Cogeco Complaint and Rant Thread

[bigoranget]

I may be moving into an area of Hamilton that is served by Cogeco. I am absouletly apauled the lack of HD available in such a big city.

This is the list of HD channels carried by Cogeco in Hamilton

Citytv
CTV
CBC
SRC
SUN TV
ABC
NBC
CBS
FOX
PBS
WGN
Discovery HD
TSN HD
Sportsnet HD
HD Net
TMN HD
Moviepix HD
PPV HD

This puts Cogeco in a distant 3rd in Hamilton compared to the other two cable companies that have operations in hamilton. Even Source Cable, which only served about 18, 000 homes has way more channels. What gives? How long could it possibly take to upgrade Hamilton? Have they even started to upgrade Hamilton yet? I noticed during the summer the eliminated 4 analog channels. I haven't seen anything major added since they did this.

Judging by other threads it appears Cogeco is also very slow in updating other areas of the province as well.

[bdoxtdator]

It really is disgusting. So disgusting in fact that I've done my research and will be switching to Bell TV this week. I will be paying the same price for triple the amount of HD stations, and even a bunch of analog stations we don't have here in downtown Hamilton. It's hard to beat them for broadband though. Just the other day I was downloading at over 1 MegaBYTE per second.

[scrooloose]

I also live in Cogeco land and am equally disgusted with their HD line up. Fortunately there are much better alternatives unless you're in an apartment or condo. Also, Hamilton Mountain (some areas) is serviced by Mountain Cable, not Cogeco, and they seem to have a pretty good HD lineup. You might want to move there

-Mike

[mt99808]

I’ve also been putting up with the same crap. Unfortunately for me the only thing I really watch is sports and with Bell to get even close to what Cogeco offers in the Super Sports pack is going to cost about $500 more per year. If Bell had anyone with a brain in their management team they would offer a similar sports package and appeal to a huge segment of the market that is fed up with Cogeco’s pathetic HD offerings.

[sf.]

I subscribed to digital cable + HD with Cogeco in Hamilton at the beginning of July and when I asked about the missing channels they told me my area will be upgraded soon. I called again in September and was told work was currently being done in my area and it should be finished by the beginning of Octorber because they don't do ANY upgrades in the winter. Needless to say, I haven't received any additional channels yet. I wish I could atleast get TSN2 in HD =\

[LJA]

Is I am getting shows from global HD and E!HD subbed through the american HD channels, yet I don't get either on my HD lineup....

[bigoranget]

Also, Hamilton Mountain (some areas) is serviced by Mountain Cable, not Cogeco, and they seem to have a pretty good HD lineup. You might want to move there

I live on the Mountain right now and my local cable system is Source Cable. It's HD offering is far better then what Cogeco has to offer and much better price. Source Cable even has those Hi-Fi HDTV channels (if thats your thing). There is one pocket on Hamilton Mountain that is served by Cogeco. If you live North of Fennal, South of Concession, West of Upper Sherman and East of Upper Wentworth, that area is served by Cogeco. It just so happens that I may be moving into that exact area.

I just think it's funny how two companies that are a tiny fraction of the size of Cogeco can offer a much better product.

[sf.]

Has anyone been able to receive monthly credit for the channels that we don't receive? I called again today and they said they couldn't give me a timeframe for when my missing channels might be available.

[soros]

Not many more HD channels here in Windsor.. and besides that, I don't know why I even bother subscribing to their HD services anymore. Most of the time I end up switching back to the standard-def channel because the audio on the hi-def channel cuts out... just cuts out, sometimes for just a second, sometimes for as long as 30 seconds.

Another problem with the hi-def channels is that the video (and audio) often lock up during sports... I wonder if this is intentional or something, it was particularly bad during the world series.

I might cancel the service if this nonsense keeps up through january.. it's testing my limits.

[angrycustomer]

I am in Milton and for at least the past month, our Cogeco cable and internet service has been absolutely appalling. Cable television is constantly off and on and even when it's on, the quality is often quite bad yet internet seems to function most of the time (although it's not without it's ups and downs too)...

I have spoke with some of my neighbors and they have the same problems. It often takes cogeco up to 2 weeks to send a technician out to attempt to remedy the situation. When the technician leaves the problem seems fixed, then after a day or 2 goes by it's the same old story again.

Has anybody else had this bad of an experience dealing with Cogeco?? I am curious how many other people are having the same issues. I am really fed up with these jokers.

[hugh]

Truthfully, your comments seem out of the ordinary. The Cogeco forum certainly gets complaints but negative comments about service are quite out of the ordinary. Perhaps the problems are simply within your area?

Judging from your username though, I suspect you really just came here to vent.

[angrycustomer]

I can't disagree there's a little bit of venting in there, but I genuinely would like to know if this is happening to anyone else.

[mt99808]

I am in Chatham and had nothing but terrible pixelated HD for the last 6 months. My internet speeds are about 2% of what they are supposed to be at times. When I called to complain they told me there is node congestion and nothing will be fixed until they upgrade some infrastructure. But that isn't scheduled to BEGIN until January of 2009. At the rate Cogeco works I'll be lucky if that is done by January 2010. They did give me a $40 credit for the next 12 months but thats besides the point. We entered into a contract where I pay them $44.95 a month (and they can raise the prices whenever they feel like it) and they agreed to provide me internet service at 10 mbps. Of course they throw in their disclaimer that speeds fluctuate but but 0.2 mbps is not "fluctuating". And throw in the Super Sports pack that they haven't fixed in 3 freaking years and ya there is a reason to be more than frustrated.

[Maakala]

Usually my experience has been good with their customer service, but recently I called about my internet going down every night for a couple hours and they set up a service call for wednesday between 8-noon. i waited and waited and nothing so I call and they say their not sure what happened but they say they can send someone this saturday between 8-noon. Needless to say I was pretty pissed.

[mt99808]

Same thing happened to me a couple months ago when I called to complain about the pixelated HD. They scheduled an appt for say Tuesday night or whatever. They just didn't show up. I called the next day to see wtf was going on. They claimed that I cancelled the appt. I said BS ... one thing led to another and they finally admitted that they cancelled it because they claimed "there was nothing they could do". When I inquired as to whether they thought it might be reasonable to call if they were cancelling so I wasn't waiting around for 4 hours, they claimed that they did and left a message. Well they most certainly did not. This company is a f'ing joke.