I’m currently on hold with Bell Aliant technical support to complain about my very slow DSL connection speed, for which I pay $85.00 per month (plus tax), as part of a bundle that is called, “Value Package Ultra High Speed, Unlimited Can/US LD & Cellular”. My monthly recurring costs, including taxes are $136.53.
I’ve now listened to short versions of every standard maritime folk song at least 5 times each, as I wait, because “your call is important to us” according to the automated voice on the phone. Thankfully I have a speaker phone so I’m typing as I listen to this cheesy music selection.
FYI, my download speed is usually 1,200 kbps when I am supposed to get up to 8,000 kbps.
[later]
The technical support rep checked my account and will be sending a technician to my house on Saturday. He was very helpful and friendy as we did some troubleshooting on the system, and he agreed that my upload/download speeds were slower than they should be.
At the end of our conversation, I asked him to search on Google for “aliant connection speed”, which he did and was surprised to see that my blog post, Marketing Hype & Reality, complete with comments and complaints, was the first search result. It was due to these comments that I decided to take up the issue again. As one reader posted:
Welcome to Aliant my friend. This is how it works, aliant has several packages.
High speed, 1.5 meg
and ultra, anywheres from 3 to 7 meg.
You pay for ultra, but they will NOT switch you to the ultra circuit until you complain about 15 times, then they click the button and you get your ultra speed.
For about amonth, when they switch it back to 1.5 thinking you won’t notice.
I’ve been an Aliant customer since vibe began, and have been an ultra customer since they started offering it. This is how it works, and I’m a tech for the government so I know what I’m doing, and I know exactly what is going on.
Aliant does not have the bandwidth to support the dedicated connections it sells, so it screws most people, and they don’t notice.
A few notice like us, and spend the rest of our lives fighting them to get the speed we are paying for.
We’ll see what happens.
Update: Saturday, September 9th. The Aliant technician showed up at the house in the afternoon and spent a couple of hours troubleshooting the system. He checked the DSL router, the jack & switch, as well as all of the lines in the house. He was friendly, informative and thorough.
Overall, I was impressed with the service. I also found out that the technicians who show up at your house are trained employees of Aliant. On the other hand, the customer service representatives on the telephone are employees of a different company, and Aliant just outsources this lack of service. That’s why no one acted on my complaint about slow connection speeds last year (July, 2005).
After checking everything in the house, including the testing of a new modem, the technician then went out on the telephone pole and checked the speed of the line passing by the house. Everything was OK, but still no improvement in my speed. He then went to the main DSL switch in town and changed the port. Still no improvement; but he was clear that I have not been getting the high speed ultra that I have been paying for.
The ticket has now been advanced and another technician is supposed to be here on Monday. At the very least, Aliant owes me a rebate.
Update 2: A senior technician arrived this morning and checked out the connection again. After about 45 minutes, and a few phone calls, he determined that I was not subscribed to the ultra high speed service. One flick of the switch at Aliant and my download speed has tripled.
Now why did it take so long? I’ve been paying for this service for over a year.
Uh oh, I have ultra. I think I’m going to pay more attention to my ul/dl speends.
Oh and I discovered a faster way to get service at aliant the other day. I had someone helping me within a minute, online chat support.
That comment is unbelievable. How can a company get away with such incompetence and brutal customer support?
Aliant high-speed is a joke. There is absolutely no comparison with other DSL / Cable providers. When I was with Eastlink, I would routinely achieve 7-8,000 kbps. Since being forced to use Aliant (for reasons not relevant to this conversation), the highest download speed I have ever achieved was around 1,500 kbps. I no longer see any reason for anyone to stay with Aliant, when for the same price (probably less, but I can’t seem to find Aliant’s HS Ultra pricing online) you can get 5 times the bandwidth, and none of the hassle. Although Eastlink isn’t perfect and did experience some slowdowns, it has been, in my experience, far superior to the lowly Aliant HS Ultra.
Well, Colin, I’m giving Aliant one more chance before switching my entire communications package over to the competition – Eastlink. I’m told that their customer service is no better than Aliant’s though. Also, it looks like Eastlink may be purchased by Rogers soon; so it will be the choice of one arrogant oligopoly or another :-(
I remember meeting with an NB Tel regional supervisor back in 1994. The Aliant merger was just on the horizon and, at the time, NB Tel had one of the most advanced systems in North America. He commented that the merger would see a “dumbing down” of NB’s system to match the lower levels offered by the other three provinces, instead of raising the technology and service to meet New Brunswick’s. His prophecy has come true.
I must say that I have received nothing but great service from Aliant (although I still think it was a tad better when it was NB Tel). It’s their “product” that has suffered, be it land-lines, cellular or, especially, internet. And, while costs have continued to rise, the product has not kept pace with the price.
Same here on PEI. Our local technician is simply wonderful – all the office related support is awful. Island tel was very customer focused. Aliant is impossible to work with.
Watch out Harold, the last time I had an aliant technician over, he was helpful, fixed my problem, etc. which was an error on their end and then my bill came and I was charged for his visit. After a long wait on the phone to get through to aliant, they realized their mistake and credited my account. So check your next bill;)
Thanks, Lisa, I’ll check my bill.
FYI, this is my speed now:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 5005 kbps (625.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 528 kbps (66 KB/sec transfer rate)
So did you get a rebate?
Well, Dr Mike, I did get an apology (almost). We received a call from an automated message service, pushed a few buttons, and a machine voice stated that it was sorry that we had had problems with our service from Aliant. So far, no rebate nor apology from a real person.
Interesting…I’ll be moving to NB in a few weeks. and trying to decide on provider for internet/telephone/cable? Sounds like Aliant has poor customer service and a less than reliable high speed delivery. Is Rogers better or Eastlink?
Thanks!
Juanita, you will probably have a choice between Aliant and either Eastlink or Rogers. Eastlink is only available close to the NS border. If you are in a town or city you will probably have Aliant and Rogers. In Sackville, we have Aliant DSL or Eastlink cable.
With DSL (Aliant), you get a dedicated pair of wires, so that with my Ultra DSL (now that it works) I am guaranteed about 5 mbps. With cable, the speed can be much faster, but it is shared amongst all of the subscribers in your area. That means that you have the potential for 15 mbps, but it could drop if dozens of people in your neighbourhood are also heavy internet users.
As far as customer service is concerned, my non-scientific research (talking with friends) shows that no company has great customer service. I know several people who have had problems with Eastlink’s telephone service, for instance. With Eastlink, you have to buy a “bundle” to get a decent rate for your internet service. This bundle includes Rogers cell phone, Eastlink telephone and Eastlink cable TV. We don’t watch TV and we need reliable phone service, so we have been sticking with Aliant.
I would talk to neighbours and colleagues before making a decision.
Aliant high speed works on a pair of wires specific for each customer. The speed offered can vary based on the setting in the host. Your computer has a PPPoE for ;logging onto the internet(probaly) and when you log-on the system sets your speed, based on the profile that you are paying for. It isn’t just a switch they turn off and on when they like (that would be one pile of switches). The speed can also be lower based on the length of the lines from the main Switching Center that is providing you the high speed service.
So each person has a dedicated connection and speed set by the server with a distance limit. Not to be too arguementive with the earlier response.
The limit on distance start to affect the line after about 4km from the SC the signal works on a spectrum of frequencies and the frequencies when all working together make up the bandwidth that supports the HS service. If you loose some frequencies then the speed may be slower when running the top end speed in ultra service. The regular HS will run without seeing any diffence.
One tip although it’s a pain is to unplug the phone-jack connection just shortly before you log-in and go onto the net. Wait about 2 minites and the system will do whats called a hand-shake and reopen any frequencies that may have been shut off for what ever reason.
i am done, i am done with aliant.had it since the beginning of time.switched my high speed to my trailer for the summmer. home now, lost connections are making me nuts not to mention my son cant play his xbox 360 without lag. called support, they said something wrong with my line (wast before
)unhooked dlink, called still something wrong with line.ok tec coming to my house on tuesday, call n asked to be called 5 minutes before he or she shows up , they said ok . went home at lunch time , note on door, sry we missed u ,NO CALL, i am mad n done ,even my phone will b switched….
The solution to all of this frustration is simple: sign up with EastLink. They offer a better package with great value for your $$. I get 10mbps for Highspeed (true highspeed) not to mention digital cable, tel and ld service all for less than $140/month. Never had an issue.
Been Reading comments above.. and I am paying for ultra hi speed here.. Just cked my speed tonight on WGUNet (windows Users Group Network) and after 3 or 4 tries… speed showing max 3.19 mbps-2.048 Mbps Lowest and download 562… I am not all that “up” on this subject.. so.. someone can tell me if thats good or bad …tks
to markamazed: You should complain to Aliant for the missed appointment and no Call, Then have an Aliant tech clear your new line that goes to your trailer checked for “bridges” (these are a network design used for access ,{they are not made any more in the new designs}, and not a phone tap) these bridges cause a reflection in the signal which means slower speeds when running Ultra or are far away from the Switching Center.
to Thomas; East Link tricks people, their digital cable is not true digital, it is only specific channels and then only when you pay extra for a special decoder. You will also loose your phone when the power is out for more than 50 minutes. The battery back-up is only good for about 30-40 minutes. This is an issue if you need your phone line at all times. Check next time near your house and look for a box about 4ft by 4ft and about 1 1/2ft thick mounted on a pole, this is full of battery packs.Aliant’s phone are not allowed to be affected by power loss. They are should have a fail safe back-up since people have life lines ,fire and other emergency calls.
Also your true high speed is a shared connection and this may not be an issue in your area ,it certainly is in others.
The price is nice for East Link and that can be the best and Aliant can not beat it.
to Ameritron; your speed is within limits for ultra your 3.19mbps (mega bits per second) .Your download is also good at 562kbps (kilo bits per second). If you wanted to call Aliant and have them check to see what your “Achievable Speed” is and you may be able to have your speed increased since Ultra is now a bit higher for a top speed than 3Mbps. You don’t want to get too high of a running speed compared to what your line is actually able to run tho, this will result in crashes all the time at regular intervals (the system will reset itself then crash again).
So I just got Aliant Ultra hispeed and same issues you guys are having. The technician was suppose to stop by today but he didn’t so they have to rebook the appointment. This is rediculus. I already filed a complaint to the BBB again Aliant. Next step will be the Newspaper.
My aliant high speed seems no faster than dialup I had five years ago.
I have no problems with Aliant … these problems so called being reported here, have not as yet lit upon either of my computers.
We’re really looking forward to Aliant High Speed … and as far as it being no faster than Dial-Up, I somehow cannot believe a statement like that. :-}
Is there some kind of conversion tools for kbs, to kBs? I have very slow Aliant high speed. So much so that I switched to high speed light, (which is not actively advertised). My highest download rate was 145kBs/sec. What is 145kBs and 145kbs?
thanks
sandy mackley
Sandy, 1 Kb/s =.0078125 Mb/s;
You have a transfer rate of 145 Kb/s which equates to a download speed of 1.33 Mbps. That is less than the regular Aliant high speed which usually averages about 3 Mbps. You have to remember that Aliant can only control the speed to their server.
More info is on my last post concerning Aliant:
http://jarche.com/?p=927
This week we finally decided to pay for Highspeed internet through Aliant as it just became available in our area a few months ago. Upon the moring of officially deciding, I called the “Business Internet Service” number listed under Aliant in our phone book to order the service. This is when the problems began.
First, the lady that answered this number told me that I had chosen the “wrong option” upon calling the number, however the only options given to me were “Press #1 for English, or #2 for French”. She then gave me a second number which took me to another lady who said that I had called the wrong number despite it being provided by another Aliant employee. She then gave me another number, which upon calling, re-routed me back to her. She was quite confused by this, and gave me a fourth number, which finally took me to a gentlemen who knew what he was doing, however after all of this re-routing and forwarding, he could only deal with Residential Internet Customers, not Business as I had originally dialed.
He gave me another number, which by then I was so frustrated with the word “Aliant” I decided I would try again the next day. The next morning I called the given number, and found myself talking to a girl in Nova Scotia (I live in New Brunswick). Upon some confusion on her part, I was put on hold for 17 minutes and had another female pick up who after some trouble clarifying if she was the right person I needed to be talking to (and asking “Where do you pay your monthly phone bill at?” to which I responded, followed by her saying “I’m not familiar of that location”) we finally got it straightened out, however she became very rude about my consistent implying that I would choose “Expree (Self) Installation”, instead of “Professional Installation”, a saving of $65. She continued to repeat “Sir, we just send you the package… at a later date a service rep will come and install the package into your phone jack and computer, we are not troubleshooters”. She would not let me choose the Self-Installation option and acted as though such an option didn’t exist despite there website.
So after 2 days of constant hassle, I finally decided to do what I should have done and ordered online. Once that is completed, I’m very much looking forward to dealing with these problems that people are having upon getting ther connection setup.
Andrew; I would suggest a letter to the company, so that they can get some feedback on this poor service, especially since you’ve decided to stay with Aliant’s service.
Update.
After ordering online on a Friday, I received an email confirmation which also stated that I would receive a second email within two business days confirming the time of delivery, etc. Once Wednesday of the next week rolled around, I wrote another email stating that no reponse was made within the two business day period. The next morning I received a telephone call saying that a technician would be out that day to activate our high-speed, although unsurpisingly no one showed up; nor did they on Friday.
On Friday however, I received a package in the mail containing the Highspeed modem and cables, and a sheet of paper providing me with the account information and a line that stated that my internet connection was activated the previous night at 8pm. Puzzled, I set it up and tried to connect, however it did not work. I again called Aliant, and was told by a very helpful gentlemen that it hadn’t been activated on their side, and that I was being forwarded to a service rep (to which he put me on hold, and kindly updated me 3 times as to what was happening before forwarding me through to the service rep). She apologized for the problems and said that a technician would be out the following Monday, and for compensation she would give me the first two months free (a generous saving of $90).
It is now 12:00 on Monday, and still no sign of the technician.
On the technical side, Aliant has the best internet service, It has great technical support. The only problems are the people in the head office that dont give a damn. It seems that since they do not deal with the public and complaints directly that they wont do anything about it, while we blame those in technical support. So i tried to treat those in TS with repect and direct more towards those who actually have the power to do something
Somebody mentioned about on-line chat with Aliant reps… Well I had that experience.
First I had to wait about 20 min before somebody appeared in the chat. After that there was no “Hello” no “sorry for the delay” or any standard expression that should accompany any customer service. The question appeared “How can I help you” which at that point sounded to me like “What U want?”.
I explained the things I would like to get an answer for. My first question was whether or not the company service has some restrictions on the Internet usage particularly for Voice over IP. The answer given was simplicity at its best. “You should call Customer Service”.
I decided to try the second attempt. So I asked “Do you allow all the ports open on the Internet Connection?” And guess what the answer was? Surprise, surprise… exactly the as the first time with an indication of irritation by adding “Sir”.
Right! This is exactly I had been waiting for about 30 min to hear that I need to call. I did not try to figure out what was the purpose of such “on-line service” though it would be interesting to know what the reason is paying someone whose only responsibility would be to say “Call a customer service.”
At the end of the formentioned Friday my internet was hooked up (I was of the opinion that someone was arriving at my house, although that wasn’t the case). Upon receiving the call I went to try it and although I knew it was indeed working there was an error that I belived to be on my end of the network.
I went through the expected hastle of the customer service representatives, however once I did get in contact with a technician I must say they were absolutely superb. This is something that I’ve heard from several other friends of mine as well.
So to all of you Aliant Technicians who are reading these comments, you do a absolute great job, and I thank you for it.
Also of note, internet availability in my area just became available at the end of last year, so needless to say I live quite far away from the HUB. I am very pleased to find that I am getting a great connection.
i HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET HIGHSPEED FROM ALIANT FOR OVER A YEAR. THEY HAVE THERE HOCK UP AS FAR AS ONE QUARTER MILE FROM MY PLACE AND THEY WILL NOT HOOK ME UP AND ALL MY NABOURES WANT IT ALSO .WE ARE ABOUT 6 to 8 families that would like to have the hook up and the only thing they say is later……
It’s strange how a lot of people complain about Aliant etc… but they are still using it… If your not satisfied with a product cancel it, move on with your life….
So you are telling me that if you buy a product (ex: Mp3 player) and it never works like it should you will just make complaints for years and years without returning it or buying another…
I’m sure by switching to Rogers or Eastlink you’ll have some problems and since a lot of people don’t know how to use computers, most of the problems are caused by the user themself… Just my opinion.
The relationship with Aliant is different than that with a hardware manufacturer, anony. Aliant is in either a monopoly position or a two-company oligopoly, meaning that it has more power than a company in a competitive market. Aliant (NBTel) has received significant subsidies from our governments and they have more responsibilities to the citizens than a private company which has been created in free-market. Also, Aliant’s services are becoming essential services (like electricity) for our post-industrial economy. Aliant, and other telecommunications companies, have to be pressured by government to remain neutral, which they don’t seem to be doing. Follow this link for more information:
http://jarche.com/?p=1055
Just to let everyone know I also have Ultra High Speed from Aliant and all users should be aware that Aliant does not support XBox Live! If you plan on playing any racing games on XBox Live you’ll be out of luck in racing with more that 5 or 6 players because of your upload limit is too low even for the Ultra High Dsl they provide. Some of us can not switch since Aliant is our only choose of High Speed internet access. We should tell them to get with the program!!
I have had a bundle with EastLink since College. My Internet speeds are amazingly fast and I have never had a problem with customer service. EastLink representatives are always friendly and helpful (the few times I had to call). I have never had any problems with losing phone service when the power goes out. I recommend that anyone who is having problems with Aliant switch to EastLink — an added benefit it that they’re a Maritime company.
I work for bell tech support for 6 months. I couldn’t get any other work after graduation from college after the big IT slow down in 2001. These job are call tech support(Call Center) but all they(Bell, Aliant etc.) care about is sales. I quit this job when I got a position as a Programmer/System Analyst in aviation, which I have been doing ever since. I could not do this job any more. I could not stand listening to “Idiots” who didn’t have a clue about anything including computers, Internet connection, Life etc. any more. getting a call from some drunk guy at 10 in the morning, whose connection was slow because he been looking at “porn” fro the last 8 hours or some woman who been online gambling all night is to say the least not fun. Especially when all you egt is grief from some little management/supervisor “kiss-ass” about your sales numbers. My advice to all of you is shutoff the computer with your “email/porn/gambling and get a “Life”.
Nice one Tom Gibson, hehe. It’s true that most problems on computers are cause by the user. I do some side work in fixing computers and most of them complain about speed and internet issues but when I get there they have ton of spyware and crap on their PC.. not even a provider issue but a user issue.
listen people i don’t know about you but i really want to know if Aliant is the choice for me. ive thought about changing over to eastlink as some of you, there’s just one thing i need to know. well two. does aliant support online play for the xbox 360? and if it does how do i set it up properly? one more thing to add to my rant. when you think about it really what is Aliant’s slogan. “HERE, FOR YOU”. wow really then maybe you should help me with my problems im having through you [deleted by admin].
Just switched from Aliant to Easlink. Everything goes well for 2 days and then one hour ago, found out that I have no more signal in my phone. Pure silence. Called Eastlink, did some little testing and the nice lady told me that the next available time for somebody to come and try to fix my phone is Sunday (we are Thursday right now!). This is exactly why I quit with Aliant, for the bad service and days and days of waiting!
I asked if there was like a fast lane for emergency or something like that but no. You’d think that for a case where a costumer lost his dial tone, they whould squeeze you between 2 appointments??
After 2 days with Eastlink, I have the feeling that their service is not better than Aliant. Hope I’m wrong!!!
…I was wrong!
A nice guy showed up Friday around lunch time and fixed my phone. I recommand to all of you having bad service with Aliant to just switch to Eastlink, life is so much easier!
The tech staff, from either company, who show up at your door are usually great. The problem is almost always with corporate management.
Just got my service from aliant hooked up monday (from pei). First thing I noticed was that I was getting regular high speed speeds. I called aliant today to get it straightened out. They confirmed that i indeed have the regular high speed when I ordered ultra. They gave me a 20 dollar credit and said that Ultra will be effective as of September 12th. Heres hoping for the best.
After living in Calgary and dealing with Shaw Cable and then Telus dsl then moving to NS and dealing with Eastlink and now Aliant dsl, I have come to a few conclusions. For those Eastlink patrons, you will eventually come to be disapointed as bandwidth will shrink with increasing usage. I’ve seen it happen with Shaw. Out of dealing with all four of these companies, Eastlink was far the most dissapointing to deal with customer service and also the most expensive service. Maritime company or not, I want what my money is worth, and resolutions to my problems and not arguments. Aliant has not been without it’s shortcomings though it has been managable. Ultra has been close enough to call it that, and the only complaint is the Seimens Speed Stream 6250 modem / router. This item has known issues with QOS, PPPoe, firewall, DMZ, and port mapping to name a very short few. What I found is that it is much quicker to resolve these issues by a little homework on the net, rather than being told “we don’t support that” from uninformed and unaware farmed out Aliant support geeks. It seems to be working. I only use ultra with a US Voip service and it is stable enough to be used as stand alone telephone without a backup phone. I can tell you it’s cheaper than Eastlinks package. It took some work though. I’d start looking at your modem / gateway and computer if your having speed issues with ultra.
-If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull**it-
thanks for calling me a geek ;) and yes. aliant does SOME outsourcing.. but not much. Aliant CSR’s are on 6 month terms for tech/service/repair depts.. after 6 mths.. they get the boot.
I found this article useful tho, so thanks. Because some customer I do talk to are very irate with their service.. ecspecially at this time as we have unveiled Aliant Tv/Internet and it being back to school. We’re backed up, with everyone wanting aliant service..
One thing about Eastlink home phone, You lose power, you lose your phone. they have an estimated 5 hrs of back up time after your power goes out. It usually lasts about maybe 2 hrs.. and then your SOL….
I currently have all 3 services on my aliant bill. I will be keeping an eye on my up & down speeds. If I see that I’m not getting what I’m paying for I will dump them as my provider. We all know competition is feirce.
Ok, I have a silly question! When you have the regular dialup service from Aliant, what is the speed?
My experience with the roaming dial-up service (part of the Aliant high speed package) is that it depends on where you are. Speeds can be as high as ~50 kbps, but of course you cannot get any better than 56 kbps, due to the limitations of modem technology.
We currently have dail-up. And you can take lots of naps during down/uploading sessions. High speed is not available in my area.
Is their Satellite internet service any better??
An option for satellite is Xplornet, a New Brunswick company.
http://www.xplornet.com/
I’ve not seen the issues that some people are talking about (ie: Aliant customer service rep…go figure :-P).
I’ve had EastLink TV, High Speed (recently given a FREE upgrade from 10 Mbps to 15 Mbps) and Telephone for over 3 years. Through probably 15 power outages (hurray for good ol’ reliable NS Power) I’ve never lost phone usage. And i pay a lot less than the same services from Bell/Aliant.
Aliant shapes a subscriber’s traffic when it passes through the aggregate router at Layer 3 (also described as PDU shaping or IP shaping). Subscribers are shaped based on profiles that define their performance. The default profile is 1M. If you don’t explicitly complain, they will not reset your profile. This is the first thing you should ask the Tech Operator to check. The difficulty in troubleshooting is the Tech Operator doesn’t have access to your billing/service description so they have to call billing to get confirmation of your service before they can make the change.
In many cases they are billing you for the correct service, but the DSLAM/Router has not been proper programmed to reflect your high BW service.
I haven’t heard of Aliant switching subscribers on purpose, but they did just finish a very large modem swap-out which resulted in subscribers changing DSLAMs and many users ended up on new ports with new ‘default’ profiles. Also, DSL service has no SLA so they can perform maintenance without notice (DLSAM Line Card upgrade) which has been known to reset users profiles.
If you read the agreement, the download speeds are only guaranteed within Aliant’s network (to download Aliant content). They do not guarantee these speeds over the entire Internet.
I don’t work for them, but I do have some insight.
I do agree that waiting for the end customer to call is probably not the best solution to addressing which ports need to be corrected.
FB
I’m quite annoyed with ALiant myself. After the sales idiot and technician claimed “Oh Aliant is MUCH faster than rogers” I ALMOST took their words for it. But alas.. 160k MAX download speed and unable to surf the web at all when downloading two files at 75k each I’m very disappointed. It’s literally a RIP OFF considering the price in comparison to rogers. I was getting easily 750k a second from rogers and still able to surf the web freely with no slowdowns. Best part? THEY COST THE SAME! I’m tempted to fight for my money back on the basis of the lies they told us about speeds and reliability. We cant watch tv and surf the web at the same time either. Connection cannot handle it at all.
To me all in all Aliant are liars as they have always been int he past. I’m sorry but paying 50 a month for 1.5mbit with them is not only a ripoff. but when coupled with untruthful speed claims is makes it flat out… a crime.
F*ck you aliant :) After this not a penny from me
Just stumbled along this stream and can’t help smiling at some of the comments here by the pro aliant crowd who obviously understand how eastlinks system runs not at all.
first there is a 24 hr response that we are obligated to meet if there is a phone outage and you will only wait that long if there are some major issues going on.
second, Yes there is a battery back up in case of power outages, all these back ups are monitered and if there is an outage technicians are deployed with generators to keep the system running untill power is restored(and before the pro aliants can speak hurricane juan was an eye opener that led to these policies)
third eastlinks new design which is being implimented quite quickly has fiber as its main backbone and to coax feeding I believe no more than 75 customers, and has eliminated the need for active equipment in the system giving the next best thing to fiber to the home.(look up the bandwidth limitations for twisted pair as compared to co-axial cable, there is a reason they haven’t offered a decent cable package yet)
fourth yes not all the channels are digitized yet due to the fact that not everybody has a TV that can receive digital cable without it being remodulated to basic RF even your satellite dishes still have to do this,
Eastlink is by no means without its faults but Bluenosers have been lucky enough to live in a province that has led the way in Broadband services. Eastlink was a pioneer in North America with some very big players watching to see if the little cable company could compete with the big boys… well go look at the market shares for Hfx and stop listening to some of the aliant propaganda and try something new.
well thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
Now I have been shopping for high speed. I currently have dial-up, and have for a long time as it suited my needs ok. Until the last couple of months when I have had problems with web sites connecting slowly, timing out and in many cases failing to resolve the domain names. First let me say that I ma a computer and electronics tech and have been for a long time so troubleshooting system and network problems isn’t anything new. After going through my windows 98SE machine (don’t ask), my XP laptop and my two linux computers without finding a hint of a problem I called Aliant/Sympatico support to find out if the was a network problem or a DNS issue. Now support from Sympatico over the years (until the last couple) has been superb on the few occasions I’ve called. This time was NOT one of those. First off I was told that “we don’t use DNS” but somehow couldn’t explain how they resolved domains names otherwise. Then I had a virus (not on my systems – especially the Linux ones), then it must be spyware according to the supervisor he checked with (again it affects 4 systems and three operating systems that have already been checked but it’s just GOTTA BE.
Surprisingly (or not) the problem cleared up within 45 minutes. Sadly that solution only lasted about 3 days before it started all over again.
A friend that switched to high speed said he had similar problems and was told off the record be an employee that some of the unresolved recurring “problems” of dial-up users were to encourage a switch to DSL. That wouldn’t surprise me but at this rate I’m more likely to switch to Eastlink for broadband. They could hardly be any worse.
In searching about for Aliant high speed I found a reference on a website ( http://www.milner.ca/article/retrograde-technology-broadband-in-canada-and-north-america ) that’s a three years old and it seems not much has changed since then.
I just got off a chat with aliant. I am getting download speeds of 1.5 kilobytes / second. For god sakes, dial-up offered better. But the rep said I was in fact on Ultra High speed. I find that pretty sad, and I am also left wondering what I could do to fix my internet.
I have given up on Aliant and recently switched to Eastlink. Here’s an example of my speeds during the day, which can be even higher at times:
Download Speed: 15,833 kbps (1,979.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 945 kbps (118.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Yeah, Im signed up for High Speed Ultra at Aliant.. and just as of this year our connection WAS 500kbps.. then it went to 300 kbps and now… its 180kbps max.. its ridiculous, I had a new Phone Jack put in, and the guys telling me to my face that the line from my house to the jack was PERFECT… and the guy told me we were set to 4 meg.. and he’d put us to 4.6 meg.. and im still only getting 1.5 meg.. and our connection keeps dropping every couple of minutes…. I’m getting fed up with the BS..
My current Ultra down is 4998 and up is 923. Fine for what I need. Any time I’ve had problems Aliant has fixed it fairly quickly…within a day. I have friends that waited months for Eastlink to fix things. …AND Eastlinks speeds are totally dependant on who else in your area is massively downloading. You dont own your bandwidth….just the possibilty.
If your Aliant speeds suck…its because you barely know how to use a computer…or have a problem Aliant cant find yet.
More often than not the whiners and complainers dont understand the problem, what they are paying for, or what Aliant is telling them.
yeah i have had it with aliant a s well. i was signed up for ultra for nearly 4 years and never though to check my speeds much( my own fault) when max came out went to check if it was available in my area and shows me that ultra which showed as what i currently had was not available. so contacted them an was told on i was on regular but had been being charged for ultra. ended up with a huge credit.
so now a year has passed and i still wanted ultra so kept checking if it was available and saw that it now sais available.
so called up sales 5 times to check as what happened before and called thier IT and triple checked and was assured yes it is now available to me so swictched over and still only got 1500 download. so called back and they sent a tech over to check.
got a phone call while waiting for him to show and it was him and was told don’t know why they told me it was available and wasn’t and never had been available up here
sad that aliant doesn’t seem to know what they are doinga nymore
Ive had this stupid Aliant Ultra for a few years and the Max I have seen it do in a speed test is 1.7-1.8 mbps…. and an upload of .51 mbps….
The dl is kind of ridiculous since normal is suppose to be 1.5mbps and ultra is supposed to be up to 5mbps…. im only doing .2 or .3 better then normal…. also if im downloading a file it tends to cap off at 200kbps ………
Ive tried to deal with them on the phone a few times but they would use the wonderful up to 5mbps…. hell its frickn 1.7/1.8 jeeez ….
Id recommend to anyone who can get Eastlink in their area get it… because its way better then Aliants crap…. unlucky for me Eastlinks internet ends on the highway just outside my town….
LOL….my Aliant speeds just went up without my doing anything – from around 5000kbs to around 6665 kbs. All the whiners should switch to eastlink.
I mean theres someone posted here saying that for 5 YEARS now their Aliant high speed has been slower than what they had on dialup. LOL. Thats either completely wrong info or they are too stupid to use the internet.
Roughly a month ago Aliant ran fiber optics down our street. Coincidentally, that evening, our internet was deathly slow. I contacted the lovely people at Aliant regarding the slow speed. The first gentleman I talked to was quite helpful and got me to run a speed test. My download speed never got above 112 bytes/sec. The tech said “wow, you do have an issue. He got me to try a few things that should fix the issue, but I had to leave, before finishing so, he said to call back when I returned. I asked if we had to go through the same things when I call back and he told me no, just get the tech to look at the history of my issue and he would continue where we left off.
Well, roughly 1 hr later, I call back and mentioned this to the tech. He got me to do a speed test. I informed him that we’ve already done that and tried other things that should all be stated in my history. He informed me that he must start from scratch if I want the issue resolved. Once again, I never got over 112 bytes/sec. When I told him this, he said, oh, thats fine. Excuse me I said? He said 112kb/sec is fine. I corrected him and said it was 112 BYTES/sec. He argued with me saying it can’t be because I have high speed. DUH, I’m paying for hi-speed, but clearly, at 112 bytes/sec, it is not hi-speed. This is why I was calling them. He proceeded to argue with me repeatedly that I had to be mistaken. It never got resolved and he had the nerve to ask if he answered all my questions…thanks for choosing Bell Aliant. I hit the phone so hard, it flew into pieces.
The next day, I did talk to a rather nice lady and she got me sceduled for a tech to come to the house on a Thursday between 8 and 11. It was only Monday, but Thursday was the ealiest she could get me one. I told her fine, but because nobody is home during the days, someone would have to call me at work so I could come home and let them in. On WEDNESDAY, I come home from work to find a tag on our door stating that a tech was by, but they have to get in the house to diagnose the issue. Once again I called and they rebooked me for Thursday. I once again told them they had to call me at work. Thursday I come home to another door tag. Once again I called, this time steaming mad and they rebooked me for Saturday. NOT ACCEPTABLE. I want someone here at 5 today because clearly they tech is not capable of phoning me to come home from work, so they can come after my work day is done.
A tech showed up around 5:15 and did appear to fix the issue.
Well, the following Monday we noticed the phones aren’t working. DEAD. So, once again, I call Aliant. I go through the same process of giving them my work #. Once again, a tech shows up without calling me. After another try they came at 5 after we were home and appears to have fixed the issue.
Two days ago, we noticed our phones were dead again. Today, I came home to the dreaded door tag saying there was nobody home. What makes it worse, I called twice today to confirm the work order had instructions to phone me at work.
So, I went back into work to call them from my work phone as I do not have a cell. I demanded to speak to a supervisor and she told me she would get a tech to call me back this evening. “what number can you be reached at” she said. I said I can’t as my #@$!& phones do not work and I had no intention of waiting around at my workplace all night waiting for a call that likely would never occur.
Tomorrow, I am booked for a tech to come to the house. Will the saga continue?
Aliant has the absolute worse customer service I have ever seen.
Just a few days ago I contacted bellaliant troubleshooting one of my online games. Before they did anything I had the standard 7mbps and about 45 ms ping to most places, with 0% packet loss (i figured that packet loss was the problem though none was being shown). The next day, my speed was back to the old 5 mbps and my ping times were about 68 ms with packet loss of 2-5%. So I contacted them again and asked what they had did. They said the connection was unstable at such high speeds so they dropped it down, i didn’t even mention the packet loss problem they had created.I told the rep. that it wasn’t a serious enough problem that they needed to saw off 2 mbps of my bandiwdth (300 kb/s). So he kindly asked if i would like it bumped back up. I said sure then no response for 20 minutes, apparentl he “was talking to the testing team on the phone”. anyways. he said my speeds should now be 7 mbps again. nope, just 5 with packet loss still a problem. I’m talking with them online again now. Will get back to you all. I’m considering going with Netbundle again now that they have new speed packages and unlimted phone for $39.95.month plus $49.95 for 3 mbps up and down.
Haha, my mistake. Discovered today it was a driver problem.
We have been having tremendous difficulty with Aliant. Mid-September our speeds started to get really slow and we got a lot of crackling on our phone lines. Called Aliant on September 20 and they booked a service call as they could detect something wrong with the line. Tech came to the house on September 23 and fixed the line and “upgraded” our modem to a SE567 (which, apparently, is a modem/router combo). We have had nothing but difficulty since. Really slow to load pages and videos freeze. Connection drops so we have to do a soft re-set (unplug the power to the modem). I have called Aliant seven times now, probably three hours’ worth of talking. They end up booking a service call, but then call to cancel it as they get the internet working from central office. Within a day it starts acting the same as it had been. We have a new call booked for Tuesday, October 21, and I told them not to call and cancel as there is a problem with the modem. Anybody have a similar difficulty? I don’t know much about it but it seems that the modem must be the problem.
I have had similar problems. Web Pages freeze all the time when loading and my wife’s laptop has similar issues and both our connections periodically drop all the time. Then I found out at work from some geek guys that Aliant capped their service without telling anyone. Before I use to have “high speed” then everything slowed down. I called and they told me that I would have to pay extra to get higher speeds (You mean the speeds I use to have for the same price?) I am really ticked and thinking of switching over to Eastlink and then I heard that aliant maybe buying east link, is this true. One would think that the competition bureau would stop such a deal?
Just want to say we’ve been on Aliant since ’05, I think. Originally on their 1Mbps service, then upgraded to 5Mbps. A few months after we bought that, they bumped the speed to 7Mbps when they changed their plans. :D
We’ve had awesome service, no problems with anyone not flicking a switch somewhere to get our speeds up to advertised rates, etc. Unfortunately, High Speed Max isn’t available out here in Hammonds Plains because I’d upgrade to that in a heartbeat. I think that plan still has the same terrible upload speed as the lower tiers, though.
Well anyone who would like to switch to Eastlink in the Sackville NB area just give us a call 364-0808, they have some great deals on, also if you want to compare average speeds canada wide try speedtest.net, if you are really rural you may want to check out our xplorenet fixed wireless service, up to 5MBps