decently. But this was a mirage, as the problems would soon resurface, and I would be back to playing phonetag with the Bell folks. Only this time, I had made up my mind. I was not going to let them talk me into giving them one more chance, and I cancelled my service.
A couple of weeks later, I received a cheque in the mail. Bell Canada had issued me a refund for my crappy Sympatico service. Only, instead of issuing me a refund of what I had actually paid to them, they issued me the cash value of all the free credits that the Bell Customer service representatives had given me. I actually ended up making a small profit on my Sympatico ordeal, and I haven't been critical of Bell Canada since.
It's nice when the phone company screws up in your favour.
PS: When I returned the DSL modem to Bell, I kept the ethernet cables too. Ooops.
World Police
Posts: 4,440 
Videos: 1
Location: toranna
Videos: 1
Location: toranna
June 29th, 2006, 09:54 AM
I have never had a problem with my Sympatico internet service, it help when you are close to a central office though.
Reasons I prefer DSL to cable are:
- Unlimited downloads
- Low Latency connection, I avg about 50ms to any game server in NA
- Sympatico doesn't throttle ports like cable does. Rogers has packet filters installed at their gateways, which will slow down P2P, torrents etc.
- I don't have to share my upload capacity with a whole neighborhood.
I have never had a problem with my Sympatico internet service, it help when you are close to a central office though.
Reasons I prefer DSL to cable are:
- Unlimited downloads
- Low Latency connection, I avg about 50ms to any game server in NA
- Sympatico doesn't throttle ports like cable does. Rogers has packet filters installed at their gateways, which will slow down P2P, torrents etc.
- I don't have to share my upload capacity with a whole neighborhood.
Newbie
Posts: 5
May 27th, 2008, 05:10 PM
*EMERGENCY SERIVICES (911, police, ambulance, fire department) DO NOT WORK WITH ROGERS HOME PHONE when they have techinical problems.
*IF YOU LIVE IN AN APARTMENT/CONDO WITH A BUZZER YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LET PEOPLE IN while Rogers experiences technical problems... we have experienced 8 hour, 16 hour, 24 hour, and recently 80 hour Rogers Home Phone techinical problems (this time attributed to an outside box).
*ROGERS CUSTOMER SERVICE IS VERY VERY POOR. They take two days (that is, waiting between 9 and 5pm) to come, and then didn't follow instructions to get in, and the another 3 days to sort-of fix the problem. When head office is called, there is no admittance of poor services, no attempt to assuage the customer (in fact, I was initially made to feel the problem was my fault), no solutions or customer services provided, such as "We'll provide you with you an interim cell phone, while not admitting liablility", or "We'll correct the problem and credit you for a month". You will be stonewalled-- you will get no higher than middle-management (if that). When I said to customer service "If I was at a restaurant that I went to all the time and I got food with worms in it delivered by an indifferent waiter and I complained, management would say 'Sorry for the bad service and food, and we know you're a long-time customer' and take steps to rectify the situation. Rogers says 'We've provided good service. We have no reason to improve," despite the horrible technical and customer support. But most importantly, here's what Rogers says re: bad service and inability to access 911: "We are not liable."
*OUR ROGERS HOME PHONE HAS GONE DOWN 4 TIMES, in about five months once for a few hours, once for a whole day, and the worst was 5 DAYS! During those 5 days we had no incoming calls, were unable to make outgoing calls, and unable to buzz people in to our apartment.
If you need stability in your phone system for any reason (you have children, you might have an emergency); if you do business from home and take important phone calls; if you live in a condo or apartment with a buzzer code, DO NOT USE ROGERS HOME PHONE.
*EMERGENCY SERIVICES (911, police, ambulance, fire department) DO NOT WORK WITH ROGERS HOME PHONE when they have techinical problems.
*IF YOU LIVE IN AN APARTMENT/CONDO WITH A BUZZER YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LET PEOPLE IN while Rogers experiences technical problems... we have experienced 8 hour, 16 hour, 24 hour, and recently 80 hour Rogers Home Phone techinical problems (this time attributed to an outside box).
*ROGERS CUSTOMER SERVICE IS VERY VERY POOR. They take two days (that is, waiting between 9 and 5pm) to come, and then didn't follow instructions to get in, and the another 3 days to sort-of fix the problem. When head office is called, there is no admittance of poor services, no attempt to assuage the customer (in fact, I was initially made to feel the problem was my fault), no solutions or customer services provided, such as "We'll provide you with you an interim cell phone, while not admitting liablility", or "We'll correct the problem and credit you for a month". You will be stonewalled-- you will get no higher than middle-management (if that). When I said to customer service "If I was at a restaurant that I went to all the time and I got food with worms in it delivered by an indifferent waiter and I complained, management would say 'Sorry for the bad service and food, and we know you're a long-time customer' and take steps to rectify the situation. Rogers says 'We've provided good service. We have no reason to improve," despite the horrible technical and customer support. But most importantly, here's what Rogers says re: bad service and inability to access 911: "We are not liable."
*OUR ROGERS HOME PHONE HAS GONE DOWN 4 TIMES, in about five months once for a few hours, once for a whole day, and the worst was 5 DAYS! During those 5 days we had no incoming calls, were unable to make outgoing calls, and unable to buzz people in to our apartment.
If you need stability in your phone system for any reason (you have children, you might have an emergency); if you do business from home and take important phone calls; if you live in a condo or apartment with a buzzer code, DO NOT USE ROGERS HOME PHONE.
May 27th, 2008, 05:21 PM
when we moved in here, there was a cable running from our house to the neighbor's. We scratched our heads a bit and finally, after introducing ourselves to the neighbors asked which house was stealing cable from which. They were just as confused as us, and after a bit of wandering around we realized that their service call to Roger's to fix their cable telephone, while successful, was only such because they had T'ed it into our house and tossed it to their roof. They were mortified and phoned Roger's... Roger's solution? To come over and cut the cable and leave them with no phone. We had to demand they hook it back up until they could fix it properly, instead of leaving a family of five with no telephone. Morons.
Throughout our months of yard work, we severed four separate coax cables leading into our house, and put the neighbor's phone out twice. We complained to Roger's because their lines aren't marked or buried any reasonable depth, and they responded by essentially saying 'Yeah, we don't really care, we fix them as they need it'. So, a frost heave, a dog digging, a neighbor planting a new tree or working out a dandelion, and you can lose your cable phone. That just doesn't seem right to me given what cable costs.
when we moved in here, there was a cable running from our house to the neighbor's. We scratched our heads a bit and finally, after introducing ourselves to the neighbors asked which house was stealing cable from which. They were just as confused as us, and after a bit of wandering around we realized that their service call to Roger's to fix their cable telephone, while successful, was only such because they had T'ed it into our house and tossed it to their roof. They were mortified and phoned Roger's... Roger's solution? To come over and cut the cable and leave them with no phone. We had to demand they hook it back up until they could fix it properly, instead of leaving a family of five with no telephone. Morons.
Throughout our months of yard work, we severed four separate coax cables leading into our house, and put the neighbor's phone out twice. We complained to Roger's because their lines aren't marked or buried any reasonable depth, and they responded by essentially saying 'Yeah, we don't really care, we fix them as they need it'. So, a frost heave, a dog digging, a neighbor planting a new tree or working out a dandelion, and you can lose your cable phone. That just doesn't seem right to me given what cable costs.
Mighty Intellect
Posts: 1,647
Location: Alberta, Canada
Location: Alberta, Canada
May 27th, 2008, 05:44 PM
Cable needs to be burried at least 18" down and run inside conduit...if either of these things is not done, and Rogers won't do anything about it...you might consider calling the city and laying a complaint.
Quoting karrie
when we moved in here, there was a cable running from our house to the neighbor's. We scratched our heads a bit and finally, after introducing ourselves to the neighbors asked which house was stealing cable from which. They were just as confused as us, and after a bit of wandering around we realized that their service call to Roger's to fix their cable telephone, while successful, was only such because they had T'ed it into our house and tossed it to their roof. They were mortified and phoned Roger's... Roger's solution? To come over and cut the cable and leave them with no phone. We had to demand they hook it back up until they could fix it properly, instead of leaving a family of five with no telephone. Morons.
Throughout our months of yard work, we severed four separate coax cables leading into our house, and put the neighbor's phone out twice. We complained to Roger's because their lines aren't marked or buried any reasonable depth, and they responded by essentially saying 'Yeah, we don't really care, we fix them as they need it'. So, a frost heave, a dog digging, a neighbor planting a new tree or working out a dandelion, and you can lose your cable phone. That just doesn't seem right to me given what cable costs.
Throughout our months of yard work, we severed four separate coax cables leading into our house, and put the neighbor's phone out twice. We complained to Roger's because their lines aren't marked or buried any reasonable depth, and they responded by essentially saying 'Yeah, we don't really care, we fix them as they need it'. So, a frost heave, a dog digging, a neighbor planting a new tree or working out a dandelion, and you can lose your cable phone. That just doesn't seem right to me given what cable costs.
Cable needs to be burried at least 18" down and run inside conduit...if either of these things is not done, and Rogers won't do anything about it...you might consider calling the city and laying a complaint.
May 27th, 2008, 05:48 PM
It's done now though, we crossed the entire yard with a 4 ft (I think... I know it was code plus a foot... paranoid hubby) deep trench burying electrical for the garage (run in conduit, and caution tape laid in the trench one foot above the conduit). There's not a coax cable left intact running to our house now.
Quoting gerryh
Not so according to Roger's, because coax cable poses no personal risk if severed. Alberta One Call doesn't acknowledge their cables either.
Cable needs to be burried at least 18" down and run inside conduit...if either of these things is not done, and Rogers won't do anything about it...you might consider calling the city and laying a complaint.
It's done now though, we crossed the entire yard with a 4 ft (I think... I know it was code plus a foot... paranoid hubby) deep trench burying electrical for the garage (run in conduit, and caution tape laid in the trench one foot above the conduit). There's not a coax cable left intact running to our house now.
Mighty Intellect
Posts: 1,647
Location: Alberta, Canada
Location: Alberta, Canada
May 27th, 2008, 05:51 PM
Good girl..... Sounds like it's different here then in BC,....which is the last pace I had cable brought into the house from the street...... had to dig a trench and lay conduit to pull phone lines and cable coax from the street.
Quoting karrie
Not so according to Roger's, because coax cable poses no personal risk if severed. Alberta One Call doesn't acknowledge their cables either.
It's done now though, we crossed the entire yard with a 4 ft (I think... I know it was code plus a foot... paranoid hubby) deep trench burying electrical for the garage (run in conduit, and caution tape laid in the trench one foot above the conduit). There's not a coax cable left intact running to our house now.
It's done now though, we crossed the entire yard with a 4 ft (I think... I know it was code plus a foot... paranoid hubby) deep trench burying electrical for the garage (run in conduit, and caution tape laid in the trench one foot above the conduit). There's not a coax cable left intact running to our house now.
Good girl..... Sounds like it's different here then in BC,....which is the last pace I had cable brought into the house from the street...... had to dig a trench and lay conduit to pull phone lines and cable coax from the street.
May 27th, 2008, 05:53 PM
Quoting gerryh
When they finally showed up to run the new lines for the neighbor, they just horizontal drilled and ran cable that way, no conduit. You'd think it would get pricey for them, but, they seem to think it works out better for them to replace and patch and repair constantly.
Good girl..... Sounds like it's different here then in BC,....which is the last pace I had cable brought into the house from the street...... had to dig a trench and lay conduit to pull phone lines and cable coax from the street.
Mighty Intellect
Posts: 1,647
Location: Alberta, Canada
Location: Alberta, Canada
May 27th, 2008, 05:54 PM
Quoting karrie
When they finally showed up to run the new lines for the neighbor, they just horizontal drilled and ran cable that way, no conduit. You'd think it would get pricey for them, but, they seem to think it works out better for them to replace and patch and repair constantly.
IMPHO / WP / WADR
Posts: 559
Location: Canada
Location: Canada
May 27th, 2008, 10:50 PM
Quoting UNO
...been with Bell 40 years, hard line 100%, will never switch, Bell Mobility and Sympatico leave much to be desired and ExpressVu (if you have a double satellite) is excellent, pricing is reasonable
Since late Rogers has started a campaign going step to step asking Bell Home Phone customers to switch Rogers. Is switching really benificial to customers? Has any one switched to Rogers? Is it cheaper as they claim?
