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Review by cutuzov 
UPDATED: 2 days ago
member for 321 days, 96 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
 Mississauga,ON
 $30 per month
 about 5 days
 "No cap 5MB Support is quick and efficient"
 "Had some issues with IP last week, seems resolved"
 "Recommended"
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I have been TechSavy customer for 4 years, but have to walk away after I moved to my new house. They was seem to unable to solve my connection problems on the new line. To get it fixed I went to the evil Sympatico for 1 month. Line was fixed, but I am being billed for there "services" cancelled 3 month ago ever since 
So for 3-4 month I am a Velcome happy customer. Customer support is useful and quick. I had some problem with my IP assigned to other modem in the network. Best part is tech support honestly admit there have a something messed up on there side. I can live with provider which is working on network problem, instead of advising me how to hook modem I been using for 8 years. No stupid "reboot your comp" advices.
Issue was fixed so far. I am getting solid 4200/500
I will definitely stay with this provider, and recommend it to my friends and relatives.
Upd. half year later......same ISP
Followup comments:  VelcomJoe
join:2007-09-07
Brampton, ON | Thank You Thank you very much for your feedback welcome to Velcom! | |
| VelcomMatt
Premium
join:2006-01-26
Brampton, ON | Thank you :) Hello,
I would like to thank you for taking the time to provide an honest comment/feedback about our service. Also, we're happy to hear that everything is working well for you.
Regards,
Matthew L. | |
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Review by Thedudemjp
UPDATED: 58 days ago
member for 58 days, 1 visits, last login: 57 days ago
Belleville,ON
$38 per month
about 5 days
 Bell Canada
"Cheap internet with decent speeds when reliable."
"A very unreliable service with awful tech support."
"I hate to trash a smaller ISP especially one that's battling against throttling but the quality of their service is suspect."
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A couple of months ago I was happy to jump ship from Bell to another ISP specifically one that had had good ratings here on DSLreports and that had been suggested to me from a few friends. I'm not necessarily regretting this move but I'm regretting not having done the proper amount of research before making my decision.
Hooking up the modem and signing on was easy enough. At first things seemed to be decent, I was pleased with the speeds and was content with my decision. As the next few days went by everything regarding the internet was smooth. About a week passed and then the disconnects began. They were sporadic throughout each and every day but the general idea of being disconnected multiple times a day has been consistent through the course of my whole tenure with Velcom. Contacting tech support led me to agents that I could barely understand, they've passed the blame to Bell every time which has led their workers to come to my apartment twice now to look at my line where in they changed it and shrugged at what Velcom was accusing, it was suggested that it could potentially be the modem and in order for their mistakes of potentially sending me a broken modem I had to pay for a new one(It turned out that the modem wasn't the problem because even with the new one the disconnection trends still continued.).
During the weekend that I'm writing this the service was down for a couple of hours on a Saturday at 4:00pm and since it has come back up my ping has been fluctuating between 600ms and 1700ms. Tech support says it'll be like this till Monday, maybe longer. This is not acceptable, I'm sorry.
Switching to Teksavvy I guess.
Followup comments: velcomrob
Premium
join:2006-11-28
Brampton, ON
| reply We've run into some unforseen problems due to the migration.
I know it's not your problem, however we would be willing to compensate you some how. Our migration to this new facility is to improve performance. Once it has been completed on Monday everything will begin improving drastically.
Please send me an email to rob (@) velcom.com and i'm sure we can work something out.
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WOW VELCOM WOW
@velcomdsl.ca
| Re: reply Well Ive been having connection problems using velcom. Evry weekend like clockwork, my internet would go down.
They keep telling me my modem or my computer must be the problem. Yep my modem/computer wants weekend off so they must be right!
My speed right now is probably lower than rogers super extra light connection. | |
| | |
UserMe
@gblx.net
| Re: reply Yeah the speed right now is horrible, and sometimes it just refuses to work. I always thought it was my router or my other flatmates dling too much stuff slowing down the network but now that I unplugged the router and hooked the modem directly to my computer, I found out it's velcom. This speed is horrible. | |
| cutuzov
join:2007-11-21
Mississauga, ON
 ·Velcom
| Still happy with provider 
After half year with Velcom I feel good about using their service. It is not like they have the best tech support, but all I need is reliable fast internet. I had it so far.
Speaking of TecSavvy I was with them when they had their share of support/connection issues. Any small provider comes through this stage in my opinion. | |
| | velcomrob
Premium
join:2006-11-28
Brampton, ON
| Re: Still happy with provider With two usernames such as WOW VELCOM WOW and UserMe I wonder of those replies actually have merit.
thanks Cutuzov for your great reply.
If a customer gets slow speeds everywhere then its a profile problem, speed problem with bell. Not a connection problem. if your getting speed problems to isolated areas then it can be certain paths to that point are congested.
In the end of the day Bell Canada owns/controlers all the circuits. We can only do so much to giving you optimal speeds and connectivity.
First off I would put some sort of small UPS system to prevent power spikes to your modem as this could cause damage to it and might fix constant connection resets.
I was having connections resets myself until Bell connected me to a new bell line outside our home and those connection problems are long gone.
Third Party ISPs merely provide Bandwidth and Authentication, anything beyond that is controlled by Bell. | |
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Review by kayonits
Posted: 58 days ago
member for 58 days, 0 visits, last login: 58 days ago
North York,ON
$38 per month
about 5 days
Bell Canada
"Initially (Summer of 2007) the service was very reliable - constant 5Mbps and VERY little downtime"
"VERY poor technical support. Many recent outages and interruptions in service. Unreliable."
"Time to move on... if looking for a new provider - avoid these guys!"
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We initially switched to velcom from Rogers Highspeed Extreme (8Mbps). It was a trade-off, slower overall speed, but initially velcom was providing a reliable 5Mbps service for about $20/mo less. Tech support was a bit of an issue from day 1 (not very helpful). But as there really were not many problems the first few months, it wasn't much of an issue.
In the past 9 months, we've incurred well over a dozen outages, plus additional service interruptions, and maintenace being scheduled during business hours (9am-5pm). They generally send out a notification the same day or a day before.
It's really unfortunate, Velcom had a great reputation as a reliable provider that offered true uncapped service. In the beginning, I would have said that their value for the money was great - however when you factor in the headaches with their tech support, the spotty service, and the (now regular) outages and inconsistent download speeds.... even though the service is still uncapped, and from a price point is very reasonable - at the end of the day, a reasonable price just doesn't make up for the instability, spotty service and lousy tech support. Time to move on.... I would appreciate any suggestions... we've been considering Teksavvy, but have begun to hear that they aren't as reliable or reasonable as they once were either.... :-( I'd hate to end up back with Rogers, or end up with Bell.... surely there must be a RELIABLE provider out there that offers uncapped service....????
Followup comments: velcomrob
Premium
join:2006-11-28
Brampton, ON
| reply I apologize for any problems you may been having. Our only previous outage was our first migration between two Bell's circuits. Beyond that our network has been pretty stable.
I'm not sure what sort of outages you have been experiencing, they could be related to line problems. This most recent migration we are performing is to improve overall performance and capacity. Also there will be serveral other changes ocurring here in the next few months internally.
If you'd like to hear more please hit me up at rob(@)velcom.com,, or if you need any sort of assistance. Hate to see you leave us. | |
| |
Vince M
@bell.ca | Re: reply Wouldn't be a problem with Vince M on ur team! | |
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Review by cs982005
UPDATED: 88 days ago
member for 90 days, 9 visits, last login: 66 days ago
Brampton,ON
$37 per month (month by month)
Bell Canada
"good value, short wait for techsupport line, occasionally helpful staff"
"they have not yet successfully enabled my service"
"remains to be seen - but so far a very painful experience"
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UPDATE: after giving up on Velcom ever calling me back, I decided to get my hands dirty and do some experimentation on my own. I found that the connection works outside at the demarc (modem connects right away). I then went to the basement and examined the wiring work the tech they sent made and found that one of the wires was broken and barely making contact with the wire coming from outside. I re-spliced it and hooked them together and now it connects. I have updated the scores I gave to reflect their failure to ever call me back and the poor job the tech they sent did (I realize that he is Bell's, but I am a customer of Velcom and thus from my perspective it is their responsibility to provide proper service as they are the ones receiving my money every month).
I write this review while being extremely disappointed and hoping that someone from Velcom might read it and decide to do something about it. I have been a customer of Rogers for several years (in a rental apartment first, and for 18 months now in my house).
I never had issues with Rogers except perhaps a single outage every 6 months or so when they are performing maintenance and only for a couple of hours each. However, once they began using traffic shaping, port blocking, and bandwidth capping I decided that it is time to be freed from their clutches.
Based on the reports I saw here, I was final on either Velcom or Teksavvy. However I chose Velcom due to their good dry loop service offering. I called them about a 3 or 4 weeks ago and made the order. They said they'll have a tech come over and wire me up (as I did not have a land line whatsoever initially). I emphasize this because it was VELCOM who wired my house, not me.
The tech showed up no earlier than one day before the actual activation day, he made a phone jack for me to use with my modem and proceeded to wire it down to the basement (and out to the demarcation). He made no attempt to even unpack the modem they sent me and thus never showed me that I have service. He packed up and left.
This was the beginning of my pain:
1. First, the modem would not connect. So I called and they claimed that Bell has not activated the line yet.
2. Next day they said that line was activated already 2 days ago (i.e. prior to when they claimed that it was NOT YET activated - proof that whomever I spoke to that day was simply providing bogus info)
3. Then they claimed that the line IS active BUT admitted that they can see massive sync issues and will send a tech the next day to investigate.
4. Tech never showed up or called at all (there were people at home at all times)
5. Upon ME calling, they checked with Bell and Bell claimed that they were not informed of any need to send a tech beforehand!!!!
6. Then they gave me another appointment that was never met!
7. They then sent a tech yet another day later, who showed up, never even came into the house (and downright refused to do so), simply said that there is only a max of 3Mb sync at the demarc, and then claimed that he is HE IS NOT EVEN A TECH AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. That was yesterday July 9th.
8. I thus called Velcom to complain about that, and after trying to pass the buck, they promised to call me back and NEVER DID.
9. I then called them for the last time prior to writing this review, explained the whole situation, was informed that they are not responsible for the wiring in my house (even though THEY installed it) and that I should call Bell to complain (which I find ridiculous, given that I am a VELCOM customer, not Bell, and should only be contacting Velcom for support). I asked to speak to a supervisor, a request they downright REFUSED to fulfill until I made it clear that this is the only way to proceed, they then handed me to someone who simply reiterated what the agent said and provided no further insight. At which point I ran out of patience, gave him the option of either getting things right, or provide me with a full refund and cancel the service, and asked to call me back with their decision.
In light of all this, it is difficult for me to recommend Velcom's service to anyone, knowing that at the first sign of trouble they will attempt to pass the buck. I work in tech support myself and I know that when there is an issue with a service I provide (even if I am simply selling it, and in reality getting it from a 3rd party) then supporting it is MY responsibility - as the client has no direct contact with the 3rd party.
I hope that someone from Velcom (possibly the gentleman everyone has been praising so far, Matthew) will read this and attempt to get things right. I am surrounded by a very large group of techies at my workplace who would love to move to a tech-friendly service that doesn't block ports or throttle traffic and I assure you, they will all hear about the outcome of this experience. So far, Teksavvy appears to be the superior option.
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Review by deusex
Posted: 98 days ago
member for 98 days, 5 visits, last login: 90 days ago
Scarborough,ON
$33 per month
Bell Canada
"Mostly good service"
"Some terrible tech support people"
"Early experience was A++ but noticable decline in support"
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Been with Velcom for over 2 years coming from Sympatico. Matt (I assume is the same Matt that's been responding here) was the guy who set me up and completely took care of me. He responded personally to any issues and I raved about their support and their service for the first year and a half.
But, over the past year I've noticed a change. Getting hold of Matt became difficult and emails and phone calls weren't returned. Service has been mostly excellent, but over the past 6 months there have been connectivity issues and slowdowns. Getting hold of support is easy and there's rarely any waits, but some of the support people seem to be reading off a list and if the problem falls outside the list you may as well be talking to a brick wall.
One memorable example is when I was working on a Mac at my partners office (also with Velcom) and we were having some difficulties. The tech support girl asked me to access the command prompt by clicking the start button. I explained I was on a MAC and there wasn't a start button - this seemed to throw her into a panic. She regained control and told me "let's start again" and told me to go to the bottom left of my screen and click the start button. I told her again - I'm on a MAC there's no start button. I was told another two times to click my start button until finally I was told I'd be called back. At one point during this issue I explained that we're running a business and if we can't get the issue resolved we'd have to find another ISP and the support girl actually told me that that would probably be best. I'm not sure If I'd want someone like that on my Staff! Matt eventually did get involved in the issue and it got resolved (thanks Matt!)
Around a month or so ago (during all the Bell throttling issues were coming to light) we were having slowdowns every other week at my home Velcom setup, something I wasn't used to with my service with them. The support people however, dealt with the issues very fast, mostly resolving it by changing my IP address on their end.
Yesterday, however, I had more support people issues. Over the past week I've been experiencing sporadic web browsing stickiness (email was fine). I was waiting for things to work themselves out, but yesterday there was an hour long period that was unbearable. I called support and was told to go to speedtest.net. I did, and reported that the test wouldn't finalize, as the connectivity was so bad. She told me that they'd have to check with Bell to see if there was something wrong with the lines and they would get back to me within 48 hours. That in itself seems odd for the symptoms i told her about and I thought 48 hours was also unacceptable, but hung up and waited for the reply. Someone called me today (12 hours later) and told me the lines were fine (duh!) and that it was probably a problem with my modem. I stopped him right there and told him connectivity was back to normal at the moment and also that I was moving in 12 days and shutting off the service, so replacing a perfectly functional modem wasn't an option. I also told the support guy that when I take possession of my new house in August I would be basing my decision on what Internet service I'd be installing in the new house on my experience over the next 12 days. I figured that would prompt him to at least look into the issue a bit more closely, but instead said ok, and hung up the phone.
With all that said, Velcom has been pretty amazing. The first year and half there were no issues and everything was lightening fast. Matt at one point even reduced my rate and sped up my bandwidth at the same time without any prompting.
I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt and just hope that I've just been unlucky with the support staff that I've been getting.
I have a few months in a furnished rental house that comes with Uniserve and will most likely get Velcom in my new house. And would also like to add, that I called Unserve's tech support to find out if the service I was moving to had static IP addresses, and I had to wait almost 15 mintues to get through to them. I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes for Velcom, but most times it at most 2 minutes - but for those longer waits, Matt, please change that one looping song that plays, it drives me nuts! 
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Review by gigi6ro0
Posted: 103 days ago
member for 3.9 years, 2 visits, last login: 103 days ago
North York,ON
Contract price not specified.
about 4 days
"reliable speed and service"
"so far so good"
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I’ve been with Rogers and Bell for 4 years and I had a lot of bad experiences with them.
I’ve switched to Velcom 2 days ago (then my agreement with bell expired) and I’m very happy that I did it. The service was up and running in 4 day, time required by bell to set up my dry-loop and less them 5 min over the phone with Velcom to get my user and password and set up my router. I’ve start testing them, 20GB downloaded in the first day and 10GB in the second, the speed is very good, 350-450KB/s, most of the time over 400KB/s.
There is a small issue about the modem: then I’ve subscribed and paid it they didn’t tell me that it is a used one and I didn’t asked, because I’ve expected a new one with full warranty. I’ve called them and they agreed to reimburse me once my new modem will arrive.
I’ll be back at the end of the first month with an update.
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Review by cheungr168
UPDATED: 111 days ago
member for 111 days, 2 visits, last login: 109 days ago
Scarborough,ON
$34 per month
"Well, they are OK when you have no problem!"
"Always problem with installation !"
"Choose other ISP!"
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I am Velcom users for about a yr. It tooks me almost a month to setup my internet with them a yr ago. I didn't feel that bad at that time because I still have my Rogers account running before Velcom was running fine.
About half a month ago, I would like to change my DSL line to Dry DSL because I would like to use VOIP instead of regular phone line. I wrote to tech support and asked them if I would like to change from dsl to dry dsl. Would I have the internet service down. The tech support wrote me back and told me as long as my phone line is active, it won't affect my internet service. I can disconnect my phone line after the dry loop run smoothly. So I told them to change from dsl to dry dsl.
Velcom charged me in a light speed! They charged me at the end of May. My DSL service disconnected on June 2. Right now is June 18. My internet service is still down! Velcom kept telling me it is Bell 's problem and they cannot do anything!
Velcom told me Bell visited my apartment 3 times! Someone did show up on the first time. He told me as long as the switch turned on at Bell main site, my internet would be working. Of course not. So I arranged with Velcom to let Bell visited me the 2nd time. I told them I would be available after 5:30pm. So Velcom tech support told me Bell guy would come to visit me to check the problem after 5:30pm. That bell guy actually came b4 5:00pm and of course no one at home. The Bell guy left a paper and told me that everything was running fine. Of course, it was not! The Bell guys suppose to come yesterday! Even worst, no show no call! Call the Velcom tech support and ask them what was going on! They told me they will check with Bell and get back to me. Well, the "Velcom tech support" did n't call me back!
Well, I know it is Bell's problem but Velcom is also a mess too! The time is totally mess up! The tech support told me wrong info! The tech support would not help to push the bell. Every visit of Bell need to wait for a week even it is bell 's fault.
I appreciate the way they talk! They are very good to explain things. But when there are problems, they only say they will fix it! Problem still not fix!!
Ricky
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 Review by Quake110
UPDATED: 116 days ago
member for 4.8 years, 2032 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Ottawa, ON
$31 per month
Bell Canada
"Extremely good customer service, not bittorrent throttling, they ALLOW servers ;)"
"hmm... can't think of any..."
"One of the best DSL ISPs"
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Update: 06-13-2008: Still happy with them after almost a year, no problems. They reply quickly to my inquiries.
When I first called them, they answered all my questions regarding the ISP, plus they even informed me of a special deal of $26.99 that I didn't know about.
At first, when my DSL line was activated, the 2wire modem that I brought from canadacomputers.com didn't work. So Velcom offered to send a technician to test the line. And lo and behold, the Bell technician was actually on time and confirmed that it was the modems problems.
So I've brought the speedtouch 516 V6 from Velcom.
But for some reason, I didn't receive the modem even tho Canada Post said the item has been shipped.
After I talked with Matthew, he concluded that since the it will take 5 days to know what happened, he'll send another one (that's what I call service!)
At first, my profile was 3008/800, after talking with Matthew about my profile, they tweaked it to a 4032/800 interleaved, the pings might not be good but I'll try to rewire my demarc before demanding the Fast path profile.
All in all, the customer service has been brilliant. They answer e-mails in a few hours (sometimes in minutes) and VelcomMatt is always in dslreports.com, ready to help with any difficulties you might have.
So right now, I'm a convert and I recommend anyone to sign up with Velcom.
Followup comments: VelcomMatt
Premium
join:2006-01-26
Brampton, ON
| Thank you for your feedback and review. Hello Quake110,
I would like to thank you for taking the time to write a review about our company. For the modem shipping it's unfortunate that sometimes Canada Post can misplace the parcel.
However we didn't feel that it was fair for you to wait an additional 5 business days which is why we shipped you out another modem while we worked out the dispute with Canada Post.
Kind Regards,
Matthew | |
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Review by jerrycan
UPDATED: 174 days ago
member for 187 days, 62 visits, last login: 50 days ago
Kitchener,ON
$29 per month
about 3 days
"Tech support, seamless tranisiton from Bhell, speed"
"none really."
"No reason to ever look for another ISP again."
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I started residential surfing via dial-up back in 1995. I run the gamut of ISPs and connection types (dialup, cable, DSL, Bell, Rogers, third party dialup and DSL as well). Something that was consistent about all the ISPs I've dealt with in the past was disappointment. Be is shoddy tech support, bad line conditions, slower speeds, higher prices, there was always something I didn't like...
Looking at »www.canadianisp.com/, I found Velcom. I went to their site and their offers looked great. Good introductory offer, reasonable monthly rate, high speed, and unlimited. Great! I called the sales staff and they were very knowledgeable. Detailed to me more of their services and guided me to switch over with minimal downtime from my previous ISP. The day came and everything went as expected.
Soon I was utilizing my high speed and I had some connections issue. Their tech support was patient and helpful and eventually guided me to find out my own router was the problem. I swapped it out and now it has been great.
So what do I get? Great price. High speed. Unlimited bandwidth. Excellent tech support. Nothing but love for this company...
Followup comments: VelcomMatt
Premium
join:2006-01-26
Brampton, ON | Thank you for the review and comments Hello Jerry,
We would like to thank you for your detailed and informative review. Your comments are truly appreciated.
Thanks and Regards,
Matthew L. | |
| cutuzov
join:2007-11-21
Mississauga, ON | I like Velcome but......... A little to sweet for my taste  | |
| | jerrycan
join:2008-04-03
Kitchener, ON | Re: I like Velcome but......... That was punny. | |
| | VelcomMatt
Premium
join:2006-01-26
Brampton, ON | I don't think there's such a thing as to sweet of a review  | |
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Review by chrish
UPDATED: 193 days ago
member for 1.6 years, 38 visits, last login: 54 days ago
Ottawa,ON
$33 per month
Bell Canada
"Great customer support, waited less then 5 minutes on hold, but quickly responded to my questions on DSLR forums"
"Had to call support for pppoe login"
"So much better then dealing with Rogers torrent throtteling"
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Had Rogers express before switching, paid over $50 a month for satisfactory 4500/300 speeds, and was a happy Rogers customer until they implemented torrent throttling. Found Velcom listed as an isp on the canadianisp.com website, and their prices were in line with the other well spoken of choices at 29.95/month. Was offered a Speedtouch modem for $100 but took a Velcom provided Speedstream 5360 instead for $30 shipped. Got modem the day of installation. Received no documentation on username and password by e-mail or in the modem box, but was provided this upon calling tech support. Got sync and was online within 10 minutes of walking in the door from work. Speeds are consistently running around 4200kbps down and 640kbps up, and there are no bandwidth caps. I've had the service going on two weeks and would recommend this service to my friends and family. I kindly offer up the first review of this somewhat unknown provider. Here’s hoping this ISP stays around for a while.
Update: Even with bell throttling coming into play, I have had velcom for over a year and I would still recommend velcom over bell sympatico any day. Same goes for rogers, wouldn't go back if it was free
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