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Review by boubou 
Posted: a few hours ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
 Saint-Leonard,QC
 $49 per month (36 month contract)
 Bell Canada
 "Slow,bad lines,bad tech support"
 "BAD"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 1841 Kbps about 1.8 Mbps (tested with 6152 kB)
Download Speed is:: 225 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2008/05/16 - 6:48pm
Bottom Line:: 32X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 4.55 sec
Tested from a 6152 kB file and took 27.375 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 67.36 % of your hosts average (bell.ca)
D-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-TES9YL5DM
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; SYMPA; SIMBAR={3E9EC1EB-4486-40D4-BFCD-3B2BD94C6393}; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648) [!]
look at this for 50$ a month I can get super at videotron for that price,I am sure they are controlling my P2P this is invasion of privacy,sent my complaint to tech support but they are all playing the game and pretending nothing is wrong.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
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Review by ryangard
Posted: 1 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 9 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Stittsville,ON
$80 per month
Bell Canada
 "Stressing to even find good points. They were ok at the beginning."
"Insistant on lying to you to try and threaten you to stay. Underhanded in tactics."
"Avoid this company at all costs. It isn't worth the snake oil they provide."
| |
The speed we originally got was decent, but even it did not match up to what they were advertising we were to get. At best, we received 4mbps on a 6mbps line, however we did receive the appropriate upload of 768kbps. The beginning of the downhill slope began with bell canada removing the bandwidth cap without notifying their customers previously. This ensued with a battle of speaking with representatives, and getting different results and stories each time. We received a credit for a few months each month we called, until we got a representative that insisted that we needed to deal with the fact that we are going to have to pay for the overages and she would note on the account that nobody was to give us a credit. We accepted this fate, and dealt with it. Then just recently in April, we were preparing to move into our new apartment, and of course, called bell to arrange for a phone jack to be installed in the apartment, as there had never before been a phone line installed in the apartment. Everything seemed to finish with ease, until we found out they were still sending the bill to the wrong address. My wife called in 3 different times to ask them to change the address on the account, and they insisted each time they had, however, the address had never truly been updated on the account, and we still failed to receive appropriate notifications via the mail.
What struck us the most though was when the bill for the phone jack came. I called to pay it in the afternoon, around 3:30pm, while their billing department was still open. After fighting to understand the representative, as she spoke at hyper speed, even after being asked to slow down, she insisted that I did not have a bill due, regardless of the fact that the invoice is sitting right in front of me. Furthermore, she insists the bill did not exist. Then she persists to transfer me to another billing department (how many billing departments can you need?) to assist me. I read off the same information to this billing associate, and they give me the same verdict: they cannot find my bill in the system. At this point, my wife is awake and furious, as she works nights, and at this point she cannot sleep because she can hear whats going on. She asks for the phone from me, and she starts speaking to them, while they insist that they cannot do anything, as at this time, it is now 4pm, and the billing department that I should be speaking to is closed. A supervisor took down my credit card information, and insisted that it would be paid as soon as billing resumed operations the next morning. He also said he would call between 12pm and 2pm the next day to confirm that it had been complete. The representative also told her that they forced her account to be changed to the 7mbps plan, and they added an insurance bandwidth package to her account, all without her permission.
At this point, my wife is angry, and was looking for alternative means for internet access. After finding alternative means, she called to cancel our service with bell sympatico. After being placed on hold for 30 minutes after telling a representative that she wanted to cancel, a different representative picks up the phone, and persists to argue with her that she is in a contract, when she signed up specifically for a no-contract plan. Even if she was on a contract, the internet was ordered at a time where if she was in a contract, it would have already expired. After failing miserably at that argument, they threw the fact that they needed 30 days notice in our faces, which was already known and forthcoming, as if they could strong-arm us into staying with them. The phone call then ended quickly. The next day, my wife had to call bell's billing department at 2pm, and speak with another rep. She said that the credit card information was attached to the account, but the card was never charged. She had to put the charge through then, otherwise the other representative would have never run it.
Which brings us to May 14th. I received a piece of mail from bell on the 14th stating that I would be sent to collections in 2 days if I did not pay my bill, a bill of which was already paid. I got on the phone in the afternoon and asked to speak to the telephone billing department, of which I was told was supposed to handle any jack installation-related billing issues. She then persisted to tell me because it was a dry loop that she would have to transfer me to another agent in bell sympatico's billing department. I dealt with it, and waited for the representative to come onto the phone. The next part irritated me though. The next representative comes on the phone, and then persists to tell me I have to speak with somebody in the telephone billing department. At this point, I ask her why they cant just deal with it, and why I keep being flipped back and forth between departments. She persists to yell and talk over me telling me I need to be quiet and wait for a representative to come on the line. At this point, I am frustrated, and instead of speaking my mind, I hung up. I picked up the phone and called back, and this time their voice recognition answering machine decided it wasn't going to work appropriately, and transferred me to a call routing representative. At that point, I asked for a supervisor, as I was trying to get proof of payment and to ensure that they are not in fact sending me to collections. About 15 minutes later, a supervisor comes on the line and starts telling me that they will not provide me a proof of payment, but that the payment has gone through and should be taken care of, and to disregard the letter. I asked her if there was any way to get proof of payment, and she said the only way is to get your next invoice, which has the proof of payment on it. She then told me if i had any other issues, to ask for her specifically, and that she would deal with it.
I've dealt with bad support from companies before, but this takes the cake. I would avoid this company if at all possible, as they just are not worth the headaches and issues they cause.
Followup comments:  
travisc
join:2001-11-09
Port Perry, ON | Business as usual Throw some numbers on your review so it affects their overall score. | |
| 
what2doIS
@videotron.ca
| try this. It worked for me and got me out of their damn BS I would contact kevin.crull@bell.ca (president of residential services).
Tell him your billing fiasco
Tell him you placed your 30-day advance notice of cancellation.
Say you want both these situations taken care of ASAP.
Give your phone# where you can be contacted at in the Email and the times you can be contacted at. This way there is no BS of I tried calling you etc.. | |
| | | |
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Review by Brookieman
Posted: 2 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
Nepean,ON
$47 per month
Bell Canada
"provides access to the net"
"doesn't provide what it says it would"
"bad value"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Signed up for 5 mb/s service 5 years ago
Never got over 1.4 mb/s for years but assume bad wiring poor modem etc.
Finally called help line to see what could be done to speed this up.
Oops my neighborhood could never get more than 2 mb/s so I am achieving what could be expected. The tech went on to say the only thing that could be done is downgrade to "Lite" and save $10 / month.
Why did Bell sell me something that could notbe provided and charge me full price when they had a product that would reflected what they were providing. $700 overcharged
Where do I go from here ??? Cable I guess as Bell nothing else to offer
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Review by keepsake
UPDATED: 5 days ago
member for 43 days, 38 visits, last login: a few hours ago
M1L
$30 per month (12 month contract)
Bell Canada
"Ordering through 'sales merchant', service is actually fairly decent, I'm actually unthrottled"
"As we all know, Bell Canada is throttling everything now; my internet connection fluctuates"
"If you can get 5Mb/800Kb for $30 or less, no reason to switch... yet."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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Pre-Sales:
The usual stuff, except our internet was actually introduced by a sales merchant. I don't quite remember, but I felt he had some adequate information.
Install Co-ordination:
I made a lot of modifications myself to the installation, but from what I remember, it wasn't done all too well - wires left in heaps and etc.
Connection Reliability:
For all the Bell-haters out there, I'm going to have to apologize, but the connection is decent here (in Toronto). I pretty much have 24/7 uptime, with downtime very occasionally and when another computer in my home network tries to access the internet (not really sure why, no IP clashing or such).
Tech Support:
By far the worst. I'm sure I'm not alone here. This doesn't need much explanation except: ignorant, time-wasting, and unhelpful.
Services:
The line gets really mixed results here. Last night, I did a speed test and achieved 4200/680, but today I only managed 3400/680 at best, and 1300/300 at worst. For some reason, I'm not throttled yet, and can still get 200+ speeds on popular torrents (tested with ubuntu), so I'm leaving a neutral note here.
Value for Money:
This one is really up to you guys. I can get a decent deal still (if it weren't for the deal, I'd have already switched to TekSavvy, but the decent pricing (for 5Mb/800Kb with unlimited bandwidth it costs me $30 CAD per month) keeps me at Sympatico right now. If the prices were to increase (even a rise to $35 would be sufficient) I would change to TekSavvy and ditch this dynamic IP for a static one - they cost the same anyway.
I don't particularly like Bell, but I don't particularly hate it. Maybe it's because I'm not throttled, and normal internet activity is still pretty fast, and gameplay yields relatively low ping (in Counter-Strike: Source I average about 40-50ms). I get the bang for my buck, so I'm still fairly happy here.
EDIT:
I forgot to mention, if I were in fact throttled (which apparently should take place on the 7th(?), then for sure I'd change. I'm still pondering switching over to TekSavvy at the moment, because I'm not sure if I want Premium with the bandwidth limit (when technically at the moment I have unlimited).
My speed test: »/im/48695972/11005.png
EDIT on April 13, 2008:
Their customer service isn't totally incompetent, but... their systems don't work very well, apparently. I signed up for a 12-year contract, with discounts amounting to $30 a month (modem rental included), yet their system claims I'm paying $48 a month. ...okay... Anyway, I cancelled today, and I'm going to have this service for one last month before I switch to TekSavvy. I don't really hate the connection (though yesterday, my line dropped 10+ times in one night, it's not something that happens more than rarely), but I think I could do better.
MINOR ADD-ON on April 28, 2008:
Speed was actually maxed today, and recently there haven't been much down-time, so I'm pushing reliability back to a five.
»/im/49965030/54508.png
FINAL EDIT on May 11, 2008 (mother's day!):
I'm officially with TekSavvy, and have dropped Sympatico (and glad to have dropped too!)
TekSavvy!: »/im/50699913/86780.png
Followup comments: 
pressman
Premium
join:2007-05-16
North York, ON | your in for a surprise $30 for unlimited bandwidth ...without a contract ? lol
just wait till you see your first months bill | |
| | keepsake
join:2008-04-03
M1L
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Bell Sympatico
edit:
April 3rd, @10:44PM
| Re: your in for a surprise Actually, it's a 12-month contract, and I've confirmed the bills - $30 per month, no more, no less.
By the way, I've been using this for several years now, which is why I don't have a crazy monthly rate.
And, if it did cost over $30, trust me - I'd have switched to TekSavvy by now. | |
| | | 
tudmax
join:2005-04-08
Kitchener, ON | Re: your in for a surprise Well that's about to change drastically ... if Bell gets it's way.
Please read: »www.p2pnet.net/story/15497 | |
| Yonsil
join:2008-02-21
Fort Erie, ON | Watch out make sure you don't pass 200 GB dl/ul boundary
They have every right to break you off if you do  | |
| | | |
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Review by SkyRanger
Posted: 5 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
Pembroke,ON
$50 per month (36 month contract)
 about 120 days
Bell Canada
"Very little down time"
"When they say upto they don't mean you get what they offer"
"Get your line tested before ordering."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I ordered a 6 MB package, I am lucky if I get 2.
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Review by blackzero
UPDATED: 7 days ago
member for 274 days, 81 visits, last login: 6 days ago
Trois-Rivieres,QC
$75 per month (12 month contract)
about 450 days
"I don't know!"
"Fucking throttled service,tech support are ignorant,overbilling problems"
"Service really worth of third world. Excuse i live in Canada!!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Bell canada is a company you never can trust. They always try to piss you off and overcharging and treat you like a stupid.
Sympatico svc is so throttled, i got torrents with 755 bits/second!!!! When my cousin got 171 KB/s and it was the same torrent.
Tech support are ignorant and useless. They support are so much "Windows centric",well i'm using linux and all my problems i had to resolve myself.
Paying 70$ for a 7mbps when you're getting 1.5 mbps,they are just stealing you. They have me billed 78$ for using sympatico........when i had 1 year with another cable isp and left sympatico.
Please dont fall with them!!!!!!!
Followup comments: james1
join:2001-02-26
Ottawa, ON | :( "and treat you like a stupid."
Why would they treat you like a stupid?! | |
|
Warhammer39m
@bell.ca | paying too much You're paying way too much for your service, cause i've Internet total perfomance from sympatico and it will only cost me 41.95 a month | |
| | | |
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Review by wiggy86
Posted: 10 days ago
member for 4.9 years, 11 visits, last login: 10 days ago
Oshawa,ON
$30 per month
Bell Canada
"seems to be reliable"
"cabs, slow speed etc"
"dont get it"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I have been a Bell users since the first days of highspeed. I have also worked on the Sympatico support team (when it wasnt overseas) and currently work for Bell Technical Solutions. So I am pretty much informed to Bell business practices. When they offered my father a new deal with higher speed, of course he said yes. But what they didnt tell him was he was no longer going to be unlimited. Nice. It is hard to read the fine print when they use the phones to "upsell". So now we are on the 7mb service, but the unfortunate thing is that we are directly linked to the CO via 1 OPI. So we actually dont get even close to 7megs.
But I would never recommend Bell to another person, even though as a phone tech i am supposed to push bell.
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Review by NefCanuck
UPDATED: 14 days ago
member for 325 days, 113 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Mississauga,ON
$50 per month
Bell Canada
"Stable connection for the most part"
"1st level techs unable to assist with anything other than basic issues / moves & reconnections a nightmare"
"Better than the cable alternative"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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I've been a Bell HSE subscriber since 1998 (way back in the grey Nortel modem days) first at a [i]rated[/i] 1.5MB/s then 3MB/s and finally at my present speed of 5MB/s. (Rated is italicized for a reason described later in this review)
At the time I first signed up, the only other option was Rogers Cable and I had heard absolute horror stories of hackjob installs, speeds that dwindled to nothing during peak hours and decided that Bell represented the best value for my dollar.
First time I had serious issues was 2003. I was moving to a new place, put in the move order thirty days before and when I moved in not only did I not have DSL service, I didn't even have [b]phone[/b] service!
What ensues is three days of calling Bell trying to find out what had happened, seems that the suite number got mangled on their end (I had the printout confirming the correct suite # so I have no idea what happened there)
But once everything was straightened away things were stable and I was content until I made a disturbing discovery.
Fast forward to June 2007, I was at my fathers place in Aurora tweaking his Bell HS connection (5MB/s rated) and discovered that he was getting 3.5MB/s while I wasn't even getting 1MB/s! (more like 768kb/s)
Armed with this knowledge, I began my quest for speed. Having worked tech support for a year myself, I understand the need to use a script for beginner PC users, but when I clearly demonstrated that I wasn't at the "push the Enter key" stage of things, the tech seemed rather flustered but promised a second level tech would get in touch with me.
The tech visits my home after reviewing the wiring in my condos telecom vault and when he arrives says that the riser to my unit is "marginal", he also sees that despite using two completely different machines on the modem (A Speedstream 6300) I was getting crap speeds (again less than 1MB/s)
So I figure that this will get resolved right?
I wish... as soon as the tech hears that I have an in-suite alarm and intercom to allow guests to enter the building, he blames that and takes off, suddenly the riser is fine and its the alarms fault, but he does offer to have a new modem shipped to me which I get and install, but changes nothing...
So I get the alarm company in, he installs a filter at the demarc, speed rises to 1MB but stays there and I figure I'm screwed paying for 5MB, getting 1MB.
Then I found the Sympatico Direct Forum here...
Nirvana! Tech support that doesn't rely on a script and can think outside the box!
The tech I spoke to determined with my line stats that I was too far from the CO and had me put on a remote. That got me 2.5MB/s and with a bit more tweaking, just under 4MB/s which is fair given overhead etc.
In summary, when things work, they work very well, however any wrinkles and prepare to get some wrinkles of your own...
Updated May 01/08
Well, since the speed issue was resolved, I'm finally getting what I'm paying for ($51/m, still indicated as unlimited) its high compared to other alternatives, but now that its working I'd rather pay for 5mbps and get 4mbps, then try to save some money and get far less, or be put on a capped plan. I may not use that much data compared to some people (Downloading movies holds little interest for me) but there are other things that chew up data allotments
Also since the review I've hooked up a PS3 and a Denon AVR-3803CI with ethernet connections and they have worked flawlessly with the Sympatico 6250 wireless networking modem from the get go (I also have a Nintendo DS & Wii that I have using the wireless connection, with no issues)
Followup comments:
travisc
join:2001-11-09
Port Perry, ON | ...cable alternative? If you heard horror stories about the cable alternative in 1998, how does that really qualify you to make that assertion 9 years later in your review? | |
| newf
join:2007-09-11
Brampton, ON | "Better"? I had cable for fourteen years and didn't have even a tiny fraction of the problems I've had with BS in less than two months. | |
| simms
join:2007-10-02 | correction.. pretty sure you mean 4mbps. 4MBps is 32mbps... which Bell doesn't offer. | |
|
evanm
@bell.ca
| same story My bell line is same as yours, i pay for 5MB line and i receive less than 1MB/s. Also, when a Bell technician came to my house and saw an alarm system he just got the hell out of there and blamed it on that. Got the filter and guess what? No change. My question is how did you get yours up to 2.5MB/s?? | |
| | NefCanuck
join:2007-06-26
Mississauga, ON
·Bell Sympatico
| Re: same story I posted in the Sympatico Direct Forum and was able to get it resolved through a tech who looked into my issue (A few phone calls and requests they had to make in their end, I was moved to a different remote which got me the speed  )
NefCanuck | |
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Review by joenobody
Posted: 15 days ago
member for 36 days, 38 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Hamilton,ON
$49 per month
Bell Canada
"I used to have a fast, unlimited service."
"Now I have a throttled, capped service, all for a small price increase!"
"Switching to teksavvy May 5th"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I have been a sympatico customer for over 4 years now, having signed up for unlimited high speed. Had no problem to speak of as far as the connection goes, and I am fairly tek-savvy so I didn't mind the terrible customer service. But when they changed my profile from unlimited to capped at 60 GB a month without informing me, I started to get irked. Not long after, I find my connection throttled during "prime time", at around the same time they decided to raise my monthly payment. It is all a little too much to take, and therefore I have cancelled my service and switched to Teksavvy. I will also be switching my POTS from bell to Teksavvy.
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Review by dbenne00
UPDATED: 15 days ago
member for 119 days, 11 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Whitby,ON
$47 per month
Bell Canada
"Reliable connection for over 7 years"
"Expensive, poor customer service"
"I will never return to be a Sympatico customer again"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Wow. I have never been treated so poorly by a company before. Even though I was calling to cancel my DSL service, they should have kept in mind that I may come back one day.
I won't get into all the gory details, but in summary, when I called to cancel:
I was fed false information to try and get me to stay.
I was constantly interrupted when trying to explain a point.
I was argued with.
It was insinuated that I was lying... repeatedly (even though I had a paper document in my hand with the facts on it).
I called back to clear something up only to find that my cancellation request was not entered into their system, and it had to be done again.
Even when I escalated to a supervisor I still got the interruptions, insinuations and arguments from him. At one point I got so angry I swore at them. (Ahem...)
Even if my new ISP doesn't work out, I will not return to Sympatico, I will go elsewhere.
**UPDATE**
After being forced to pay for an extra week of DSL service that I don't need, due to Sympatico's ridiculous 30 day cancellation policy (that, I might add, was NOT in place when I signed up many years ago), my DSL connection was cut off yesterday morning... almost 4 weeks before it was scheduled to be cancelled. My account seems to still be active, so why would my line be disconnected?
I'm not sure whether to chalk this up to incompetence, or if it was done deliberately by an angry CSR or Supervisor, because in 7 years I can only recall one DSL outage that affected me and it seems too much of a coincidence.
Either way, since I am the 'tech guy' for family and friends, I can guarantee that this fiasco will cost Sympatico at least a couple of customers.
On a positive note, the nice folks in India who opened my ticket and did the initial troubleshooting were very friendly, courteous and helpful. That's a lot more than I can say for the people I had to deal with here in Canada.
*****************************************************************************************
UPDATE#2
*****************************************************************************************
I left Sympatico due to their bandwidth throttling (among other things), but now they have reached out and are interfering my with new ISPs bandwidth. My upload speed to my ISPs servers is 565kbps, and the upload speed from my ISPs servers to the rest of the internet (using the Bell network) is a pitiful 83kbps.
Bell, you stupid orse holes. I need a fast DSL connection so I can work from home using a VPN connection. Your bandwidth throttling is screwing up my opportunity to work from home. Thanks a lot you greedy bas-turds.
Bell, you've already lost me as an internet customer, and because of this BS, I am now going to switch my home phone to another provider. You will no longer have my home phone OR long distance business. As a matter of fact, I could easily convince my whole family to switch to Rogers home phone, and then we can all call each other w/o long distance charges.
I hope the CAIP and CRTC mop the floor with your arses, now that you are being investigated.
*****************************************************************************************
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