When Push Comes to Snap

For about 4 years now I have been with Cogeco for both my internet and for my TV. I didn't complain each time they charged me a reconnection fee when I moved (can't you give me one freebie?). I barely even complained when I didn't have my digital cable channels for 6 months and it took repeated service calls to get it fixed. I didn't even complain when I got a notice telling me that they were going to start charging for overages. After all I knew my bandwidth limit was 60 GB. The thought of leaving them just didn't cross my mind. After all it has always been reliable and cable does provide much better speeds then DSL does. Since they were giving me until June 1 before making me pay for overages I decided to make use of that fact. After all I had several Blu-rays with digital copies waiting to be downloaded... software updates.... and, of course, the torrents. And yeah maybe I did go a little overboard. Downloaded/Uploaded 179 GB in April and was on my way to exceeding that in May. And then... without any warning or even a notification they cut off my internet. Not even any hint as far as how long I would be without the service for. They claimed there may have been a violation of the terms of service but they have no proof that I was doing anything other then downloading a LOT of legal files... or making use of the online storage web sites to back up my files before they cracked down. As a side note a friend of mine downloaded a terabyte this month and was not cut off... So what exactly makes them decide who gets cut off and who doesn't? Clearly it's not uniform where once you reach a certain point that's it.

So any ways... the moment I realized they cut me off... and weren't going to tell me how long it was for was the moment I decided to cancel all my services with them and go elsewhere. Maybe that is a little bit of the Scorpio in me.... but there are companies that still offer unlimited bandwidth and cost about the same. Okay so I had to trade in speed but still. No worrying about being cut off... or that I will be charged extra. Peace of mind. And as for the TV I am doing without for the summer as most shows are done for the season. I will just download the ones that I do want to watch. Once September hits then I will either continue on and keep saving the $60 a month or if I really want the TV back then I will likely go with Bell TV.

As for Cogeco when I called in to cancel not only did they not show any empathy whatsoever, or offer to look into how long my internet was going to be out for, but they didn't even make a save effort. Guess they really didn't want the $123 that I was paying each month. Then they sent me another bill, even though I had just paid the last bill and now had a $0 balance. Oh and along with that bill was a notification that my rates were increasing for each service. While making the decision to leave Cogeco I was still thinking about the possibility of going back to them. Based on the fact they did not seem to value my business I would be hard pressed to ever go back to them... or even recommend them to anyone.