Students who live in the greater Vancouver region who are considering signing up for Telus highspeed internet service with the student rate should be aware that they may not be satisfied with this product. These are the facts in my experience:

1. I signed up High Speed Enhanced through a DSL line for $19.95 on a month to month basis, which was advertised for $49.95 a month for non-students.
2. I was charged double this amount on my first bill with no explanation.
3. I experienced broken connections for most of the year. Sometimes they would occur over a hundred times a day.
4. The speed was very slow, probably close to dial-up speed, and especially slow during weekends and evenings. Download speeds averaged 0 to 20 kb/sec. This means streaming videos like those on youtube will take 5-10 minutes to load 1 minute of video.
5. When cancelling my account after 10 months of service, the agent attempted to charge me a $120 cancellation fee because he claimed I signed up for a one-year contract. However, I did not sign-up for a one-year contract, but a month to month contract. He gave in after alot of pressure on my behalf.

That particular package is actually a one-year contract. It was never a month-to-month contract. The agent you talked to previously obviously had no clue what you were going for.

As for the quality of your line, you should have called a tech and see what the problem was. Most often, your line was not set up properly. However, there will be a case where you don't remotely qualify for ADSL because your signal attenuation is too high (must not exceed 50 dB).

So basically ADSL is NOT for everyone. Unfortunately, the agent you spoke to likely is from the Phillipines and they don't know squat.

and the fact that telus fired Canadians and outsourced to the Phils is enough reason to switch to shaw. I told dell when we bought lots of laptops that I would not be satisfied ever to talk to foreign overseas customer support and if I ever got stuck talking to one I would not be buying any dell products again. If I was still with telus I would switch to shaw and tell telus that I do not support them when they put canadians out of work. Its Canadians buying their products and services not people in the Phils!

I agree this outsourcing trend is out of control. First it was bluecollar workers, not its white collar workers including programmers, business analysts, etc. Companies are outsourcing there entire IT departments to India to save on labour, regardless of quality. They're killing our economy and take money away from people who are using there services. Its got to stop! Telus does this, Bell, Dell, Suncor, CP Rail, and IBM is the biggest promoter of this.

White corporations killing Canadians and local economy?

You deserve it.

Telus sucks.

Incorrect in this case. These types of contracts may be written as "on a month to month basis". No where in the contract is a one-year clause indicated. This is also articulated by the sales agent at the Telus store. The agent on the telephone is just trying to maximize Telus profits and bully "ex" customers while giving up their integrity.

telus does soemtimes rip off its customers. but let be clarify a few things. if you signed up for a contract its a contract for a year or more its not month to month. telus has the most stable internet as they are the largest ADSL providers in BC with the most servers and ports and super computers and 24/7 customers service. telus is the king of ADSL. the others are sub contractors of telus and lack resources of telus. ADSL is better than cable. its a dedicated line and its always the same speed. cable slows down when more people use it. cable is not reliable.

Telus may have largest ADSL provider with the most resources, However they are far from the best choice as a Stable internet provider. I watched my friend go through Telus and then switch to Shaw Cable. I myself use Shaw. Telus internet service is subseptible to signal attenuation (Signal Loss). Telus uses the same wire for their telephone service as their ADSL service. The amount of interference that can happen in a sox(Telephone) box is alarming.

Shaw may cost $40/month but it worth it. No complaints with the service.

ADSL doesnt lose any signals if you use the filters properly. shaw cable does lose connections and the connections slows down considerably when more people use that shared line. shaw is not the way to go. telus ADSL is the best. i have never had problems with telus adsl.

I've heard that telus hired people from the philippines to do most of the customer service. I sure hope that wont cause any problems, especially in the language department

shaw sucks. slow speeds and never peak speeds or consistent speeds. better go with telus adsl. dedicated line and constant speed stream.

Shaw is faster...

Even when shaw slows down is nearly twice the speed of Telus... Attention: REGISTER / LOGIN to view the image!

I have never lost my connection on Shaw. When it does slow down, I reset my router and boom, back up to 3 times the speed of Telus. It seemed like Telus was losing service every other week.

Common knowledge. The ADSL is almost as big a rip off as the cell phones are. Wasn't stupid enough to try getting a land line.

Everytime I hear someone say that they like TELUS ADSL, I comment on how other countries charge at a much lesser rate. I still cannot believe that people are still willing to fork out $40-$50/month for inferior (TELUS) ADSL service. Yeesh, a lot of suckers out there, I tell ya. Canadians are so dumb. I wish those thieves would steal TELUS' copper lines. That's one way to get back at TELUS.

Shaw is not any better, neither.

All is not lost for me. I still have access to a T3 line (45 Mbps/45 Mbps) and it's free .

This is not a rumour. It's a fact. The managers I've talked to have confirmed it. The Filipino/Filipina's English skills are mediocre, so it is too difficult to communicate with them. TELUS laid off thousands of workers just to practice outsourcing. The CSRs/TSRs from the Phillipines only get paid at most ~$5 for ONE DAY. That's peanuts compared to the Canadian CSRs/TSRs (avg. $15/hour minus union dues).

These foreign CSRs/TSRs don't care about their job, so it is common for them to hurriedly drive customers away by making ridiculous excuses for their internet problem.

Some CSRs/TSRs from Montreal work graveyard shifts, but they are just as useless as the foreign CSRs/TSRs.

why is telus paying alot less for these people? telus should treat them better to get more out of them

Wow, and just look how Dell has suffered from you taking your principle stance.

I'm sure they're still lamenting the day they lost you as a customer!

Telus absolutley blows beans.
I'm lookin forward to the day (1month)
That I can cancel the landline.

TELUS isn't the only company practicing outsourcing. Most of the giant corps in North America have done that as well. This is one of the major reasons why the gap between the rich and the poor is very noticeable. All the blue-collar jobs have gone to those lowly foreigners.

TELUS corp is paying a lot less to the foreigners because the top executives are flat-out GREEDY and they know the foreigners from third-world countries will work for any wage. They also have investors as well, so they are pretty much robbing the poor and giving to the rich --- that makes them essentially the opposite of Robin Hood. At least a quarter of what you pay for the internet goes to the exec's housing mortgage, BMWs, properties, etc. That's outrageous and someday that should be made illegal.

Like all other execs, they treat the inferiors like trash.

Some people have to pick Telus ADSL because they live in a crowded/dense area with apartment buildings, so Shaw becomes ridiculously slow during peak hours (due to the number of customers sharing one cable node).

HA! Are you f'ing kidding me?! Telus does NOT have the most stable internet in BC. I have spent many years going between DSL (Telus) and Cable (Shaw) and I can say with certainty that Telus is not the most stable. My husband and I have cancelled out of Telus contracts on more than one occassion because they couldn't [provide or guarantee reliable enough service. I am not saying Cable is perfect but it has the potential to beat the pants of DSL for stability depending on the area you live in.



Who are these subcontractors you speak of? If you mean other companies offering DSL, most of them are resellers of Telus DSL. Cable may slow down as more people use it, but slow is better than out (which Telus is known for).

Well, I recently switched to Telus. Shaw cut me off, wanted lots of money to reconnect, so I basically threw their damn system out the window and into the garbage bin. Telus may not be perfect, but at least they don't put a leash around my neck. Even if I was $300 behind on payments on past accounts, Telus still kept it going and I appreciate that. They never cut me off. Telus is a lot more flexible. And they always got their money in the end.

Shaw--I was a month behind and I got the account suspended. They ask for money to reconnect. So I just got sick of their methods. Plus, when you go in to pay the bill, there's some unattractive unsmiling gay guy or snooty girl behind the desk. I mean, who needs this sh*t? Since there's Telus TV and all sorts of other competitors now, I won 't be going to Shaw for anything anymore. Them days are over, Thank God.

Shaw has to really smarten up, big time. Because they're no longer a monopoly on anything, anymore. Lots of companies deliver the same service, better, friendlier, and more efficiently. A big source of revenue, Cable, is now being offered by many other providers, where it was once exclusively Shaw.

Show are arrogant douchebag assholes, while Telus are clueless incompetents. I'd rather go with the clueless incompetents, but either way you're screwed.

Yeah, it may be slight truth in what you say, but if that's the case, I'd much rather go with the more compassionate clueless (but somewhat nice) incompetents, then 'arrogant douchebag assholes' who behave like Il