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Review by kcorscadden 
UPDATED: 2 days ago
member for 2.6 years, 72 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Kingston,ON
 Contract price not specified.
 about 5 days
| Web-site:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Primus Talkbroadband |
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Review by koreyb
UPDATED: 120 days ago
member for 4.8 years, 771 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Etobicoke,ON
$29 per month (month by month)
 "LOADS of features, fairly good support and priced perfectly!"
 "Level 1 Customer Service is sometimes not the best, Bell Thottle effects all VoIP.. even Primus"
 "A Great Canadian VoIP service, with great value for the Money"
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I have had Primus Talkbroadband now for a few years and I can't tell me enough how happy I am with the service. It's been rock solid, with only a few bumps in the road. You can expect this with NEW technology.
My only major beef is SOME of the call centers are overseas... but not all are.. Communication within the company on brand new features/policy doesn't always get echoed to all reps on the phone right away, but overall nothing has been a big deal to work out.
IF you have DSL in Bell Canada's area, you may find their throttle effects talkbroadband and any voip service, especially if you have a high bandwidth codec set. I was able to fix this during throttle hours by setting the line to a low bandwidth setting, giving the same sound quality as a normal line vs better than normal at the high setting. This is not any fault of Primus or any other voip provider.
I personally have been very happy with the service they have... GREAT value for the money, especially when you get all calling features, unlimited 24/7 North American long distance, and an option to save 4 bucks a month by buying your ATA box (which I have).
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Review by Mrcoffee
UPDATED: 131 days ago
member for 131 days, 0 visits, last login: 131 days ago
undisclosed location
$21 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
"CS I dealt with were supper, setup was fast. Sound so far great."
"Current issue is dtmf tones are heard occassionally (see issue's below)"
"Great price, great features. Sound is good"
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Ordered by phone(costco deal). Upgraded from basic to full. Received gateway 3-4 days later. Got it setup and working within an hour (incoming calls took an extra 1 day until rogers released my line). Spoke to customer service 2-3 time, had no problem and were curtious and helpful each time.
Install:
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Internet : Rogers high speed extreme
Router: Some G router
Gateway: connected to Router in DMZ
Played with the portal features, most tested and working successfully.
Forward voicemail to email - works
Forward notice of email to cell - works
Changed caller id setting - works
Ring time prior to voicemail - works
Changed on hold music - works
etc..
Issues:
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Some voices (usually female) set off dtmf tones on callers phone (can live with it though).
Currently got billed for first month which I should get free, but could be because I upgraded to ulitimate bundle from basic(emailed CS).
Overall:
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My wife can't tell the difference and likes the new features = success.
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Review by Darkev
UPDATED: 167 days ago
member for 343 days, 32 visits, last login: 33 days ago
Gatineau,QC
$29 per month (month by month)
about 2 days
"Excellent call quality, unlimited plans, powerful features, excellent website"
"BYOD not permitted, Poor technical support, Customer Service not eager to help"
"The service is good once you get it working, but they charge hefty fees for changes and support is mostly incompetent"
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*UPDATE - 11-JUN-2009*
My phone number was reinstated on June 7, 2009. So it was disconnected for a total of 8 days. It's not acceptable, but what can one do? I asked what caused this and was told that it was a procedural error made by the customer service person I spoke with a week earlier. She made no attempt to call me whatsoever to let me know about the error. The last customer service person told me that there was no way to get the number back. I ended up having to contact the CEO's office to get it back. Now I'm back to square one - the original request to have the change made to my number still has not been completed.
As far as my sister's problem is concerned, they fixed her outgoing caller id name, but they are unable to fully change her name on the TalkBroadband service. It still shows her first, middle, and last names. The problem is that they are using her middle name as her first name. There is a list of caller id name options on the Talkbroadband web portal, and all of them are referencing her middle name except for one entry. Primus is unable to fix her name on the portal. She was told that the name must remain whatever name was keyed when signing up. So if you get married, divorced, etc., you cannot change your name on the Primus TBB system. This is definitely not an item that should be locked as name changes are common occurrences in the real world. The only way around this is to cancel service and re-add it again? It's quite ridiculous.
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*UPDATE - 01-JUN-2009*
I have had an unbelievable experience this evening with Primus Canada. The saga regarding my alternate number seems to have come to an end. This is a number that I've had for several years. Last Friday I called to make a change to it, and one of the Primus employees removed the number from their system. Everyone trying to call me is getting a recorded message stating that the number is no longer in service. They assured me it would be fixed by today (Monday). However, it's still not in service, and it's getting late. So I called them. The person I spoke with this evening tells me that the number was canceled and there is no way to get it back! Can you believe it? I've never in my life heard of such nonsense. There was no apology, no compensation, nothing. The only thing he said was, "Would you like me to assign you a new number?" Of course my answer was a big fat NO!!
Honestly, Primus was never a bad company to deal with when I signed up a few years ago, but now they just don't give a damn about the customer. The customer service staff seem to have the power to say and do whatever they want to the customer, as if they were running the company themselves. Technical Support and Customer Service staff that I've dealt with are incompetent. What used to be my favorite company is now the company I would never deal with again. I blame this nonsense on the management there. They need to keep a closer eye on their staff.
*UPDATED - 31-MAY-2009*
I convinced my sister to try Primus and I'm now so sorry that I did. When signing up to the service she was asked for her first name and middle name along with her last name. They sent her the ATA, but coded her middle name as her first name. Every time she dialed a number her middle name and last name would show up. She tried calling them and waited on the line for 45 minutes before hanging up. So she sent customer service an email instead. They replied the next day stating that they fixed her name. She did a test call and it was still not working. The story goes on and on, but after a week they still don't have her name corrected on their system, and she got into a bit of an argument with one of the "customer service" representatives named Michael who scolded her for making personal remarks because she mentioned in her email very articulately that the people working there didn't seem to want to do their jobs. This was after dealing with 3 people, Michael being the last.
Meanwhile, on Friday afternoon I decided to make a change myself to my phone line. I had 2 numbers, but one was a virtual (alternate) number. I could only receive calls on this number. I called customer service and unlike my sister I got through right away. I asked to have my alternate number provisioned to the LINE 2 jack of the ATA, leaving my main number alone on LINE 1. She said that this would be done sometime on Saturday or Sunday. Later that evening, my mother and a friend were trying to call me on my alternate number, but I didn't know because the calls never came through. I called my mother on Saturday and she asked me if I had my line disconnected. She said since Friday she has been getting a recording stating, "The number you have dialed is not in service". I called Primus on Saturday morning and once again got through right away. The man I spoke to was very friendly, and he said he could see that my 2nd line had been disconnected but he did not know why. He put me on hold for about 7 minutes, then a lady came on the line and said that there was a technical problem with my number. After removing it from my main line, the system would not allow them to provision it to my LINE 2. They were getting an error. She said on the weekend the technical staff are not as well versed with the system and I would have to wait until 2 PM on Monday before it could be looked at again. So I asked if my line would remain disconnected during that time and she said it would. I mentioned that Primus was charging me $55 to perform this switch, and since I've been with them since 2005 and now have my number disconnected until Monday that maybe they could waive the $55 fee. She said she couldn't do that. She began to explain again that it was a technical issue. I mentioned I was aware of that but it's inconveniencing me and since this is a problem on their end I should be compensated. She said she was only authorized to give me a $15 credit. So that's what I got. It's better than nothing, but the customer should not even have to ask for a credit when a company removes service and cannot restore it for days. So I have been thinking over the weekend:
- My sister's problem has never been resolved.
- They disconnected my number and say it will be resolved Monday - but who knows!
- The people my sister was dealing with were not great.
- They wouldn't give me my $55 back after being with them for 4 years.
- Why am I still with them?
I reduced the technical support rating, reliability, and value for money for Primus since they have not been able to resolve these issues (as of yet). I think I have been with them long enough. Although they have better features than most VoIP companies, the customer service and ethics of Primus don't sit well with me. I'm therefore going to be canceling my service with them. My sister has already asked them to cancel her service. The attitude of the woman I spoke to yesterday was not great. I got the impression that she could not care any less about customer satisfaction.
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ORIGINAL THOUGHTS:
The other voip providers could take lessons from Primus TBB as this company provides the most innovative features I have come across so far. They offer unlimited plans (locally or long distance). Many of the features can be set using star codes from your phone. They offer:
Do Not Disturb
Call Forwarding
Call Waiting
Extremely flexible call treatments
Caller id with name, as well your name is displayed when calling a number
The ability to alter the name that shows up when you call someone (limited to a list of choices)
The ability to override the name of the person calling you with something more personal
Remote Phone using local-area gateway numbers
Find-me, Follow-me
Music on-hold can be set on and off
Call Log
Speed Dial
Telemarketer Block
Call Privacy
I can't think of more but I'm sure there are some more features. It's the most extensive number of features that I've ever come across so kudos to Primus for being so ingenious.
One might think a company with all of these fancy features would allow customers to bring their own device (Bring Your Own Device - BYOD) considering how adaptable they have been coming up with these features. However, this is the only drawback that I can find with Primus, and it's a big one unfortunately. There are lots of IP phones on the horizon (wired and cordless flavors), and these phones provide cool features. One thing I like about them is the fact the name and number of the caller is on the screen the moment the IP phone starts to ring. With the analog ATA that Primus provides, the experience of VoIP is more like a POTS old fashioned line with some new features. I've called Technical Support a few times asking if they are now allowing BYOD but the answer is always no, and the reason? They want to be able to control the device connected. Why? Primus seems to think it is less risky if they can provision the gateways themselves. However, two years ago they provisioned everyone's ATA right out of service. A new firmware upgrade rendered the devices useless and they sent their customers an email with instructions on how to get it up and running again. So much for that!
I've been using my own equipment for over a year now with other companies and I have not run into problems with it. There is no reason Primus could not offer both BYOD and their own gateways (should the customer desire).
This would be the perfect voip company if they allowed BYOD. With more and more IP products entering the market, it would be a foolish decision for them to deny their customers this freedom. I have no other issues with Primus, and am pleased with the other features and rates.
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Review by brucebeh
UPDATED: 170 days ago
member for 4.6 years, 271 visits, last login: 51 days ago
CALGARY
$20 per month
about 5 days
"Fast Delievery, great quality, great price! get more than you pay for!"
"Kit came with faulty hook-ups, needed to use my own network cable"
"Not bad for the price, have to wait till they port my # from telus"
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Well I finally got my gateway yesterday, was a bitch to setup. But I gotta praise for the quick delivery, I ordered on a saturday and it came on a thursday (monday was a public holiday).
Let me explain.
I come home from school, see the gateway on my desk, and I plug everything in, reading the manuals, following every instruction they print in the book, took me 45 minutes of playing around and I can't get a dial tone.
So I try plugging it directly into my cable modem, restarted the thing several times, plugged it into my hub, still doesn't work, then my router, restarted everything a couple times.
For some odd reason, I decided to switch network cables, and lo-and-behold, it WORKS! I finally have internet connection on the gateway and my status light turns green.
Turns out the network cable that came with the box was defective, it was pretty frustrating, as it wasted nearly 3 hours of my time.
--- ASIDE FROM THE RANT ---
It works great, I am getting my # ported from Telus, so it might take a while since they are still kinda on strike, but outgoing calls are great, very good quality, I am not using the QoS of the router.. my setup is currently like this.
CABLE MODEM --> HUB
HUB --> VOIP Gateway
HUB --> Linksys Router
Linksys Router --> 2 Wired and 1 Wireless computer
I haven't noticed any issues at all when I'm downloading at max my bandwidth, however, when I'm uploading at max my bandwidth, the other party notices that my voice jitters a bit, I'm guessing if I have my router behind the gateway, that wouldn't even happen at all.
So far i am fairly impressed with this. However, I better wait till my number actually gets ported before praising primus anymore =)
Lastly, I would like to say, it is a GREAT bang for the buck, you get more than you pay for.
Note: I am on SHAW located in CALGARY
Update:
Primus customer service is probably the worse to deal with, technical support is OK, it is dependent on the rep how they treat you, overall service is not too bad but customer service for Primus is almost non-existent.
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 Review by joshb
UPDATED: 212 days ago
member for 3.7 years, 1287 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Calgary,AB
Contract price not specified.
"Solid platform, support, makes moving easy..."
"when things go wrong they go really wrong"
"If it works it's great... otherwise move your eggs to another baskit"
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I know longer have service with this company.
Followup comments:  PX Eliezer
Premium
join:2008-08-09
New Jersey
1 edit | Good review! Thanks for an informative review and updates! | |
| PX Eliezer
Premium
join:2008-08-09
New Jersey | Primus bankrupt The parent company Primus Telecommunications Group filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on March 17, 2009.
Another of their subsidiaries is the Voip provider Lingo. | |
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Review by carpe_diem_t
Posted: 1 year ago
member for 1 year, 0 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Toronto,ON
Contract price not specified.
"Cheap, easy setup"
"Customer service is brutal!"
"Not bad if you can do it yourself."
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So far, the quality has been pretty good from what I can tell. Sign-up was easy and I got my package in the mail in 2-3 business days. Right away, I could make outgoing calls.
The next day though, still no incoming calls. Kept getting an 'unassigned number' msg. It took an hour to get someone who told me it takes 5-7 days to setup. Called again on day 5, another hour waiting for someone to answer. Was told it can take 7 days. It's now been over 8 days and again, on hold for over an hour just waiting to talk to someone. I hope this time they actually do something.
I am hopeful that this is a one time slip up but lordy I hope I don't have to ever call customer service again! The friggin on-hold music is driving both my wife and I crazy!
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 Review by Styvas
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 5.2 years, 2734 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Edmonton,AB
$30 per month
about 7 days
"Decent call quality, AirMiles reward miles, good value for money"
"Calls into tech support or customer service often a long wait; ISP problems can sometimes hit Primus service hard"
"The service and price are excellent, and Primus takes performance/quality issues seriously"
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My Other Reviews ·Shaw
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I have the Unlimited bundle at $29.95. This includes all calling features and unlimited long distance within Canada and the US. International long distance rates with this bundle are competitive, but not drastically so (ironically, Primus' rate for the country I call the most is the highest of the various Canadian VoIP companies). Other similar Canadian services charge on average a bit more for the same package but some of these offer more calling features. However, they do not give AirMiles.
Currently Primus provides customers with a D-Link DVG-1120M MGCP VoIP gateway, or a Linksys SPA2100/2102 that operates on the SIP protocol (I believe all new signups receive the Linksys). The D-Link is adequate but it lacks many of the functions available on even the cheapest routers. It is also supposed to do LAN-based QoS in order to maintain call quality, but this function seldom (if ever) seems to kick in. The Linksys offers slightly better router functionality, however call quality does not appear to differ significantly from the D-Link. Call quality for the Primus service in general is good as long as the local ISP is not experiencing problems. Primus uses the G.711 and G.729 codecs, the choice of which is user configurable.
My only other significant complaint is to do with call centre wait times. It is fairly typical to wait for 40-60 minutes or more to reach a customer support rep. Tech support wait times, however, have significantly improved in the past months. If you are calling on your cell phone because your VoIP phone is not working, that can be extremely frustrating and expensive. The free SkypeOut to toll-free numbers may solve this problem for those without a cell phone to call Customer Service or Tech Support.
In recent weeks (Summer 2008) , Primus seems to have been hit with a number of outages and other problems. While they seem to take these seriously and service is restored quite quickly, it does leave me a bit reticent to recommend their service to anyone who requires 99.9999% reliability (even landlines go down from time to time). Perhaps their customer base has outpaced their ability to keep up, or perhaps competition has forced them to cut costs to the point where quality is affected. I don't know, but I hope they can get back to the stellar service that I've enjoyed for 4 years now.
Not having tried any of the other Canadian VoIP services (Vonage, Yak, Spectravoice, etc.) I can not recommend any of the others. However, I would say that the Primus offering is worth giving it a try. Barring some serious degradation in the overall service, or an increase in pricing, I will be continuing as a Primus customer for the foreseeable future.
For more information you can check out Primus' website (»www.primustel.ca) or the »Primus TalkBroadband VoIP FAQ.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 1.5 years ago
(review was emailed from domain energyadvisoryservice.com)
Kennesaw,Cobb,GA
$250 per month (12 month contract)
"It appear as though the phone system has a lot of good features"
"They need to learn to follow up, keep committments, and improve customer service"
"Quick call a different provider"
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I wanted to help others from making the same mistake our company did. We
signed up for Primus Communication for our phone system and needed the
service by a specific date. The day before we called to ensure everything
was going well and because no one had called us. They have not even
submitted the order. 20 days later and we still do not have phone service
nor do we know how to use the phone system we purchased and no one at Primus
will return our telephone call, even after we sent a cancellation notice.
Hope this helps you!
Thanks
Rhonda
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Review by Tig3
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 3.4 years, 27 visits, last login: 350 days ago
Greely,ON
$34 per month
about 10 days
"Call Screening, Price and features of unlimited package."
"Online forums are hostile. Customer support can be awkward."
"Great if it works, otherwise you are on your own."
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I tried out Vonage but opted for the Primus because it was cheaper for the unlimited package.
I have been a Primus VoIP customer for three years.
This is a great product.
You can screen telemarketers and send their call to never never land. You can configure important callers to ring all your phones, cell, long distance. You never have to miss a call or take one you do not want. Unlimited North America long distance. Check primus.ca for other great features.
Bad points are the online forums, where users and administrators treat frustrated customers to personal attacks. It's disgusting.
Technical support is sketchy. If your equipment has died and the green light is off, you should be able to get reasonably prompt resolution. Otherwise you will have to live with what ever bugs you.
I opened a ticket for calls that were misdirected. eg; my phone shows I dialed one number but the call log shows that the numbers got jumbled and I was connected to a wrong number. This happens in spurts and is a real nuisance if you are calling long distance and wake someone up across time zones. The problem ticket was finally acknowledged and updated by Primus after 12 days. Comments were "Are you still having this problem" The problem ticket was closed 9 seconds later.
I keep checking with Vonage to see if they offer the call screening (blocking, forwarding etc..) via a web interface, They do not.
Update March 31/08
I tested my internet connect as per Primus. Scores came back very good as agreed by Primus. They have concluded that I must have an intermittent jitter problem. Their logic is that I will get a wrong number if "packets arrive out of sequence"
Makes me wonder why I even bother to ask them to fix anything.
Still checking for Vonage call screening.
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Primus Talkbroadband
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