dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
2558
ihaveimpulse
join:2015-03-11
North York, ON

1 edit

1 recommendation

ihaveimpulse

Member

My two weeks with VMedia

Hi everyone,

I created an account here because I felt it's now my civic duty to share this experience and spread every word that I can about Vmedia. Please excuse the extremely long story. I will break everything off into long paragraphs to group it together. Please also note that I work in IT and have not only been involved with launching buildings, PCI compliance, SOX compliance, and hardening policies, but I also do support, security, etc.

The beginning.
I was moving down the street and had contact.net (once you get past the setup i cannot say enough good things about them and their price), however they said that they would be unable to move with me as they cannot offer me 25/10 FTTN at my new location (down the street). After some research and googling it seemed like Vmedia was the next cheapest option and seemed reliable (I later found it's because they pay people to go and delete, hide, and bury posts). I prefer DSL/FTTN so I got in contact with Vmedia to try and avoid a situation nobody wants to be in. Vmedia told me that 50/10 was available where I was moving and promised me I could get it. I said great, I don't want to spend $267 only to find out I get DSL 6 like service (the building is older). They told me to wait. They came back and said upon further investigation and reports and chatting with Bell the best I can get is 25/10. I said that's fine, with my work I need upload more than download for FTP and server traffic. I thanked them and signed up to spend $267 (because my first month was supposed to be pro-rated, so it wouldn't be much more to get up and running the day I move). I was very happy. I was wrong.

I never got confirmation of the install date I chose, I haven't had shipping info yet, and I hadn't gotten my static IP I paid for. After numerous emails and chats I finally got a response saying that they do it a week before and can't confirm the install date. I said to them that I signed up a month before I needed it so I could make arrangements and ensure my install date was setup. After going back and forth and asking for escalations they finally shipped my modem and confirmed the date. I asked again about my static IP and eventually I got a reply saying I'll be told it by the Bell tech... Okay.

I get confirmation emails saying I'll just have to plug in the modem. I get the modem in the mail in a nice custom box and a Vmedia logo on the interface, etc. Everything is nicely packaged and if you didn't know better you'd think they were a real internet company who laid their own lines. Everything was "Pre-programed" labelled everywhere and tested. At this point I was impressed with Vmedia again.

Installation day! I got in early to the apartment (Feb 13 2015) and I was getting ready to sit down at 3PM in an empty place and wait until 5 (install was 5-9). Just as I was about to go grab food though, I got a call from the Bell tech and asked if he could come early. Heck yeah he could! He was there by 4 and done by 7. I know. Anyway, it didn't work. Everything routed me to a maintenance page. It made no sense. The Bell guy and I then got into it. I didn't believe him nor want to waste Vmedia's time because everything was configured. Well he left and at 8PM I called and was thrown on hold and then pushed the button and a little while later they called me back. HA! turns out nothing was configured in the modem. At all. BTW the Bell guy never gave me my IP and the the guy on the phone said it was setup.

So I called and emailed again asking for my IP (I'm buying a static IP, I kind of want to know it which is why I'm getting it). Eventually a number was given which didn't seem right and then someone emailed me a different IP back. I asked again to confirm and they said this is indeed my static IP. So I went into the modem and popped that number into the static spot (which by the way, they didn't tell me I had to do). Internet dies an hour later and I'm not home. My roommate is mad and can't use the internet and keeps rebooting everything. This started for him at 10AM. I came home at 8PM that night and called Vmedia. The support wasn't listening to me and asked me to change my ethernet cable (which was stupid and working because i was in the modem interface). After about an hour of wasting my time he's like whoa wait a minute.. Then says he's never dealt with static IPs and also noticed it's tied to a different customer number. 15 minutes later and him doing stuff I magically have the internet again.

Everything seems slow. I do speed tests off and on and find my average to be 7/1 and not 25/10 or close. Calls, emails, and complaints are left on dead ears and excuses and people blaming Bell. Out of curiosity I do a wifi scan and see 10 networks around me entitles "Bellxxxx". So I now know Bell is popular in my building. I talk to my neighbors and they're fine. I fight and tell them I think it's Vmedia and I'm not an idiot and they say no, it's Bell. I ask for a discount and I'm met with nothing. I said I've had outages and basically had to build my out connection and they said nope, i'm getting service.

My bill comes in. It's not pro-rated. They charge me a full month. Then as I'm about to email and complain my Internet goes out again. The next day I work I complain and my roommate finally informs me that it's back online and they said they didn't see it offline and that my first bill shouldn't be pro-rated (despite the fact the website said that and they'd do it the next month). So I fight some more saying that's not fair and another outage I think I deserve the discount we discussed. They said no.

I get another outage. This one lasts about an hour. I complain again and mention my pro-rated rate saying I bet it's not fixed. They reply "we can't do anything, but you're right your bill is wrong for next month we have to pro-rate it". I'm shocked.

Now I finally move in. Feb 26th. That's right, this was a week... My brother is at my new place (5 hours away from his house) as he helped me move. We're about to log into Google Music and play some tunes. But.. it doesn't work. My roommate comes over and says he can't load his email and when he tried to google it Google wanted him to update flash. I said "don't you use chrome, also it wouldn't ask you to update flash regardless". I try to goto google.. I get the same message. Youtube, same. Gmail, same. I go "great you got a virus and it spread", he says no. We try the mac. Same. Yahoo and bing are the same. I try my phone, same. So long story short 7 hours later and research/etc I find out that the Vmedia modem can be hacked in under 8 minutes and having a static IP I had a very easy target. So my modem gets hacked and my DNS servers are changed. I do a traceroute and find out that these servers are on some server by a hosting company in Illinois. I trace that further and find the domain associated to the account. a Whois lookup gives me the information that the owner is from China. Next I spin up a virtual machine and got the link and find out that it downloads a trojan, a from of cryptolocker, and a keygen, and just ruins your day. I delete the VM and I fix my modem.
Aside from being pissed off and now telling everyone in my apartment not to online bank or do anything with their identity because god know what else, and I assume a simple packet sniff know can grab non-https passwords and info (I was right, thank you wireshark and a neighbor's network). I thought. Oh crap. My roommate thought it was all legit... How many Vmedia customers are affected or hacked and how many have had their identities stolen, etc.? How secure is the rest of Vmedia or where my credit card is stored?
So instead of emailing now and asking for a firmware update to my modem I send them info stating my modem was hacked, mentioned the above about users and how their network is screwed, and basically a "you're welcome for the free tech consulting" and they reply saying it's not their networks fault I got a virus. I said "You have to be kidding me" and asked to speak to a manager and was furious they didn't read anything. They said a manager will contact me.

On the weekend I was fedup and replied again and said thanks for ignoring me and taking a security risk seriously. They replied eventually and said "sorry if you felt you were being ignored, someone will contact you in 24-48 hours". 48 hours later I get a phonecall from someone who doesn't understand their own industry or what they're managing and still fights me and said "we haven't heard of modem hacks" and I said "of course not, i'm telling you this and specifically said in my email your less tech-savvy users would never know. I'm doing you a favour and I want my network patched". After a back and forth she re-requests the same info I sent with more details and proof the modem can be hacked so her techs can look into it but in the meantime they will look at the manufacturer for a firmware update and get back to me. Also again sorry no discounts, screw your service, our site says up to 25/10 screw you and your 7/1.
I send the info they request.

A week goes by. I email two more times and reboot my modem three times a day experiencing multiple outages.

March 6th 2015 - My Internet goes up and can't bring it back up, not even an hour later. I email them again saying seriously what the h. it's been less than a month and I'd be lucky if I've had 24 hours of total use. This is not a service and I am paying you for 100% of it. I also have to constantly go back to work to do stuff that would take 4 minutes at home. What a huge waste of time.
On the Sunday (8th) I got a reply saying they were doing network maintenance to fix my area and didn't think it'd affect service. I'll no longer ever have an outage.

march 9th 2015 - Everything is working but it's slower than the slow I usually get. Still no reply from Vmedia techs or a firmware update so I refuse to do anything secure on my connection.

March 10 2015 - I come home from work at 4PM to no internet. I call the support line and it doesn't even ring. I go great Huge Vmedia outage... AGAIN. Their site is up so I try to make a ticket... There's an "error". So I send an email and get an automated ticket back. 8PM still in service hours the phone finally rings, automated message saying there's a cogeco outage.. I'm in Toronto, Cogeco is the farthest thing from anything that should affect me. I send another email. Get another ticket number.

March 11 2015 - See Vmedia posting updates on Facebook at 7am. 9am I can't see the updates... They deleted them and all the comments, concerns, and pissed off messages on their wall... At 11AM I call my roommate, still have no Internet..

It's now 1:00pm and i'm writing you this book making it as short as possible. This is most of my issues and concerns and I'm eating the cost of cancelling them and signing up with someone else while I try to battle them for a full refund of Over $300.
Why am I cancelling?
They take Security as a joke and think I'm an idiot even with proof
Terrible manners and customer service
They delete negative things
They don't follow up
They don't provide a service they sell you
I'm offline more than I am online.

It is my hopes this post helps to bankrupt them or wake them up and fix their modems.
Theadvocater
join:2015-02-18
Canada

Theadvocater

Member

V Media is getting pummelled on this forum these days.
They must be doing something right...
ihaveimpulse
join:2015-03-11
North York, ON

ihaveimpulse

Member

I'd like to apologize for the phone AC of SOX to SOCKS and any other mistakes. I was pissed. This is also on RFD and Georgeburger has already replied.
taraf
join:2011-05-07
Ottawa, ON

taraf to ihaveimpulse

Member

to ihaveimpulse
said by ihaveimpulse:

BTW the Bell guy never gave me my IP and the the guy on the phone said it was setup.

And here's where I stopped reading... Bell has no obligation at all to set up your modem, only to prove that you have sync, and Bell wouldn't be able to see your static IP, because Bell isn't your ISP, VMedia is. That's kind of a key distinction to make....

Also... if you *really* want to run an FTP server for some reason, just buy a cheap VPS. Like seriously... my backup MX is on a VPS that costs me $10/mo and includes 1TB/mo of transfer. They're really that cheap, and an FTP server doesn't need a lot of CPU power. Just buy a VPS and run your server from that, so that you're not tying up a residential connection doing something you don't need to do.
ihaveimpulse
join:2015-03-11
North York, ON

ihaveimpulse

Member

I know, I should have added I was exhausting all results and was told I'd get it during setup. I didn't expect him to have it, just wanted it as ammo to go back to them.

I don't run it all the time but I FTP back and forth when working from home. I get your point though. Who do you use that's $10/month?
grand total
join:2005-10-26
Mississauga
·Fido
MikroTik RB750Gr3
MikroTik wAP AC
Panasonic KX-TGP500

grand total

Member

said by ihaveimpulse:

I don't run it all the time but I FTP back and forth when working from home. I get your point though. Who do you use that's $10/month?

Try lowendbox.com. Plenty of choice on there, I really like VPS Dime
ihaveimpulse
join:2015-03-11
North York, ON

ihaveimpulse

Member

Thank you I will check those out.

I also apologize for my message and what seems to be a hate bash on Vmedia, I could have handled how I wrote this better but I've been very mad and it all sort of came out.
GeorgeBurger
join:2011-12-30

GeorgeBurger to ihaveimpulse

Member

to ihaveimpulse
If you are sincere in your apology I would ask you to delete your post.

youtoo
@ciktel.com

2 recommendations

youtoo

Anon

Why should he remove a true full post ? Granted he was angry but no profanity , just his long winded but true fully expressed post.
youtoo

youtoo to GeorgeBurger

Anon

to GeorgeBurger
Unless there is someone who is trying to barry the story about how easy it is to hack your dsl modems ?
GeorgeBurger
join:2011-12-30

GeorgeBurger to youtoo

Member

to youtoo
True?

Acrimonius
join:2014-12-06

1 edit

3 recommendations

Acrimonius to GeorgeBurger

Member

to GeorgeBurger
said by GeorgeBurger:

If you are sincere in your apology I would ask you to delete your post.

Outrageous request. Burying the experience does not change the fact that it happened.

Kudos to the OP for taking the time to speak up..........
96964493 (banned)
join:2015-01-09
USA

96964493 (banned) to ihaveimpulse

Member

to ihaveimpulse
One word, chargeback

damir
join:2013-12-12
CANADA

2 recommendations

damir to GeorgeBurger

Member

to GeorgeBurger
said by GeorgeBurger:

If you are sincere in your apology I would ask you to delete your post.

LoL - r u serious?

Sarum
join:2015-01-21
Whitby, ON

Sarum to Theadvocater

Member

to Theadvocater
said by Theadvocater:

V Media is getting pummelled on this forum these days.
They must be doing something right...

sometimes it seems like some people want blood when their upset, others enjoy watching the bloodletting happen, maybe poke the odd stick to keep it going..

a quick look at any vmedia/zazeen or even the bell, rogers forums.. or pretty much any company listed here will show u boat loads of complaints..

just an observation
LastDon
join:2002-08-13

1 recommendation

LastDon to GeorgeBurger

Member

to GeorgeBurger
Your request to the user to remove his post is shady at best.
there is no LAW preventing the USER to state his review of VMEDIA. it is his/her opinion and being buried is what he talked about in the first place from other reviews, is that how you handle the business side of things?

Not a good way to be known as the company that tells people to delete post because if reflects a users perspective.

damir
join:2013-12-12
CANADA

damir

Member

At least it was funny.

TheMark
@rogers.com

1 recommendation

TheMark to LastDon

Anon

to LastDon
They delete negative posts on their Facebook page as well. If you look you'll see people writing about it, at least for now, until those are deleted as well....
taraf
join:2011-05-07
Ottawa, ON

taraf to ihaveimpulse

Member

to ihaveimpulse
said by ihaveimpulse:

Thank you I will check those out.

My VPS is actually with cloudatcost. They've had some bad reviews in years past, but so far I haven't had any issues. And I kinda lied when I said it was $10/mo... actually it was a one time cost (I have the $70 package but I got it while they were having a 50% off sale, so it only cost me $35 once, and I haven't paid since).

I had it reboot once while my main server was doing an rsync with the backup MX for the imap boxes, but it's the only time I've been aware of any issues. I don't exactly watch it like a hawk, though...
said by ihaveimpulse:

I also apologize for my message and what seems to be a hate bash on Vmedia, I could have handled how I wrote this better but I've been very mad and it all sort of came out.

s'ok. You're allowed to express yourself when you've had a negative experience. I'm with them for cable internet and TV, but I'm not trying to do what you're trying to do with it. I imagine that if you wanted just simple internet and didn't need a static IP you'd be fine. Also, I think it's a shame that your router/modem got hacked, but I don't think that's actually their fault... there really aren't that many options for VDSL-capable modems in this country. I'd suggest a 3rd party router just because...

Michael9009
join:2006-07-28
Toronto, ON

Michael9009 to GeorgeBurger

Member

to GeorgeBurger
said by GeorgeBurger:

If you are sincere in your apology I would ask you to delete your post.

I am assuming this was a joke and I actually had a good laugh at it. VMedia seems to be the 'best' ISP these days, so why would anyone dare write anything negative about this 'great' provider?

aahhhhaaa
@rogers.com

aahhhhaaa

Anon

George ... somebody cant live with the truth ? lol

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

elwoodblues to TheMark

Premium Member

to TheMark
Sounds like the Rogers Redboard No negative comments allowed

Acrimonius
join:2014-12-06

Acrimonius

Member

said by elwoodblues:

Sounds like the Rogers Redboard No negative comments allowed

Sadly, there's a lot of that going on these days. When they have something to hide they think deleting posts is the answer. WRONG.

Everybody makes mistakes BUT it's how the problem is handled afterwards that distinguishes an honest upstanding company or website from one that bases their actions on lies, deceit, misinformation and coverups.

And THAT is the TRUTH.
Expand your moderator at work

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

elwoodblues to Acrimonius

Premium Member

to Acrimonius

Re: My two weeks with VMedia

IMO George has been trying to rectify problems, but then asks for posts to be changed and/or deleted.
Its the very fact that someone had to rant about a poor experience is what rectifies the problem. It doesn't matter if its the incumbents fault , the message comes from (in this case,) Vmedia that counts.
Expand your moderator at work
madman280
join:2009-07-05
Chatham, ON

madman280 to GeorgeBurger

Member

to GeorgeBurger

Re: My two weeks with VMedia

I've met you in person and actually thought you would be smarter than this George. Don't you think resolving the issue, making a customer happy and having it posted in public would be better PR that this sort of request, unless you are powerless to make it so?

Some companies pay millions a year to get customer feedback like this so they can make changes to prevent this in the future.
Expand your moderator at work
GeorgeBurger
join:2011-12-30

GeorgeBurger to madman280

Member

to madman280

Re: My two weeks with VMedia

Nice bump.