Cogeco President and CEO Talks with Globe and Mail

[bbailey861]

Louis Audet recently sat down with the Globe and Mail and had a few things to say. The article is here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...rticle4416138/

I would dearly like to know what the cable improvements will mean to their customers. Can we expect to see additional programming content? I would also very much like to see a wireless carrier in their future as well. I don't know why they haven't moved on this before.

Any thoughts as to what we can expect?

[sailmaker]

I live in Burlington ON and a few weeks ago Cogeco's cable was cut by outside contract workers who do not understand "Call Before You Dig". First our internet went out then the TV some time later. It was only sometime later than I discovered the cut cable problem. I phoned Cogeco and went thru the usual long winded "how may we help you?" multiple choice press 2 or 3, try this, try that before you bug us.
After I convinced a CR that yes I had unplugged the modem for 30 seconds, bypassed the router yada, yada, yada she said someone would be out next Tuesday between 8 and 5. This was a Monday so I could be without internet FOR EIGHT DAYS !!! I took the RCA modem to the Cogeco store front at Burlington Mall and exchanged for another which would be the 3rd exchange in past two years. First two were faulty, latest one OK as it turned out.

I live in a 24 unit townhouse complex, mostly eldery residents who are not on internet or watching TV all day long. I phoned two neighbours and yes they did not have TV or internet either. "Did you call Cogeco?" Neither had bothered. Life goes on I guess. I then phoned Cogeco again and after being informed of the situation, he checked and oh yes, there is a problem in your area. If the first CR had taken 10 seconds of her time to check the service she would have seen the far-reaching problem. Duh! Cogeco service truck arrives, the hole that the contractors dug was at least 6 feet deep and there was the severed cable(s). Back in business after several hours of diddling around.

Yesterday (FRIDAY July 13 .... bad omen) the internet and cable went out in late morning or early afternoon. Also TV so I went out to yell at outside contractors that they had cut the cable again. They said it was not them and they had been informed 5 minutes before that the TV was out "everywhere".

A call to Cogeco eventually led to a recorded message that Cogeco was having outages across much of Burlington. Not good.

Around the supper hour I phoned again to get the latest pre recorded update.
Now it was cable outages across much of Burlington, Hamilton and Vineland (Niagara Penninsula) plus another location which I forget so this was a real biggy. Finally back in business just a few minutes before 10pm

Here's the kicker: My sister-in-law lives about 2 blocks from us and comes over nightly to help my wife who has MS get ready for bed. She is with Cogeco and never lost connections. She confirmed that she was on the internet from just after lunch to around 4pm. She watched the Blue Jays game from 7pm in its entirety. What sort of feed system is in play with Cogeco.

Cogeco was a poster child for good or even great service, pleasant techys etc.
Most techys still great but service response times is a 1 out of 10 rating.

Time for another interview by the Globe and Mail. Times are a-changin'

[sailmaker]

1pm July 14.
Guess What??!!! Shortly after posting above this morning the internet and TV went down, AGAIN! Called Cogeco (weekend summer staff) and no recorded message. Techy checked and yes there is a problem in our general part of town, unrelated to yesterday's wide spread outages. They have people out working on it. Sure you do.

Back up for the moment around 12:30pm. I do not intend to start reading any stories that are continued.

Time to look into Bell which just became available in our area. Can't believe I would do that but Cogeco is not the company it once was.

[Jase88]

This is the time of year when construction (and the requisite digging) occur. You can hardly fault Cogeco for the negligent behaviour of a contractor.

And with fibre serving smaller and smaller areas, localized outages due to fibre cuts are not uncommon. Assuming the contractor hit a fibre line...though they may have hit a trunk coax cable....