Primus Canada

I recently signed up with PRIMUS and it has been an absolute nightmare from day one. Their customer service is abysmal, with long wait times and unhelpful representatives who seem more interested in passing the buck than actually resolving issues. The internet speeds are laughably slow, making even basic tasks like streaming videos or downloading files a frustrating experience. On top of that, the service is incredibly unreliable, with frequent outages that disrupt my work and leisure activities. Save yourself the headache and steer clear of PRIMUS.

I have been a Primus customer for about 8 months and read the bad reviews but decided to give it a try anyway.I can confirm the bad reviews, it is the absolute worst customer service and Internet connection!

WEN I DECIDE TO SWITCH PROVIDERS I HAVE TO PAY A DE ACTIVATION FEE OF $200.00 LIKE WHAT!

PRIMUS CANADA INTERNET RATED 0/10

Has Costco properly researched these thugs? I am outraged they would send us an advertising blurb for this outfit wanting us to bundle our internet and phone - never going to happen!

Deserves a negative rating. Sales people tell lies and sell you extra long distances that you never asked for but do it to get extra money. After calling customer service lots of extra long distance packages were seen on the bill. Total lies and BS. Don't go with Primus.

Too much arbitrary charges! and you will see lots of mistakes on your bills!

such as I already boght the modem, but they still put the modem rental fee on my bills;

Or you sign the contract With a 5 dollars promotion, but you will never see the $5 credit back on your bill. That is not only one time mistake but every single time you need to call them to ask your $5 dollars back.

Or some times you will see there is an $50 activation fee on your bill. What is that? I have used bell and rogers before, but never saw this kind of charges frim other Companies.

Really the wrost internet service that have used. Can You image that the bills are keep continuing have over charges for every single month? And every customer service person will tell you a different payment amount after their calculation when you call them for those wrong bills. I used Primus for 3 months. And after the third bill, I decided cancel it although I need to pay a cancellation fee. really don't want to waste 1-2 hours to call them to correct bills for every single month! Although they will correct the over charges after your phone call. But still, primus is the worst experience that I have for internet service!

We have had no problems with Primus as we approach our 2 year anniversary date this Fall with the company. There were a few issues when we moved from the Lower Mainland (Vancouver) area to a smaller city (Kelowna, BC). The issues were that the streaming was a bit slower at night time and once and a while ( not more than a few times) the phone line had no dial tone. We reset the modem to get back the dial tone.
These problems never occurred in the Vancouver area, the phone always worked continuously
there.
When we phoned headquarters in Quebec, the customer service agents were careful to explain everything in detail when we had to move cities.
We have been customers from Fall 2014- to Fall 2016, we will renew our contract with them since we wish to pay the least amount possible for the greatest amount of services.

Poor internet service that was down more than it worked. Constant lack of internet reception that was down for over a week at a time. You call and they couldn't even tell you when it would be fixed. Promised a credit but never followed through and kept billing me for 3 months after cancelling.

When I called to discuss the credit and over billing I was rudely told they couldn't do anything for me. They just put me on hold for a long time hoping I would go away.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS POOR SERVICE PROVIDER...

I have been with primus for over five years now. They had been fine to deal with until recently. I have had 2 technicians come to my house because the internet mbps were low. After the first technician arrived my phone stopped working properly, I have static constantly on the line and my internet is often below 1 mbps. I had to call everyday for two weeks to try to get it working and to no avail. The technician has said that I have a faulty wire coming into my house but everything was fine until a week ago and now things are even worse. I would avoid this service especially because they only give 7 mbps for download speeds which is barely adequate for netflix.

WORST INTERNET PROVIDER! BEWARE!

I was at Costco and I walked by a stand promoting Primus. I didn't have internet at the time, so when they stopped me and asked if I needed internet, I said I did. I had never heard of Primus before, so I decided to sign up and try it out. The person at the stand confirmed that I could cancel the service at any time. When I got home, I researched the company and was overwhelmed with the bad reviews that it received online, so I quickly called to cancel the service and I went with Shaw instead. A few weeks later, a Primus modem arrived in the mail. I called in to ask them why they sent me a modem when I had cancelled my service. They apologized for the confusion and a few days later I received a letter in the mail with a mailing label so I could mail the modem back. A few days later, I missed a call from Primus and they left a voicemail stating that a technician would be arriving at my house on a specified date to set up my internet. I called back to let them know that I had already cancelled the service. On the specified date, I was away on vacation and I received a phone call from a Primus technician stating that he was at my house to set up my internet!! I told him that I had cancelled the service multiple times and told him that I was starting to get very fed up with this situation. He apologized and confirmed that he would ensure that the cancellation went through. A few weeks later, I received a bill in the mail for $60 which included an activation fee and the bill for the first month of internet. Absolutely outrageous. They never set up the internet in the first place and they sent me a bill. Obviously the company has terrible admin. I cancelled the service and they still sent me a modem, a technician to set up the internet, and a bill. I am a new mom and I have wasted so much time calling in to this company. Very irritating. Do yourself a favour and do not get involved with them in the first place!

Primus’ affordable price and unlimited internet usage may be appealing, but poor internet connectivity is a deal breaker.
I was originally subscribed with Rogers’ Internet, Cable and Home Phone. I decided to cut the cable and rely on Netflix and free OTA broadcasts. Primus’ unlimited internet usage and VOIP telephone appear to fit my needs. Enrollment through Costco was quick and installation with a Bell technician went smoothly. I subscribed to Internet 60 and Basic Digital Home Phone Bundle. The initial 2 week period was great. No issues with streaming Netflix. VOIP quality was clear. Then the issues began. The phone stopped working. Cannot make or receive calls as there was no dial tone. Resetting the modem resolved this issue. Furthermore, internet connectivity was frequently poor in the evenings after 10pm. Forget about streaming Netflix or YouTube, surfing the web was slow. I suspected Primus was throttling my bandwidth allowance in the evenings when public usage levels were high. As a result of poor internet connectivity, my VOIP was regularly dropped. I was forced to reset the modem every few days to restore phone service. Several calls to tech support revealed no resolution, although they were friendly. Primus did acknowledge my documented poor connectivity instances, but denied throttling. Instead, I was told the source of my problem could be from my router, my laptop, my phone lines etc or even the absurd possibility of my neighbor’s equipment emitting EMI. My network equipment setup did not pose a problem with Rogers’ internet. The only change in my setup was Primus. I recently went away on vacation for 2 weeks and surprisingly my phone worked for the whole duration and continued for another 2 weeks after I returned. But now, the grace period is over and I’ve resumed resetting the modem every few days.
After 5 months of tolerating Primus, I realize that it won’t get better. I’m reluctantly returning to Rogers’ internet where I’ll be paying more, but it will be reliable.
As a parting gift to Primus, I will give them $200 (cancellation fee) for terminating my 2 year contract. This useful information is hidden within the “Terms & Conditions” link found on the web page where you select either 1 year or 2 year term to order.
I’ve tried to be objective in writing my review. You can decide whether or not to give them your business. Buyer Beware.

THEY DID NOT CANCEL ACCOUNT WHEN REQUESTED TWICE
they ended up charging me $38.00 and keep sending me telephone messages to pay

I will not pay when they didn't cancel the account

I now use 10-10-100 which is about $0.25 per call

I had a long distance plan where I only pay 50 cents a call no matter how long I talked. It worked fine until Primus took it over a couple of years ago when it started to go up. I just got this months bill where I made 7 calls to the US and Canada. The bill shows 50 per call for a total of $3.50, which is correct but now with the network fee and Talk 25 (whatever that is!) my bill for the month is $18.03.

I'm not sure what other companies charge for long distance but I'll be checking them out!

For future reference to anyone who may be tempted to switch to PRIMUS for long-distance or internet... DON'T DO IT! I was a customer since 2006 but there must have been an ownership change because over the past three years I was charged EXHORBITANT rate inceases with no notice... Long-distance coverage I used to have disappear and I did not know they were gone until I was billed for those services.. and THEN when I finally called to cancel their services I was encouraged to use my new service provider to do the cancelling and when my last bill arrived I was charged a $30 cancellation fee for NOT giving them notice! This morning I called to ask them to explain and reverse these fees and was told... "Sorry you HAVE to pay.. it is policy!" WEll my NEW POLICY is to SHARE what a horrible experience I had and to share that my $10/month Canada/US long-distance plan eventually ended costing me $26-$30 per month and didn't cover any US calles - I was billed .10/minute for those. MY FINAL BILL FOR 20 days of long-distance coverage is $47! Don't get sucked in by their ads... they will suck as much money out of you that they can get until you move on and then they will dig that knife in just a little deeper!!

I just called and cancelled my long distance plan after many years with them. Originally I was paying only for my long distance calls. Good! Then they advised they would have to charge a monthly network fee which was less than 3.00/month. This I could understand. Then the this fee went up to 4.95 which I thought was a bit high but still everything is going up. Now all of a sudden I get my bill for three months and beside the monthly charge of 4.95 there is also a monthly fee of 4.50 for "Talk 25". So my long distance charges totalled 1.25 but on top of that I have to pay 28.80 for their service. Not likely. I also have to pay for 30 days which they say they require for cancellation. And once I cancel I can't go back. Boo hoo!! Plus due to a death in my family I had several calls to make to the UK and I could not get my calls through via Primus. I kept getting disconnected. Goodbye Primus!!

I have been a Primus customer ever since they were called Wintel.Now with their network monthly,paper invoice, and their latest Talk 25 charges, I am paying more for these charges than my long distance charges. There are better and cheaper long distance carriers on the market( magic jack, Vonage, Com Wave, Koodoo cell etc. Sorry Primus, but with all your extra nickel and dime charges, you're just not competitive any more. Customer service is terrible as well Dave Langley, Bedford, N.S.

Primus billed me for long distance calls for several years that weren't theirs to bill for. When I called to cancel (after Shaw pointed this out to me), they sent me the final bill. Though conversation with their "customer service" department in India, resolution for my problem was never going to happen. Then suddenly I received a call from a credit collections company saying that I owed them more money that Primus was asking for. Needless to say, that was over 6 months ago and nothing has been resolved. I go back and forth with Primus and the collections company to no avail. Finally when Primus admitted they were in the wrong, they credited me just over half the amount and the collections company called up the next week asking for the full amount. No communication between the two companies and the customer service with Primus is deplorable. I honestly think the system is designed so that if you have a legitimate issue, you cannot get anywhere with them to resolve it. The customer service reps in India are trained to do lip service and have the ability to do nothing other than that. They even advertise on their website the 5 steps to resolve an issue. You'll never get beyond step 2 (and that takes months to get a call from a manager). Don't sign up with Primus because you will be very sorry. I think to date, I'm about 23 hours of my life on the phone with them. It's horrible and customer service is structured in such a way that makes any complaint against them, impossible to resolve. STAY AWAY!

We canceled our long distance plan and went back to Telus (it was cheaper and Primus wouldn't match the price). Several months later we received a final bill from Primus. They had charged us three days into our Telus service period.

Our Telus bill showed calls for those days, while the Primus bill didn't, so it seems pretty cut and dried. But it took many, may e-mails with different reps, before I finally got a supervisor admitting that they overcharged us.

But not a hint of apology, and a statement that "Refunds less of $10 or less will be credited against Your account. Primus will not issue refunds for amounts lower than $10. Therefore the amount of $2.68 will not be refunded since it is less than $10.00."

If that "tough luck, we don't care" response wasn't enough, the closing was "Should you reconsider Primus Canada to service your telecommunication needs in the future, we will welcome the opportunity to demonstrate the service we are known to provide."

So if overcharging customers, finally admitting it but not apologizing for it, and refusing to make it right is how they demonstrate "the service we are known to provide", it seems to be suggesting load and clear that people should steer clear of them. If they have no problem treating a former customer like that, they seem to lack interest in satisfying their customers.

Be very wary of Primus Canada!

This company is a frustration to deal with.

I had my home phone with them, and my cel phone with another company. Last October I moved, and decided to downsize to cel phone only. So I 'ported my home number to my cel phone account and canceled the home line with Primus.

We are now April and I got an email notification from Primus saying "Thank you for your payment"

Since I had canceled my home phone with them 5 months before, naturally I wanted to know what this was about, so I phoned their 1-800 number to inquire.

"You are calling from xxx-xxx-xxxx. If this number is not the number you are inquiring about, please enter the number now" -- the number repeated to me was one that I have never had, so, weirdness no 1. I input the relevant phone number and proceeded to wait on hold.

The machine voice then said "estimated wait time: 13 minutes". This is longer than I had hoped, but as my commute is 20 mins, I figured I might as well stay on the line.

I wanted 35 minutes before getting a live agent, and after he verified my identity, all he could tell me was "I'm not trained to handle home phone accounts, I'll have to transfer your call to another agent." I told him that I had already wasted 35 mins of airtime being on hold the first time, and was I going to have to wait another half hour? He said he'd put me through using conference call rather than put me on hold... and then he put me on hold.

After another 42 minutes waiting (!!) I got to talk to another agent (whom I immediately informed that being told "estimated 13 minutes" and then waiting for 1h07m was unacceptable). This agent told me that the bill I had received and paid by automatic CC charge was the residual balance from October, but that Primus only invoices quarterly for balances of less than $20.

So, I got to waste an 1h15m of my time and my airtime on my cel to find out useless information that should have been included in the e-invoice. The agent's response to my complaint was "Oh well, nothin' I can do."

Stay away from this company!

I changed from Telus a few years back during a phone call from Primus, no cancellation fee was charged by Telus. I just switched from Primus to another long distance carrier, only to be charged $26.14 by Primus for not providing 30 days written notification. When I enquired, they told me I did receive written info on this policy when I signed up. I said I didn't recall this, the customer service agent said until last year it was written on the inside of the billing envelope. Did they really want it viewed if that's where it is written.

It's a very badly managed company with horrible customer service and miscommunication problems between their departments. Right hand doesn't know what the left does, yet it's always customer's fault.
I will spare you the details, as the story is quite lengthy and is not over yet. I just want them out of my life and stop billing me for the service they didn't provide.

DO NOT GIVE THEM ACCESS TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.
I've been told by my bank TD, that once you sign them access to your
account there is no way to stop them from withdrawing funds other than
closing the account and starting a new one.
I was a few days late getting their voip modem back and they charged me $169 for it! I called and explained that I was on winter vacation and couldn't get back to return it on time..Only two days after the deadline!...A supervisor (Monique employee #5022) hung up on me after I tried to reason with her..diplomatically. ..I have after all been a long time good customer & other than this incident would have parted with good recommendations with this company.....Just a note, these companies with this kind of customer relations are on their way out..... many business are setting up a new paradigm of customer service based on
fair decent practices. I urge all to consider Skype phone instead..MUCH cheaper..one bill a year...and won't steal from your bank.

Primus is a relatively cheap carrier with a monthly fee and it works well. Just don't try to get them on the phone as you'll spend hours on hold.

I made the mistake of going on their automatic debit plan. Well, Visa changed my card number while I was away and Primus' payment didn't go through so they wanted to charge me $25. I finally convinced them to drop this but it took several calls.

We decided to go with cell phones vs. land lines and tried to cancel. They don't allow that online. After an hour on hold this morning (I pity an afternoon caller) I finally reached someone who then told me that I also had to contact my local carrier and get Primus removed. After I told him I wanted them to do it, he put me back on hold for 5 minutes and then said it was done (I wonder).

So go into any plan with open eyes as the service is what you pay for (as opposed to Telus where it just isn't there).