Cable TV Review: Cogeco

hugh · 2006-12-08, 05:10 PM

The purpose of this thread is for Digital Home members to review and relay their experience with Cogeco

This is NOT a discussion thread so please limit yourself to one post which includes your review.

We welcome the input and opinions of all members whether they are good or bad, however, please note that this thread is NOT for rants. Whether you had a good or bad experience with this vendor we want to hear about it but in an OBJECTIVE manner.

If you post a rant or childish comments like, these guys "suck" or they're all a "bunch of idiots", then your comments will be considered trolling and your post will be deleted.

When you post, please try to include the following information:

What product or service you purchased.
Approximate timeframe you ordered the product
What location you dealt with if it’s a company with many stores or service locations
Your overall level of satisfaction
If you had a positive experience, please explain what made it such a positive experience.
If you had a negative experience, please read our guidelines below.

Guidelines for Posting Negative Reviews

The truth is no retailer or service provider is perfect and occasionally even the best companies can disappoint. Our experience is that good companies have problems but they typically make every reasonable effort to resolve problems.

If you had a problem and are posting a negative review, then please note what efforts you made to resolve the problem and the feedback you received. If you think the efforts to resolve the problem were NOT reasonable then please explain why. Saying you phoned up and talked to some idiot, suggests the problem may lie with the consumer and NOT the company!

No posting URLS or Directs to Competitors will be deleted

Posts containing URL's to competitors or posts saying gee you should have shopped at this retailer will be considered spam and deleted.

We want opinions, NOT sales pitches or spam!

wwcook · 2006-12-09, 02:22 PM

Two thoughts, one on the field people and one on the CS reps.

Shortly after getting the HD package I complained to them about the poor picture quality. They sent a techie over who:

- Added an amplified splitter (forgive me if this termonology is incorrect, I am the furthest thing from a techie you will ever meet)
- Removed all my Radio Shack connectors/splitters and replaced them with real ones.
- While doing the above he took my labyrinth of wiring and re-arranged it into a thing of beauty.

The result was superb picture quality in HD and very good picture quality for SD.

He was very personable, he can come back to my basement any time

CS Reps
Excellent to deal with, especially when we dumped Bell for Cogeco's phone service. I think when dealing with people over the phone you get back what you give.

funkengruven · 2007-01-28, 07:23 PM

I have been with Cogeco since October, and I've been reasonably satisfied with what I've received from them so far.

Their internet service: Excellent, I get the advertised speeds with no slowdown time or lag time. If I need someone at Customer Service, I'm usually not waiting any longer than 2-3 minutes which is definitely nice. And their Tech support staff is knowledgeable. Recently my Modem failed and after explaining to the tech what's going on there was no debate or request to do needless troubleshooting. When I returned the defective device I was issued a replacement within 2 minutes. Great service!

I also subscribe to their HD cable package. The picture quality is quite good however some of their "On Demand" content comes in with occasional lag and artifacts. I also find their EPG on the receiver difficult to navigate and the fact that the EPG contains non-subscribed channels can get a little annoying when you're flipping through to find something to watch

Overall, Cogeco is pretty good to deal with. I wish their HD lineup was a little more extensive but their internet service is excellent. I would easily recommend them.

projectman44 · 2008-02-11, 04:37 PM

I was a cogeco user for the 12 months I lived in Burlington. I must say the service was excellent. I had the digital Telephony (1st time user)Internet & Cable). I really liked the single page billing with the set amount, not like rogers which was always different and was between 5-6 pages long with the offset billing periods. I always needed to scan each time as to not get ripped off. The customer service was quick and easy as well.

Wish I could continue the service in Mississauga....Oh well.

porscheman · 2010-04-14, 05:43 PM

I go in The "extremely satisfied" department. No quality problems and every customer service issue handled to my satisfaction and then some. And then there's the price ... You can't have everything I guess!

porscheman

themav54 · 2010-04-15, 12:10 PM

Customer Service
CS is great. Very rarely do I have to wait more than 5 minutes to talk to someone (I call every month as I charge my bill to my credit card and don't like the prepayment setup). Occasionally they will go over my bill to see if there is any money to be saved.

Internet/Phone
Works great. Consistently fast. Phone is very clear and haven't had any issues.

TV
TV quality is fine. Would like to see greater HD content. Would also like to see them enable external hard drives for the PVR's (Cogeco is the only company that doesn't allow this as far as I know). There also nice features that Roger's have that aren't even close to being available - for example, caller ID on your telephone.

Summary
If I could combine Cogeco's customer service and internet with Bell's/Roger's selection of HD and the availability of an external HDD, I would be in heaven!

rlongfield · 2010-04-15, 05:05 PM

I would rate Cogeco higher than Bell but mark them down for items like, lack of ability to personalize the guide, and almost non existent on demand content (tv shows).

Cyclism · 2010-04-20, 03:44 PM

After moving from Etobicoke to Oakville and being new to Cogeco, I have to say that I am reasonably pleased with their services.

I do miss some of the HD offerings that Rogers has that Cogeco doesn't have yet, i.e.: History Channel HD and Treasure HD. I do also like that the US channels are the Detroit feeds and not Buffalo.

As other have noted, HD On Demand content is sorely lacking compared to Rogers.

The biggest surprise to me was the size of the Motorola 6416 box. It's huge (17", same width as standard audio/video components) compared to the SA8300, and although the UI is nicer than SARA (and thankfully Cogeco has not implemented a "Quick Start" page) it's still ancient looking compared to Bell's UI. The 6416 is definitely slower (in terms of registering remote button presses and channel surfing) compared to the SA8300.

View Poll Results: How satisfied are you with this service provider?
Extremely Satisfied	14	25.93%
Somewhat Satisfied	26	48.15%
Somewhat Dissatisfied	9	16.67%
Extremely Dissatisfied	5	9.26%
Voters: 54. You may not vote on this poll

2006-12-08, 05:10 PM	#1
hugh Digital Home Founder Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 39,001	Cable TV Review: Cogeco The purpose of this thread is for Digital Home members to review and relay their experience with Cogeco This is NOT a discussion thread so please limit yourself to one post which includes your review. We welcome the input and opinions of all members whether they are good or bad, however, please note that this thread is NOT for rants. Whether you had a good or bad experience with this vendor we want to hear about it but in an OBJECTIVE manner. If you post a rant or childish comments like, these guys "suck" or they're all a "bunch of idiots", then your comments will be considered trolling and your post will be deleted. When you post, please try to include the following information: What product or service you purchased. Approximate timeframe you ordered the product What location you dealt with if it’s a company with many stores or service locations Your overall level of satisfaction If you had a positive experience, please explain what made it such a positive experience. If you had a negative experience, please read our guidelines below. Guidelines for Posting Negative Reviews The truth is no retailer or service provider is perfect and occasionally even the best companies can disappoint. Our experience is that good companies have problems but they typically make every reasonable effort to resolve problems. If you had a problem and are posting a negative review, then please note what efforts you made to resolve the problem and the feedback you received. If you think the efforts to resolve the problem were NOT reasonable then please explain why. Saying you phoned up and talked to some idiot, suggests the problem may lie with the consumer and NOT the company! No posting URLS or Directs to Competitors will be deleted Posts containing URL's to competitors or posts saying gee you should have shopped at this retailer will be considered spam and deleted. We want opinions, NOT sales pitches or spam! __________________ Advertise \| Digital Home Help Forum \| Member Feedback \| Search

2010-04-15, 12:10 PM	#6
themav54 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: North Bay, ON Posts: 28	Overall Pretty Good Customer Service CS is great. Very rarely do I have to wait more than 5 minutes to talk to someone (I call every month as I charge my bill to my credit card and don't like the prepayment setup). Occasionally they will go over my bill to see if there is any money to be saved. Internet/Phone Works great. Consistently fast. Phone is very clear and haven't had any issues. TV TV quality is fine. Would like to see greater HD content. Would also like to see them enable external hard drives for the PVR's (Cogeco is the only company that doesn't allow this as far as I know). There also nice features that Roger's have that aren't even close to being available - for example, caller ID on your telephone. Summary If I could combine Cogeco's customer service and internet with Bell's/Roger's selection of HD and the availability of an external HDD, I would be in heaven!

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2006-12-09, 02:22 PM	#2
wwcook Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Burlington ON Posts: 15	Two thoughts, one on the field people and one on the CS reps. Shortly after getting the HD package I complained to them about the poor picture quality. They sent a techie over who: - Added an amplified splitter (forgive me if this termonology is incorrect, I am the furthest thing from a techie you will ever meet) - Removed all my Radio Shack connectors/splitters and replaced them with real ones. - While doing the above he took my labyrinth of wiring and re-arranged it into a thing of beauty. The result was superb picture quality in HD and very good picture quality for SD. He was very personable, he can come back to my basement any time CS Reps Excellent to deal with, especially when we dumped Bell for Cogeco's phone service. I think when dealing with people over the phone you get back what you give.

2007-01-28, 07:23 PM	#3
funkengruven Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Hamilton, ON Posts: 7	I have been with Cogeco since October, and I've been reasonably satisfied with what I've received from them so far. Their internet service: Excellent, I get the advertised speeds with no slowdown time or lag time. If I need someone at Customer Service, I'm usually not waiting any longer than 2-3 minutes which is definitely nice. And their Tech support staff is knowledgeable. Recently my Modem failed and after explaining to the tech what's going on there was no debate or request to do needless troubleshooting. When I returned the defective device I was issued a replacement within 2 minutes. Great service! I also subscribe to their HD cable package. The picture quality is quite good however some of their "On Demand" content comes in with occasional lag and artifacts. I also find their EPG on the receiver difficult to navigate and the fact that the EPG contains non-subscribed channels can get a little annoying when you're flipping through to find something to watch Overall, Cogeco is pretty good to deal with. I wish their HD lineup was a little more extensive but their internet service is excellent. I would easily recommend them.

2008-02-11, 04:37 PM	#4
projectman44 Rookie Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 7	I was a cogeco user for the 12 months I lived in Burlington. I must say the service was excellent. I had the digital Telephony (1st time user)Internet & Cable). I really liked the single page billing with the set amount, not like rogers which was always different and was between 5-6 pages long with the offset billing periods. I always needed to scan each time as to not get ripped off. The customer service was quick and easy as well. Wish I could continue the service in Mississauga....Oh well.

2010-04-14, 05:43 PM	#5
porscheman Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 5	I go in The "extremely satisfied" department. No quality problems and every customer service issue handled to my satisfaction and then some. And then there's the price ... You can't have everything I guess! porscheman

2010-04-15, 05:05 PM	#7
rlongfield Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 95	I would rate Cogeco higher than Bell but mark them down for items like, lack of ability to personalize the guide, and almost non existent on demand content (tv shows).

2010-04-20, 03:44 PM	#8
Cyclism Moderator Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Oakville - OTA, Pioneer KURO Elite Signature PRO-141FD, PS3, 27" iMac, Mac Mini HTPC. Posts: 2,673	After moving from Etobicoke to Oakville and being new to Cogeco, I have to say that I am reasonably pleased with their services. I do miss some of the HD offerings that Rogers has that Cogeco doesn't have yet, i.e.: History Channel HD and Treasure HD. I do also like that the US channels are the Detroit feeds and not Buffalo. As other have noted, HD On Demand content is sorely lacking compared to Rogers. The biggest surprise to me was the size of the Motorola 6416 box. It's huge (17", same width as standard audio/video components) compared to the SA8300, and although the UI is nicer than SARA (and thankfully Cogeco has not implemented a "Quick Start" page) it's still ancient looking compared to Bell's UI. The 6416 is definitely slower (in terms of registering remote button presses and channel surfing) compared to the SA8300.