O Canada! > Canadian > TekSavvy > [DSL] Future Shop, Best Buy, Source shutting out TekSavvy?

[DSL] Future Shop, Best Buy, Source shutting out TekSavvy?

In Europe or the US, this sort of thing might prompt an investigation by an agency responsible for trade or competition. I'm not holding my breath in Canada.

First off The Source is owned by Bell, so absolutely no surprise. You basically went to a Bell store to ask for a 3rd party modem.

Second Futureshop+bestbuy are the same company, so really it's only that one retail chain doing this.

That said, it's not ok if Bell + Rogers has an agreement requirement in a contact that prevents selling Modems for 3rd party provider use.

That part is plain wrong.

reply to Peachy
Buy from good stores like canadacomputers. Futureshop, bestbuy, source are usually way overpriced.

reply to Peachy
This is not new. For as long as I can remember, the Big Box/Chain type stores, etc. have never really carried standard Dsl modems.

I do know that Staples is currently selling 1 wireless N Dsl modem/Router combo which will work with any Dsl provider. It's the Netgear DGN2200-100PA N300 and it's $99.99
--
Ian Barnes - CEO/SofSwitch Communications

reply to BTC Kevin
Honestly I don't care who owns what, the bottom line here is that the consumer gets screwed, fair market competition becomes non- existent, and you and I end up living in anything but a democracy. I for one plan to do something about it, starting with complaining loudly to the CRTC and the Competition Board. I hope all of you are also familiar with Openmedia.ca - a strictly volunteer consumer group who are trying bring Canadians together to fight these cartels (in other words, unpaid workers doing the CRTC's job for them.)

reply to Peachy
Um, »www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/···eIndex=1

Quite frankly I'm surprised Futureshop/BB carry a stand alone modem. The Incumbenst own a huge majority of the ISP consumer market (95%?) in Canada and they all provide you the CPE equipment you need to connect over their last mile. So there's really no market for selling CPE equipment other than home networking. Who ever told you those two retail chains have an agreement was talking out of their ass (pardon my French).

Also, a nation's political system doesn't necessarily imply it's economic system.

reply to Peachy

reply to Peachy
All three sell DSL modems not sourced by a provider. Just go to each site and search on 'modem' to see what each offers. Just skip over the FAX/POTS/CABLE/CELLULAR modems.

The Source »www.thesource.ca/estore/Search.a···agenum=0
Future Shop »www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/category···489.aspx
BestBuy »www.bestbuy.ca/Search/SearchResu···e-WideSP

reply to TypeS
To TypeS - Re your last line, I think it's the other way around; you might want to look at the definition of oligarchy.
And thanks for showing me Future Shop's DSL modem - although it is web only, and I was in one of their stores and told categorically they didn't carry DSL modems. Not that they were, for example, out of them. Same thing at the Source and Best Buy. And it was a salesperson who told me about these 'agreements with Rogers and Bell' verbatim.
All I'm saying here, feeling here, is that this isn't ok with me. None of it - not this, the bandwidth caps, the extortionary cellphone charges and above all, a government that enables it.

An oligarchy also has little do with the type of political system used... again you are going way off on an unrelated tangent.

Lets keep this to economics shall we. The fact that they carry it period, means the store rep that spoke to you knew nothing about what he was speaking about. Floor staff wouldn't know anything about the dealings of corporate management to begin with.

As for online store only, again, read the part where I said the incumbent ISPs own as much as 95% of the consumer ISP market, big box retailers don't want to bother stocking a product that would only appeal to 5% of the market (and even then, how much of that 5% goes out and buys their owns versus buying directly from the third party ISP?).

There's nothing fishy here.

reply to Peachy
Notwithstanding, this was, in fact my experience two days ago, chapter and verse. The fact that it would even occur to this guy to say such a thing at least gives me pause.

Perhaps that's because of the overwhelming evidence of something very fishy about the telecom cartel and it's stranglehold on the consumer and apparently, the government. And if you think you can have a discussion about the big three telecoms, and leave the government out of it, Id be interested to hear that point of view.

You're mincing words and over generalizing now.

What I meant was that just because we're a Democratic Republic doesn't imply market or economic styles. You can have Democracy & Socialism (look @ Europe) or Democracy and Capitalism (look @ U.S.). You could even have Democracy and Communism (although the later is usually occurs under a Dictatorship). I think for someone who tried to tell me to go look the definition of a word not really related to the topic at hand, you need to educate yourself a bit the differences between politics and economics.

In any case, all three stores you brought up have DSL modems listed in their inventory, so this thread is moot point.

reply to polkaroo
Most people sign up with incumbents and in most cases, the incumbent-provided modems are non-optional so there is practically no retail market for modems... only the ~7% of people who are on TPIAs who wouldn't buy from most major retail stores anyway due to inflated prices.

When I bought my ST516, I had to file a special order because my local computer store did not stock them - not enough sales to justify the stock devaluation risk.

reply to TypeS

reply to Peachy
Yea big issues with modem sales and how the consumer gets led to believe by Bell/Rogers/Shaw that only the ISP provided gateway(all in one with a backdoor) will work.
Plus that scam(illegal charge) of forcing a Bhell rental modem charge even if you don't use theirs.
Wasn't it Bell who gushed on how technology changes and thats why you are forced to pay a rental fee? so Bell can just swap it out later. Below the line fees are criminal. Advertise one price and the user gets bill shock later with the extra monthly fees.

56K modems? In some cases were manufactured 3 to 7 years ago and are sitting in a warehouse and might get a firmware update.

Cable modems? Well sure you can use your own, but then the ISP forces(may or not) their own firmware into it for compatibility and a nice backdoor functionality and connection protocols, but ooooopsy they bricked your unit and then claim to be not responsible for their damage to your unit, even though they allow other hardware.

ADSL modems? As long as you know the connection numbers (like VCI.35 for Bell and VCI.33 for Telus) you can use practically anything.
VDSL modems/gateways are basic as well. Bell does have an issues with two different chipsets on their street hardware, so you have to know that for stability.

Antenna strength on ISP gateways can suck because of the firmware. Having issues with an ISP gateway can suck extra hard and lead to frustration and angry calls to support along with multiple gateway change outs.

Online suppliers have plenty of modems as they may basically ship direct from the maker and they just process the order.

Forcing a 100% 'only ISP issued modem' could create a legal issue, due to security issues of the 3 backdoors that are in the ISP gateways.
Imagine a business with an ISP gateway and it somehow gets a reset signal and now in come the war drivers and all that private data goes out. The business blames the ISP and the ISP claims section 483748.45.534 of the end user agreement says that their fault is not their fault and don't even dare suing for negligence because nyanyanya.
Spoofing your way into a cable gateways backdoor controls may or may not be easy, and a DSL gateways backdoor is a bit harder. But products have holes and people will find them. Security is an endless game.

Its like trying to buy an unlocked call phone without any ties to a carrier. Some carriers resellers you just don't want to deal with as they will push you into a locked down phone and a contract and other shit. Telus smartphones(samsung) are pretty clean, but Bell and Rogers pile on many things that are meant to tie into your TV or social crap-working sites and that crap is not needed.
People then 'root' their phones to clear the junk and invalidate warranty. Many people don't know technology and they can only afford a subsidized phone and then get a new one 3 years later. Apple people get phones every 6 months or so because 'new Iphone came out'.

Disclaimer: The backdoor is for the ISP to update firmware for network compatibility and to also allow for remote resets/changes of settings. In some cases the backdoor can be used by call support to tunnel into your computer to 'assist' you with computer settings. Only victims allow an unidentified person(computer skills diploma?) to access their computer to 'fix' things.
ISP's will deny that they can access your local area network(LAN) [see past 2 sentences] while at the same time stating the I.D. of every device behind the ISP supplied gateway.

,
By the way, check out who owns all the media in Canada. Who owns all these big stores. Who runs the CRTC. Who owns certain politicians.
Then scream and then try to pass the information on to anyone who doesn't call you a crackpot for alerting people to the corruption and collusion by a few Rich people who own you.

Actually there is plenty of modems in the Bigbox stores, that dlink earlier multiple netgear combo gateways etc.. Sure they don;t have a cheapy 20 dollar one but its not like they have none.
--
Every time Someone leaves Sympatico an Angel gets its wings.

reply to Peachy