Aliant, Infuriatingly Consistent
Posted Sun, 04 Sep 2005 15:04:25 GMT to Posted in Life Tags aliant
Back in the day of being a 1st year student, new to the city and its ways I entered into a pact with Aliant for them to give me phone service and me to give them money. Over the years, I found it was easier in many ways to just switch my phone service over to my new residence, keeping my phone number and options. Almost always, however, my high speed internet fails to be switched over properly (and is always the result of it not being switched properly at the main switch, which they discover after sending out a tech).
This year, however, was quite a different experience. Yes, this year Aliant decided to go all out and screw up my phone transfer completely. Anyone calling my phone number gets a message stating that the number has been moved to a new number. Calling this new number gives a message stating that the number is not currently in service. I have no dial tone at my apartment either, so things are completely messed up.
The worst parts are thus: I called Aliant over a week ago, before my business trip to New Jersey. After explaining what I wanted and giving my new address, I was informed that things would indeed be switched over and that there should be no problems. After spending an evening moving the day I fly back into the city, I happily discover that, yes, I have no dial tone. And then, since I am unable to make it to a phone right away, I will have to wait until Tuesday to call Aliant (it’s Labor Day weekend after all) in order to find out what exactly is wrong. Considering that we will now be entering the time of new students wanting new phones, does anyone want to place bets on when I will actually get phone service restored?
Actually, does anyone have any opinions of Eastlink vs Aliant? If my phone problems can’t be resolved quickly, it might be worth my while, both timewise and financially, to switch over to Eastlink as my communications provider.
I swear by Eastlink internet for a variety of reasons (speed, stability, static IP great for hosting websites), and we’ve also never really had a problem with Eastlink phone (except for when the cable goes out, which has only happened once during the past two years – guess when). When you bundle, the price is “reasonable”, but you start to lose the $$ benefit when you drop services.
Obviously, everyone is very busy at this time of year so hookups and all that usually take a while regardless of who you deal with, but I’m always of the opinion that if someone’s gonna screw me over, I’m going to go with their competitor, out of principle more than anything.
Let me put it this way: if you can justify staying with Aliant, either because they’re giving you a killer deal or they provide you with something Eastlink doesn’t, then wait it out. And if you’re sick of their phone service, go solely cellular and skip the land line foolishness if you can.
I complain about communications providers more than anyone I know. And I have never had a problem with Eastlink, ever. I use them solely for ISP purposes, and I’ve never had to spend much time with their customer service, but I have no complaints.
If I recall correctly, Eastlink = Rogers.
i agree with the first guy- skip the land line and just get a cell phone. you’re hardly ever home anyway, and since you don’t have roommates i don’t see why you’d need a land-line./