[BLOG] The Dirty Rotten Truth About Canadian ISPs
Greetings!
This is only my second blog on icrontic and boy do I have some stories to tell! First off, a little back story..
In Canada, specifically Ontario, there is essentially only two options as far as ISPs go. Rogers (founded by Ted Rogers) or Bell (founded by Alexander Graham Bell). Both of these companies openly throttle and charge ridiculous rates, ~$50 a month for 10mbit down and 1mbit for with a 60 gig cap for rogers with a 1$ extra per gig up until double your regular bill. Bell has similar policies but they only offer DSL
I was with Rogers being throttled for 5 years. As time went by I had enough and called in to there customer service department and eventually "The Office Of The President" only to be told they would throttle me until I canceled my service even though I never received the speeds I paid for. On that day I stopped supporting rogers and went to find another ISP....
I was in quite the predicament having just canceled my service without having a back-up to go to. I sure wasn't going to go to Bell after my issues with Rogers and knowing they have very similar policies....
At about this point I came across a company called Teksavvy Inc. There were other ISPs in ontario other then Rogers or Bell?! Really?! I was under the impression they had a monopoly on Ontario ISPs...well, guess what? They do!
Teksavvy along with other companies such as Yak are known as "whole sale resellers". Basically, they buy the rights to a portion of Bell or Roger's network capacity and receive a discount. This leads to companies like Teksavvy being able to charge 41$ a month for 5mbit/1mbit DSL connections with a 200 gig cap!
I was saved!!! And it remained like that for almost a year with no problems. I paid my bill every month with a smile and wasn't late ONCE, I even replied to there automatic notices just out of respect. My ISP woes were gone...sadly, this was not the case.
This brings me up to yesterday (June 17th, 2010). Money was tight this month so I didn't get to send me bill off until the 16th despite it being due on the 9th. I figured
"hey it's a week late, and this is the first time, it'll be all good...it's only 41$"
Then, my internet gets cut off. No warning, no disconnection notice, no nothing, just browsing Icrontic E3 coverage then dead. At first I thought my modem had died since I almost burned my self when trying to unplug it and I still had a DSL signal. After messing around with it for about 3 hours, I finally called into Teksavvy.
At first I was beside myself "a week late, 41$, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!". I didn't get angry, no I wasn't going to get anywhere if I got angry. After being on hold listening to elevator music for 20 minutes, I finally got ahold of tech support. They said my account had been suspended due to non-payment. I explained the bill was sent off the day before and that I should have more leeway then that..
The tech was trying to be nice "You'll get internet when we get money". I asked for an escalation at this point. After another couple of minutes on hold, the tech came back very apologetic about my situation and say that he got a hold of the account manager and that I would have internet in about 5 minutes. After my modem "recycled" itself.
I waited 20 minutes. Still nothing, still no internet light. I was sure I had been lied to just so he could get me off the phone. After all I took his word for it and never talked to the manager myself...
I called again. Customer service rep picked up after about 15 minutes, told her my situation, and the response I got "Let me transfer you to tech support". Another 10 minutes goes by and another Customer service Rep picks up "We're really busy here, can you call back?", "No, this is the second time I've called can we please get this delt with?" I responded. "I'm only the overflow rep but I can try", explained my situation again then she offered to get a manager...
Another 10 minutes goes by, and at this point, I admit, I was getting aggravated when the manager picks up. He said nothing, after a couple of seconds I asked, "Is this the manager?" "Yes It is Rob and I don't appreciate you being so "uppity" with our customer service reps" he replied.
"Excuse me?!" I was very taken back at this point since I used to work in customer service and that is usually grounds for being fired.
"I've been monitoring your calls for an hour now and I need you to show me some respect" he went on "You don't need to get aggravated over a wrong modem password"
Wrong password?!?! Ok....I wasn't under the impression I had changed it?
He continued to talk down to me and threat me like a number rather then a paying customer who had e-mail the CRTC on behalf of Teksavvy.
He then talked to me like I had no experience with computers, making me in all honesty very insecure about myself. I had never been treated like this before by ANY company and had NEVER doubted myself because of something like this...
When we got to the modem password page, I put my password in and it started up without a problem. I proceeded to ask how something like this could of happened, he told me user error. I didn't change my password I said! Our conversation ended after that...
At this point, I'm in the process of writing a formal letter of complaint to the CEO Rocky Gaudrault as well as the the head of the customer service department.
Should a company be able to put down your intelligence and insult you over a simple error? I think not....
My battle with Teksavvy has just started and I promise you this. I will be treated with respect when I pay for a service.
I am a customer, not dirt. Respect and courtesy is something that should be given, not something that needs to be fought for
This is only my second blog on icrontic and boy do I have some stories to tell! First off, a little back story..
In Canada, specifically Ontario, there is essentially only two options as far as ISPs go. Rogers (founded by Ted Rogers) or Bell (founded by Alexander Graham Bell). Both of these companies openly throttle and charge ridiculous rates, ~$50 a month for 10mbit down and 1mbit for with a 60 gig cap for rogers with a 1$ extra per gig up until double your regular bill. Bell has similar policies but they only offer DSL
I was with Rogers being throttled for 5 years. As time went by I had enough and called in to there customer service department and eventually "The Office Of The President" only to be told they would throttle me until I canceled my service even though I never received the speeds I paid for. On that day I stopped supporting rogers and went to find another ISP....
I was in quite the predicament having just canceled my service without having a back-up to go to. I sure wasn't going to go to Bell after my issues with Rogers and knowing they have very similar policies....
At about this point I came across a company called Teksavvy Inc. There were other ISPs in ontario other then Rogers or Bell?! Really?! I was under the impression they had a monopoly on Ontario ISPs...well, guess what? They do!
Teksavvy along with other companies such as Yak are known as "whole sale resellers". Basically, they buy the rights to a portion of Bell or Roger's network capacity and receive a discount. This leads to companies like Teksavvy being able to charge 41$ a month for 5mbit/1mbit DSL connections with a 200 gig cap!
I was saved!!! And it remained like that for almost a year with no problems. I paid my bill every month with a smile and wasn't late ONCE, I even replied to there automatic notices just out of respect. My ISP woes were gone...sadly, this was not the case.
This brings me up to yesterday (June 17th, 2010). Money was tight this month so I didn't get to send me bill off until the 16th despite it being due on the 9th. I figured
"hey it's a week late, and this is the first time, it'll be all good...it's only 41$"
Then, my internet gets cut off. No warning, no disconnection notice, no nothing, just browsing Icrontic E3 coverage then dead. At first I thought my modem had died since I almost burned my self when trying to unplug it and I still had a DSL signal. After messing around with it for about 3 hours, I finally called into Teksavvy.
At first I was beside myself "a week late, 41$, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!". I didn't get angry, no I wasn't going to get anywhere if I got angry. After being on hold listening to elevator music for 20 minutes, I finally got ahold of tech support. They said my account had been suspended due to non-payment. I explained the bill was sent off the day before and that I should have more leeway then that..
The tech was trying to be nice "You'll get internet when we get money". I asked for an escalation at this point. After another couple of minutes on hold, the tech came back very apologetic about my situation and say that he got a hold of the account manager and that I would have internet in about 5 minutes. After my modem "recycled" itself.
I waited 20 minutes. Still nothing, still no internet light. I was sure I had been lied to just so he could get me off the phone. After all I took his word for it and never talked to the manager myself...
I called again. Customer service rep picked up after about 15 minutes, told her my situation, and the response I got "Let me transfer you to tech support". Another 10 minutes goes by and another Customer service Rep picks up "We're really busy here, can you call back?", "No, this is the second time I've called can we please get this delt with?" I responded. "I'm only the overflow rep but I can try", explained my situation again then she offered to get a manager...
Another 10 minutes goes by, and at this point, I admit, I was getting aggravated when the manager picks up. He said nothing, after a couple of seconds I asked, "Is this the manager?" "Yes It is Rob and I don't appreciate you being so "uppity" with our customer service reps" he replied.
"Excuse me?!" I was very taken back at this point since I used to work in customer service and that is usually grounds for being fired.
"I've been monitoring your calls for an hour now and I need you to show me some respect" he went on "You don't need to get aggravated over a wrong modem password"
Wrong password?!?! Ok....I wasn't under the impression I had changed it?
He continued to talk down to me and threat me like a number rather then a paying customer who had e-mail the CRTC on behalf of Teksavvy.
He then talked to me like I had no experience with computers, making me in all honesty very insecure about myself. I had never been treated like this before by ANY company and had NEVER doubted myself because of something like this...
When we got to the modem password page, I put my password in and it started up without a problem. I proceeded to ask how something like this could of happened, he told me user error. I didn't change my password I said! Our conversation ended after that...
At this point, I'm in the process of writing a formal letter of complaint to the CEO Rocky Gaudrault as well as the the head of the customer service department.
Should a company be able to put down your intelligence and insult you over a simple error? I think not....
My battle with Teksavvy has just started and I promise you this. I will be treated with respect when I pay for a service.
I am a customer, not dirt. Respect and courtesy is something that should be given, not something that needs to be fought for
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Comments
But yea, here I was thinking my isp was being a poop, I can't imagine dealing with a bandwidth cap... those things just irk me to the core.
Moral of this story? Large Canadian ISPs suck balls and if you yell and scream enough at the little guys they will apologize again again...to such an extent you almost feel sorry for them. Guess they don't want to loose the little market share they have....
MrTRiot 1
Teksavvy 0