Recently, my Distributel cable Internet connection went down. I called the tech support phone number as quickly as I could and was connected to a support person within five minutes. I was really impressed at how quickly I was connected to a real person, but their usefulness was super limited.
I power cycled the modem, connected it directly to my laptop, and did other things that I had done before contacting them. The results weren’t helpful. They didn’t know of any outages, nor did they have any idea on when it would be resolved.
I called back a second time in the evening and found out that the answer was the same. Thankfully, they didn’t make me go through all the same steps the second time I called, and so the call was quick and pleasant, though not very helpful.
The third time I called, the next morning, I already had found information online from TekSavvy, a competitor in the area that also leases Cogeco lines in my area. They posted on their Twitter account about a DHCP outage, which is what I was sure it was already. They didn’t have a resolution time either. Even more frustrating was the fact that the Distributel phone support person hadn’t heard about the DHCP outage, nor did they have an ETA for resolution. And the worst thing was that I found out that my support call the previous day wasn’t sent up to Cogeco technicians until early in the afternoon, many hours after the first time I called.
After two and a half days without Internet, it was restored and I didn’t experience any further problems. I will also note that Distributel did call me to make sure things were back up and running. Their customer service, and their ability to answer tech support calls quickly were great, but they lack the ability to do much with regards to support due to the fact that they are a reseller.
Was this enough for me to go and sign up with one of the primary line holders like Cogeco or Bell? Heck, no! It definitely does worry me though. If I experience many of these types of outages, I’ll be a very frustrated Internet user.
Malcolm's Ramblings 
3 responses to “Distributel Internet Tech Support Review”
Lousy service. Stay away from this company. Their VOIP phone service is constantly down. I changed to Nettalk (great VIOP service) and much much cheaper. Then distributel cut off my internet service ( mistake by Rogers they say). However, they insisted that I pay an additional fee to get the service back on. I terminated my internet with them (going to Acanac). The customer service agent said he will but through a refund for the rest of the month, but he never did. He was just saying that to get me off the phone. Then you call distributel, you can expect to wait at least 45 minutes before you can get to customer service.
I’m having issues with my connections and spent 3 hours on hold and still never spoke to anyone and ran out of talking time on my phone am I pleased no I am not I pay my bill every month and at expect to to hear a human voice as a result I still have issues!!!!
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