So, despite the unpleasant recent experiences my organization has had with Primus Canada — essentially they disconnected a critical data line and took over a month to even respond to our panicked cries for help, let alone reconnect — I decided to check out their TalkBroadband VoIP (Voice over IP) service, dutifully filled out the online registration form and sent it off, hoping that I’d soon be able to toss my Bell service into the trash (where it belongs).
Well, easier said than done.
Twelve days after submitting the application, I called up to see why I’d received nothing. No box of goodies, no email message, no phone call.
Turns out that somehow a character got dropped from my credit card number — odd, considering I’m looking at a screenshot right now of the submission and it’s not missing that character — so the semi-helpful Credit Department person with whom I spoke said I’d get a call the next day about the approval. (Of course, one wonders why a simple phone call, which would have cleared everything up, couldn’t be made during the previous 12 days. One now knows why.) Well after the close of (normal) business the next day, having received no call, I once again called and spoke with yet another Credit Department person who told me that I’d definitely be called the day after that with the approval.
Not receiving a call by noon, I called, yet again, and spoke with someone in the Credit Department. I was told that, despite the fact that I’ve paid for many hundreds of dollars in goods with my credit card, my credit history — which is, by the way, pristine — is not extensive enough to sign me up for their $30/month service and that I needed to pay a $250 deposit. Bullshit. I asked to speak with Customer Service.
At least the first CS person with whom I spoke made an attempt to be helpful, stating that perhaps her supervisor could act as my advocate and call the Credit Department to plead my case. Terrific. He was far from helpful. Belligerent, even. (Thanks ever so much, Gene.) Told me, completely contrary to what his underling had said (and with not even the slightest degree of concern, interest or sincerity in his voice), that he could do nothing for me and that I needed to speak with the Credit Department.
So… I made my telephonic way back to the Credit Department (for those keeping count, this is Primus Robot #6) and spoke with one of the most singularly unhelpful, discourteous and uninterested corporate drones in recent memory. (You’re the best, Tracy!) Nope, they would not budge. Would not even consider automatic withdrawl from my chequing account without the $250 deposit. For a $30/month service.
Memo to Gene and Tracy at Primus: there’s no need for you to demand a deposit because you have my Visa credit card number, you morons!!!
Now, at this point it might be helpful to note that my whole reason for going to Primus was that I was sick and tired of the runaround from Bell concerning every issue I’ve ever had with my phone line. Not to mention the gouging. Similarly, since Rogers Internet service bites the big one, I was prepared, if Primus TalkBroadband was a success, to switch my ISP to Primus, too.
Now? That’s as likely as me eating my testicles, one after the other.
I cannot stress enough that my experience with Primus was as unpleasant and ridiculous as any I’ve ever had. And I strongly urge anyone who may be reading this to avoid Primus Canada like the plague.
Other pissed-off Primus customers:
- “Primus TalkBroadband Sucks”
- “…Don’t try and escalate to their supervisor group since they just laugh at you and some will even hang up if you try and ask for their manager… …Looong waits for customer service, and when finally they picked up, they were rude and not helpful… …primus has good features but garbage customer service… …Their customer service group are complete idiots. No follow-up whatsoever. They promised a return phone call 5 times and it never happened…”
- “…You might want to work on your customer service skills…”
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Guess what was waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home today? Yup. A junkmail brochure for Primus TalkBroadband.
I had similar experiences with Primus, and unfortunately, I actually did get connected. However, only to have a horrible connection, gaps in service, and technical difficulties. Every time I called, it seemed they wanted to do anything but help. I also got numerous annoying messages about payment, even though it was mandatory that I sign up for preauthorized payments, which I had done in the beginning. It was not my fault they were not withdrawing them! When I called, they would not let my pay the outstanding balance any other way, and kept insisting it would be cleared up. I finally called after months of this, and they had added a number to my bank transit number, but nobody had called for this information, instead they hounded me for money while at the same time insisting I could not pay any other way.
I then moved, and asked they switch the number, which they did not do. Again, I hounded them, while at the same time they did not fix my problem, which was that my phone was not working. Then eventually I asked them to discontinue the service. They kept withdrawing money from my account for another six months. Again, I had to call several times for them to send me a 'return package' for my gateway, and ask that they refund me six months worth of payments for a service I had disconnected. I am still waiting.
Yikes! If stories like ours are any lesson, it's to always Google "companyname 'customer service'" prior to any financial or legal entanglement. Good luck with your… disentanglement from Primus!
In competitive news, I'm still very pleased with my Vonage service, with only minor annoyances (like the marked decline in audio quality whilst doing some heavy-duty P2P — totally expected, by the way — and a "message waiting" light which won't stop blinking when voicemail messages are remotely deleted).
I have had a terrible 45 days with primus dsl. It always disconnects but sometimes reconnects if I pick up the phone and dial 1 and then any 4 numbers.
The entire experience has been a disaster from day 1 even before I received my modem. I had no incomming calls for 12 days while they changed the line. I am so fed up. STOP SURFING AND START WAITING is my slogan for this disasterous company/ They don’t give a damn and of course keep the money. The download speed comes nowhere near the 4mbps they said I would get at my location in Toronto.
Class action anyone? These companies are laughing all the way to the bank with our money.
I am going to start a Primus service blog and everyone can post there so others don’t get sucked into their stupid advertising tricks.
RE:robert shuttleworth
i also have had a bad experience with primus dsl. the speed beats the shit out of bell sympatico but i can’t stay connected for any amount of time. now i can (kinda) understand it dropping when im doing heavy p2p but when im talking to 1 person on msn and it drops 7 times in a span of 5 minutes? wtf?
hello,
Yeah, it’s me again. I made the mistake of giving them that $250 deposit and their representatives in Calcutta or thereabouts gave me the run around when I tried to get it back. Anyway, I am still waiting but I am out of work right now and have an unusual amount of free time-I am not averse to giving them some free publicity with a placard on a street corner if it comes to that. This kind of thing is usually called robbery but I suppose if you are a big faceless greedy company out to make a quick buck then it is called business?
Thanks for the heads up. I’m moving to a new place soon and I’m considering getting VOIP instead of a regular phone line. I considered Primus, but after reading about how terrible their customer service is I think I’ll go with Vonage instead.
Here’s my Long Distance Nightmare with Primus:
Was a subscriber to Primus long distance. Cancelled in Aug/07. We were on the My Country plan, which Primus does not offer anymore. They have a new International Plan with much better rates then the My Country plan. To make a long story short, we had a guest over that made long distance calls and racked up a $400 bill in less than a month which would have only cost $45 on the new plan. We asked why they didn’t switch us to the new plan, Primus responded that is not their policy. It is up to the customer to continously poll their web-site and find out what is the best available plan. I argued that since the My Country plan is no longer available, that we should be charged at the new Lower plan rates. Primus’ position is that they can’t make any changes and we owe them the full amount. As a result we’ve switched to Shaw, who incidently do not charge the $4.95 a month system admin fee, and have low long distance rates. I’m happy not to have to deal with the incredibly long wait times with Primus Customer “care” and the incomptence of their staff. Good riddance!
Please support my complaint here:
http://thesqueakywheel.com/complaints/2007/AUG/complaint17136.cfm
Or launch your own…
After being moderately satisfied with Primus for the past two years, I am now trying to disentangle myself from them. UGH. When I got TBB the whole deal was pretty good - cheap, unlimited long distance, all the features… And it worked pretty well during the first year too. And then the service interruptions. At one point, I was without a phone for over a month, which is when I became well acquainted with Skype. At another point, calls kept dropping every 5 minutes. Sept 06 to Apr 07 was simply hell with Primus.
So anyway, I move to California and decide to cut off my service. I call Primus in May to cancel, and to change my address. They’re supposed to send out a return package. I said that I could return it on my own, but they INSISTED. Okay, I thought…. I was to have the return pkg sent to my NS address (my family home). Two months later, they still never sent it, and tried to debit my account for $166.94. I didn’t have it, so the debit bounced, resulting in a $35 NSF. They gave me no warning that they were going to debit, either. So I called Primus, and it turns out that they NEVER changed my address and the return pkg was sent to London, Ontario And I distinctly remember changing my address because the person on the other end had a hard time getting his computer to accept “Bridgewater” in the city field.
Finally, I get the return pkg. They want everything back. The portal, the adapter, the instruction manual, the telephone cord and the ethernet cable. I can easily replace the last two, but who the hell would still have the instruction manual and original box after two years?
Anyway, I will never deal with Primus again.
We decided to make the move to primus. Very easy to get set up….. then Came the day we bought a new house in a new province. We called Primas to cancel, just like we called all our providers to either move service or cancel. The rep we spoke too was is a hurry and assured us that we did not need to do anything. we were told that when we cancelled to phone the Long distance package would cancel automatically. We had also switched Banks (no TD in our new home) and credit card providers (better rate and linked to our new account) and so we asked that they do not try to bill our old CC account, and send us our final bill to our new address. We were assured that all was well and went on to worry about the 1000 other things you need to deal with during a major life change such as this. Time goes by and moves on and 2 months later we get our first bill from primus. In it they show a previous Account Summery of 24.32 for a bill we never received. then the real fun part.. the new charges 9.18 monthly recurring charge for 08/08-08/21… but wait… we did not even have a phone line at the time as it was cancelled as of 07/31??? then a 25.00 NSF charge because they charged the card we told them not to for a bill we never received! then TAX for the new charges but PST for Saskatchewan were we have NEVER HAD PRIMUS!!!!! Total new and incorrect Charges 35.19. What a shock. But that’s OK mistakes happen, all we need to do is call and they will fix it and send us a proper correct bill right? So here is were we learn what Primus calls customer service. We call the number on t he bill and the machine wants a phone number. then tells us the number we entered is invalid, then the same for an account number. after about 2 minutes of repeatedly hitting the 0 key we are finally put through to a “customer service rep” Slyvin who was short with us and rude finally agreed that our bill should be 18.65 for service up to July 31. We then asked him to send us a final statement for our records, with this amount showing, because we have dealt with a rep before that did not do what he said he would do, and we do not want to blindly pay an amount without seeing what the charges are for. He then told us that there would be a 25.00 “reprinting service charge” we told him that we feel we have a legal right to a honest and accurate bill, and that we NEVER received a bill with any of these charges outlined. Sylvin would not budge. He insisted that we just pay the 18.65 and get no proof of the charges or that the account is in fact closed. We asked to speak with a supervisor. and this made Sylvin MAD. he told us that if he transferred us to a supervisor, they WILL NOT remove the 25.00 NSF, and that only he can do that, and No one will remove the fee for the statement. To say the least it sounded odd that his superior had less authority than him in these matters, and so we pressed him to talk to a supervisor. Obviously upset he told us he would see if one was available and put us on hold. 5 minutes pass then 6 then 7. and we decide that he is either coaching the person we are about to talk to or has simply dropped us into a void to punish us as a part of his strong arm technique. So we hung up and called back… press the 0 key 20 times, and immediately insist on speaking to a supervisor (this took some persistence, but we just kept saying “No please just transfer me”). He places us on hold and not 30 seconds later we have a “supervisor” Jennifer listens to our story and then for some reason tries to explain to us that the 18.65 will be credited to the bill and that we need to pay the other portion around 40.00 …WHAT??? she has clearly skimmed the notes from Sylvin and really messed it up now. Why is it that a Supervisor can’t read or understand these primus charges. We got into a heated argument with her and it took forever to get this half wit to realize what should be clear and simple to see for an person in her position. So she then insists that we simply pay the last bill. the one we never received. We tell her we would be happy to pay this bill if she would send it out so we can see the break down of the charges (because we know that we are being charged up to the 08/07 on it and know that it is also not accurate) She then tells us that we must pay the same 25.00 “reprint fee” just to have a break down of the charges we owe. I am confident that 18.65 is the correct and accurate amount not 24.32 … and I would hate myself for giving in and paying 1 cent more than I owe. This is clearly misleading and a form of fraud as far as I am concerned. just imagine how many people just pay the bill and don’t ask questions. the incorrect charges on this account amount to more money that all the correct charges since we had the service connected! Why is this SO hard?? we are not asking for a break! we just want them to do the RIGHT THING!!!! I am scared to pay this bill. I don’t think it will ever end!
I wish I’d read this before signing on with Primus. My friends said it was the best company around for internet service. So, I signed up.
I told them to send all communication to my roommate, as I would be out of the province for four months. They didn’t. I had to petition Canada Post to let my roommate receive all my mail. It took *only* 1.5 months to receive the modem. The telephone service was connected after *only* .5 months. They told us we couldn’t have dry-loop, which is why we had to have the telephone service.
Then, it turns out they programmed the modem for the wrong platform. They had to petition Bell to do a hot-line programming on the modem, then transfer the network in Bell’s systems, taking us from 7Mbit to 5Mbit without changing our monthly recurring charges–not what we signed on for. Then, they told us that we had to give them 30 days notice to disconnect our internet. In the meantime, we weren’t able to get any other provider because our Circuit ID Number was already in use by another company.
So, now that the 30 days has passed, we’ve received two bills from them for two months of telephone, internet, and a modem fee. I’ve managed to get them to waive the internet fees and the modem fee will be waived when the modem returns, unless I was lied to again. But, we can’t disconnect the phone without going to porting to another company AND paying a $40.00 early-termination fee.
Who do we contact about this shitty service? There must be someone we can contact to make them comply to decency standards and not break the law by breaking their own contracts and charging us for it.
For anyone interested in filing a formal complaint against these losers, the CRTC does not regulate them, but they did give me the phone number for the Office Of The President at Primus Canada. Their number is (800) 957 1177. You can also leave a complaint at the Commisioner for complaints for telecommunications services at (888) 221 1687 or http://www.ccts-cprst.ca.
Primus gave me BRUTAL customer support. God, they’re awful… I’ve moved my ISP to Teksavvy at my work. Great customer service, reliable connection. Will be moving home connection, too. I’ve set up VOIP with Callcentric. Testing it with software phone, so far so good. Shout out to dorian at MetaFilter for his tips.