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Schvenn
join:2014-10-16
Canada

Schvenn

Member

VMedia a miserable experience

Here's what's happened so far:

We got the unlimited Internet and Unlimited North American calling plan (VoIP).
We bought the modem and the phone adapter for VoIP.

1) They were 3 days late setting us up.

2) They did not port our number correctly and as a result, we lost our phone number of 22 years. Yes, before you ask, I filled out all the paper work, ensured to make it clear to BOTH providers that I was porting the number and did everything I could in order to make sure that this took place. VMedia failed.

3) They did not enter the correct MAC address for our phone into the system and as such, our phone didn't work for an additional 3 days. That's 6 days, altogether.

It gets worse.

4) Every 10 days, on average, we had to call back in because our phone would stop working. Sometimes, we couldn't receive calls. Other times, we couldn't make calls. Other times still, we couldn't use the phone, at all.

5) No less than 6 times in the first 2 months we lost our phone service altogether because "of a billing error" that had the wrong MAC address registered on our account for our VoIP box. I was promised that was fixed every time we called in. I'm not holding my breath.

6) Our speeds have never been above 30Mbps. We are paying for 50Mbps.

7) I have asked 6 times to speak to a supervisor. Twice, they called back and left a voicemail on my phone THAT WASN'T WORKING! Once, they called back and left a voicemail on my cellphone, promising to reach me again the next day. They lied. I have yet to speak to a single supervisor.

8) Their Unlimited Long Distance to North America IS NOT UNLIMITED. I repeat, their UNLIMITED plan is NOT UNLIMITED. They allow you 5000 minutes per month, maximum. However, if they feel like they want to arbitrarily say that your calling patterns are unusual, they won't even let you have that many and will cut you off, on a whim. That's right, they will cut you off, because they feel like it, without any proof or explanation.

9) If you ask them for a call record or usage record of your phone service, they cannot or will not provide it. Yet, they hold you to this arbitrary 5000 minute (or some other arbitrary number and call pattern that they feel like enforcing) without any way to prove that you did or did not "abuse" their "Fair Use Policy".

I REPEAT. THEIR UNLIMITED LONG DISTANCE PLAN IS NOT UNLIMITED.

10) If you "abuse" their "Fair Use Policy" for phone service, you then have to prepay long distance services for the service that they have already lied and called unlimited.

Needless to say, I will likely be taking action against this group.
I mean, UNLIMITED LONG DISTANCE TO NORTH AMERICA seems pretty clear to me.
I would call this false advertising.

Stay away from VMedia at all costs.
They are beyond horrible.
JMJimmy
join:2008-07-23

JMJimmy

Member

That blows. The phone number thing is strange... I thought they had 90 days before it can go to someone else... it should still be recoverable.

Unlimited thing - it is false advertising, Bhell was already successfully sued over their 1500 minute "unlimited" plan years back.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues to Schvenn

Premium Member

to Schvenn
First never talk to the company that would currently be holding your number, there has been plenty of scuttlebut here that the incumbents will hold your number if you are porting out.

i switched to Wind from Rogers, waited till the port was done then called Rogers to cancel (apparently a port is the same as cancelling)
btech805
join:2013-08-01
Canada

btech805 to Schvenn

Member

to Schvenn
I think you will find just about every provider's unlimited plans have "fair use" terminology in their terms of service.

sbrook
Mod
join:2001-12-14
Ottawa

sbrook

Mod

The acceptable use policies in their client service agreement focus on internet and not telephone.

Certainly use of the term unlimited is questionable in their advertising without a "Small Print" indication like

Unlimited*

* Unlimited means without limitation for the typical user and subject to our fair use policy - see link

I suspect certainly Quebec consumer protection law would take some interest in this! Ontario - not so much!

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues to btech805

Premium Member

to btech805
The problem with the "fair use" is it's open to interpertation. Wind is "unlimited" but they spell out that fair use is 5gb (and 10 if you subscribe to a better package).

On regular home internet, what's fair use 500gb? 1tb? 5tb?
MichelR
join:2011-07-03
Trois-Rivieres, QC

MichelR to elwoodblues

Member

to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:

First never talk to the company that would currently be holding your number, there has been plenty of scuttlebut here that the incumbents will hold your number if you are porting out.

i switched to Wind from Rogers, waited till the port was done then called Rogers to cancel (apparently a port is the same as cancelling)

This. Don't even inquire about it. Just do it.

HenryA
join:2011-05-28

HenryA to Schvenn

Member

to Schvenn
Can't say that I've used their VoIP, since I bought a Ooma a couple of years ago. The port went smooth, and I pay $3.95 unlimited in Canada. I upgraded to premium for $10.95.

Kind of a slam on the other issues though. Speed depends on lots of factors, least of which is area congestion. If Rogers or Cogeco oversold your area, then maybe you're in an over congested area. It happens. Can't blame Vmedia, since Vmedia doesn't own the equipment locally. They provide service through Ciktel.
Who knows. You'll find lots of us who are very happy with the service. It has its hiccups, but every provider does.
GeorgeBurger
join:2011-12-30

GeorgeBurger to sbrook

Member

to sbrook
Hi Sbrook just to clarify, we have fair usage qualifications in our Telephone Service Agreement as well, specifically :"Unlimited plans are subject to an aggregated limit (outgoing, call forwarding, conferencing etc) of all usage and features of 5000 minutes during each monthly billing cycle for inclusive calls. Incoming and VMedia to VMedia calls are excluded from this policy."

Such language and limits are typical, and are siimply there so that customers do not take advantage of the low prices on offer, usually by extensive and irregular calling, on a commercial basis. These are intended as residential lines for residential use. With such terms typical in the industry, our prices are among if not the best on the market.We are sorry if they are not satisfactory to Schvenn.
GeorgeBurger

GeorgeBurger to Schvenn

Member

to Schvenn
Thank you for your comments. Before I respond would you be kind enough to IM me the name under which your service is subscribed for so that I can look into the situation myself?Schvenn came up empty.

sbrook
Mod
join:2001-12-14
Ottawa

sbrook to GeorgeBurger

Mod

to GeorgeBurger
Hi George,

I couldn't find your telephone service agreement online ... maybe I didn't look hard enough.

I have to admit that I agree that if a plan is described as "Unlimited" without obvious qualification then this kind of dissatisfaction is to be expected. That's why I gave an example with the Asterisk.

As we argued with other companies over the years many times "Unlimited" does mean "without limit" ... and if it's unlimited USA or unlimited world but subject to limits then it is NOT unlimited.

You could call it "nearly unlimited".

TypeS
join:2012-12-17
London, ON

TypeS to GeorgeBurger

Member

to GeorgeBurger
Could be wrong here but many single rate VoIP providers that market unlimited have a fair usage policy to prevent potential abuse for commercial use/gain.

Which I don' see a problem with, it's their network & costs they want to protect.

d4m1r
join:2011-08-25

d4m1r to Schvenn

Member

to Schvenn
George, so was this user going over 5000min/month?

That is a lot and I would understand if you cancelled his service and provide a refund if that is the case....However, I don't know if that is the case simply because that is a TON of calls so unless he was running a call center from his residential address or....

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues

Premium Member

5000 minutes is a lot of yakking. That's over 83hrs in a month.
mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON

mr weather

Premium Member

That may be but don't advertise a service as "unlimited" if it isn't really unlimited.

Whatever happened to truth in advertising?

nekkidtruth
YISMM
Premium Member
join:2002-05-20
London, ON

nekkidtruth

Premium Member

When has there ever been "truth" in advertising? Lol
Schvenn
join:2014-10-16
Canada

Schvenn to HenryA

Member

to HenryA
Nope. We had Cogeco for a year before switching with ZERO issues. We only switched to VMedia once we knew the service with Cogeco was stable, to ensure it wasn't a QoS issue.
Schvenn

Schvenn to d4m1r

Member

to d4m1r
I call BS on us going over 5000 minutes in a month, let alone 15 days into this month.
When I asked for documented proof of our usage, they indicated they cannot provide it.
So, not only is there a mysterious "calling pattern" which is even more restrictive than the 5000 minutes, they cannot prove to you one way or another that you have "violated" it.
Sounds almost fraudulent to me.
Believe me, I am looking into this a lot further.

giggabotch
join:2006-12-16
York, ON

giggabotch

Member

Given the issues you had with the initial setup of your VoIP adaptor, that may be a clue to the overage they're accusing you of. 5000 long distance minutes is a lot of time for a residence.
mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON

mr weather to nekkidtruth

Premium Member

to nekkidtruth
said by nekkidtruth:

When has there ever been "truth" in advertising? Lol

It was a rhetorical question.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues to Schvenn

Premium Member

to Schvenn
I'm being ripped off, I'm only getting 44.mb instead of the advertised 45. Where is the The Doctor and/or Mid Eastern guy I need the name of their lawyer i'm suing Vmedia!!!

I'm paying for 45 not 44.9 I want my 1k back!

/sarcasm
GeorgeBurger
join:2011-12-30

GeorgeBurger to Schvenn

Member

to Schvenn
Well Schvenn, notwithstanding my undertaking to get more information on your experience from my team tomorrow, and the responses from myself and others on this thread that should have helped to clarify some of your misapprehensions, you went ahead and posted your "review", essentially cutting and pasting your original post, despite the clarifications brought to your attention. As I said I will look into this matter further, but to clarify the reason I am waiting to discuss this with the team on Monday is because the notes on your file reflect almost none of your assertions, so I am giving you the benefit of the doubt by going to my team for more details. Regrettably it does no appear that you are acting in good faith. Nonetheless I will get more details, and respond accordingly.Have a nice day.

HenryA
join:2011-05-28

HenryA

Member

Pretty much what I've thought about the MAJORITY of anti Vmedia bullsht posted on DSL reports. Since most of these posts are 1) Anonymous in nature 2) Unverified (I have yet to see anyone post the same thing on vmedia forum) 3) Full of half truths and outright bullsht 4) AND Are hit and run in nature. That leads me to believe there's more in the background ie: Concerted efforts to knock down and bad mouth vmedia because they're taking customers away from first tier providers.

I'll say it again. The odds are against that most of these posts are real. You can't convince me for a second that most of us using Vmedia don't experience a fraction of the problems these fake posters experience (hostile csr's, unrealistic slowdowns, or misinformation). Makes me question the credibility and reliability of dslreports.

sbrook
Mod
join:2001-12-14
Ottawa

sbrook

Mod

HenryA,

One thing that nearly 13 years on these forums and 27 years of work in supporting customers has taught me is that there are very few "fake" posts. Fake posts really do stick out and far more than this.

What we see here is that how people react to negative situations varies greatly based on their personality, their mood and their expectations.

It colours their perspective of conversations greatly.

You've met many ...

There are those that problems just don't seem to faze ... it's as if they wouldn't get upset if the end of the world was tomorrow.

There are those that problems are what they are ... challenges and they work out how fixable they are and work at fixing them.

There are those for whom the slightest problem is portrayed as the end of the world. Where just a hint of a problem totally changes their picture of everything.

They could all be presented with the same problem and react totally differently and see what happens in its resolution in different ways.

The other thing to remember is that most people don't post about their good experiences unless they are prompted to. This is why sites like the travel advice sites aren't really very good. People post most when they've had a bad experience hoping they'll a) get a resolution, or b) thinking they should do the right thing and warn others or both! The result are posts like these.

The reality usually lies somewhere towards the middle ground. The customer has high expectations that aren't met. The supplier has set expectations, maybe inadvertantly, that for some reason they can't deliver.

One of the things that I really disliked when I started working in customer support was that I routinely saw our sales people setting customer expectations that couldn't be delivered. Then we had to reset customer expectations on what could be delivered and what was going to be done all the time. My training from my parents in the retail world was that the customer right, even if they were wrong. Suddenly I was learning in support that we were having to reset the customer expectation so that they *FELT* like their needs were being met, even if we couldn't deliver exactly what they wanted.

After several years of that, I realized that this was the right thing to do. Setting expectations had become SO important and usually resulted in happy customers.

I'm not saying that the OP isn't having vmedia on here ... but I am saying that judging him isn't appropriate.

I'm saying that expectations were not set properly on either side (customer's expectations of vmedia, and what vmedia was capable of delivering even in terms of remediation).

HenryA
join:2011-05-28

HenryA

Member

Actually.

That's a very professional reply. Thanks Sbrook.

What bugs me is the anonimity of the hit and run poster. I'd be a lot more understanding if DSLReports had a waiting period (say 2 weeks from sign up) to allow new posters to cool off. Instead, there are posters who only appear to sign up for DSLReports exclusively to troll. I signed up years ago to get better information in helping me decide on reputable ISP's in Ontario.

So far DSLreports has helped me try a brief stint with Acanac, Distributel (CIA/3 web), Rogers, and a good repore with Vmedia.

I NEVER see these same posters over on the Vmedia forum. I'd get where they were coming from, if they'd made the same post on the vmedia website and they got a glib answer from a CSR. Instead, it appears they're seeking as much attention as possible from the generalized public to sensationalize their problems.

I guess I have a bully problem. I'm not good with bullies. They push, I push back.

It's one thing to have a legitimate complaint. It's another to try and spread disinformation.

And again. Thanks Sbrook. It's not a slam to you, and hopefully it's not taken that way. My problem is with honest posters.

jmck
formerly 'shaded'
join:2010-10-02
Ottawa, ON

jmck

Member

OP does have a legitimate complaint, he doesn't believe he's used anywhere near 5000 minutes to begin is and he can't even get usage reports to verify this.

In the ISP world, an ISP can't impose limits on users unless the ISP has the means and tools to provide proper reporting to users.

The screwing up the porting seems to be a legit concern, we've heard the customers side, but George hasn't provided a single detail on what happened with the failed port, I'm sure we'll find out more from him Monday or so.

Finally you make it sound like OP came here rushing after a few days and recommend a 2 weeks waiting period, he's been with Vmedia for 2 months and has tried reaching supervisors and promised calls back but they are calling his VoIP which isn't working instead of his cellphone.

So to me, it sounds like he tried getting this resolved multiple times through official channels.

HenryA
join:2011-05-28

1 edit

HenryA

Member

Actually, I really admire George. He's a hell of a lot more professional in dealing with the general public than I would be in similar circumstances. And why would he give a detailed report...on DSLReports regarding the OP's problem? (I find that confusing). Seems kind of unprofessional to do so. It's one thing for us to bitch in an open forum. It'd be tacky for someone like George to start posting facts and figures on someone's problem. That's what PM is for, isn't it? And we don't know how or what was said through private channels. I don't really want to know, do you? This is the kind of thing that should be handled behind the scenes. It should be tranparent to us.

Quick question, and not that I've gone and looked. But. Do CSR's from Rogers pop into the regular Rogers forum, and open up a case file...in detail from someone's problem and discuss it? Or Teksavvy? Acanac? Distributel? Bell? Cogeco?

jmck
formerly 'shaded'
join:2010-10-02
Ottawa, ON

jmck

Member

you say all that, but that's generally what George does. I have also seen other TPIAs do the same with customers altho usually after trying to resolve the issue with them.

sbrook
Mod
join:2001-12-14
Ottawa

sbrook

Mod

What DSLR will do is to ensure that identifying information is kept out and that everyone obeys the rules. That comes down to basically to don't go after the poster ... comment on what happened.

It is important that once a post is made in public that it gets answered in public and not hidden ... that can creates a lot of mis-feelings amongst posters. At the same time, it's probably better if the problem is resolved off line and a summary of the result posted here. Saves forum feuds!

Anonymous posting has always been available on DSLR for the 13 years I've been here. The owner will defend that choice until the cows come home ... Membership exists to create community. Membership has advantages but nearly everyone is permitted to post unless they break rules. Believe me, even guest posters (which is a more accurate term than anonymous posters, since members are anon too) are moderated and have to obey site rules.

For reasons of anonymity, company members are not encouraged to open up cases in the general forums. It's what we have the "direct" forums for ... like TekSavvy Direct and Bell Direct. This way we can protect identity. In some cases, customers are identifiable by their posts in the open forums, so we get responses to/from customer and ISP in the open forums.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski to sbrook

Premium Member

to sbrook
I found it here. Being a VoIP user since the early days of Vonage this is something that comes up time and time again. I do hate the use of unlimited in advertising especially when it is not like in these cases.

»www.vmedia.ca/support/po ··· one.aspx

14. Fair Usage Policy

VMedia's residential plans and features are to be used for residential, non-commercial use only, and only by the account holder and the residential family members, at the place of residence listed under the account holder. Residential family members include your immediate family who reside in your personal residence - e.g., spouse, domestic partner, parents and/or children. If your residential service plan allows you to use your service from other locations through a particular device or application, all use under that service plan is aggregated and must conform to normal residential or personal, non-commercial use.

Because over 95% of VMedia residential unlimited calling plan customers use less than 5000 minutes per month, and do not have any unusual usage patterns, a customer's aggregate usage may be considered outside of normal and reasonable use if it exceeds 5000 minutes per month in combination with other factors that may adversely impact other VMedia customers or the VMedia network.

All VMedia plans have maximum reasonable call duration of 4 hours per call, after which time the call will be disconnected. Unlimited plans are subject to an aggregated limit (outgoing, call forwarding, conferencing etc) of all usage and features of 5000 minutes during each monthly billing cycle for inclusive calls. Incoming and VMedia to VMedia calls are excluded from this policy.

VMedia reserves the right to either suspend your Service and offer you an alternative call plan, or terminate your Service, if we determine, in our sole and absolute discretion, that your use of the Service or at any time was, inconsistent with normal residential average usage patterns of other VMedia customers. All usage over 5000 minutes will be billed on a per minute basis, based on the rates for the destination country being called. If we deem your use of our Services is for commercial use, you will be required to pay our higher rates for business plans, if applicable, for all periods in which your use of the Service was inconsistent with normal residential use or the fair usage limits described herein. Where permitted by law customer may cancel.