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Review by wonkaman2002 
UPDATED: 53 days ago
member for 2.9 years, 30 visits, last login: 31 days ago
 St Catharines,ON
 $30 per month
 about 25 days
 "Prices are good .... they seem to be anyways"
 "Mediocre Customer Service, Agents who can't speak English, the list goes on"
 "STAY AWAY IF YOU CAN. Will be ripped off for nothing."
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I saw the advertisements for Primus and thought why not give them a try ! at least they're not bell. Got the equipments fairly fast but guess what? the power adapter for the VOIP router is from India. It doesn't plug into any wall socket and I found out from the internet that it's used in India and UK. Also the modem doesn't work at all ; no power comes into it no matter what I tried to do. I tried talking to Tech support , I didn't understand them at all and they didn't know what to do. I wanted to also change my address, they put me on hold because they "Don't know what to do" and after 30 minutes of hold I get hung up on. THREE TIMES. I emailed support and they said they never do that it might have been me. No apologies no nothing. Their agents need alot of training and work to speak better english and have better customer service skills.
So I been waiting at least 25 days if not more , and nothing. NO INTERNET NO PHONE. I talked to them several times and no apologies no nothing. The agents are even snippy with me and get hung up on. I asked for credit because they charged my bank account for nothing. They copy pasted some bullshit from their terms and conditions that weren't relative and said therefore they can't credit me. I talked to my bank and I filled an application saying the charge was unauthorized and got my money back plus I am taking further actions against Primus at this point. So much for trying anything with them. My personal advice, don't go with them they're not reliable and theives.
P.S==>To teksavvy guys, please don't advertise your service all over my post telling me to go with you guys. I know you guys exist thanks for coming out. I will try it if I feel like it.
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Review by Laidback
Posted: 240 days ago
member for 6.8 years, 1428 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Woodstock,ON
$39 per month
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So, I keep getting these review requests, the latest as a system IM.
As far as primus goes, I've been with them since 2001. I can't even remember which modem I had, but I think it was a 5260? It gave up the ghost in 2006, September of. I had a replacement modem from Primus the next day, and received one month of no charge internet service for the inconvenience. I returned the original modem and received a confirmation from them that they received it.
I have no complaints, and you will note that the above is less than the monthly rate as my account was grandfathered when they had their increase a few years ago.
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Review by tonytoronto
UPDATED: 241 days ago
member for 293 days, 28 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Toronto,ON
$60 per month (12 month contract)
 Bell Canada
"Price"
"Tech support!"
"Tech Support Sucks! be prepared for a wild ride."
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We were looking for something cheaper than Bell, but at the same time didn't want to loose the features/services we had, Primus sure looked good...So we went for the Triple bundle on 1 year contract. mistake #1
Called customer serivce and worked everything out, cancel with Bell and let primus know when the last day with Bell would be, so they could send the moden sometime ahead, good thing we called 1 week before cause there was no notice to ship the new modem. All service finally get transferred to primus about 1 week ago, only to find out the brand new modem can't sync with the CO, its the friday night so i'm looking at Monday at the earliest to get connected. Monday night finally get connected, everything gets setup, but all i get is 600kb download speed, call customer support one more time, do some more speed tests, they changed my profile i'm down to 80kb now, get escaladed to level 2, and someone would call me next day.. Wends. morning 4mb download, at night still no call and internet barely working, one more call and i'm told they working on it, nothing they can do.. Today (thrusday) called customer support and get some idiot that should be flipping burgers, not answering phones, on the speed test i notice my latency is around 420ms, so i ask what i should be seing-- 215ms or less is good he says! After some not so nice words i let him know if by tomorow night problem not solved, this is getting cancelled.. Sad part is, after midnight and early morning i can get 5mb down/800kb without any problems, latecy still way high (80ms), but the speed is there. Line quality test shows to first hop 120ms most times, same with ping test, first ping will usually be 200ms or worst, even to the primus server most times.
If you have working internet first shot, good for you, if not, god help you!! Cause tech support will not.
Attached images and files
Followup comments:  tonytoronto
join:2007-10-31
Toronto, ON
 ·PrimusDSL
| Stay away from Primus!!! They finally sent a tech to my house to try and figure out why my connections are so slow at times, when he first arrived at the house (6.30pm) the connection was super fast (5mb) and latency at 50ms or less, the later it got the worst the conenction, got bad enough for him to go outside and connect directly thru his laptop and own modem, sure enough connection just got worst, said problem most likely at the CO and would let Primus know.. To my suprise i get a phone message last night from someone at Primus saying "after extensive testing, the problem is my PC or my network card and i should have a tech look at it"; are this people for real? Stay away from Primus, i understand that things can and do go bad, but when a company decides to sweep it under the rug and hopes it goes away, that company will not get my business. I guess i get what i pay for.
Tony | |
| | tonytoronto
join:2007-10-31
Toronto, ON
·PrimusDSL
| Re: Stay away from Primus!!! *UPDATE*
A few days after i posted my review on DSL reports, i received an internal IM here on the site from a senior tech/eng. from primus, basically asking what my issues were, after quite a few IM and e-mails, someone finally got to the bottom of the issue, 2 days later my latency issues were solved and for the most part my downloads speeds from a good server are in the 600kb range and speeds tests are anywhere from 4mb to 5.8mb, pretty good for a 5mb service. Turns out my CO overloaded and some changes are/will be happening soon i've been told.
The day that my service finally working ok, i get a call from a manager at tech support, first words were "partial problem is your pc"-- after a few words from me; not all good, he finally started telling me the truth-- tech support really needs to change at Primus-- its by far the worst i have ever seen/dealt with! All seems ok for now, but this experience will most likely make us change providers once my contract is done with.
I really need to thank the Tech that looked at my issues, i have no doubts without your help i would still have the same issues! Big thank you from us!
Tony
PS-- Anyone with issues; do not bother with tech support- just escalate your issues as fast as you can, tech support as it stands today will be of no help. | |
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Review by lacerte
Posted: 259 days ago
member for 259 days, 6 visits, last login: 215 days ago
Windsor,ON
$70 per month (month by month)
about 38 days
"OK tech service if you persist and can stay on hold"
"last few days I've noticed much slower night speeds 1/2 of daytime"
"so far good value when considered with phone/long-distance bundle"
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Dec 5 2007
PRIMUS DSL: Windsor Ontario
I moved from MNSI (4 years) to Primus (5 months ago) and other than delays with re-assigning my line at the BELL demarcation point I've been happy with service so far.
They even refunded 30 days worth of unused DSL service as a credit since it took 38+ days to actually get an active DSL line switched over from MNSI. Although it took four persistent phone calls to obtain the credit.
Not until 1 week ago did I notice that night upload/download speeds were slow (YouTube was useless, and DSLREPORTS.COM speedtests showed 120Kb/sec down 130Kb/sec up. pathetic speeds!
I've written Tech Support about this slow down and I'll see how they respond.
I would not have left MNSI if they would have offered a similar Phone/LD bundle.
I'm glad to be rid of Bell!!! more than I'm frustrated with Primus!
I work from Home 2-4 days per week for a US computer company, so I am online 12+ hours per day and I can say with confidence that something has changed. To me it seems that Primus has changed my connection (at least at night) to a "DSL Lite" ( max 512Kbs) instead of the "up to 5Mb/sec regular DSL that I'm paying for.
SpeedTouch 516 v6 Modem - from Primus
PHONE SERVICE:
Also, Ive gotten used to my home phone dialing/ringing me back immediately after I hang up from a call. (strange) Wife has reported that phone service has reported "all lines busy" a few times in the last two weeks during the day.
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Review by Joseph_K
UPDATED: 279 days ago
member for 279 days, 1 visits, last login: 274 days ago
canada
$43 per month
about 15 days
Bell Canada
"no contract"
"very slow during evening hours"
"keep looking"
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I switched from Rogers to Primus 5 months ago because of a speed problem and bad customer service. I was looking for a decent internet speed, say, 3-4m, not so fast but consistent. Now I have to keep looking.
The problem I had with Primus is that I usually gets a very good speed during daytime (around 4.2-4.5, latency 20ms) but gets very slow internet in the evening (500k, 200ms). I have a Linksys WRT54G router and the technical support does not support routers. To be fair, I don't want to blame Primus until I ruled out router's problem. I did a lot of things on the router, i.e. upgrade firmware, adjust MTU and disable SPI firewall etc. but still, the speed will drop terribly in the evening, sometimes only 100k down!!!
My router worked very well with Verizon DSL before. Besides, every morning the speed will become fast magically without doing anything i.e. shutdown modem and router etc. Unfortunately I mostly use internet in the evening like most of the people do. So this is really a serious problem for me. After spending countless hours trying to solve this problem, i decide to look for another ISP again. btw, i gave up on Primus's tech support the second day I got their service. i am thinking of switching to Acanac. their reviews seem to be better.
Another disappointment is I was initially attracted by the bundle price of DSL and local phone (around 40). but soon i found out that the local phone service is not available in my area (Richmond Hill). So if you are looking for a bundle, check the availability for all services first.
I am kind of frustrating that I cannot find a decent internet service in GTA. Some said Rogers is much faster. But it didn't give me very good speed.
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Review by sking
UPDATED: 354 days ago
member for 1.9 years, 128 visits, last login: 65 days ago
North York,ON
$43 per month
"PRICE IS PRETTY GOOD TO START OUT FOR FIRST 6 MTHS"
"UNABLE TO GET THEM TO CHANGE ME TO A REMOTE NEAR MY RESIDENCE.."
"HAPPY WITH OVERALL COST OF PHONE AND INTERNET TOGETHER."
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Primus is not a bad company for DSL in the Toronto area..it would have been nice if I was closer to the C/O..but unfortunately I'm not! According to Primus I'm about 5.5 to 6.0 k/m away. The only thing I didn't like is that I requested to be moved to a remote/stinger thats just up the road from me! They said that they will not move me because of the current package I have..the only way would be to upgraded my package to the Triple bundle which is $69.99..I was not willing to do that at the time..but I'll see what happens when I do upgrade my package if they we're just blowing hot air or not!
The way I look at it I could have gone with Rogers but I know they throttle your connection when I do the occasional file swapping..Primus doesn't Throttle which is a plus.
I also use my connection for gaming over xlink kai..and notice when I host games I can hold more people..which is a plus! no complaints about lag from other users..I am very surprised in general about DSL..it turns out to be a very good deal.
Tech support in general was good..they tried to help! but I guess they need more money to pay bell to put me in one of their remotes/stinger closer to my residents..just speculating!!
I hope this review was helpiful.
Price break down with primus 19.95 for phone with 2 features for 6 months and internet 20 bucks..I'm suppose to get 5mb down but I don't because of distance..i get 1.1mbs d/l at best and 600-800kbs up !
If I went with Rogers 1mb d/l and 128up..it would have been 32 bucks plus tax and then rogers home phone is like what 19.95 right now for 4 months I think..
Do the math!! oh plus still throttle lol!!
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Review by danf
Posted: 2.4 years ago
member for 2.7 years, 360 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Abbotsford,BC
$24 per month
about 9 days
"Cheap DSL, fairly reliable"
"Abysmal tech support, insane overuse charges, requires CC, 30-day disconnection wait"
"Incompetent management - avoid at all costs!"
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In April 2005 I signed up for Primus DSL as they stated unlimited downloads. They mailed out a D-Link DSL-300I modem and related cabling. The system went live about 9 days after I signed up, with advertised speeds of 1.5mbit/512kbit.
The download speed was a little under the advertised speed - I saw an average of 130KB/sec downstream.
In November 2005, I was issued an email notice that I was to be disconnected with about 10 days warning, citing abuse of the system. The CSRs informed me it was MY fault for downloading too much on a connection that was supposed to be unlimited. The disconnection date was removed on the day of disconnection until they could 'sort out' what they were doing. In December 2005 a new message was sent informing users of a 50GB transfer limit and a $3/GB charge for going over it. At this point I cancelled the service, and found out while they can disconnect you in 10 days, you have to wait 30 days before they act!
Given the confusion that their management caused handling this issue in an inappropriate manner, plus the new caps that affected users that had joined 8 months prior, I really can't recommend Primus to anyone at all - avoid them at all costs.
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Review by kryotex1
Posted: 2.5 years ago
member for 4.4 years, 12 visits, last login: 2.5 years ago
Chilliwack,BC
$24 per month (month by month)
about 10 days
"Inexpensive, reliable connection, plus airmile incentives"
"Limited to 1.5Mbps, and serious about bandwidth caps (50gb?)"
"Cheap alternative to Telus, false advertising"
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Transfered to Primus after selling me on "unlimited downloads - NO download limits or caps" (still have ad from them). It's now changed, and they sent disconnection notice quickly.
Reliable connection otherwise, long tech-support wait-times. Great price.
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Review by mshuleman
Posted: 5.4 years ago
member for 5.4 years, 0 visits, last login: 5.4 years ago
Arlington,Tarrant,TX
 Business customer
$130 per month
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party: Covad
"none really"
"misleading contract, terrible support and service, outages"
"one to avoid"
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I had 144kb IDSL from Primus DSL via Covad and SW Bell.
Their technical support people and their customer service people both share remarkable quality: they completely refuse to listen to the customer.
Part One: my DSL service died in January. The Primus-supplied router was the obvious reason: I could not ping it and the _power_ light was blinking. It took something like 12 calls to their tech support and 8 people to explain this fact. They insisted on testing the line first, then lied to me that line was tested; they lied to me that they would call back; they lied to me that replacement router was shipped. Total outage lasted 10 days.
I used that line for business and god knows how much I lost during those days.
Part Two: In February, frequent outages began. They seem to become the worst during rainy weather. Again, support was useless. I finally called them around Feb 15th to close the account. I switched to Comcast cable and it was ok so far.
You think this is it? Part Three: I keep getting bills and then harassing letters, emails and phone calls from them demanding me to pay. Finally the lady from billing told me that I was supposed to provide them my cancelation letter in writing (they did not tell me that in February when I closed my account!) so it is still open.
Other people already mentioned their predatory contract practices.
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Review by lynn
Posted: 5.4 years ago
(review was emailed from domain ashleys.net)
Arlington,Arlington,VA
$113 per month (12 month contract)
Verizon
CLEC party: Covad
"Tech Support"
"Sales"
"Study the contract VERY carefully - it may bite you in the ass!"
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Here is a description of the installation nightmare:
»a-tech.net/dsl/
Below is a copy of the text which I sent to the
Virginia State Corporation Commission and to the
Fairfax County Consumer Affairs Office to register
complaint against Primas Telecommunications, Inc of
McLean, Virginia:
On 7 October 1999, I subscribed to iDSL service from Digital Select which later become Primus
Telecommunications, Inc. of McLean, Virginia. I understand that iDSL (a variant of ISDN, also
using a dedicated line) comes under PSTN telephone tariffs.
The service was activated on 15 December 1999. The service contract was for one year. I failed
to note a provision of the contract which provided: "At the end of the service commitment this
Agreement shall be automatically renewed for successive one (1) year periods on the same terms
and conditions contained herein". I had incorrectly assumed that like all other utility
services I have ever had, it would revert to month-to-month after the first year.
At none of the three anniversary renewals did Primus ever advise me that the contract had been
renewed for an additional year. If they had notified me in the past of these renewals, I would
have been aware of the yearly, rather than month-to-month provision of the contract and could
have planned the have the service terminated on the anniversary date.
On 14 February 2003 I faxed a letter to Primus at 800-432-0520 asking that the service be
terminated on 15 March. When I heard nothing by 24 February, I sent an email asking about the
termination. I heard nothing and received a regular monthly invoice on 10 March. I contacted
Primus at by telephone at 866-615-4288 on 11 March. I was told by Irine (ID: IP3632) that I
must pay the remaining nine months ($909) of the renewed contract, even though I have had the
service for more than three years. I told Irine at that time NOT to process the service
termination.
I feel that Primus' actions are designed to deliberately mislead and are a form of fraud. That
they failed to notify me when the automatic renewals occured should nullify that provision of
our contract.
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