To whom it may concern,

My neighbours and I are writing to express our dissatisfaction with your Internet service in Sheenboro and area. Our speeds have declined significantly over the last few months, and we find that we are having increasing difficulty in receiving a reasonable response and explanation on the phone and certainly in observing any improvement in service.

During this summer, we have had consistently slow service as well as a perceived increase in the numbers of times there is no service at all. I have called you weekly to report that it is down as apparently Picanoc does not know when the service has lapsed. The constant loss of connection and buffering when my neighbours and I are trying to play a simple YouTube video or a music or video streaming service, let alone to download a movie from the iTunes Store, is extremely frustrating. Furthermore, as people are working from home or trying to run a business, reliable and fast internet for rural areas is necessary. We know that there are people whose children’s health is compromised, forcing them to be unable to go back to schools when (if?) they reopen, but these people are concerned that their slow internet speeds will jeopardize their children’s educations.

We do not feel we are getting nearly enough attention from your technical people. One friend in town within the last month was given a new outdoor receiver to obtain a better Picanoc signal, and it’s working extremely well. Yet we have talked to a technician who says that the service here is terrible this summer but can offer no immediate fixes. One of your telephone support people told me that Sheenboro has “an unresolved problem.” From our point of view, an unresolved problem has existed for months. When may we expect resolution? Why are we made to feel forgotten? He also refused to replace a receiver until the Sheenboro system is fixed.

We are requesting the following improvements:

1. You have new clients and thus higher monthly income. Improve the infrastructure to give us faster speed to be able to get emails and download documents and watch programming as we did before COVID increased your customer base.
2. Credit our accounts when there is a service failure. Why should we have to request them? Some of us have asked but received no credits to date.
3. Set up a service technician who lives in the western Pontiac to fix downed cable (e.g., one came down on Fort William Road) or other issues, so we do not have to wait a day until the crew arrives. It would be highly beneficial for all of us if this person could address our home problems as well.
4. Ensure that technical staff are knowledgeable and do not blame the customer’s computer system, as they have occasionally done. They should admit that there are technical troubles.
5. When there is an outage, many of your customers call your tech number to find out what’s going on; often we wait 20 minutes or more only to be told something like, “all of Sheenboro, Chapeau, Chichester, and Waltham are out due to xxxxxx, and we expect that the problem will be solved by 4 p.m.” Instead of wasting our time and yours, why can’t you include in the waiting queue a message to everyone to that effect? Simple and easy. Years ago, there was always a message in the answering sequence that said, in totally strange words, “To know the status of the present failure, please press x.” Since it was so regular and so vague, we are sure it was seldom used; once I pressed x when my internet was off, and there was no specific message anyway.
6. The standard way of describing Internet speeds as “up to” xx Mbps is abhorrent and insulting. True, a speed to 1.4 Mbps does meet the standard of “up to 5 Mbps” that you (and everyone else) promote, but when perhaps half of such reports show less than 3 Mbps, one has to question your claims.

   A neighbour with a marketing background suggests that the head of your marketing department should call your own phone number periodically to learn how well the system works or does not work. Try all the options. See what we go through when we call.

   We have been loyal customers and expect a better service. We mentioned the technician who admitted that the service has been terrible. Others sound discouraged as they are taking our calls about outages and slow speed. Senior management needs to do something, and they need to communicate with the residents of Pontiac County. Make a video to advise us of your plans. The pandemic is not yet going away. You need to respond now and not later. We expect a timely response to our letter.

Frustrated customers of Sheenboro