I have been a client with Start for 5 years now, and I recently had to call them to get a copy of an old bill. The woman that I spoke to was helpful, non-judgemental, and pleasant. She explained that she would email a copy of the bill, and described the process of creating an online account to get past bills. I'm happy to have dealt with her and grateful for the positive interaction with this company. read more

All I want to do is cancel my service. They are impossible to reach by phone, as you are kept waiting on hold endlessly. Their chat line doesn't work either and can't be used for account cancellation or billing issues, etc. Plus you're expected to wait forever for a chat agent, too. This is basically zero customer service, but they want you to pay good money for their internet service. I guess my next step is to take legal action against Start and Telus (the new owner of Start) for negligent performance of duty and negligent infliction of mental and emotional distress (after all, isn't needless aggravation a form of mental distress?) No one should have to fight that hard or be forced to waste a lot of their valuable time just to get the most basic, essential customer service. If you're looking for an internet service provider, my only recommendation is to avoid Start if you can. read more

Internet is down much to often. If your phone is through the Internet and the Internet is down then you don't have any phone either.

Abysmal customer support since Telus took over. I was with them 15 years and could not be more disappointed.

They used to be great. Now, you had better take the day off work if you need to talk to someone, and that includes their chat system. You will be waiting for hours. read more

Start TV was amazing customer service. Today, You are on hold for 3 hours and no one answer. Too bad. I recommend everyone to stay away.

They should never have sold to telus destroyed this company. They dont care about the customer anymore only about the money. Can't even get the internet fixed have the time. read more

I called to order service and they asked questions regarding the tv ( I gave them the streaming stations I needed including NETFLIX, they never did advise me that NETFLIX did not work thru the Start System) Then I ordered the internet and telephone service we also requested. At the time they NEVER did tell me it was to be self installed; I am 75 and my husband is 81, we do not have a clue. When the equipment arrived there was no TV set-up (my TV service was shut down due to my ordering thru Start) I had to hire someone to do the install. Along with all the missing equipment and information being withheld it was a complete nightmare. It took me several monthes to even patrial of what I requested. I have to go out and buy a fire stick to be able to watch NETFLIX. So, I am not happy with service I have received from Start, I have other issues as well, however I am looking forward to sit down to watch TV and get what I wanted. Wish I could give a better review, hopefully once this is all over I will send a better one. I am still staying with Start for now in hopes it gets better. It has somewhat!! I have been holding back partial payment due to the issues, I am sending in the rest today. I do hope they read these reviews and know where corrections need to be made Thanks. Bob and Shari Sarnia Ontario read more

This company used to be great until Telus was allowed to ruin them by the morons at the CRTC by purchasing Start. Its a great study on why Canada has the worst internet companies and prices on the planet. This company should be called STOP cause thats whats going to happen to your service with the unreliability. Rude billing staff who talk over you and no second level managers to access because they "are all in meetings" all the time. On day 3 waiting for the "busy" mangers to contact me about a credit for the multiple days of no home internet. Brutal company that used to be great. read more

Start was great before they were taken over by Telus. We have been trying to reach customer service and can't get through at all. They keep you on hold and then disconnect the call before you can speak with anyone. The livechat should be called deadchat because you'll be long gone before anyone responds. Horrible. read more

I've tried to call them twice today and two times last weekend for internet help and the wait was so long for tech support that I had to hang up. This morning I waited one hour and thirty five minutes, and still didn't get through. They were a good provider with good tech support at first but I think they need to add more tech support agents asap. read more

i've just spent 2 1/2 hours on hold waiting for someone to actually speak to me only needing to make a payment. I'm unable to use the portal because it is not working properly so I was forced to on hold for those 2 1/2 hours without any results being hung up on at 9:01 PM due to their office being closed and I at my earliest convenience can call back between 8 AM and 9 PM the following day. Wanna give out a big round of applause to start and telus because since Telus has taken over start, their customer service has gone downhill way to go so glad that partnered together. Can't wait for Bell to come in my area so I can leave this company. read more

I've been with Start for many years and their service was always outstanding -- the tech support especially was amazing. Unfortunately, since the Telus takeover, everything has changed. This has been one of the worst customer service experiences I've ever had, and I think it may be time to move on. read more

trash level service, even by the bar-is-in-hell standard of Canadian telecomms. They should win an award for how bad the service is now. I've been through the cycle twice now - complain about intermittent connection, they call in a few days and ask if its working right at that second, then close the ticket, we do this 3-5 more times, they roll a tech to lie to my face, repeat. Garbage company. read more

Start tv is a joke. They use to be good but now they suck. Every day when I'm watching murder she wrote it plays like there's a scratch on the film. And only with murder she wrote, no other time. read more

Horrible I do not recommend. Internet service was spotty. I was told price would increase $10 a month after my year contract but it went up $20 a month read more

I was streaming a show through Prime Video. After about 30 minutes, the stream became so glitchy I had to turn it off. It kept replaying the 5 seconds of play over and over again. Then it would skip the next 5 seconds to catch up and then replay the next 5 seconds over and over again. I've never seen anything like this before, but it was pathetic. What a waste! read more

Hello, I just want to comment on why you removed Ghost Whisper and Medium. The best two shows. I noticed you had a marathon on Medium doing the holiday season, can you please think about putting those two shows back on. Thank you and be blessed. This channel would be excellent when Ghost Whisper and Medium come back. read more

A Long time customer means nothing to Start I have been with Start internet service for a very long time . I am on an old DSL service with a dry loop as that is all that is available in my rural area . I have to leave the country for 6 moths for family concerns and when I asked to have my account put on pause until my return , I was told NO ! I was told that they can not do that for me and that I would have to cancel my account with them and the sign u for a new account when I get back. But the catch is that they want be to sign up for a cable account which is not available in my area . So essentially because I have to leave for 6 months , I am being thrown to the curb in gratitude for all the years that I have been with them. Nice very nice way to treat your long term or any customer for that matter ! read more

Started using Start.ca in April 2019. I love the tv and Internet service, I love the customer service and tech staff and most of all.. I love not paying the crazy amount I was paying with Cogeco. This company is more than an option. Save some money. read more

After watching my bills for Bell internet service creep up to ridiculous levels and finding my internet connection getting more and more constipated, I decided to make a change. I dumped the big conglomerate ISP and went with Start.ca for my service. This was a recommendation from my daughter, who had previously switched her service to Start.ca and was very happy about that choice. I was able to set up everything on the web - quick and easy. I ordered a modem, which arrived a few days later. After about a week, a tech came to my home and set up my system. What a difference. My download speeds have more than doubled; instead of a capped service, I have unlimited internet; and I'm now paying less than 3/4 of the price that I used to pay. That feels pretty good. The evening following my first day with Start, I received a cheerful call from their customer support to check that everything was working okay. Too good to be true? Fingers crossed -- I hope this is the beginning of a long friendship. read more

I just want to let you know that the appointment today at my new house was missed by the installer. I drove an hour and a half from Toronto to Hamilton and sat there (at an empty house) for 5 hours waiting for someone to call (i also called to confirm). I then called after 12:30 PM and a lady said they would book me in on a Saturday and I would get an email confirmation within the hour. At 7 PM (so 6 hours later), I called back, and spoke with an incredibly rude lady on the phone (legit brutal attitude). I told her to cancel the whole thing at this point and she started talking over me. Unbelievable I am incredibly upset. I would like a refund on the entire thing and would like to send the equipment back. Please listen to the calls, It escalated only because of the unhelpfulness of the employee. I do understand its not the call centre's fault that no one showed up. But put yourself in my shoes, I just bought a house in Hamilton, took an entire day off work, drove 3 hrs there and back to be yelled at by a call centre employee. read more

I have been with these people for over 5 years. They were barely known then. Heck, my yelp review continues to attract a lot of new customers! For the most part, I have gotten great service and resolutions to problems but today has left a sour taste in my mouth. For the month, I have barely gotten any service and I was told that my cable lines might be the issue since other customers in the building don't have the same problem. Technicians were scheduled twice already. The first time was cancelled and today, the second time, was a no show. I called them at 11:09 am today, June 23rd, waited for quite a while to speak to the supervisor since the very helpful reps could not do anything about the situation and the supervisor, Brad, was very apathetic and insensitive about the whole thing. He was extremely condescending and combative, even raising his voice. I brought this to his attention TWICE because I was surprised at his behavior when I was the one with the problem but there was no improvement. Instead, he told me that I had two options- cancel service with them or re-book another technician. Nice going, Start. Way to treat a loyal customer. read more

If they get hold of your phone number, they will not stop calling nor leaving voicemails, even on a Holiday, even if you block their numbers. read more

Bait and switch. This is what the company did to me yesterday. Two weeks ago I called to ask for cable modem service. I was moving into a new place Friday May 1st and needed internet. I need to login to my work on the following Monday, I work full-time online now like many others during this pandemic. It's a tight schedule, but I spoke to 3 different people who, after many calls and waiting on hold for a very long time, said everything was ready to be setup and not to worry. Yesterday came around, I moved - modem turned on fine, 1 blinking light, no internet. It took 3 hours (!) waiting on hold, listening to the same 2 songs, I only spoke to 2 different people. I spent the time unpacking my boxes and being exhausted. Finally a technician said "turns out, you're not allowed to have cable internet service where you live. We can give you DSL service - in 10 days." They were the ones who shipped the cable modem to me at my expense, after extensive conversations on the phone with the 3 different reps weeks before. All the calling and verifying and checking means nothing now. I have no internet. But Start.ca is still charging me because the first billing month has begun. What's striking is the technician who finally bothered to check sounded pretty bored. I was angry and upset and the only response was "you want a refund, or you want DSL?" No apology was offered during the call. You'll probably get through to a nice sounding salesperson the first time you call, I did, which helped influence my (stupid) decision. Be warned the tone of the calls will shift instantly and dramatically - to one where the only thing the rep wants is to get off the phone with you - the second something goes wrong. To be clear, if I hadn't waited on hold for almost 3 hours on the same day I moved, no one would have contacted me, and Start.ca would still be charging me for absolutely nothing. I have no service, and will continue to have no service. It's disgusting when a company tries to scam you, but more so during this time of the Covid19 pandemic. I'm exploring other options but now I'm also out of time. read more

I subscribe to the service April 25 and was charged $158.20. I called back a few fays later and was treated like a complete moron. I cancelled immediately and was refunded $ 146.90 on April 27. Even a complete idiot can see the problem with this. How do you SHYSTERS sleep at night?????? read more

While their internet generally works fine, doesn't everybody's these days? The problem starts (no pun intended) when it doesn't work and you have to call them. 1.5 to 2 hour hold times at 10pm on a week night is totally normal and standard practice for them. If you can stomach that, then the customer service staff are generally pleasant to deal with but, in my experience, utterly ineffectual. Whether or not it's because they run on Cogeco's lines and they aren't able to diagnose correctly or as willing to send out a Technician to sort the problem out, they just don't seem as well equipped to fix things as I am used to from one of the bigger companies. Ultimately, you get what you pay for. They're slightly cheaper, but the customer experience suffers greatly as a result. read more

I have been with start for just over one year,the internet and phone service is great but sadly I cant say the same for the TV. This service seems to have quite a few hiccups of which I have had to call the office numerous times, although the service department will only be to glad to help me to get up and running again they cannot explain why the problems keep on happening but repeatably say that they are working on it. When we started with Start they answered your call very quickly but now you can wait for half an hour or more with the same excuse (we are working on it).My wife and I are getting more frustrated with dealing with these issues and are seriously considering going back to Cogeco our tv service if things do not improve. Harry Davies read more

They are the local cable reseller in Lincoln, Ontario and they are next to useless. Their TV service is not extremely reliable and their android box is pile of smelly crap that I cannot get working. It took almost 24 hours to swap a modem because they just accept cogeco bs stalling tactics. Techsavy would never accept that from a provider. I would not recommend them at all. read more

TLDR: Agreed to start a new service on the 2nd of October, but then they: - Lied to me about the compatibility of the router, forcing me to rent one of theirs - Still haven't given me service four days after the agreed upon date - and are now informing me we won't be getting service until at LEAST the 10th - Lied about compensations for the lack of service - Lied about agreed upon communication channels - Are still charging me for the days of no service - Etc. I called start.ca about a transfer of internet services the week of the 20th and agreed to a start day of October 2nd. During this initial call, I asked about the router my household was using at the time - a Hitron CDA3-20 - which was listed on their site as being compatible for the Home Internet Cable Unlimited 300 deal, and was told in no uncertain terms by a customer service representative that it would function just fine with the upgrade (we were upgrading from a 150mb/s service). Approximately four days from the proposed start date, I received a call where I was told that the router actually wasn't compatible - they told me the firmware on our device was too old and wouldn't work; instead, they suggested I rent a router out for an additional $7/month or buy one for approximately $120. We chose to rent the router, which arrived two days before the proposed start of the service. Furthermore, come the morning of October 3rd, we find that the house has no internet whatsoever - our service with our previous ISP had ended in the early morning and start.ca hadn't begun their service, nor did they call or e-mail to explain the delays. By the evening of the 3rd, I decided to call them on behalf of my household - once I eventually got in contact with an agent, I was told that "we're waiting on information from Rogers regarding the transfer", and that they would "put our household on a high priority queue to Rogers". At this time, I was not given an estimated time - or more accurately, the agent left it at "hopefully something happens tomorrow". Come the 4th, we still have no service, so I called them again - this time I asked to escalate to a supervisor, and was told that due to the delays, they would waive the installation fee - however, because this was a transfer, there was no fee and that they would instead take the $25 off our regular bill. This time, the agent confirmed that our service was put at the top of theirs and Rogers' priority queue. He also agreed to provide updates to me via e-mail whenever they received any news, including information they didn't expect the average person to know - I specifically worded the request in such a way that SHOULD have resulted in at least a couple updates. The night of the 5th I continue with my nightly calls to their help desk, where I am informed that they actually couldn't do a transfer, and that they would need a Rogers technician to come in to figure out what was going wrong - the agent at the time requested the earliest possible date. At this time, I have received no communication regarding the state of the service - even though an agent agreed to send me e-mails on the topic. Come midday of the 6th, I finally receive an e-mail, which informs me the earliest day a technician could come was the morning of the 10th - a full 8 days after we were supposed to start. Furthermore, on the phone with another agent, I am informed that the agreed upon monetary credit was never approved, even though the previous agent assured it would be applied. I am also informed that the agent that agreed to provide me with e-mails had no such authority. Even worse, I am told that despite the fact that the agent would be able to come in on the 10th, we might not be getting service until the 12th - ten days after our proposed start. Beyond the obvious downsides of not having internet service for a full ten days as a student taking online-only courses (meaning I can't attend lectures and am missing out on quizzes), I am also paying premiums on my mobile data charges, my housemates are unable to do their work (one of our housemates was forced to relocate back home to Orangeville due to the lack of service) and I am, as far as I know, not receiving ANY compensation for the lack of service. Out of the three Ottawa based ISPs I have used and the four Toronto based ISPs, Start.ca has been by far the worst - not only have they failed to uphold their side of the already paid for business, they have lied repeatedly to me on various topics. Absolutely would NOT recommend. read more

To the ENTIRE Start team!!!! You have the most amazing service and support that I have ever experienced from a company!! Your always kind , helpful and patient with what ever I have needed assistance with and there isn't enough words in the English language to say how I feel about the individuals I have had the pleasure to deal with every time I have called . Thank you Start !! I will continue to enjoy the Start service !!! read more

We are new to Start. We had a small problem and Victoria spent a very long time with us as I kept making mistakes. I can't say enough about the support she gave us. read more

We've only had this service for a few days, but I have been using my phone as a hotspot ever since. We have had to purchase new hardware and we have talked to customer service, but still, the connection isn't good! We are going to try hard-wiring to the hardware, in case it's a wifi problem, but I have little hope for improvement. read more

STAY AWAY. The worst company i have ever dealt with. I cant tell you how many hours of my time i wasted. two months of service appointments and still no internet yes two months!......On December 30th 2021 i activated my account and scheduled my service installation. Fast forward to February 12th 2022 i have had 13 yes 13 service appointments and still no internet. Missed countless days off work spent hours chasing start staff. And i would simply get a apology email and nothing would change. They have no control of Rogers who's infrastructure they use. i wouldn't wish this service on my worst enemy. I cant tell you how frustrating my experience was. After over two months and 13 appointments i switched providers and my internet was installed on the first appointment. See the attached email chain screenshots to see how awful this service was. read more

Start is an excellent independent ISP. I've had internet service from Bell, Rogers and Teksavvy, with Bell offering the worst experience I've had, and Teksavvy offering the best of the three. After firing Teksavvy and hiring Start internet, I'm extremely happy. Start's wait-times in their phone queue is very short - my typical wait-time is 1 minute. Start's internet service has been bulletproof. Their invoices are extremely simple to understand, no B.S. They also have a referral program that works well; I've received quite a good number of credits to my bills when my friends signed up for Start and used me as their referral. read more

This company is an absolute joke and a nightmare to deal with!!!! Moved to New apt, needed internet hooked up. Paid $109 up front, they had no problem taking the money. Had a service guy show up after 2 weeks of waiting, turns out cable line dead so they weren't able to hook up that day. Tech guy said he'd have someone come out in 2 days to set up line outside. Waited another full week and didn't hear back and no one showed up. Called them asking what was going on, they said sorry and said someone would be out in 2 more days, another full week passed, still no one came and no one called. Been waiting an entire month with still no service. Every time I called I was given the gears, and told someone was coming. We just signed up with bell, who was 20 cheaper than start.ca and they'll be here tmrw!!!! An absolute disgrace and very unprofessional to say the least. I will be certain to let everyone know about this company and their incompetent staff!!!! read more

I'm currently a client and seriously thinking of switching to another provider - the connections are just that unreliable. In terms of customer service, they're great, but it gets tiresome having to call all the time to get my service back. There are so many outages it's hard to get anything done. Calling isn't an issue - as stated, customer service is great, but that's not enough. Yes, it's a cheaper cost per month for service, but I'm basically paying $63 a month for internet that only works for a few hours a day, and never during business hours. (Every single time I try to work from home, I have to call them because of an outage, so I wouldn't recommend this service if you run a business from home or work out of a home office.) In the grand scheme of things, it may be better to pay an extra $15-20 with another provider to have a network that actually works. read more

Start gets 5 stars for exceptional customer service. I love that when I have a question or concern, someone always answers and then follows up. The service from the Start team is great and they're super friendly and knowledgable. The only downside to all this is that Start runs on Rogers' network (at least in my area) and therefore any on-site service calls are scheduled through Rogers' tech support team, which sometimes can mean dealing with Rogers' unreliable service. Still, Start is great about following through to make sure the work gets done and you're kept up to date about the process. They always call after the service is done to make sure you're back online and satisfied. I would HIGHLY recommend Start as the most affordable and reliable option in London for internet service, especially if you don't have home phone or television. read more

Start.TV is simply not ready to provide 24/7 service. Streaming is intermittent and the technical help is slow. I like start internet but after more than a month, am disappointed and frustrated with Start TV. I will be seeking other TV options shortly. read more

Expect to be on hold for at least an hour or more to reach tech support each time you call. They need to do better! Only been a customer for 11 days and it's getting old already. read more