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Review by sidewinder74 See Profile

  • Location: Freelton, ON, Canada
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Very Fast
Bad Customer relation. Charged $12 for 5G over limit (HiSpLite) after 8 years not going over on HiSpeed.
Looking for job and new provider
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:

After loosing my job in March, they offered me HiSpeedLite for $20. with 10 gig cap. Today the called and said I was still getting Hi speed standard and would immediately switch me to Hi speed Lite (10 gig cap). Immediately got an email saying I was over my limit and would charge me $12. Since it was their mistake that I was still on high speed, I was unknowingly up to 15 Gigs. After paying $55 per month for over 7 years, and never going more than half their allowed limit, they will ding me for 5 Gig over the limit. No explaining would change their mind. Why should I pay for their mistakes. I could see it if I was always close to their limit, but that wasn't the case. Nice way to treat a steady customer. They should go after the abusers....

member for 15.3 years, 9 visits, last login: 11.8 years ago
lodged 14.7 years ago


jeisenberg
New Year's Eve
join:2001-07-06
Windsor, ON

jeisenberg

Member

I wish you good luck on the job front

I'm sorry to hear about your job loss. And the bonehead move by Cogeco really is the icing on the cake. I've been a Cogeco "fan boy" for more than 10 years, since I've been very satisfied with their products and support.

But lately, their price increases are testing my loyalty. I don't worry about caps, but their pricing is really not very friendly lately, and I'm considering a move myself.

I wish you all the best.
sidewinder74
join:2008-11-20
Freelton, ON

sidewinder74

Member

Re: I wish you good luck on the job front

Thanks, just signed up with Teksavvy. Quick delivery of modem, fast phone help. Not blazingly fast, but at $29.95 for 200 gigs, it's fast enough! Getting close to 3Megs upload. Surprisingly, I just got called back to work. Didn't expect that till at least December.

Review by boredguy See Profile

  • Location: St Catharines, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $47 per month
Fast
tech support by phone is pretty bad, occasional network problems, torrent upload capped, overages
Good company that's gone downhill, switching to DSL
Pre Sales information:
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Been with Cogeco since they first came to St. Catharines. While there had been a small period of time where the connection was very iffy i was very happy with them till about 2 years ago. All of a sudden torrent upload was capped. 6 months after that they started suspending for going over a pretty small cap. Now they're going to start charging for overage. With that i'm switching to Teksavvy.

member for 22.1 years, 6354 visits, last login: 216 days ago
updated 14.8 years ago


Review by ell See Profile

  • Location: Kingston, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $55 per month
Speed
Cost and 60GB CAP!!
Looking for another ISP!! (can't afford anymore)
Pre Sales information:
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Value for money:

1st. Charging Overages 2nd. Cogeco Raises Rates. I can't afford to see at the end of each

month how much I'm getting charged. Cogeco has a great service but now over priced and with a low 60GB cap and 10mb speed you can hit your 60GB cap very fast. so I think after 9 or 10 years with cogeco it's time to go DSL THANKS!

member for 17.2 years, 333 visits, last login: 5.3 years ago
lodged 14.8 years ago







Review by Gruesome See Profile

  • Location: Milton, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $47 per month
Consistently solid Download speeds(Except Torrents)
Low Cap and extremely pricey for what you get,
Found someone else with 300GB cap for $39.85 , better for needs(edit)
Pre Sales information:
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I've liked Cogeco's service but I always review my spending whether it's Cable my cell or telephone etc. I've found them to be too pricey and their 60 GB Cap can be annoying some months. They never used to bother me with it until recently. What I find confusing is there approach in a world where caps should be rising to provide better access to online media, Caps are now being enforced even more rigidly.
We are now able to stream HD over the Internet, perhaps they find this a threat to their own business model.

The question for Cogeco is an easy one and the same one for all Internet Service providers
The Future is higher bandwidth and higher data volume
How will you meet this demand before someone else lures away your clients
Look at France as an example
Trying TekSavvy now to see if it will meet my needs, $20 cheaper with unlimited download

Gruesome
Review this today and I have finally left Cogeco, the new pricing scheme is nothing short of ludicrous and clear penalty for downloading over your cap.
The future of Internet in Canada looks grim with this kind of vision.
I've lowered my package with Teksavvy to just the basic 200 GB download for 29.95 a month and went with their phone service as well
Teksavvy works well for me but be warned you can only expect 5MB download not the 10 or 16 that Cogeco offers

member for 16.4 years, 1065 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
updated 14.8 years ago

dazium
join:2007-02-24
Windsor, ON

dazium

Member

your right

Teksavvy is on the right path, although their speeds are slower;but that's because they use bell copper, unfortunately they are at the hands of bell, occasionally bell provisions the line at 7-8 MB.

Teksavvy is the leader in the fight with the CRTC and Bell.
if you read the TSI forum you see there are many people who regularly post. Most if not all of the posters are well educated on the CRTC tariffs. this is in part of the CEO and the very knowledgeable tech support. this is not a TSI plug.

MY experiences with TSI has been nothing but good compared to bell. but I digress.

the problem with Cogeco, the speeds are great and consistent but the caps are unreasonable. between a few hours of youtube and well other video sites its easy to eat bandwidth, not to mention p2p such as bit torrent. In my opinion Cogeco needs to wake up, they seem to be going backwards in their thinking, while the rest of the world is upping bandwidth they are holding to the standards of yesteryear. If they are able to offer higher speeds and soon to be higher then 16 MB\S then their caps should reflect that, at the moment they are rolling out 25 MB\S, which is unknown to the general public yet!

SO far the connection which i subscribe for gets cut off almost every month 1 maybe 2 days before the end of the month, Cogeco should take the path that TSI is paving and up their bandwidth to something actually competitive for the price.

The problem is there are not enough consumers who are aware enough to realize that they are being fleeced.

A fiber provider called Donobi recently acquired by Sitestar in the U.S offers truly high speed for about the same as Cogeco's standard package.
The question is why cant Canadian providers provide the same service as other countries.

all in all I am happy with Cogeco right now but that's only because I am too far from the CO to get TSI.

CableGuy50MBits
@cgocable.net

CableGuy50MBits

Anon

Re: your right

Actully Cogeco is rolling out 50MBit to the door for starters very soon, and the CRTC is the reason for all the caps, no company can do anything unless the crtc says so, and so if cogeco wants to up the cap, then the crtc asks bell if that would hurt their financial state(which they hurt already) and then the crtc says no. And don't forget Bell enforced there cap for years, with a $8.95 per GB over. And Cogeco just up their limits to 60 from 15 GB just over a year ago. Thank the CRTC for all the tech lingering. It took 5 years of fighting to get the Cable companys to even be able to offer phone, because of the crtc and the ever crying Bell canada.
Gruesome
join:2007-10-18
Milton, ON

Gruesome

Member

Re: your right

The CRTC does not impose or enforce caps
I currently have a 200 GB cap on my new DSL connection

Review by Genstugots See Profile

  • Location: canada
  • Cost: $118 per month
its cable internet and phone
very bad congestion
needs to be fixed asap
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Value for money:

* didn't consider any other options for broadband.

* ordered internet pro and digital phone for about $118 after taxes

*order process went great, but the install was iffy

*RCA voip modem

*ordered 16 meg. connection and get consistantly 1.5-3.0 megs

member for 17.1 years, 23 visits, last login: 14.8 years ago
lodged 14.8 years ago







Review by vega509 See Profile

  • Location: Welland, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $59 per month (month by month)
fast, when it is working
latency, sloooow usenet, very low caps, expensive
poor value for the money,
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Between the rate increases, and the unrealistically low bandwidth caps, Cogeco's value is diminishing quickly.

There have been NO SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS, ONLY DEGRADATION AND REDUCTION OF SERVICE over the last 2 rate increases.

Poor business model for customers, great for a short time for shareholders.

I'm stuck until the DSL improves in my area, then it's adios ......


member for 18.3 years, 121 visits, last login: 10.3 years ago
updated 14.8 years ago







Review by dan991199 See Profile

  • Location: St Catharines, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $44 per month (month by month)
Speed
BW Cap / metered billing
look elsewhere until the suits realize they need us customers.
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now with metered billing, a crappy isp just got worse.

AS OF JUNE 1/09 SWITCHED TO TEKSAVVY

member for 16.5 years, 2371 visits, last login: 13 days ago
updated 14.8 years ago


Shyte
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
NF, ON

Shyte

Premium Member

Hmmm

Last time I checked every other ISP out there has some sort of cap involved with their service so you're gonna need to get used to that. Granted the way Cogeco started enforcing the cap was not right but there's caps everywhere now...
dan991199
join:2007-10-01
St Catharines, ON

dan991199

Member

Re: Hmmm

you're right, its just too bad that this cap is horrendous. you can blow through your monthly cap in 10 hours. on the standard package. comcast's cap for instance is 4.1x greater than cogeco's and in most areas cheaper. must be nice not having competition.

once upon a time cogeco strove to bring the best service to the area, now its about how fast they can make a dime.

maxima123
@cgocable.net

maxima123

Anon

Re: Hmmm

Because people are experiencing slower speeds because of more and more usages of the bandwith by subscribers, the only way of making it faster is to put a cap on the internet. 10 percent of the users is using about 90% of the bandwith. going after these subscribers will make it better for 90% of the internet users.
dan991199
join:2007-10-01
St Catharines, ON

dan991199

Member

Re: Hmmm

capping my downloaded bandwidth isn't changing my speed. they wanna offer an ECONOMICALLY VIABLE package that offers uncapped bandwidth and reduced speed great, but the packages they currently offer aren't economically viable solutions. cogeco should thank their lucky stars that Ontario's phone and cable company's get have their monopolies.






Review by vonSchroeder See Profile

  • Location: Kingston, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $66 per month
  • Install: about 10 days
Great speed, low latency
Low bandwidth caps, unreasonable overage charges
Not worth it for anyone who wants to make full use of their Internet connection
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UPDATE: After 3 years with Cogeco in Hamilton and 8 months at my current location in Kingston, I have left this ISP due to their introduction of low bandwidth caps and the ridiculous overage charges that accompany them. I never went over the caps myself, but the caps and overage charges are so unreasonable, and cannot be justified, that I have left based on principle.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

I have been a Cogeco High Speed Pro user for 2 1/2 years now. I live in a student house near McMaster University and the pro package has been great for sharing the connection among up to 9 people at times. When I first moved in we had Sympatico DSL but our line was only capable of handling the 1.5 Mbit profile so Cogeco was really the only choice we had. But Cogeco has been great so I would not choose DSL even if our line could support full 5 Mbit.

The install went smoothly from what I remember. I think it was under two weeks from the time the order was placed by phone. The install was done in my bedroom because that is where all the LAN wiring comes together in the house. But the account was in another housemate's name at the time, so I had to stop the tech from setting up the email account and such on my computer. I asked the tech to just leave the modem and all the relevant information and I would handle everything myself. The tech was happy to do this and did not insist on finishing the install.

The setup is an RCA DCM325 modem (never had to replace to modem, knock on wood) --> WRT54Gv4 router running 3-party firmware --> 8-port SMC switch. When there were 9 in the house 6 were wired and 3 were wireless.

When we first signed up pro was 10 Mbit down / 1 Mbit up. Since then it has been upgraded to 16 Mbit down. I think the price has only gone up a few bucks since then, not enough to complain about. Despite being close to McMaster University my speeds have always been good and relatively consistent. Of course like all cable internet it slows down some during peak time after dinner until midnight, but the speed has always remained good enough to be shared by 9 people at all times of the day. Of course the speed never reaches the "up to" speed that is advertised, but it comes close and I am not complaining. Latency has always been great. I use the connection for online gaming daily and latency has always been low with Cogeco.

From what I can remember the connection has only gone down twice from what I can remember. Both times it was for less than 24 hours. The second time occurred recently and was because of some problem that affected the whole neighborhood including tv signal too. A call into tech support that night resulted in an automated message indicating they were aware of the problem that was affecting the neighborhood. It was resolved in a few hours. The lack of any real issues means I cannot comment on Cogeco's tech support.

The only problems I have had with the service concern using bittorrent with Cogeco. Simply put, bittorrent has never worked for me on Cogeco from day one. I have tried changing all my settings but nothing works. Using a VPN however does overcome the problem. It is important to note that other Cogeco customers report they have no problems with bittorrent. So it is unknown why some are affected but other are not. This has been debated ad nauseum in the Cogeco forums here at Broadband Reports so check there if you are concerned about bittorrent on Cogeco. Overall, I have not allowed it to affect my rating because I use bittorrent so infrequently that it is a non issue for me.

member for 19.3 years, 6922 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 14.9 years ago


max3gth
join:2006-03-21
j2c

max3gth

Member

Congratulations!

i'm glad to hear you that you're satisfied of their service.
me too, i use cogeco. i love cogeco!

Review by ReiX896 See Profile

  • Location: Fort Erie, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $45 per month
Speed
Avoid Cogeco until packages provide value or unless its your only alternative for net access
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In honesty, When I first began service through Cogeco I was quite satisfied despite the lack of communication between myself and Cogeco on the procedures of installation. And small amounts of incorrect information provided in pre-sale. But with in the past 8 months the institution of bitcaps and then the evolution to "Usage Billing" has degraded the value and service provided. 60gb/month a year ago was sufficient for myself and the average user but with the innovation of IP based technology Cogeco is stagnant and seems to refuse to provide the user any flexibility.

member for 16.1 years, 11 visits, last login: 14.7 years ago
updated 14.9 years ago


Review by stryke5 See Profile

  • Location: Burlington, ON, Canada
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Reliability
The price is a little high for what you get.
An average ISP.
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I've been using Cogeco for over a year and it's been reliable but I find it rather expensive especially with a cap now in place.

member for 16.6 years, 297 visits, last login: 7.1 years ago
lodged 14.9 years ago


Dreamwiser
@cgocable.net

Dreamwiser

Anon

GB caps?

If you use 30GB in one month they should rollover the rest for the next month or give us $1.50 for every GB not used under the cap.