Carriers / Reviews

After travelling in the US with Roam Mobility I can definitely say that their service is worth checking out. No matter how long you’ll be in the US or where you go while you’re there, you’ll be able to keep yourself connected without having to overpay for roaming packages from the “Big 3″ or coming home to a data roaming bill that exceeds the GDP of a small nation-state. It’s great to see a Canadian company take the initiative and come up with a solution with something for everyone, all at a very reasonable price. Do yourself a favour and check out Roam Mobility the next time you’re considering a trip to the US.

Read original review at iPhone In Canada Blog.

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Straight Talk delivers great coverage in many locations, including access to the fast AT&T “4G” network that is four times faster than Verizon 3G in my tests. The price is right, and the ability to use the latest phones, including the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and Lumia 900 as well as many AT&T Android phones, is incredibly attractive. Unfortunately the ambiguous data usage terms and conditions detract from an otherwise impressively priced plan. Users willing to risk the ire of Straight Talk by streaming music or videos can enjoy fast speeds, good call quality and great prices. Until Straight Talk delivers straight talk about the data usage terms, users must be careful of investing large amounts of money in a phone to use with Straight Talk.

Read original review at GottaBeMobile.

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We now have another choice in the market and competition will be good for the industry. I believe Wind will be a victim of great expectations and they will not be able to live up to them initially. With over $1 billion invested – they have to make money and repay their debts and obligations.  So while “saviours” of the wireless industry branding may be a ball and chain – let’s give them an opportunity to execute and grow.

Read original review at myCELLmyTERMS.

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After using an LTE Rocket Stick, there is little to doubt the network’s speed. Regardless of whether I was at home, in a car or at a coffee shop somewhere, the speed was relatively consistent across the board. This usually amounted to between 33-35Mbps download speed, and just under 7Mbps for uploads. Those numbers are a pretty accurate reflection of what Rogers suggested would be the norm, which was between 12-25Mbps for downloads. I use the word ‘accurate’ here because the network has yet to be congested with a larger number of users. Once LTE hits some sort of critical mass, the speeds could lower to the levels Rogers proposed. When hitting areas that aren’t LTE-ready yet, the connection seamlessly drops down to 3G HSPA, so you don’t lose access. It can even go down to EDGE, if necessary.

Read original review at WhatsYourTech.

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Thankfully I haven’t had the need to call customer service more than a few occasions. So I can only comment on those rare circumstances. When I called customer service, I was always greeted happily by the representative and had any questions or issues resolved truthfully (which is actually a great feeling) and thoroughly. I don’t want to sound like I am a Mobilicity fanboy, but their customer service does go beyond what we are usually a custom to.

Imagine a CEO of a cellular provider deeply involved in helping and interacting with customers through modern and social ways. I’m sure I left you stumped. Dave Dobbin, Mobilicity’s CEO, actively communicates through personal twitter, email, and even in person at Mobilicity events. Many assume that; sure you can email him, but I bet he doesn’t respond. Let me tell you, he does, while also keeping his responses straightforward and honest. Recently there was a very brief outage here in Toronto and nearly a minute after I sent a tweet, Dave responded by stating they conducted a quick network refresh. As I said, that’s customer service!

Read original review at TechFibe.

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From sales to support to usage, my experience with Mobilicity in Toronto has been excellent and I am confident in recommending the service. The potential downside to Mobilicity, which may affect Digital Home readers is the companies limited number of retail locations, lack of iPhone support and service only being available in five cities.

Read original review at Digital Home.

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Wind Mobile encourages deceiving the customer rather than admit problems - from the first sales rep I met to the second line tech support to the supervisor, I was told and promised information and feedback that was nothing more than a lie. The first Wind staffer told me there were better plans than the one I wanted but when pressed could not come up with anything and refused to help me, second level tech who lied when he said my card would be activated by days end for sure, the supervisor who promised a call back in two hours, the condescending supervisor who assured me that a store would look after me when clearly they could not.

Read original review at Digital Home.

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So it seems to me that Chatr is simply a copy of what’s already there in market – no real surprises and nothing innovative here, its essentially Rogers response to a space that they do not play very well in. Do I blame them, no! This was in the works for a some time and while it provides an additional choice for consumers it also adds to the confusion.

Read original review at myCELLmyTERMS.

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Public Mobile doesn’t claim to be anything that it is not. Simple no frills phones targeted at those looking for fixed unlimited plans all within their local areas. And for this Public Mobile does its job. For those who are looking to Public Mobile to be a replacement for Bell, Rogers and Telus, I say, not quite yet. But I do expect that their flanker brands, Koodo, Fido, Solo and Virgin to respond to Public Mobile in the near future.

Read original review at myCELLmyTERMS.

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Mobilicity’s strategy is an interesting one. A largely prepaid offering which includes data cell phones or smartphones, which is not a typical prepaid offering but targeted at the low end cash based consumers. It remains to be seen however, if their target segment, low end, prepaid leaning customers will be willing to fork out the extra cash for a smartphone or will mainly stay in the sub $50 zone. And finally are there enough customers in this segment to make Mobilicity a success or will they have the same challenges as Wind Mobile initially. Maybe a postpaid brand in the future, no?

Read original review at myCELLmyTERMS.

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8 out of 10 calls will be dropped or could not make a call (Toronto). Bought a U.S data roaming and couldn't even use it.

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First of all I'm writing my review based on my own real honest experience. I joined Virgin Mobile in January because they had the best cellphone plans. Everything was nicer and "cooler". I found their customer service very casual and friendly. I started having problems with them after coming back from my vacation when I noticed in my account that I was being charged for a few international roaming text messages. I called Virgin and told them that I was 100% sure that I had not sent any text messages during my trip so they took it away from my bill. A few days later I went to check my account online and for my surprise I was almost exceeding my data limit of 1G. Again there was something wrong because based on my usage I knew I hadn't used not even 25% of 1G. There wasn't any problems with my phone and I had no automatic updates on or push notifications (and I'm a techie guy so I know very well how my gadgets work). So again I got disappointed at them. I turned my data off to avoid any over charges. On the next day I went on their website to check my usage and my data usage had been increased - with my phone off! Then I also took a look at the text message usage and there were several text messages that according to their website, were sent from my phone on a night that I had stopped using my phone at 7pm. I called the customer service and I felt like they were treating my like if I was dumb, they even said that it's probably because I lent my cellphone to someone. Ya right! I don't let anyone touch my phone plus it's password protected.

So right after talking to them I called my former cellphone company and transferred my number to them. What is funny is that according to their website my cellphone kept sending messages until around 5:30pm even though I had transferred my number to the other company at 2pm!

So clearly there is a problem going on. It can be mechanical or done or purpose to take more money from their customers. It's up to you to judge.

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After being robbed enough by 3 year contracts, I decided to see what I could do about it rather than just wine about it. I often travel to the US and found the Canadian plans that were bad at home were much worse when I roamed in the US. So, after my last 3 yr contract expired over 18 months ago, I got my phone unlocked and found that the best way to go was with Petro Canada while in Canada. I use T-mobile in the US, just buy a sim card for your unlocked phone and no roaming, no surprises what so ever. I do not believe in data plans - biggest rip off ever. You can find plenty of free wifi wherever you travel these days. If you MUST have data, then this might not work for you. As far as I'm concerned, Petro-Canada is the best for the money. Great prices, great service. I use an Iphone 4, 3G, Nokia 95 without any issues. Not sure if you can use Petro Canada with just any device, but works for me. My average monthly bill was $85 per month, now it's down to $35 - savings of $50 per month - over 18 months, that's $900.00. I Love Petro-Canada. I'd give them a 10 if they had data at as reasonible price as the phone/text costs.

Stosh

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Just over 2 months ago, I called in to have my plan switched to the new, cheaper $35/mo gold plan that had just showed up on your site. I was disgruntled by the fact that I could barely understand the representative and she could barely understand me. I am pretty sure my plan was never changed.

Today I call in and ask about changing my plan, I haven't paid the bill since then because I was not happy about how it was never changed. Again, I can barely understand your employee because of a language barrier, he stuttered and repeated him self dozens of times, and I was made to wait for no less than 45 minutes while he switched my plan... I asked how long he had worked for virgin and he said he was new. He was able to switch my plan, and after I hung up I just paid the remainder of my balance through online banking.

About 20 minutes later, I am back at my desk after my lunch break my phone rings and its Virgin calling about my overdue balance. The woman was VERY rude, spoke little to no English, and was trying to get me to give her my personal information BEFORE she explained that she was from Virgin. I kept saying "YOU called ME, why should I give you any of my info?" before she announced who she worked for. I hung up on her and it left me feeling very angry after.

I used to recommend you to my family and friends because when I had issues in the past I would get a fantastic, English speaking service representative that would always help me.. I haven't had an issue for a few years, and my assumption is that you outsourced your call center since I last called in.

I was literally planning on upgrading my fiance's pay as you go to a new iPhone on the same plan as me, but now I am seriously doubting it. I was never once offered a credit for my account change mistake from 2 months ago, and the call from collections after I had just been on the phone with you for almost an hour was the worst experience I have ever had trying to deal with someone on the phone.

Can you please explain what has happened to your once impressive customer service? At this point I am ready to make the switch, that experience was that brutal. I pay for a Canadian service and expect English speaking help. If It was a French service I was paying for my customer service rep would definitely be able to speak French. You guys should really stop outsourcing your call centers to avoid losing anymore business..

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i cant believe how terrible the WIND service is. calls will drop, reception will be unclear, texts will just sit and you will get SOS instead of reception signal bars. i've been with bell and telus and never had these issues. sure the WIND price is good but the service and reception will make you sick. an absolutely horrible cellular company to be stuck with personally i will be writing the president

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-15$ for a sim card (already have a different cell plan), need a special wind sim card.
-35$ (approx.) for a data stick.
-Try the 15$ a month (1g) plan - useless! lasted a couple days.
- Then you're up to the unlimited, which is 35$ a month, nothing amazing.
-On top of that, you only have a signal for your laptop, not your whole house, or for your roomies.... not cool at all.

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-long distance chews up your minutes really fast.
-I'm really annoyed, that you can't actually see your minute usage! How lame is that?
-Maybe my phone calls are longer, but I feel the balance goes down pretty fast for the usage time...
Not amazed at this service I gues....

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thought it was a great deal for $40 a month unlimited. I was totally wrong

1. UNUSABLE data is beyond terrible - you can download (sometimes), but god forbid you want to use maps, or play any game, or send an email. you know all the things you want a smart phone for. i tested the upload a 47 kbps (rogers is 23,000 kbps for comparison).

2. Customer service is.....I'm not even sure they have a customer service department actually. It seems there entire business model is luring people in with cheap prices (much like a thief would when offering stolen goods) and then when your phone doesn't work, or you were miss-informed by numerous sales reps, good luck. and guess what your AWS band phone you bought to use with them, only works with them. so your stuck with them. Surprise!......

3. Store wait times: I've waited 30 minutes to pay my bill or buy a micro sim card (which btw they only sell at ONE location) ask for one anywhere else and they have "limited supplies". I hope you live close to that ONE location (queen and spadina) and have an hour to spare to wait for one of two employees handling the line up of people waiting to complain.

4. save yourself the headache and trouble and go with Rogers. I hate rogers for their price gouging, and piss poor business practices. But at the end of the day, I need and want my phone to work. and honestly even its double the price at rogers, or works 4 times as much as wind.

5. Wind still might be for you if:
-you don't mind dropping 3 out of every 5 calls.
-don't care about data actually being usable, or only intend on using your homes WiFi.
-don't care about smart phone features like maps and email on the road.
-don't expect anyone to give a dam or listen to your complaints.
-don't expect the sales reps to be truthful about coverage and issues.
-don't mind frustration
-don't mind investing in a new phone to use on a non-usable network.

Love always,
1 extremely dissatisfied wind customer

PS. cheap crack may be tempting, but trust me, it just isn't worth it

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I signed up for Wind a few years ago and got a great plan 40 bucks for unlimited data and unlimited long distance to Canada and the USA. I would expect a similar package with any large Canadian carrier to be well over 100 bucks a month. Their prices are unheard of in Canada and competition from Wind and other independent carriers are the only reason Rogers Telus and Bell are offering anything affordable in the way of plans these days. Reception can be spotty some suburban areas of Vancouver but here downtown I don't have any complaints. Customer service at wind locations near me has always been good and as good as any other if not better. If you want the fastest LTE and a giant national network go with one of the big 3. As for me ill use the savings to buy myself some nice duds for the summer. Booya!

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For prepaid customers, the online service has been down for 3 days, one day according to koodo, must be the time difference as customer service is not in canada wow what a surprise, data booster may be a selection on your account page but does not work with blackberry, so why put it in the selection list? The only good thing about koodo is the price, the sales staff are not knowledgable in terms of services but do know how to take your money.

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