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Review by macvac See Profile

  • Location: West Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • Cost: $62 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Cable is a new service Uniserve just started offering now.
They are offering great deals for new cable subscribers.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I ordered their Cable 30 unlimited package for $59. They didn't charge for the installation or the modem, nor was there an activation fee. They had no contracts I had to sign, and there are no caps on usage which my kids liked, so for me it seems like a great deal even though the initial price seemed kind of high.

They gave me the Technicolor modem for free. It didn't have wifi capabilities, but I bought a router so my family could all use the connection. The installer arrived within two hours of my booking and it was pretty seamless.

So far my internet speed (30Mbps) has been pretty consistent, but I do get some bottlenecks sometimes in the evening.

member for 7.8 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 7.8 years ago


Anon708bc
@ucc-net.ca

Anon708bc

Anon

Uniserve Review

Horrible tech support, don't return calls, emails, no follow up and all this has been going on for years. When things go wrong with their servers, you are on your own. It takes days of nagging to get online again. Have to move over to a service where fair fees are returned with fair support. Check out glassdoor for employee comments; bless their souls, they want more pay....

Review by meadow26 See Profile

  • Location: undisclosed location
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
ADSL / hosting good enough
VOIP (business)
Don't believe the salesman.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Long time user of their ADSL and hosting, it's been generally fine.

Bought into the sales pitch on their VOIP service, even checked a provided reference.

It's been a gong show since we started. What was advertised as a quick switchover from our existing telco took over a month, as our multiple lines switched one at a time (we had to keep both phone systems up). The call forwarding that was supposedly easy, they don't know how to do? (on one line only). An external ringer is a big deal, even after I sourced the parts for them to do it (they didn't know how?). Installers broke my faxing capability, it worked again only after the phone lines were rewired. Can't use most of the phones for keyboard entry of numbers (account number, credit card numbers etc) because of dropped packets/key bouncing issues (numbers are randomly duplicated). Other issues as well....

Some simple issues get dealt with, but the big, important ones are still outstanding with very little response from the company.

Major regrets at this point.

member for 9.1 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 9.1 years ago


Review by ersterhernd See Profile

  • Location: Canada
  • Cost: $56 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
  • Telco party Telus
Solid Connection. Reasonable Price. Fast Speed. Static IP.
None to speak of.
Recommended ISP.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Quick summary of my 10+ year Uniserve experience at this link...

»Uniserve Communications

member for 10.3 years, 12 visits, last login: 10.2 years ago
updated 10.3 years ago







Review by aliciag See Profile

  • Location: Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
  • Cost: $48 per month (12 month contract)
  • Telco party AT&T
nothing
Customer Service and Billing
I just wanted to move my service
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
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This is the worst possible customer service I have ever had. I moved on the
15th and they were supposed to switch me over to my new house. A tech came
out and said that the lines were cut so they would have to put in a service
call to have someone come out in 5 business days and put in a new line. 1
week later I didn't hear anything so I was on the phone for 2 hours only to
find out they scheduled me the following week to have someone dig a
line.**** they bumped me up a day sooner so I was supposed to have service
Jan 29th but then it rained this day so I got a call on the 29th saying
that they rescheduled me for the very next day and that all I have to do is
plug in and I am good to go.... 30th no internet. no dig. no call. I called
today only to hear that it was because of my lawn they couldn't dig. I
don't have a lawn. Then they got back on the phone with me and told me it
was because of the weather. There was no rain and no weather.... Then they
said they don't know why it didn't happen but they can't hook me up until
NEXT TUESDAY! OK a little background people.... I WORK FROM HOME. I NEED MY
INTERNET TO WORK FROM HOME!!!!!! I asked the guy "what happened to Friday
or Monday why do I have to wait until Tuesday" His response.... "I don't
know" The next thing I will have to deal with is them billing me for the 21
days + that I don't have service and they will tell me to pay it and then I
will get a credit.... I will get the credit after being transferred several
times to several different call centers and several different people that
can't speak English and tell my story to at least 4-5 different people to
still never see a credit for the days I didn't get service because of their
stupidity. WHO THE HELL WANTS THIS CRAP!!!! I am changing as soon as I can.



member for 11.1 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 11.1 years ago


Review by LoneCyclist See Profile

  • Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Cost: $34 per month
  • Telco party Bell Canada
reasonably stable connection
unreliable customer support
bad surprises await
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I've been with their no-contract 5mb/800k service for $29.99 since 2008 that makes it 3 years, have had speed issues at hook up and it took a couple of weeks to solve. Otherwise I rarely ever had to call their customer support as it's pretty unreliable.

The dsl itself was ok, from time to time their dns server just completely failed, but in those cases I just used the opendns ip. At another time I had a problem connecting, had to call them, they were too clueless to solve my problem and promised to send me one of their free modems but never did. In the end I solved the problem on my own and it had nothing to do with the modem so I didn't insist but this is typical.

Moral: whatever it is they said, call twice to make sure.

The ultimate support issue occured when I recently attempted to cancel my account with them (as I decided to switch to teksavvy) they just basically ignored my requests and kept pushing some other of their services instead. I suppose this is some ingenious form of crookery or extreme nonchalance: to pretend the client never contacted them, and that the company's dog ate the paper on which the cancellation reference was written, and that they had no other honest choice but to keep charging my credit card.

In short: disorganized, ineffectual support system, very cheap management; the network infrastructure is ok, in 3 years with them disconnects were rare.

member for 16.1 years, 43 visits, last login: 9.4 years ago
updated 12.2 years ago


Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: L9T3P
  • Cost: $44 per month (month by month)
  • Telco party Bell Canada
cheap
irreliable, ignorant, inept customer service
AVOID!
Pre Sales information:
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Uniserve review

Interesting situation.

19 months ago I phoned Uniserve to tell them I was moving. I had DSL with a dry loop phone line and moved within town. Oddly enough I plugged in and had internet at the new house. All my bills from Uniserve reflected my address change. About a month ago my internet was shut off. Uniserve customer service suggested there could be a problem with the wiring or with my modem. I bought a new modem. After this didn't work I phoned again and then they told me that for the past 19 months they were still providing service to my previous address. I asked in what world would it be possible that if I phoned to tell them I was moving that I would also still somehow want residential internet service provided to the place I left. This is not an easily answered question of course. They then concluded that they had tried to connect to my new location but there weren't any ports available in my area; and then they hadn't tried to reach me about it for 19 months. Oddly enough I was getting free internet from Bell because they in turn didn't shut their line down from the previous owner at the new location.

I had paid 43.95 monthly 19 times without any service provided or customer service that worked. I asked for a refund. They hummed and hawed like I had just told them I moved yesterday. I thought that they had agreed to refund me the last month and today I got a cheque for a discounted 33.84. These guys are jerks. At this point the principle of this mess is key. If anyone knows how to collect from these trolls I'd love to know. AVOID AVOID AVOID Tek Savvy were far more helpful on the phone than these turkeys.

(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 12.3 years ago


Review by SWJunkie See Profile

  • Location: Courtenay, BC, Canada
  • Cost: $33 per month
  • Telco party Telus
Pre Sales information:
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Value for money:

Tech service when required seems good.

member for 19.6 years, 629 visits, last login: 11.8 years ago
lodged 13 years ago







Review by blablawtf See Profile

  • Location: Scarborough, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $35 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
  • Telco party Bell Canada
Excellent customer service. Best bang for buck. No caps.
Bell's infrastructure: Constant throttling, Lack of 'higher tier' tech support, Speed limitations.
If you have a budget under $40 to get 5MBps, ONLY surf in non-peak hours and can endure throttling, this one's for you.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I have been with Uniserve for the past 5 years. (Before they were called Inter.net).

For the past 4 years before all this UBB nonsense became a phenomena, I had a pretty smooth experience with this company. Great 24/7 customer service, good speeds, no throttling and consistent performance overall with 99.8% uptime (2-3 days in a year downtime? that was awesome). Best of all, NO CAPS **

**[On their website, they might say that there's a 75GB cap being implemented - but its been confirmed as of Feb 6th 2011, that caps have not been applied onto any new or old accounts]

Just recently Bell started to throttle my connection heavily. The sad disadvantage of being a wholesale customer is that there's literally nothing in their hands to stop Bell from doing this.

Current situation: my regular speed has been reduced from 4.3Mbps to 600Kbps download, while upload has been consistent on 401Kbps -- this has been going on for about 2 months now. It happens on Weekdays 4pm to 1am; then goes back to regular speed. And on Weekends 12pm to 8pm. This has driven me NUTS. Cannot stream anything at all, nor download stuff during the day. I am missing my lectures (taking online classes) and is leaving me far behind in my studies. I have to stay up late at night to perform all the browsing/downloading that should have been (and conveniently) done during the day.

My first course of action was to ask Uniserve what they can do for me. After the 'default' inspection and troubleshooting steps done on my internet, they concluded to send a service ticket to Bell for line inspection. After a day or so, Bell recommended a new modem. Uniserve sends out these modems from a brand called "Zoom" - really bad modems, but since I have been with them for ages they sent it out for free. I received a new modem only to discover that its 'the same damn modem' as my current one.

Regardless, I installed the new modem - throttling is even WORSE now. Download speed on them 'peak hours' doesn't go beyond 500Kbps while upload stays the same! I have been calling them back and forth and requesting updates on the ticket, Bell - being the lazy panzies that they are - haven't been frequently checking up or updating these tickets.

Due to lack of speed upgrades, explanations, and service from Uniserve, I have decided to move on from them to another ISP/Technology: Teksavvy/Cable.

In the end, I'd say Uniserve is a great company, just too bad they have to piggyback on Bell.

member for 13.1 years, 223 visits, last login: 3.1 years ago
updated 13 years ago

gogu
join:2009-10-06
Kitchener, ON

gogu

Member

Uniserve/Yak

I've been with Uniserve for about 5 yrs now too. Haven't had too many problems with speed until the last 2-3 weeks or so. used to be around 4-5Mb, now its at around 1.5-3.5Mb.
Yak on the other hand, mmmm.

Tried switching my parents over because of the UBB. YAK will tell you anything you want to hear until you sign up, after that, you get the excuses, lies, bs, either that or they're clueless.
Ended up cancelling them real quick.
speed is not great. they said 5Mb connection, received 2Mb.
Their comments:
* You have "Old wires"
* We said "Up to 5Mb"
* we can't do anything for you unfortunately.
* You're on a 3Mb profile a higher profile would not be stable.
I replied with, please cancel the account. At which point they said, we'll look into it and call you back... call back never happen, but 2 days later speed was up to 5Mb.

They were with Teksavvy before and good thing they never cancelled them before getting YAK running...

If you're not within Yaks 10Mb reach, not worth it.
blablawtf
join:2011-02-02
Milton, ON

blablawtf

Member

Re: Uniserve/Yak

Thanks for your input!

You know I need to update my review because I tried to move from Uniserve to Yak, Yak doesn't even offer any service in my area!!!

I received the same bs about "old wires" and "if you go on a higher profile you will lose sync" from Uniserve. It's about time people realize that DSL is getting old and it won't last for long, move onto cable!

I actually moved onto Teksavvy = 300GB, and I am loving itttttt!!!!!

Review by toffy See Profile

  • Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Cost: $35 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 5 days
  • Telco party Bell Canada
Good service/follow-up, no caps, No downtime
Terrible throttling from Bell, clueless tech support
Useless
Pre Sales information:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I have been an happy camper for the past 5 years, initially cruising at 4Mbps. Until about a month ago, I discovered a significant drop in my Internet connection. 48 hours after sending a ticket to Bell tech my connection got even worst, I am now at around 900kps during peak hours. My guess is that Bell is on Uniserve customers throttling their connection. Uniserve Tech Support is clueless or fake not to know anything about it.

member for 13.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 13.1 years ago
updated 13.1 years ago

blablawtf
join:2011-02-02
Milton, ON

blablawtf

Member

sigh..

Yeah its just recently this problem has been popping up, not sure why. And yes @ their customer service. You know, to be honest you can't really blame them... as they follow Bell's direct orders in a way... my recent ticket on the same speed decline issue has resulted in Bell saying "there must be something wrong with internal wiring" --- yeah spend $100 on Bell to inspect lines? Bs. Move over to TekSavvy Cable..
toffy
join:2011-02-07
Montreal, QC

toffy

Member

Re: sigh..

yeah I know. Teksavvy is a valuable option in Ontario but not in Quebec. My only option is Videotron and that is $55 a month for 70GB combined (terrible), but I'll get 15mbps.
blablawtf
join:2011-02-02
Milton, ON

blablawtf

Member

Re: sigh..

oh my

best of luck to you and i hope teksavvy can move over asap!!!!!

Review by jerry666 See Profile

  • Location: Piedmont, QC, Canada
  • Cost: $29 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 4 days
  • Telco party Bell Canada
reliable
no problems in 12 years
Pre Sales information:
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free modem , at the time $29.00 a month for 5Mbps only had 2 downtimes in 10 years . Still $29.00 a month , no free modem .Still very reliable , zero downtime , good stable connection .

member for 21.3 years, 2540 visits, last login: 35 days ago
updated 14.2 years ago