Start.ca Reviews 

Start used to be amazing. Since they were bought out customer service is horrendous. I've been on hold for 3+ hours the last 2 days and still haven't been able to reach anyone. Tried the online chat option on 3 different days and there are always exactly 4 people ahead of me and the queue never changes. Suspicious. Choose any service but Telus/Start.

The worst customer service. Takes forever to get through to customer service. Changing plans and replacing modem totally unacceptable. They just pass the buck. Since they gotten taken over by Telus the company stinks

Nov. 2025. For Internet Service Only - Start went down my street with new (buried) fibre optic cable late last year. My internet service from Bell was through a 1970's telephone line. Basically 3mbps and dropping over the last year from 5 mbps. Bell would not do anything. I called Start for information. Sales was easy to reach and gave me all the information I needed, and answered all my subsequent questions. Bell charged me $113 incl tax per month for service that hardly worked at all. Start is charging me $45 plus tax for 100 mbps. The tech came to the house as arranged, competently set things up for us (including codes in devices - we are older seniors) and now we have FANTASTIC internet service. If you have fibre optic cable on your street, make the move! As for telephone, we are looking at that too....but arent sure if we want to lose our landline in the even of a power outage combined with an emergency.

They were fantastic. Easy to contact and never any issues... then Telus took over and it's been one giant pain after another. They've intentionally made it nearly impossible to cancel your service as well. This is so incredibly frustrating when these giant companies take over and stop caring about customer service and quality of service altogether because they don't have to. I would recommend nearly ANY other ISP. I will go entirely without internet service before continuing with Start/Telus. Thanks Altimatelecom for ruining what was an otherwise perfect service provider. If you had the ability to feel shame I would suggest that you do, but clearly you're entirely souless.

UPDATE: We had to call hydro to remove the line on the street because Start.ca NEVER GOT BACK TO ME. Thank goodness hydro was nice enough to tie up the line to our house (Start.ca responsibility legally) but we will need to switch providers because this is the second time Ive sat on the phone for over an hour to request a tech service and the company NEVER SHOWED UP OR EVEN UPDATED ME.

Used to love Start before Telus but now this is so BAD. I moved recently and made a scheduled appointment for a technician to come set up my internet. The tech just didn't show up for absolutely no reason, support just said "sorry". Now my utility line is down on our street because of a storm and I cannot reach anyone to fix it. Also, TELUS won't stop spam calling me now. MULTIPLE times a day and I've requested they remove me from their lists.

cogeco are an evl horrible company that likes to bilk people for all theyre worth, i think theyre owned by a crime synicate. id stay away from the crooks unless ou lie being ripped off

Poor customer service infact the guy recommended there compation witch is funny because he blamed Bell there compation for disruption I can't recommend start even though I have been with them 5 years they in past year don't care about you at all don't expect any service they just don't care horrible company don't recommend

I’ve been a customer for awhile no problem loved it so now Telus has taken over what a shit show over 2 hrs waiting for tech support called today to cancel its 6 hours still waiting to talk to someone I do not recommend to anyone please take my advice don’t go there big companies take over and there done

Customer support is abysmal. Telus made an exceptional provider into a below average provider. Sad.

An hour and 40 min waiting to talk to someone!?!?! The online assistant is not available anymore, customer/billing services unavailable over the phone, this is unacceptable. How can one cancel/change services if there is no accountability from the company itself.

Used to be a good company. Telus bought em out, now it's dogshit. Just a shell company to funnel people to Telus own brand. Absolutely no chat support, no phone support, was forced to cancel my internet by telling my CC company to deny payments to them then when they called looking for payment I told them to cancel the plan since they refused to assist me. Teksavvy is far better. Don't give these troglodytes the business, Even Rogers is better at this rate

I have been on the phone for an hour and a half. By the time someone answers It's been hours since my internet started working again.

My internet service with start.ca went down at 4pm today and has not come back up. Multiple attempts at resetting modem, etc., have not worked.

Can't get through to tech support due to 'a higher than normal volume of calls' to find out what's going on and get support. This is not the first time I've experienced this issue when trying to get support.

It seems to me it's too much effort for Start to bother putting up a message on their main landing page to inform customers what's going on and when any problems will be fixed.

I'm going to try to reach them in the morning to get things straightened out. And if I can't get through, I'll just sign up with another service, and then cancel my service with Start.

Start used to be great, but ever since Telus took over, it has turned into a pile of complete shite.

The WORST custoer service , they have no ownership for their mistakes, they are unreliable in service as well as customer service...am I an idiot for staying on hold for 3hrs? but for being a long time fan of this provider 7+ yrs, its almost insulting to hear " Yes we made a mistake but we cant help you" I DO NOT recommend to anyone looking for new service...go to Teksavvy,..cheaper and on the ball...

I talked to them only a year ago and it was lovely to talk with a local agent. They were answering the phones only 10 mins away! Picked up the phone as fast as a friend would pick up the phone. Had a great chat with a local agent and she gave me the deal of a lifetime 1000up/1000down for $50. 1000 upload! You can't get that anywhere else in my town.

Fast forward to that deal expiring and now it's a completely different company.
There are no humans around. Everyone got laid off, the office space is now dark and abandoned and the customer service; non existent. Ai operator points you to billing but there is no one there, wait almost 2 hours on the phone and no one picks up.

This was Telus' strategy: buy out the competition and then make their service unusable. There's got to be some sort of anti trust laws being broken here by Telus.

Why invest in customer retention when you can just not answer the phone when people are trying to cancel their services? At least the numbers won't drop if you ignore that your customers exist.

Multiple times I have called and it's a ghost town, just the same 2 songs over and over as they keep you on hold.

I am upset that I can't rank customer service lower than a 1 star as there is none right now.

I switched to Start because of the amazing customer service but it has recently gone to crap

There needs to be a way to give zero stars. I have been with Start for over a decade with no issues until now. The customer service is now nonexistant. I am done. I just switched to TeKsavvy.

We have experienced the same disappointing service as many others according to the reviews I have read. It's virtually impossible to get through to customer service. This company used to be great, now it's abysmal.

After reading the reviews it seems to be the way start operates now
No customer service
No answered calls
Been trying to cancel my service since October 1
Called several times on hold for hrs I end up hanging up the call
Ever since they merged with Telus Koodo and now Altima start has gone downhill

The customer service when you finally get thru is fantastic. Mark in tech support worked diligently to help me fix an issue.

Took me 5 hours of hassle one day, and then the next an hour and half and Mark was able to make magic happen. It turned out an issue on cogeco end, but they were able to fix it for the long weekend. Thanks Mark your efforts are greatly appreciated