Review by EcHoMaN 
UPDATED: 319 days ago
member for 5.4 years, 364 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 York,ON
 $50 per month
 about 7 days
 Bell Canada
 "Currently are there any?"
 "Peak time issues, Poor tech support, cost"
 "Seek internet access elsewhere..."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Bell Sympatico has currently gone the way of cable a few years back. I've been a Bell Sympatico user since 1999 but currently their;
a)networks are overloaded(or over subscribed)
b)tech support is virtually non existent
c)price of service certainly does not match what you will actually receive
Since about winter 2006 I've had prime time slowdowns that are easily noticeable between 7pm-12am nightly, yes thats correct 6-7 days a week!!! Gaming can't be done, browsing todays websites load slower than pages back in the 56k days, is this the type of service I should receive? According to Sympatico, sure, why not 
Friday October 5th 2007
10:10pm
Tracing route to google.com [72.14.207.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.2.1
2 1191 ms 1342 ms 1188 ms 64.230.197.199
3 1159 ms 1128 ms 1126 ms dis10-toronto12_Vlan108.net.bell.ca
[64.230.234.
53]
4 1114 ms 1101 ms 1165 ms core4-toronto12_GE12-1.net.bell.ca
[64.230.221.1
09]
5 1238 ms 1217 ms 1147 ms core2-chicago23_pos3-0-0.net.bell.ca
[64.230.147
.22]
6 1301 ms 1385 ms 1231 ms bx4-chicagodt_POS3-0-0.net.bell.ca
[64.230.186.1
78]
7 1298 ms 1224 ms 1297 ms peer-goolge_bx4-chicagodt.net.bell.ca
[64.230.18
6.186]
8 1286 ms 1308 ms 1066 ms 216.239.48.154
9 1082 ms 1191 ms 1095 ms 216.239.46.12
10 1050 ms 1100 ms 1103 ms 72.14.236.183
11 1168 ms 1202 ms 1273 ms 72.14.236.130
12 1208 ms 1180 ms 1131 ms eh-in-f99.google.com [72.14.207.99]
Trace complete.
»www.speedtest.net/result/190358035.png
»www.speedtest.net/result/190358363.png
Thursday Oct 11th 07
Target Name: www.google.com
Date/Time: 11/10/2007 7:22:03 PM to 11/10/2007 7:32:03 PM
Hop Sent Err PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
2 41 0 0.0 7 746 206 [64.230.197.199]
3 41 0 0.0 7 737 204 dis10-toronto12_Vlan108.net.bell.ca [64.230.234.53]
4 41 0 0.0 6 721 203 core4-toronto12_GE12-1.net.bell.ca [64.230.221.109]
5 41 0 0.0 16 719 211 core2-chicago23_pos3-0-0.net.bell.ca [64.230.147.22]
6 41 0 0.0 20 713 216 bx4-chicagodt_POS3-0-0.net.bell.ca [64.230.186.178]
7 41 0 0.0 16 701 212 peer-goolge_bx4-chicagodt.net.bell.ca [64.230.186.186]
8 20 0 0.0 67 721 231 [209.85.250.237]
9 34 0 0.0 19 701 221 [72.14.232.53]
10 28 3 10.7 25 685 213 [64.233.175.26]
11 5 0 0.0 164 664 310 [64.233.175.26]
12 40 0 0.0 19 641 211 py-in-f99.google.com [64.233.167.99]
Friday Oct 19th 2007
8:16pm
»www.speedtest.net/result/194312086.png
8:17pm
»www.speedtest.net/result/194312323.png
Sunday Oct 21 2007 Service was unusable from 5:30pm till 8:45pm
It took 6minutes just to load up the speedtest site!!!
»www.speedtest.net/result/194818749.png
UPDATE
As of late Oct 2007 Bell has chosen to throttle the masses as their network was indeed overloaded instead of upgrading. In turn my speeds and latency have returned to normal during prime time.
INFORMATION pre sale.
Bell Sympatico's reps are like the rest. Although they share some common traits, play nice tell you what you want to hear, be friendly. Outside of that, they blatantly lie to your face with misinformed information regarding what they are actually selling you.
TECH SUPPORT
Current technical support offered by Bell Sympatico is useless, outsourced garbage at best. God forbid you actually understand the person whom you are speaking with. Even so, doubt that would be of any use.
For instance. Let's say your kitten or puppy one day decided to chew/scratch on your phone line connected to the modem or chewed on the power cable connected to the modem. Maybe then Bell Sympatico's typical script readers suggestions would actually fix your problem.
Power cycle the modem
Connect your pc directly to the modem
Check that the power cable is connected/or phone cord
Oh shit, that's right, I've just now noticed my kitten has turned my phone cord into noddles, thanks, A++ service right there folks.
Bottom line. Stay away, far away.
Attached images and files
Followup comments:  
Geeko
| Dont Agree I strongly do not agree to the comments about the tech support. Bell's Tech support is one of the Best tech support. Regarding the Powercycling etc etc its just the normal procedures they have to follow like any other ISP's. They pinpoint the solutions to the problems exactly and courtiesly and patiently help the customers.. | |
|  | 
travisc
join:2001-11-09
Port Perry, ON | Re: Dont Agree LOL
You must be a new brand of shill, the Ostrich Shill. | |
| | 
adisor19
join:2004-10-11 | AHAHAHAHAHAH dude, that's either REALLY GOOD sarcasm or you're just a sad sad soul...
Adi | |
| | newf
join:2007-09-11
Brampton, ON
 ·Bell Sympatico
| said by Geeko :
I strongly do not agree to the comments about the tech support. Bell's Tech support is one of the Best tech support. Regarding the Powercycling etc etc its just the normal procedures they have to follow like any other ISP's. They pinpoint the solutions to the problems exactly and courtiesly and patiently help the customers..
You owe me a keyboard. When I saw that, I laughed so hard coffee spewed out my nose.
Seriously though, I've dealt with support people from, probably, fifty companies, over more than thirty years and, IMNSHO, for BS' tech support to get any worse, they'd have to hire dead people...no, wait...I take that back...dead people would be an improvement.
So far as them "pinpoint(ing) the solutions to the problems exactly" is concerned, I had a problem connecting, when I started with BS, and they couldn't "pinpoint the solution to the problems exactly" even after I told them what it was.
To give credit where it's due, though, they were courteous...when they weren't leaving me on hold for half an hour, hanging up on me, lying to me or wasting my time by telling me the problem was my OS when a ten year old knew better. They were, also, patient...oddly so...reminded me of my uncle's cattle. | |
| | NiteHawk
join:2007-10-23
Upsala, ON
edit:
October 23rd, @07:59PM
| If you think Bell's tech support is one of the best, I would hate to see what you call poor tech support.
When I first started using Bell as my ISP, the tech support was still here in Canada, and it was good, available 24/7. Now that it has been outsourced over seas, it is brutal to say the least. If you have a problem after a certain time of day, you better have an interpreter close by IF you actually get to talk to someone over there. Countless times I have tried reaching them, and get the same recorded message "All of our representatives are busy assisting other customers, please continue to hold." After listening to elevator music for fifteen minutes, it is obvious no one is there to provide assistance.
Secondly, they used to have a second line of support if the first person was unable to solve the problem. Now, they just pass you on to someone who is equally inept as they are, and you go through the same steps all over again.
I live in a rural area, and Bell is the only game in town if you want high speed internet service. Unfortunately, Bell is aware of this, so they have adopted a take it or leave it attitude. To say Bell's tech support is top tier is down right laughable. | |
| | | 
Pashune
Your average, anemic person.
Premium
join:2006-04-14
Gautier, MS
 ·CableOne
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: Dont Agree Yeesh. Sounds similar to what I had to go through in calling Bellsouth/AT&T support, though I did a bit of yelling here and there =] I still got no where though. At this point, I had signed up on DSLR, posted in the Bellsouth (Now AT&T Southeast) forums; I told them my problem, it couldn't be fixed from his side, so he dispatched a tech. =]
I'm glad I don't have to call them anymore... | |
| | | |
christechsupport
@sonotechnique.ca
| Re: Dont Agree i work tech support...NOT FOR BELL...i called because my internet was down just to see what they do....for godsake..SPEAK ENGLISH....he was asking me stuff and i was like please repeat that sentence....then i asked him if i used a Dynamic or Static IP...he couldnt answer me....WTF...in the end i reset my TCPIP...u know the old netsh command and it worked after 35 mins on hold...and 15 mins of not knowing what the heck he was saying i fixed the problem myself...i know...i shouldnt have even called...but being in the same line of work i wanted to see what they do...which is nothing...if i did that i would get shitcanned so fast...
anyways...eeF you bell....and your fuckin shitty tech support! | |
| | | |
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