HawthorneVillager.com

We are on the fence on which provider to go with for television and internet... any suggestions or opinions would be helpful.

Thanks!
Jenn

Cogeco HD blows

Internet and phone is good.

Hi,

When we first moved to Milton, I really wanted Rogers for their HD service and On Demand options. Unfortunately, 4 years ago, Rogers wasn't available in my neighbourhood so we went with its (what I believe is) sister company Cogeco. Basic cable and HD quality is atrocious. If you have a big bad TV looking for some great HD programming, I don't believe you'll get it with Cogeco.

In fact, the technician was at our place (I live in Main Street Village and moving to HV next spring) 3 times, and finally admitted that the quality of our programming wasn't changing anytime soon. I appreciated his honesty, and promptly switched to Bell.

Bell quality is outstanding, however we do lose signal during hard rains and major snowstorms. Not a big deal, but sometimes annoying. I have a "bundled package" (which I do not believe is available any longer). It is $198 (taxes included) and we get full telephone service (including call waiting, call display, call answer and 2000 minutes of long distance anywhere in north america), the highest speed internet possible, and the full HD programming compliment (including movies and sports). Bell's television packages are weird.. you'd have to check them out, but we get all the programming we want.

I have found that if you tell them that you're weighing a decision between the two companies, you can get a pretty good deal.

Good luck!

What kind of monthly bandwidth caps are people getting on their respective internet connections?

I've got Cogeco for internet. I've got ExpressVu for television. I used to have Cogeco for cable, and they were fine, but there were a few HD channels I wanted that were only on BEV, which is why the switch happened. Customer service for Bell has always been ridiculously horrible, heaven help ya if anything goes wrong. Cogeco is somewhat easier to get ahold of, but neither of their "CS Reps" are particularly knowledgeable. At one point, Cogeco had charged me over $600 in cable fees which weren't supposed to be on my account and it took them over a week to acknowledge it and remove the fees. Then again, I've had similar billing related nightmares with Bell, and Rogers for that matter, and basically anyone who provides a big communications service which I've subscribed to. Usually the service is decent - just don't ever require customer assistance and you'll be laughin' ...

I have the high bandwidth service from Cogeco and I can get 830+ kbps, depending on the day. I only subscribe because my work pays for it, so I figure I might as well get the expensive one. I've never had any issues, and everything runs fast.

Cogeco doesn't send you 1080p, it would be 720p.

Bell for your phone and Internet

For your TV install a FTA system $0.00 monthly fees.

But what chanels do you get with free to air?

you can get up to 3000 channels

legally? Are they good chanels? are they in english?

I read that Rogers will be coming to new developments within Milton in the coming months. I am curious if we will have the choice between the 2 or if it will be dependant by neighbourhood or builder. I am in phase 4B, anyone here any information on this topic or area?

Shane

Why you are not using real word if you are experienced user of using FTA for viewing of coded channels. The real word is not a program it is cracked code you have to download from some pirate website somewhere in East Europe to watch Dish Network here for example.
Same crap over and over again. People are buying new cars and huge homes but getting cheap on something which is not really expensive. I know for some people it is important to watch some channels from their mother countries, like old parents moving in and they are not really good in English. It makes sense. But people who are using FTA with cracked code (program is to download it from PC by using of RS-232 or USB connector ) to watch American movie channels are so cheap. I have seen stores in North York selling those FTA and reflashing access codes to watch Dish Network here and they are busy with “new Canadians” every time Dish Network is changing code. Such a Shame.

This is because their customer service center is located in India.

I am not a big fan of Bell at all. When I moved in here last year, I spent 6 hours (not exaggerated) on the phone with them (mostly on hold) trying to get my internet and express vu hooked up. The Express Vu people failed to show up twice and the internet support people ended up telling me that the service was not available hear and wouldn't be for a few more months. I had to give them my correct address no less than 6 times (they had the correct one, because they sent me two modems).

Anyhooo... I went with Cogeco for all three and have never had a problem.

_________________
Paul Meredith
Mortgage Broker
CityCan Financial (est 1976)
416-409-8009
http://www.easy123mortgage.ca
paulm@citycan.com
Lic#10532

Follow me on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/paulmeredith

I hate Bell with a passion. And I've only been a customer for 1.5 months.

I paid my first bill on time - 11 days early, in fact.

I just received a notice in the mail that my service has been cut off, and I need to pay a $55.00 reconnection fee.

I just called them, and of course, they're closed. After speaking to the credit department, they're trying to say I didn't pay for the first month after trying to say that this past payment was late. After backtracking 50 million times, the rep in the credit dept told me to call Billing tomorrow.

The first and only bill I received says 'Previous Charges: $0.00', and contains new charges for my first 22 days of service, and June-July service. There is no way they sent me any other bill, or this one would have been reflected as 'Previous Charges: $xx.xx', or some other notification my payment was missed.

On top of all this, they still want me to pay the $55.00 reconnection fee for their own stupidity. They also charged me $55.00 to install the service, but did not notify me of this when I ordered the service.

I'll be calling Billing first thing tomorrow morning and canceling my service.

I'd say 7 out of 10 people I know has had serious problems with Bell's billing.

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