Cogeco
Reviews and Complaints

I was hopeful when I switched to Cogeco from Bell that the service would be better, instead it was so so much worse.

A month ago, Cogeco accidentally cancelled our internet. This was the information given to me after 3 hours on the phone, being transferred to 8 different people. Additionally 1 of the 8 people I was transferred to opened a ticket and didn't close it out properly which resulted in my account being stuck in the system. This meant no one could do anything about it.

Understanding that they had upgraded to a new system, I tried to be patient. ONE MONTH LATER, after weekly calls, I still had no internet and their answer was the same. Someone was "looking into" the situation but had no progress.

I asked them to elevate my situation to management which I was told on several occasions was done. Not once was I ever contacted by a Cogeco representative.

When I called to cancel, the lady on the phone said unfortunately there was still nothing they could do.

We have been so extremely disappointed and angry with Cogeco and wonder how Cogeco still in service.

My service contract with Cogeco was renewing in August 2018. I called in July to negotiate the new rate (this is always the case). With Cogeco you have to threaten to cancel services in order to maintain a still pricey, but not inflated rate. This year was different. I was told I was part of the loyalty program and my contract was extended through January. I thought that finally my long time business was being noted and rewarded. Then I received my July bill which was over 50 dollars higher than the norm (it was in the mail prior to my call I was told) and then my August bill was more than double my normal rate. We only have internet with Cogeco and I spent well over an hour on the phone trying to reconcile two invoices! The CSR (Jennifer or Susan) was a total witch and condescending as hell without even listening to the issue at hand. I don't know if she's miserable in life or hates her job or both but what a nasty ratchet! If they can't get this issue fixed we will be switching providers as I'm tired of dealing with such grossly incompetent [censored]s and their shady businesss practices. You aren't the only game in town. Maybe if someone there could learn to pick up a phone you'd get that message and step up your service game.

[protected]
Georgetown Ontario

I am next to tears today. I have never been so frustrated with service support in my intire adult life. This last attempt today to reach out to customer service had me on hold for one hour - only to be disconnected before I could even connect with a human voice. Holding for an hour without successfully connecting with a rep has happened 3 (maybe 4 times) in the last 4-5 weeks. This is the 3rd time this has happened in the last several weeks.

- My bills are not showing the payments I have made, and I now the run the risk of being disconnected, and nonone is available to take my call to discuss the matter
- I work from home and can not afford to be disconnected
- Attempts to understand the changes in the invoice - not even sure the CSR understand
- Requesting a charge be reversed/ cancelled off my account - however advised they can not perform that at this time, and I need to call back? (I don't have hours and hours to hold on line only to be disconnected)
- Regular hiccups /outages
- Constant Issues with my Tivo services and on-demand channels I subrscribe to AND pay for

Cogeco has provided extremely horrible service. I have had the displeasure of setting up internet twice. First time I set up service in store. I was given the modem and was told that internet can be self installed and will start immediately upon plugging in. The Ethernet only worked and not wifi. After calling customer service who forwarded me to tech support I was told that in 24 wifi will start automatically. I found the staff incompetent as they couldn't even realize that the wifi was not working as the wifi option was not added. I discovered that the next after speaking to accounts. The whole process took 4 phone calls and being put on hold for hours.

The second time I had a technician come to my house to install. While he was there wifi was working. However two hours later wifi stopped working. I called tech support and waited 1 hour to speak to tech support, who without looking into the problem told me to wait 24 hours. Next day internet is not working again. I call tech support and they tell my activation was stuck and he had do fill a form to do some processing and now the activation will take up to 5 business days. How frustrating is that?! Why can you not set up internet in 24 hours if not I should not be paying for installation or the first month of internet. Now I'm trying to call customer service and I'm on hold for 1 hour and 53 minutes and no one is answering. The most terrible provider so far.

Called Aug 8 to arrange setup internet and cable. Told Aug 23 8am-5pm window. Aug 22 automated VM confirming Aug 23 8am-5pm. Stayed home all day, no show. Phoned Cogeco at 5pm told 25 min wait, was a 55 min wait. CSR called dispatch & technician, told us still a "go", and dispatch would call us within 15 min with an ETA. Now 9:15pm, no call, no technician. Screw them!

Date of the call
30th Jul 2018
again on 23rd Aug 2018

The Customer service is so bad. and it takes more than hour to reach one dept. and they just forwarded me to a different dept without even listening to my full query. then another one hour wait. it happened couple of times.

Also the Customer care representative doesn't understand English or maybe they don't want to. She was supposed to reimburse me 136.72$, first she just reimbursed 60$ then when I again explained her why 136.72, she reimbursed 136. what happened to they 72 cents.?
and there is no confirmation number or email or anything.
I have to call them next week (again my half day is wasted)

We have had nothing but a nightmare with cogeco. We have been waiting since the end of april for our tivos to be installed. We have called cogeco no less than 30 times trying to get help. Always the same excuse, due to their upgrading there is nothing they can do but will escalate my call. I have not received one call back after the issues have been escalated multiple times. And when asked to speak to management none are available! Finally got a service call for yesterday (aug 22 2018) and they never showed, never called! We called just after 8pm to complain and they have no reasoning in their systems to show why no one showed. But will book us in for another service call... Two weeks. And today I received the confirmation email for yesterdays service call... Bullcrap! This is beyond unacceptable. So as of now I am yet again on hold to cancel cogeco. No one should have to go through the run around like we have. Very un-professional. It's been a horrid experience and has cost us so much time only to be treated like crap.

Having a poor experience with Bell Canada after 35 years I decided to switch to Cogeco this spring. What a mistake! The internet is intermittent at best. The last straw here is the failure of the telephone lines. It started with the fax line not accepting incoming faxes and has migrated to my main business line. We can make outgoing calls but no-one can reach us. I called - was told there was a short in the system and they'd have a tech come out in a day or so. I told them 'This is my MAIN business line, my lifeline!' and it made no difference to their timelines. They said - we'll call forward the line to your cell for now - that wasn't done and at the moment I'm on the line with Cogeco tech for 30 minutes. They blame Bell - call us back in a couple of hours they say.
My business - relying on Cogeco to provide only ONE thing - a STABLE telephone line and internet.
I asked them to call-forward my number to a cell phone in the interim and they can't do that either.
I recommend that anyone with issues with Bell Canada, bite your tongue and hate them - but don't switch to Cogeco. You'll be putting your business at risk.

I was looking to inquire about lowering my bill as I find it outrageous to be paying what I am being paid! I was told me a lady that a manger would call me from customer relations within 24-48hrs and it has not been a week and still have not heard anything! Today a gentleman hung up on me because I kept asking for a manager in the department and I was told 3 different price amounts and today was lower than the other two prices! I am very disappointed with cogeco since I have been a long time customer of over 10 years and they treat their loyal customers like [censored]! I am now thinking of switching and going else where since cogeco does not know how to treat their customers! I will not promote this company or encourage others to have their service!

I had been a long term customer, 10-15 years and did not want to switch to Bell for my internet. Since May 2018, Cogeco has been unable to respond to its customers in any satisfactory manner. Whether it be repeated outages and long waits for service, the sheer length of time one had to wait to get through to anybody on the phone finally forced my hand. I just couldn't take it anymore. I have switched to Bell, and will end up paying more, but I could not spend any more hours waiting on the phone with Cogeco. When I finally did return my equipment, it had been at least six weeks since I had service started at a new address, and they still didn't have a record of my current address. How they even managed to send a tech here to install the new service I don't know when they had no record of my new address. I know their computer system upgrade has been a disaster! Heads should roll!

I called Cogeco on Aug13/18 to have my cable disconnected as of Aug 31/18, they transformed that in to Aug 14/18, I have been calling every day regarding when will it be reconnected and I've been lied to day after day and today now I am being told they have no idea when my cable will be re hooked up, next I am filling a complaint with the BBB. Cogeco Customer Services is terrible, I asked to speak with a Supervisor and was informed they don't take calls, at least not today. Bull crap is what it is.

July 17, 2018 I made a call to tech support to ask for a replacement pvr. I was told a couple of weeks. After that time period I called again and was told due to an error in my account in the system, I would have to wait another 2 to 14 business days to receive one. After that waiting period I was told nothing was actually possible to do about replacement until the software people could fix the error. I was deliberately informed (lied to) in several phone calls about the matter. I cannot even change my service to another product tivo until this error is found and fixed. I have to resort to using a corded phone for these calls since the waiting time for a person will run my cordless battery out. I am expected to pay for this lack of service even though the last person I spoke to said he did not know when they could rectify and I would know when I got a phone call. So they have made their error due to software platform change my paying problem. I feel I should suspend that portion of my bill until Cogeco can provide the service they are extracting payment for

What a nightmare! From the faulty installation job that took 4 months to correct, the 1 hour wait times several days a week to try to speak with someone, anyone, and finally trying to disconnect our service because we basically paid for 9 months and got 3 months of actual properly working internet and tv at best. We have been trying to cancel for several weeks and when we finally get through after waiting one hour, they put us on hold for another 30 minutes and say please wait again! This company needs to be shut down! NO ONE PAY THEIR BILL, THEY DONT DESERVE PENNY OF IT!

We signed up with Cogeco in February 2018. Initially we were told ground was too frozen to bury line (understand) and in the Spring it would be buried. Here I am on August 9th, and after five phone calls to inquire as to when this line (which is strung up in tree over three properties to get to our house) I am told that technician didn't complete the work order and now I have to wait at least 8 to 12 weeks before they will come out. They did send someone out last week to verify that we a line to be buried (doh). Of course they thank me for my patience! Have spent all of the allotment on my cell phone minutes (200 per month) on hold waiting to talk to people at Cogeco. Demanded to speak with a Supervisor - only to be told they will add my name to yet another list to get a call back (that was over a week ago - still no call back). Of course they came out very quickly to hook me up and start taking my money. So today, I had to place an emergency call as the cable line hanging in the trees has now dropped significantly (perhaps in the storms and weight of rain on branches) to the point where my neighbour now has to physically lift the cable to pull his boat on a trailer out of his driveway. So now again I have to wait for someone to call me back about this potential safety hazard. Sitting here on HOLD again now for over 40 minutes waiting to talk to BILLING Dept to see if I can at least get financial compensation for the LACK OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

I think Cogeco has the worst customer services.

For a returning customer - they did a credit check on me in April, to install services in May. They never came to install.

Called again in May, they said due to their system issue my entry disappeared in the system. They did another credit check in May to install . They never came.

Made a complaint case no [protected] was given that they would call back. They never called back.

I just called again today after explaining the guy simply said the system was stuck with my case and it should be ok in the next couple of days.

Never had a bad customer experience like this before. What's painful here is the credit check done twice on me.

Shina

August 6, 2018
To whom it my concern,
I am writing to express my deep disappointment in your service and lack of professionalism as a company to resolve an ongoing issue that is clearly no fault of our own.
Up until this year, we had have very few issues with your company. You provided a service we paid for your service on time, each and every month...no issues, no complaints until...
Early this year, we were having some problems with one of our receivers. We called up, you sent us out a replacement receiver with a prepaid Canada Post label to return the old Hd receiver. The problem with the HD box seemed to clear itself. We called and explained that we wanted to upgrade our non-HD box to an HD box, we were told to keep the HD box (added to our bill) and to just send back the old SD box. As instructed we packaged up the SD receiver and placed the prepaid Canada Post label as requested to be returned to Cogeco.
On April 13th, 2018 we dropped off the receiver to the Canada Post office. Canada Post in turn gave us a receipt with tracking number .
The first billing following the return of the receiver we noticed that we were charged for a receiver that we had sent back to your company. A charge of $649.75 including tax for a receiver we no longer had in our possession. We had called your company and were informed you had not yet received the receiver. we gave the agent the Canada Post tracking number. We then had contacted Canada Post and were informed that since we were not their "customer" that there was nothing we could do about it. "Cogeco" is the customer and they are the only ones that can start an investigation on the whereabouts of the lost parcel.
Numerous times we have called your company and have spoken to several different agents regarding this matter waiting on hold up to 45 minutes at times. Each and every time we had called we have given your representatives the tracking number to Canada Post. Not once did one of your agents put the tracking number in your system as the agents informed us with each new call. Each call we were left with the feeling that it was not your problem, until the receiver was returned there was nothing they can do about it even though it was your delivery label that was sent to us with proof through tracking that we had sent it back to you. Each time we also asked to speak to a manager and never were we able to speak with a higher up to try to resolve this issue. Our hands were tied as Canada Post informed us you "Cogeco" was the customer and it was up to you to contact them. Your agents would tell us there was nothing they could do until the receiver was in your possession. We had asked your agents to call Canada Post, no one made any initiative on your end to try to help with this matter. We also asked for our current bill minus the cost of the receiver so we could stay current until this matter was resolved, which was paid monthly.
About a month ago we called again, frustrated to stay the least but this agent said that the charge would be off our bill for the next billing cycle...Losing confidence in your company it was no surprise to us when our next bill came in to find that the charge for this receiver was still showing on our bill.
Even through all this confusion and frustration we called on August 6, to add additional stations and were informed our account was on hold and sent to the claims department. I had not received any notice (email, phone calls, letter) that my account was put on hold. We were informed they were unable to make any changes to our account as it was on hold by an extremely unprofessional service representative named "Katherine". Needless to say the way this matter has been handled from the start, and then the unacceptable attitude by Katherine when discussing this, made our decision that much easier to cancel our account with Cogeco. How many calls and the time we wasted trying to resolve this issue that is still not resolved.
When I made the final call to cancel our account I finally had a positive experience with a customer service agent named Brianna, even though she was unable to take this charge off my account. She has started a case file but unfortunately at this point our decision to change our service provider was already made.
We have also contacted Canada Post again and explained our situation with lack of support and help from Cogeco regarding this matter. They have starting an investigation into tracking this parcel.
I would like this charge taken off my account now, and any collections removed immediately. As I have always had a top notch credit rating and I am certainly not going to sit back and let Cogeco put a black mark on it for something that is no fault of our own. I am going through the proper channels by contacting you first and would expect to see this issue resolved immediately.

Hello,
On July 20, 2018 I contacted Cogeco technical (twice). and informed them that their cable wire was hanging in the middle of the street. They eventually roped the wire to my wrought iron railing so it would stay elevated until Cogeco would fix it. I was very upset about this, wires hanging by my house and the police had to reroute traffic.
Then on July 21, 2018 the wire (that Cogeco had still not fixed) was pulled by a truck and then tore my railing right off my front porch. I called 911 due to the wire being in the road again and the police contacted Cogeco to once again come and repair the problem.
The technician that came to do the temporary repair gave me his supervisors name and number (which was a lie). I have the police case number.
There are still wires dragging on the ground as of this email and someone will get hurt.
This morning I contacted customer service (Jim from Burlington) and he informed me to go through my lawyer that there was nothing he could do to resolve this issue.
Is this really what I would have to do to get my front porch fixed? Sorry to use this method I do not have facebook or twitter.

Again I have tried to be courteous (unlike Cogeco) but to no avail. I have gone through your "get human" baloney who think everything becomes fixed.

Your customer service is the worst I have ever dealt with and I can see why people are cutting their cable.

Just to let you know that I will be speaking with the police and I will have a copy of their report.

As the only provider available for my family member in a nursing home, I am extremely unhappy with the billing and customer service for Cogeco. Since January, I have heard that Cogeco is changing it's billing, so since April I haven't received a bill! That's not as great as it sounds because they added interest on the last bill for their delay! Then the special rate that is used for the nursing home (as it's a bulk service), has apparently not been applied under this new billing system. Although, I can 't see that because there's been no new bill! Every time I call, I am placed on hold for no less that 45 minutes, only to be told, "I can't help you - you'll have to wait for another department". The WORST SERVICE EVER. I would have canceled months ago except there is no other choice for these seniors.

After being a 30+ year cable customer, we decided to increase our service to include internet and phone. We were quoted a price by the loyalty dept and when we called back a couple of days later they could not give us the same price and quoted us a price that magically now had increased by $30 a month. After several calls and waiting hours on the phone we got 4 more different quotes all roughly $30 more a month than the original quote. We tried using their complaint system step 2 on their form but nobody got back to us within the 48 hours stated. When I finally reached someone to complain after waiting over an hour on the phone he said they weren't taking any more complaints as they were too busy already and suggested that was why the wait time was so long. I told him to cancel my cable and he did that immediately. I guess that's about the only thing they do quickly and right. Buyer be ware this company has real problems!

I have moved from ON to another province. I have been calling cogeco for over three weeks and can not get thru. I have been hung up on over 50 times after waiting on hold between 20-40 min at a time. I cannot cancel my services and cogeco just keeps charging me. Worst customer service I have ever experienced. Them working on their system does not give a business the right to disregard and cost consumers. They have no options to disconnect services in any other way other than to talk with a specific department. I will not be paying my Bill!