Cogeco Complaint and Rant Thread

[Boomdog15]

We used to get the Rochester feed for the U.S. ABC, CBS, NBC in Cobourg. With the recent merging\unification of channels we now receive these channels from a Buffalo feed. I am assuming this saves Cogeco money as they only pay for one station and not two.

My issue is the channels are not clear at all. In fact they are almost as crappy as CFTO Toronto but that's another story. The NBC from Rochester was one of the clearest stations that I received.

I will call and complain but it really won't make a difference. Especially since the CSR is likely in Barrie or somewhere else they do not get Cogeco.

[sensualspirit]

So, is anyone else pissed that Cogeco suddenly changed their billing cycle/procedures, & now instead of giving you 14 days to pay, it's down to 10 days?

I called up, they of course don't care. Sure they listened, but of course "there is nothing they can do about it." Some BS about how they want to bill like all utility companies.

I question why I'm being given less time to pay their bill. How is that fair to me.

You know back when I first started with Cogeco I liked them a lot, the techies were way better than Rogers ever were, but this attitude I keep coming up against has pushed me over the edge & their service hasn't been uninterrupted, but I overlooked that b/c it didn't happen often.

At least with Rogers they would give you something to ease the pain (whatever that pain happened to be at the time).

Also, I'm not sure since I haven't been with Rogers since I moved to Windsor, but I happen to think that Roger's bundle is cheaper than Cogeco's.

Does anyone have the same bundle I have so we can quickly compare?

I have digital phone, cable (upto channel 70 I think, but don't quote me), & high speed. I'm now paying $146 & change.

I remember talking to a guy when I first moved here who got rid of Cogeco b/c they kept raising their prices & yes they have raised their price once already since I've been w/ them, & I haven't even been with them a year yet.

Does anyone in the Windsor area go w/ any other company they recommend?

My son found an ad in the local paper, but now he can't find it.

Thanks for listening.


Michelle

[Bucknet]

From what I understood the billing date for some areas of Cogeco’s network were moved forward to the first day of the month. This was done to harmonize the billing dates for the greater part of the Cogeco network. So if you had a bill date of say the 15th of the month that bill date has been moved to begin on the 1st of the month. This would mean that, that one time move of bill dates would change the billing cycle of the month that it was implemented in. The following months billing dates would begin on the 1st of the month and end on the last day of the month.

[SonyPVR]

This is not true, I live in Burlington and Cogeco is not that great. After sending out 6 differnet techs, the 7th fixed the problem (internet connection kept dropping and TV reception horrible). They blamed everything on me (my speakers?...the Linksys router they recommended, old wiring downtown....bad area....my euipment etc.) Turns out that when they went to the cable closet and moved 1 cable from the input side to the output side, this solved the problem. I finally got a 6 month total credit on TV/internet. Getting through to anyone other then their call centre is frustrating. The lie so much is is impossible to like them. I can quote numerous lies, and they hide behind their call centre (no offence..but call centre people are not techies) and getting through to them is an exercise. If the pres was aware of all the problems in that company, he would be astonished, then again, he may be off in Portugal.

If there was another cable company in Burlington, I would drop Cogeco in a second. They spend a lot of money on advertising how good their call centre is which is total b.s.

I have had the same attitude from Cogeco. They do not care about their customers. They could not care a less if you cancelled your account with them. By the way, have you seen the "Palace" they operate from.

I have had the same attitude from Cogeco, and yes, they do NOT care about their customers.

[sensualspirit]

I know, I figured that I was upset b/c I had just payed my bill when I received another one.

My point is, I must not have realized before that they only gave us 14 days to pay it.

They SAY, that it takes them around 12-14 days to print off & mail us the bill, b/c the date at the top of the bill said Jan. 23rd & I received it on either the 4th or 5th. My son forgot to get the mail one day.

That seems fishy to me.

Why would it take almost 2 wks. for a computer to print off a bill & get it into the mail 1-2 days later so we receive it 1-3 days later?

They tried to blame Canada Post for all of this (this was a superv. saying this, not just a regular CSR) telling me I should call up Canada Post (LOL, yeh right) & ask them why it's taking longer for me to get Cogeco's bill.

And now we don't get 14 days, we get around 10 days.

That's my point, not when it's sent to me, but how long I'm given to pay almost $150.


Michelle

[sensualspirit]

The not finding Future Shop (I think it was built a few years ago) is really on the low end of my complaints. I've also gotten used to the mistakes in enunciation, so I can even live with that - yes I know it's a computer, but still, this is 2009, not 1989, the voices on computers are programmed by humans & should sound the same as humans by now. Where is Hal when you need him LOL

Making me drive further out of my way is a HUGE complaint & making me have to correct it by driving a different direction to get home is scary. If I didn't know it was taking me the wrong way, I would have gotten lost.

I'll check out that forum & I'll call tech support again (actually I have an e-mail address, I'll call the guy the manager passed on to me.)

So is everyone saying Garmin is considered the best?


Thanks


Michelle

[m00rb]

This is an old post but it is my problem exactly. Just wondering if other people have found this. I currently live in an apartment in hamilton and I get 12 HD channels and no video on demand. This is because Cogeco has not upgraded hamilton to digital. What it really means is that they have not upgraded buidlings in Hamilton to digital.

I also used to get Showcase, A&E, TSN2 and Raptors TV HD and Global HD and now I do not, their upper level technicians claim to be able to do nothing about this.

Cogeco basically laughs at me on the phone until I go away when I call. They know I have no other options so they just tell me "they're upgrading my area". I LIVE DOWNTOWN HAMILTON. I would think this was a major centre but I guess not. In my case they have 0 competition because not everyone can get a sattelite dish (facing wrong way), DSL is crap, and if you need sports the super sports pack which is actually semi ok (major problems with the guide for that thing which makes it unwatchable some days).

The reason I'm really posting this is because of the previously mentioned way of dealing with them. I did exactly this, I'm always very nice and I also calculated what they owed me. 1 third of my cable bill as I get 1 third of the required HD channels they advertise.

They laughed and made up some random numbers I rejected from their crappy customer service supervisor.

Finally they had a sales manager call me back (wow) and gave me 20 off my internet for 4 months. not wanting to deal with it anymore I reluctantly accepted and will 100% be cancelling cable with them the absolute minute I can. I am going to seriously look into OTA/FTA HD because Cogeco cannot offer much more anyways and I can't even get it where I live regardless!

Thanks for listening

[sf.]

Originally Posted by m00rb

This is an old post but it is my problem exactly.
I also used to get Showcase, A&E, TSN2 and Raptors TV HD and Global HD and now I do not, their upper level technicians claim to be able to do nothing about this.

I'm also in downtown Hamilton (not a building) and I don't get these channels. I'd love to have TSN2 in HD

[sensualspirit]

Does anyone know about KelCom?

They are in this area, but I don't know how reliable their service is, CSR, etc.

Anyone?

Thanks


Michelle

[Observer001]

I would be very careful going with Cogeco. Their services are outdated and their customer service is horrible. I switched from Bell to Cogeco 4 years back, and recently switched back to Bell in disgust. I was pleasantly surprised to find Bell has caught up - their cable content is way superior, specially HD, and their internet is consistently faster even during "peak" usage hours. I'm not exactly a Bell fan, but between Cogeco and Bell I would definitely go for the lesser evil.

[sensualspirit]

Yeh, but I need phone too & with digital you get unlimited long distance which Bell has NEVER provided.

I had huge problems with Bell a few years ago when I was waiting to sign up with Primus again.

Their President's Office Manager REFUSED to return my calls LOL, can you believe that?

Another person in there didn't return my calls either, but you expect a manager too.

The manager also went back on his word that I wouldn't be charged for something.

Bell always does this, they have THE worst issues when it comes to invoicing.

I have another story, but I am too tired to type it all out LOL

I'm glad you are happy with it.


Michelle

[wgauci]

I'm looking for anyone who PVR's Terminator or Dollhouse off of the west coast feed, I believe it's the Q13 feed out of Seattle, Channel 728 in Windsor. I've been recording these weekly and I've noticed the last few weekly episodes are almost unwatchable with the sound droping almost every minute for several seconds at a time and even some video stuttering sometimes. Is anyone else having these problems with this feed, i'm not sure if it's the feed from the west coast station or Cogeco or even my PVR? I'm pretty sure it's not the usual PVR problem with jumping ahead as when I go back the dropouts are always in the same spots so i'm sure it's recording like this.

[DavidT]

Originally Posted by wgauci

I'm looking for anyone who PVR's Terminator or Dollhouse off of the west coast feed, I believe it's the Q13 feed out of Seattle, Channel 728 in Windsor. I've been recording these weekly and I've noticed the last few weekly episodes are almost unwatchable with the sound droping almost every minute for several seconds at a time and even some video stuttering sometimes. Is anyone else having these problems with this feed, i'm not sure if it's the feed from the west coast station or Cogeco or even my PVR? I'm pretty sure it's not the usual PVR problem with jumping ahead as when I go back the dropouts are always in the same spots so i'm sure it's recording like this.

Wgauci, see this thread: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=104054

[G77]

Originally Posted by wgauci

I'm looking for anyone who PVR's Terminator or Dollhouse off of the west coast feed, I believe it's the Q13 feed out of Seattle, Channel 728 in Windsor. I've been recording these weekly and I've noticed the last few weekly episodes are almost unwatchable with the sound droping almost every minute for several seconds at a time and even some video stuttering sometimes. Is anyone else having these problems with this feed, i'm not sure if it's the feed from the west coast station or Cogeco or even my PVR? I'm pretty sure it's not the usual PVR problem with jumping ahead as when I go back the dropouts are always in the same spots so i'm sure it's recording like this.

Yea, Fox W HD is not great at the moment, I tried to watch Cops last saturday and it was unwatchable.....

[wgauci]

Thanks for the reply's, I browsed the other thread previously but missed the specific mention of the q13 west feed.