Any ISP recommendations (GTA)

[Chris Bardon]

Looks like whatever deal with the devil that I had with Rogers has expired, and bundle price went up by 50 bucks. Looking for other options. Only real criteria are fast, unlimited internet, and something that'll let me keep my current home phone number (thinking about something like voip.ms plus a demarcation gateway). Probably going to just ditch cable TV-we almost never use it anymore, even for kids' stuff. Anyone have any recommendations? Bell fibe is available in the area, but that means paying for TV, but there are other options, like distributel, smart, etc.

 

[Menace]

Start.ca has been great for me, and a few others that I've recommended them to. They recently raised their rates a bit, so not sure how they stack up against the others these days but their service and support have been top shelf.

D

 

[Monkeybug]

TekSavvy or Accanac.

 

[brad808]

Teksavvy has always served me well.

 

[Fifty]

I use Electronic Box. I'm in Ottawa and they are based in Montreal. Their support is local (Montreal, not India) and they speak English (if you are worried about that). I have been with them for many years now. Great support and service. My only complaint is the odd French ad from websites that use your IP to track your location. Stupid web developers.

 

[eh97ac]

TekSavvy Cable, you won't have to change anything. If a tech bumps up your speed (or down) it will be a Rogers tech. Choose their DSL package and you get a Bell line with Bell techs.

They are a reseller with fantastic prices and great customer service.... I have used them going on 6 years now.

Be warned though, Bell and Rogers kicked the can down the road when it came to torrents. Teksavvy was (may still be) the trial ISP in Ontario for media companies looking to sue end users for illegal downloading.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Ended up going with start for cable. 60 down, 10 up, unlimited bandwidth for 80 bucks a month. Also canceled landline phone and am in the process of porting number to voip.ms. Means instead of paying 48 bucks a month for a phone I barely use, I pay 2.50 a month for a DID and e911, plus a cent a minute. Cable is just gone, since I can't remember the last thing I watched live.

Everything gets cut over in November, so we'll see how things go then. Stupid 30 day cancellation with Rogers... At least they weren't dicks about cutting the service? I called expecting a fight, and it was 5 mins on the phone, with almost no attempt to retain or match the offer I already had. Advantage to calling on a sunday night perhaps?

 

[Menace]

Heh, when I called Bell to cancel my DSL it was all of 2 mins. They didn't ask why or even attempt to retain me.

D

 

[brad808]

I used to work in a call center for american express when I was just out of high school. Minimum wage job, dealing with angry people all day most of which can't pay their bills, etc. It took all of two seconds to cancel people's accounts. There was no sort of reward for keeping customers accounts active. It made literally no difference to me whether people had cards or didn't. My pay at the terrible job was the exact same. You are dealing with hundreds of calls a day and there are always calls waiting so the quicker you got through people the better is basically what you were told. They would track each calls length and a team supervisor would be watching them all on a screen telling you speed up all day long essentially. Brutal. People would call say "cancel my account" I would take the two seconds to cancel it and then say "OK it's been canceled". After that people would freak out about how they've been a customer for x amount of years blah blah. I assume they already made the decision to cancel their account before they called, if not then they wouldn't have called. Then they would ask me to reinstate their account, which was something we couldn't do, that made people even more furious because they would have to reapply. Bottom line is if you don't want to cancel then don't call and say that. The people working there don't care because chances are it's in their best interest not to and just get on to the next customer. I know it sounds terrible and it is but that's just the reality of working one of those jobs. Try and help a customer out for 3 minutes and a team leader is standing behind your seat waiving their hands saying wrap it up, let's go.

 

[Menace]

I had zero intention of staying with Bell regardless of what they offered to try and retain me because they just cannot compete anymore, but every time I've tried to cancel anything with them in the past they have ALWAYS done their best to try and retain me. It was just a little surprising this time around they didn't so much as try... it was quite refreshing.

Maybe they are starting to realize their services are not up to par?

D

 

[Vengeance]

You guys are spoiled, I would GLADLY pay bell or rogers or whatever huge conglomerate for high speed ISP access, I'm stuck with point to point wireless and terrible speeds with an 80ft monstrosity of a tower beside my house and no hope in site

 

[Menace]

You wanted land and peace and quiet... can't have your cake and eat it too!

D