Cogeco Complaint and Rant Thread

[Doug30]

Can we get a credit from Cogeco because of the cable/internet and phone outage on Feb 24? It was out from 9am until 6pm.

Sorry awilliams, this pales in comparison to your situation.

[travisc]

Keep fighting to get the detail from their VOD system. I know ours can provide it so I would bet money theirs could too.

[Ratatosk]

awilliams : did you get a PM asking you account information?

[CamDAB]

Originally Posted by awilliams

and going to contact a lawyer

If this were me, the lawyer route, judging from the amount in question, would be my option.

I'd make sure his letter DEMANDED the following:

The shipping records and signatures of the first two missing boxes as well as their ESN's.

The shipping records and signatures for your current boxes plus ESN's. (this is a control mechanism to verify that what they've sent you is in fact installed and that they can correctly bill you and authorize said boxes and is a verification of your signature).

A FULL record of all questioned VOD including times, dates, titles and their ratings.

This I think would make Cogeco think twice coming from a lawyer and wanting full accountability for their billing and products.

As to going to the media, I'd go the lawyer route first. I personally don't think everyone needs to know when you're home. :-) As is the current phrase now... TMI... Too Much Information.... Don't leave yourself open for others to take advantage of your absences. You don't need that.

Cameron

[Ratatosk]

I hope that before contacting a lawyer you'll accept the help that was offered to you...

[mojo061]

just wanted to go on record that we are having erroneous VOD/PPV charges on our account. In fact my son who is the sole user of the box in question is the one who found this web site to see if this is happening elsewhere. There were charges to our bill on 3 different bills. From reading above I'm fortunate it's only in the neighbourhood of $70.00. We complained the first bill only to be told the standard answer "someone had to press the Okay button 3 times to activate it" so they wouldn't do anything about it. We spoke to our 2 (adult) boys about it and they are more than aware of the situation and have NOT used the PPV and insist they may only TMN on Demand the FREE station. Plus these boys work and go to school and do NOT have their friends over to stay, they are INSULTED to be accused and of having their friends accused of this. I am furious and frustrated with the situation. When we got our 2nd bill we password protected one of the boxes, these charges were done while we were on vacation so had no proof that they didn't happen. Now we are being told it's the other box that has the charges. We have since disabled PPV/VOD on BOTH boxes, not just password protect them. We have been with Cogeco for close to 30 yrs and I'm ready to jump ship. When I got to the bottom of it with all parties of this house NO ONE has 'pressed the OKAY button" to purchase anything. Oh another thing I learned today was...the times on your bill are not necessarily the times the movies were ordered/viewed, HOW CONVENIENT!! How is one suppose to 'prove' their case with this kind of billing process? They couldn't tell me off hand WHEN these movies were ordered, oh and kept insisting 'someone had to push the Okay button 3 times". One last thing, There were some charges on our last bill on Jan 16th. This bill there are 3 charges that showed up Before that date. Jan 2, Jan 5 & one other. I asked why they showed up on this bill and not the last one, 'oh that's just how they were billed". I'm not satisfied at all with the answers I was given. I do know that there is at least one more charge coming and WHO KNOWS how many more charges after that one. I won't know until the next bill shows up I guess.

TO Cogeco, track record should mean something along with circumstance. I'm willing to pay my way but NOT if it's not mine.

awilliams I hope you get satisfactory resolution to your problem ...me I'll just hope that we get no other charges and have Cogeco on MY radar screen.

[gobisbay]

Sometimes when I go into TMN on Demand or MPIX on Demand, the main VOD screen appears with the titles that you must pay for.

I could see how someone might accidentally order from that screen thinking they were in the free TMN on Demand (but certainly not to the tune of $3,000).

[Ratatosk]

What I really was wondering is why didn't awilliams got blocked from renting VOD after a certain amount, getting up to 3000$ is, lets admit it, abnormal, unless it's a commercial account...

Something's fishy...

Again, I hope awilliams will accept the help a Cogeco employee was ready to lend him... (in PM)

[awilliams]

well id like to say that as of now I have discontinued my service from Cogeco. And still fighting with cogeco, definetly through a lawyer. Cogeco never did offer me any help with this situation, except to credit me 200.00. And no cogeco doesnt have a "credit limit". I said well if I was doing this and knew about it, and was just trying to "screw" cogeco over, why would I when I noticed the amount of the bill call in and have my VOD shut off 20 days after the rentals started. And when I asked them about what their limit is before they notice that my bill is to excess, their answer was " we have so many clinents we cant keep track of all of them". so little to say, I still go screwed, but let the company, and returned to Bell, more expensive but never had a problem, like that. thanks everyone for your info and help, feedback. Hope this doesnt happen to anyone else

[travisc]

Did you accept the help that was offered you on this board by a Cogeco employee?

[theninjasquad]

Our VOD does that too for some reason and it is really annoying. I will go the the TMN on Demand channel, and it pulls up the regular Cogeco on Demand. I then have to close that, try the channel again, and sometimes it works, other times I have to do it two or three times for it to actually pull up the TMN on Demand.

Why does it keep doing this now? It never did this until about a month ago it seems like. It's frustrating having to open and close it just to get to the proper channel. It's almost like Cogeco is doing it on purpose to get us to use more of the paid VOD instead of the free stuff, even though the TMN on Demand isn't free since I pay extra for it.

[bbailey861]

That happens on mine as well, but it has been since day 1. I think the default is to go to the 'pay page' first. I go out then go back in and it always to the free on demand.

[theninjasquad]

I gotta call them tonight about my DVR resetting, if I remember Ill mention to them about the VOD thing to see what they say about the pay VOD redirect. I'll let you know if they say anything interesting.

[Sommy6061]

I agree with many who have made comments about Cogeco in the Hamilton area. The service absolutely sucks, big time. I've asked many times to add channels to our lineup in the downtown Hamilton area and I've been getting the same response for about 15 years now, we'll let our marketing team know about it and we'll leave it up to them. Same response every time. I've emailed, called, sent letters, dropped into the Cogeco office and have asked them to add; TCM(Turner Classic Movies), AMC(American Movie Classics), NFL Network, Howard Stern on Demand, TNT, USA Network, more HD, Sports and Adult channels, but they don't seem to listen. Its always the same answer, we're not sure when new channels will be added, but you'll be notified when we do add more of them. I think they may have added PetTv recently, they didn't call, or send an email or write or use the digital box leaving a message, no contact at all. I had to call them to ask about the new channels and to see how much they cost and what packages were with what etc. It was a disgrace as I was on hold for 1 hour and 35 minutes, the first time around. I had it and hung up, called back the next day and was on hold yet again for another 1+ hour, no fooling, only to hear that if I wanted some of the new channels with ones that I didn't want, I would have to pay $8+ taxes per month for one lousy channel with a bunch of other crap I didn't even want or ask for in the first place. I DID NOT ASK for PetTv, Bite Tv, Silver Screen Classics etc, these channels SUCK, big time. I've asked for TCM, AMC, TNT, USA Network, ESPN, Howard Stern on Demand, NFL Network, MORE HD, Adult and Sports and this is what they add. C'mon Cogeco, get your act together and fast, otherwise I'm going to Vu!!!

[travisc]

TNT, USA Network and ESPN are not available through any Canadian provider.