| Don't call Cogeco to fix your problem - It could cost you $$ As many here know, I have been having an intermittent problem with a voip phone through my Cogeco internet provider. Refer to the post that was read 3,048 times and responded to 270 times.
In the past couple of weeks after installing a new cogeco modem and a new Vonage Voip device, AND installing a Hawking Qos device my voip phone calls have been somewhat more reasonable. Still get echo on calls, but seldom drop calls now. Last night however, someone attempted to call me 4 times and kept getting a busy signal and was unable to leave a message because the call answer was not kicking in.
After calling Vonage this morning it was determined that the Qos of my internet provider was the most likely cause. You see, Vonage has little to do with your voip success, as they supply you with a device and the rest of it is dependent on a consistent reliable internet service.
Naturally I called Cogeco to report my trouble and while on the phone with tech support they ran their usual tests. Out of the few tests they ran while on the phone they showed two of the tests with some miner speed issues. We agreed that these tests are weak at best, as speed is not the only cause of voip failures. We also agreed that tests today do not reflect what was going on last night to cause my voip failures.
Here is what I find disturbing with Cogeco Service and Phone Support and would like to share with everyone.
First let me say that if you DO HAVE a reliable and consistent internet service provider, I see no reason voip technology can't be as good as any other, as some users of voip have no problems.
Phone support at Cogeco wanted me to basically isolate the problem on my own and prove there is one. The usual phone support suggestions were made, remove all the components except the cogeco modem and one computer so you can do tests. After some discussion, Cogeco support admits any test a customer does would not be taken seriously by Cogeco anyway. He went on further to say that Cogeco themselves would have to do their own tests to verify a problem exists.
I asked if there was some kind of test equipment on the market I could buy and hook up my Cogeco wire coming into the house and monitor it this way without anything in the house connected. He said there wasn't such a test device?
So here is where we are right now ..... In-a-loop with Cogeco unwilling and/or unable to isolate this kind of problem. Expects the customer to prove there is a problem, and says there are no tools or tests for a customer to use that would be acceptable to Cogeco. The other disturbing suggestion by Cogeco was that they could send a technician over to do a quick test but that if Cogeco did not find the problem they would send a bill for the service call. Phone support agreed the odds of catching an intermittent problem like the one I am having would be slim to none unless they just happened to show up at the exact time a problem was occurring and still insisted they would have to bill for the service call.
Brilliant !!!
Some of you may wonder why I haven't just simply left Cogeco for another provider ... and if I lived in a larger community with more options I would have been gone long ago.
Does anyone know if there is a high tech device I can put on my Cogeco line coming into my house to monitor the signal to finally figure out once and for all if indeed the Cogeco line is the cause of my occasional voip problems? Are there independent Cable technicians I can hire? |
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Airdog
join:2008-09-10
Windsor, ON | Did you not have techs come over to your house several times without being billed for it? If so, then I don't understand where you're getting that other people will be getting billed.
If your other thread isn't locked, I'd recommend putting this there, because it's completely irrelevant to the average customer with average problems. This is something that has been going on for a very long time, and if this is from a recent call they're probably threatening to charge you for a service trip because they've been out so many times. You probably shouldn't leave out your epic thread and its experiences from this thread.
By the way, if my VOiP is down/busy/etc. I believe that it still goes to the answering service regardless. YMMV. |
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| reply to Airdog
Re: Don't call Cogeco to fix your problem - It could cost you $$ said by Airdog:Did you not have techs come over to your house several times without being billed for it? If so, then I don't understand where you're getting that other people will be getting billed. If your other thread isn't locked, I'd recommend putting this there, because it's completely irrelevant to the average customer with average problems. This is something that has been going on for a very long time, and if this is from a recent call they're probably threatening to charge you for a service trip because they've been out so many times. You probably shouldn't leave out your epic thread and its experiences from this thread. By the way, if my VOiP is down/busy/etc. I believe that it still goes to the answering service regardless. YMMV. Cogeco techs have been out twice, once on the original call but couldn't find anything, the second time to simply replace the modem. Both calls were very short calls. Three other calls placed by Cogeco phone support who recognized a problem from there end resulted in techs cancelling the call and simply refusing to show up saying the problem was to difficult for them to solve or it is a congestion issue or a node split issue. I would be more than willing and very happy to pay for a service call if someone could just solve it. But then again, perhaps it's beyond Cogeco and all cable providers to maintain a consistent internet line quality to support voip 99% of the time?
I believe I have pointed to the original thread for those interested. This is a new problem. The point being, Cogeco for some reason is having a difficult time with this intermittent problem and has thrown their hands up in the air and placed the responsibility on the customer to solve.
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| reply to xeroid2
Re: Don't call Cogeco to fix your problem - It could cost you $$ This is the issue, you may have gotten 1 rep on the phone that may have seen an issue but never again, however they send techs out to verify and not find anything...who would you trust, me personally the techs coming out...they have all the tools onboard to verify everything and from the sounds of it your trusting a rep with computer software that could have glitched and thought you had an issue, if a few support reps have said they seen an issue then I wouldn't be questioning it. |
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 Fireblade
join:2008-08-27
St Catharines, ON
kudos:2
 ·Cogeco Cable
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Not always true, back when I had Pro my speeds were very unstable 9-15Mbits. First tech came out, didn't find anything - second tech stepped in for a minute, said everything was fine. Finally, the third tech checked my line outside and checked the utility box 3 houses down. Turned out everyone in my area that had Pro was getting unstable behavior. Next day I was getting a solid 14.5-15 Mbits consistent. |
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| It all sounds wonderful to have a Cogeco technician come over and hopefully find the problem, however, with Cogeco Phone Support Threatening they will charge for any service call that a technician does not find a problem is insane. I wouldn't mind right now paying someone who can actually fix this problem ... I'm willing to do that!
We all know that with a difficult intermittent problem, and the different skill levels of different technicians at Cogeco, odds are it could take many calls to find this problem.
It's just down right nasty and speaks volumes of how Cogeco is totally mismanaging this ongoing problem I am experiencing!
Does anyone know of an independent cable technician I can hire or a high tech device I can monitor my Cogeco connection with? |
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Fireblade
join:2008-08-27
St Catharines, ON
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Cogeco Cable
1 edit | reply to xeroid2
My Vonage experience with Cogeco for internet has been pretty solid. I did have a lot of issues concerning voice quality, I had to tweak the QoS settings on my router and enable SPI. Through a direct connection you should not have a single problem unless it's on Cogeco's end or a faulty Vonage unit. Line -> Modem -> Vonage Router. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Vonage router, those things are garbage - I wouldn't take one for free. |
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 IHMPremium,VIP
join:2001-12-18
Hamilton, ON | reply to xeroid2
Re: Don't call Cogeco to fix your problem - It could cost you $$ said by xeroid2: Last night however, someone attempted to call me 4 times and kept getting a busy signal and was unable to leave a message because the call answer was not kicking in. After calling Vonage this morning it was determined that the Qos of my internet provider was the most likely cause. You see, Vonage has little to do with your voip success, as they supply you with a device and the rest of it is dependent on a consistent reliable internet service. Vonage is full of horse pucky and are stringing you along by blaming Cogeco. Call answer and a busy signal (likely a fast busy) has NOTHING to do with your local internet connection. Not unless there's some sort of magic answering machine in your Vonage VOIP router (for clarity, there isn't).
I suggest you start ranting at Vonage and not Cogeco. They are likely the root of all of your problems.
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2 Large Bunnies...1 Dead Penguin |
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Fireblade
join:2008-08-27
St Catharines, ON
kudos:2 | reply to xeroid2
VIOP is kind of a shady business, if you don't get it through your ISP you're pretty much SOL when it comes to support. |
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| reply to Fireblade
said by Fireblade:My Vonage experience with Cogeco for internet has been pretty solid. I did have a lot of issues concerning voice quality, I had to tweak the QoS settings on my router and enable SPI. Through a direct connection you should not have a single problem unless it's on Cogeco's end or a faulty Vonage unit. Line -> Modem -> Vonage Router. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Vonage router, those things are garbage - I wouldn't take one for free. I have mine set up Line -> Modem -> Vonage ... and the Vonage V-Portal has been replaced. |
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| Last night however, someone attempted to call me 4 times and kept getting a busy signal and was unable to leave a message because the call answer was not kicking in.
Does Cogeco house the voice mail no
Does Vonage house the voice mail yes
But somehow you think this failure that the call that never reached you and never went to the Vontage voice mail is a Cogeco problem.
Keep paying Vonage they love you |
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| said by Bucknet:Does Cogeco house the voice mail no Does Vonage house the voice mail yes It is my understanding that the quality of your internet connection can certainly cause these problems to occur. These are not the only problems if you read the original post. You have to have a consistent internet connection to get to any voice mail. |
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