VOIP Stopped working twice. Poor Customer Service. They are not knowledgeable and tell invalid reasons (eg. Internet may not be working). I got a very aggressive response from one guy. hey, we are customers and have the right to demand answers.

I read bad reviews about comwave just now and feel bad why i subscribed , luckily i am not hooked to any plans.

I took pain subscribing for this forum just to share my bad experience choosing this provider. Please talk to other comwave subscribers about their experience before you go for COMWAVE . I will say DON'T TAKE RISK.

I've got the ePhone and iPhone.... and I hate them both.
The ePhone is a no go. It crashes all the time. The key that makes it bound to one particular PC makes it useless for me (I travel all the time and use machines wherever I work from). In the past 2 weeks, I've connected my laptop to my office and a couple of my customer's networks (those that'd allow me to do so) and it did not work from anywhere. I can play with firewall rules and network setting at home but I can't dictate Canadian banks how to open UDP ports. It's the Comwave's technology that's bad, as Skype, Yahoo, MSN, AIM, Jabber, VoIPStunt all worked fine from everywhere. Again, I got Comwave only because they offered the ePhone/iPhone combo which would fit my travelling lifestyle while giving my family a way to contact me when I'm on the road. WRONG. The ePhone does not even take vmail when it's not ON and connected to Comwave's networks. Pathetic :(
Now, the iPhone has arrived, too. Setup was not easy as I already had a wireless router and added Comwave's box as a secondary device. Comwave support made me turn off this for 2 mins, turn off that for 2 mins.... it took almost an hour to get all up and running. I was only turning things on and off, no configuration changes on my side. I wonder if they had to do something on their end but had no clue how to do it. Well, I dot a signal but this is where I had to learn the new way telephony is supposed to work.
1. dial 1-area-number.... not pleasant. no way of knowing if you are dialing a long distance call or not. Bell at least tells me when I have to dial 1- and that I'll be charged long distance. There are two 905 areas around Toronto but calling from Markham 905 to Mississauga 905 is a long distance. With Comwave you're paying long distance with no alert.
2. voice mail picks up after 5 rings and.... you have no way of knowing that you've got a v-mail waiting for you. My phone has a v-mail indicator but it does not work with Comwave (they confirmed that). With Bell I can hear the signal changed if I have a v-mail waiting... but you don't hear anything with Comwave. Their tech support told me "it's not that difficult to dial into your v-mail box and check it"... Maybe I don't get something but am I supposed to be dialing into my v-mail box every hour so I can get back to someone in an hour?
3. Voice quality is a hit-and-miss. I'd be on a conference all, I'd hear everyone fine and suddenly it all gets garbled. If I dial into the same bridge with my Bell like, it's all nice and clear all the time. Even more, now I can see how much better is the sound with Bell. Over Comwave, in good times I can understand what people are saying but they all sound like talking to me over the water pipeline.
4. Service is unpredictable. In the past week, I was on conference calls and the service died a few times. The signal would come back in a few seconds but the connection is lost and I have to redial into the bridge. To be hones, I actually had no successful calls end-to-end ever. Either signal would be too bad to understand what people are saying, or the line would drop and I'd have to redial. If Comwave service is good for short phone calls only, then they should state this in big bold letters on their web site.
5. No 3-way calling... I thought most of the companies would offer that, even 5-ways.... or more if they are VoIP. I need to bring more people on the line on a daily basis.
6. Too many features are "coming soon..." but Comwave cannot commit to any dates.
7. No caller/name ID. At least not in all areas. I had a 416 number and after 2 weeks someone called me back (at 11:50 pm???? where do these people call from??? they wake up my kids and my whole family!!!) to confirm that I need to get a 647 number if I wanted caller/name ID to work. Well, now it does work but I've lost my good 416 number and I have to be telling everyone that I've got a new number..... very painful.

I better stop here...... Please please please, if anyone knows a good VoIP provider in Toronto are, share it with me.

I am currently wanting to do an article on Broadband telephony providers and I would like to get feedback from users of the Comwave service. (please no employees or user of other services)

I am only interested in objective feedback (not rants) that discuss the pros and cons of Comwave.

Be sure to let us know how long you've used the service and any other services you may have tried.

One post per member, this thread is not for discussion just everyone's opinion.

for the most part the service is good...lately there have been a few minutes of outage's sporadically...seems they are upgrading their system...they did send a email to apologize..but this time no free month of service like the last time they had problems...:(

The reliabilty and quality is good, but not as good as Bell's...but at $14.95 a month (alll the bell's and whistles...no long distance) on a two year contract it's great vlaue....and their customer service is better than Bell's...

Overall a definite good rating

for the most part the service is good...

Except:
- customer service, for which you usually wait 15 to 20 minutes
- technical support is ok, but you must wait 30 minutes
- customer service cannot transfer you to technical support, you must call again
- wacky calling scheme for Ottawa lines (Hull is LD) and toll free lines (cannot call toll free, requiring second line)
- it is better to have a LD plan, as many calls will be (even with 7-digit dialing)
- no French CSR, although French is way up there in the menu - it's actually the language for some messages ("your call is transferred"-> "votre appel est acheminé")
- the D-Link affects traffic (have you tried pinging through this thing?)
- the D-Link box is not flexible (for other applications, like Forwarding, ...)

They have everything to succeed, but execution could be where the problem is.

-gmd

the service seems to be sporadic at times (making/receiving calls)

Their Customer service leaves alot to be desired. minimum 10 minute wait upt to 45min wait for tech support. Most of their techies seem to have a hard time understanding english. (I have been using this VOIP for aprox 3yrs now.. the service itself is getting better, just not cust service!)

In September 2006, I made the decision to try VoIP with Comwave. They sent me a box, which I had to pay a deposit of 50$ for. The day after I have plugged the box, I start to have problem with it. I was loosing the signal, I had to reset it many times a day, I was loosing communication in middle of call, etc...

When I call for service, they could not find the issue and have ask me to try it for another couple days after reseting it. Still, was not working fine. Within the first three weeks, I might have call them 10 times and I have never got good services until I call to cancel the service...

I got as response that someone was going to call me to cancel my service, they were not allow to cancel service. The guy that call me (a guy named Giza) convince me to keep the service until they figure out the problem. Also, he told me that he was going to send me a new VoIP Box and give me credit for the shipping back fee of the previous one and the monthly fee for October.

After another two months of test and two other VoIP Box, they finally told me that they could not deliver the service that I was looking for and get it working properly.

As per my request, they have canceled the service... BUT I have discover that they had not refund me anything on my credit card. They had give me a credit with Comwave on my account with them.!!!

There were no way for me to get my money back, I had to use their service to use the credit I had accumulate with them. So, I have lost a total of $171.00 with them and never got my IP phone working. It means that I have paid this company to debug a problem they had with their equipment.

Also, be careful when they say they will call you back... they never did with me.

So, stay away from COMWAVE and let you friends know.

I had service with Comwave for 3 months, July to October 06. Before that I had Rogers Home Phone and was happy with it until I moved into a new apartment with bad cable wiring in the walls (which Rogers couldn't fix). Since I liked my experience with Rogers I wanted to try another VOIP provider's service.

Pros


A lot cheaper than land line or the Rogers service
Quick and easy setup, and the modem arrived fast


Cons

Many missed and dropped calls
Sound quality is poor, callers said we sounded like we were in a fish bowl
Call display doesn't work properly (most numbers don't appear) and using their voicemail service is cumbersome - you have to check your messages through a website and the voice mail light on your phone won't work to tell you when you have a message.
Poor customer service - long hold times, CSR's don't speak English very well and give false and/or inaccurate information
Poor tech support - long hold times and staff are clueless (reading from a script) when it comes to basic troubleshooting
If you cancel your service, be prepared for major hassles getting their modem back to them, as they don't give any instructions on how or where to return, and they expect you to ship it back to them at your expense, not theirs. Also be prepared for a big sales pitch and no answers to any questions when you try to cancel.
No email address or alternate phone numbers provided for complaints or escalations - don't waste time calling the "Canada Executive Office" number on their website, nobody answers the line.

Hi

I used Comwave for 2 years and am very unhappy for the following reasons:

1. Billing errors
2. Poor voice quality due to constant codec change to try reduce bandwidth load, resulting in me having to call in often to complain about POOR voice quality. The call keep dropping as well as break up.
3. False advertising. They advertise that they guarantee the lowest rate and you pay a fee for that price match. However when you find a VOIP provider that has a lower rate they say they are a long distance carrier not a VOIP provider the VOIP is an add-on to the main business so they only match prices for long distance carriers and not VOIP providers. Corrrect me if I am wrong but are they not a VOIP provider?? I mean what had I been using for 2 years?
4. Poor tech service and they are extreamly rude, one was so sarcastic and refused to help me. Saying if you have done this so often you don't need our help you should know everything.
5. No email or internet support so if VOIP is your only phone service how do you get hold of them.
6. Loads of problems when you try to cancel. They want to charge you penalities even if the contract is finished they say they renew on a year to year basis if you originally signed a year contract. Also they do not accept drop off of the modem you HAVE to post it back.

Pros: relatively cheaper in price (but not mcuh cheap)

Cons:

- poor (and some time very very poor) sound quality
- sometime I call my COMWAVE home number from my cell, and I hear the bell ringing in my cell phone but no bell at my home phone?
- poor (or better so almost NO) customer service
- BE CAREFUL specially about their annual prepaid package!!!!!!
I subscribed to their yearly prepaid, and before the end of year I received an email from them to call them to renew/change the package. I called them and informed them immediately no to renew my plan but as the year ended they renewed WITHOUT MY CONSENT and now cann't change or cancel because their boss does not allow them to do so. What a Non-Sense company!!!

I ended up in a FORCED RENEWAL of the same **** (prepaid for another year) for no reason. I also offered them to change my plan from yearly pre-paid to another one (to include Canada & USA) and also offered to deduct the first month (of 2nd year, though it wasn't my mistake that they renewed the plan without my consent) but they won't change anything!!!

It's now over 3-months passed and I still have to bear the same stupid phone company for rest of the year.

BE WARNED AND BE CAREFUL ABOUT THIS COMPANY, DO NOT GET ATTRACTED WITH THEIR RELATIVELY LOW FEE. IT WILL COST YOU MUCH MORE IN THE LONG RUN.

They are more like thieves than a professional company.

STAY CLEAR OF COMWAVE This company has zero customer service, terrible technical service, thank god I didn't sign the two year contract. It took 3 months to cancel my service, over 6 months to get some money back, I have gotten grey hair over this company. I had less pain dealing with family deaths with throat cancer. I am not kidding! AVOID AVOID AVOID! Thank god for Canada post tracking or I would have lost every penny!

Do not hooked to any plans.
In my 2-years term, I have their phone box replaced 3 times and the phone service was down many times.

Be aware call them to cancel your service when your contract is finished right away, or they will automatically renew your contract for another year.

They don’t have forum on their website, otherwise you will see tones of bad news for them.

The most rude and worst customer service I ever experienced.

They just don't care . I used it for 2 years, my fax was working fine. Then it stopped all of a sudden.

I called them and they just told we don't support fax. Even suggested to help me to cancel my phone. I got another phone service and comwave will not release my phone number.- gave a reason that the new company did not send my right name

I will never recommend comwave to anyone

Sales people say one thing, cancellation people say another.

They will find various excuses to charge you extra money when you cancel the service and it’s hard to get your money refunded for the connection box.

Think twice before giving your credit card number to Comwave!!!

COMWAVE is absolutly a complete B/S service. The service sucks so much they dont even know whats happening. Stupid way of billing & a lot of unknown charges on your credit card. GUYS!! trust me you'll have to pay $14.95 if YOU ARE NOT USING THEIR SERVICE, its called NON-ACTIVE FEE ??? and if you use you'll pay anyways. what a b/s. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD. They'll screw you big time. ****** NEGATIVE NEGATIVE NEGATIVE *******


**** sales people say something else, accounting people some thing else, who do listen to & trust. Trust me you are screwed ****

**** DO NOT USE COMWAVE ***

I activated a Comwave phone service in late April because I needed a cheap second line for my home office. I had some pretty basic requirements:

1. Reliable service with decent voice quality.
2. Ability to PIC to my LD provider of choice.
3. Features: Voicemail, Call Display, 3-Way Calling

After 2 months of trying to work with the service, my recommendation is that if your need is for a business line (small office/home office), this is not the service you want. You'll have to make way too many compromises. If you just need cheap dial tone to the home, then this might not be a bad choice but I have to believe there are better services than this. Here's what I didn't like:

1. The 888 number for my company's IT helpdesk did not work. I tried from Bell landline, Rogers cellphone, and Telus cellphone. Worked fine. I called tech support and to paraphrase they agreed that the number didn't work and there wasn't anything they could do to fix it.

2. 11-digit dialling is annoying.

3. No message waiting lamp or stutter tone. They do have the capability to send you an email but I like the message waiting lamp.

4. Some 310-xxxx numbers do not work. The error message is "cannot complete the call as dialled" Again tech support agreed but could not do anything about it.

5. I have a coporate long distance plan that I was told I would be able to PIC to. Not so much. After two months of trying, it never happened.

6. While I was waiting for my line to be PIC'd, I was using my coroporate calling card. Everything was fine. In the last two weeks that I had the service, that too stopped working. Again, trying the same calling card from multiple different service providers, worked fine.

7. There's no ability to adjust the number of rings before a call flips to voicemail.

In summary, this service is not ready for prime time. I don't know if there are any other services out there that are better because I haven't tried any. However if this is the state of VoIP in 2009, the industry is in very bad shape indeed.

Hello Folks,

Today I had a chat with comwave, I am posting it below:

Welcome to Comwave Online Chat. An operator will be with you in just a moment.
You are now chatting with 'Minxy'. Hi there...how may I help you?
Russel: Is there any contract necessary?
Minxy: Sorry for the delay. I'll be with you in just a moment.
Minxy: No there are no contracts to sign
Minxy: You can cancel your service any time
Russel: great, so Call Select offered me 3.9c for calling Bangladesh-Dhaka Landphone and Mobile. But I see that comwave is higher, can you give me a better rate?
Minxy: One moment
Minxy: No, sir we do not match call select because of their substandard quality
Russel: but that is your guarantee isnt it? I see no clause for not matching "substandard" quality. BTW, have no idea about quality of comwave VS Call-select, In what way do you think comwave is better?
Minxy: We only match like-services.
Minxy: Comwave provides the best quality for calling South Asia
Minxy: for example, we are partners with the largest telecommunications companies in India, as well as major carriers everywhere else
Russel: but Call-Select IS a LIKE service in everyway. you are only commenting on quality. I am sure if I call Call-Select they will claim the same against you, so it's all hearsay.
Minxy: We cannot match a service that does not invest in quality as much as Comwave does
Minxy: it doesnt make sense it terms of business
Minxy: Quality does make it not a like-service if it is not as good
Russel: in that case, according to your claim, you are the best, so you are saying there is no like-service? So in general you will not match price (as advertised) but instead just claim that you are better than everyone else?
Minxy: There are companies we do match
Minxy: Many of them
Russel: Yes, of course the one that are higher in rates, the ones that are lower are magically (or conveniently) "substandard"?
Minxy: No, sir. Companies with good services have rates that vary. Some of ours are higher and some of theirs are lower, and vice versa, depending on the country
Minxy: Companies with substandard quality have all low rates
Minxy: It just a matter of being willing to compromise a good quality call for a few cents
Minxy: Some people would rather communicate clearly
Russel: But that is completely different from what you advertise. You are claiming to match the lowest rate. So all of that is just a deception isnt it?
Minxy: I will be right with you.
Minxy: In our terms and conditions you will find this information
Russel: That is just shrewd and dishonest. You should be ashamed. A company that cant even live up to words they put in their advertisement, why would a customer believe anything you say. As a prospective customer I donot find you trustworthy at all.

I was thinking of signing up with comwave and decided to do a quick check before I actually did so. Thank you all for your comments. Looks like I dodged a very frustrating bullet.

I really regret dealing with comwave.

if i can stop one person from signing with this company for any i will feel much better and feel like i have done something with my day...i have been talking Com-Wave Customer Services department for over and hour which i spent half of that time on hold, and the other half getting the run around from supervisors and employees alike. i have never been so disrespected by any one person or company in my entire life like this, i felt like they treated me like a hooker, screwed me and they said you get yourself in this get yourself out. if i had to rate this company, for overall services i would rate them 0 out of 100...because i feel like they are crooks, thieves, liars, un-trust worthy of a company, if you talk to 5 different people you will get 5 different answers this includes the supervisors aswell. i don't mean to be a anger bitter former customers of their, but i thought i should post to help anyone i can from going through what i went through...

you have other options for what ever services you think they can provide you with, i'm currently with WORLDLINE and i'm happy with that company, this company may not be for you... all i'm saying, use any company but Com-Wave, the are crooks

i hope i have been at least helpfully to one person

B.S

PLEASE PLEASE listen to my warning, i hope you make a better decision than i did