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 Review by jackr 
UPDATED: 40 days ago
member for 5.7 years, 393 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Barrie,ON
 $37 per month
 "Fast as Rogers, same cap, same speed, about 20 bucks less."
 "None that I can find so far. I'm not using 3 webs DNS, so everything is the same as before. Accept less money"
 "I'm happy with the service. Hopefully, Roger will boost their speed and we'll see a trickle down"
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First day, and everything went as smooth as pudding. No exceptions. I was on-line about 1/2 hour after Rogers un-provisioned my router, and the speed profile with 3Web/CIA is the same as it was with Rogers, so I can't find any drawbacks. I also had very quick service talking to tech support, so maybe that's changed from the past.
So far. It's been a good experience. My only (minor) complaint is the lack of good solid information on the 3web/CIA site on speeds, price, and how to sign up. It lacks quite a bit, and asks you the customer to imbue them with a lot of trust they're not going to screw everything up.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of 3 Web |
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 Review by Oinktastic
UPDATED: 63 days ago
member for 4.2 years, 409 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Scarborough,ON
$33 per month
 about 7 days
 Bell Canada
"Good price, very little downtime"
"Slowdowns during peak hours"
"Good value, reliable and only alternative to robbers cable in my area"
| Pre Sales information:
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Hello everyone,
I have been using 3webXS Cable Gold East, in Scarborough Ontario, since 2005. The plan is 7Mbps/512Kbps and during off-peak times I am able to achieve those speeds on speedtest sites and in actual throughput. During peak hours occasionally it goes more like 1-3Mbps down / 400Kbps up. Unfortunately, lately there has been massive packet loss and higher pings during the evenings. Web pages take many times longer to load during peak hours, browsing is slower and it seems like it struggles to establish connections. I believe this is starting to improve, but time will tell.
When I first signed up, I was seeing a R*gers IP, but 3web have migrated to using more of their own equipment now and I now receive an IP from 3web. The speed was originally 5Mbps/800Kbps back when they were piggy-backing R*gers and the connection was quite stable all around.
The speed of the connection is up and down every few months, sometimes it's good and sometimes frustrating. One of the few complete disconnections (no modem-sync) that I've ever had was when it went out completely once during the evening/night during exam time, and I had to scramble to find a modem and use their free dial-up account, which comes with the highspeed. Thank god that worked, but the timing of that outage was a big inconvenience for me.
The original install went smoothly as I can remember. I think one install date was missed, but eventually, a R*gers guy and his "apprentice" showed up outside my house, unannounced as I remember, and they ran a cable to my house from the pole in freezing temperatures. I was grateful for the work they did in those conditions, but it was a bit painful to watch. I went along for the 'ride' and I know from experience the uncomfort of having to take your gloves off for manual dexterity in subzero weather. The pole which carried the coax to my property had recently been moved due to a complaint from my neighbour and my house hasn't had cable anything in years so they hadn't bothered to re-run the cable back then. They hooked everything up to the box outside and installed a cable TV filter because I don't have cable TV service. When that was all finished, they came inside and made sure that their modem could get a signal from the coax near my computer and we cheered when all the greens light came on. I had already tested the ancient cables running through my walls and connected them properly to bring the signal to my computer. This whole install visit didn't cost me anything, but 3Web had a free installation promotion at the time which I believe took care of that. My actual modem showed up 1-2 days later and synced right away. Unfortunately I'm a tiny bit fuzzy on exact time as it was quite awhile ago now and I didn't bother taking notes. The time from placing the order to syncing my modem was in the range of 5-8 days, but I can't remember precisely.
The service went off a couple times during 2am-5am for scheduled maintenance and a couple times during the migratory period. It also went off once or twice unannounced like I mentioned above. That's when the dial-up account comes in handy. It stays connected for months at a time generally though. The consistency of the speed is the only concern I have right now.
Some services and general notes would be...
Their online live support chat, when I've tried it, has never once been working, but they provide an online form to fill out with your concern/question. E-mails generally get returned, first with an automated message with some keyword-searched generic suggestions and they more often than not follow up within a few days with a real e-mail.
I rarely call their tech-support these days, but in the beginning when I went through the install I encountered their help desk and then maybe several times when there was an outage I decided to call and ask what was up. They went through a period of terribly long on-hold times. I believe it was under 15 minutes last time I called, but I could have been lucky, I'm not sure. Their phone system once put me on hold for 20 minutes and then hung up :-S They have an automated queue which tells you your position in line while you're on hold which is nice I guess. It's not terribly accurate, but it gives a rough approximation.
Overall I've been satisfied enough and hopeful enough that things will get better to stick along for the ride. I went to cable in the first place because my phone lines are over 50 years old and I had trouble with DSL in the past.
Currently using Motorola Surfboard 5100 connected to my Linksys wrt54gs router running dd-wrt. I really appreciate the quality of the modem. I did the rent to own deal they had so it ended up costing about $80 +tx total I believe. If you choose not to buy a modem, you can rent one for $4.95 + tax per month. If you search around you can buy your own modem for a very reasonable price. I found the exact same modem for $10 at a used computer parts place a few months after I bought the new one, but that was a pretty rare find I would think. I bought it and gave it to a friend who I believe is still using it years later.
E-mail accounts are provided and can be accessed through a mail client like Outlook Express or online through mail.3web.com. They say you can have an unlimited number at their domain, but I've only got one at the moment. It seems to be always accessible, but the web interface is a bit simple-looking, though it does do some sorting, spam-filtering and automatic e-mail forwarding. Edit 02/11/09: It was updated recently and they made it a bit nicer and a bit more user-friendly.
The price of the service is decent. I'm paying exactly $32.69/month to 3web for both the Long Distance "Wherever" plan (I'll refer to it as LD from now on) and Cable Internet, including taxes and everything. I signed up for the LD because it shaves $5/month off the price of the internet. The total benefit of using this bundle including the cost of the LD service is to reduce the cost of the service by $2/month because the LD service itself is $3 (flat)/month + the cost of the time you spend calling long distance. The rates they have are fairly competitive and there's a list of their prices on their site. I generally use completely separate calling cards or skype to communicate with people abroad, but if I just dial from my phone, I get a few cents extra on my LD bill for that month. There's also a Long Distance calling card (slightly higher price per minute) that comes with this LD service that I can take around with me that will bill my 3web account when I use it. These charges are on the same page as above.
There was a six month promotion when I first joined so I got my first 6 months for $10 or $15 per month, I don't remember which one it was. There was a strange billing procedure though where they took the entire six month payment upfront and some type of modem deposit and then used that to pay off the first 6 months as well. I had a couple of months where they didn't charge anything because they were using the money they had put on my 3web account already. If I log into my 3web account on their site, I can see my invoices there and they also e-mail me the Long Distance invoice every month. It might be nice to have the invoice for the Internet connection sent there as well. I'll see if I can get that set up. The two charge amounts (1 for internet, one for LD) are actually done at different times during the month it seems, but they both still end up on my credit card bill for the same month.
I guess that's my rant for now. I'll edit it soon with slightly more coherent thoughts. I apologize that it was more like a blog... anyway I hope you Enjoy! :-P
Feel free to contact me with comments or questions. I'll answer them if I can.
Jan 13th 2009. Edit: Speed is good this evening. I am able to surf relatively smoothly and download much quicker than I was able to last week during peak times. Knock on (touch) wood.
Jan 15th 2009. Edit: Spoke too soon :'( 35-40% Packet loss this evening... I had to refresh some pages 3-4 times to get them to load:S
Feb 11th 2009. Edit: Speeds are now bearable in the evenings. Web pages load a bit slower than in off-peak times and videos need to buffer for about 5-10 seconds at times, but mostly, everything's usable. Had one outage a few weeks ago for 2-3 hours around noon. No biggie.
Feb 12th 2009. Edit: It looks like CIA is really moving forward to absorb 3Web's system into their own. I can no longer access the page advertising 3Web's services or find any direct contact info from 3Web support or sales by just searching. I still have access to their "portal" page aka the news, but the 3Web logos are all accompanied or replaced by CIA/Cybersurf logos on the e-mail and billing pages. My e-mail address appears to be now both @3web.com and @cia.com.
May 21st 2009: Tested >6Mbit all day today, even in peak periods. Something good is happening 
Aug 18th 2009: Was really slow recently, especially on weekends. I called in and they said local cable node was congested. I'm not sure because I see the packet loss begin between 209.195.70.90 and 209.195.70.89, which are cybersurf IPs. I'm just saying there's something weird going on there.
They switched me over to DSL, which I'm not enjoying much either. My phone line isn't great. I'm currently on 4032/800 interleave profile and it's still dropping about once a day. I have a feeling Bell could fix me up, but obviously they want to make it painful. To add to that, I'm definitely not getting full speeds out of my current profile and browsing is noticably sluggish during peak hours.
Sep 22nd 2009: Cancelled everything on my 3web/Cybersurf account. I'm going to try another 3rd-party ISP. I will gladly take back the cable connection from 3web if things improve, but I'd rather just have a stable connection right now.
Followup comments:  
Chuck Carlson
@bell.ca
| Rogers will Throttle 3Web silly Rogers has the green light to throttle the cable resellers thus bringing them to their *knees*. This is just what 3Web needs to give them the wake-up call of their life. Har, har, har it couldn't happen to a nicer company. How does 3ThrottledWeb sound? | |
| | | | | tonygets
join:2005-11-10
Scarborough, ON
| Re: Rogers will Throttle 3Web silly When will this happen? i just recently logged speeds of 1000KB/s on bit commet. downloaded 700meg under 15 mins.
Been with them ever since rogers started throttling in my area. All good things will one day come to an end.
DSL is no good in my area. top speed is maybe a 2MegaBit conection in my neighbourhood.
Can anyone recomend any substitues.
Thank you | |
| | | |
Oinktastic
join:2005-08-24
Scarborough
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
 ·3 Web
1 edit | Re: Rogers will Throttle 3Web silly For the most part, I'm content with my 3web service as well and I've had it since 2005. As far as I know there are no other cable internet providers in my area (Scarborough Ontario) besides them and R*gers.
I still frequently receive very good download speeds of ~7Mbit which is where my connection is capped. I have not experienced any throttling and will let everyone here know the minute that I do notice anything like that. | |
|
wanderingcat
| Thanks i am also considering to switch to 3web since Rogers is going to increase the price by ~10% !
but seems now 3web's cable internet is only availalbe in the west: »https://www2.cia.com/products/highspeed.html
I entered a Vancouver postcode V6C 3A6, then you have 2 choices, DSL or Cable. But when I entered my home post code (North York), the only choice is DSL. | |
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Oinktastic
join:2005-08-24
Scarborough
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·3 Web
| Re: Thanks It looks like they took down their site which used to show all of their services (www.get3web.com). At least I cannot access it right now. I guess this is part of the takeover by Cybersurf/CIA. They're putting everything under their own website - cia.com
3Web's phone number used to be 1-866-Get3web, but if that's no longer active, you should try 1-877-7-GET-CIA. They should be able to give you some answers and I THINK you would probably be dealing directly with CIA now since they're taking over. I'm not 100% on this one yet though, but that's what it looks like.
It's possible that they don't serve North York at this time. If that's the case, there are tons of great and inexpensive reseller DSL companies that you can try (if your phone lines are in good order). Wireless may be an option as well, depending on your latency needs.
I do not know of any other cable resellers in the GTA. If anyone does, let me know. If you'd like a list of ~30/month DSL providers, I know of quite a few and you can find them by searching dslreports.com or most are listed on canadianisp.ca. I find these smaller providers are often more client-friendly than the big guys in general. Unfortunately, they have to go through the big guys to get service to you. | |
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Review by cadm18
UPDATED: 239 days ago
member for 304 days, 2 visits, last login: 239 days ago
Gatineau,QC
$35 per month
"None."
"Bad Customer Service, Bad VP, Bad Everything overall. Will do anything to take your money."
"STAY AWAY!"
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Not even a day into service I am cancelling. Signed up for service last week with "Phil". 'Phil' informed me that they offered 60gb download limit so I agreed and signed up. He then told me that since I was a previous videotron customer I had to purchase one of their modems as Videotron is the only company that "locks" their modems. What a bunch of crock. Then he proceeds to tell me that I Videotron does not allow their customers to disconnect their modem on their own so they will send a technician. They set up a date and time being 9-12 on a Saturday. Here I thought that went somewhat smoothly. I was impressed when the modem then arrived promptly that week. (I live about 5 minutes away from where it was delivered)
I then receive an email from 3Web on the Thursday that my internet was now active. I go online to check my account and see this blurb:
How do I monitor my High Speed Usage?
Customers using our High-Speed and or Home Phone service should note that Videotron imposes extra charges for bandwidth usage above certain limits. These fees apply to both CIA and Videotron customers. The pricing schedule that Videotron uses for all customers and which we will pass on to ours is:
$7.95/Gigabyte for usage above 20 Gigabytes downloaded and 10 Gigabytes uploaded up to a maximum of $30 additional to your regular subscription fees.
Please use the provided link to monitor your usage on a monthly basis starting at the beginning of every calendar month to the end of the month. Usage will be pro-rated from the day you sign-up to the end of that calendar month
I then call 3Web to confirm it is still 60Gb since that was what was confirmed to me at sign up. The agent says to me good question then proceeds to type everything out and told me someone would contact me within 24hours I also asked if there was any note on the file about a $20 discount I was supposed to receive (I called a few months earlier to sign up and was told since I didn't want to purchase the modem they would give me $20 off the cost. When I signed up again this time "Phil" assured me since he couldn't adjust the price of the modem he would apply it to the first month. When I inquired about that as well the agent told me he did not see notes on this but would send it as a separate ticket and someone would contact me within 24hours.
NEVER HAPPENED.
Here I sit at 2:30pm still "waiting" for that technician to show up. NEVER HAPPENED EITHER. I installed it myself in the end which had I known no one was coming I would have done before. How nice.
I call 3Web and after waiting about 40 minutes on hold I reach "Mark". I explain my situation to "Mark" who then proceeds to tell me I didn't need a technician and that the agent would have never said that and he must have been wrong. His exact words "Sorry you lost 3 hours of your life, I already said sorry what else do you want to me to say? You can't get them back so can we talk about anything else you might be having issues with?"
I explained again how inconsiderate it was but I move on, then explain to him that someone was supposed to get back to me to at least confirm it was 60GB limit. He then tells me nope, it's 20GB. Sorry. Nothing I can do but he then tells me "Hey, you got service now, what else do you need?"
I tell him as well it would be nice if someone tells you they charge you 22.54 to ship something 5 minutes away. He explains that that's just the way it is.
I ask to speak to a supervisor and of course, he tells me he is one. So I ask is that how you treat your customers, he says well, what else do you want me to do? You have your service and to me, there are no more issues to deal with here so you should be happy. I ask to speak to someone else, he refuses then continues to talk over me and raise his voice telling me that no one else will tell me any different and he knows for a FACT that accounting won't change anything on my invoice so there was no point in talking to anyone else.
Saddest part of the call: When I ask to speak to someone who can cancel.. he replies with:
"I don't see why you would want to cancel at this point."
REALLY?? Get a clue people. I hope you go under sooner than later and avoid making anyone else fall victim of your joke of a company.
Below is the shipping charge and oh yeah, my "$60 flat modem fee"
**UPDATED**
Had to send email to VP to which he replied right away and was very curious. Informed me that they of course had a 30 day money back satisfaction promise and I would be reimbursed back "Every cent". I believed it. He then told me he would forward the info and his service manager would call me to process my refund.
In his exact words:
"Its not an excuse, our agents should be knowledgeable about the products and service; I'm just hoping you believe me when I say it was an error and not a bait and switch.
Cybersurf has a 30 day money back guarantee policy, and thus there is no question you will be reimbursed every cent; I will arrange for our service support manager to contact you no latter than Monday."
He called, we talked and he empathized with me. He then went ahead and told me to leave the refund process to him it would be done for everything.
This was in January. Now being March I look to see if maybe on this statement something would appear about the refund. Nope! But I did get a great surprise to see they had charged me for Febrary as well.
I emailed the service manager who told me he no longer worked there so he gave me the name of his replacement. I emailed his replacement who passed it on to a cust. service rep. No reply. I followed up and the rep tells me they were refunding half the amount back. I emailed the rep back and told him it was incorrect, they owed me the modem, the shipping and the two months they had charged me on my CC. I copied the VP who to all this is MIA of course when things obviously are uselessly done with this company. Promises he made? Just like a politician. False.
So to the email I copied the VP and the service manager on I now get a new email from a new "rep" telling me they would refund me the full $117 except they owe me $150! What a joke. How many monkeys does it take to do something right the first time? All that for $150. I guess they need every cent they can take from you.
Goodbye and good riddance. STAY AWAY! CROOKS!
Followup comments:
Oinktastic
join:2005-08-24
Scarborough
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·3 Web
| I gotta admit, that's pretty bad... I'm getting sick of companies having completely separate departments and sales reps who cannot communicate with each other. The point of having computers, to access your information, is completely lost if they're not actually able to use the software to anyone's benefit.
I'm not sure what this software looks like myself, but I would expect it to have a place to save notes and keep track of your complaints and your current situation. Besides keeping track of your personal information, this would be the main reason for their staff having computers in the first place, I would assume. Maybe that's too much to ask for.
Now whether it's a problem with the rep/software losing your information or if it's just the salesperson flat out lying to you is a different matter. In any case, something should be done about this constant miscommunication and these random charges that drive customers crazy and onward to another company.
Having said that, I'm using 3web in Toronto Ontario where there's no cap that I'm aware of. Many years ago when it was first activated, I was given correct information and didn't have to go through hell to get the connection set up. The billing was also done correctly and I actually have never had a reason to call in since then. This is why I'm still with them.
If I had to do it again today, it might be a different story. I just want to assure people that there are success stories with 3web/Cybersurf/CIA amid the painful ones... :P | |
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Anon_Namer
@videotron.ca |  Re: I gotta admit, that's pretty bad...
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Oinktastic
join:2005-08-24
Scarborough
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·3 Web
| Re: I gotta admit, that's pretty bad... said by Anon_Namer :
I doubt it. The negatives with the company far outweigh any positives by a long run. Take a look at the number of negative reviews and what people are complaining about. They can't all be wrong can they?
You doubt what? I'm telling you I'm personally using it and happy with it. I'm not paying robbers $15+ more per month for virtually the same service.
I've seen the reviews and I can imagine those things happening, but my experience hasn't been negative.
I've experienced very few of those issues myself... that's all I wanted to put out there. | |
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Review by jyeung
UPDATED: 277 days ago
member for 5.6 years, 408 visits, last login: 10 days ago
Toronto,ON
$29 per month
"Excellent pricing, decent speeds"
"Non-existant customer service"
"Use 3Web/CIA if you want to take risks. Otherwise, if you're looking for support, stay away."
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UPDATE: I cancelled CIA in 2007 and have resigned up with them February 2009 to test the waters (again). My impressions and review so far is posted here:
»Review of Cybersurf Corporation by jyeung
==============================================================
I signed up with 3Web/CIA in September. Initial installation was not well coordinated - I did not receive an email with order and modem shipment details until approximately 3 weeks after order date.
After I received the modem, everything was smooth as my area was using Rogers. Customer support, however, was a nightmare. Their phone system was a mess (it's better now) and the wait times to talk with a tech were LONG (5-6 hours sometimes).
More recently, on 22 November 2006, Cybersurf/CIA switched from the Rogers network back into their own network. The process was again not well completed, causing my internet to be disconnected for 2.5 days, although I must say this was more likely the fault of Rogers than of CIA directly. Trying to reach support during these times were impossible - I spent 5 hours and 33 minutes on the phone waiting to talk to a technician. However, the technician was very quick and took down my details to submit to Rogers for a repair.
My internet was restored the morning of 24 November, and speeds have been OK so far - but slower than when I was on the Rogers network. I'm getting 5Mbps instead the advertised 6Mbps...but I can live with that. Now if they can get their support to be better, all would be good. Until then, those who need even the slightest hand holding, stay away.
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 Review by otty
UPDATED: 317 days ago
member for 1 year, 463 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Toronto,ON
$34 per month (month by month)
about 10 days
"not robbers, only cable alternative"
"extremely unreliable, false and unhelpful support"
"avoid unless you line quality too poor for DSL and u hate Robbers"
| Pre Sales information:
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I had the 3web cable gold (east) supposedly 7mbps down 500kbps up. The up always works. The down *usually* works during the day until 8pm when it drops to near dial-up speed. Increasingly it is usually 1-2mbps all day...
Called tech support (as did many people on this site) and we all got what seems to be a load of bs about some mysterious hardware they needed to replace, but either haven't in over a month, or, more likely they are full of sh*t.
I would already have switched by now, but I'm moving soon so I'm sticking it out for now...
Update: So I've moved, and cancelled. No problem cancelling as some people have suggested, but I have kept an eye on the forum and the problems seem to persist. Too bad. Always sad to see a smaller ISP fail.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of 3 Web |
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Review by avax
UPDATED: 357 days ago
member for 8 years, 145 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Toronto,ON
$34 per month
"Seems on the ball, good process, happy with things so far"
"The $23 Modem shipping charge"
"Let's wait and see, I will update this next week but looks good so far!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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**UPDATE December 2, 2008**
Good and Bad News!!
Good News is that the install was scheduled and completed (installer actually arrived EARLY).
Bad News is that the speed I am receiving fluctuates between as low at 300kbps up to 7000kbps, but I am received on average 800-1000kbps (so, less than 1Mbps). In raising a ticket with 3web, I am told this is due to saturation in my service area (nice of them to tell me when I ordered, and BULL$HIT that they "didn't know at that time") that should be corrected by ordering and putting in place new equipment within 2-4 weeks.
I have followed up with several emails but to this point, I have received no new information on my problem. If I do not receive ANY update by Friday, December 5, I will be reversing all charges to my Credit Card and returning the rented modem to them and immediately switch to Rogers. At least with Rogers, I can be GUARANTEED to receive the service I pay for (and I know this from previous experience).
My Recommendation, for now, is to CHECK about problems in your area with 3web before ordering, BEWARE of the service you will be sure (not) to recieve, and TAKE YOUR CHANCES; now that I've been bitten by them, I will not be very pleasant going forward.
---------------------------
---------------------------
I've read many reviews on 3Web about bad customer service, problems with orders, etc, and I tend to think that most people are not really aware of what they are dealing with.
As a 3-rd party Reseller of Rogers, Bell, Telus, Shaw, Cogeco, etc services, I will NOT immediately blame 3Web for problems as I've been through this same environment as a Primus DSL Customer.
So far, I have to give them HIGH PRAISE for the way they have handled my order. As I opted for Cable Service (absolutely a better solution than DSL for most people) I ordered a modem from them as well.
The process has been clean, straight-forward and efficient so far. I ordered the service on-line through their site, I have called about things a couple of times and have been called twice to proactively make sure I had what I needed, even the appointment to have the service set up is booked on-schedule.
I am looking forward to the service hook up on Monday and will be keeping this updated. If things change I'll be sure to publicize it here!
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Review by LMP
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 2.1 years, 11 visits, last login: 183 days ago
Chicoutimi,QC
$25 per month
about 7 days
Bell Canada
"Good speed, good price, no contract"
"No explanation when things go bad - outages, slowdowns"
".. do it yourself..."
| Pre Sales information:
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Was with them with dial-up for years before. Switched to DSL HS Gold in 2006. Checked with them first for compatibility of a Modem I had and got incorrect info. Bought another modem locally (10$, flea market) and all went fine. Poor speed at first with WIn98 but as soon as XP installed, speed went up 5 fold . Satisfied with 4.6 Mb/s. Most annoying was loss of speed and repetitive disconnects in Jan-Feb 2007: exchanged lots of e-mails, they asked for lots of tests,all to no avail...but finally (that is, 2 months later) an agent "leaked" they had had trouble with Bell reconfiguring a station....all fine since then. I use their long distance service too, very satisfied . Register, install and then keep steady, and to me, it is fine.
My son went with them too 4 months ago (June 2008)....and all is OK.
However, as another relative wanted to subscribe also but only for a year or two, I contacted 3web twice (2 months ago) to inquire about " how to terminate service"; never got an answer...
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Review by UofT23
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 1.3 years, 99 visits, last login: 22 days ago
Toronto,ON
$35 per month
about 5 days
"Really cheap"
"decent service"
| Pre Sales information:
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I'm updating this as I'm cancelling my CIA service. Both times I've had to contact them I reached them in less than 5 minutes hold time and got someone friendly and helpful - no problem cancelling.
However the reason I'm cancelling is that my dsl download speeds are frequently bottoming out at 500 kb/s which is totally unacceptable for even $31/mo after tax. If you don't online game or watch a lot of streamed content this ISP's really great price may be worth your intermittent connection speeds but for me it isn't.
My only other complaint other than the network speeds which are likely due to congestion since everyone is fleeing the exhorbant prices of capped, and throttled, Bell, is their tech service.
When I told the CSR I was cancelling he asked if I wanted to talk to tech support to see if they could fix the line so I said sure why not since I have the service for the next month. The tech support guy was the rudest person I've ever spoke to over the phone - I hung up on him.
He answered the phone with, "hi".....I said, "hi" and then paused assuming he would ask for my phone number or other info. He says, "I said hello...guess you have a hearing problem today.". And i said, "excuse me?" and he says, "You've got a hearing problem - phone number?" And thats where I realised I'd made the right decision not to stick around hoping for the network conjestion to clear up.
TLDR......Great value, bad tech support and sketchy reliability but you get what you pay for.
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Review by pwdcap288
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 5.2 years, 232 visits, last login: 267 days ago
m5s1x0
$31 per month
"when its up, its up"
"if u need customer support, good luck"
"its great, when its working and no customer support is needed"
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I decided to try the cable service, but when they told me i couldn't use the cable modem i presented, i decided not to proceed with cable service. however, my cc was charged for installation, and misc. I called the billing dept and was informed my cc charges would be reversed within the 17 days and should see it in the next cc billing statement. it didn't happened the charges were not reversed. i called the billing dept again and was told the same thing. after a few days, i checked my cc account online and found no installation charged credit. i decided at this point to file a charge dispute with the credit card company. they took care of the rest. the credit card company credited me the installation charge and waited for 3web to respond to them. my guess, 3web didn't respond to the credit card company within the aloted time. so, i didn't have to worry about my refund from 3web after my contact with the credit card company. so next time it happens, i will not waste my time chasing their billing dept, i will let the credit card company do that. lesson learned.
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Review by cellguy2000
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 1.1 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.1 years ago
Richmond,BC
$37 per month
about 30 days
"Speed as advertised"
"Have to reset Modem from time to time"
"Fine when it works, but when you need service...GOOD LUCK!!!"
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Had almost 3 years of service with them. They sent my modem and somehow lost the modem. It took about 3 weeks before I received it.
IN all had 2 service calls in the 3 years and it was resolved within the week of my calls to tech dept until now.
It all started beginning of August for NO "SEND" light on my modem. To make the long story short, 3WEB made a total of 4 booking calls with Shaw(local cable provider) to drop by my home, I took 3 days off to deal with it, NO ONE SHOWED UP!!!!
Even after talking to the SUPERVISER, who somehow booked the wrong day!!!for me the 4th time (it's almost September now), I finally decided that for the aggravation it was causing me, to unwillingly go with SHAW Extreme. 3 Days later and I'm online.
The Techs seem to think I wasn't home,call backs were inconsistent....they keep on telling me it's NOT their fault, well if 3WEB provided me the service, it's 3WEBs fault.
Yes the rate was cheaper,once you get it up and running, it's fine, but the moment you have a problem, good luck having them book a tech to your home to fix it. NO SERVICE FOR 3 WEEKS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
I gave them 4 chances to get it right to no avail. I finally had to give up.
Very Unhappy to say the least.
There is another review that mentions that they may be going out of business. I'd look into that before thinking about 3Web.
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