Bell Canada → Breaking Sympatico Contract and Fast Windsor ISPs

Hello,

Has anyone broke a 12-month contract with Sympatico before? My father has had good experiences with Sympatico in a small town up north which is why I signed up for the Sympatico 3000k/800k plan figuring I was going to get high-speed Internet access. I have been so busy with schoolwork so for four months I just reckoned it was my computer or housewiring in my old house thought I'd put in a DSL splitter when I had time and get that in order first. However, I phoned Sympatico and got them to do a line test in the last couple days and they have downgraded my service to 672k/160k because I'm too far from their office, which was a surprise since I live in the city proper (I should have thought of the obvious stuff first).

Is this a case of buyer beware or will I be able to break the contract because they did not even come close to fulfilling implied service potential? I looked through the contract and there is a waiver that says they do not guarantee the performance level so I suppose they have a legal out however if the system was incapable of providing even close to the service-level implied in their advertising should they not have warned me of this when I purchased the service or is it a case of buyer beware? There is a sizable penalty for breaking the contract, a "$100 cancellation fee" but then why pay $45/month for another 8 months of substandard service so I just might pay the $100 fee if I can't get out of it. On this note, can anyone suggest a few good high-speed cable or DSL providers in Windsor, Ontario?

Best regards,
Dabientou

You can get out of the contract by cancelling your land line phone service. The a few days later (after it is cancelled) have your wife call for phone service. That is probably the only way short of dying to get rid of it (unless someone else has a different idea)

Dale

What kind of contract do you have if you are paying $45 a month anyways.. or did Sympatico raise prices and I missed it?

to far from the CO seems to be a standard response these days.did they tell u exactly how far away u are?if its over 4.3KM u may have a case as they should of told u how far away u are before they hooked u up and that u may have degraded service

Hello,

" What kind of contract do you have if you are paying $45 a month anyways.. or did Sympatico raise prices and I missed it?"
I am on a 12 month contract in which the first 4 months were 24.95/month and the remaining 8 are $44.95 after that it goes on a month by month basis. I am not sure how far I am from the CO but I joined based in part on the alleged availability of the service, and I reckon I have been scammed. I am thinking about Rogers but now there is an unconfirmed rumor in the Rogers Forum that they are going to introduce monthly caps while Cogeco already has 15gig and 30gig monthly caps already, so I don't know which service to look at, maybe one of the smaller local DSL providers.

Dabientou

contract rate should be $34.95 or $39.95

Speak to their high-speed center and see if they are able move to your line to somewhere else. You should've really tried the service without contracts before signing...

its $100 to cancel the contract.

Stay away from DSL at this point unless the provider can place you in a "remote". Any DSL provider in the area will most likely use Bell's dslam and it will be the same distance. Go for cable if it is available. Call Sympatico up and state your issue...be up front and ask to be released from the contract due to the distance issue. Can they provide a date when the area will be upgraded?

Hello,

Bell-Sympatico tech support just gave me a followup phonecall. They said I am 5.1 km from the Central Office (CO) and that there are no remotes in my area and he was not aware of any plans in my area to install any remotes so I can terminate the contract without penalty since they cannot provide a 1meg minimum. I contacted some of the other local DSL providers and yeah they all use the Bell infrastructure so the distance issue will remain a problem. I live adjacent to the University of Windsor and a technician at a local service provider said there could be some possibility of getting linked up to some infrastructure they have near there. However, it sounds doubtful but I will inquire into it this week. Cogeco is the local cable provider and according to their webpage they are capped at 15 gig and 30 gig per month for their two highspeed plans so its too small.

The Bell technician I spoke with said they had downgraded my service to 672/160 and he could not change it back without a work order so now I'm stuck with worse service than before I asked for the line check. Now it's time for more arguing I guess just to get back my old service-level.

Dabientou

if u live near the uni maybe they have something u could hook into.if ure real close get a wireless card and look for a free signal :P

How many times must people ask, COGECO does not enforce caps and right now the university area is under an upgrade so things will be running good down there, it is your choice since you must pay the bill. Like I said Cogeco does not enforce the caps unless there are people complaining about how much the node is over loaded. I do not think they offer contracts so whats the worst that can happen??? Try it out and see from yourself.

»/speed ··· 07725471

Hows that look? Now why complain about caps.

what good is it if ya get suspended?i'd rather have a lower speed (420K) and not have to deal with overloaded nodes and may or maynot caps

As the person from Cogeco stated...why not give it a try. If Bell finally does upgrade the area then give them another shot. Cogeco appears to be the best option for your well earned money at this time. On Sympatico you are only getting "dial up" speeds and paying for much much more.

Go with Cogeco. They don't enforce caps unless they get complaints. So if you're not leeching warez and p0rn 24/7 you shouldn't have any problems.

That area of Windsor is very old (used to live near there) and so is the infrastructure. I believe the CO is the main Bell building on Goyeau just north of Giles.

I download 50-60 gigs a month, I never once got a warning. Also Cogeco will not suspend your account for exceeding the usage, warning letters over and over will be sent and if you don't comply with those then they have a reason to do as they please.