TekSavvy → [DSL] Changing LEC to TekSavvy w/existing DSL

I have a bit of a "unique" setup currently with my TekSavvy DSL service, and am wondering how such a change would need to be processed.

I have a Residential TekSavvy DSL account currently at a friend's place. They have 3 business lines with Bell in the business names. Line 1 has their existing business DSL service attached to it, while as far as their Bell account is concerned, line 2 and 3 are voice services only. When I setup my residential TekSavvy DSL service, I noted that the wiring from the junction box at the side of the house could physically handle a new "Dry Gas" line since it was a CAT-5 line with only 3 active pairs, but couldn't justify paying the band rate fee.

With their permission, I used their business fax line (line 3) that already ran into the house to host the DSL service both because it meant not having to pay the dryloop fee, and because it would use a part of that phone line that they didn't. It seemed to be a "win-win" scenario.

The twist is that they started using my wireless network because it was easier with the way the house was setup and immediately fell in love with the 5.12Mbit DL / 0.68-0.98Mbit UL (actual avg) speeds on a promised 5Mbit DL / 0.80Mbit UL line as compared to their 0.75-1.32Mbit DL / 0.51Mbit UL on a promised 3Mbit DL / 0.80Mbit UL line. When I mentioned the difference between what they're currently paying for their existing services and what the TekSavvy website showed the price would be for the exact same services (except the same DSL speeds) and only mean the only change would be the bill and the PPPoE login in the modem, they took great interest in saying "Hello TekSavvy!"

The unique thing here is that it would be a Bell *business* account in one name for the LEC for line 3, over to TekSavvy with an already existing *residential* DSL service in a completely different name already active on the line. I know that there's a fee ($65 I think) for changing the LEC with an existing account, but would I:

A) be subject to this fee when the LEC is changing to TekSavvy?

and

B) would I still require the same order form to transfer the existing DSL service over, or would that be covered because the new LEC is you?

Hello there,

I apologize, currently we are not offering business telephone. If we were to request a port of a business number it would be rejected. We could possibly try and request a new residential number but with the current lines being business I cannot guarantee that this would be approved either.

If we were able to provide you with a new residential number there would be a fee of 50.00 to change the number the DSL is on and there would be approximately 5 business days of downtime on the DSL as well.

Thank you,
Keith

My apologies, I have edited my original response to provide a bit more information for you.

I can't exactly say that I'm all that thrilled about that, because I already know that neither TekSavvy nor I would ever hear the end of it if the numbers had to be changed. It's actually kind of really disappointing actually, especially considering that a business having to change their telephone and fax numbers isn't exactly a good thing for business... In fact, it's actually quite harmful to business. There's also the issue with the terms of service and with taxes. In order to be able to claim the telephone lines on the business' taxes in this case, the government requires that the telephone service be in the business name, which would mean that in this case, they are more or less forced to stay with Bell (or Rogers) and have absolutely no wiggle room to be able to switch services.

Why is it that TekSavvy does not offer business lines at all? Is this a restriction imposed by Bell as yet another means of Bell trying to force their proprietary BS down the throats of their customers by forcing them to stay, or is this some sort of internal (and in my opinion, unwise) decision within TekSavvy? I would seem to think that this would be something that they would want to offer just for the simple fact of being able to provide the better service at the better prices to businesses as well would be reason enough to lure many businesses away from Bell, therefore generating a substantial amount more money into TekSavvy's pocket, rather than Bell's.

As for the 5-days of downtime, quite frankly, there would have to be another way. For the purposes of what that internet connection is used as a backbone for, such an outage would have great potential to become very expensive. There's simply got to be another way. Bell is absolutely unreasonable, over-priced, and frankly, doesn't give a crap about their customers. It's sad enough to say that a promised line speed of 3Mbit DL / 0.80Mbit UL with an 80GB bandwidth cap runs for just under $90/mo (before taxes), when my 5/0.8 line with a 300GB bandwidth cap only comes with an affixed price tag of just under $40 (including tax), but to make a paying customer have to be without internet for 5 business days?! Are you guys nuts, or is Bell just way more (censored) evil than I once thought?

Don't get me wrong though, I definitely intend on keeping my services with TekSavvy because in the long while that I've been with you guys, you've always been good to me, and have NEVER given me any reason to discontinue my services, I'm just greatly disappointed and unsettled by this information. I would suggest that if TSI Andre sees this post, he takes this feedback and puts it forward to being able to make the migration for business accounts possible, as this news comes as a great disappointment to at least 3 existing TekSavvy customers that I know of.

ATTENTION TSI Marc:

This is another example of exactly what I'm talking about. I've posed questions here for TSI as I want an explanation as to why, but apparently, this falls "outside what TekSavvy offers", so it seems their policy is to just IGNORE it.

This is a GREAT way for TekSavvy to piss off customers just like Bell has and make them give you guys the proverbial one-finger salute and take their business elsewhere. This whole shady business of IGNORING your customers has got to stop! I'm not happy and I'm starting to think that there's a reason WHY you guys are so much cheaper than Bell... You get what you pay for... Cheaper service means being IGNORED as a customer, and this is NOT COOL!

(EDIT: Added comment)

Let's also not forget that when I called TekSavvy after having subscribed to a /29 IP Subnet, the only thing I was told was "we don't support that"... If you guys don't offer the support behind the products you sell, why in the hell are you even selling them in the first place?! This is outrageous and is really making me start to re-think my opinion of TekSavvy. Very quickly you guys are starting to categorize yourselves as a cheaper version of BELL... It seems you're pulling all the same BS as them, such as ignoring your customers, and "not supporting" your own products and services. Something needs to be addressed here and FAST!

Hello again,

We do not offer business phone, we never have. Honestly I'm not sure why that is but I will ask around and see if I can find more information on that for you.

As far the possible downtime on the DSL. We can request the change for the same day or the next day. However, this is treated like an activation of the DSL on the new number. Bell requires 5 business days notice to activate DSL service for us and typically will reject an order if the phone number in question is not yet active.

Now I understand completely that changing a business number is not an easy thing to do and can hurt the business. I also understand that a week without the Internet is certainly not preferred. My previous post was not intended to be a "Okay here's how it works, let's do this!"

It clearly would not be an easy, or even an advised transition. However I didn't not want to simply tell you no. So instead I layed out the ways that it might be possible (again there is a possibility that Bell won't let us put residential service on the line since it is currently business) however unappealing the possibilities may be.

Again, I'll see if I can find an answer on the lack of business phone for you and let you know what I find.

Thank you,
Keith

I'm suspecting that business phone isn't offered as Teksavvy is not a CLEC. You'll have better luck with a real CLEC like MTS Allstream, Fibernetics (they offer free business phone with their PBX solutions), etc.

Tek's POTS phone offerings are done via a WLSF arrangement with Bell, not mandated by the CRTC. It is 100% a resold Bell line. There is no LEC change when you port over to Tek. If I recall correctly, WLSF only covered residential phone service. Since it is not regulated, whatever they offer is purely a business agreement between them and Bell.

- Jason

+1

Sorry MrMazda86 that it took me so long to answer... I have been super busy...

At the end of the day , POTS is a very difficult product to manage compared to our TekTalk solution which also happens to be an in-house product.

We are aiming towards offering a business solution for TekTalk, but we are not fully there yet. Providing your business phone needs meet our beta test criteria, we may be able to bring you on board on some testing

I will send you a PM by end of day with some further details.

Cheers,

Andre

Now that's an answer.

Although the solution of TekTalk being in the works of being rolled out may sound like a solution, it would not be a workable solution if the numbers had to be changed.

The other issue we would have to deal with is that TekSavvy doesn't offer cable internet in St. George or Brantford, which means that the only option would unfortunately be DSL. This is something that kind of makes me wonder as to whether or not TSI is just being greedy, but sugar coating it to try and hide that from the public.

In light of my recent experience, and my experience in the TekSavvy Direct forum, I am still putting some serious contemplation into taking my business elsewhere on the ground that the business practices that seem to be exercised conflict with that of my personal ethical beliefs.

We dont offer Cable in those areas because of CRTC related issues... we should be able to offer Cable in those areas soon though.

Why do you automatically jump to nefarious reasons why we do or dont do things? Seems to me in looking at any of your posts we've done nothing but try to help you and respond to your questions as best we could.

In particular I can't help but scratch my head when I read about your ethical dilemma... ?

Perhaps my experiences with Bell have left me with a bit of a bitter mindset with respect to some things. Given a number of personal factors for which I do not have any control over (including certain family issues at the time of posting), sometimes the combination of frustrations, bad experiences (not necessarily with TekSavvy), and the stress I am under may make my mind wonder.

I will not discredit TekSavvy in any way with respect to how previous matters have been handled (such as one that was mentioned in one post), since I do not think that the way they were handled was anything but stellar. I will explain some of these factors (as mentioned above) in just a touch more detail, but would rather they stay private. I think it will go a long way in answering both of your questions.

Lastly, as for the responses that I did receive, I cannot say that there has not been a reasonable effort made by any individual person thus far, however there are some aspects which may need a little discussion, just for some clarification. I think it will prove very useful for a number of things.

ok. no worries. those are all valid reasons no doubt...

for us, we keep doing our thing and in general we're very open book around here.. most of the time you just need to ask and the answers will come.

Sent.

Hopefully that helps explain a few things. As for the other threads (including one in the TekSavvy Direct), I only want to get to the root of the problem so that it can be fixed. I also realize that depending on the root cause of the issue, that issue may not be within TekSavvy's control.