Primus Canada is the worst company on earth!!

[ty44]

:mad: , Primus Canada just robbed my wallet. Basically:

1. The VOIP service sucks.
2. They only have outsource CS (Phone/email)
3. If you want to speak with a supervisor/manager to file a complaint, you have to wait 24 - 48 hours for them to call back.
4. They will not give you any refund/credit once they charge you because of the small prints (terms and policies)
5. They don't even have a contact/department for complaint (they dont' care anyways.)

Go cancel you service or you will regrat, BADLY.

In conclusion, Primus Canada is the worst company on earth!! Zero rating, Period.

[nano]

3web is worse their CS doesn't exist

[rpeatt]

For the redflagdeals community using Primus - I give to you one of my most valued possessions - the toll free customer support number for Primus with
No hold time
Reps with Power
Easy escalations


USE THIS POWER WISELY MY FRIENDS!

1-800-957-1177 (I got this through a better business bureau complaint response).

[patrob]

:mad: , Primus Canada just robbed my wallet. Basically:

1. The VOIP service sucks.
2. They only have outsource CS (Phone/email)
3. If you want to speak with a supervisor/manager to file a complaint, you have to wait 24 - 48 hours for them to call back.
4. They will not give you any refund/credit once they charge you because of the small prints (terms and policies)
5. They don't even have a contact/department for complaint (they dont' care anyways.)

Go cancel you service or you will regrat, BADLY.

In conclusion, Primus Canada is the worst company on earth!! Zero rating, Period.
:confused: :rolleyes:

You must work for the competition or something :D since this is your 1st post :|

I have their service & it does not suck :!: And I always got credited as a good will gesture when I complained about something ;)

[Whitedart]

You must work for the competition or something :D since this is your 1st post :|

I have their service & it does not suck :!: And I always got credited as a good will gesture when I complained about something ;)

+1

No service issues here with Primus voip over almost 2 years now.

OP seems like spam.

[dealguy2]

I ordered Primus once after they had sent me a junk mail ad. I signed up online for residential phone service and got a response back by email saying the change would take place at the begining of the next month. Nothing ever happened except for a new Primus bill AND a Telus bill arriving every month. I phoned Primus and they said that they couldn't hook up my phone because I live in a rural area. They said I would have to pay the bills I received and then they would refund me. I didn't pay the bills obviously but eventually I did get a collection notice in the mail and I just phoned the collection agency and told them my story and said that they would have to sue me because I was disputing the debt. They phoned back later and told me they had ceased collection action against me and would be taking it up with Primus. I didn't ever hear anything after that.

[crukkh]

Just subscribed to their Triple Value Bundle Lite and happy so far. Phone seems to work just fine, telemarketing guard is a plus, and 1Mbps Internet is hardly different from Acanac's 5 Mbps... and I get 1 Mbps download / 600 Kbps upload.
Paying $46 taxes in.

[Dave12345]

I have them too. For the price (almost half of what I WAS paying with Rogers) I really cant complain. Plus I rack up the AIR MILES :)

They're products (phone and internet) work great but I agree, their CS does need improvement.

[pipolchap]

Been with Primus for over 3 months. They told me I'd get caller ID for free for 4 months, but it showed up on the bill 2 times.

The 2 times I called CS, I find that its better to call during the day. In the evening I think I was talking to someone in India. He didn't resolve my problem. The second time I reached someone working in Canada (I asked). She resolved my problem tout de suite.

Its now resolved and I'm happy with them.

[7jaii]

Primus is middle of the road. Not great service, not great customer care. They are a large-sized corp so they receive a larger amount of complaints then independents. They also send bill to collection agencies...which if it was a $1000 bill then I understand. But when I was in school Primus' collection team (could have been a contracted company) hounded my roommate for 4 months over a $45 bill.

After 4 weeks of explaining & exhausting all communication channels Primus discovered it was a billing mistake. No apology.

However, with recent Sympatico actions, we need as many competitors as possible. Sympatico & Rogers is the larger enemy.

[jglkitty25]

I TOTALLY agree. Not only does their customer service suck so does their accounting department. I had an issue with them a few years back regarding payments. They claimed that I had missed payments. To make a long story short, the accounting department manager yelled at me and starting cussing at me because I told them and faxed him all the bank records of each payment. So he threatened to send my account to collections which I then told him...."Go right ahead...because maybe I will get somebody who is more competent than you". So in the end, the person at the collections department went through all my bank records one by one and found that I had not missed any payments, and that I WAS RIGHT.

How do you have such stupid people working for a company? It's not that hard to match payments. A 6 year old child can do it.

[Bookpreviews]

Been with Primus for over 3 months. They told me I'd get caller ID for free for 4 months, but it showed up on the bill 2 times.

The 2 times I called CS, I find that its better to call during the day. In the evening I think I was talking to someone in India. He didn't resolve my problem. The second time I reached someone working in Canada (I asked). She resolved my problem tout de suite.

Its now resolved and I'm happy with them.

Their Indian call centre sucks!
I called them a few times and they gave me the wrong info for my account- telling me I had no contract and saying I would get the new lower price they advertise.
The Indian call centre also tried to activate their services on my cell phone- that says a lot about them!

If you call durin the day mon-fri u should reach their Toronto office which actually knows your account info.

[darkprince]

Yeah, i hate it when CS are outsourced to 3rd world countries. I spoke with 6 CRS 5 of them were Indian and 1 Canadian named Jack. Bell Sympatico messed up my billing and over billing me 3 months (word of advice don't do pre-authorize payments). I was so happy when i heard a guy that spoke English fluently and ask him where he was located, New Brunswick, and he resolved my problem in a matter of minutes.

Been with Primus for over 3 months. They told me I'd get caller ID for free for 4 months, but it showed up on the bill 2 times.

The 2 times I called CS, I find that its better to call during the day. In the evening I think I was talking to someone in India. He didn't resolve my problem. The second time I reached someone working in Canada (I asked). She resolved my problem tout de suite.

Its now resolved and I'm happy with them.

[sketchED]

I have been with Primus for almost a year, no issues, they actually went the extra distance to make sure i was getting the fastest speed and insisted on setting up a remote on the dslam to increase my speed

[gman]

:mad: , Primus Canada just robbed my wallet. Basically:

1. The VOIP service sucks.
2. They only have outsource CS (Phone/email)
3. If you want to speak with a supervisor/manager to file a complaint, you have to wait 24 - 48 hours for them to call back.
4. They will not give you any refund/credit once they charge you because of the small prints (terms and policies)
5. They don't even have a contact/department for complaint (they dont' care anyways.)

Go cancel you service or you will regrat, BADLY.

In conclusion, Primus Canada is the worst company on earth!! Zero rating, Period.

I don't use Primus but based on what you said, you really don't know what the worst is. If you want to know what is worse, let me direct your attention to this (http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6366592&postcount=80).

[bernier26]

It takes over 40 minutes for CS service. Once you're connected, it's a guy or girl that doesn't speak English from India.

That's not the worst of all. I had Long Distance with Primus and they kept charging my credit card months after months even though I don't have Long Distance service with Primus.

I ended up paying Primus and Telus every month for about 4 months.

I got so upset with Primus that I was READY to pay a higher fees not to use them. Funny thing is Telus ended up with a lower rate than Primus and most people don't know about it.

[Eyeman]

3web is worse their CS doesn't exist

When you pay 3web prices, you don't expect much help. When you Primus or Bell, etc prices, you expect a lot more. The fact is that Primus is terrible. So it Bell and everyother major telecommunications company. They do everything they can to prevent you from being able to call them and talk to an actual person. It is not oversight or accident. They are trying to make life difficult for their customers sio they can avoid the cost of real support.

[sketchED]

:arrowu:

I agree you get what you pay for, I highly doubt that Primus has high profit margins. The main reason that we as consumers are able to get these low, low prices is because they outsource their customer service to India.

Now if someone wants excellent customer service and no wait times Bell is always available, we can't have the best of both worlds.

Customer Service cost $$$, however if an indvidual is patient the potential savings from signing up with primus is considerable.

[tomw]

I've been with Primus for few years now, DSL, and voip and never had any issues. Tech service was always helpful and they never messed up any of my bills. The prices are much more competitive than Bell. Bell's customer service is the same as primus, yet their services are double in price.

[Nikita]

It takes over 40 minutes for CS service. Once you're connected, it's a guy or girl that doesn't speak English from India.

That's not the worst of all. I had Long Distance with Primus and they kept charging my credit card months after months even though I don't have Long Distance service with Primus.
I ended up paying Primus and Telus every month for about 4 months.

I got so upset with Primus that I was READY to pay a higher fees not to use them. Funny thing is Telus ended up with a lower rate than Primus and most people don't know about it.

So which is it? You have long distance with Primus or you don't have long distance with Primus??:confused:

[brunes]

Primus does suck - they are on my permanent black list, I will never deal with them again and I always tell everyone I talk to about their horrible service.

I was once on hold with Primus for over 4 hours. I didn't care cause it was just on speaker phone at a low level and I kept doing what I was doing.

The funniest part was after I got put off hold the person said it was busy today cause everyone was signing up for their great services.

Needless to say the original call was to change my CC billing information, but it ended up being a call to cancel my service.

[beachlover]

Signed up for Primus with their home phone for $19.95 month with 8 features for the first 6 months and $29.95 for the next 6 months. So I get their bill on the 23rd for $82.00. And it's dated the 5th, but post marked the 16th (Friday, before the long weekend) and states a late fee if paid after the 20th , even though service only started April 21st, but billing was till end of May. I called Rogers to see my options, for when I called Primus to correct bill. In the end, I decided after reading this thread, I better cut my losses, and I switched back to Rogers for their home phone at $19.95 for a year with just one feature (all I really need, because my fancy phone can handle almost all the other features).

[canabiz]

I just spent about half an hour on phone with Primus and couldn't get a hold of any customer service rep.

Will try again tomorrow during business hours. Thankfully, i don't have any service with Primus at the moment. Reason I am calling was to help my mom cancel her long distance services.

Good riddance.

[bobcat99]

No problems here with their billing or service for VOIP. In fact I have got a $30 credit for referring 3 different friends/family.

I have used the VOIP service in 3 different countries in Asia and had no issues in two years.

[hello2006]

primus does suck. read my post in another thread that someone made about primus that I posted in, never go with primus.

[myapple]

I don't use Primus but based on what you said, you really don't know what the worst is. If you want to know what is worse, let me direct your attention to this (http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6366592&postcount=80).
I agree bell has the occasional billing issue, but I have never had a problem with their actual service. I tried primus for home phone back in 2006 and ended up with 2 service outages (no dial tone) within a 2 month span. one for about 8 hours and another for 12 hours. In all the 20+ years I've been with bell, I have never had 1 service outage. I would never use primus for anything anymore.

[Nikita]

My mom switched to Primus internet and home phone about 3-4 months ago. For the first while she was encountering all kinds of problems, both with the phone line and internet. She spent countless hours on the phone with tech support, but they were determined to figure out the problem (her phone lines were full of static, her modem had to be switched twice and even then she'd lose her connection often). Finally they sent someone from Bell to check out the outside lines, turns our someone had cut the wires at the house and tried to fix them, but screwed it up even worse. Absolutely no problems since then *knocking wood...lol*. I have to give them credit for the time they spent, even talking with me to help me get my laptop connected to her network, especially since I'm not even with Primus.

[kevin.yong]

their hold time is unacceptable..minimum 30mins hold...sometimes up to 1hr...it is absolutely ridiculous..imo Bell is actually better when u contact their investigation dept for wrong charges

[bobbyblue]

Primus is absolutley the most incompetent and abusive provider I have EVER had the misfortune to have to deal with in my 30 years on planet earth.
We had service for less than a week when I cancelled because they said they couldn’t transfer our service to the new house we moved to (in the same neighbourhood) for 25 business days!!!! No phone or internet for over a month..not even an apology and they still wanted to charge us for the basic service charges….incredible.
After trying to cancel our service I had to be on the phone 6 times for 30-45 minutes on hold each time to finally get the service cancelled, and still they sent us automated bills to be deducted from our credit card. Finally the credit card company had to cancel our card and issue us a new number.
If I ran my business like this I would be out of business in no time. It is a mystery at this point how they are still running.
Even the call center had terrible connection to some dudes in India that had less than a clue about what they were doing. No offices in canada outside of Ontario…..vigilanty justice is the only way forward with these folks I think.

[petah]

My Primus DSL was cancelled back in June and disconnected on July 4th. Billing cycle was from June 5th-July 4th.

Anyway, I received an invoice of $1.89 for July 4th DSL usage and some other "hardware handling fee" of $9.xx. Had to wait 30 minutes on the phone to speak with someone and was told "the handling fee was for you to return your modem to us". I've had my DSL modem for over 5 years before my previous ISP Magma was bought by Primus. Needless to say I bitched them out and they are going to stop the charge.

I will find out in a few days if I am being charged or not on my VISA card.

[jason9945]

Primus rocks because they forgot to bill me for my first year of dial up internet service 8 years ago when I signed up. :cheesygri

[mushroom]

I've just called Primus for their Triple Value Bundle. The guy, who was chewing gum the whole time while he was on the phone, said that because I am with cogeco cable and everything was done through cable, he was only able to do it for $74.95.. not the price they advertise - $64.95... what the heck?!

[Akitakara]

I've just called Primus for their Triple Value Bundle. The guy, who was chewing gum the whole time while he was on the phone, said that because I am with cogeco cable and everything was done through cable, he was only able to do it for $74.95.. not the price they advertise - $64.95... what the heck?!

You might want to tell him that they invented the ability to rewire things and that most companies are able to send a handyman.

P.S. For those of you that say primus sucks, it also depends on if you're going through their "child" companies or if you're working with primus the parent company directly.

I use magma, which is a company under primus's wing.

[Cheap Cat]

I detest Bell having had all kinds of billing problems and poor CS issues. It takes 6 months to fix and billing problem. I wanted to switch to Primus as it would be cheaper but my father switched and is having problems. His internet slows to a crawl at times and goes down frequently. His phone (landline not VOIP) has weird noises on the line and I have gotten fast busy signals when I have called him which never happened when he was with Bell. I don't know if his problems are limited to the area he lives in but it makes me leery about switching.

[danielgp]

I feel like I was scammed by Primus.

I signed up for Primus and within 1 week had several problems including:
1) Dialed numbers went to the wrong numbers frequently
2) No service for one full day
3) Choppy audio on all calls.

I have used other VOIP providers with my DSL internet and did not have those problems. So, I cancelled my service within the first month.

However, in addition to the first month of service, even though I signed up on a 1 month free promotion (which is supposedly the second month) Primus has charged me for a second month ($30), and a cancellation charge ($30). After several calls to customer service, being hung up on multiple times, and simply trying to explain to them they had no legal right to charge me past the first month, they have refused to remove the extra charges.

In addition, I have also written their VP of Customer Service a the head office, and I have submitted my complaint to the Better Business Bureau -- Primus did not respond to either. It is one thing to make a mistake with providing a service, it is another not to even respond to complaints.

This is a horrible company that has pretty much stolen money from me -- I recommend everyone avoid Primus at all costs.

[Blackmajik]

A friend found a "deal" with Primus which he raved was so good and unbeatable still signed up with them despite the fact I did tell him not to and also told him the reasons why. Anyway, only if he had listened he wouldn't be pulling out his hair trying to fix the service/cancel it.

[Nikita]

Well, there are exceptions to everything. My mom signed up with Primus about 6-8 months ago (home phone and internet). Had a few problems at first (primarily because of the snail's pace at which Bell ported her number over). Found there tech support to be very helpful and eager. My mom is in her seventies, not very tech savvy, but they were always able to get her back online, they also walked her through the process of setting up her netword and even walked me through the process of setting up my laptop to have access to her network, even though I'm not the customer and don't even live there.

One of the primary problems with the home phone was that squirrels were chewing on the wires outside the house (this has happened occassionally over the years and Bell has alway had to come and fix it). After being advised of this Primus contacted Bell (because apparently since it's thier lines only they can repair them. After a week without Bell showing up, Primus got on it and got Bell there within a few days after that first week and found that this time someone had actually tried to cut the wires outside! In any event it was fixed and there have been no problems since.

Personally, I found their service to be very good....just my 2 cents.;)

[zoolander]

Primus triple billed me once. Did not cancel my pager as requested and sent me two new ones with billing cycles. Dealing with long on-holds and overseas communication is a hasslehoff.

[Nikita]

I detest Bell having had all kinds of billing problems and poor CS issues. It takes 6 months to fix and billing problem. I wanted to switch to Primus as it would be cheaper but my father switched and is having problems. His internet slows to a crawl at times and goes down frequently. His phone (landline not VOIP) has weird noises on the line and I have gotten fast busy signals when I have called him which never happened when he was with Bell. I don't know if his problems are limited to the area he lives in but it makes me leery about switching.

My mom had the same problem with her internet for a while and even though she (well, actually me) called them a number of times and each time they did something, she continued having the same problems. Finally we got a tech who was so determined to figure out what was causing the problem that he actually gave her his full name and extension number, he said it might take a few days but he was going to go beyond what tech support normally does. About a week later he called back and turns out they had to change her 'platform' to a closer one. Apparently they are supposed to hook you up via a platform no further than 5 miles away and hers was more than 5 miles away. Since they changed that, she hasn't had those problems.

You're dad might just want to raise that issue with tech support. My mom was lucky to get someone whose techie curiosity got the better of him and was determined to figure out the problem. None of the tech support people we had talked to prior to that had even mentioned that possibility as the source of the problem. Her computer still freezes up on her occassionally but I suspect it's because it's getting old. When I'm there and using my laptop, I have no freezing up or slowing down problems.

[issy]

indeed it is a very interesting topic ...

it with be great if you guy band together and report these billing issues /
customer service issues etc to the newspapers..

better still just identify the head office location , and pitch up their
or better still identify the ceo etc ...embrassed the idiots

[Consumerman]

Did you know Primus Canada is owned by a soon to be bankrupt US company that trades on the Over The Counter Bulletin Board for between 3 and 5 cents a share?

When NASDAQ companies are delisted they get kicked off onto the OTCBB.

Do you really want to do business with a financially desperate company that is in a death spiral?

Gee I wonder why so many people online say they have been robbed by Primus?

Check it out for yourself - OTCBB: PRTL (on Yahoo Finance it would be PRTL.OB)

[wizzyguy]

i've been without a home phone for 22 days and counting....they have promised 3 times to send a tech to fix it...made 2 appointements and had someone both days all day here waiting...no one showed up. called them and the said they couldnt get a tech...why didnt they advise me cancelling? they have promised me evrytime i call, even the manager and still nothing has been done....i hereby advise everyone to stay away from primus cause soon or later they will screw you royally....

[Whitedart]

i've been without a home phone for 22 days and counting....they have promised 3 times to send a tech to fix it...made 2 appointements and had someone both days all day here waiting...no one showed up. called them and the said they couldnt get a tech...why didnt they advise me cancelling? they have promised me evrytime i call, even the manager and still nothing has been done....i hereby advise everyone to stay away from primus cause soon or later they will screw you royally....

Are you referring to a resold Bell line or Talk Broad Band (TBB)?

[pargirl]

Wow, I know I can always find the answer on RFD!
I was holding in my hand a Primus flyer and actually contemplating switching from Bell, as their price looks so much more attractive. Anyway, after reading these few entries, I think I'll stick with Bell. ;)

[Whitedart]

Wow, I know I can always find the answer on RFD!
I was holding in my hand a Primus flyer and actually contemplating switching from Bell, as their price looks so much more attractive. Anyway, after reading these few entries, I think I'll stick with Bell. ;)

Yes, if you follow the advice on RFD about where not to shop or buy services from, you will certainly save plenty as you won't be buying anything.

I can't think of any business that offers goods or services that has not been heavily criticized here. The companies are crooks, the staff are terrible, and the customer is ALWAYS right.

[Elessar]

i've been without a home phone for 22 days and counting....they have promised 3 times to send a tech to fix it...made 2 appointements and had someone both days all day here waiting...no one showed up. called them and the said they couldnt get a tech...why didnt they advise me cancelling? they have promised me evrytime i call, even the manager and still nothing has been done....i hereby advise everyone to stay away from primus cause soon or later they will screw you royally....

Nice. First time poster, registers just to talk down Primus, and then fails to communicate at an elementary level.

I've personally been using Primus VOIP (TalkBroadBand) since 2005. That's 4 solid years of service, and I've been very happy with the service. Excellent service reps, capable of actually troubleshooting their VOIP modem, as well as continued upgrades to the VOIP internet service panel.

But hey, I'm just one poster.

[Kommander_KornFlakes]

3web is worse their CS doesn't exist

There's a reason for this, to make YOU save money by avoiding overhead costs. If you want excellent CS go with Bell or Rogers.

[opeongo66]

I will spare you the sordid details of a year of broken promises, dysfunctional service, bare faced lies and grotesque corrupt business practices. After finally escaping their clutches they could not resist a final "Hardware Handling Fee" charge of $9.95 for doing them the service of returning their own property. Nowhere in my contract does it say I have to pay a fee to STOP doing bussiness with them. I gave the agreed notice and did not end my contract early. I was fully paid up the entire term of the contract despite getting a small fraction of what they promised. Still they charge me extra for doing their work THREE months AFTER I called and canceled this useless service. If you ever sign on with them they will just take your money and have you argue with a guy in India called Chad about their complete failure to fullfil the contract. In the end you will be billed extra for leaving. This is beyond the worst company on earth. They are outright thieves and they can sue me if they want. I have a years worth of documented failure, lies and misrepresentation that would embarrass any court that did not take action against THEM.

[stealth]

I had pretty bad service with them as well. Although i wouldnt say any of the telecoms I've dealt with provided even minimially decent service (primus, bell, Acanac). Its always an unpleasant experience when something goes wrong and you have to deal with these morons.

[jingjang123]

I signed up with Primus for the bundled service and already feeling the pain. My $64.95 price now has become $74.95 (with contract) and the promised 18 features has dwindled down to two. They are blaming this on Bell network that they are using.

I still have not got my modem and have no idea when I will get it. They are not able to tell me what they will charge for me either since now the bundle does not apply.

I should have read the thread before I signed up :(

Have you guys tried to complain at http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/Wiki.jsp?page=Membership ?

Any feedback?

[ontario_flutist]

We've had internet and landline from Primus for 3 years now. Never had a problem that was their fault, it was always something Bell was slow at doing or had screwed up. We get all the calling features for free, plus telemarketing guard (which really does work) and you can set it up so that when you get a voice mail message it will send you an email notification. We also have the unlimited north american long distance for $20 month. All in we pay $65 per month (maybe it went up to $75 not sure???) which is very close to what we used to pay Bell for JUST our phone service (with features and long distance).

yes their customer service reps tend to be in India, but if you ask right away for 2nd level tech support they will transfer you to someone here in Canada who can fix your problem right away.

If you notice, most of the really negative posts on this thread are from people who only have 1 or 2 posts. Hmmmm, do they work for the competition? We had a Rogers guy canvasing the neighbourhood last week, and as soon as we said we have Primus he said "Rogers can't beat Primus."
He said the same thing to our neighbours too, as we all have Primus.

[sketchED]

Yep, been with Primus for almost 2 years (bundled package internet, home phone, ul na long distance) ... no problems, at first we were getting slow internet speeds >1 mps, however i complained they sent a tech to switch some sort of card at the central station and boom 5mps, no throttling for about a year then Bell began throttling our area.

We have since got MLPPP Tomato with velcom and get speeds of about 10 mps, no throttling. However we have to pay for velcom on top of Primus.

Only complaint is that I wish primus would also have a workaround the throttling like acanac or velcom.

[jingjang123]

Thanks for your posts.

I am hoping that these are teething problems that will get resolved soon. I have however, complained to the CCTS as well, in case, my issue cannot be resolved.

I used to be with Primus Longdistance a long time ago (about 5-6 years ago). They had taken over Sprint at that time and I stayed with them. Their service was good and not expensive. They also give airmiles/aeroplan points as an added bonus. This is the reason that I switched with confidence.

Let us wait and see.

If anyone else has any experience about complaining to CCTS, I am all ears!

[dmarush]

I signed up with Primus for the bundled service and already feeling the pain. My $64.95 price now has become $74.95 (with contract) and the promised 18 features has dwindled down to two. They are blaming this on Bell network that they are using.

I still have not got my modem and have no idea when I will get it. They are not able to tell me what they will charge for me either since now the bundle does not apply.

Ok, Let me chime in here (I do work for Primus). First of all, I do not know your particular details, so will comment in general.
We do have two flavours of the Tripple Value Bundle. One is based on our own equipment and does include 18 features @ lower price of $64.95 for the first 12 months. Unfortunately, our equipment is not present everywhere. In the areas where we cannot reach the customer (no equipment on CO or too far from CO, plus few other exceptions like phone wire being cut by cable companies), the only things we can offer is the bundle based on wholesale services we are buying from Bell. Unfortunately, given the Bell wholesale pricing, we can only offer 3 features and cost is $74.95 for the first 12 months. While less of a deal, we make sure this is still a better deal than you can get with Bell or Rogers/Cogeco. Please also keep in mind that our overseas rates are lower (yes, I realize that not every one cares about this).

As far as modem is concerned, I am not aware of any delays in shipping other than 1 skid of our modems has been lost/misplaced by Canada Post. Perhaps yours has been on this skid.

[jingjang123]

Hi Dmarush - I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my posts and your honesty about who you work for.

My question is: Doesn't Primus have the moral obligation what you are explaining now in their website? They do ask for your phone number and Postalcode, validate it, before stating that you are eligible to receive the 64.95 offer plus 18+ features.

Assuming that they bungled at that point, don't you think that Primus would have to call the person who signed for 64.95 deal (and this is clearly stated when you sign up online along with the one year contract clause) and let them know, that it is going to cost the customer $10 more and that the customer is going to get 15+ features less, BEFORE they do the switch? I came to know of this, by sheer coincidence and ONLY because I called Primus to find out when I will receive the modem.

Primus offers $15 bill credit for costco members and the only reason I did not go with this deal was because I thought I was getting 18+ features (for some reason costco's deal correctly offers only 3 features at $64.95). I am giving below the links for both costco and non-costco deals.

Non-Costco deal: http://www.primustel.ca/en/residential/bundle/bundledServices-tripleValueBundle-g.htm

Costco Deal: http://www.primustel.ca/en/residential/costco/bundle/index.htm

I have pdf copies of the webpages and the online 'application' if you want to see them and nowhere it talks about all the conditions that you are talking about.

It is not a question of whether you are cheaper than Rogers or not. It is a question of what you promised vs. what you are offering.

As I said before, I have used Primus a few years back and I was quite happy with them. But I do feel let down now.

PS: I did receive the modem since my original post.

[hagbard]

No, Canon Canada is.

[dmarush]

My question is: Doesn't Primus have the moral obligation what you are explaining now in their website? They do ask for your phone number and Postalcode, validate it, before stating that you are eligible to receive the 64.95 offer plus 18+ features.
Ok, let us handle this one by one. When you enter your postal code and phone number when entering the website, we do check the availability and show the relevant product. However, this is a "rough" check, meaning that this check identifies which service is most likely available. In 95% or so of the cases, this check is correct. For some, like you, it is not. The only way to have more precise check is to get your complete address - but I do not think you would like the website where you need to provide the complete address just to enter. We are working to improve this process, e.g. during the online sign-up, when you need to enter your address anyways.

Assuming that they bungled at that point, don't you think that Primus would have to call the person who signed for 64.95 deal and let them know, that it is going to cost the customer $10 more and that the customer is going to get 15+ features less, BEFORE they do the switch?
Yes, our process is to contact the customer and check if he/she is still interested. Unfortunately, it looks like this process has been broken in your case.

Primus offers $15 bill credit for costco members and the only reason I did not go with this deal was because I thought I was getting 18+ features (for some reason costco's deal correctly offers only 3 features at $64.95). I am giving below the links for both costco and non-costco deals.

Costco offer is separate from our generic retail one. For simplicity reason, Costco preferes to have only one product/price point, even if it takes the common denominator of two services. $64.95 with 3 features applies for both our own and resale phone/internet/LD bundles.

[jingjang123]

I think getting one's postal code is very close to getting one's address - especially in urban areas where there are only a few houses covered by the postal code. So I don't buy that argument.

The only difference between the Costco deal and the non-Costco deal was that Costco deal offers three features vs. Primus deal which is supposed to offer 18+ features (the + is in some web pages and not in some others).

I was surprised by the Costco deal since their deal is generally better (and in this case it is not - except for the one time $15 billing credit) - but I guess Costco did not want any controversy and went in for the 'real' 3 features deal.

I am sure I am not the only one having these problems there are several threads in RFD (and I have seen you defending Primus in some of them). Unless you are very high up in the food chain, I know there is no easy fix for these types of screw ups.

[dmarush]

I think getting one's postal code is very close to getting one's address - especially in urban areas where there are only a few houses covered by the postal code. So I don't buy that argument.
No, not really. If you live in our own network footprint, but you have your wire cut by Rogers (they always do), our system will send your order to Bell, since they are better positioned to restore the wire (local loop). There is some money involved there that make it almost impossible to send our tech to restore the loop. Also, if you are too far away from our CO or Bell has no local loop available to you (some are available just for their services), result is the same.

The only difference between the Costco deal and the non-Costco deal was that Costco deal offers three features vs. Primus deal which is supposed to offer 18+ features (the + is in some web pages and not in some others).

I was surprised by the Costco deal since their deal is generally better (and in this case it is not - except for the one time $15 billing credit) - but I guess Costco did not want any controversy and went in for the 'real' 3 features deal.
Both deals are real. As I have said, Costco just have wanted a deal that applies to both services/coverage areas with the same price point.

I am sure I am not the only one having these problems there are several threads in RFD (and I have seen you defending Primus in some of them). Unless you are very high up in the food chain, I know there is no easy fix for these types of screw ups.
You are not the only one. And, there are easy fixes for this. Unfortunately some of them are manual. I am the product manager in charge of Internet and Bundles, so you can talk to our Customer Care (trust me they are really willing to help) and reference this post. Just do not expect me to do the job of Customer Care, I just do not have access to some of their systems).
Have I mentioned that all Home Phone and DSL customers are serviced exclusively from our Maritimes office?

[alex2]

all phone companies have issues, I switched to Bell from Rogers, then switched back to Rogers.

[aznfoos]

Yes, Primus is the WORST company in Canada!

I moved and cancelled my service with them 2 months in advance last year and of course they screwed that up and over-charged me another 2 months! Alos, after sending back the 2 year old modem, they charged my credit card $300 for the modem that apparently was not returned. Fortunately, I saved the tracking # to prove that they did indeed recieve the modem back. Then after 3 1hour waits for customer service, they agreed to refund the $300. It has been 4 months since then and I have not seen a single penny back from them.

I HATE Primus!!!!! Never use them and if you do, do not cancel ever.

[Yololo67]

I've had my trouble with Primus too. Anytime someone opened the patio door and sneezed my internet went down. At least that's the correlation I came up with. Their tech support is horrible and hard to understand. And their customer care...well, let's just say that term is a borderline oxymoron.

To be fair, in my final days with Primus I had some really excellent CSRs. They were super friendly and extremely helpful. However I believe they were the exception not the norm.

I also had a row with them because they sent me a monstrous bill which left me with a lot of confusion because I thought I paid up. Long story short, they were charging another credit card of another customer for my services. This was a very long process to sort out and involved multiple 30+ minute wait times on the phone.

Is 30+ minutes long to wait for a CSR? For me it is and that was on a good day. And yes, their support is contracted out over seas. I have a difficult time understanding people with heavy accents at times and that just adds to my frustration.

My time with Primus was not an enjoyable one. I guess the age old adage still stands, "You get what you pay for." I may have been one of the few unlucky customers that got all the problems since my grandpa had no difficulties with them at all.

Would I recommend Primus? Not at all.

[jingjang123]

Guys - If you have a genuine problem take it up with CCTS ( http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/page/ComplaintsProcess). The process is simple - though CCTS may come back to you with some questions (including what you think is the best resolution that is acceptable to you) and the process may take about a couple of months.

I found that you would get a prompt response from Primus and they try to resolve it quickly.

Hence, if you have a genuine issue CCTS is the way to go.

[tomw]

I've had VOIP with primus for 5+ years. Had some small problems, but it's usually related to the internet service rather than the VOIP service itself.
Never had any billing issues.