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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
| 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....
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PCcertified
join:2008-08-04
canada
| 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. | |
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