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Review by JMJimmy See Profile

  • Location: North York, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $57 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 4 days
Best communication & honesty I've had from an ISP
Bigger means a harder time keeping quality up
Maybe worth it.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Update 5:
How the mighty have fallen. It's been a real downward slide I'm sad to report. Moving to the new location I have had to rely on the SmartRG's wireless which I am sad to say is pathetic. I've had numerous problems with low speeds (3Mbps of 25Mbps is 'normal' on wireless), spontaneous rebooting, and even the router interface becoming inaccessible. TSI was helpless to solve these issues. Their response to that was admirable, first they gave me a new modem despite mine being out of warranty and then they offered a free month's service to help me towards buying a router so the SmartRG would be used in bridge mode. Unfortunately the purchase price of a router with similar capabilities is $200.

Worse news comes from TSI's new SIRP 'traffic management' which deprioritizes non-RTP traffic during congestion. It's an incredibly disappointing decision by TSI management that, had I not made a promise/had the funds, would cause me to move to another company (regardless of the actual effect on my connection). This policy isn't active on DSL at the time of writing but in principle it's something I am firmly against. It's one of those policies that 'if the customers don't notice we're rate-limiting their connection, what's the harm?'. While TSI claims it's due to CBB rates costing them too much money at the same time they announced this they also announced a deal where they're spending $225+ per new customer to attract business. That's the type of thing that many would decry of the incumbents.

Price also went up since my last review. $44.99+$5 band fee+tax.

Overall I wouldn't recommend TSI but I also wouldn't warn away from them. If SIRP was not in the picture I would still recommend them as the SmartRG issues will happen no matter who you're with and their response was above and beyond imo.

Update 4:

Moved to a new location, amazing communication/coordination. Still had to deal with the phantom bhell tech but that's an issue for the CRTC. Rock solid connection at new location.

Update 3:

I was able to get a SmartRG and that has resolved most all of my issues. It has some unresolved issues itself but they are relatively minor. Overall support has been excellent for DSL and I am extremely happy with my service. Andre and Marc did everything they could to try to get sync-no-surf resolved before I switched modems - to the point of getting me on beta firmware from Bhell. Way above and beyond. Cable support for my mother-in-law's account is still sub-par, unfortunately. They've got a lot of work to do to get the Cable end up to the DSL support level.

Oh, and price went down - woot!

Update 2:

New cons: Unfortunately support quality is down. I recently called in for my mother-in-law on her Cable package and was not impressed with the level of knowledge the support rep had nor her ability to communicate. My current Stinger + Sagemcom SNS issue is still ongoing after a year.

New pros: Support wait times are way down from my last update, SmartRG modems now available (though doesn't do me much good as I can't get one on my rental package and can't afford the layout for a new one), possibility of unlimited data in exchange for reduced speed during prime time.

Update:

New Cons:

Growing pains. Support wait times are way up currently but likely to come down soon. Their success has not been without issues, however, they have not sacrificed overall quality for expediency.

They've also had some issues dealing with problems I've experienced - to their credit they put one of their technical leads on the problem who worked with a Bhell Repair Manager to try and solve the issue but both were stumped. It comes down to defective slam switches + bad firmware from Bhell so I can't fault TSI too much for that.

New Pros:

Price!!! I asked for cheaper, I got cheaper! $39.99 + ~$7(dryloop fee) for 25mbps/10mbps VDSL - a 19mbps/9.2mbps increase for the same price I was paying before.

More transparent and accessible than ever. Highly recommended.

________________________________________________________________

Cons:

Few... sales wasn't as informed as I would have liked them to be about the technical end, but by far more knowledgeable than Bell's tech support so kudos.
Install takes a few days longer than it should, but again, wholesaler issue - nothing can be done for the first 3 days it seems just because of Bell's crap.

Pros:

Everything else. Intelligent tech support that actually listen if there's an issue (no canned Q&A), fast response to everything, communicative, honest, and relatively inexpensive.

I would like a better price ($39.95+$4 for MLPPP + band charges + tax) but for unlimited bandwidth and throttle bypass it's worth it. It's also $15 cheaper than my previous Bell contract which was only 2mbps faster and capped + throttled.

member for 15.6 years, 2491 visits, last login: 129 days ago
updated 8.2 years ago


ShawnS
Business Solutions Agent
Premium Member
join:2012-11-22
Chatham, ON

ShawnS

Premium Member

RE:No one better

Hello JMJimmy,

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

It has been a constant battle with the wait times. We are definitely getting the wait times to come down by a large margin. We are still hiring more staff. In fact two new technical support teams have just begun their training. As soon as they complete their training we anticipate a great drop in wait times.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Cheers,
TSI Shawn

novatelus
join:2013-06-22

1 edit

novatelus

Member

Re: RE:No one better

DELETED

ShawnS
Business Solutions Agent
Premium Member
join:2012-11-22
Chatham, ON

ShawnS

Premium Member

Re-Update 4

Hello JMJimmy,

Thank you for your latest update!

We are pleased to hear that the move went well, aside from the phantom tech.

We hope that your new location continues to receive a rock solid connection. Again, should you need any assistance please feel free to either post in the »/fo ··· avdirect forum or call an agent at 1-877-779-1575.

Thank you,
Shawn S