Cogeco customers filing complaints

Appointments not kept, lengthy service waits and intermittent or inadequate service among the problems

Problems with cable TV, phone, and internet provider Cogeco have left local customers frustrated and contributed to more than 250 complaints filed with a national agency since May.

Anger expressed to the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, an industry-funded agency overseen by the CRTC, range from service repair and installation dates not kept, to installation errors, lengthy service waits and intermittent or inadequate service.

Commission spokesperson Monette Gauvreau said 258 complaints from Ontario were received by the agency between May 1 and June 20.

Exasperated Cogeco customers have also contacted The Spectator and hundreds more are complaining on social media.

A Spectator story about an 89-year-old Hamilton woman whose services were cut off without notice over a mixup that she was dead — and the problems she had getting them restored — sparked a flurry of calls and emails from other Cogeco customers who say the company has not responded to service problems.

The problems appear to have started after a power outage from a storm on May 4 — and separately, from technical difficulties at Cogeco while it overhauled its computer systems. These problems, combined with customer equipment failures, have resulted in customer wait times of up to two hours on the phone to speak with a Cogeco agent, according to customers and Cogeco.

Cogeco says it has had problems with its “major IT systems transformation” and is well aware of the difficulties its customers are having, said spokesperson Gabriel Beausejour at head office in Montreal.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconveniences this is causing.”

The problems also seem to be compounded by conflicting information given to customers and unkept promises to fix matters, according to readers who contacted The Spectator.

“It’s been a really rough couple of months,” said Anne Browne in rural Burlington.

Browne says she couldn’t get WiFi back after the storm, leaving her without internet, phone and less importantly, TV services, for three weeks — some restorations taking even longer.

She says it sound trivial to complain of no WiFi service, but she needs it to boost her cellphone signal in the countryside, and to do online banking, pay bills, and confirm medical appointments.

“We are certainly not alone,” she says.

Browne can’t get the services from any company other than Cogeco because no others are available, she said.

“It was frustrating. It was timeconsuming. Nobody had an answer,” she said about her many calls to Cogeco and the long wait times to speak with a customer service agent.

“They have a commitment to call back within 48 hours if you leave a message. That never happened.”

After four weeks of putting up with problems and “runaround”, Bob Williams of Smithville finally switched to Bell.

“I am paying more with Bell but I don’t care because my security system works through my phone, I do online banking and get my bills online, and I use my email account for business.

“It just got too frustrating,” to deal with Cogeco he says. “I called Bell and they were here two days later. Done.”

Others who contacted the Spec included residents from Stoney Creek, Waterdown, Vineland and Flamborough.

Cogeco spokesperson Beausejour said the company is doing everything it can to ensure the technical shift of its systems “is as seamless as possible.”

The transformation was successful for the vast majority of the company’s Ontario and Quebec customers, he added.

“That said, we did receive complaints, and for Cogeco, one complaint is too many. We are focusing our efforts in assisting our customers to their satisfaction.”

He could not answer how many customers Cogeco has or how many complaints it received because of confidentiality, he said.

Patricia Valladao, spokesperson for the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said her agency has received 58 calls from Cogeco’s Ontario customers since May 1, but doesn’t know if they are all complaints.