My home’s Internet connection was out for over 3 weeks. Incoming wall of text.

Aug 20
A massive thunderstorm goes through the GTA, with multiple tornadoes touching down. Our Internet connection with Teksavvy stops at 7:11PM. I get home after footy training (where I was standing in the middle of a UoT sports field with lightning all around me which was really not awesome) to find our 2wire modem’s DSL indicator is blinking red, meaning no signal. I figure it’s a temporary outage and go to bed.

Aug 21
Internet connection is still out so I call Teksavvy in the afternoon to find out if there’s an ETA on the outage’s resolution. Told there is no outage in downtown Toronto. I tried multiple wall jacks and phone lines in the house to experience the same symptoms. No signal.

Aug 22-23
I take off to Ottawa to play footy.

Aug 23
Still nothing, have Teksavvy file a trouble ticket, which has 48 hours until you can even escalate.

Aug 25
Bell tech comes to house, checks up to demarcation point. Leaves work order (without employee identification) saying signal to house is fine. Problem is either inside wiring or modem. Work order indicates he visited floor 1 of my house. We live on the 2nd and 3rd floors. He never steps foot inside my house.

Aug 26
I email other tenants in my house to see if they are having issues with the wiring, either for landline phone or DSL. Not a single one of the them reply. I buy a new D-Link DSL 2640b modem and it also indicates no DSL signal. I call Teksavvy and they say Bell is only responsible up to the house (not for inside) and it depends on the visiting tech on whether to check inside lines. I ask for a residential phone line repair reference, I’m giving a number and move on.

Aug 27
The number Teksavvy gave me is a fax number.

Aug 28
I lookup the company’s actual number at work, call to find out they do VoIP and business digital phone installations. Uh? Call Teksavvy again later that night to be given another phone repair location. Call the second one to find out they only do business installations. Good job, Teksavvy. We had thrown out our Yellow Pages book at home, “because you can get all that shit online.” Maybe not now. I make this post on DSL Reports.

Aug 29
I follow-up on a message sent by an employee of Caneris on DSL Reports.

Sept 1
Through a sketchy process, give my number to said employee so someone can contact me to setup an appointment.

Sept 3
Caneris technician comes to the house, he is able to verify our dry-loop number is coming up inside the house so our wiring isn’t the issue. He hooks up his own modem and its the third one that doesn’t work. Tries directly at the demarcation point with no signal there either. That first Bell tech didn’t know what the fuck. This technician’s visit costs us out of pocket since the first Bell tech didn’t do his job.

Sept 4
Have another trouble ticket filed with Teksavvy since they can only be reopened after 5 days (resolved or not, due to Bell.)

Sept 6
Another Bell tech comes, confirms no sync and calls in to have a framework ticket “filed” to get the problem fixed remotely. He gives me his work number to call him personally if there is no resolution by the 8th.

Sept 7
Conveniently-placed holiday with no work done.

Sept 8
In the morning, still no sync. Call the Bell tech in the evening and he says he’ll call right back. Instead he calls me almost 30 minutes later to say whoever he called into on the 6th didn’t actually submit a framework ticket. He has one submitted now and he escalates. Told resolution by next morning.

Sept 9
Still nothing. Late day at work, call Bell tech at 9:03PM but all their departments are closed now. He tells me to call him the next day. Call Teksavvy to see if they can put any pressure on Bell. Am told no. Seriously?

Sept 10
Leave Bell guy a voicemail in the morning. He doesn’t call back. Call again around 5PM to be told he’s off for two days. Why did he tell me to call him on this day, then? Call 310-BELL to have another tech sent out. Tried twice to call them and the customer care’s ear volume is so low I couldn’t even hear the rep on my cell. I’m too busy so I’m not home anytime during this. My roommate calls to be told Teksavvy is responsibility for Bell escalations and work assignment. Teksavvy rep laughs and offers to file another ticket. Every ticket filed has a 24 to 48 hour wait.

We call Rogers Cable to be told they’re $60 + service fees + tax for a 95gb/mo quota cap. We currently pay $40 for 200gb/mo. Of course, there’s no service…

Sept 11
Call Teksavvy to find out the Sept 6th ticket was closed even though there was no resolution. My roommate had another ticket filed the previous night for the same issue. The rep gives me the typical “oh, it’s a 24 to 48 hour window” spiel. I ask to talk to a supervisor. I’m told they get off at 5PM. It’s 5:07PM at the time I am calling them. He doesn’t offer any callback, just says I have to try again tomorrow. Another point for Canadian telecom customer service, passing the buck, one metaphorical fisting at a time.

Sept 13
A fourth person comes out to the house and finally fixes the issue. He replaces external wiring at demarcation point along with 3 internal junction points inside that had issues with corrosion and excessive voltage being sent into the house. We also have to change to the D-Link DSL modem I bought.

What I saw during this whole process was no accountability. Customer service employees want to handle everything in a tight queue where they don’t have to hang on to the responsibility. Just say it’ll take 48 hours. Tell the customer you’ll continue to work toward a solution but secretly close the ticket with your employer to indicate a solution was found. Outright lie on a work order when you don’t know an immediate solution off-hand. Claim your organization doesn’t handle that task but these guys do. Those guys tell us the same deal.

Internet/telecom in Canada is simply fucked since your options are outrageously-priced cable Internet with throttled services (Rogers) or DSL with an absurd monthly-cap (Bell)… or a reseller of said DSL that offers the best prices but is at the whims of Bell since they’re the ones that actually own the copper. Yet the Government of Canada and CRTC quickly approve their monopolies without any public review processes.

Fuck it dude, let’s go bowling.

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