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 Review by siljaline 
UPDATED: 89 days ago
member for 7.1 years, 764 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Montreal, QC
 $47 per month (12 month contract)
 about 14 days
 Bell Canada
 "Generally fast DSL High Speed package"
 "310-SMURF is bad unless you get a Canadian Call Centre which is not often, unfortunately."
 "Still staying with Bell although Techsavvy *is* a good alternative, I do not wish to move all my services over to them."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Followup comments:  Stojko
Premium
join:2007-10-20
St John'S, NL | Canada does have a better ISP TekSavvy. | |
| 
anonymousse
@teksavvy.com | better isp absoluement teksavvy | |
| audiofool
join:2000-11-22
London Ont | what they said ^ +1 | |
| 
WaitForGodot
join:2009-01-07 | Anything is better than Bell Bell forced me to make the best decision, I switching to Teksavvy. (Read my reviews). | |
| 
renton
Come On You Spurs
Premium
join:2002-01-05
North York, ON | TSI Teksavvy is indeed better. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by MacGyver
UPDATED: 90 days ago
member for 8.1 years, 3932 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Orleans,ON
$40 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
Bell Canada
"Reliable"
"Must rent modem, useless tech support, constant price increases, service decreases, billing headaches galore"
"I've had it, cancelled because I was sick of being abused as a customer."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I've been a Sympatico customer for almost eight years. The primary reasons that I've remained a customer so long have been:
1. Sympatico used to be the only DSL ISP in Ontario, but that was eight years ago!
2. The pain of changing my wife's and my @sympatico.ca email addresses. We both got over that and terminated our service.
3. Bundles. Really this was the only reason I remained a customer so long. If I bundled land line, DSL, Satellite TV, I used to get a killer long distance plan that more than paid for the Satellite TV. My monthly bill used to be $116. But with all the creeping price increases to DSL, Satellite, and the long distance plan, this becomes less and less attractive. I'm now paying well over $135 for worse service. Plus the array of programming available through satellite has become repetitive, drab, and boring, but that's not particularly Bell's fault.
The service has been great overall with very few outages during the entire time I've been a customer, but here are some of the negative issues I've experienced:
1. Every time I move, Bell and/or Sympatico manage to screw something up with the DSL service. This results in me having to yell at them to come and fix it tomorrow instead of maybe in the next week or what's left of my lifetime.
2. A lot of secondary services offered have been changed or removed. Sympatico removed binaries from it's newsgroup servers a few years ago and then terminated the service altogether sometime later. This is annoying because I found newsgroups to be useful for a few things like local classified ads. Sympatico also got MSN to provide their email service and is in the process of moving all customers over, and discontinuing their own POP3 service. I personally haven't had any problems with my email being hosted my MSN, but email is one of the most basic services an ISP can provide and in my opinion there's no reason to outsource it.
3. Price increases! Every few years the price goes up. What's dumb is that you can get a better price on a one year contract, BUT you need to call in and demand it. I guess they hope you're stupid, ignorant, or so loaded with money that you don't care what amount the bill is and will just pay it to line the pockets of their new owner, the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan. And a lot has changed in eight years. Sympatico is no longer the only DSL ISP in Ontario; other ISP's have non-contract prices that are $5-10 lower than Sympatico's best contract.
4. Lack of communication with the customer. Bell is a big company and as most big companies go, they don't give a lick what one customer thinks. Sympatico used to have a server that the community used to host a web forum called Sympaticousers.org. On that forum, end users could help each other out with support problems, discuss issues, etc. Well, Bell got rid of it. They recently got rid of the forums on their own website, too. The Direct forum on this site is probably next. Nice going. It's only been recently that Bell has opened up to alternative support channels such as their own forum or the Direct support forum on this site. Meanwhile, the president of some other ISP is going out of his/her way to personally help their customers any way they can.
5. Tech support treats you like an idiot. I know this problem is not unique to Bell, but come on! I am a customer of Bell, not of the call centre that got the contract to provide tech support for Bell by being the lowest bidder and priding themselves on dumping me after 15 minutes even if my problem isn't resolved! And hopefully they can speak a derivative of the obscure language called English or you're up the creek without a paddle. I'd be better off trying the French support line with my broken Francais. Disgraceful that a Canadian company outsources tech support overseas.
6. Mandatory modem rental. Do you think after being a customer for eight years that I've paid for that modem at least two or three times over? And how much is it worth now, anyway? Oh, they are increasing the rental cost just because.
7. Throttling. It hasn't affected me that I can tell, but I have heard about how for other this underhanded practice has caused major headaches. If my work VPN gets throttled, I'm gone.
8. Caps. They're in, they're out, they're in, they're.... Again I rarely go over 5gb a month so a 60gb cap is none of my concern, but it's the principle of the whole thing. Now the cap is being reduced to 25 GB. Yipee.
9. Contracts are one way carrot-on-a-stick variety. Sign up for a contract for $xx per month for xx months, and watch Bell take that stick and beat you senseless with it, as they increase your prices in a way that won't void the contract. So you're stuck.
10. Last but not least, the worst part of Bell - billing. In all the years with Bell, I think the most I had was three invoices in a row that were the same amount. If they screw up, they will never issue you a new invoice. Even the executive office will not issue corrected invoices or apply credits to the current balance. If you're being overcharged, you must pay the whole thing or get late payment charges. And you'll likely wait months to get a credit applied on a subsequent bill. Heaven help you if you gave Bell authorization to suck whatever amount of money out of your bank account or credit card whenever they feel like it. I feel absolutely insulted when Bell gave me this song and dance. "The customer is always right" as the saying goes but in this case I was right and they basically told me to jump in lake.
So overall, I do not know why anyone would go with Sympatico as their ISP of choice. There are much better deals out there, not to mention better service on the product side and support side. Particularly when you consider all the services that Sympatico has discontinued over the years.
I have terminated our service when our contract expired on August 18th, 2009 and moved to another ISP that values us as a customer, instead as one digit in one line on their annual report to shareholders. Goodbye Bell and good riddance!
Followup comments:
Bellundo
@teksavvy.com
| Dsl prices should be falling not rising Dsl prices are decreasing everywhere in the world all except Canada. You're being shafted as the base costs as well as bandwidth prices are falling sharply. Combine this with a falling US dollar and the ramifications are all the more blatant. This country stinks! | |
|
PCcertified
@acanac.net
| Bell Free as of today and HAPPY! To comment on MacGyver's review and correct a few things about bells services from a Quebecer's stand point. I was in the same boat...until this afternoon.
I agree with points 1 and 2 I was an 11 yr member of bell.
As for point 3, you can do better if you contact each dept of bell and threaten to cancel. ExpressView went as low as offering me 50% reduction on a month by month no contract deal to stay with them. Unfortunately all new sympatico plans have download caps and I had an unlimited plan so they couldn't offer me anything and would only give me a deal if I switched to one of their other capped offerings.
I negotiated a deal for telephone and satellite tv for now with no contracts and canceled sympatico. (it takes 30 days to cancel sympatico here, likely the same for you)
As with the next few points, I too experienced billing issues and service interruptions every time I moved without fail.
I'm also angry the newsgroups are no longer supported and they switched to MSN for email. I however, got myself free GMAIL accounts from google and have pop and imap services and don't have to worry about my 5 sympatico email accounts. It took a few weeks to get my email changed with everyone and all my subscriptions but it was time well spent. I suggest you do the same, so you won't be tied to a poor ISP in the future.
The deal with price increases at bell is a scam. They set me up on a contract at a discount and don't notify me when the contract ends. Then they hike up the price until I notice and call them screaming about it. It usually takes 3 calls and a threat of cancellation to get offered a deal and then they only offer contracts. I don't need that headache. And to think I would go through this song and dance with them EVERY year.
SympaticoUsers.org was NOT run by Bell, it was created by the disgruntled users of bell to create a voice and a central point of contact to negotiate with bell to solve our problems back in the day when bell was the monopoly. It worked, Bell responded and when most of the major issues were corrected the site was disbanded because it served its purpose and people lost interest. It was a year or 2 after the closure of SympaticoUsers.org that problems began to arise at bell again, but not as severe as today. Fortunately now we have the option to voice our opinion by switching to another ISP and canceling bells service forever...Muahahaha
About the tech support. I've been repairing and troubleshooting PC and Telecom issues in the industry for 20 years now. I agree that the sympatico techs treat you like an imbecile, more today than ever before. I would usually start the conversation by explaining to the tech that I'm clearly qualified and even point out in technical terms how I came to my conclusion that it's their issue. The tech usually replies with, but you still have to follow the steps please click on Start then Control Panel. ARGH!!! if I hear another tech tell me to click on start I'll....(too graphic to describe) Every call usually ends with a supervisor or second level support confirming my hypothesis and explaining that bell is working on the issue.
Regarding the modem rentals, I must have paid more than a thousand dollars for my modem in the past 11 years. (rental prices have changed over the years.) Worst part is, their modem just sits in a box, I use my own.
Throttling, man that affected me a lot recently. I haven't had a torrent download at over 25k in months and the torrents I grab, like Linux OS, usually have more than 2000 peers and always more than 200 seeds.
I noticed you said you have a 60gig cap, I'd love that, they offered me 10-20 as a max cap on the 5 meg service to lower my price by 2 dollars if I take a contract. What a laugh, they just raised it by 12.
I also noticed you didn't mention that sympatico tech support is almost impossible to reach on weekends. For example this afternoon I called tech support 310-7378 and got a message saying the offices are now closed then I got disconnected. It didn't even offer me an option to choose the tech or sales dept, just a message saying the offices are closed. not to mention that the service/sales/billing dept have changed their hours and are closed when I get home from work. Bell seems to be offering less and less service and charging more and more for it.
I had 5 meg service, unlimited downloads no caps and do not use thier antivirus services and I was paying 32.95 a month on contract. which was recently hiked to 44.95
When canceling I was informed I was supposed to have service for 30 more days, but the next day my email was already canceled and they already scheduled my line card disconnection, according to the tech I spoke to. I was told I had to call the service/billing dept to straighten it out but at 6pm they were already closed so I called them the following morning. It got straightened out but they had to extend my cancellation deadline by a couple of days due to the mix up. They can't even cancel my service without a problem.
A couple of weeks later an agent called me up to see if there was anything they could do to keep my business. After explaining a few of the issues I experienced the retention dept agent apologized to me and said she was surprised I didn't cancel sooner. And to think, her job was to try and convince me to keep my service.
A few days later I received an apology letter in writing from bell for the inconveniences I endured while using their services. I think they're just trying to insure I don't cancel any other bell services. Hmmm, VOIP is looking pretty attractive. 
With the bandwidth throttling, cancelation of newsgroups (Usenet) services, use of MSN for email and the fact that they hiked the price on me without warning each and every year and that they no longer offer 24 hour support, it was an easy decision to switch providers
I switched to Acanac for 18.95 a month and being in Quebec I saved one tax too. For me thats more than $300 savings over the next year.
My cancellation with sympatico was completed today Sunday Aug 3 at noon and it took me only 30 seconds to get reconnected with Acanac.
This service doesn't have the size of Bell but I can tell you the speed is amazing and my torrents finally fly again (only tested one torrent so far and got 450Kbs..alot better than the 25Kbs I was doing with bell) I can't wait to try out their other services like their BETA of the Online virtual PC that offers up 10Mbs Upload and 10Mbps Download. They even give you a free 100GB of space on their servers to store your files. Imagine a torrent flying at 1000Kbs 
I've also had some time to evaluate their phone sales and tech support. I'm pleased to be treated like an intelligent human being again by a knowledgeable staff. I can't say enough good things about them and I've only been a member for a few hours. (signed up for service 1 week ago) Even their email support was fast and informative.
So, if you decide to join Acanac or have any questions about the service, please send me an email. Even though I'm just a new member, I would be more than happy to answer any questions I can.
I should also mention that Acanac offers a referral program to all it's members. If you refer someone to acanac, you get a free month of DSL service. If you refer 10 friends you get FREE DSL service as long as you're a member.
So, if you found this information useful, please consider sending me an REPLY to let me know when you signed up to Acanac. That way I may earn a free month of service for my efforts.
Thanks,
I guess I should have written an article  | |
| |
colonel
@bell.ca
| Re: Bell Free as of today and HAPPY! Interesting...
Almost some situation with me. My contract with bell finish in 1 month 1/2
But the review on the net about acanac worry me....a lot of bad review...
But in my situation, I have a phone line with rogers and dsl with bell. It is what they call a "dry" line for my dsl ?
Will it be complicate to "transfert" my "dry" line dsl to acanac ?
SO if you can help me, and decide to change, I will be glad to "get" you a free month.
I will call bell tomorrow to see what the will offer me but I know that the price is going to jack....
| |
| | | PCcertified
join:2008-08-04
canada
| Re: Bell Free as of today and HAPPY! Well, I can't say Acanac is the BEST provider, but...
The price is right 18.95/m on a 12 month contract.
30 day money back guarantee.
The sales dept is very informative and helpful.
The Tech support is easy to deal with and knowledgeable.
They offer some amazing additional services at no extra charge like 100GB's of storage space on-line and a free Virtual Linux PC as well as all the standards like email and such.
Transferring to Acanac from Bell was easy and I had no downtime.
The only problem is that Bell is still in control of the line speed. In my case, that meant Bell reduced my speed profile from 5Mbs to 3Mbs even though Acanac asked them to set it to 5. I called Acanac and they confirmed that BELL will fix this problem tomorrow around 10:00.
Other than the fact that Bell still controls the line speed, Acanac is the best internet provider I've been with in my 15 years on-line.
I highly recommend Acanac.
If you would like to use me as a reference when joining please include my name in the referral box.
PCcertified
Happy surfing. | |
|
oh well
@videotron.ca
| "I've had it, I'm cancelling as soon as my contract is done! Bell won't let you go. They will either offer you some "deal" to keep you locked in, or they will bill you with stuff and drag you down for months, or they will send you bills with 0.00$ owing for 3 years so you don't forget them.
On another note. Hope you find greener pastures. | |
|
MacGyver
Bell Sucks
Premium,ExMod 2003-05
join:2001-10-14
Orleans, ON
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Bell Sympatico
| The deed is done... So I finally did it. After probably too much thought, and almost being suckered into another one of Bell's promotions, I made the call and cancelled. No retention offer was made. There's no going back now.
Anyway, looking back on this review, I noticed that not all the followup discussions were displayed, with a tiny link "View ALL 24 Comments". Funny enough, here is something I wrote back in 2003:
said by MacGyver on June 5 2003 :
I can assure you that I do not work for Bell. I am just a very satisfied customer. Contrary to what a few people shout so loudly that it seems like popular belief, there really are satisfied Bell customers. They didn't get to be the biggest and the best by accident. And now the "monopoly" is over and competition has sprung up, Bell continues to be increasingly successful, not less so.
»Re: People who work for Bell
Hard to believe I went from very satisfied to completely dissatisfied in six years. I guess all those new customers jumping on the blue couch might be in the same boat six years from now, too. | |
|
Bellinator
@videotron.ca
| They'll be back They will send you love letters almost every month and call you a couple of times per year. They will want you to know how much you are "valued" as a sucker and pretend they have some sort of quality service to offer you.
Unless you get on their do not call list and call them to get on a do not mail list, they won't stop harassing you. | |
| |
MacGyver
Bell Sucks
Premium,ExMod 2003-05
join:2001-10-14
Orleans, ON | Re: They'll be back You were right, the first love letter they sent was in the form of a bill for $100. »Bell, YOU SUCK | |
| | |
hehNeverEnds
@videotron.ca
| Re: They'll be back LOL
Off to kevin.crull you go to tell them to get lost with the extrotion.
Then they will ask why you left, where you went to blah blah blah and milk you for any info you can give them.
But, you know what to say.
You moved to china. | |
| | |
ah forgot
@videotron.ca | BTW, you should update your review with what happened and the hoops you will have to jump through to fix it. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
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Review by happysavvy
Posted: 91 days ago
member for 91 days, 1 visits, last login: 86 days ago
Waterloo,ON
$52 per month (month by month)
"fairly reliable connection and speeds"
"incompotent, untrustworthy company tries to rob you at every turn"
"ditch Bell immediately and switch to Teksavvy"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I've been a loyal customer of Bell Sympatico for 3 years. I finally made the switch to Teksavvy and I'm never looking back.
Everyone knows how bad a company Bell is. Let me add my story to the pile.
The connection reliability and speeds are good, and the installation was fairly painless (probably because that's what makes them all their money). However, Bell is a totally incompetent and untrustworthy mammoth bureaucracy.
Bell's tech support is infamous. Everyone knows about the call centres in India, where "technicians" are trained only to read standard responses to you over the phone. Getting something done about a breach in service takes days and often requires the customer to spend hours on the phone.
Bell likes to slip in new charges and fee increases every now and then. Naturally, they don't inform the customer of these increases. If you don't keep a close watch on your bill each month then you'll end up paying through the nose. On several occasions, I called Bell and yelled at them for adding fees without notice. Sometimes they gave me a temporary discount, sometimes they didn't.
Finally, I made the decision to switch to Teksavvy. (I've been with Teksavvy for only a few days now, but so far they stand head-and-shoulders above Bell.) Naturally, Bell offered to meet Teksavvy's competitive prices once I informed them of my cancellation. But I do not patronize firms that give me a good price only when I yell at them or threaten to leave. If Bell can't be honest enough to give me the correct price up front without haggling then they do not deserve my business.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Maxh91
Posted: 99 days ago
member for 122 days, 136 visits, last login: 2 days ago
undisclosed location
 Business customer
$55 per month (12 month contract)
"Unlimited (Bell Aliant) , Never got problem"
"The speedstream 6520 Modem have poor Wireless"
"Good ISP for now until we are limited"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
With Aliant since it was available in my region and i never got problem. (Luck?)
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
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Review by shighfield
Posted: 100 days ago
member for 165 days, 171 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Scarborough,ON
$83 per month (12 month contract)
Bell Canada
"Speed, Stability."
"Bandwith throttle, small 100GIG cap."
"Better then cable for me."
| |
History:
I have been with both Rogers Cable and Bell Canada, as well as third party DSL providers in the past.
Bell has a very bad name out there with some people, but I have never understood why. I was having connection issues with Rogers as well as getting upset at the high monthly price I was paying for internet, and phone service through them. Bell saved me money every month with their Internet and phone service and has been stable.
There has been one problem when I wanted to cancel a second bell number and move my DSL from one line to the other that took over 3 weeks for them to solve, but in that time I did not suffer from any down time.
As mentioned in the bad points, the 100GIG cap and bandwith throttling is a huge pain, but one you can live with if your not downloading every movie and TV show posted. 
Would I recomend them over a third party provider? Nope and in 8 more months when my contract is up I will jump to one who doesn't have a small 100gig cap. 
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
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Review by mattb9432
UPDATED: 101 days ago
member for 108 days, 2 visits, last login: 86 days ago
Etobicoke,ON
$43 per month (12 month contract)
Bell Canada
"I have a connection."
"Not much faster than dial-up; connection took much longer than expected; Bell managed to cut off my telephone service while tryi"
"Bell's usage caps don't matter because service is so slow that I'll never download 25gb in a month."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I ordered a $29.95 Performance package; according to Bell's website, I'm going to be charged $43.95 per month.
My DSL modem arrived on time with a letter stating that I'd have Internet service by 5:00pm on July 31. At 9:30pm on the 31st I didn't have Internet service. Tech support told me to power down system until next morning because connections are often not established until midnight of the day on which the connections are supposed to be established. I powered down and began picking up the packaging in which the modem had been shipped. I found quite a bit of useful information in an instruction booklet that I'd previously ignored because it was titled, "Wirless Home Networking Reference Guide." I hadn't ordered wirless networking and so hadn't bothered with this booklet. On the inside cover of the Wireless Home Networking Reference Guide I found the information that by installing Bell's system I had agreed to be bound by a Sevice Agreement, a copy of which was included in my installation kit. I looked carefully and found a copy of the service agreement inside a cardboard sleeve that had been wrapped around the box in which the modem was shipped. I had slid the box out of the sleeve and so had not seen the service agreement. I had found all other documentation inside the box with the modem, and had been surprised that there seemed to be no service agreement. It appears that the service agreement is carefully packed so that the customer won't see it until after setting up the system. The service agreement basically requires me to pay Bell whatever Bell feels like charging me whether Bell delivers the service or not.
On the morning of August 01 I not only didn't have Internet service but found that Bell had managed to cut off my telephone service, too. The only number I could call on my home telephone line was 310-BELL.
Bell said on August 01 that they'd send a technician to my home on August 05 to check the connections in my home. I told Bell that there was nothing wrong with connections in my home and I had ordered Bell service because I didn't have time to wait around for a technician to show up and would they please just disconnect all Bell services and I'd find another provider. I was told that the person to who I was speaking couldn't arrange a disconnection and I'd be connected to someone else and I was then kept on hold until I had to hang up because I'd been on the phone for nearly 45 minutes and had to leave to attend to other business.
On Tuesday August 04 I arrived home and found that my security system had recorded a Bell technician knocking at my door and getting no answer because no one was home. I plugged in a telephone and found that Bell had reconnected my telephone line.
At 6:30am on the morning of Wednesday, August 05, I reconnected Bell's DSL modem and reinstalled the phone line filters and found that I had an internet connection. I went through the setup process and then logged off to attend to other business. At about 10:00am I tried to log on and found that the usernames and passwords I'd set up earlier were no longer recognized. At 12:00 noon I found that I once again didn't have an Internet connection. I then got another runaround from Bell, asked to have service terminated and was left on hold until I had to hang up.
On Friday, August 07, I found that my telephone line was still working. Phoned Bell and was told that I had telephone and Internet service. I again plugged in Bell's modem and found that I had an internet connection but could not access most of Bell's website and could not use the e-mail account I had previously established. I later found that it seemed that Bell's system had remembered some of the setup information I'd given it on the morning of August 05, but had "forgotten" other bits of information.
On August 12 more of Bell's website became available to me. I downloaded and installed the Bell deluxe security package that was included with the Bell Performance package. Internet Explorer suddenly became unable to find a connection. A third-party two-way firewall told me that Bell's software was constantly trying to call home. I found that I couldn't turn off Bell's security programs. I had to use Task Manager to stop Bell's programs. Control Panel couldn't remove Bell's software, so I did a system restore.
I tested the download speed of my connection and got a maximum of 2.3 megabits per second, which was faster than dialup but a long was short of Bell's claim that I'd be able to download at "up to" 6 megabits per second. Actual download speeds are seldom above 200 kilbits per second, and usually a lot less.
Bell tech support briefly took control of my computer and could find no reason for the slow downloads.
On Thursday, August 20, I'd done everything possible to speed up downloads, but speeds hadn't improved noticeably. I phoned Bell and asked to have the service disconnected, and was switched from department to department and was offered discounts to keep Bell service and was finally told that I'd have to speak to another department to arrange a disconndect and was again left on hold untill I finally guessed that I must have been forgotten and I hung up.
Today I find that I still have a very slow Bell Internet connection. I'll have to phone again and try to get disconnected, and I'll try to get connected by Acanac or Telcom.
I don't intend to pay Bell for Internet service. I just don't see why I should pay pay full price for a service of which I've received only a small fraction.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 107 days ago
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
New York,New York,NY
Contract price not specified.
Bell Canada
"No Contract"
"Unstable connection"
"Unlimited = Show me the money"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
High Speed DSL, 5 Mbps download, Unlimited Bandwith ==> 60$/Month
Let me tell you that the first 3 months following my internet subscription
the speed the FTP adress I was using to download my music was up to 500kbps
and then dropped to 310-320 permanently. Their service has become unstable
the past couple of months with interuptions everyday and when you call them
to tell them something is wrong they dont see anything. Their prices are too
high for what they offer.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
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Review by onlyrh40
UPDATED: 113 days ago
member for 1.8 years, 46 visits, last login: 43 days ago
North York,ON
$35 per month
about 14 days
Bell Canada
"Very good company until 18 months ago"
"Lied to by sales staff. Game over at that point."
"Company has a lot to do on the honesty front."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Have been on Bell High Speed DSL since 2001. About 18 months ago they switched me to $35 month for unlimited. A couple of months later usage charges show up on the bill, I call and again I am assured they will revert to previous contract. Next bill also shows usage, I call again and am told that the billing cycle is few months behind but refunds will be applied. To cut a long story short they have no record or notations on my account to support my position, this is after contacting what stands for management in Bell. I then migrated my legacy phone service to Vonage and when I was satisfied that it was stable I then migrated my HS DSL to Teksavvy, I will report on the move in a month or so, so far all is well.
Don't get upset, shift to alternative suppliers. I feel sorry for Bell employees who are saddled with a lack lustre executive to say the least.
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 Review by Thane_Bitter
UPDATED: 114 days ago
member for 4.8 years, 1936 visits, last login: a few hours ago
London, ON
Contract price not specified.
about 9 days
Bell Canada
"Most over priced Highest DSL speed packages in Canada"
"need perfect line conditions to get it and it's costly! Throttling, lost of Newsgroups, forged migration of email to Hotmail."
"Need a DSL ISP? RUNAWAY! SAVE YOUR MONEY BY GOING ELSEWHERE!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Bottom line: Sign up elsewhere!!!!!!!
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There are several other DSL companies that provide the same DSL service that Bell offers but at a reduced cost. True, Bell does offer the highest DSL speeds available; however because of the technical limitations of DSL chances are your area does not support it (Bell will of course try selling it to you anyways!).
Presales information was somewhat incomplete, the standard price of service was and still isn't made particularly clear to potential customers. Bell prefers to front offers with a special price for 1/6 to 1/3 of the contract duration and provides little data on the price after this time frame. The material is further misleading because Bell advertises the overall speed of their service (under ideal conditions) including DSL overhead. The result of this is that any package will automatically be 15% then advertised. Finally Bell has and continues to use the disqualifier "up to" which allows them to offer a product that will not match advertised speeds. Again because of the nature of DSL, unless your DSL line has near perfect electrical characteristics - few are, the delivered speed will be less then advertised. A customer may be paying for a 7MB profile, yet due to a bad phone line/dry loop be placed on a 5 or 3MB (See Bell's FAQ on this site for profiles)
Installation is straightforward, order the service, receive the installation package in the mail, install DSL filters on phones, and finally connect the modem as described. Actual activation of the line will occur sometime on the activation day. A technician may make a service call on that day and require access to the phone equipment in your home.
Reliability with Bell is typical for all DSL providers in Ontario, however, email service with Bell has been problematic at times as they have been dropping their traditional POP mail service and converting it to a re-branded Hotmail service. (Note: that there may be privacy issues associated with this change as the Hotmail's servers are located across the globe) Bandwidth or Internet usage website has been plagued with outage issues, and reports data which can be up to 60 hours old.
Technical support at Bell had greatly degraded (exponentially), and is presently an abysmal, incoherent, intelligible, and next to useless do to outsourcing of this division to the other side of the planet. Watch out for misrepresentation, hidden contracts, and unexplained billing charges. Existing customers with unlimited (bandwidth) plans should take extra caution in discussing issues with the CSR as they may soon discover they have been moved to a contract or onto a fixed usage plan. In recent months technical support quality has improved slightly however there is still a great deal of miscommunication and misrepresentation of products and services.
Phone/service Technicians remain competent when performing service calls or line repair. I have found that the technicians are friendly and willing to answer any questions you may have related to their field.
Services - Services provided by Bell including their PPPoE software, diagnostic software, etc are not recommended. Bell only offers technical support on their own equipment (i.e. the modem) for free. Bell charges a rental fee for their modem which has increased substantially in the past few months. Even if you supply your own hardware, Bell will still charge the rental fee. Bell's bandwidth checker requires accessing their website (i.e. uses bandwidth to check bandwidth) and is up to 60 hours delayed. This coupled with their smallish usage caps often spells expensive over usage fees. Old plans still allow for up to 10 hours of free dial-up access - this can be useful while traveling aboard; a list of dial-up numbers can be found on Bells website if you search long enough, or can be obtained using Bells automated phone system 310-SURF.
Value for money - Due to Bells implementation of throttling, dropping of news services and mail serves, and their collaboration with Microsoft a the Bell MSN.ca portal, Bell is less interested in being an ISP, and would much rather regulated its users into surfing the web (especially partnered websites) in a method that is reminiscent of AOL.
In Canada there are few other options for high speed internet access, as both the cable and phone companies have control of 90% of the market. The lack of competition has stagnated improvements in service and maintains high prices. Fortunately the CRTC has opened the DSL market slightly, other ISP's have entered the market, however Bell is attempting to make changes that will effectively kill any competition by switching to a Bill by the Byte usage.
HSE (High speed edition), no longer offered by Bell, offers unlimited bandwidth at 6MB profile. This plan costs more then Bells current offerings (which are capped).
Equipment provided by Bell was originally an Alcatel SpeedTouch modem which was later replaced by a SpeedStream 5200 (e242) a later by a SpeedStream 5200 (e240). Bell deliberately locks out the firmware on the DSL modems providing only the most rudimentary interface and very limited support.
It took over three years to have an intermittent hardware issue to be repaired on the phone line. The issue was due to a damaged component that was part of Bell's local POTS service, and affected several other customers feed from the same service areas. Once an apt Bell Technician finally uncovered the problem (the issue with a subterranean device that several phone lines connected to), it took another four months for a different division of Bell to repair it.
UPDATE (5/09)
Bell has increased the cost of the modem rental. Take note that Bell does not included the cost of the rental in any of the promotional materials. Because the services is useless without a modem there is no justification for doing this and misleads the customer.
UPDATE (7/09)
Bell has changed their plan pricing packages and removed the 7MBSP service. Caps have also been lowered across the board on all plans (legacy plans are exempted). Potential customers that are still interested in sighing up (you really should not sign up with Bell) should note that the promised speed and actually real world results will show that AT BEST your service WILL BE 15% slower then advertised due do the nature of DSL technology. Examine all contracts, user agreements and related documentation carefully, as none of the advertising provides the actual cost of service, further more the prices advertises are lower then what the customer will pay because of auxiliary charges, fees and related hidden costs.
UPDATE (8/09)
Bell received approval for UBB billing from the CRTC; UBB allows Bell to move to usage based billing. It is expected that Bell will reformat their offerings to included usage in the very near future and that a typical bill will include a flat service cost, modem fees, usage fees, over usage fees, plus any other administrative fees and related hidden costs they wish to conger up.
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 Review by Soiduts
UPDATED: 114 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 90 visits, last login: 44 days ago
Ontario
$35 per month (12 month contract)
about 6 days
Bell Canada
"Service used to be Good"
"Billing Errors, Level 1 Techs, Port 25 Block, No Usable Usenet service, Forced Modem Rental, No Outage List, Bandwidth Throttle"
"Worst Company in Canada"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
UPDATE August/09
»Canadian Regulators Send Another Love Letter To Bell Canada
"Canadian regulatory authority the CRTC, staffed with former incumbent carrier executives, so far hasn't lifted a finger to come to the aid of independent carriers. The CRTC continued this trend by today approving Bell's UBB plans. CRTC employees like vice-chairman Leonard Katz, who spent 17 years working for Rogers and 11 for Bell, aren't concerned...for some strange reason."
Guess this shows there is absolutely no point in having the CRTC as a regulatory body as they do not do anything for the Canadian public like they are supposed to. The public is supposed to be first, not big business. Will definitely be writing MP (not like that's going to do anything other then receiving a standard reply.)
Internet usage is not on the way down its going up. Revision3 started posting HD videos of their shows and I watch 4 of those a week. Almost 20gb a month JUST there!
The CRTC is really getting annoying and what's even more annoying is Bell's insistence that we have to pay an arm and a leg for bandwidth that costs pennies.
UPDATE July/09
[quote=Mirko Bibic]The Internet has always been managed, first of all. Second, the traffic management practices we utilize have been reviewed extensively and the CRTC has said they are appropriate ... We expect the CRTC will continue to find that reasonable management practices designed to improve the Internet experience for the majority of users is appropriate. »www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1757953
[/quote]
Attitudes like this is the main reason why the Internet in Canada and around the world is struggling. The Internet was designed to be a tool to freely share information but imposing any kind of traffic management on the network that hinders the ability for innovation while disrupting the competition, should be illegal.
UPDATE March/09
You know its sad that my Internet connection at University 10 years ago, 10mbit, is still vastly superior to anything that Bell is providing now. When will they learn that Net Neutrality and uncapped/unthrottled connections are the only way to move forward. Bandwidth usage isn't going down anytime soon and trying to limit it is unfair to consumers who have to deal with monopolistic companies like Bell.
Here are just a few links as to why I lowered my rating of this company:
»Bell Canada To Take Ball, Go Home
»Bell appeals CRTC decision
UPDATE March/08
Canceled Bell Sympatico after being a customer for 7+ years. Canceling was a terrible experience as I was told I phoned in 3 days too early to cancel. I was told I had to phone exactly 30 days to the end of my contract. I thought I was being a courteous customer by phoning ahead to inform them that I would no longer be using the service after the contract ended. Phoned back and got a different person and after 20 minutes, I finally got a cancellation number. Switched to Teksavvy. Literally took no more than a few minutes to sign up for a full unlimited account (as I already had a DSL Premium login), get my login and completely switch over.
»Bell Canada Throttles Wholesalers, Doesn't Bother To Tell Them
I don't think we need any more proof to show Bell's shady business practices, but here's some more.
UPDATE January/08
Having been a Bell Internet Customer for many years, I finally decided to spend the extra $10 a month and test out Teksavvy's Premium 100GB login. All the problems I had with FTP SSL being capped at 32kbps and other throttling issues were solved instantly. I will be using the login for the next two months till my current Sympatico contract expires and will probably sign up for an Unlimited Account. I've been comparing ping times, trace routes, and overall connection quality and have been impressed with Teksavvy.
I recently read an article on Ars Technica about Time Warner's attempt to institute caps on their broadband connections. They sum up the Bell Sympatico situation quite eloquently.
Shooting yourself in the foot: Time Warner's usage caps
»arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20···aps.html
"Customers who exceed their cap would be hit with an undetermined per-gigabyte charge, but Bell Canada's overage fees, which range from CAN$1.00 to CAN$7.50 per gigabyte, may give some inkling of where Time Warner's overage fees will end up. Usage caps are a short-sighted response to capacity constraints, one that's likely to hurt the company more than it will help in the long run�especially with new broadband options on the horizon."
Unfortunately I cannot recommend Sympatico to friends, coworkers, or customers anymore as capping, throttling and customers support issues has made Bell a second rate ISP.
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As a Bell Sympatico subscriber since DSL was first offered in Ontario, I have been through all the high and low points with the service. Unfortunately in the last few months the low points have overtaken the high ones. Our family shares the connection on our home network with 4 computers.
Billing Errors
For the past 2 years I have had an unlimited contract with Sympatico at $35/m. While on this contract, one would expect consistent monthly billing but that isn't the case. Two times in the last 8 months I have had billing issues and I haven't called in or changed my account or contract with Sympatico. Both times they have chalked it up to errors on their billing system.
Level 1 Techs
I don't even bother phoning tech support anymore because they are completely useless. I have found it easier to contact techs directly on DSLreports. I pity those that do not know about the support forum here and have to call in for help. Unfortunately most of Sympatico's customers are unaware of this forum and would have to deal with the normal tech support.
Bandwidth Caps & Throttling
A few years ago Bell Sympatico decided to enable bandwidth caps which proved to be a bad move for the company. For the past few years, unlimited contracts have been available through Sympatico and for the most part, it was a very good service. Capping and throttling in general is a bad idea for any ISP as bandwidth consumption is not going to go down. If you advertise and offer unlimited, then do so. Customers should not be penalized because they use bandwidth when they have signed a contract stating unlimited bandwidth.
Most people don't use that much bandwidth but 60gb is definitely a very low cap. HD broadcasts, video streams, Xbox Live & Xbox Live downloads, Windows/Mac/Linux Updates and VoIP are now becoming quite prevalent online now. CBC broadcasts Hockey Night in Canada and the National online and many other websites offer bandwidth intensive content including Sympatico's own website. Content doesn't have to be 'gray' area to use a lot of bandwidth especially if you have a lot of users in your house.
DSL Line Sync
I haven't had any line quality problems with my line as I have lived in new houses with new wiring. I have had problems with the line profiles though. On numerous occasions, I phoned tech support to get them to increase the line profile but to no avail. It wasn't until I asked on DSLreports forum and talked to some techs directly that I was able to get that sorted out. My connection is now stable at the 5mbit profile instead of the 3mbit profile.
Bottom Line
Unfortunately Bell and Rogers are the main bulk suppliers for Internet Service in Ontario/Quebec and there is no way to avoid them.
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