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Reply to:	Distributel Let me start off by saying that all internet providers can be quite an 'inconvenience' to deal with when problems arise. Let me continue by explaining why I believe Distributel is even worse than its competitors. I envy those people who never run into issues with their connection or with the installation itself. For the rest of us, we all know the pains of dealing with phone robots, tech support, and the revolving door of CS reps we must bring up to speed with each and every repeated call. Still, the grass is indeed greener on the other side when it comes to a cheaper provider like Distributel, who draws you in with cheaper rates, smaller contracts, and countless limited time offers. The reason for this is twofold: 1 - They do not actually do the installations themselves - they mail you a modem or have other, bigger companies do this, like Shaw or Telus. 2 - The CS reps are quite misleading on the phone about how this works and quite generous with their broken promises. Which brings me to my painful week dealing with Stanley and Randy from Tech Support, two ladies from the CS department, and Youssef from cancellations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jan 3 - I sign up online for Distributel's internet service. They tell me they are mailing me a modem. (Wait.. what? Why not just have the installer bring one?) Jan 7 - I pick up the modem from Canada post. Okay, all good. Jan 8 - My date of installation is set up sometime between 8am-noon. I take a half-day off from work. No one shows. I call. "Oh, no one told you? An installer wasn't necessary. Your apartment is set up for auto-connect." "Wait are you serious? How come no one communicated this to me? I missed work for this!" "Yeah that's unfortunate." "Okay well it's still not working." "Really? We'll have to do it through the back-end then... Your internet should work by midnight. We'll refund you for the day of connection you missed!" Jan 9 (Morning) - The internet is still not connected. "Oh, that's because usually it doesn't connect until 10am the next morning." (But Stanley said by 'midnight?') "Okay, well it's 10am now and there is still no connection." "Hmm.. Okay we'll have to send someone out. We will escalate service to either 11th, 12th, or 13th." Jan 9 (Evening) - Missed call from Distributel. No message. I call back. "Hmm that's weird. There are no notes saying someone tried to call you." "Okay... Well can you confirm my installation dates at least?" "There are no installation dates." "Are you serious? Randy said either the 11th, 12th, or 13th!" "The soonest we can get someone there is by the 21st. "Are you serious? That's 12 days from now!" "Only 7 business days!" ... "Patch me through to cancellations please. This is insane." "Sure thing." ... "I want to cancel." "Okay, sir, just calm down-" "-Don't tell me to calm down. This is ridiculous." "Okay what if we credit you the modem rental fees for the year? Still the 21st though." "Okay, fine." Jan 15 - Just in case, I call Distributel to confirm the date and ask if there are any updates on escalation. "Sir, it says here that your internet was connected on Jan 8 and that no one needed to come out." "THAT WAS THREE PHONE CALLS AGO. Please try and keep up." "Sir, there is no confirmed date on the 21st." "Are. You. Kidding. Me. ... What if I hadn't randomly decided to call? I would have waited 'til the 21st and just not had someone show up!" "Please call 'Champion Team' and see if they can get a quicker installation date for you. But they are closed now. Call tomorrow." sigh. Jan 16 - I try calling 'Champion Team.' I Press 1 for English. No response or sound. I wait 5 minutes. nothing.. I press 2 for French. Nothing.. I try several more times. Nothing.. I reflect on all the stress this has caused me. Finally, I call customer service and cancel my service. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I understand that sometimes issues arise. But I was misled by this company three times about when someone would come out. The ever-changing reps have no idea what your situation is because they leave no notes. They failed to mention from the get-go that I did not need to take a day off of work, so I waited for nothing and lost potential wages. They also did nothing to convenience me or credit me for my troubles until I threatened cancellation. In fact, my first phone call with Stanley was the most frustrating only because he was not empathetic at all. The fact is, whether or not these representatives actually scheduled in these dates for me, they failed to mention that these dates were all requests sent out to Shaw for THEIR installers to go out and fix this issue. Why? Because Distributel fixes nothing themselves. They are a middle man with no accountability whatsoever, and so if (and when) something happens, you will call them because you must, and they will, in turn, call Shaw or some other provider to fix it, because they must. Good luck figuring that out and God grant you the patience to wait that long. In the end, I couldn't. I just went straight to Shaw themselves. I ordered on the 16th. I had someone come out on the 17th. I mean, wow.
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