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Review by Kushdaddy See Profile

  • Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Nothing.
Everything
Garbage internet service. Horrible. I pay for a solid high speed internet and I only get 0.67 bits per second. Primus is garbage
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Where can I start. Primus is horrible. What's the point of having an unlimited service when I can't download a song or stream a video in 360p. I've tried everything. I got a new modem and that just made it worse. Primus has done nothing to help us. If anything they've just added to the problem. I'm very happy that I'm switching ISP's cause this one's garbage

member for 10.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 10.6 years ago







Review by seanfordyce See Profile

  • Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Worst move of services nightmare 3 weeks no service and lies
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Installation booked April 1 for April 22.

On April 23 advised Primus internet still at old address & no phone at new. They said issue was internal wiring. After disconnecting all internal wiring no dialtone. Phone service finally installed May 4. No internet-primus blamed Bell but tech who attended May 4 said Primus had not included internet provisioning. Confirmed by Primus later. Primus provisioned on May 5. Internet date set for May 8 but no service. Troubleshooting done that day but manager Pedran (Edmonton) delayed ticket for 2 days without justification on May 9. On May 10, 18 days after service was to be completed, Primus finally sent repair ticket to Bell. Primus had lied to us that ticket already with Bell on May 8 blaming Bell when they had not sent it when problem was internal. The cost of this to us is huge & being lied to made worse as we repeated troubleshooting several times a day thinking we could get a connection only to find they had lied and never told Bell.



member for 10.8 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 10.8 years ago


Review by xsbell See Profile

  • Location: Guelph, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $39 per month
  • Install: about 535 days
  • Telco party Bell Canada
Fast and a great price!
Uses Bell's GAS Network
Get Primus!
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Absolutely the BEST IISP using GAS! They have the best mix of routing/transit and peering arrangements out of any other IISP. In the seven years I've been with them, I've only had a couple of issues, but this was because of Bell's legacy ATM network.

When I did have issues (congestion on Bell's DSLAM uplinks), and needed to call into tech support, every support person I spoke with were absolutely fantastic. (apart from one about five years ago.. forget his name, but he probably doesn't work there anymore anyways.)

Patiently waiting for GAS-FTTN speeds!


member for 15.2 years, 1734 visits, last login: 86 days ago
updated 10.9 years ago


tonytoronto
join:2007-10-31
Toronto, ON

tonytoronto

Member

you insane?

Cancel Bell and move away from anything related to Bell.
Let me know how it goes when you try to quit Primus after all caps are enforced. Good luck to you.

Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: l5r2m
  • Cost: $30 per month
FALSE ADVERTISEMENT FOR FREE UNLIMITED LONG DISTANCE NORTH AMERICA
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I was attracted to Primus Talkbroadband (phone over internet) because of
the Free Unlimited Long Distance North America is included in their program

My 2nd billing statement showed a charge of $31 for long distance. I
called, and their representative promised an adjustment to reverse the
charge
My 3rd billing statement showed a credit to of $31 ,to reverse the previous
charge so I thought everything is ok now that they realized their mistake
. Unknown to me , they sneaked a little statement in the last page of the
bill (where nobody paid attention to) announcing the charge from certain
date , to certain numbers (numbers I call the most)
My 4th billing statement again showed a charge of $29 for long distance.
Since I was out of the country, the bill was unpaid.
My 5th billing came with another charge for long distance. I called them,
their representative said that in the 3rd statement, they informed me
that their will be charges .

And then they suspended my phone. I don't have much power against them
except paying the bill,
*
*
*BUT I WANT EVERYBODY TO KNOW THEIR PRACTICE: FALSE ADVERTISEMENT ON
THEIR WEBSITE *
--
*Anne Thuan Trieu*

(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 11.5 years ago


Annet T
@rogers.com

Annet T

Anon

Primus unlimited long distance plan: MISLEADING AND SNEAKY

I was attracted to Primus Talkbroadband (phone over internet) because of the Free Unlimited Long Distance North America is included in their program

My 2nd billing statement showed a charge of $31 for long distance. I called, and their representative promised an adjustment to reverse the charge
My 3rd billing statement showed a credit to of $31 ,to reverse the previous charge so I thought everything is ok now that they realized their mistake . Unknown to me , they sneaked a little statement in the last page of the bill (where nobody paid attention to) announcing the charge from certain date , to certain numbers (numbers I call the most)
My 4th billing statement again showed a charge of $29 for long distance. Since I was out of the country, the bill was unpaid.
My 5th billing came with another charge for long distance. I called them, their representative said that in the 3rd statement, they informed me that their will be charges .

And then they suspended my phone. I don't have much power against them except paying the bill, BUT I WANT TO SAY THEY COMMITTED FALSE ADVERTISEMENT.

Review by Shakuras See Profile

  • Location: Scarborough, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $40 per month
They provided an okay service in the previous places I lived in.
After the move, all hell broke loose. Terrible CS, they were blaming everything on me and provided me with no help at all.
Worst experience dealing with an ISP so far.
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So, I had been with them for a while. I had their package for phone+internet for around $80, where internet and phone was around $40.

Everything was going good until I moved to my new place. I had to wait 14 days with no service in my new place because that's how long it took for them to send a technician. Okay, can't blame them because I told them about my move late since I found my place late.

I had no internet, but really needed, so I was hovering my wireless connections to see if there was one open, but no luck. I finally decided just setup my modem and router to see if there was a previous connection from the last tenant. To my surprise it was working for me, and I had the chance to use this connection. It was a decent connection, had like 2mbps DL and ping was around 20ms.

Now, it has been 13 days and I have been able to access the internet using this connection that was left open with no problem.

The 14th day finally came, so did the technician who refused to answer my questions. I asked him if Primus sent him, but he wouldn't answer me as he was opening up my phone jack. It looked like he knew what he was doing because of the equipments he was using, so I decided to let him finish.

After he said it was all good and left, my connection wasn't working, so I called customer service and they told me I had to wait for a while for internet connection to be activated. Finally my phone started to work and so did my internet connection, but there was a problem with my internet connection. It was running like a dial-up connection. I was quite upset because of the time it took them to change the service and giving me a crappy connection from what I had before for free.

I gave customer service another call telling them the connection was pretty bad, so I talked with a guy in technical support and he tells me my phone line has no filter. He told me that since I live in an apartment, the buzzer line and my phone wasn't filtered and I had to talk with my landlord to put a filter. So I go and ask me landlord and they're like it's the technician's job to do that and not theirs and they can't do anything. I give customer service another call and the guy on the other side does some 'tests' and says the same thing the other guy said before. I tell him I had a perfectly running connection from the previous tenant's ISP, so how is it possible for it to work then and not now after their technician did his 'job'. He basically ignored what I told him and said that he can escalate my ticket, but it will just get closed or they'll charge me $100 if they sent another technician. I was like wtf and I kept telling him how I had a smooth internet connection before the technician came, but they kept acting like automated robots and kept repeating the same thing without answering any of my questions.

It was clear, the technician they sent screwed something up, but didn't want to admit it and kept blaming it on me. I finally got fed up and cancelled their phone and internet, didn't even want to deal with them anymore. Yeah, and it supposedly takes 30 days to cancel, so I'm stuck with a shitty connection for this time. I'm going to call the billing department to see if they can reimburse me for the shitty connection their providing me and the move connection fee that I'm going to get.

I will update once I talk with them again.



member for 11.7 years, 17 visits, last login: 5.4 years ago
updated 11.7 years ago


Primus
@primus.ca

Primus

Anon

Primus

Hello,
We're sorry to hear about your experience. We would like to further review your account and billing. We invite you to contact us directly at: execresp@primustel.ca.

Sincerely,

Don Pelletier
Executive Response Representative
Primus Canada

Review by hangene92 See Profile

  • Location: North York, ON, Canada
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Internet Speed not as what it is stated
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Primus needs to order more bandwidth, as I feel like during certain time it goes below 1mb download when my package is up to 8mb download. Big diff.

member for 11.8 years, 126 visits, last login: 8 years ago
lodged 11.7 years ago







Review by geod2 See Profile

  • Location: Brantford, ON, Canada
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Good service, predictable billing, reasonable speed, no cap
Nothing I can think of
Excellent alternative to Bhell and Robbers, good value for money
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I posted a review of Primus Canada a little over 2 years ago.

My review at the time was quite positive. Today, I am still with
Primus and remain satisfied with the service.

I am in Brantford and on a Primus DSLAM (i.e. I am on Primus's
network, not Bell's). The speed is advertised as 7mbit. In practice,
I find that my download speed tops out at around 680 K/sec and
usually runs about 650-660 K/s. These numbers drop when the network is at
peak times for usage (e.g. Sunday evening) then climbs back to normal
when higher priority traffic subsides.

Primus's traffic management practice (see
»primus.ca/en/residential ··· ment.htm
for details) is reasonable, in my opinion. They assign highest
priority to time-sensitive traffic such as voip and gaming, next is
web browsing & email and lowest is bulk traffic such as file transfers
(which are not time-sensitive). This is very similar to the QoS
settings I have applied on my router for my own home network and which
I consider prudent network management practice.

I have the triple bundle (home phone, dsl internet, long distance
package). My bill is predictable (to the cent) each month and
contains no surprises or unexpected charges. The phone service is at
least as good as Bell's and I am happy with it. One of the things I
really like is the telemarketing blocker. If a telemarketer does
call, right after I hang up, I dial *44 to report that last calling
number as a telemarketer and it is then blocked. I now get very few
nuisance calls.

I'm a happy customer. Service is reliable, I have no cap, reasonable
internet traffic management practice and it's less expensive than
Robbers or Bhell.

I recommend this company, particularly if you can get on Primus's own
network rather than Bhell's for your internet service.

member for 14.2 years, 20 visits, last login: 12.8 years ago
updated 12 years ago


Review by pnsiva See Profile

  • Location: Ajax, ON, Canada
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Alternate to Bell / Rogers, but similar company
Bad customer service / Lots of hidden untold fine lines.
Stay away from it
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Worst Company! Stay away from it. Poor customer service, Old outdated infrastructure and poor quality. Good only in certain places in Toronto where they have Servers. If you decide to leave Primus watch out! you will see their other side!!

member for 12.1 years, 2 visits, last login: 12.1 years ago
lodged 12.1 years ago







Review by sas See Profile

  • Location: undisclosed location
  • Cost: $48 per month
  • Install: about 10 days
  • Telco party Primary Network
Lowest cost bundle at the time, consistent dsl speed
Occasional short outages
good values for money
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I used to have Bell Canada for my landline phone service, and an independent ISP for my DSL internet service. Total cost was about $75.

A little more than 2 years ago, I switched to Primus for the phone line and DSL Lite bundle for $40+taxes.

The ordering was short and painless. I explained to the sales rep what my expectations were, she recommended me the packages. The offer made sense (and dollar$) to me, so I signed up.

The switch from Bell to Primus was smooth. I was at work, so I did not notice any service interruption, if any. Internet connection had some initial hiccups but went smoothly 2 days after I had the phone line activated. I had my former internet overlapped 2 weeks, so it was non-issue. Their Thomson speedtouch was not working, so I used my old DSL modem with the settings given by tech support. He even called me back after I got disconnected (yes, it was more than 1 hour tech call). I wanted to return their modem with they said it would not reduce my monthly cost, so I just kept it. The reason why I gave 4 stars only for tech support because it was the only time I got the best support. It went downhill after that :-(.

On the phone service, I got a few extra features such as caller number display, telemarketting guard, and free 60 minutes long distance in North America. If I subscribed to all that with Bell Canada, I would have paid at least $10 extra. Interestingly, Primus leased Bell's line for the phone service.

On the DSL Lite internet, I paid only half of what I used to pay for internet, but the speed I got is only 1Mb/s compared to 5Mb/s of the other ISP. Primus however, provide consistently 1Mb/s compared to the range of 1 - 5 Mb/s of the other. I mostly got an average 3Mb/s with the former ISP. For my needs at the time, I could get by so I am happy with the savings of $27 a month. Bandwidth is unlimited, though I rarely go over 80GB/month even when the kids use torrents.

Customer service usually drag their feet with their typical emails such as "we value your business", "please do not hesitate to contact us", but take long for them to address your problem or solve it. All the problems were addressed and resolved to my satisfaction but take time.

Hope this review helps others to make their choice of their next phone/internet provider.

member for 13.1 years, 241 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
lodged 12.3 years ago


Review by nick1011811 See Profile

  • Location: undisclosed location
  • Cost: $99 per month
Decent speeds
Terrible customer service
Would never use them again!

I have had an account with Primus for close to 10 years. First dial-up, then 3mbps dsl to 6mbps dsl at three locations in the past 10 years. When I lived in downtown Toronto, I was only getting 1mbps speeds while paying for 3mbps, but it worked and served my needs. On Thursday Nov 3rd, I received a phone call saying that I had $60 in charges still owing and that my new bill would go into effect on Sat Nov 5th and that my total was around $140. I told the guy I would pay through online banking as I have done for the past few months. I paid the complete balance and had a confirmation number from my bank. Online banking takes 2-3 business days to confirm payment. I came home from work on Monday Nov 7th to no internet service.

I called and was told on the phone that the representative who called me on Thursday had put in a termination notice on my account two days before the due date on my bill, regardless of knowing that I have been making my payments online for the past few months. They assured me that the person who put the termination notice on my account had done so in error, but they would not turn on my internet service for 4-5 business days when the payment should clear. They refused to acknowledge that I had a confirmation number from my bank. After placing me on hold for 15 mins, I asked the second representative how long of a notice would they need if I cancelled my entire bundle. She stated that she would need 30 days notice and I told her to keep me connected for this month and to cancel in December. She said I should have service until December 7th or 8th as soon as my payment cleared. I was shocked that she never once offered any solution to my request on cancelling my service. She calmly said my service would be cancelled and thank you.

After another 48 hours without service, I called tech support again asking if my payment had cleared and if my service would be returned as this would be my last month. I was told on the phone "Oh, it says here you wanted to cancel your service and to reinstate the service it will be a charge of $58." So not only had they screwed up twice in a week, they didn't try to negotiate some sort of credit or compensation when I stated I wanted to cancel my service. I am shocked that after being a customer for 10 years, this is how I am treated. Apparently my money and support was not valued at all.

I have currently had no internet service for the past week and a half while I await another company to hook me up. In a way I'm glad this has happened because my new service will be 4 times faster and a lot cheaper. Primus should pay more attention to how they are conducting business and learn to value their customers.

member for 21.7 years, 4 visits, last login: 11.6 years ago
lodged 12.3 years ago