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Bell TV or Cogeco Digital?
- Thread starter GP03
- Start date
same ****... go with whatever whoever gives you the best deal.
Cogeco is total garbage. I have had nothing but technical problems with phone and especially bad for the HDTV PVR. They go around in circles trying to fix it, show up late if at all, don't return calls etc. Their customer service is no better, the staff doesn’t know what they are talking about and they can be very rude and condescending.
I'm actually dropping all their services in favor of Bell. Not to say Bell is better I just don't want Cogeco getting my hard earned dollars!! Ultimately the decision is yours but I thought I would share some insight into my dealings with them.
Best of luck either way you go....hope it all works out in the end for ya.
Cheers.
I'm actually dropping all their services in favor of Bell. Not to say Bell is better I just don't want Cogeco getting my hard earned dollars!! Ultimately the decision is yours but I thought I would share some insight into my dealings with them.
Best of luck either way you go....hope it all works out in the end for ya.
Cheers.
Disclaimer - I work for Bell so take what I have to say with a grain of salty sceptism..
Either will give you the best $ deal for "all 3" (or 4 with Bell) services, Home phone, internet, TV (and cell). Both will also give the best deals in the following order: New customer, Retain existing, Move from the competition... Sorry, that's just the way the industry is....
-TV wise it's a bit of a crap shoot depending on what features are important to you. If your house has coax already as Nick F points out - no wires and no dish. Dish positioning can be a pain if you don;t have SW exposure. (advantage cable).
-You can also get as many TVs running on cable as you want by splitting it but you only get the first 60 channels in analogue without set top boxes, Bell requires a Box for each TV (Adv Cable)
-Bell's PVR is better in a number of ways - mostly usability and storage, dual tuner Plus remote programming. (adv Bell) Ditto for the guide and search and the general TV experience. Except for channel surfing. But cable has the same issue (delayed channel changes) for any of their digital channels (channel >#60). Regular Bell HD box can become a PVR just by plugging in a USB hard drive.
-Picture quality is a bit of a crap shot but doing an indirect comparison of Cogeco at my parents place I'd have to go with Bell. ;-) Bell also has some content in full 1080p (mostly PPV movies)
-Cogeco has much more TV on demand, Sat just can't feed stuff on demand the same way.
-Reliability of signal is about the same - if you have a clear view of the sky. Rain issue is over stated I only saw it during the heaviest of summer thunderstorms and in 5 years on rogers I had just as many random outages (usually the cable guy working on the box down the street or other random interruptions) as with the Sat service.
-Check the channels you want - pretty even but there are some exceptions (Bell carries way more ethnic channels for example and well as more HD channels)
You didn't ask - but my $0.02 on the other 2 services- Home phone is better and more reliable with Bell hands down. It's not based on VOIP so it is inherently more reliable. BUt it will cost more like for like.
Internet in generally better on cable. If you are on Bell's newer network (fibre to the neighbourhood) the DSL service is much closer to cable speed wise and about the same reliability. The older DSL network it is often slower and less reliable. Cogeco will also provide higher speeds and more usage for the same $$ even after discounts.
Cust service wise Cogeco is smaller so they have a easier time getting it right on Customer care and use that as a differentiator.
Tried to be objective(ish...) hope it helps.
If you have any issues with Bell, PM me and I'll see what I can do - we have an internal "get a cluefull rep's attention" issue filling thing we can submit to. Everyone else - please no Bell flames, been there and heard it before. The industry as a whole has significant customer service issues.
Either will give you the best $ deal for "all 3" (or 4 with Bell) services, Home phone, internet, TV (and cell). Both will also give the best deals in the following order: New customer, Retain existing, Move from the competition... Sorry, that's just the way the industry is....
-TV wise it's a bit of a crap shoot depending on what features are important to you. If your house has coax already as Nick F points out - no wires and no dish. Dish positioning can be a pain if you don;t have SW exposure. (advantage cable).
-You can also get as many TVs running on cable as you want by splitting it but you only get the first 60 channels in analogue without set top boxes, Bell requires a Box for each TV (Adv Cable)
-Bell's PVR is better in a number of ways - mostly usability and storage, dual tuner Plus remote programming. (adv Bell) Ditto for the guide and search and the general TV experience. Except for channel surfing. But cable has the same issue (delayed channel changes) for any of their digital channels (channel >#60). Regular Bell HD box can become a PVR just by plugging in a USB hard drive.
-Picture quality is a bit of a crap shot but doing an indirect comparison of Cogeco at my parents place I'd have to go with Bell. ;-) Bell also has some content in full 1080p (mostly PPV movies)
-Cogeco has much more TV on demand, Sat just can't feed stuff on demand the same way.
-Reliability of signal is about the same - if you have a clear view of the sky. Rain issue is over stated I only saw it during the heaviest of summer thunderstorms and in 5 years on rogers I had just as many random outages (usually the cable guy working on the box down the street or other random interruptions) as with the Sat service.
-Check the channels you want - pretty even but there are some exceptions (Bell carries way more ethnic channels for example and well as more HD channels)
You didn't ask - but my $0.02 on the other 2 services- Home phone is better and more reliable with Bell hands down. It's not based on VOIP so it is inherently more reliable. BUt it will cost more like for like.
Internet in generally better on cable. If you are on Bell's newer network (fibre to the neighbourhood) the DSL service is much closer to cable speed wise and about the same reliability. The older DSL network it is often slower and less reliable. Cogeco will also provide higher speeds and more usage for the same $$ even after discounts.
Cust service wise Cogeco is smaller so they have a easier time getting it right on Customer care and use that as a differentiator.
Tried to be objective(ish...) hope it helps.
If you have any issues with Bell, PM me and I'll see what I can do - we have an internal "get a cluefull rep's attention" issue filling thing we can submit to. Everyone else - please no Bell flames, been there and heard it before. The industry as a whole has significant customer service issues.
You can also use Shaw for your TV. Shop the prices between the 3. I found Shaw to be the cheapest on my area.
if i had a choice between bell or no tv i would go with no tv, but that's just my experience with bell.
btw you can also get starchoice... they are satellite like bell.
btw you can also get starchoice... they are satellite like bell.
ive been with all of em, personal pref is satelitte over cable, be it rogers, cogeco or eastlink.
customer service wise, starchoice (now called shawdirect) does a good job, unless youre trying to cancel, but their equipment (especially the pvr ) is really outdated and lacking in features.
i dont care for bell as a company, but they have the best equipment, and the best TV experience.
customer service wise, starchoice (now called shawdirect) does a good job, unless youre trying to cancel, but their equipment (especially the pvr ) is really outdated and lacking in features.
i dont care for bell as a company, but they have the best equipment, and the best TV experience.
it works well, but only available in very select areas. if tje OP is in milton its not an option.
i was a loyal bell customer for over a decade. . .
hated them, still do, with a blind passion.
rain fade and snow fade are real. . .they happen more often than bell will admit, and that was with a 90+ signal strength from my dish. . .
not to mention dealing with their csr, and billing sides. . .complete horror show. . .
never dealt with cogeco, but cannot be worse. still get harassing phone calls to get me to return to bell, but somehow, their outsourced reps cannot understand that they do not offer better service for a better rate.
hated them, still do, with a blind passion.
rain fade and snow fade are real. . .they happen more often than bell will admit, and that was with a 90+ signal strength from my dish. . .
not to mention dealing with their csr, and billing sides. . .complete horror show. . .
never dealt with cogeco, but cannot be worse. still get harassing phone calls to get me to return to bell, but somehow, their outsourced reps cannot understand that they do not offer better service for a better rate.
I'm on it now (moved from Sat to IPTV). "Huge" might be a bit much but it's pretty good. Sat I found more reliable. The Sett top boxes for IPTV (Fibe) are little computers really so they need to be rebooted now and then like any other computer.
The whole home PVR rocks. full stop. All your content, any time, any TV. Cable should catch up with this capability this year but you may need a new box if you want it. (Any box being put out now by Rogers supports it I believe but they haven't started it up yet). So does the quick channel changes. Channel up and you get the next one in a fraction of a second. Not 2-3 seconds like digital cable or Sat. Menu and search is even better than Sat for the most part and you now have a bunch of on demand shows (like cable).
Think it is limited to 2 HD streams at once though so if you have 3 HD TVs and you want to watch 3 live (different) shows at the same time or record 3 different HD shows you could have an issue. But who watches live tv with a PVR anyway? And time shifting takes care of recording prime time shows.
Some advantages, some disadvantages.
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