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uniqs
1769

MDPS
@bell.ca

MDPS

Anon

Cogeco losing business clients... to Bell (!)

If anyone at the top of Cogeco's marketing or financial department cares, they're losing a large amount of potential customers with their expensive business packages to Bell Canada.

I recently spoke with a sales associate who informed me that the cheapest package business package available with a static IP is $110.

With Bell, the cheapest package available with a static IP is around $75.

That difference is a no brainer for people shopping and hoping to bundle with their business lines, as it's $40 after bundling.

Why should this be a big deal for Cogeco?

... around the beginning of the year, our provincial government changed how medical practices in Ontario receive their internet. They're migrating from the eHealth solution (Bell) to the internet provider of their choice. I'm not talking about 1 or 2 practices per city, I'm talking about practically all the medical practices and dental surgeons in Ontario.

The bulk of them had VPN access provided by eHealth and wish to retain that functionality, and on the eHealth suggested list of prerequisites is a static IP address. Companies like Practice Solutions, a subsidiary of the Canadian Medical Association, who provide medical software, are also requiring a static IP.

So far, this month, I've migrated 17 practices to Bell Business Internet in my city alone. They simply email, look up a few things online and the speed differences can't be sold to them. Hey, I prefer your local technical support as much as the next guy but the price... sorry, that's the bottom line for companies. They're migrating from a free service (no doubt funded by our taxes) to a fee based service, so they're obviously going to go with the cheapest option.

Just an FYI for those at Cogeco concerned with growing with customers. (My personal stake in this, is that I'd rather call Cogeco for support rather than Bell)

None of the above is made-up, Cogeco representatives can try cold calling (in person) to local medical practices and enquire as to how recently they switched to whoever their internet provider is and how happy they are. There will be a trendable pattern.
profets
join:2010-01-14

profets

Member

Funny, I've been working with a few medical offices, and have been setting them up with lines from Bell and Cogeco for redundancy.

We have had a HORRIBLE experience with Bell. And I really didn't see much of a price difference. Bell with the 12mbps is $115 before tax ($50 internet, $25 static ip and $40 for guaranteed 12mbps speed). Cogeco Business Standard is $120 ($100 + $20 for static IP). You seem to be putting a huge emphasis on price, but in that manner you're comparing 6mbps/800 from bell to 16mbps/1 from cogeco. Add $20 to bell to get 7-10mbps and $40 to get 12-16mbps. Once you do that the pricing is the same.

On the same day we had installations scheduled for both bell and cogeco. I wasn't able to physically be at the office so I left a sheet requesting some info I wanted from the install tech, static ip info among a few other things, along with my number. The bell tech came, brought a 2wire router instead of a simple modem which we had requested, refused to write any info on the paper related to the static ip, and left the internet not working. Cogeco brought a modem and a cisco router, the tech not only filled out details I needed but called me and explained everything clearly as well. I spent hours in hell trying to talk to bell reps in india trying to get the internet fixed and trying to find out the static ip info. The best I could get from them was telling me to go into command windows in windows and type ipconfig (which was not only useless in terms of finding my static wan ip, but useless that I told them I was using a Mac). For a business office, the support from bell is horrible, at least with Cogeco I'm quickly able to get to someone more local.

I could go on with stories from Bell related to business accounts. Just seems too often and too painful to even bother with them. I get wanting to save money, even if it was a $20-40 difference, having to deal with bell for any support whatsoever is just insane.

By the way, I didn't realize that eHealth was going away. The few connections I've seen from eHealth in these offices seemed brutally slow, around 1mbps.

xbell
@cgocable.net

xbell

Anon

said by profets:

The bell tech came, brought a 2wire router instead of a simple modem which we had requested, refused to write any info on the paper related to the static ip, and left the internet not working.

As you probably know Bell Canada uses contractors for their installs, Bell Technical Solutions, there is little if any accountability for the tech short of drilling a hole through a gas line and blowing up the building. I hear the same stories from Bell customers over and over. Cogeco techs, and their install contractors, will at least have some semblance of responsibility to providing the basics to the customer if requested.

dillyhammer
START me up
Premium Member
join:2010-01-09
Scarborough, ON

dillyhammer

Premium Member

said by xbell :

Cogeco techs, and their install contractors, will at least have some semblance of responsibility to providing the basics to the customer if requested.

The Cogeco techs I've had out to my home over the last 3 years have been superb. I had 1 that was a little off, but having 14 hours of work and 8 hours to do it in will put anyone off - so he wasn't superb, just ... ok. The rest were terrific, and 1 in particular was outstanding.

As an aside, Marcer on DSLr has also been awesome, helped me in a few spots as needed. Also outstanding.

Mike

Farchord
Lost somewhere.
join:2004-08-28
Shawinigan, QC

Farchord

Member

said by dillyhammer:

said by xbell :

Cogeco techs, and their install contractors, will at least have some semblance of responsibility to providing the basics to the customer if requested.

The Cogeco techs I've had out to my home over the last 3 years have been superb. I had 1 that was a little off, but having 14 hours of work and 8 hours to do it in will put anyone off - so he wasn't superb, just ... ok. The rest were terrific, and 1 in particular was outstanding.

As an aside, Marcer on DSLr has also been awesome, helped me in a few spots as needed. Also outstanding.

Mike

As far as I'm concerned, Cogeco's customer service has always been impeccable. Not the little man's fault for the overall company's policies

urbanriot
Premium Member
join:2004-10-18
Canada

urbanriot to profets

Premium Member

to profets
said by profets:

By the way, I didn't realize that eHealth was going away. The few connections I've seen from eHealth in these offices seemed brutally slow, around 1mbps.

Here in Niagara, that's absolutely true; however I don't think they care even a little, for what their speeds are... or notice.
diskdocx
join:2005-09-26
Burlington, ON

diskdocx to MDPS

Member

to MDPS
said by MDPS :

If anyone at the top of Cogeco's marketing or financial department cares, they're losing a large amount of potential customers with their expensive business packages to Bell Canada.

I recently spoke with a sales associate who informed me that the cheapest package business package available with a static IP is $110.

With Bell, the cheapest package available with a static IP is around $75.

That difference is a no brainer for people shopping and hoping to bundle with their business lines, as it's $40 after bundling.

Why should this be a big deal for Cogeco?

... around the beginning of the year, our provincial government changed how medical practices in Ontario receive their internet. They're migrating from the eHealth solution (Bell) to the internet provider of their choice. I'm not talking about 1 or 2 practices per city, I'm talking about practically all the medical practices and dental surgeons in Ontario.

The bulk of them had VPN access provided by eHealth and wish to retain that functionality, and on the eHealth suggested list of prerequisites is a static IP address. Companies like Practice Solutions, a subsidiary of the Canadian Medical Association, who provide medical software, are also requiring a static IP.

So far, this month, I've migrated 17 practices to Bell Business Internet in my city alone. They simply email, look up a few things online and the speed differences can't be sold to them. Hey, I prefer your local technical support as much as the next guy but the price... sorry, that's the bottom line for companies. They're migrating from a free service (no doubt funded by our taxes) to a fee based service, so they're obviously going to go with the cheapest option.

Just an FYI for those at Cogeco concerned with growing with customers. (My personal stake in this, is that I'd rather call Cogeco for support rather than Bell)

None of the above is made-up, Cogeco representatives can try cold calling (in person) to local medical practices and enquire as to how recently they switched to whoever their internet provider is and how happy they are. There will be a trendable pattern.

I don't know. We are on Cogeco, and while I will have to check the bill I don't think it's that bad, and I don't believe Bell is significantly cheaper here. As others have said, once you get to comparable speeds, its essentially a wash.

Furthermore, this is an off the top, 100% tax write off. I don't think most medical practices care about $250 a year, especially when it's covered through a variety of funding sources.

While eHealth is gone (thankfully), there are still a variety of IT related funding streams available for practices using EMRs.

Since you have brought up Practice Solutions, which by the way makes Cogeco's pricing scheme look like the Dollar Store, it was unusable through eHealth's VPN. It is an absolute pig for bandwidth, and even on Cogeco's business line can be a bit boggy. I would not want to try to remote in on a DSL line, period.

Coming back to cost again for a minute, I think our Practice Solution bill runs into the thousands per month. They charge, I think, several thousand just to add a new health care provider, in addition to the monthly service fees. You want to talk about monopolies...

So no, I couldn't care less about a few bucks a month for internet.
profets
join:2010-01-14

profets

Member

said by diskdocx:

I don't know. We are on Cogeco, and while I will have to check the bill I don't think it's that bad, and I don't believe Bell is significantly cheaper here. As others have said, once you get to comparable speeds, its essentially a wash.

Furthermore, this is an off the top, 100% tax write off. I don't think most medical practices care about $250 a year, especially when it's covered through a variety of funding sources.

While eHealth is gone (thankfully), there are still a variety of IT related funding streams available for practices using EMRs.

Since you have brought up Practice Solutions, which by the way makes Cogeco's pricing scheme look like the Dollar Store, it was unusable through eHealth's VPN. It is an absolute pig for bandwidth, and even on Cogeco's business line can be a bit boggy. I would not want to try to remote in on a DSL line, period.

Coming back to cost again for a minute, I think our Practice Solution bill runs into the thousands per month. They charge, I think, several thousand just to add a new health care provider, in addition to the monthly service fees. You want to talk about monopolies...

So no, I couldn't care less about a few bucks a month for internet.

Lol, some great points there. The monthly internet cost is really nothing compared to monthly charges by Practice Solutions or other EMR solutions.

I've worked with several medical offices over the past 10 years with different solutions that have become official through the MOH.. always blows my mind the amount of $$ that are thrown into it and how much these medical offices are charged for these products.
diskdocx
join:2005-09-26
Burlington, ON

diskdocx

Member

said by profets:

said by diskdocx:

I don't know. We are on Cogeco, and while I will have to check the bill I don't think it's that bad, and I don't believe Bell is significantly cheaper here. As others have said, once you get to comparable speeds, its essentially a wash.

Furthermore, this is an off the top, 100% tax write off. I don't think most medical practices care about $250 a year, especially when it's covered through a variety of funding sources.

While eHealth is gone (thankfully), there are still a variety of IT related funding streams available for practices using EMRs.

Since you have brought up Practice Solutions, which by the way makes Cogeco's pricing scheme look like the Dollar Store, it was unusable through eHealth's VPN. It is an absolute pig for bandwidth, and even on Cogeco's business line can be a bit boggy. I would not want to try to remote in on a DSL line, period.

Coming back to cost again for a minute, I think our Practice Solution bill runs into the thousands per month. They charge, I think, several thousand just to add a new health care provider, in addition to the monthly service fees. You want to talk about monopolies...

So no, I couldn't care less about a few bucks a month for internet.

Lol, some great points there. The monthly internet cost is really nothing compared to monthly charges by Practice Solutions or other EMR solutions.

I've worked with several medical offices over the past 10 years with different solutions that have become official through the MOH.. always blows my mind the amount of $$ that are thrown into it and how much these medical offices are charged for these products.

We just recently designed and constructed a new medical office. Once you add 'medical' onto anything, the price skyrockets. A simple sink, once designated for a medical office, becomes a 'wash basin' and all of a sudden is a small fortune. Did you know that there is a special door for an examination room?

Without sounding like I am on a soap box, (most medical professionals are paid well, have job security, have flexibility that most in the work force do not have), I think most people would be surprised at the costs associated with running an office, and the relatively low fees for typical medical procedures.
Hitman05
join:2003-05-26

Hitman05 to profets

Member

to profets
I can attest that Bell has unthinkably bad technical support and error-prone installers.

I work for a company that does IT support for a variety of small and midsize companies. The clients decide their internet providers, and essentially any time we have to interact with Bell, it's a problem. Here are, quite honestly the last few examples:

Client 1: Medium-sized branch office of a larger company. Had Bell DSL, which they had outgrown. Upgraded to a Fibre line. Bell was to leave the current DSL line in service in case there were problems with the Fibre line. Bell assured us the line was ready to go, so we went in to switch them to the Fibre line. Fibre line was missing a media converter and the Bell Cisco router. Took them 3 days to finish the job that was already "finished". Went back in, the line was bad. Took Bell three days to fix it (WHY WAS IT NOT FULLY TESTED???). Went back in, Bell provided us with the wrong static IP information and they had programmed their router with the wrong info. Took them 1 day to fix it. Meanwhile, Bell disconnected the DSL service even though they had specifically been told not to. Thankfully I went in that day and the Fibre was working fine.

Client 2: Small branch office of a larger company. Moving from PPPoE DSL to SDSL. The SDSL line was unreliable for 6 months. Took ages to get Bell to even send a tech to look at the problem.

Client 3: Had PPPoE DSL with static IPs. Bell rep called the client offering them a better deal. Better deal had dynamic IPs but the client (and I assume the Bell rep) didn't know any better and accepted. Client was without inbound email for days until Bell could get their static IP address back.
cog_biz_user
i ruin threads apparently
join:2011-04-19

cog_biz_user to MDPS

Member

to MDPS
Ehealth is not gone. I work for a hospital and can attest to that.
profets
join:2010-01-14

profets

Member

It looks like eHealth is being phased out in some portion anyway. Some office I work with are being asked to change to retail/business internet and will be funded for it until early 2012.
profets

profets to MDPS

Member

to MDPS
Sorry, I have to reply again after some recent fun phone calls.

I've been working with two small offices who have multiple phone lines with Bell. The bills, and dealing with customer service regarding it is an absolute nightmare. It is extremely insane the charges and fees they manage to bill against small businesses. $70/month for a line with no features and crazy long distance charges.

Absolutely terrible service. You'd think at least for a business spending 10K/year with bell (as an example) would be treated a little better in terms of service. Instead it is a call to poor quality voice line with a rep that speaks english as a second language..

Just can't imagine wanting to move any service to bell with this nightmarish support.