OT: Bell Internet Performance Service - Up to 7 Mbps

[James Knott]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 01, 2008 at 05:28:05PM -0400, Meng Cheah wrote:
>   
>> Is anyone using the above and would like to share their experience, both 
>> good and bad?
>>
>> What is the performance with Bittorrent?
>>
>> The Bell salesperson first told me that Bell does not do trafficshaping.
>> When pointed out that the issue is before the CRTC, he informed me that 
>> the CRTC forces Bell to trafficshape.
>> Finally, he admitted that Bell trafficshapes because users are using 
>> "excessive" bandwidth(but the cap is 60 GB per month).
>> All this in less than 3 minutes and without embarrassment.
>> I have the impression that if telling me that Obama is the AntiChrist 
>> would clinch my signing up, he would.
>>
>> Any info will be appreciated.
>>     
>
> Well Bell performs traffic shapping on the DSL backhaul, so they
> certainly are traffic shaping.  I believe they were doing it to their
> own customers long before starting to do it to other customers.
>
> Bell Sympatico also has a long history of awful service, billing
> screwups (like how to make them stop billing you for service you no
> longer have), etc.  And of course they use MSN/hotmail for their mail
> service as far as I can tell.
>
> Any other DSL provider is likely to provide better service, better tech
> support, better conditions, and lower price, and usually the same speed
> too.
>
> I will NEVER have service from Sympatico.
>
>   
I'm on Rogers, but occasionally have to deal with Sympatico through my
work.  There's a world of difference between the support lines.  On
Sympatico, I find them generally useless.  On Rogers, the support is
usually fairly good.  In fact, on the last call I made to them, I even
chatted with the tech about Linux (he uses Ubuntu) and he had no problem
supporting a customer with a Linux box connected to the cable modem.  On
Rogers, they treat you as though you have some intelligence, unlike
Sympatico.  Also, Sympatico insists you click on the Start button etc. 
If you don't or can't do that, they won't talk to you.  Well, the
equipment I'm working does not have a Start button!  Try to get the call
escalated, and they'll hang up on you.  BTW, those calls to Sympatico
are on behalf of business customers, not home users and even then, their
"support" stinks.  With one customer, after several attempts to resolve
a problem, the customer was about ready to pull her hair out.  She then
called her sales rep at Bell to complain.  After that call, the problem
was resolved.  One has to wonder what Bell hopes to accomplish, when
they have a support line that does little more than antagonize the customer.

BTW, I noticed that Rogers was always above 90% of advertised speed, but
Bell was by far the worst at (IIRC) 16%.




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