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Review by Drake76 
member for 81 days, 16 visits, last login: 14 days ago
lodged 52 days ago
 Waterloo,ON
 $45 per month about 10 days "Equipment shipped promptly. Tech showed up, everything worked A-ok!" "Calling and speaking to support staff with heavy French accents (like Africa French)" "You get what you pay for"
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Decided to go with Yak as I had painted myself into a corner. Cable was not an option and the other DSL companies were not offering the same speeds.
I called on a weekend and set up an account. For some reason, I required a credit check. I was promptly called first thing in the morning that following Monday. I was told someone would be calling me shortly to set up an install time.
A few days went by and I heard nothing, so I called Yak. I was told someone would call me any minute now. At least that is what I thought I was told. The fellow I spoke to had a very heavy accent and was difficult to understand.
Another day went by and I called again. I was told this time that it takes between 6-8 business days for someone to call to set up an install date. This person also had a very heavy accent. He was suggesting the first two people were wrong. I tend to believe they were all wrong and none of them understand Yak's system for installing hardware.
Another day went by and my modem showed up in the mail. I had no warning this was coming, and it was never discussed. Within a day I received a call and had the install date confirmed. The following week the technician would show up some time between 8am and 5pm. I let the lady know that was crazy and she could narrow the time down to a window of a few hours. I was told they could do between noon and 4. I said ok.
At 3pm, the tech showed up. He appears to know his stuff. He gave me a free telephone jack filter as none were shipped with my modem. He tested my line and found that I had 9.1mb down and 1.1mb up. He finished hooking me up and I was in business.
I have tried speedtest.net and found they are reporting my speed to be 5.2mb down and 0.81 mb up. Not sure why there is a discrepancy.
For the time since it was installed it has been a solid connection with no issues. So far so good.
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Review by crt
member for 308 days, 25 visits, last login: 121 days ago
updated 141 days ago
- Kitchener,ON
- $65 per month
- about 7 days
- "Unlimited bandwidth, fair pricing bundle with home phone"
- "Terrible speeds and customer service"
- "Do not sign up with Yak"
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Package: 10/1 on Fibernetics and home phone
I was able to get a special bundle offer from Yak, includes home phone and internet. The unlimited bandwidth is what attracted me the most, though. Unfortunately, the speeds are just terrible - below is the BEST speeds I've ever managed on a TP-LINK 8616 modem.
»www.speedtest.net/result/1184671118.png
When I called in to get some answers, their tech support was completely worthless. Switching to TekSavvy cable ASAP.
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 | | Worst internet ever Yak is the worst internet service I have ever seen. The speed is terrible and their customer support in too rude. They are just stealing people by telling them you will get unlimited download capacity at acceptable speed but with the speed they offer you won't be able to do anything online and they keep saying your home is too far from the tower which they didn't see when I registered with them or in the first few months. | |
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 Review by dsoegiarto
member for 1.8 years, 172 visits, last login: 12 days ago
updated 228 days ago
- Vanier,ON
- $59 per month
- about 12 days
- "unlimited internet. good bundle price. reliable connection. very good speed."
- "bad install coordination."
- "aside from the worst install coordination ive ever seen, if you're happy with the speed, then it's great."
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Coming from Rogers, and having experiences with Bell and Cogeco, the unlimited, no usage-billing high-speed internet is a lifesaver - if you can call it high at all.
If you have no issue with your current provider regarding the monthly limit or usage, then I recommend not going through the painful transition.
To be correct in terms of the installation scoring, the order and install co-ordination is actually pretty good. It's the execution that was bad.
After promising they would notify me when a technician is ready, they didn't.
After confirming that a technician will come over to look into some problems, nobody came.
After sending me the modem package, they completely forgot any DSL filter.
Even between installation team, sales, and tech support, there seems to be zero communication.
Bottom line, the installation was almost a nightmare.
***SEE UPDATE BELOW*** To top things off, the speed they were advertising was 10Mb. During the pre-sales discussion they mentioned due to my location, I'm only accessible to 5Mb. Once the net start flowing, I'm getting 2.7Mb max. Line quality was at 3Mb down. I'm not a happy camper.
Now, all said and done, the support and quality (well i had to buy my own filter for $3 instead of having them to send me one with $10 shipping fee) of both the internet and phone was really good. The net doesn't drop the past few nights and the calls are crystal clear. Line quality was solid with low latency. I can check my billing online and they charge me exactly what they would - which is a far cry from Rogers.
All in all, if you're looking for an unlimited connection with a good price and a phone, you should check Yak out.
If you don't care about monthly billing and very particular with how fast you can download, then look elsewhere - especially if you're expecting a decent install process.
Ah, and the modem they sent me was a SpeedTouch 516 v6. Pretty nifty little thing.
******** UPDATE JUNE 2011 ******
After a troublesome install, they bumped my speed to the 7mb profile, then dropped it to 6mb a week after. I have been enjoying a full, stable, speedy 6Mb download the last 7-8 months.
I've updated this review to reflect higher rating, fairly good service, but definitely worth-the-penny product. Plus, no contract is nice.
I would recommend Yak to anyone looking for a stable unlimited good price DSL in KW area.
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Review by codfish
member for 264 days, 10 visits, last login: 66 days ago
lodged 264 days ago
- Toronto,ON
- $61 per month
- about 15 days
- "High speed, stable speeds, price, no UBB"
- "Modem needs to be configured with customer support, not packaged with line filters as ordered"
- "Very good, FAST, stable, service on Fibernetics network."
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I switched from Rogers to YAK's "YakPak" for $61 with unlimited internet at 10 Mbps down and phone service with 800 long distance minutes and a host of features in the internet/phone bundle. Rogers was internet was good, but kicked me off its home phone to Primus (all-time low for bungled billing and frustration btw) due to my unwillingness to have a self-powered phone modem installed (the power grid in the old part of Toronto has failed twice for days in recent memory). Kind of p'd me off. YAK is offering Fibernetics network in my neighborhood so I thought I'd try it. The price service could not be better. The promised speed (minus some overhead) is excellent, but is better because Rogers seems to shape its bandwidth. After about 2.5 months I haven't noticed any downtime, or service issues. My only complaints have to do with not receiving the line filters I ordered with the service, which meant spending $5 each on The College/Spadina strip instead of the filters for $1.50 offered by YAK. I received the basic Thomson 1 port modem with the package which arrived as planned. I see all sorts of bad legacy reviews for YAK, but I have been nothing but pleased with the service top date. The price is right--and YAK gives you a free month to try everything out. Customer service is friendly and seems to follow up. By the sounds of it has responded to complaints from the past. If you have the chance to switch to YAK's Fibernetics network, consider my good experience.
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 Review by BryceS
member for 4.4 years, 1973 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 312 days ago
- Waterloo,ON
- $53 per month
- "The service is very fast during summer and Sept-Apri is 1-4mbps"
- "Yak took about 3 1/2 weeks to get it installed properly."
- "If it works then you are getting great value for the money."
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I ordered Yak Communication's 10mbps service that is available in Waterloo, ON due to Yak using a local CLEC (Fibernetics) DSLAMs instead of the ILEC (Bell Canada) DSLAMs to provide ADSL2+ service.
The major problem with getting the service installed was getting Yak to place my DSL line on Fibernetics equipment instead of Bell Canada. This took 3 1/2 weeks to complete and had no DSL service for over a week.
Once the service was up and running at the start of the 2nd week of May everything ran smoothly. I was surprised that my 10mbps service is actually 18mbps due to my close proximity to the central office.
The monthly price of $53.00 including HST provides great value for the money.
The price breakdown is $36.95 + $9.95 (Dry Loop) + $6.10 (13% Tax)
There are occasional PPPOE dropouts, which cause me to be without internet for a few minutes every couple of weeks, but besides that the service has been stellar.
No contract, no throttling, no download cap.
This service is severely oversold and when school is in it is very congested and the service sucks.
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Review by drewread
member for 312 days, 4 visits, last login: 310 days ago
lodged 312 days ago
- Kitchener,ON
- $60 per month
- about 50 days
- "Price"
- "Product, Speed, Execution"
- "If you are happy where you are - take their retention offer."
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Ordered the YAK PAK for KW area ("10mb" fibernetics and home phone).
Before signup:
-Was told that if I kept my Sympatico subscription there would be no downtime.
-Was told that I "should be able to expect speeds very close to 10Mbps, as you are extremely close to our central office"
After signup:
-After finally getting the phone line switched over after 10 days, I was still on the Sympatico internet. After a call to support they told me they needed me to cancel Sympatico before they could hook up the Fibernetics - 30+ days later Bell finally got around to disconnecting me (there was some tom-foolery on bells part there I'm sure,. but YAK was certinaly no hope during this time...) 3 days later I am hooked up to fibernetics.
-noticed max speeds of 3.6MB/s using speedtest.net to Toronto. Called YAK and the NEW story is that in my area only 3MB connection is possible. This is atricious, and I will be going to the BBB with this issue. The YAK story is that they only offer "up to" 10MB connection, so if you have any connection at all then they are covered.
Pre-sales stories are completely different than the stories you will get once you are signed up - BEWARE!
Some think that they are highly oversold, I think that they are a bunch of scammers.
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Review by nbinont
member for 335 days, 175 visits, last login: 1 days ago
lodged 315 days ago
- Waterloo,ON
- $35 per month
- "tech support is eager to help"
- "advertises good services, but can't deliver"
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Signed up with Yak's 10Mbit DSL plan in Waterloo in Feb 2010. (10Mbit is through Fibernetics.)
They sent me the ADSL2+ modem promptly, and had someone come connect the dry loop the day after I got the modem. Setup co-ordination and pre-sales info was really good. I have not seen setup this smooth in a long time - excellent work Yak!
Based on my location and line SNR, I should be able to get a ~18Mbit connection. I only ordered a 10Mbit connection, so there should have been no problems. In fact the DSL Sync rate came through at 10Mbit, no CRC errors, and no line drops.
Unfortunately this is where the compliments end. My download rate rarely exceeded 3Mbit, often degrading to 1.5Mbit during peak times.
I know it's not my line, because I previously got a stable 5Mbit connection from another provider. I also know it's not the modem, because I swapped out their modem for the one from the other provider, and it had the same problematic behaviour (good sync rates, bad data throughput). To illustrate even more clearly that It wasn't the line - once, and only once, at 4am on a Sunday morning, I did receive the expected 10Mbit, but by mid-day, the connection was as bad as ever.
Spent entirely too long on the phone trying to troubleshoot the problem with Yak's tech support. They were very helpful and tried just about everything to fix the problem. They were confused that my sync rates were good, but data throughput was poor. This is a classic indication that the problem is with their backhaul link, but they didn't make this connection, and were unable to check whether this was the problem when I prompted them. (Though they did indicate there was an upgrade scheduled at some time).
After about 3 weeks of troubleshooting without success, I finally gave up and cancelled. Unfortunately they just can't provide the service they advertise.
Cancellation was a nightmare, and I had to phone multiple times over 3 weeks before they would cancel the service, and they still wanted me to pay ~$135 for the experience. Eventually sorted the problem out with a strongly worded letter to their complaints department - I paid the majority of the bill, but got to keep the modem.
It's sad that they can't provide the service they advertise. Would have been a good if they could.
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| | Customer service don't seem to know their own offering I emailed them to know if they offered their phone service in my area. They replied "Yes". When I ordered the service they finally replied they did not have service in my area. | |
| | gogu
join:2009-10-06
Kitchener, ON Reviews:
 ·Yak Communications
| Re: Customer service don't seem to know their own offering i was told i would be eligible for a promotion before signing up, during sign up, until the bill came in.. it was double. their reply was sorry.
they promoted 800min North American minutes free, the minutes ended up on the bill.
Had the same problem with speed, as mentioned above... .5MB-2MB max..
billing was a nightmare, received 2 bills, both with multiple errors on them.. still trying to clen it up after 2 months...
Both phone and internet has been cancelled....
Good effort, poor service. billing is a total nightmare..
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Review by gogu
member for 2.3 years, 14 visits, last login: 214 days ago
updated 342 days ago
- Kitchener,ON
- $75 per month
 Whidbey Telephone- "speed maybe???, unlimited maybe?"
- "Bell/Rogers make these guys look like top tier"
- "save your money and your time"
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Fisher/University area in Waterloo
Signed my mother up with these guys Jan 15th. promotional price 59.99 for phone and internet... not so much..
Service didn't come in until Feb 7 for phone. 2 days of not being able to use their phone, took a few calls in to YAK for them to actually fix the issue. I've ported my phone out a few times, never a problem. these guys, not so much..
Feb 20th internet gets connected, they said 5M, actual speed 2M. Made a few phone calls, they kept saying, you have old lines, we can't do anything, we said "UP TO 5M"...... Called their tech support and the tech said you're on a 3M profile. I asked them to switch me to the 5M profile, or i'll cancel,they switched it over in 2 days, awesome! "update" give it a few more days its down to .5mb, yes that is a whole 50kB/s download" what a joke
The bill comes in, bill period, jan15 to feb15 $55 (internet and phone, nice!) not so much.. phone only!. After calling them 4 times over a period of 2 week period, they keep telling me someone will look into it and call me back. (don't expect a call back, unless you're trying to sign up)
Tonight i called them back again for the 5th time in regards to the bill/billing period, and they said "we're sorry, you're out of the bubble" you are not eligible for the promotion". I tell them, but you guys told me i was eligible on multiple occasions. (before signing up) Their reply, sorry, you're bill will be $65.99 before fees/taxes.
Asked for a manager and he said we never had such promotion. I asked them to cancel the account.
*Holy F***! consistency?!?!
These guys make Bell look like the top tier of phone/isp providers.
thinking of moving over to them? ask them to send you an email with the exact billing details.
If you value your time STAY AWAY... »www.speedtest.net/result/1187700191.png
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gogu
join:2009-10-06
Kitchener, ON Reviews:
·Yak Communications
| changed login information to login with teksavvy the .5Mb connection from yak, same modem, same router, same computer 5 minutes later after changing login information.
Same 5Mb plan, teksavvy comes in at 5.7Mb while yak at .5mb?
Great ISP, leaves a bit to be desired..
»www.speedtest.net/result/1187709873.png | |
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 Review by green_gh0st
member for 2 years, 114 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 1.5 years ago
- Kitchener,ON
- $56 per month
- about 9 days
- "speeds are as promised, no throttling, unlimited usage"
- "set up was horrendous, employees aren't always sharp"
- "very worth it if you're in the area that gets 10 mbps speeds"
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I was a previous customer of TekSavvy. I was getting really sick of Bell's throttling and other Bell related problems. Nothing against TekSavvy (their customer service is great), but I needed more. I looked around and found Yak. Same price, faster speeds.
I was getting 5 mbps with TekSavvy. This would have been okay if Bell didn't throttle between 4pm and 4am, which is prime downloading time. I needed to be rid of Bell's hold on my internet usage. I found that Yak offered 10 mbps service. It depended where people lived, so I called, and I qualified for the 10 mbps service. A lot of people in Kitchener are just too far away to get it, but I was one of the lucky ones. I got things in motion asap. I was subscribing to a DSL dry loop. It was $46 a month for the DSL, and $10 more for the dry loop. I was paying about the same with TekSavvy. I also get a free modem rental with Yak, I had to provide my own with TekSavvy. I got a SpeedTouch 516 v6.
The worst part about Yak is the install. I called to have it set up for July 5th. July 6th rolled around and, 5 calls later, still no internet, only with the explanation that the "order was in progress". I called again asking if they're sure that the modem came preconfigured (which they told me it did). They said yes. After the 5pm deadline hit, I called again and got who seemed to be their one employee that knew what he was talking about. He got me to enter my information into the modem manually and, sure enough, it worked. This was okay for a few days, but I noticed it was really slow. I was just about to call Yak to ask about this. I had my phone in my hand, and it rang. It was Yak calling to schedule a technician visit. I had nothing explained to me as to what specifically the technician was doing. At first the guy said it was to install a phone, but then he said he was looking at the wrong order. I asked him why the technician was coming out, and he didn't have any explanation. I said okay and just went with it, figuring that if I needed to register a complaint after that I could at least say that the technician already came out. They needed two appointments for some reason. I was at work so someone else had to handle all of this. Bell called (yes Bell) while I was at work saying that they didn't have my apartment number. They left a voicemail shortly after saying they knew which apartment it was. The person who had to handle the technician visit when I was out was confused because no one buzzed her to come in. Yak/Bell had neglected to tell me that the first appointment didn't actually involve coming into the apartment, and just needed access to outside. I tried the internet not thinking he really did anything, when I ran a speed test and noticed that the ISP on speedtest.net had changed from "Yak Communications" to a number. People on the Canadian Broadband forum said that this was an indication that you were on the Fibernetics network (the 10 mbps service comes from Fibernetics equipment, as opposed to Bell's, except for the last little bit). The internet was literally ten times faster than it was before the technician came. It only took a week but I finally got my faster internet. The second technician visit the next day was just to check the line and make sure I am getting the speeds I am paying for. He was satisfied and so was I.
I have been confused as to why my speed tests were only showing 2 mbps download speeds. This was going on for most of the week. Now all of a sudden it's showing the real speeds, and the internet has stopped hiccuping like it was throughout the week.
Basically, if you're someone who knows your networking, and are semi computer literate, I would definitely recommend Yak, because you likely are more knowledgeable than most of their employees. It's a headache and a half, but it works out in the end. Whatever you do do not believe them when they say when you're internet will be activated. I had to go almost two days without. Don't cancel your existing internet until they can tell you it's connected. I might not recommend Yak to those who are a bit computer challenged since you have to know the basics about networking to be able to get everything set up, and to troubleshoot if there's any problems. But please, before you sign up, call them and make sure you're eligible for the Fibernetics 10 mbps service. Because depending on your area you might only be eligible for the resold Bell 5 mbps (I'd recommend TekSavvy before that).
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 Review by XNemesis
member for 9.2 years, 2563 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1.9 years ago
- Kitchener,ON
- Contract price not specified.
- about -15 days
- "Unlimited, NO UBB, 10mb (in my area), NO THROTTLING"
- "I'm only getting half of the speed I signed up for"
- "This is an"
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Getting around 17mb/s download and 1mb/s upload consistently. Also, no capping, throttling or UBB. Bundled with phone (5 features, 400ld minutes) all for $59/mth.
Very satisfied so far.
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Question about pricing
