Sympatico Cancellation.

[Nimiq 1]

I cannot find a thread on Dial Up Internet or a General ISP discussion group so I will just post my little rant here, I am sure it will be moved if felt appropriate.

I have had a Dial Up account with Sympatico for 10 years now, always slow, always steady but it was my only option until a year ago.

Then I discovered a local Company doing Wireless and signed up, cost $1250 for a 100' Tower etc but I got 512k Downloads so hey, it was worth it.

Due to large tree's I decided to stick with my Sympatico until I had done a full season with the Wireless, just in case the trees presented a major issue.

Well. Summer arrived, all was still going well, then my Wireless Company had an equipment failure on the Tower serving me and due to some very complex issues they could not get the problem fixed 100%, so I have had a slow connection for the last 2 months. Then I discovered about 3 weeks ago that I can get Rogers Portable Internet, speeds are great, so I canceled the Wireless account. They tried to ask me to stay but could not compete with the Rogers Speed or price.

Then I called Sympatico, to cancel my Dial Up. Oh how I love Bell.

I explained what I wanted to do, I was asked to hold, 15 minutes and the girl came back to ask why. I explained I now had High Speed and no longer required Dial Up, she again asked me to hold. A further 10 minutes and she returns and offers me 12 Months Dial Up for $14.95 per month if I pay for the full year in advance, (I was paying $24.95 for the same thing) I said no thanks. I asked if this was a special retention offer, she said No, it's always been that price if you pre-pay. I was disgusted, $11 per month cheaper and no-one ever told me......

Anyway, she again went away, returning this time with a Retention offer of $9.95 per month if I pay for the Year, again I declined.

It is unbelievable the way they treat existing customers.....

My Rogers connection is superb, I have the Outdoor Modem, very fast very stable.

So it's now 2 down 1 to go as far as my relationship with Bell. Got rid of my Mobility account 2 months ago, Dial Up gone, just wish I had not spent over $2000 on Express Vu receivers......Oh well.....

[Nemnoch]

So first clarification: you haven't been able to pre-pay and get a discount until just this year.

Second clarification: you called in and they told you about the cheaper option, which is your first call to Sympatico in a while? I'm just trying to understand how is this bad service? You call in and they tell you about a payment option that is cheaper.

Perhaps you can elaborate on why you're upset, because you don't really say.

Nem, who says a careful explanation would be nice to read.

[Nimiq 1]

Sorry nemnoch, I am annoyed because after being a customer all those years they never told me of the pre-paying option.

I have never had a single e-mail from Sympatico apart from telling me that my inbox was full.

Why do they wait for people to call in to cancel before announcing these options.

[Nemnoch]

Well, a couple of reasons really:

To call every customer everytime some thing changes would be a little challenging to say the least. BELL has what, 6 million landline customers alone? The cost to have someone call or answer a call is actually quite high when you factor in the line costs, pay, rent etc. As a business it doesn't make any sense to inflict that cost and then on top of that lose money by offering the promotion.
On average customer's call in approximately 1.6 times a year with questions, at that time, the representative usually will let the customer know what's available for them.
Another reason is that customers with dial-up move and don't update their account information (their new address etc)because most dial-up accounts are on automatic withdrawl. If we don't have a customer's correct telephone number, we can't contact them.
Sometimes people forget that up until 2 years ago, the television, wireless, internet and wireline portions of BCE had to remain independant of one another and were not allowed to share customer information.

That's why Onebill has only come out in the last 2 years or so, after that regulation by the CRTC changed

I'm suprised though that you've never recieved an email from them. I get an email list of promotions every... two weeks or so. You can sign up to get it on the Bell website.

I'm glad you found an option that seems to be working for you.

Nem, who had dial up long ago in a galaxy far far away

[Walter Dnes]

Originally Posted by Nimiq 1

I have never had a single e-mail from Sympatico apart from telling me that my inbox was full.

<Robot/computer voice from bad sci-fi movie>
That does not compute... That does not compute...

[Walter Dnes]

Originally Posted by Nemnoch

I'm suprised though that you've never recieved an email from them. I get an email list of promotions every... two weeks or so. You can sign up to get it on the Bell website.

Most people don't want bi-weekly 99% up-selling promotional fluff in their inbox. If pre-pay options (or whatever) are available, why doesn't Bell simply put that info up on its website where people sign up online?

[shabbs]

New customers always get the best "options" and existing customers are left to flail in the wind - this is common across all companies. I've found it a good idea to call in every now and then and ask them what they can do to get my bill down. Give them a line about your wife giving grief over the size of the bill and ask if there are any promotions on etc... usually they'll help you work something out. If not, check the competition and switch if it's better.

It would be nice if they would call up and say "Hey, we can save you some money..." but that's not realistic. Email campaigns sometimes work. For cell phone plans, it would be nice if they automatically gave you the best plan each month based on your calls made in that month. I think a US carrier does that.

Cheers.

[Nemnoch]

It is actually posted on their webpage that you can get the internet for $14.95 a month with a 1 year contract.


Nem, who found it pretty easily.

[Walter Dnes]

Originally Posted by Nemnoch

It is actually posted on their webpage that you can get the internet for $14.95 a month with a 1 year contract.

Looking at their web page...

Pricing details

Dial-up with a 1-year contract:
Dial Unlimited: $14.95/month

Dial-up without a contract:
Dial Unlimited: $24.95/month
Dial Occasional: $14.95/month

Yikes! How do they attract customers? There are much better deals available.

[I_Want_My_HDTV]

How did America Online get to be the largest ISP in the US even though they had the highest prices? A lot of people just go with the largest or best known service without comparison shopping. Sometimes they are influenced by advertising campaigns and special offers and don't know or don't care that better deals are available.