Negative Review on Acanac. No service and lost home phone number.
Hi.
I have promised a review once I switched out of Acanac in my previous post. I registered for a long time and didn’t post anything, since I did not think any company could provoke me to this point (not even Rogers who charged ~$200 by “accident”).
In short, I would in the future personally AVOID ACANAC LIKE A PLAGUE.
There was no service provided by Acanac from start, no customer service, lost money since I bought “non-fundable” equipment, extra cost to my cell + travel due to no internet/voip, and lost my home phone number since they REFUSE to provide VOIP invoice (since I ordered the bundle).
So far I called the credit card company to stop payment, and filed a complaint to CCTS. In total, by dealing with Acanac for the past 1month, I lost my home phone number and ~ $400-500 (not including the charge on credit card).
WARNING. Really long post below, I just want to write in detail and get it out of my system. Maybe even possibly help new customer to avoid what I gone through.
Now time for the long story, feel free to ignore it. Going to break this into parts:
Order Phase
I ordered Cable and voip bundle service on August 20th, no one even cared to call me to tell the order was not processed due to missing modem info, I had to call and find out after days of waiting.
Acanac charged credit card on signup, not on the installation date. As an accountant, I can tell you in “theory” they should not do this.
I paid around $150 on voip apa and cable modem, which now is just two piece of junk at home thanks for Acanac.
Installation and troubleshooting
After installation on Sept 8, internet never came up. At the same time I don’t have VOIP (since it require internet).
Called their tech support, was automatically hangup since the waiting list is longer than 1 hour. I got “lucky” once when the system didn’t hangup, ‘You are caller #4, the waiting is 15min”, then after 1hour of waiting “You are caller #19, the waiting is 30min”… I don’t know how Acanac do their count downs.
The only “real” person I was able to get hold of was their sales, whom doesn’t even care. I asked for their manager, and was told “we don’t have manager” (later called back and told them I am recording it, one argued they had “team leader”, so not their problem cuz asked for the wrong person).
Acanac’s solution is that you must file ticket online, even customer doesn’t have internet. Other than ticket, I also posted on Acanac forum and said I can’t travel outside to check ticket, then go home to look, then out again to update. I also complaint about the extra cost due to this, since I have to pay for internet outside. I was told by their “loyal customers” it’s my problem that I don’t want to go someplace with free internet to do my professional work. An other "customer" said he would not pickup if someone called a dozen time (Why would I call a dozen time if someone answered the phone the first time?)
After filing 2 tickets online and waited for days, I finally got someone. A lady called my cell phone at 0.40per min (She was nice enough to call rather than update ticket online. I don’t take it personally towards their employee). This “relationship” lasted for nearly 2 weeks they finally decide to send a technician (I asked on day 1 to send someone, since I had similar experience before, and I am 99% sure it’s the switchbox outside).
I took time off and waited three days, no show (they forgot to tell me they cancelled again). I finally got fed up and switched to different ISP. This entire time, I lost ~$400-500 dealing with Acanac.
Aftermath – Port my number to new ISP
The new ISP need a VOIP invoice to port over my old number from Acanac. The problem is Acanac said “As we said before, your Softphone service is free, so we can not sent invoice to you.” Its free because it’s a BUNDLE. Again, as accountant, their billing can provide a 0 value invoice to help customer, but no.
This means, since I didn’t pay $19.99 extra per month when I could get it for free, I lost my phone number for dealing with Acanac (Its going to be so fun calling Service Canada, and other organizations, to update info and be put on hold for hours).
As for the refund for the charges to credit card, I am “waiting” indefinitely. So its best that I call credit card for them to start investigation, and also file a complaint on CCTS.
Everything said here I can backup.
I have promised a review once I switched out of Acanac in my previous post. I registered for a long time and didn’t post anything, since I did not think any company could provoke me to this point (not even Rogers who charged ~$200 by “accident”).
In short, I would in the future personally AVOID ACANAC LIKE A PLAGUE.
There was no service provided by Acanac from start, no customer service, lost money since I bought “non-fundable” equipment, extra cost to my cell + travel due to no internet/voip, and lost my home phone number since they REFUSE to provide VOIP invoice (since I ordered the bundle).
So far I called the credit card company to stop payment, and filed a complaint to CCTS. In total, by dealing with Acanac for the past 1month, I lost my home phone number and ~ $400-500 (not including the charge on credit card).
WARNING. Really long post below, I just want to write in detail and get it out of my system. Maybe even possibly help new customer to avoid what I gone through.
Now time for the long story, feel free to ignore it. Going to break this into parts:
Order Phase
I ordered Cable and voip bundle service on August 20th, no one even cared to call me to tell the order was not processed due to missing modem info, I had to call and find out after days of waiting.
Acanac charged credit card on signup, not on the installation date. As an accountant, I can tell you in “theory” they should not do this.
I paid around $150 on voip apa and cable modem, which now is just two piece of junk at home thanks for Acanac.
Installation and troubleshooting
After installation on Sept 8, internet never came up. At the same time I don’t have VOIP (since it require internet).
Called their tech support, was automatically hangup since the waiting list is longer than 1 hour. I got “lucky” once when the system didn’t hangup, ‘You are caller #4, the waiting is 15min”, then after 1hour of waiting “You are caller #19, the waiting is 30min”… I don’t know how Acanac do their count downs.
The only “real” person I was able to get hold of was their sales, whom doesn’t even care. I asked for their manager, and was told “we don’t have manager” (later called back and told them I am recording it, one argued they had “team leader”, so not their problem cuz asked for the wrong person).
Acanac’s solution is that you must file ticket online, even customer doesn’t have internet. Other than ticket, I also posted on Acanac forum and said I can’t travel outside to check ticket, then go home to look, then out again to update. I also complaint about the extra cost due to this, since I have to pay for internet outside. I was told by their “loyal customers” it’s my problem that I don’t want to go someplace with free internet to do my professional work. An other "customer" said he would not pickup if someone called a dozen time (Why would I call a dozen time if someone answered the phone the first time?)
After filing 2 tickets online and waited for days, I finally got someone. A lady called my cell phone at 0.40per min (She was nice enough to call rather than update ticket online. I don’t take it personally towards their employee). This “relationship” lasted for nearly 2 weeks they finally decide to send a technician (I asked on day 1 to send someone, since I had similar experience before, and I am 99% sure it’s the switchbox outside).
I took time off and waited three days, no show (they forgot to tell me they cancelled again). I finally got fed up and switched to different ISP. This entire time, I lost ~$400-500 dealing with Acanac.
Aftermath – Port my number to new ISP
The new ISP need a VOIP invoice to port over my old number from Acanac. The problem is Acanac said “As we said before, your Softphone service is free, so we can not sent invoice to you.” Its free because it’s a BUNDLE. Again, as accountant, their billing can provide a 0 value invoice to help customer, but no.
This means, since I didn’t pay $19.99 extra per month when I could get it for free, I lost my phone number for dealing with Acanac (Its going to be so fun calling Service Canada, and other organizations, to update info and be put on hold for hours).
As for the refund for the charges to credit card, I am “waiting” indefinitely. So its best that I call credit card for them to start investigation, and also file a complaint on CCTS.
Everything said here I can backup.