Start.ca Reviews 

If I could give Start.ca zero stars, I would. For years, I enjoyed wonderful service, but the last two weeks have been an absolute nightmare. I’ve spent countless hours on the phone, waiting up to an hour each time, only to never get through to anyone. Their website is useless, constantly directing me to a live chat that rejects my phone number.

To add insult to injury, I drove to their warehouse, hoping to speak with someone in person, but even that was a dead end. Meanwhile, they flood my inbox with overdue notices, even though I pay my account two months in advance. It’s clear they can send emails, but they can’t be bothered to check their own records.

I’m beyond frustrated and at my wit’s end. I’ve wasted so much time trying to contact them and resolve this issue. If you’re considering Start.ca, save yourself the headache and look elsewhere.

Been with start.ca for 12 years. When Telus took over, I went from 5 star rating of start.ca to a 1 star rating for telus. Impossible to reach telus now. My longest wait was for 35 minutes and I hung up today.. Day before was 23 minutes and I hung up. Very high prices now and competitor's pricing is cheaper and a couple were cheaper and faster. That is why I call Start.ca alias telus to discuss this. I am so frustrated with telus crappy service and evil customer service. I so want to get rid of them now. Just waiting for an email responce with my phone number to see if they even respond to that method of contact. Hate them right now and if I do not hear from them, I will ditch this customer unfriendly business. Now, I will shop for another internet service while a wait for their responce if it even happens.

They used to be amazing. Ever since they got bought out the wait times are insane and the service is basically non existent. My wife and I have spent hours trying to get though to fix a NEWLY INSTALLED SERVICE. To cancel is the same phone line they just don't answer. RIP start.ca

Ever since the takeover of Telus. Start has gone straight into the toilet. Every single day the TV freezes up. Today it happened three times. With three different programs. I am watching the U.S. Open. It froze up. No problem I switched channels. Then I’m watching Layla Fernandez. And the game freezes up in the third set. I missed seven games. Then I’m watching Detroit Tiger baseball with the athletics. Again it froze up so I’m missing the ball game. And it’s only on one channel. Same with Layla Fernandez. It was only on one channel. One time I called Start. The guy told me I could watch it on my phone. I didn’t buy a 75 inch TV to watch sports on my phone. And this has been happening for the last 2 1/2 years. I have called and complained numerous times. And they just have no answers or they just don’t care. The other big major issue I have. Their customer service is only open from 8 AM to 9 PM. It’s not 24 hours anymore like it used to be with Start. This company is absolute garbage. They do not care about their customers. If they cared about their customers, they would have customer service 24 hours. Your Internet or shut off at 10 o’clock you’re completely out of luck. You have to wait till 8 o’clock in the morning. And don’t bother trying the online thing I’ve tried that it does not work. The other problem is you called during the day you’ll be in a queue of 26 callers. So you’re on the phone for over an hour. Waiting for someone to take your call. Only to tell you, you can watch it on your phone. It’s just not worth the hassle. Yes, it’s a little cheaper than Cogeco. But you know what at least with Cogeco I was able to watch all of my programs without any interruptions.

Worst company ever. Ever since Telus took over wait times are crazy long, I haven’t had internet for a week and every single person says “we put a ticket in but cogeco isn’t responding” I’ve already switched companies and told them to refund me for no services this month and cancel my account.

Company used to be good but not great. Now since they are part of Telus/Koodo, the service has gotten worse. Prices are not competitive and getting a hold of a live person either on the phone or via live chat will take forever. I have waited over 45 minutes on both and no answer. There service is down the toilet.

Tried later in the evening but still waited over 45 minutes with no response on phone and also no response via online chat. No customer service at all.

It used to be a very friendly and great company, but now since Telus and Koodoo decided to take over and decided to destroy it, they have been really successful. I am a customer since Start.ca good times and now seeing the destruction. It's so hard to get hold of someone now. They are not polite anymore. I got rid of their internet already. They remind me of my place of work where I worked over 27 years . That company grew and grew like anything but late the owner decided to sell it to Onex and it only took them 3 years to completely destroy it . We had branches all across Canada and purchased lots of American company so branches all across most of U.S.A., but all gone within three years. Same is going to happen to this company. You ignore customers, you go down the drain. Stay away from these guys.

Internet cuts out. 300mb package with Start.ca is less reliable than a 50mb package from Fido back when Fido offered internet.

It's also impossible to get anyone on the phone.

AVOID!

This company has the worst service available. Forever losing signal constant buffering just all around garbage. The signal cuts out every 15 20 seconds throughout the day sometimes anywhere from 2 minutes to an hour some days. We have reset modems the works and nothing changes. Myself and a many other people I know are ditching Start.ca and going elsewhere. Some of their customer service reps are extremely rude and others don't have any answers as to why there are issues. Total garbage internet don't waste your hard earned money on this company.

After consistently interrupted services with nothing but excuses, they sell there customers off to rogers. I do as they ask and send back my modem and transfer to rogers. 2 years later and they claim I didn't return the modem and without reaching out to me in any format they send the bill to collections and refuse to overturn there decision despite me knowing information I could only know if I had returned it at such time when they asked. Thanks for being yet another scam organization targeting good Canadians.

Horrible customer service
Sent to collections without even a call about outstanding bill
Do not recommend
Won’t use again

dont need to say much, Start was amazing when I signed up in 2017, 24hr customer service, no holding an hour to get somebody on the line. A nice local, independent company which kept rates low and provided excellent service for years. Telus comes along and now it's same garbage as all of them, Start sold out and Telus bought them to eliminate competition. For that I'm out, before any bullsh** can happen.

I have been with Start for almost a decade now.

For most of that, they have been an exemplary company. Reliable with almost zero problems and the few times there was problems their customer service was phenomenal.

Then the Telus takeover happened.

They switched their infastructure, moved their customer service over, and it's become possibly the single worst internet service provider I have had.

The internet drops every single day, oftentimes multiple times a day. Sometimes for hours at a time.

I used to recommend them with a glowing review, and got a number of people to sign up. Now? Now my only recommendation is you stay as far away from them as you can. Take any other service provider. You'll be happier for it.

I have not had problems with internet service, or connectivity. It is not super fast nor super slow, I have not had it cut out unless there was a problem due to snowstorm or etc where the whole area is affected.

You cannot change anything beyond your password or payment information (as in update credit card, not remove or anything else) using the customer portal as of 2025-02-15. I tried to call-in to cancel my account, as there is no way to do that online without calling.

The phone in commands are not responsive and it took me 33 minutes to get my account closed. I have had 2 calls ahead of me according to their call robot. It took 17 minutes to speak to a representative of which apparently could not hear me. Which of course is incredibly frustrating and wasted 17 minutes of my time.

On my second call it said there were 2 calls ahead of me, 6 minutes went by and then it said no other calls ahead of me. I got to speak with a 2nd representative after another 6 minutes of waiting. The representative was very nice and immediately helped me out with my request.

TLDR: Internet is alright, no speed or connectivity issues. Calling in to change account information may take a long time (took me 33 minutes).

Do not use this useless company. Since the TELUS takeover, customer service has gone done hill and they have no idea what they are doing or what they are taking about when it comes to procedures, and they are extremely slow to process refunds, making you wait 3 weeks or more, but they are very quick to take your hard-earned money, when your bill is due. Start has very long wait times when calling in, and they don't provide 24/7 support anymore.

I used to proudly rate Start.ca with 5 stars, genuinely appreciating their exceptional customer service and reliable support. However, since the Telus acquisition, everything has changed—and not for the better. The once-outstanding customer service has been replaced with unbearably long wait times and subpar assistance.

I personally waited over an hour for tech support, and I’m far from alone in this experience. Many others are facing similar frustrations, highlighting a troubling trend. Telus has taken what made Start.ca special and destroyed it, prioritizing profit over the genuine care and support that customers deserve.

The decline in service is so significant that I am actively seeking a new provider. I will never subscribe to any services offered by Telus or its subsidiaries, including Koodo Mobile and Public Mobile.

It’s disappointing to see a company that could once afford excellent tech support now reduced to providing what feels like the bare minimum. This stark decline is a reflection of Telus’s standards, which, in my opinion, are among the lowest in the industry.

I’m also disheartened by the broader implications of this acquisition. How did we let this happen? Where was the protection for Canadian consumers? The lack of action from regulators, such as the CRTC, has only enabled a small group of large corporations to dominate the market, leaving consumers with fewer choices and poorer service.

To those reading this: good luck navigating this new reality. It’s clear that the interests of everyday Canadians are being overshadowed by corporate agendas.

Internet is fine. TV is frustrating with well-known issues (by Start staff). If you just want internet and watch TV, you should be OK. But if you want to record for future viewing, forget it.

The Start staff is friendly and helpful and I really don’t want to bother switching but I must.

We use to be with Start and they were great, easy to talk to customer service , we left them for awhile but we have recently returned to them and this time we have internet, tv and home phone. Internet and home phone seem to be ok but the Tv is glitchy, sometimes just freezes, some channels do not come in ( ctv Toronto as an example) and they have said it is a known issue they are working on. Now when you call in expect to wait atleast hr, one time I called there was 26 people ahead of me, after over 1hr on hold I had 16 people in front of me and its 7pm and then the phone line went dead, guess you can imagine my reaction. Yes they are not who they use to be, I see a short reunion is going to be in order.

Absolutely the worst customer service ever. If you have an issue after 9 PM eastern standard time. You’re screwed. You can go ahead and pay for your Internet. But you have no Internet. But you’re still paying for it. But you have none. And you can’t call anybody after 9 PM. So you’re paying for something that you don’t have. What the phuck sense is that, it’s total bullshit. And it all happened ever since they hooked up with Telus, which is a subsidiary of Bell telephone. Which everybody knows Bell telephone is a piece of shit. They screw people over and over again. And now Start TV has decided to go with Bell/Telus . Which everybody knows is a piece of shit. All they wanna do is grab your money. They don’t give a phuck about customer service. So my Internet shut down at 9:01 PM? I cannot get service until 8 AM that day. That’s the way it is. That’s right that’s true . They don’t give a shit about their customers and it’s only obvious by The hours that they offer customer assistance or support. 8 AM to 9 PM. Really? So 9:01 PM my Internet shuts down and I cannot use it, but I’m still paying for it right? And this is the way they want to run a company? You guys oughta be ashamed of yourself but you know what I know Bell telephone/Telus/Start TV. Doesn’t give a phuckabout anybody. They only care about the phuck IG profits. And that’s it and that’s the truth so do not buy Start TV.

Have been with Start for 5 years for Internet and TV. Ever since Start was bought out by Telus quality & service has gone downhill. No more customer support after 9pm. Before they went with Telus there was hardly any wait time to talk to Tech Support. Now, it's just like Roger's. Hour, two hour wait times are not unusual with dozens of calls waiting in the que. Kind of tells you about the quality now. TV is now crap. It never fails that the sport channels will freeze up for hours and ately the movie packages are unwatchable after 10pm for the same reason, and of course you can't contact customer support because they're "closed". Like everything today a once good local company goes for a crap after being bought out.