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Review by nsts  - Location: undisclosed location
- Cost: $33 per month
Good "Super cheap (HALF the cost of my Rogers phone, and I have more features w/ Wind!), great reliability, friendly staff"
Bad "A few dead zones, sometimes slow internet"
Overall "Thank you for saving me from Rogers, Wind"
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I've been wanting to move from Rogers to Wind for several years now. When the end of my Rogers contract finally came, I researched Wind (and other 'cheap/low-budget providers -- I was shocked to learn Fido = Rogers, Koodo = Telus and Virgin = Bell) -- Wind and Mobilicity are the only low-cost providers that (currently) aren't a part of "the big 3" it seems!
I was aware a big complaint people have with Wind, is their roaming. So I immediately messaged Wind's official facebook profile (supplied my phone # and pin) and requested a cancellation on roaming/away capabilities so I do not get hit with roaming. When I hit a dead zone, my phone simply goes into SOS mode until I reach the nearest Wind zone again. I highlight this point as being imperative if you don't want any 'unexpected' charges!
People's 2nd biggest complaint, is the dead zones. I expected a lot more of these than I found. I live in Cambridge, work in Toronto and frequent the Niagara Falls/Buffalo area. The only dead zones I've spotted (so far) are along Milton/Campbellville on the 401 and a short stretch of the highway just leaving Niagara Falls en route to Toronto. (Dead zones = are because I disabled roaming. Rogers/Bell/Telus all enable roaming by default too.. this is where a lot of the 'unexpected' charges come from if you frequently travel the province)
I've read that Wind are expanding their towers, so I hope these dead zones get addressed so they can become even bigger competition for Rogers, Bell and Telus. The 'Network Builder' on their site is pretty handy and addresses these dead zones, by allowing you to report them: »care.windmobile.ca/Support/Netwo···ult.aspx
My only real complaint is retail staff seem a bit flustered at times and can goof up on your requested plan, so make sure you double-check your plan before you leave the store (and not in the car like I did).
Positive: I dealt with Wind over Facebook, email and phone support. Email support takes about 2-3 days for a reply, phone support I've always had them call me back.. even when I wasn't expecting it! (Follow-up calls to Facebook messages I've sent them) -- and each and every time I've dealt with friendly and helpful staff. By far, my favorite method of contacting them is Facebook. To-date, I get replies within the hour (or less) usually. I haven't had to bug them much since my services are currently perfected to my liking, so time waits may have changed depending on the volume of messages they receive.
The internet speed is a bit iffy.. at times, it's ultra quick.. other times, it's like dialup. I'm not sure what causes the difference but I'd like a steady speed at all times.
Wind saved my butt after being screwed over from Rogers.. Wind's generous unlimited data means I can plug my Blackberry into my computer and surf the web uninhibited, without worrying about going over my limit.. when my primary internet connection is down... (migrating from Rogers to a 3rd party ISP like Teksavvy or start.ca is fraught with difficulties as of late): »[Ultra/Lite] Rogers Bullies when cancelling or »Is Rogers Slowly Crushing Indie ISP TekSavvy Through Inaction?
Caveat: Unlimited data means you won't be charged if you go over the 'fairness usage' limit of 5-10gb.. I've read complaints on Wind's facebook where people complain they get throttled, which I don't have a beef with as I use my (phone) connection to picture text, surf the web and use Blackberry messenger.. users that abuse it by downloading movies and albums/other massive files should be throttled in my opinion, as long as that means *I* don't have to have a cap!  ..(I use my home connection to download large files)
Another caveat: Wind isn't in all areas (yet), check to be sure your area(s) of work/home are available before you sign up: »www.windmobile.ca/en/Support/Pag···age.aspx - if you post on Wind's facebook, they're generally very good about replying to inform people whether or not Wind is in their area yet. Some parts of Toronto allegedly have spotty coverage, but in my experience of navigating the city I've not hit any dead zones to-date.
All in all: I recommend Wind to everyone I know. It's refreshing to be treated as a customer rather than a bottom-feeder, like Rogers treats their customers. I hope Wind grows into even bigger competition for the big 3 and drives the mobile and internet prices down even more!
If Wind wasn't an option in Ontario, I'd of likely gone full circle.. I've already had mobile service from Telus -> Bell -> Rogers. So far, none are even close to my satisfaction with Wind.
member for 33 days, 21 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged a few hours ago
Comments:
| Review by sbrook - Location: Ottawa
- Cost: $30 per month
Good "It does just what is advertised"
Bad "Spotty coverage - spotty customer service"
Overall "Does what is required at way lower cost than big 3"
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Was on Rogers but got fed up with poor coverage when contract expired.
Was on Bell but got fed up with "new charges" as they decided to expire what turned out to be "promotions" and coverage locally got worse.
Went to Wind. Half the price for similar coverage. I don't go into Wind Away areas too often, but the roaming costs on Wind are only about 5c per min more than the LD charges I used to pay on Bell when roaming in Bell territory ... so, the difference of $30 could cover a LOT of roaming. My phones can be used in Europe by changing SIM.
Originally had a Nokia phone that decided to hang up on UMTS calls ... but worked fine on GSM calls! Changed to a Blackberry and it's great. It's getting paid off slowly.
Call quality is fine.
member for 11.8 years, 5930 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 58 days ago
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| Review by will smith - Location: Mississauga,ON
- Cost: $37 per month (36 month contract)
- Install: about 999 days
Good "low price"
Bad "horrible reception, terrible customer service, waste of $$$"
Overall "cost me $200 to pay for a phone which wont work anywhere else"
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after signing up with WIND MOBILE on a 3 year term i quickly discovered that their cellular service in burlington ontario is on the boundary of their territory so my phone would not work. after changing sim cards and complaining to their service dept i reached the point of writing in to their president. i was told their service was not guaranteed and there was nothing which could be done. so i am obligated to continue paying monthly for 3 years for a phone and cellular service which wont work. i have never encountered a more inhospitable company as wind mobile. my phone would not connect to the network, text messages would not go through, network not available, would be constantly showing on my phone, signal strength would read SOS. i finally paid the cost to leave the plan only to discover that a WIND MOBILE phone is not compatible with any other network. so after paying to buy out my contract i am now stuck with a non working phone. To anyone considering going to WIND i hope you encounter the same issues as i have.
member for 60 days, 0 visits, last login: 60 days ago
lodged 60 days ago
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 | | There is no contract with Wind You can pay off your Windtab+ at any time you wish, your phone will work on Rogers/Fido/Chatr all Wind devices are QuadBand GSM, and Rogers operates a GSM network, just unlock your phone and buy a Rogers sim and you are good to go | |
| | | | Re: There is no contract with Wind There is a 14 day return policy. You should know within 14 days if your phone has service or not. | |
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 YllzarithTech Support minion
join:2002-05-27
Burlington, ON | I don't understand your issue ... My wife and I live in Burlington, we both have Wind mobile service on two different phones (Nexus 4 and BB Curve), and our service is excellent all over the city. | |
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| Review by technik0 - Location: Guelph,ON
- Cost: $31 per month
Good "Actually offers value for money unlike the Big 3"
Bad "Nothing really. Coverage is a trade off but it's not bad where I live"
Overall "Far more enjoyable than the $67 I was spending on Bell"
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Was about 1 year into a 3 year contract with Bell paying $67 a month for 200 local minutes, free calls to 10 favourite numbers and 6GB data. Service was fine as was coverage but the price was just too high.
Joining WIND on their $30 plan made sense. Bell charged $420 to buy out the last 2 years of contract but by saving over $30 a month it'll take barely a year to recover that.
Finding WIND great so far. Bought a Huawei Ascend W1 Windows Phone 8. Pretty basic device but the battery life is great - 3 full days easily on a charge.
My wife is also on WIND so we "bundled" and get an extra $5 off a month so my half of the deal actually costs just $27.50. Hard to beat.
I live in the middle of Guelph so get pretty good coverage at 3G or 4G depending on how it's feeling. Most of my travel is around the GTA/Hamilton so I'm rarely without service. Even if I do go into the "Roaming" zone I'm not a massive caller so it might cost a dollar or two for those calls I make. Definitely not making a dent in the big savings I make over Bell. I also get useful features like Caller Display which I didn't get on Bell despite paying a small fortune.
Speeds are not as fast as Bell but that was to be expected. They aren't terrible though. Tend to average out between 3-7Mbit/s download and about 0.5Mbit upload. Perfectly fine for most people.
"Unlimited" data is actually closer to 5GB and then it slows down but I don't think I've ever used that much either on WIND or Bell before that. Probably 2GB tops so it's fine.
Really for the price it's hard to have any complaints. Guys in the kiosk at the local mall are fairly knowledgeable and friendly and service has been reliable in the month since I switched. If you live in a well covered area and don't spend a lot of time travelling in more rural areas there is little reason to stay with the likes of Bell, Rogers or Telus. They are just too expensive in my view. Pretty much 100% across the board. Rated a little lower for "Connection" because coverage isn't as good and I've had one or two dropped calls but it's really rather minor.
member for 5.7 years, 23 visits, last login: 6 days ago
updated 60 days ago
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| Review by graniterock - Location: London,ON
- Cost: $45 per month
Good "I got my cake and I can eat it too"
Bad "Urban coverage only. Expansion has slowed down this year as compared to last."
Overall "A good alternative Cell phone company."
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Aug 2, 2013
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Penny charge issues are resolved. I can now turn off roaming data from within my online account so it is now blocked server side and not phone side. The speeds are still pretty good here in London but have slowed a bit with the gaining popularity in London. There have been significantly less network expansions this year. Likely due to Wind trying to figure out what their long term plan is. I am looking forward to strengthened coverage in London (ie sometimes I lose signal in malls and grocery stores) and hopefully they will expand to the smaller towns and the roads to them that surround London.
January 18, 2013
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My review is the same as bellow. However I would like to add I occasionally get penny charges for roaming data (even on days I don't leave the city). Unclear if it is a bug with my phone or not but when roaming the phone doesn't use the data. The Nexus S even fully updated can run a bit slow so I wonder if it sometimes is slow to turn off the data if switching to roaming.
June 2, 2012
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Things have been great with my Nexus S on the Christmas Miracle plan. I'm very happy with the company and the service. 3G speeds both up and down have tested as high as 5 mbps but are usually between 1-3 during peak times. I am looking forward to them expanding the coverage area. No surprise fees except they do charge 10 cents to send / reply to short codes, to get them is free. If they fix that they will be 5/5 stars for value.
member for 10.5 years, 1309 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 64 days ago
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| Review by Doctor - Location: Toronto,ON
- Cost Contract price not specified.
Good "Paper bills, Decently priced"
Bad "Doesn't honour warrant, Voice quality on par with VOIP providers like TekTalk & Magicjack, Local calls sound like overseas calls"
Overall "Of all the providers available quality of service is the worst, but not the worst in terms of pricing."
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About two years ago I heard there was a promotion going on down at the Wind Mobile location near my home at the Yonge & Bloor location in Toronto, they were giving away Blackberry 9780's every hour and one month of free service.
I went down there and within minutes I was one of the lucky ones who won a free Blackberry 9780 and one month of free service. The sign up process was very simple, but they did want to check my ID which I thought was rather strange. I was up and running within 10 minutes of entering the store.
After going home I started to inspect the quality of the service and I was not impressed at all. Voice quality was on par with the stories I've heard of MagicJack, TekTalk, and other VOIP services. You are unable to talk more than 2 hours without being disconnected.
The voice prompts are also extremely childish. "The person you are calling is like, busy right now. Try back in a while okay?" "The person you are calling is super popular and busy right now." and so on. All in a high school girl kind of voice.
How can anyone in their right mind use this service for business purposes with voice prompts like that? I was embarrassed when I received calls forwarded from my Rogers account to my new Wind service. Some people who called and left messages made snide remarks regarding the voice prompts. I was humiliated and I am not saying that lightly.
I called Wind regarding this matter but I was on hold for more than an hour before a call centre in Egypt picked up. I know he was in Egypt because that's where he said he was when I asked him. He was very unprofessional and asked how much I earned in a month, and what my ethnicity was. I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
The "gentleman" told me that the voice prompts could not be changed, which didn't surprise me because of the already shoddy service I was experiencing from Wind. When inquired about the dropped calls he said "You need to get used to it". I think that says it all.
When I complained about the call quality sounding all garbled and had a 3 second delay the CSR informed me that is the way Huawei has set up the towers and there is nothing he can do about it. At that point I decided I will not be continuing this free month of service and told the CSR I was speaking to this. He didn't seem to care.
I cancelled the service and went to Mobilicity and have been with them since.
There is not much else to say except that a month ago the Wind Blackberry provided to me from Wind stopped working entirely. I went down to the store that gave me that blackberry to inform them I'd like them to replace it or repair it. They told me "Sorry sir, that was a free Blackberry you won from us, those are exempt from warranty." I told him that response to me is exactly why I left Wind 2 years ago and why they never got a penny from me to this day.
Stay away from Wind unless you are getting service for free and even then I'd suggest you think twice.
member for 313 days, 141 visits, last login: 48 days ago
updated 125 days ago
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Reviews:
 ·Start Communicat..
 ·TekSavvy Cable
| LOL Another hilarious review...thanks Doc.
You won a FREE blackberry from them, which you used after cancelling the service practically immediately (within the first month) and probably used the FREE blackberry for 2 years after the fact.
Then 2 years later it broke and you went to WIND to warranty it? LOL, you cannot pay for this kind of comedy...
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www.613websites.com Budget Canadian Web Design and Hosting
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| | | | Re: LOL haha this doctor guy should go see one he's really screwed in the head! | |
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| Review by rainor94 - Location: undisclosed location
- Cost: $35 per month
Good "Unlimited Talk, Text and Data. Price is great. Aggressive expansion."
Bad "Coverage in some areas is not great."
Overall "No complaints for the price"
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I signed up in January 2011 and was porting over from Bell. Had the number ported a few days after I bought the sim and plan and had no issues. A few months ago there were some voice quality issues but thankfully they have no been fixed.
The bottom line for this plan is at unlimited everything and with a low price I have no reason to complain for not having perfect signal everywhere. I am paying around half what I payed Bell and using my phone twice as much.
Update: March 1, 2012
Still good. The network has expanded to Barrie, London, K-W, Niagara since my last review.
Update: Feb 21, 2013
All is still great. Now using a Samsung Galaxy S2X. Network speeds have improved.
member for 4.5 years, 680 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 226 days ago
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a1_AndyPremium
join:2005-12-29
Oshawa, ON | heads up Just a heads up.
Its not 'unlimited' you will get limited to 30KBps if you use your data over 5GB. Also plan on getting nailed with hidden fee's when your term is up. | |
| | Reviews:
·TekSavvy Cable
 ·WIND Mobile
| Re: heads up A few months back before I had Teksavvy I used over 80gb in one month until I got throttled. I'm really not that worried.
Also I don't see what "hidden fee's" and what term you're talking about. My plan is prepaid and under no term or time limit. The Irresistible $35 plan has no end and won't change. If you are talking about changing my plan then yes I know Wind charges $20. Personally when I changed from the $40 Miracle plan to the $35 Irresistible plan (same plan but $5 cheaper) I wasn't charged anything. | |
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| Review by J E F F - Location: Kitchener,ON
- Cost: $5 per month
Good "Inexpensive, fairly reliable"
Bad "--"
Overall "Good value.."
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If you're in the city and need a secondary connection, you're really not going to find a better service. I am paying $5/month for 1GB of service. Metering is extremely accurate, unlike other providers. Speeds could be better...but it overall works good for what I need it for...also, if you're in the city and need this as a primary, you won't get it for $5 unless you plan on little usage...
member for 9.5 years, 3874 visits, last login: 27 days ago
lodged 260 days ago
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| Review by alback - Location: Midhurst,ON
- Cost: $35 per month
- Install: about 1 days
Good "best value, connection"
Bad "customer service empathy"
Overall "excellent once everything is set + know your limitations"
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I live in Springwater township and use Rogers Internet (cable), and Rogers cell phone. I needed internet at an office in Mississauga for email and file transfer (business only). Getting a hard installation was out of the question, wireless connection was my best option.
My first consideration was Rogers, but I was not prepared to sign up for a long term. The rates were expensive, and the usage costs could be high along with several extra charges as read on reviews here at dsl.
I heard about Wind here and checked them out 3 months ago. Unlimited (not really I'm told) but I have never used more than 2GB in a month, no contract term and 10% of my fee goes towards my device purchase until it has covered the purchase cost. You aren't charged the device, the value rests on account and is payable (diminishing balance) should you leave Wind.
The first device was the $29 stick, but it wouldn't work with my older laptop. I returned to the Wind kiosk at Georgian mall, the people there were amazing and spent about an hour trying to get this stick to load into my laptop. Finally, I told them to help others while I sort it out myself, however when I turned my laptop around the stick device caught my heavy laptop bag and cracked the stick. It still functioned however the accident made me realize how easily the stick could be broken.
They recommended the Huawei E583C Pocket Hotspot at $99, which I accepted. I offered to pay for the broken stick, which they declined. A bonus was the HotSpot had no problems connecting to my laptop, and it was not as susceptible to break. There were some issues getting the HotSpot to replace my device on the plan (the 29 credit etc). In about 20 minutes I was on my way.
I did run into some problems entering my Wind account (pin) a couple of days later and found the customer service to borderline on rude. The Wind site could use some improvements, same with the Rogers. However everything has worked flawlessly for 3 months now.
I set my device not to accept Roaming, and turn it on in Mississauga 98% of the time. The other time I turn it on at home to connect to my system as an outside ip address to verify some settings.
Connection speed is fine for my use, much slower than my Rogers cable, but as I am using email and small file transfers. All is adequate.
Billing has been spot on, no extra charges whatsoever. Overall, this device is perfect for my use, and has not failed yet or dropped a signal. I do agree with another review where the battery needs charging each day, but it plugs into your laptop so this is not a problem for me.
Update: Nov 30 2012.
Very pleased with this provider, I have yet to have any issues with connection or billing. I have used this from my vehicle also, just check for Wind Home, very handy. Speed is not super, but I am not downloading anything other than business data.
member for 2.5 years, 59 visits, last login: 211 days ago
updated 309 days ago
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| Review by oldsam - Location: Mississauga,ON
- Cost: $40 per month
Good "Much cheaper than the big 3, unlimited everything, no hidden charges and no hefty cancellation fees."
Bad "Data speeds could be better. Many dead and weak zones, limited coverage (although enough for most users 90% of the time."
Overall "Good provider for most users living in metro areas. Unlimited everything means no overages and very consistent bills."
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I've been with Wind exactly one year today. I got an LG P999 on a windtab+ during last year's $29 promotion. For the longest time, I couldn't make my mind up as to whether Wind service is good or bad. In many areas, including my home, I get no reception indoors whatsoever. Since they operate on the 1700mhz band, building penetration in most areas is very weak. Don't expect coverage in building parkings, mall cores, and sometimes ever your basement. I live in Mississauga, right next to square one, which should have exceptional coverage seeing that its the downtown of Mississauga, but for some reason, my neighborhood gets 2 bars on the best of days, and indoor reception is out of the question. Even busy shopping centres like Dixie Mall and Square one suffer massive dead zones. Why indoor antennas haven't been installed in these locations yet is beyond my understanding. Customer agents' excuse was always "we're a growing company" I fully respect that, but Building smaller, and stronger networks is more important than expanding to new areas while ignoring existing dead spots in their old networks. That's just my opinion.
Another issue is data speeds. Although download is acceptable (usually 1.5+ mbps), upload is very miserable (usually 0.09mbps). It has been getting better in many areas, but there's still a lot more work to be done. I found that their network in downtown Toronto is very good compared to other areas like Mississauga, with strong reception and acceptable data speeds in almost everywhere.
My last concern is their subpar customer service. Agents are mostly based in Egypt, and while their english is very good, they're usually as good as a google search. Forget about actually getting anything resolved on the phone.
All in all, I would recommend it to my friends, although I would warn them of the cons of being with Wind. A company that stimulates competition in a stale market and provides acceptable service with very good value deserves my money over the big 3 any day.
member for 2.3 years, 313 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 333 days ago
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