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Review by Multitasking 
UPDATED: 82 days ago
member for 82 days, 3 visits, last login: 56 days ago
 Lasalle,QC
 $200 per month (36 month contract)
 about 45 days
 Bell Canada
 "Sales Rep"
 "Very bad commercial ethic when things get complicated"
 "The Good, The BAD and the UGLY."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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The Good
Good product, especially the MxDSL. For around 200$ a month, you get a DSL 6m x 3.2m (theoric, more 6m x 2.2m real speed) with 4 dryloop lines.
The BAD
If you choose any DSL product, be aware of Bell tech guy who install the lines and don't test them. This might get you into hell, on either sides (B2B2C or Bell).
The UGLY
If you got some financial difficulties, or your accounting clerk was on vacation and missed one or two payments, be aware : you're running for troubles, i mean real deep troubles. Their policies are on the limits of being legal, they're not afraid of taking an enterprise in hostage by cutting any services without any notice, even after you take arrangments with them. They seems not talking to each other inside the building, so once you make any arrangments with the accounting peoples, they don't advise the other departments, so the services will be cut anyway. They usually do this on fridays, so you cannot reach anybody until the monday morning ! I don't mean not to pay your providers, you HAVE to, but sometimes money don't show up at the right time or other issues can arise, and a little letter of phone call to the owner CAN do the difference.
Their only invoicing mechanism is by emails. Paper invoices don't exist with B2B2C, so as phone calls to advice anyone in you company of any commercial issues that might lead to service disruption...
Conclusions :
When problems arise, you see the real nature of your providers. Sometimes dealing with smaller providers doesn't mean they will listen, and they will probably will have less flexibility than the bigger ones, especially this provider. I'm not the only one who had troubles, lot of my customers also had their own administrative adventure with them, and I'm taking them out of B2B2C one by one...
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of B2B2C High-Speed Internet |
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Review by Doctorphate
Posted: 155 days ago
member for 155 days, 101 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Ottawa,ON
$46 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"WAS kick ass..."
"Time Warner anyone?"
"you're better off with Rogers.. Atleast they are upfront douche bags."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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I had been with B2B2C for 8 years now. They were awesome at first. I had 3mbps down and 800kb/s up and it was super stable with awesome customer service. On top of that it only cost me 29.95.
Later on I switched to unlimited and ran that at my fathers place where I lived for 5 years and was able to download 200+ GB per month several times without any complaints from anyone. I still had awesome speeds, awesome customer service and the awesome price of 34.95 was still there(+$5 for unlimited) but this is where things started going wrong.
I had some high latency so I called them after I had tried trouble shooting with my network. Like the old, plugging your PC directly into the modem deal etc. Up until this point whenever I called to ask a question or something I would wait on hold for no more then 1 or 2 minutes, this time I waited for 20 minutes. I thought nothing of it and was just glad to be answered, until he opened his mount and I realized this guy not only isn't at b2b2c's head office in montreal, he isn't even from north america. The guy was from India or something. I explained to him that I had latency issues and i had already ruled it my side so it must be because they were running me on 5mbps line when the DSL lines in my area could only handle 4mbps which makes it unstable. He had no idea what I was talking about. After 45 minutes of explaining the way it worked to him and explaining I already did the trouble shooting his monitor was telling him to tell me to do I finally got frustrated and hung up.
After this encounter I had a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I called back to complain and talk to someone who had more then a grade 6 education and was actually greeted by someone who mostly spoke english. You see, at b2b2c they have excellent french speaking reps but being that I'm english, I'm second class and not worth alittle extra money spent so i can understand the tech guy. I spoke to this guy and although his english was the stardard I couldn't care less about pronunciation he was intelligent enough to understand what i was talking about and promptly fixed my line.
Fast forward now to 4 months ago when I took my internet from my step fathers place(he no longer used it) and transferred it to my new apartment. I had unlimited yet again and after a month I was greeted with a lovely cease and desist letter. Here is an excerpt from it.
"This letter is to advise that B2B2C considers your current bandwith usage is in excess with over 100Gb of transferred data since the start of the month 6/1/2009 : Down:108.90 Up:62.50 TTL:171.40. This usage far exceeds what is considered normal for residential customers. Excessive usage significantly affects our network performance and by consequence negatively affects the service provided to all of our service subscribers."
I called them right away and explained a mistake had been made, I pay for unlimited.
The person informed me that Quebec's ISPs had formed a Cartel and were now limiting UNLIMITED users to 100GB per month. I told her well too bad because I'm in ontario and I signed up for unlimited.
She then explained that it doesnt matter because b2b2c is based in Quebec therefore I am subject to Quebec's rules. I told her she had 2 options, 1 stop sending me these letters and allow me to continue as we did and I'll forget about this incident and keep recommending b2b2c to friends and family or 2. send me more letters and I'll make sure I download at the full extent of my connection 24/7 until you cancel my contract and release me to find another provider.
She told me she could not release me from my contract unless I received 3 more of these warning letters. So I hung up, went to Canada Computers and purchased a 1TB hard drive. I began downloading at the full 5mbps speed for the rest of the month. I ended up downloading over 400GB and then received another letter which was exactly the same but with my updated numbers.
At this point I have called all the people I recommended to b2b2c and suggested they switch to another provider. So since I'm already pissed at the underhanded nature of what b2b2c has turned into I decided to reply simply with this;
Unlimited \Un*lim"it*ed\, adjective
1. Not limited; having no bounds; boundless; as, an unlimited expanse of ocean.
2. Undefined; indefinite; not bounded by proper exceptions; as, unlimited terms. ''Nothing doth more prevail than unlimited generalities.'' --Hooker.
3. Unconfined; not restrained; unrestricted.
I have yet to get a response from them. I have started my search for a better ISP in the Ottawa Area.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 3.1 years ago
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
New York,New York,NY
$42 per month
"They don't break into your home and kidnap your children"
"Horribly inconsistent and the absolute most criminal billing practices I have ever encountered"
"STAY AWAY"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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I have very little to say about B2B2C that couldn't also be said about child
molesters. They are easily one of the most underhanded internet companies
available in Montreal; their tactics are to provide their customers with as
little information as possible or to outright lie to them in order to
disguise unexpected and often fraudulent charges. I used their service from
September of 2005 until May of 2006. During this period I experienced very
variable download speeds and oftentimes my internet connection would flat
out disappear; their technical support passed these instances off as
maintenance problems.
But I'll put the shoddy service aside because it pales in comparison to the
billing. After cancelling my service in May I received a $30 charge to my
account in June. When I called about this charge I was told it was for my
modem. I had paid a usage fee for it over the course of a year. When I
cancelled I was never told that the modem needed to be sent back. Of course,
it seems obvious; and in retrospect I should've remembered that it was
technically only borrowed. However, a year after the fact is a long time
within which to forget a detail like that, and B2B2C, helpful as always,
declined to let me know otherwise. Because every other internet company from
which I rented a modem has informed me that the rental was due at the end of
the term of service I'm going to count this as a strike against them.
The clincher comes now, in September, four months after cancellation, when I
begin receiving charges from B2B2C. I call them to ask where these have come
from and I am told that they are for my modem. The modem that they also told
me I had already paid for. Now the $30 charge from June becomes an overage
fee for downloading in excess of the 20 GB limit. The new fees they tell me
are for the modem -- and, on top of that, will not be one time. They will be
charged to me every month for three months and then B2B2C will send a
collection agency after me. A collection agency? They wait three months and
begin charging me for something they had already said was paid for, and then
threaten me? I do not think so. I would recommend that this service be
explicitly avoided by all potential customers. If you want cable service go
with Videotron. They are a faceless giant but they live up to their promises
and are, when it counts, straightforward.
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I have very little to say about B2B2C that couldn't also be said about child molesters. They are easily one of the most underhanded internet companies available in Montreal; their tactics are to provide their customers with as little information as possible or to outright lie to them in order to disguise unexpected and often fraudulent charges. I used their service from September of 2005 until May of 2006. During this period I experienced very variable download speeds and oftentimes my internet connection would flat out disappear; their technical support passed these instances off as maintenance problems.
But I'll put the shoddy service aside because it pales in comparison to the billing. After cancelling my service in May I received a $30 charge to my account in June. When I called about this charge I was told it was for my modem. I had paid a usage fee for it over the course of a year. When I cancelled I was never told that the modem needed to be sent back. Of course, it seems obvious; and in retrospect I should've remembered that it was technically only borrowed. However, a year after the fact is a long time within which to forget a detail like that, and B2B2C, helpful as always, declined to let me know otherwise. Because every other internet company from which I rented a modem has informed me that the rental was due at the end of the term of service I'm going to count this as a strike against them.
The clincher comes now, in September, four months after cancellation, when I begin receiving charges from B2B2C. I call them to ask where these have come from and I am told that they are for my modem. The modem that they also told me I had already paid for. Now the $30 charge from June becomes an overage fee for downloading in excess of the 20 GB limit. The new fees they tell me are for the modem -- and, on top of that, will not be one time. They will be charged to me every month for three months and then B2B2C will send a collection agency after me. A collection agency? They wait three months and begin charging me for something they had already said was paid for, and then threaten me? I do not think so. I would recommend that this service be explicitly avoided by all potential customers. If you want cable service go with Videotron. They are a faceless giant but they live up to their promises and are, when it counts, straightforward.
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Followup comments:  
tigertamer
@bell.ca
| that has got to be one of the dumbest reviews I have ever re That has got to be one of the dumbest reviews I have ever read. I work for an ISP, and don't necessarily favor b2b2c. But I think some things need to be addressed and put into perspective here. b2b2c is an intermediate, who negociate good prices, and get a commission from the ISP. when I was with them, I experienced OK technical support, and the stories I sometimes hear about any ISP, tells me that the service I got was pretty good actually - especially considering that they probably had to interface with the Bell techies to get this fixed. for his internet, sounds like this client got his DSL provisioned through one of the Bell phone centrals through a Bell line. Bell has a MAXIMUM $30 surcharge for overage. this contrasts to when I was with Videotron last year, and my bills sometimes shot up to $140+ extra for overage, because they have NO maximum (and they didn't give me those details when I ordered). at least Bell fixes a ceiling. OK, so our frustrated stormtrooper bitch/jerk was told by a rep that the $30 was for the modem - they made a mistake under pressure from this nazi - so what! that doesn't change the original contract terms! BTW, I think this person is going to be charged $200 for the modem if they catch onto it - that's what Bell charges for a non-returned modem - after all, it is a Siemens, not a junky G... so if I was this frustrated stormtrooper jerk/bitch, I'd cough up and shut up... and send in the modem ASAP! | |
| leruisseau
join:2007-10-19
Pointe-Claire, QC
| This is wrong... I have never encountered such situations This person had a bizarre adventure that certainly doesn't fit into the everyday happenings of b2b2c. Or at the very least it is certainly not like this anymore. i have called them many many times for all kinds of diffferent things and I was always fine in the end. Actually when I installed my Voip Dry line the techs were a bit new to the technolgy
as expected. They made every offer in the world to help me. no bullshit from them, if they didn't know they found out and got me organized. you would never get that elsewhere... this is agreat place to save money and to get out of the common everyday servers that everybody goes to. I have always seeked out independant smaller firms and for the most part have always been satisfied. | |
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 3.9 years ago
(review was emailed from domain ianjuby.org)
K0J1J
$42 per month (month by month)
Bell Canada
CLEC party: Bell Canada
"They were cheap"
"You get what you pay for"
"HORRIBLE, angering customer service, lousy tech support, borderline crooked business practices"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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I signed up with B2B2c in 2004 originally as a dial-up customer. I found them (and a whole wack of satisfied customers) on the internet and they were cheap. It was only after I signed up with them that I found out that you cannot make up a user name - I became customer V5034892@B2B2C.CA or something stupid like that. Also, I discovered that there was no mail-forwarding available, and because you have to use their outgoing mail server, your very personal V34982034@b2b2c.ca (who on earth is going to remember that?) email address gets tagged onto it and I was unable to forward emails sent there to my domain email address - the email address I use.
That's not the end of the world, but I just didn't like the way their system is set up.
Tech support did a good job in answering my general questions and got me on line with newsgroups, which is very important to me. Their newsgroups seemed pretty good.
Then DSL got installed in my area, and I was quick to jump on that bandwagon. I signed up for DSL with B2B2C, which worked blazingly fast... for a couple of weeks. A strange phenomena began to show up, which I have read elsewhere in this review board: I would get on line for anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes then get kicked off. It seemed more frequent in the evenings, but got worse and worse. I called and emailed tech support several times to report the problem, but it was never resolved and eventually got no responses from tech support.
So I called my good friends over at Ontario web (read my glowing reviews of them elsewhere here - I HIGHLY recommend them) because I had heard they were going to offer DSL - I signed up on the spot and was one of their first customers.
I couldn't help but notice that the following month, B2B2C had still billed my credit card - even though I had cancelled the service! Even after leaving them, I still had to call them and argue with them for my money back.
Ontarioweb offered DSL through PowerDSL (I'll review them elsewhere on this board too), which was noticeably not as fast as it was with B2B2C, but it worked... for a while. Then it started showing similar problems as it did with B2B2C. I called tech support to report it. They were baffled at first too - but didn't give up. I spent three hours on the phone and on line with two technicians in Ottawa and Utah over two days. They found the problem was with the Bell line (so you guys who had this problem, it's Bell that's the problem). It was fixed within a day of locating the issue.
Unfortunately, this past couple of months, Ontarioweb encountered some billing problems with PowerDSL and migrated all of their DSL customers over to ... B2B2C! (they didn't ask me my opinion) I got an email notification of this while on the road to Alberta, where I was going to be for a month. I figured I would stick it out and bite my tongue until I got back home and could deal with it. The relationship didn't last that long.
My roommate is a day-trader in stocks. This can be dicey enough as it is when things work well, but the DSL went down for two days, immediately after ordering some stocks. He called B2B2C to report the problem, only to find out that they had cut us off - apparently my credit card they had on file had expired. No phone call, no notification, no nada. They just cut us off. They claimed they sent an email to "V34903808@B2B2C.ca" or something like that, which of course I didn't even have with me, nor a password to access that email anyway. You guys never heard of a phone? Canada411.ca?
But that wasn't the end of it - I called Ontario web and expressed my very strong frustration with B2B2C and my very strong desire to be put back on PowerDSL. Fortunately, they had made ammends with PowerDSL and the amazing folks there had me on line with PowerDSL in about 12 hours!!!
Problem was, the DSL line was still down. Why? I called B2B2C from a pay phone in Longlac Ontario, in the middle of my 50 hour drive home. They had BLOCKED MY DSL SERVICE. Nope - I was not even allowed to go to the competition! Who do you guys think you are? That's MY phone line - I paid for it, not you!
Unfortunately, I got handed around to several people there, spent an HOUR on the phone. Seldom have I ever found myself so peeved in my whole life - in the meantime, my roommates stocks (which he was no longer able to access) lost money. B2B2C absolutely flat-out refused to release the line until I paid up for the service - service I did not request, nor sign a contract for. I explained that that was not good enough, I want to talk to the manager. "You can't." Alright then, how about the owner? "No, I'm sorry. But you can email a complaint..."
Oh ya, that's brilliant - cut off my DSL, and ask me to email a complaint? I explained to the nice girl that I was not going to pay another penny to B2B2C and in fact I was already within inches of calling my lawyer. But she's only doing her job, and she wasn't allowed to do anything except take a payment.
I had to cancel my account - but to do that, I had to pay the amount owing, and that would take until the end of January before the line would be released. There was no concessions, no manager or authority to talk to about my case. Tough beans. So I conceded and paid the bill because my roommate was still at home and unable to access his stocks - which he lost some money on and lost the potential of several hundred US dollars in gains because he was off-line.
The nice girl in accounting gave me a *FAX* number to send the complaint to. I will be insisting management give me my money back, and will report the results of that request here later (if there is any results!)
This whole mess could've been avoided with a simple phone call. I am a very reasonable person, b2b2c has proven some five times now that they are completely unreasonable to deal with. I signed on with them because of good customer reviews, so I am making a point to let people know to stay as far away from this company as possible. If you're with them - drop them fast, and keep an eye on your billing so they don't double bill you. If you're shopping around, stay away from them.
Ian
Followup comments:
Darkev
@videotron.ca
|  B2B2C lousy tech support and customer service
Finally, the cable guy came to my house, hooked up a contraption to my cable in my computer room and said, "Hmm, there is no signal at all." Duhhhhhh. He went outside, climbed the pole and came back stating, "The wire came off outside. I put it back on so everything should be working now." Sure enough it was, but why not trust the customer? I'm sure some don't know what they are talking about but surely when someone says they can see a wire dangling, it should take a rocket scientist to figure out this must be the problem. The charges were never dropped. I paid the full monthly amount as if I had service all month long.
Lately I have been having speed problems. One day it is super fast, the next evening I get home from work and the data just trickles. I sent an email about it and the response was that I probably have a virus on my computer or something in my house is creating a bottleneck on my internet traffic. What a pile of crap. I'm using a Mac computer, and even my Windows PC is choking at the speed. A PC that has nothing on it except for Quicken and has an excellent anti-virus application installed. I'm not very pleased with the attitude of the technical support group at B2B2C, and I am not very pleased with their service. It's to the point I don't bother contacting them for most things because the response I get back from them is just going to infuriate me. They don't care if my speed is lousy. My upload speed is much worse than it should be. The download speed is often adequate, but it's not the speed that they advertise. I gave the tech support stats that I collected from various cities and the upload speeds were 4 kbps, and transmissions much slower than even dial-up. The reply I got from tech supported didn't mention much about this, instead they said my download speeds are adequate and very good. My web pages should be loading quickly. Sure, if you are not uploading photos to a website, or transmitting something. Don't try using VoIP either because you can hear the person on the other end but since the upload is not working they won't hear you.
Overall, B2B2C is very poor when it comes to customer service. They treat customers like dirt and the attitude is "We are the boss - not you so get lost suckers." | |
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B2B2C High-Speed Internet
