News, notes, commentaries, and discussions related to high-speed (broadband) Internet access in rural Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and surrounding areas.
This purpose of this weblog is to track news and events related to high-speed (broadband) Internet access in the rural areas of Ottawa and, to a lesser extent, in nearby townships.
posted by Chris Spencer at 9:58 pm
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posted by Chris Spencer at 8:10 am
4 comments
said...
Xplornet is a joke. I signed up for the $203.99 pkg and recieved terrible service. I called their service desk for over a year trying to get it fixed. They immediately dismissed me as soon as I said I had a router. I then started to disconnect my router prior to calling and still had troubles. For the past month my internet was down 30 to 50% of the time on top of me getting kicked off the net 3 to 5 times a day when I was able to get onto it. After losing a lot of money as I trade on the stock exchange I cancelled the service. They were so ignorant after paying over $2500 in a year for very poor service they had the nerve to charge me until my contract ran out. They would not issue a work order to a service installer for over a year. Once my warranty was up they made it very clear my equipment was not covered under warranty. They hide behind their contract agreement and ensure it's wording makes them money. They could care less about their customer. My advise, if you need the internet for work DO NOT get Xplornet. If it doesn't matter to you if your connection works go for it. I should add, pages load almost as fast with dialup and faster if I just hit the "stop loading" key if it hangs on a graphic. If you'd like more evidence of their very poor service, google "xplornet sucks".
Chris Spencer said...
$203.99 a month? Sounds like satellite service, which is slow and pricey, as indicated.
I'd be much more interested in knowing about Xplornet's fixed wireless services, since that is what is being deployed (mainly) in the rural Ottawa area. Satellite service should be the exception for people within Ottawa's boundaries, if OrcNet and Xplornet are to be believed.
said...
Sorry Chris, I posted previous and did not see you had indeed published my post. However, I am curious as to why you'd publish my post which is obviously about Xplornet under Roger's?
OK, I had satellite service, yes. However, for as many problems there are with satellite, there are with wireless as well and anyone will verify this if they google "xplornet sucks". In any case, the bottom line is, their service help line is of no help at all and anytime they can blame their customer's equipment, they will. They tell us to do the EXACT same troubleshooting every time we call. Even if we call more than once per day. Now, anyone who's been around awhile knows the definition of insanity "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". Even if we know it is not our hardware, they still will blame us. I have had 4 different computers and 3 different browsers, hooked up to my satellite and modem - directly. They still blamed my hardware and never sent out a service tech until after my warranty was up and after over a year of calling. Anyone who signs on with them READ your contract and prior to reading, ask yourself "what can I find in here that will protect me?". I think your answer will be "nothing". There are people who are actually paying out their contract at a reduced rate just to get rid of the service. I am one of them and I know of another person paying out $900 just to get rid of them!
Chris Spencer said...
Firstly, I don't control where comments get posted; only whether or not they get posted (and the only reason I chose to control that was because this blog was getting spammed early on and I'd have to go in a delete irrelevant posts). Comments appear under the article which the user selected (e.g. x Comments). So this one is going under the "Ottawa Citizen: Rogers expands portable internet service" article too. If that's not the article you selected, then there may be a bug in the blogger site. A bug seems unlikely though.
Secondly, google "insert_your_ISP_here sucks" and you'll pretty much find some articles. That's not to say I doubt that you've had a poor experience with XplorNet; I believe you have, and if it were me, I'd be upset too. I've posted your comments so that others can be aware of your experience. However, so far, the sample set of XplorNet comments that I've received is quite small (2 -- and both from the same user), so I'd like to hear from others as well. One would have to assume that XplorNet would have more satisfied users than not, or else they wouldn't have the presence that they have (I'm not a business guy, so I could be wrong on that last point; I guess their customers could have no other ISP option).
But you have hit on one of the problems with satellite or fixed wireless service: it can be costly to switch ISPs. Whether you buy the equipment or rent it, there's still a fairly high install cost associated with the service, so things usually have to get pretty bad before subscribers will up and leave... if they even have that option.
And you've hit on another point: breaking contracts can be expensive. You get lured in by free or reduced installation and/or reduced monthly subscription fees, and -- boom -- they've got you. The advice I usually give to people along these lines is (and sadly it's too late in your case) go month-by-month or sign a short contract unless you're sure.
If you're leaving XplorNet, I'd be interested to know which ISP you're planning to sign-up with next?
posted by Chris Spencer at 9:38 pm
1 comments
said...
Their coverage area maps moved my house by about 10 km, so I'm not sure if their "service availability area" test is reliable. Also their cancellation fees seem exorbitant.
Their website is a bit short on technology descriptions (but great on animations of installers), so it's not clear what frequencies they are using and if this is really WiMax standard.
posted by Chris Spencer at 6:54 pm
0 comments
posted by Chris Spencer at 10:16 pm
2 comments
said...
Chris,
Rogers appear to have a new website to support their portable internet service (http://hispeed.rogers.com/bband/content/expand/index.html). Near Ashton I can apparently get service with the use of an 'outdoor' modem. I spoke with a Bell 'Unplugged' CSR and they plan to be able to offer me service by the end of the month, which is obviously great news for me.
The new Roger website might be worth a post to your readers.
Keep up the great work!
said...
It's about time some competition becomes available - the present providers have every excuse in the book on why they can't provide decent reliable advertised speeds. Amen!
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