Topic 'Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start' in forum 'Canadian Broadband' - dslreports.com

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 01:51:00 EDT

lawrence171 posted : You really have Bell/Telus/Rogers/Primus...etc. to blame for this sort of customer behavior.
--
What I used to be I no longer am... God, why can't you freeze time for my sake?

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:18:26 EDT

Dunlop posted :

said by TSI Marc:

Looks like one less proceeding - »CRTC Transparency: Great step in the right direction for UBB

I'm starting to like this new chair.

That's awesome. Thanks to you guys I have reasonably priced internet in Quebec, now someone needs to end the madness of our cellular rates!

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:36:34 EDT

TSI Marc posted : Looks like one less proceeding - »CRTC Transparency: Great step in the right direction for UBB

I'm starting to like this new chair.
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Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:25:56 EDT

anon posted :

said by koreyb:

I also feel TSI gets treated badly by BELL and ROGERS cause they dared to stand up to them..

Agreed! Which is why I started in an previous e-mail that whether people choose Start or Teksavvy and leave Bell/Rogers, it's a great choice! We, as the consumers, need to teach Bell/Rogers a lesson and the best way to do that is to speak with our wallets.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:46:26 EDT

TSI Marc posted :

said by elwoodblues:

I think the biggest issue you have Marc, is you give a shit and take pride in the business. :D

I'm a gluten for punishment that's for sure! I feel like most days on here I'm making an ass of myself..

I do care and I do have pride and you'd better have both barrels ready for me if you're planning on challenging me on that.
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:42:56 EDT

TSI Marc posted :

said by koreyb:

said by rocca:

said by koreyb:

Start is also a new startup...

A small correction but we've been around since 1995. Cable is newer for us of course going back to March but we aren't a startup, just terrible at marketing apparently. :)

We are also working hard on the fight against the big guys. I am currently the regulatory chair of CNOC volunteering a lot of time in this journey so we have our neck in the game too. The independents have worked together over the past couple of years and has a result have recently seen some positive change in the industry.

I stand corrected... I only heard of your company once CABLE was offered...

As for fighting the big guys, under CNOC, you're as a group.. TSI put their own direct name on the line going on their own, which I feel has put them on the RADAR more than CNOC.. I could be wrong, but it would appear TSI is seen as more of an enemy.

I think that TekSavvy had been very vocal for many years before CNOC existed. We had the size and we aren't afraid to speak our minds even before social media really took hold. Now, it seems that everybody sees this as simple as breathing air with things like twitter and Facebook... This wasn't so 5 years ago. We saw the problem and saw how we could change it early on and we just didn't quit.

We were happy to just keep delivering great internet with great service, we generally care and so thats really what led us to be so vocal. it was just wrong and it was really obvious to us just how much it was. So after blowing our brains out fighting on our own for a couple years, it became very obvious that we needed help, it was truly sucking the life out of us. That's when we started looking around to drum up support to start CNOC and by then many others were more than eager to help. I don't want to seem like I'm trying to take credit but I think it's fair to say that TekSavvy had a big part to play in getting CNOC setup... By then Rocky had made it his mission.. I think he did a great job too. To some extent, we gave up our voice in order to help prop up or defer to CNOC.. And we were happy to because at that point it had totally consumed every resource we had both financially and our own time.. And our customer service was suffering for it... That's when the slide started to happen in my view...

Since then CNOC has played a major role in fighting at the CRTC.. We would have been completely crushed under the pressure that has since been unleashed by the incumbents. The amount of files open at the CRTC now is staggering. I remember thinking that the 261 was huge.. And it was.. But now it's like 5 of those going on in parallel. So yeah, we're a major member of CNOC, we're a platinum sponsor at the ISP Summit in Toronto in a week or so.. Big fan, we'll be a member for a long time that's for sure. Others should join too, we need the help. Pete is doing great work and so are others, it's not easy work I know that first hand. At some point Pete will want to slow down too.. We'll need help...

So yeah, I don't one bit feel like we're seen as the enemy.. Maybe we are but I think it's more like friendly competition knowing that to some degree we're all in this together. There's a ton of knowledge between us all, it's pretty cool. A bunch of ultra nerds fighting the establishment.
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:30:28 EDT

elwoodblues posted : I think the biggest issue you have Marc, is you give a shit and take pride in the business. :D

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:06:17 EDT

TSI Marc posted : Cool right that's what I was told that it would take a few months... Just about when they run out of IPs.. Hehe
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:05:16 EDT

TSI Marc posted :

said by koreyb:

Start is also a new startup with smaller customer base than TSI has, which I'm sure they will experience growing pains, the same as TSI has. They have some benefits on the cable side, only having to deal with one single interconnect point vs many points of interconnect to manage. I also feel TSI gets treated badly by BELL and ROGERS cause they dared to stand up to them.. (THANKS TSI FOR THAT BTW)

I do have to point out though, TSI needs to get the call centre issues, and customer service fall outs under control here.. Change had to happen, but right now it would appear it's a bit of a mess. When things go wrong for some customers, it's appears REALLY REALLY WRONG. I'm sure START has these issues too with some customers, but it's not making TSI look good and once a bad name is made, it's hard to shake. I can tell you that negative image is starting to show in some common foke, as I've mentioned TSI to some non-TECH types, and they have heard some bad things. This isn't good.

I totally agree. But these issues are not independent of each other... Last year when the DHCP issues we opened up something like a thousand tickets... People were offline for weeks. Some of your reference that today as a primary reason for switching away. Well, that did more than piss you guys off... We hand to handle that extra call load and follow up and emails and all sorts of stuff... How the heck can we staff properly for that? This month we opened up more than 650 DHCP tickets again... We thought wait times would be completely fixed right now, they're better than two months ago but they are still there even though I said on here that it would be fixed...

So... Now we're in the process of opening a second office in Gatineau to staff bilingual techs with the objective to just load way up on techs so that no matter what we can handle the extra volume. Up until now we had trained CSR'S to take some tech calls to prop up the TSR's when needed but then that results in comments that our tech support completely sucks if it happens to be a really savvy customer with a csr who's doing their best to try to help but naturally they're not technical, no matter how much we train them, so it results in a nasty post about how we don't know what we're doing... Mean while our techs very much know what they're doing but we had to add hybrids to the mix to accommodate... So then this leads to a sense that everything has gone for a shit but it really hasn't and we have thousands more people who don't have problems but the squeaky wheel gets the attention.

At the end of the year last year, we decided to go gang busters and just hire more people than we needed knowing that with the growth it would eventually add up.. Then the DHCP and captaincy issues happened and had to put stop sells and it resulted in having to lay those people off.. So that's a ton of wasted resources and lost experience.. The plan was that by this peak season they would have had a years worth of training and we'd be golden... Basically trying to get ahead of the skill gap as a result of the vacuum that gets created when you dilute the corporate knowledge pool so much so quickly..

It's not for lack of trying to get on top of it.. It's not for lack of caring.. Combine that with all these other issues.. It's made it more difficult.

The wait times I think are the number one issue that really causes everything else to snowball. If at least communication stays high while these issues happen, it makes all the difference. It really leaves people feeling like we're part of the problem even though they're offline due to something else completely... You never read that our staff wasn't polite or didn't try to help... You always read that the wait times are long.. Our support sucks because wait times are long. Instead of 'your wait times suck'... Support once I got it, from the people who were intended to take support calls was great, but I can't say that now because I'm too pissed for waiting on hold with that shitty music..

Overall, I feel that the area that we've been the most guilty is simply a lack of focus on the small stuff. We've focused so strongly on all the big problems we were faced with, now those are largely out of the way and properly dealt with. Now it's time to focus on the small stuff, really amp that up and that's what I'm saying we've started to do these last few weeks, that's the stuff I really love and that's the place where I really know how to do that. All I can really say is to stay tuned, I'm bringing it. I think we've learnt a great deal from all of this and now we're in the process of implementing it all and really working with our managers.. Our vendors... Our customers.. To iron out the kinks, I honestly think we're not that far off once the wait times are solved. It may not look like it to some but we have come a long way since last year.. This time last year I'd say was the absolute low point for a number of reasons. It's been getting better since then...

...just random thoughts, I feel regardless like even with frustration, most of you just want us to succeed, I appreciate that and in return, I'm trying to own up, but I do need help. I can't do it alone. We all need to work together and I'm even including people like Pete in there who do great work and together we're slowly changing Canada for the better.
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:42:01 EDT

rocca posted :

said by TSI Marc:

Ah, ok, Gabe sent me a quick note to tell me it had passed...

The vote in the room is a "straw poll" which is taken into consideration by the Advisory Council. It's likely to receive recommendation from them based on the community support shown today. From here it goes to "last call" and once the AC is content then it goes to the Board for approval. It looks well on it's way and not likely to have any troubles at this point but will take a couple months until it's in effect.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:02:57 EDT

TSI Marc posted : Ah, ok, Gabe sent me a quick note to tell me it had passed...
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:20:30 EDT

elwoodblues posted : ??? Teksavvy (at least the grossly outdated sites does) shows TSI as a member.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:09:38 EDT

koreyb posted :

said by rocca:

said by koreyb:

Start is also a new startup...

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:54:25 EDT

rocca posted :

said by koreyb:

Start is also a new startup...

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:35:52 EDT

koreyb posted : Start is also a new startup with smaller customer base than TSI has, which I'm sure they will experience growing pains, the same as TSI has. They have some benefits on the cable side, only having to deal with one single interconnect point vs many points of interconnect to manage. I also feel TSI gets treated badly by BELL and ROGERS cause they dared to stand up to them.. (THANKS TSI FOR THAT BTW)

I do have to point out though, TSI needs to get the call centre issues, and customer service fall outs under control here.. Change had to happen, but right now it would appear it's a bit of a mess. When things go wrong for some customers, it's appears REALLY REALLY WRONG. I'm sure START has these issues too with some customers, but it's not making TSI look good and once a bad name is made, it's hard to shake. I can tell you that negative image is starting to show in some common foke, as I've mentioned TSI to some non-TECH types, and they have heard some bad things. This isn't good.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:29:54 EDT

rocca posted :

said by TSI Marc:

I don't believe that's right... the IPs are assigned the very same way ours are.

Correct, we have the same DHCP setup as disaggregated.

said by TSI Marc:

In fact, ARIN just passed new policies today to accommodate this exact thing for both TPIA and ATPIA

Not quite passed yet, but looks like it will be as it has the community support. I'm here in Dallas for the ARIN meeting and was very impressed by how the community reacted to the policy proposal and our statements for support.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:24:21 EDT

TSI Marc posted :

said by Gone:

said by TSI Marc:

I guess, with respect, I'd ask that ppl keep a perspective on things. From my point of view, inside looking out, it's been one hell of a ride. We're past all of that now. We're doing well. We just need to focus, to get back to what we know best, what we championed for all these years. Nothing has changed in my heart, just that it's been much more difficult for it to show as we were going through the meat grinder.

Growth can be just as much a curse as it is a blessing, particularly when it is rapid. One cannot truly understand that unless they've been through it.

Growth is a factor sure but I think it's more a matter of being a trail blazer.. nobody has gone where we are right now.. a year ago we were right to be frustrated.. now, they're much better, not perfect but better. We played a major part in that... we've gone through very real issues that others haven't and may well never have to because we did..
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:20:18 EDT

TSI Marc posted :

said by mlord:

said by TSI Marc:

we provide them with more IPs almost instantly once they ask us for them... thinking maybe this is a scale thing.. do you guys not see these issues at all?

Please do correct me if wrong here, but I imagine that Pete would have a much easier time, as his DHCP assignments would all go to a single (aggregated) POI, rather than him having to balance them among a multitude of (changing) Red POIs.

Right? Or not?

I don't believe that's right... the IPs are assigned the very same way ours are. In fact, ARIN just passed new policies today to accommodate this exact thing for both TPIA and ATPIA and we played a significant role in highlighting what was wrong with the previous policy...

I believe it's more a matter of how it's being managed.. the more often times various areas run out of IPs, the more often you have to provide them with new ones. I think what's going on is that there's nothing pro-active going on at the other end making sure nothing gets depleted. So until we open a ticket, until they see there are none left, they dont ask us for more... and then we provide them some and they add them.. and then people get back online.

So if you rarely run out of ips since there are many spares still from the initial blocks provided.. you just wont see the problem.
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:30:30 EDT

Gone posted :

said by TSI Marc:

Growth can be just as much a curse as it is a blessing, particularly when it is rapid. One cannot truly understand that unless they've been through it.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:45:30 EDT

mlord posted :

said by TSI Marc:

we provide them with more IPs almost instantly once they ask us for them... thinking maybe this is a scale thing.. do you guys not see these issues at all?

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:29:32 EDT

Dunlop posted :

said by My2CentsST :

Quick note about ditching Bell and maybe applies to Rogers...when I cancelled, they gave me this line about 30 days notice.

I told them that I never agreed to such conditions. They replied it was company policy. I said, they can't impose arbitrary company polices on me without my agreement and it wouldn't hold up in small claims court.

They said that I had agreed. I said show me, and they said it was verbal. I replied, ok replay the recording. Everything is recorded, right? The CRS had to check with her supervisor, came back within 5 minutes and stated that they would waive the 30 days notice.

So, if Bell or Rogers pulls this stunt, challenge it!

They will pull any stunt to nickel and dime you. Years ago when I cancelled Expressvu and paid my balance in full I was told I could not sell my PVR for 60 days..even though I owned it for the entire duration of my subscription.

I escalated up the food chain and when I was annoying enough, the conditition was removed in literally 5 seconds by the supervisor.

On the flip side when I cancelled with Videotron to go with Teksavvy, outside of the obligatory transfer to retentions (who was extremely nice) it was the most painless process.

So they are not all "bad" ;P

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:16:40 EDT

TSI Marc posted : also, for what it's worth, not sure what you're seeing Pete but we've opened more than 650 DHCP tickets this month alone... they're dealing with them much better then late last year but it's still not 100% ideal... we provide them with more IPs almost instantly once they ask us for them... thinking maybe this is a scale thing.. do you guys not see these issues at all?
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:17:19 EDT

TSI Marc posted : hum, that's interesting. good to know.
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Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:15:48 EDT

anon posted : Quick note about ditching Bell and maybe applies to Rogers...when I cancelled, they gave me this line about 30 days notice.

I told them that I never agreed to such conditions. They replied it was company policy. I said, they can't impose arbitrary company polices on me without my agreement and it wouldn't hold up in small claims court.

They said that I had agreed. I said show me, and they said it was verbal. I replied, ok replay the recording. Everything is recorded, right? The CRS had to check with her supervisor, came back within 5 minutes and stated that they would waive the 30 days notice.

So, if Bell or Rogers pulls this stunt, challenge it!

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:44:15 EDT

TSI Marc posted :

said by My2CentsST :

Honestly, I don't see a "refreshing new tone" but I sincerely hope it happens soon. It's important that solid alternatives to Bell and Rogers exist in the marketplace.

Significant events at TekSavvy::

Late last year there were massive DHCP issues that lasted a few months. They eventually adjusted their procedures to better manage this so that people weren't offline for weeks at a time.

»blogs.teksavvy.com/2011/11/18/ca···ontario/
»blogs.teksavvy.com/2011/12/05/ca···ntinued/
»blogs.teksavvy.com/2011/12/29/ho···-issues/

Also later last year and lasting well into this year we could not get any capacity upgrades:

»blogs.teksavvy.com/2012/05/23/ou···r-order/
»blogs.teksavvy.com/2011/11/14/ne···network/
»blogs.teksavvy.com/2011/11/14/de···chedule/
»blogs.teksavvy.com/2011/12/09/ma···ndwidth/

Also late last year the CRTC decision came out:
»blogs.teksavvy.com/2011/11/15/te···2011-77/

We had to reprice nearly every service we have as a result.. did that in Jan.

In feb and march we moved locations which was a huge project:

»blogs.teksavvy.com/2012/04/11/te···he-move/

As a result of the capacity issues we had to layoff some staff in Feb.

Through out all of that we've done a massive amount of rebuilding all of our internal systems.. new web site, portal, web forms, phone system.. on and on.. we've been very busy little bees.

...and, all the mean while this was in the works:

»www.teksavvy.com/en/why-teksavvy···ber-2012

And now, it's only been a few weeks since then..

I guess, with respect, I'd ask that ppl keep a perspective on things. From my point of view, inside looking out, it's been one hell of a ride. We're past all of that now. We're doing well. We just need to focus, to get back to what we know best, what we championed for all these years. Nothing has changed in my heart, just that it's been much more difficult for it to show as we were going through the meat grinder.

I want nothing more than to say "we're back baby!" but I'll let you guys be the judge of that.
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:21:47 EDT

Gone posted :

said by Dunlop:

WTF are you talking about? I said the ethnicity (aka "accent") of the person should never EVER be a factor baring a complete failure to communicate in a language. Canada is multicultural, period.

You made incorrect generalizations about outsourced technical support. I was pointing out how stupid those generalizations were and that believing them to be true is akin to thinking everyone with an accent is from Bangalore.

Understand now?

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:14:51 EDT

Dunlop posted :

said by Gone:

If you ask me, it's the same kind of crap that is along the lines of people who assume anyone they talk to with a South Asian accent must be outsourced support from India. :uhh:

WTF are you talking about? I said the ethnicity (aka "accent") of the person should never EVER be a factor baring a complete failure to communicate in a language. Canada is multicultural, period.

Or to break it down, pretty much the opposite of what you are accusing me of.

Obviously my reference for outsourced call centers was about companies that do send them overseas. How would someone even know if a company outsourced inside Canada?

Anyhoo, don't want to derail the thread anymore than I have.

To the OP,

I've used Teksavvy and now Electronicbox without issue. I think Videotron plays nice in Quebec because my buddy in Ontario is going though a nightmare with his connection (not Teksavvy but another IISP that I can't recall). I hope eventually the incumbants are held more accountable

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:45:33 EDT

bestjsg posted : I just 'started' using 'Start' yesterday, so far so good, I even got a call from them this morning asking how my transfer is going and if I have any problems. I must have received 3-4 calls from the day I signed up until today, might have been a bit too many IMO but it makes me feel like a valued customer.

Sorry don't have experience with TEK mainly because of their initial upfront fees and a -ve phone conversations 3 yrs ago when I inquired about switching.

BTW, I originally have Bell 5MB DSL, was working fine, leaving because of it's slow speed and low cap, switched to Rogers 18 MB with a good price but although they say they don't cap p2p traffic, they do. so now finally switched to Start...and need to figure out how to return the modems back to Bell and Rogers.. :-)

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:24:36 EDT

anon posted : I switched from Bell to Start this month and my experience are similar, if not the exact same as the OP. It's been wonderful thus far and has completely exceeded my expectations.

Regardless of which company you choose, I'm always urging people to ditch Bell or Rogers. I have a couple of friends who are on Rogers and I've convinced them to leave.

Interestingly, they're experiencing the same issues as the OP with speeds slowing to a crawl and the inability to stream videos from YouTube, etc. They're on the higher speed Rogers package and I'm on Start's 6 mb service. The kicker is, we all live live within a few blocks from each other. Their suspicion is that Rogers is throttling or packet shaping. I'm happy to report that with Start, I don't have any of that.

Anyway, I do like Teksavvy's packages and the pricing is competitive. I was all ready to sign up. However, the consistent negative experiences that I've read here and other forums regarding Teksavvy did impact my decision is in a big way.

Honestly, I don't see a "refreshing new tone" but I sincerely hope it happens soon. It's important that solid alternatives to Bell and Rogers exist in the marketplace.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:00:07 EDT

Gone posted :

said by Dunlop:

The biggest problem with outsourced call centers is that the employees are following scripts and are generally unable to go outside this box as they have no exposure to the product they are supporting (It's pretty hard for someone in India to use teksavvy (I know they don't outsource) or even know what Bell/Rogers is), this is at the cost of Canadian jobs to line the pockets of shareholders period. As the highest paying people in the world for these services there is no reason they should ever be outsourced

1. Not all outsourced call centres are in India. There are *plenty* of them in Canada.
2. People who do tech support at an outsourced call centre don't use scripts any more than insourced support for that same company would.

In other words, your entire view on the subject is, quite honestly, crap. If you ask me, it's the same kind of crap that is along the lines of people who assume anyone they talk to with a South Asian accent must be outsourced support from India. :uhh:

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:49:07 EDT

Dunlop posted :

said by Upsidedown :

Anyways, back to the topic. Accent or not, CSRs MUST be able to communicate properly. The biggest problem with offshore call centers is that, inability to communicate properly. If the OP was frustrated, plus if he or her has never heard that particular accent before, its not too hard to imagine communication breakdown and why the OP thought Tek's call center was outsourced/ offshore. But, I most certainly hope that Teksavvy isn't hiring visible minority because they HAVE to.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 01:24:14 EDT

Quake110 posted : The problem with outsourced call centres is that they don't comprehend the culture with whom they're speaking with, which frustrates customers.
In return, when they hear an accent from a Canadian agent, they unfortunately automatically think it's an outsourced call centre.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:34:23 EDT

eeeaddict posted : oh ok I knew tsi and start were on different tarrifs but I didn't know they were so restrictive

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 22:48:36 EDT

Davesnothere posted :

said by elwoodblues:

said by nitzguy:

To Start: Could you not use, on "Canada's Most Unreliable Network?"....

Fixed it

:D

= = = = = = = =

The saving grace is that Rogers (or whoever) cannot stop any of US from interpreting/clarifying posts made by Mister Rocca, so that any time he says 'Red', and really wanted to say , WE can remind the other readers that he means Robbers - or GOUGEco, BH#$ELL, or whoever, as the case may become in the future, Conan.

= = = = = = = =

Actually, Rogers has treated me OK, as far as cellular service goes.

The main thing which they (and all of the other incumbents) could/should do to make us happier is charge us le$$, even in the smaller communities where there is not as much competition to force their hands.

Yeah, I know - "Dream ON, Dave !" :huh:

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:47:41 EDT

TSI Marc posted : We don't discriminate... My point was only to say that to hire 300 people you probably go through 500-1000 resumes and the odds of not having any minorities apply and qualify, as well as any other person... Is slim. To have a place this size, and to have none.. Would seem odd to me. In a place like Toronto, it would seem even more odd to me since its more multicultural than Chatham is. I'd be wondering who's doing the hiring...
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:33:25 EDT

elwoodblues posted :

said by nitzguy:

To Start: Could you not use, on "Canada's Most Unreliable Network?"....
.

Fixed it

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:05:14 EDT

anon posted :

said by nitzguy:

Agreed. But most people live in their own bubble unfortunately...

If the OP lives in a metropolitan area, yeah I'd agree with you. HOWEVER, that's a big however, its a matter of exposure. If the OP lives in or came from one of those towns that has nothing but white ppl, then everybody that isn't white would be considered to be "foreign". You can teach them diversity, but if they have never seen it then whats the point? Its like learning Chinese from a book, you can try as hard as you can, its still half baked at the end.

Anyways, back to the topic. Accent or not, CSRs MUST be able to communicate properly. The biggest problem with offshore call centers is that, inability to communicate properly. If the OP was frustrated, plus if he or her has never heard that particular accent before, its not too hard to imagine communication breakdown and why the OP thought Tek's call center was outsourced/ offshore. But, I most certainly hope that Teksavvy isn't hiring visible minority because they HAVE to.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:59:27 EDT

nitzguy posted :

said by Gone:

said by Upsidedown :

Yeah but the average consumer doesn't know where the phone support is actually located.

And to them I say - too fucking bad. Half of the people someone encounters on a day-to-day basis in a place like Toronto are going to have an accent on some level or another. People who think that an accent means foreign support need to grow up and take a look around the world they live in before being acting like such an ignoramus.

Agreed. But most people live in their own bubble unfortunately...Ah Ali....where are you my friend, always gives me a chuckle when he said "Cable Vandals sir"....literally we had an outage on devil's night one year because I guess some kid or teenager thought it'd be fun to go into a few pedestals and snip all the wires off....

The customer called back and got me and I told him the same thing....Vandals sir, you know, Vandalism...oh well, you can't please everyone...

In the context of the OP, this was on the BLUE Network...

To Start: Could you not use, on "Canada's Reliable Network?"....
I've looked at start in the past being a TSI sub, but I can't swallow that $95 startup fee...and they don't offer Cable where i live...

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:45:07 EDT

dillyhammer posted : I think it's probably prudent to distance yourselves from the ~~peckerwoods~~ incumbents anyways. I don't know why CNOC is opposed. If they were smart, they would have been the one applying for the language. Of course, that would require thinking outside the box.

To that end, I'm shocked that no-one on the indy side had applied for, or has asked for inclusion of, language that forbids the ~~fuckwads~~ incumbents from saying indy services aren't as fast as theirs, or are otherwise somehow hobbled.

And by ~~peckerwoods~~ ~~fuckwads~~ incumbents I mean red, blue, yellow, purple, striped, polka-dotted, whatever.

Mike
--
Cogeco - The New UBB Devil -»[Burloak] Usage Based Billing Nightmare
Cogeco UBB, No Modem Required - »[Niagara] 40gb of "usage" while the modem is unplugged

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:38:48 EDT

rocca posted :

said by eeeaddict:

I never got why start isn't allowed to say the name of the company they do business with

In the new tariffs there is language that prohibits using the name in conjunction with our service, so saying we have the same speed as x or that we are available in x territory is not allowed (and we have received a 'friendly notice' from x reminding us of such). Technically we likely are able to say that a problem was due to x but that never solves anything so we try to stay away from that too. Cogeco has applied to have similar language added to their tariffs which CNOC has opposed but there is no ruling yet.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:34:02 EDT

geokilla posted : Where are you located OP? I've had troubles with Teksavvy prior to Start being around. However since all the upgrades happened, I can finally get the service I'm paying for. Though I don't recommend Teksavvy anymore and I would push friends and people to go to Start, because they're on APOI, and it's actually cheaper than Teksavvy last I checked.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:59:09 EDT

Gone posted :

said by Upsidedown :

Yeah but the average consumer doesn't know where the phone support is actually located.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:39:42 EDT

anon posted : Yeah but the average consumer doesn't know where the phone support is actually located. To a good majority of people out there, heavy accent = outsourced call center, which automatically equals bad service. Hence the apparent need for domestic call centers.

As to Marc's point, DSLr may be a great place for technical discussions, it shouldn't be replacement for actual support (remember that time when DSLr went down?). Also, things kinda get off topic real fast when it comes to any sort of non-tech related stuff, like reviews and opinions. Notice how ppl jumped on the call center thing?

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:23:16 EDT

TSI Marc posted : ...and of course we don't outsource anything. We're all in Chatham.
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:16:47 EDT

TSI Marc posted : Yup, we don't have many people with accents but we do have some. It's actually the law too.. hehe if you walk into a place that has 300 employees and zero of them are visible minorities. Pretty sure something else would be going on there. We've got just about all walks who work for us and that's the way it should be. We're very inclusive and we make it a point of it. Recently I defended one of our own here on DSLr who has an accent. Great employee, hard worker willing to go the extra mile, he cares. That's what I like to see.
--
Marc - CEO/TekSavvy

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:09:31 EDT

Gone posted :

said by rogersmogers :

I'm going to comment on the above quote. Accents have NOTHING to do with if a call centre is outsourced or not. This is Canada we have people from all over the world living here and looking for jobs and those who are willing to work in a call centre are welcome. Some may have accents, yep guess what we all have accents. Using that to judge where a call centre is located is not only dumb it will always fail for you.

I did phone support at various different companies for years when I was younger. I remember one evening a guy from the US calls in and gets my buddy with an accent. The customer then immediately freaks out about outsourced Indian support and hangs up. Guy calls right back, gets another guy sitting right next to my friend, the customer goes on about how wonderful US support is to which the guy says, "Yeah, you were speaking with so and so, he's sitting right next to me. Want to talk to him again?"

Customer shut up real good and fast after that.

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:36:20 EDT

Guru posted :

said by rogersmogers :

said by DoubleEXP :

I called in for support. Pretty long wait times, got someone (who had a heavy accent, Tek doesnt outsource? How am I supposed to believe that?)

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:46:45 EDT

anon posted :

said by DoubleEXP :

I called in for support. Pretty long wait times, got someone (who had a heavy accent, Tek doesnt outsource? How am I supposed to believe that?)

Re: Differences between Teksavvy and Start

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:12:01 EDT

eeeaddict posted : I never got why start isn't allowed to say the name of the company they do business with but others can straight up badmouth rogers (ie teksavvy :D )?