My Review of Velcom DSL (Buyer Beware)

[sweetlikechutny]

Review of Velcom DSL (Buyer Beware)

For my new apartment, I needed DSL service and came across an add on Kijiji.com for Velcom.
Now normally, I would sign up with Acanac, as I have been with the company for several years and have been very satisfied with their internet service. But, I had no idea how long I would be staying at my new apartment, thus I did not want to agree to a 1 year plan with Acanac to get the discounted rate.

The Velcom plan on Kijiji stated:
- 26.95/month for 5.0mbps for the first 3 months, 29.95 thereafter
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 5% discount for referencing the Kijiji add

So I gave Velcom a call. The sales representative first told me the transfer cap is 400gb for the 29.95/month plan. Then he tried to sell me the unlimited plan for 36 something dollars. After a few iterations, he acknowledged the Velcom kijiji ad but slightly different then actually advertised:

- 26.95/month for 5.0mbps at all times
- Unlimited bandwidth

I signed up (Jan 3, 2012) and received the username and password in about 5 business days (note: I was charged for service during the 5 days it took to setup the account). With the signup charges the first bill came to $47.50 ($15.00 plus tax for signup).
The service was slow, about 1.2mpbs maximum at any given time in the day. So I gave technical support a call and we diagnosed the problem to a possible issue with the phone line. He told me Velcom would require a deposit of around 87 dollars to send a Bell Technician to service the line. If Bell found nothing wrong with the line, they money would be kept. I decided not to pay the deposit because I was getting suspicious of Velcom when I received the next month’s bill.

My February bill stated I only had 400gb of transfer. I called customer support and they agreed that billing made an error and would correct my service plan. After several weeks, my plan was not corrected; I only received 400gb for February.
Then came March, I was now charged $34.95 for a 400gb plan at 6.0mbps (the jokes really on me as I only get 1.2mbps at most). I called customer service and they told me the price went up and they notified their customers on Jan 06, 2012 (I was never notified). I told them I was not notified, but he went on to state that’s not their problem and they cannot do anything about it, but reduce my plan to 100gb if I wanted to be charged only $26.95. He refused to refund my money for March or to refund my the difference or help me in any way at all.

I agreed to reduce the bandwidth to 100gb/month and have the difference refunded (34.95 – 26.95) and have the service terminated at the end of the month. I am still waiting for them to refund me the difference.

I will never do business with this company again, and will advise all others to stay away.

[gill1234]

Contact the CRTC
Www.CRTC.gc.ca

[Insider]

thanked. nice review, well written. a rarity on rfd.

[M-e-X-x]

In no way am I defending Velcom, but I see a lot of similarities to how I got my DSL set up with Teksavvy. Note, I'll be talking about set up, not pricing/advertising. Teksavvy does an great job of laying out pricing information on their site and standing by it.

I had asked for a 5 mbit line with Teksavvy and was put on the wrong profile of 3 mbit (which I had read is common since Bell does the work). They did tests and such and I was also told about the $80-$90 Bell technician charge that I *may* incur, but no deposit necessary. So after a 2 days or so the line was fixed and I've been a happy camper since. I was not charged the technician charge since it was just a profile mix-up and was confident that was the problem at the time.

Now, the reason I chose Teksavvy was for the customer service and technical support. I had them in the past when I lived in AB and didn't mind paying the extra because of that (yes not RFD'ish, but no headache in the end). What I see wrong in your situation is clearly poor communication and a lack of knowledge on the Velcom side, which is a HUGE reason I why I'm avoiding Velcom, Acanac, Distributel, and other similar companies even though they are slightly cheaper.

I will say this time around for set up on Teksavvy, the technical support wasn't as good as before, but they did resolve it quickly and gave them the benefit of the doubt being a past customer. They are having growing pains, especially in their cable internet side, which again I avoided to save another headache.

[the stig]

does anyone know that site that gives you a line test to see just how fast you are getting for up and down speeds ? when teksavvy did their pricing change i downgraded from the unlimited plan to the 300GB plan to save some money and now i seem to get poor connection.

before i had no problems with lag or downloading torrents, but ever since the change i lose connection on PS3 online games (BF3 is the worst ever) my PS3 constantly signs me out of PSN and other downloads that would usually take about an hour now take a day and a half.

i was told that they also upped the speeds from 5mbps to 6mbps for the plan i'm on now. but i can tell it's even less than the 5mbps i was on before.

before i go calling and complaining i want to be sure of my connection speeds since teksavvy has been really good both for service and customer service and don't want to blame them for something they aren't doing unless i'm positive. i feel it might be like the person above and my plan be mixed up and i'm on something totally different.

i also notice that when i get my statement (both for owing and paid) it hardly ever shows up in my email until i'm a day past due (that's my fault for not calling about that issue, i just get busy with other things and forget to call)

but i would really like to check my speeds to see exactly what's going on.

[sweetlikechutny]

Contact the CRTC
Www.CRTC.gc.ca

Thanks, I submitted a complaint to the CRTC on your advise.

[aggronieszka]

does anyone know that site that gives you a line test to see just how fast you are getting for up and down speeds ?

www.speedtest.net

[sweetlikechutny]

Just a follow up to my issues with Velcom:

I opened a case with the BBB and CRTC. They oversaw a negotiation on the settlement. The sales rep conveniently skewed the correspondent details recorded by his company to disregard any of the claim numbers given to me in regards to the promo pricing and adjustments. I settled for a small settlement of 12 dollars or so and agreed to stay on with their new terms. He lied about many of the details of what happened and suggested I take the 12 dollars or I might get nothing (intimidation tactics?). All in all I am out 30 extra dollars and stuck with only 100gb bandwidth when I should have unlimited.

Velcom has also had many significant problems with their billing systems. I was charged over 30 times last month for over 30 dollars. Velcom claims to have fixed the issue, but I have yet to see my statement and if the money was credited back to my account.

I also get a notice that my payment is "late" almost every month (how is that possible when they have my credit card on file?). Each time I have to email them so they can fix the confusion, but I was never at fault.

My speed still have not recovered. I am still barely able to browse the internet.

At the price they are charging, you can get much better service, performance and unlimited bandwidth through Acanac or Tekksavvy.


All in all, a terrible, deceitful and untrustworthy company, with significant problems with their infrastructure and service (lets not forget they are overpriced). Buyer Beware.

[Aznsilvrboy]

So why did you stay with them for a measly $12? I would have just left anyways.

[shimh]

I don't quite understand that either. OP should just have left Velcom already, unless Velcom is the only choice, but unlikely. Two possible ways to get higher speed as well as unlimited or high-cap back:

1. Go with cable
2. Try to order DSL service with speed higher than 6Mbps

[akz]

yeah OP as everyone has said why stick with something you know already is flop just cut your losses and jump back over to Acanac or Tek, there really isnt a point in paying for crippled internet, might as well go back to Robbers/Bellus at least they are faster.

[sweetlikechutny]

It was my only choice as I did not know how long I was going to stay in my apartment.

They are terminated at the end of the month.

I agree I could have moved on a lot sooner, but given I am here max 5 days a week (and mostly out and about), and unsure of the length of my stay, I just put up with it for the past 7 months.

I made this thread to leave an accurate review, that is all.

[sweetlikechutny]

I don't quite understand that either. OP should just have left Velcom already, unless Velcom is the only choice, but unlikely. Two possible ways to get higher speed as well as unlimited or high-cap back:

1. Go with cable
2. Try to order DSL service with speed higher than 6Mbps

You missed the point. There service is advertised as 5 or 6mbps, but I do not even get 1mbps

[tranquility922]

I'm bumping this because I'm thinking of going w/ Velcom...not sure after reading this thread. Any updates or further comments by its posters? Here is my thread below. Thx.
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/best-...r-isp-1309047/

[tranquility922]

bump