 Review by MacGyver 
UPDATED: 63 days ago
member for 8 years, 3896 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."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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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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