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Review by Uniformhawk 
member for 4.4 years, 3 visits, last login: 14 days ago
lodged 14 days ago
 York,ON
 Contract price not specified.  "DSL speeds, Unlimited" "Customer Service / Connection and Disconnection" "DSL service ok, but prepare for horrible customer service"
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Acanac has the worst customer service I've ever encountered with any company and they will unabashedly try to reduce any kind of refund they provide to you. I tell you this as a customer of over five years.
Among many problems I had with them included a move of my service from one address to another in which I gave them over three weeks advance warning and it took them over two weeks after my move to finally get the service up and running. (Nothing needed to be done other than flipping a switch as there was already Acanac service at both locations.) Then after my service was already up at the new address, a different department at Acanac had it disconnected for a few days so that they could "move the service over to my new address". Yes, it doesn't make sense, but that's what they did.
There are many other problems that I've had with them, but it would be overly tedious for me to get into it. Suffice to say there's a lot more where that came from.
When I suggested that they refund my moving fee for the fiasco, they actually had the gall to only offer me half (approximately 13$ back) instead of the whole amount.
I almost never make complaints to the Better Business Bureau, but Acanac deserves this special attention for the sheer horrible service they provide as well as their antagonistic approach to dealing with their customers.
They have several departments who do not speak to each other, resulting in a disjointed customer service experience in which the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.
The actual service (if you finally are able to get it going) is decent, but woe to anyone who needs to deal with them. You have been forwarned.
I've been a customer with them for years, and the only reason I keep their service is that I got them ten referrals and got free service as a result. If I had to pay at all for this service, I would end it immediately.
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Review by phreshive
member for 90 days, 52 visits, last login: 10 days ago
updated 16 days ago
- Cote Saint-Luc,QC
- $57 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "Lowest cost provider in Quebec for unlimited 30/10Mbps cable connection"
- "None"
- "Only a fool would stick with Videotron"
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Was a Videotron high speed Internet client for the last 8+ years graduating from 8 to 30 Mbps over that time. At one point, I dropped my cable subscription and was a sole service client. I chose Videotron for my Internet needs based on two criteria: reliability and consistent speed. As my usage changed, unlimited bandwidth is something that I wanted as I truly disliked monitoring my usage. Videotron recently began offering a limited time unlimited monthly add-on option of $30 which would have brought my bill to a whopping $96.95+tax. I decided to look at alternate ISPs that piggyback off of Videotron and came across Teksavvy and Acanac.
Teksavvy at first seemed like the winner and I signed up to transfer over to them. The reason I initially chose Teksavvy was because of how their pricing was then structured. On months where I wouldn’t use much bandwidth on the 20Mbps speed option, I would be charged ~$35 to a maximum of ~$60 on heavy usage months. Seemed ideal. However, I then read threads online how they were revamping their pricing post-CRTC ruling. Once I saw what their revised pricing structure (~$45 with maximum of ~$95), I cancelled the transfer and went with Acanac.
To reap the most savings, I chose Acanac’s twelve (12) month term whereby they charge for the entire year in advance. Should I decide to cancel early, they would refund my unused months and bill those used at the monthly rate ($65.95) had I not opted for the year ($56.95). In doing so, I am saving $40 monthly off Videotron's rate for the identical service.
The transfer process was simple: signed up online, received same day an email that contained my New Cable Internet Account Information. Setup a transfer date three (3) weeks later to give Acanac enough time to ship the modem and get the service started. The waiting process then begins. My modem arrived one week or so later. I opted not to setup a cancellation date with Videotron as other users have reported doing so without issue.
On the date of the transfer, an issue arose as unbeknownst to me, the transfer I initially cancelled with Teksavvy hadn’t been processed and had both Videotron and Teksavvy as providers on my line. I called Teksavvy and straightened the issue out. Once that was cleared up, the transfer went through and am now with Acanac. Speed are identical to what I had with Videotron. In fact, I was placed early on the new 30/10 profile so technically they are better.
I’ll end like this: if you are in Quebec, are on Videotron (or another third party ISP that piggybacks off Videotron) and are happy with the speed of your connection, you should not hesitate to transfer. And if this review convinced you to sign up, feel free to message me as Acanac has a referral program whereby when you refer 10 new clients, you get lifetime free service. Pretty sweet!
Edit 1: Going on close to one month now. Speeds are identical as with Videotron. No throttling during peak hours. Referred a friend who has received his modem in a timely fashion and is awaiting his transfer date.
Edit 2: Referred my best friend. Had a seamless transfer as well. The one issue was with his router / fixed IP settings. If you are presently using Videotron's fixed address DNS servers in either/both your router and/or your network adapter settings, you should change them in advance to Google's DNS addresses (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) to avoid having any issues with network address translation / the Internet not functioning once the transfer goes through.
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 pmicho
join:2012-08-24
Montreal, QC | Suppor Acanac can be a good provider. But, if ever you need customer support, be ready to put your patience to test. Good luck! | |
| | | | Re: Suppor Haven't needed support from Videotron other than adding usage blocks to my account to reduce my bill. Doubtful I'll ever need to contact them. Videotron's network is rock solid. | |
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Review by morph69
member for 11.7 years, 517 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 16 days ago
- Penetanguishene,ON
- $40 per month
- (12 month contract)
 about 13 days- "umlimited bandwidth - faster than 6/1 dsl availible in penetang"
- "nothing as of yet"
- "fast, cheap and painless compared to dryloops from HELL Canada(yes hell) that always get shut off locally for no reason"
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Had an issue with the modem being shipped when i ordered, day before install i called and they sent one asap - only took 3 days to show up at that point. delayed install a few days but i made my services overlap by a month in case of possible issues as in the past had a nightmare with 3rd party dsl providers coordinating with bell.. caused me to be down for two weeks. On a good note even though i rescheduled a rogers tech called me on day of install to conform that is what i wanted and a few hours later a call center employee called from rogers to conform that the tech had actually contacted me and arrange new time slot
These are the only modems they allow
Vendor- Rogers Network Model (HW version)
Huawei Huawei MT130U V100R001C01B071 HW Ver 1A
Technicolor DCM476 AC.02.50 HW Ver 2.1
Technicolor Technicolor DCM476 AC.02.50 HW Ver 2.0
Thomson DCM 475
I was shipped the Huawei - they have said it will have a warranty as long as i am their customer
Pre-payed for a year
total cost about 700 tax in
100 for a modem
50 for install (not needed but rogers insists.. so i insisted on a fresh drop to house)
10 to ship modem
39.95 a month when paying yearly (otherwise 42.95) so like getting a month free
Package purchased was 28 meg down 1 meg up
unlimited bandwidth
(during peak hours hours (7pm-12Pm downstream will be reduced to 14 MB/S)
service includes this stuff also
free 100 gig of online storage... free vpn account ... free ssh tunneling.. and a free voip line for the term of your commitment (wont really use any of it... but some might) another company i would recommend for voip is freephoneline.ca
Acanac only uses a few modems in rogers footprint to keep costs down (every modem they add and rogers charges $25,000 - as i looked around i wanted to get a motorala gigabit gateway with wireless n but realized it would not be an option - that sucked as i want to upgrade my network to gigabit anyhow... what do ya do... guess i'll find something newer that is ddwrt flashable anyhow
had internet for a few days now... getting 40 megabit off peak hours no problem... during peak hours (think 3-11pm) they are supposed to throttle you back to 14 megabit.. found speed test are very inaccurate compared to speed being delivered ... results show from 2-14 megabit but actual real world performance is rock solid 14 megabit with torrents and such ... much better than the 6 meg dsl line i have been stuck with... VERY happy with the switch
update : |March 1st, 2013
Been a few weeks service has had 100 percent uptime and speed as been a welcome addition in the house overall. |Even during peak times easily beating 12 megabit in real world (though speed test all say less- don't trust speed test actually download something)
I have even noticed my voip service has worked better with the better upload speeds than dsl i had previously.. |Just hoping we can get access to better upload in future |:|)
update : May 1st 2013
speeds are awsome... consistent service consistent too.. still have the throttle during peak hours... speedtest on dslr is inaccurate to real speeds on cable... speedtest.net is accurate ... can download at 30 megabits seconds no problem with torrents and good servers but java and flash on this site says i have a 5 megabit connection. While the connection is throttled during peak hours (by the company) it is never sluggish during this period at all and some night it is not throttled at all (when less overall subs are active i would assume)
My call quality for my voip is better than when i was on a dryloop and 2-3 months in now I am not aware of a single outage (btw i use a ddwrt router with back-up dns name servers from open dns and google so if there have been issues i would never know)
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Review by Amou
member for 2.3 years, 297 visits, last login: 7 days ago
lodged 25 days ago
- Guelph,ON
- $45 per month
- about 7 days
- "Cheap"
- "Unstable."
- "Not worth it."
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I also had VoIP with them which worked fine after getting a proper ATA modem.
Internet was fluctuating very badly and they had no forum support.
Comments:
 FerglessPremium
join:2008-04-19
Toronto, ON | VoIP/Internet quote:
I also had VoIP with them which worked fine after getting a proper ATA modem. Internet was fluctuating very badly and they had no forum support.
Sure there is, but ultimately VoIP support that can't be corrected by forum members needs to be addressed to emergency@acanac.com For DSL/Cable support@acanac.com
Forum members are customers just like yourself. | |
| | | stay away from Acanac No technician came to fix it when you had internet problem.
No one work on cancellation except email which will take a week to reply your email.
This company is the worst company I met before.
Stay away from Acanac. | |
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1 edit | Acanac Please be aware that they are not our techs. They are either Bell's, Rogers, Videotron and so on.
Do you have a ticket ID for your request? | |
| | FerglessPremium
join:2008-04-19
Toronto, ON | No technician came. Hi xxxxxxx
Can you please post your Ticket # in reference to this and I'll look into it for you.
Tks | |
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Review by chickenla
member for 31 days, 8 visits, last login: 4 days ago
updated 31 days ago
- Mississauga,ON
- $44 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 865 days
 Bell Canada- "Good value when prepaying for 12 month service. Free SSH Tunnel and online FTP account is icing on the cake."
- "Slow support, takes almost 2 days for them to answer an online ticket."
- "Great service if your lucky enough not to have to deal with support."
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I researched a lot of the ISP's in my area for their pricing. I went with Acanac since they seem to have to cheap price for an unlimited bandiwth plan when you prepay for 12 months.
I originally bought the 18mbps cable service at the higher pricing point awhile back and they upgraded me to 28mbps service at no charge.
Installation was pretty easy. The Rogers technician set up a temp cable line along my fence into the house. They later dug the line into the ground a monthish later.
At the time I ordered a Motorola SURFboard SB5101U for the 18mbps cable service. It has no problem doing 28mbps when the upgrade was placed. (West end of Missisauga).
I honestly did not see much throttling if any. My torrents can use 100% of the bandwidth and I did not see my speeds slow down even during peak hours.
Only complaint I had with Acanac is that they took around 2 days to answer the billing tickets online. Technical support was great though.
Overall the value offered is great, no complaints when I was with them for 2 years. I've switched ISP's at the begining of April 2013 though.
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Review by mgreen2000
member for 38 days, 4 visits, last login: 34 days ago
updated 37 days ago
- canada
- $640 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "Very fast taking money from credit card"
- "Everything else"
- "STAY AWAY FROM ACANAC. ACANAC IS A SCAM."
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This is the worst company I have ever dealt with. Their telephone operators are incredibly rude and condescending. Nobody knows what's going on. You have to wait hours to speak wits somebody and after all they ask you to send email and newer will got the answer....
Do not waste your time - file a complaint with CCTS "http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/", with BBB -it's the only way to get any reaction from them.
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Review by julienvf
member for 4.3 years, 1417 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 64 days ago
- Verdun,QC
- $56 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 14 days
- "Good pricing, unlimited bandwith, a good company fighting a lot along side customer groups against Bell at the CRTC."
- "email only tech suport"
- "Definitely make the switch from Videotron or Bell to Acanac!"
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Now on 30/3 Vidéotron land cable. So far, great consistent speed: even at peak hours, I get 31.3mbit down, 3.2 up. Best bang for the buck deal out there for 56.95$/month. They now have 3 backbones: torix, cogent and nlayer. Most of my traffic now is routed through torix, improving speed and latency.
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| | worst technical support ever !!! I know my friend that he was so satisfied with ACANAC and he advised me to be with them. I am sure these problems are recently happening but for the ones who were with ACANAC before 2011 they were all satisfied. I read most of the reviews and the things happened to the others exactly happened to me(e.g. hold on for hours to speak with a representative, slow down the internet speed, ........).
Buyers beware!! | |
| | julienvf
join:2008-12-30
Verdun, QC
kudos:1 Reviews:
 ·Acanac
| Re: worst technical support ever !!! said by Kia :I know my friend that he was so satisfied with ACANAC and he advised me to be with them. I am sure these problems are recently happening but for the ones who were with ACANAC before 2011 they were all satisfied. I read most of the reviews and the things happened to the others exactly happened to me(e.g. hold on for hours to speak with a representative, slow down the internet speed, ........).
Buyers beware!!
This is so incorrect. I mean, if you can't understand the adsl basics like distance from CO, line stats (snr, attenuation, etc.), either have it professionnally installed by a tech that understand these numbers and know what are good modems/routers units, or go with companies that will charge you by the byte, have you pay for all the extra features like static IP, mlppp, etc. You'll end up paying over a year way more than a tech dispatch! Just don't blame it on Acanac: they offer low cost broadband and 99% of the problems people encounter are related to Bell (bad line stats, errors, disconnect, etc.). It is just unfair from people like you to say beware when you probably called them when an outtage occured in some area. If you call up and see 100 people in line before you, it means they're totally aware of the outtage and they're working on it! | |
| | | LynnPremium
join:2011-08-11
Trenton, ON
kudos:7 | Re: worst technical support ever !!! Julie thank you. I could not have said it better myself  | |
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Review by fredsmith
member for 2.5 years, 40 visits, last login: 10 days ago
updated 64 days ago
- Dollard-Des-Ormeaux,QC
- Contract price not specified.
- (999 month contract)
- about 7 days
- Bell Canada
- "Solid, no caps, great pricing, even if I didn't have free service"
- "Tech support could be more knowledgeable."
- "Great value, solid service."
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I've been with Acanac for 6 years. I've made their free for life program with 10 referrals and haven't paid for service since 2008. While I am subscribed to the old 5/1 DSL package I'm in the process of being upgraded to 11 megs (all of their DSL subscribers on FTTN are getting this for free!!!).
When I originally subscribed I was with Bell and being mis-billed every month (after 18 consecutive billing errors I had enough, though because of their errors, Bell ended up refunding me more than I paid for the service in the first place!!!). I had previously been with Videotron, but their pricing made no sense and the service slowed to a crawl every evening.
Having read all of the information on their web site I called in, asked a few questions and placed my order (this was when the first year rate was $19/month for a 1 year term commitment). I received my credentials in a few hours and changed the settings in my modem and was live - Bell came and installed the dry loop about a week later and I only swapped the jack that the modem was plugged in to and it has been stable with only a few issues ever since.
I've used my own modem (a Westel) since day one, though I will be swapping to a TP-Link with the speed upgrade they'd doing on Tuesday.
I like the service well enough that I subscribed my son, who is in Ottawa at university to 28 meg cable service, which has been rock solid, but for a 2 day outage that affected everyone there.
I see LOTS of complaints on RFD and on the Acanac site about customer service issues, refund delays and other stuff, but beyond occasional 'they keep asking me the same questions' types of complaints or where the subscriber has mail-bombed the support people with queries (updating a support ticket bumps the request to the end of the queue) almost every time it turns out that the subscriber hasn't actually bothered to read what it is all about or can't provide the information that support is looking for - though sometimes support can seem to get sidetracked.
Acanac is a HUGE independent ISP - they have more than 130,000 customers, dwarfing almost everyone else out there - so certainly some, attracted by unlimited service, a free VoIP line, static IP and a free tunnel and all the other included services but who have zero competence or simply jump into the pool without knowing how to swim may be disappointed to learn that they may be on their own to some degree.
But I'm no newbie - I'm in the industry, providing security, network, telephone systems and such. And I am active on the ISP's user forum (which is a great resource, if I say so myself), helping people who show up and ask for help (though I admit to being less than patient with those who come in with guns blazing and unreasonable expectations). I do this because to some degree it is my way of giving back for the money I'm saving each month for my home service.
All in all, I have put my money where my mouth is - with free service from home through the referral program and having to pay for my son's serviced I elected to go with Acanac again, though I can always use more referrals!!!.
But I think that my actions in subbing my son speak volumes.
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Review by hickins
member for 3.9 years, 53 visits, last login: 45 days ago
updated 66 days ago
- Burlington,ON
- $37 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 7 days
- "nothing good!"
- "customer service is SO NOT RESPONSIVE it can make you SICK"
- "Stay Away! there is something seriously wrong with this company!"
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Signed up, speed wasn't good, I requested a cancellation withing ONE day!!
It's been 5 WEEKS and NO REFUND!! and still counting...
I send them messages daily, no one responds, I don't know how long should I wait?
A refund was posted yesterday (Nov 5) after 6 weeks on my VISA account, and unfortunately it is around 100$ less what I paid.... re-opened the cancellation ticket and here we go again.... it's like a nightmare that I cannot wake up from....I hope this is the end of it....
OK..So finally I got another reply about the ticket I've opened about the difference in refunds, and I was told that activation fees are not refundable!!
So it'll cost you 100$ to try the service and NOT FULL REFUND!
Update:
I filed a complaint with CCTS "http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/", and I was told that my complaint falls under their mandate, so let's see what happens.
Update:
After almost 6 weeks of filing with CCTS, I got a call from Acanac today to inform me that they have approved the refund of 79.95+tax. YAY!!
It's rather unfortunate that I had to go throught CCTS to get a refund after 6 MONTHS!!!
Comments:
carcajou
join:2012-10-16
Riviere-Beaudette, QC Reviews:
·Acanac
| Time Hi
Time is relative as per Einstein s theory and Acanac fell into a gravitational field where it expands in inverse proportion with their customers service that contracted down to the infinitesimal.
5 weeks is not much by their standards. Read other posts where people have been waiting 3 months.
Good luck and keep us informed. | |
| | | | Re: Time Post directly on their forums. The mods will help.
Adi | |
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| |  ACANAC CRAP
 This is the worst company I have ever dealt with. Their telephone operators are incredibly rude and condescending. Nobody knows what's going on. It took almost 4 full weeks just to initiate service with me doing all the work.... I should have taken this as a sign. The service is abysmal.........it is actually worse than dial up from the nineties.... the only time the speed is adequate is between 2 and 4 am. PATHETIC... do NOT use this service. IT IS CRAP.... IT IS AWFUL...... I am trapped for 6 months as I have no choice and have already prepaid.......... | |
| | | | Re: ACANAC I am sorry to hear about your problems. If I can help please let me know.
AS for being trapped this is not the case at all. You can leave at any time. We would just charge you at the rate you call on and return you the rest. For example if you took a 12 month plan and are 6 months into it we would charge you at the 6 month rate and return the remainder.
Once again I am here to help. | |
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| | acanac the wrong choice Stay away from this company there is no garantie of service or fulfillment to their commitment
pretty bad customer service I waste my time and my money in this company | |
| | hickins
join:2009-05-27
Burlington, ON | Re: acanac the wrong choice wow, why what happened? | |
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| |  Stay away from Acanac
I ordered a Motorola modem on Aug. They sent me a Huawei modem. Of course I refused it. After two months with endless email, they agree to refund me but hold me responsible for shipping cost and tax charges.
Can you believe that? I have to fight with Acanac and write endless emails for 2 months before they agree to refund me but they said I have to pay for postage fee and tax charges because Acanac is not going to refund shipping fee to me even though they shipped me the wrong modem, a modem I never ordered from them.
If you don't want to be cheated, stay away from Acanac. If you don't believe me, go to check internet and other review. I am not alone!!! | |
| | hickins
join:2009-05-27
Burlington, ON | Re: Stay away from Acanac Nope! you're certainly not alone!
I've got bitten hard with the money back guarantee scam, I got a refund (minus) dsl activation fees (79+tax)! Opened up a ticket to ask them about it, NO ONE EVEN CARES TO REPLY!!! | |
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| | Motorola? @acanacisbad
Acanac hasnt offered Motorola Modem for 2 years, it was made clear that the Modem fr Ontario was the Huawei | |
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Review by darrinmc9
member for 4.4 years, 15 visits, last login: 54 days ago
updated 67 days ago
- Cambridge,ON
- $40 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 12 days
- "Great speeds and reliability"
- "Have to pay 1 year upfront"
- "Best kept secret alternative ISP"
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I was with Teksavvy DSL for years which has been great but recently they suffered from evening congestion which shouldn't happen with DSL, it is well known with their cable Kitchener POI has this problem. I wanted better speed as Netflix has been used heavily the past year driving up my bandwidth usage and affecting the VOIP phones. Acanac had the best startup cost to switch to cable and get a Docis 3 modem, and there was no negative reviews about downtime or reliability so I decided to give them a try. Glad that I did.
Phenomenal speed, even in the evenings I don't get throttled. I reached out to billing twice, once to adjust my actual start date, and also to turn off the auto renewal so I have the option to choose what I want to do next year. Both requests were taken care of in less than 24 hours which is promising. I'm looking forward to trying out the VPN service and online storage along with other goodies they throw in. Now I have no issues with downloading, watching netflix, and surfing the net at the same time. My router says I have 15 devices connected to the internet, this upgrade was way overdue!
New users should read the Acanac forums on their own website, most of the complaints I've seen could have been avoided.by reading the Acanac forums website ahead of time.
Darrin.
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