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View Full Version : After 1 Month on WIND my review...


nadim
05-05-2010, 01:27 AM
Ok so I have been with WIND for about a little more than a month with WIND I use my service in Toronto and Durham Region Area mostly. I just decided to create a new thread since a lot of people were thinking of switching or are switching to WIND. Most of your know I am big supporter of WIND and probably one of their biggest fanboys on the forum.

Ok so here it goes. WIND brings a lot to the table for fair pricing. Basically, no province LD in in Any home zone if you get the $15 / $35 plans or no LD Canada Wide LD if you grab the $45 plan. The chat plans are decent and the competitiveness is awesome for what is offered today if your living in any Home Zone WIND is a serious option you could consider.

So the staff where I went to set up my account was friendly and and they knew what they were doing. These individuals seemed to have been hired before the CRTC gave WIND a failing mark. They were very open and said that the network was still having drops but they were putting up new towers in the area so it should bother me in a week or two.

So I give the in store staff an: A

Now Service my port went through and in less than 3 hours my number switched and I was amazed how fast it when consider people were writing that it was taking 24 hours or even multiple days for a port to go through. And I was off talking and texting and using bbm and such.

Now my first dropped call happened an inside building lost complete service for about a minute and it came right back up. Had to call the user back and such. For about a week I had problems texting the US but it seemed to fixed itself I wasn't too worried so I let it slide. I did try to call WIND once but they were having high volume times. So I am glad it worked and fixed itself.

Okay so now WIND the bad I guess you can say... WIND randomly dies between 1-3 am this is what I have noticed. The service just randomly goes to no bars and your phone will just search for the network it can take minutes or even an hour or two for it to come back. Some things that seem to make you lose WIND home is MSN, BBM, facebook basically anything that syncs could disrupt your service for a while. A hard reset doesn't necessary fixes losing the network when the phone still boots up it stills says "searching for network". Other than the syncing disrupting the network and call dropping another annoying thing is sending messages. Whether its a txt, bbm, or msn msg it could seriously not go through. I have had about 10 txts not go through for about 30 mins or so that eventually did no idea, had full bars still didn't go through but eventually it did. BBM and MSN messages don't go through then you have pretty much lost the WIND home network just happened to me a second a go but keep this in mind if your getting a BB.

In total I have probably had around 3-4 drop calls. 15 texts that didn't go through right away and about 70 bbm/msn messages that didn't go through or took forever to deliver to the recipient.

Network Grade: D only because when it works its rather clear and fast data if it works properly...

Customer Service: Haven't been able to call in WIND. Tried to call once but hung up last weekend. WIND's wait times are now around 150 minutes from what I read on hofo. Did fire an e-mail to WIND when I first joined and got an immediate response tried one a couple of days ago still no response. Should be noted that WIND did call a week after signing up to welcome me I thought the personal touch was awesome. Should be noted that Wind did call about a week after signing up Welcome me to WIND thought that personal touch was awesome on their part. And I did feel welcomed.

CS grade: can't really grade this.

One Annoying thing about WIND, I am really ticked off that WIND introduced a F&F deal. Basically you get the $45 plan for $15 and you buy a refurbished phone. Not too happy about that since many first real WIND users couldn't not get on this plan even though they had invites. It just seems WIND was desperate to grow in subscribers and get rid of stock but I am sure they are others who aren't too happy with this. It sucks paying $30 more for the same plan for those who held out and were suspecting of WIND until they were given an F&F deal.

Another thing I have noticed that is annoying that if you go on WIND away. Text messages could be delayed for a long time or not even delivered this has happened to me. As for phone calls after testing this out I noticed that when my phone was on WIND away nobody could call me it should just go to a dial tone then dead tone and thats it. It seems to be working now I am ***uming it is WIND forcing the phone to be on WIND home when your in a home network.

So my final verdict is even though I went to join WIND a fanboy I am quickly turning away from WIND. I love saving $$$ with no LD charges and cheaper data rates but at the same time the stability of the network is still iffy and it goes up up up down down down down to dead. The Family & Friends promotion was great incentive to join WIND i just wished they had opened it up to current customers. I would have even bought another phone if I had to. Seriously not happy with that promotion... oh well I guess. The port in credit and the new phones have probably brought in new customers for WIND which is great. I wonder if they will bring back the promo when they launch in Vancouver and the free phones they give out each weekend at Yorkdale is awesome potential for new customers.

At this time I am giving WIND about a month or two before seriously contemplating switching to one of the big three. As much as you save $$$ its not worth the headache seeing your phone search for WIND home when it should be in Wind Home. Hey Wind works perfect outside so hopefully for those who spend a lot of time outdoors maximize the network. Indoors it depends.

So will WIND get better? I hope for their sakes they will be. They can market to a lot of university/college students who move to a WIND home zone. Mobilicity is going to shake things up maybe I'll try them. Honestly right now I can't recommend WIND to anyone I am just tired defending them and first hand have seen the subpar network in person.

I just hope this helps for anyone thinking of switching to WIND. Hopefully others can post their initial reviews after one month use on WIND. I really do hope WIND succeeds because we Canadians have been seriously ripped off for too long. Let's just hope they fix their issues soon enough.

cracked
05-05-2010, 12:42 PM
Thanks Nadim! Seems like you are kinda pleased - you going to take on one of those new plans?

jimsoklar
05-08-2010, 08:52 AM
I also got the same problem except I cannot make calls in the away zone so the phone is completly useless in my home.
also long wait times up to 2 hours to talk, kind of flies in the face of there motto " lets talk"

Frankie
05-10-2010, 09:09 PM
I might join when they get and Android

nadim
05-13-2010, 09:10 AM
I hope they come out with a decent Android device soon. Or else might have to switch to Rogers/Bell/Telus.

No problems yet on WIND minus no service where there should be service so far.

nadim
05-15-2010, 02:48 AM
I will take WIND over Mobilicity :)

Now if WIND would just get some Android phones and if the competition lowered contracts to 18-24months then I would be a happy customer no doubt heh

acidbase_ab
06-27-2010, 10:19 PM
Well I am very disappointed with what they had promised in the plan. They say conference calling is included but here is wat I experienced with the conference calling, when I call 1 person and take another incoming call or make an outgoing call, I can join both together. But when I receive the 3rd call or try to call the 3rd person, I get stuck, and I can not hear anyone but the other parties can hear me.... this is not the problem with hardware because my other 3 friends have all kinds of different phones......... try it yourself!

Skippy101
06-28-2010, 02:47 PM
how is the reception issues now? 6 months later and is it good or bad?

acidbase_ab
06-28-2010, 10:50 PM
how is the reception issues now? 6 months later and is it good or bad?

Reception is also on and off sometimes, certain areas have dead spots, one of which is yonge/yorkmils..... i know most of them .....

nadim
07-01-2010, 10:41 PM
Reception is better. Customer service is getting better but wait times are still way to high. And it looks like WIND's my account services have been down all night. I guess that means no online extra top up for those who ventured out into camping for the rest of the weekend

limbada
07-13-2010, 09:07 PM
Common Every Buddy Say Who Will Win -- Wind Will Win

demobot
07-15-2010, 01:46 PM
Like all things, Wind needs a bit of time. Me I made the jump from Fido to Wind and I haven't looked back. I got the $45 dollar always shout plan. I live in edmonton but everyone I know lives in Ontarion and Quebec. No other mobile provider saves me as much money as Wind. I am using the crappy but use able Huahei hand set. But if I can get my hands on a unlocked Mytouch slide, oh yeah.

nadim
07-15-2010, 04:29 PM
Well the 50% data plan for 1 year just irritates me.

12345
07-16-2010, 04:11 PM
how come, is it BS?

gsan
07-30-2010, 04:38 PM
Signed up with half price Chat (re $15 sale price $7.50 per month). A week later I added Unlimited Data ($35 per month). It didn't work, had to do some Googling, then call Wind Technical support to tell them to check some box on their software which the person at store who set me up initially didn't do. Then it worked.

There are LOTS of dead zones in downtown Vancouver where you are flipped to Wind Away Zone (Robbers). I found listening to Slacker impossible if you are moving around or are not getting decent signal.

Also, in Vancouver, Wind does not disable roaming in their mapped home zone as some people say they do. If you don’t get Wind reception, then you flip to away zone and you incur any charges.

I have Wind Unlimited Data, I was downtown Vancouver (at sitting outside of Starbucks beside Scotiabank Theatre 900 Burrard St – essentially the centre of their home zone). Next day after calling cust service I discovered I was charged ~ $10 for half an hour of checking email & websurfing while at that location.

I use HTC HD2. It appears that either my phone or Wind network will not automatically flip back to their home zone connection. I know to check home/away on my phone but if my mobile life with Wind is going to be paranoia about home/away zone, is that any kind of life? I was hoping for so much more. Frak.

So be careful Wind users, its not enough that you are in their mapped zone area. If Wind signal doesn’t reach you, you are in $$ (Robbers) zone. Sucks.

mobilewaffles
07-30-2010, 08:25 PM
If their smartphone line-up strengthens, I will NEVER look at any the Big 3, EVER again!

gavio
08-01-2010, 04:06 PM
cool thx for the review

mobilewaffles
08-01-2010, 04:11 PM
Does anyone know when WIND will 'up' their phone line?

nadim
08-01-2010, 06:48 PM
new android phone next week. then bb pearl and curve should be coming soon.

mobilewaffles
08-01-2010, 11:40 PM
Which Android phone ? :O

nadim
08-02-2010, 09:36 PM
pretty sure this one http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_u8100-3157.php

mobilewaffles
08-02-2010, 09:59 PM
pretty sure this one http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_u8100-3157.php

Not the prettiest phone I've seen... But that's just me. Let's just hope their Android line-up powers up :D

nadim
08-19-2010, 08:29 PM
Pearl is suppose to launch in 2 weeks I ***ume around $300-$330

phr33k
09-18-2010, 08:11 AM
Like all things, Wind needs a bit of time. Me I made the jump from Fido to Wind and I haven't looked back. I got the $45 dollar always shout plan. I live in edmonton but everyone I know lives in Ontarion and Quebec. No other mobile provider saves me as much money as Wind. I am using the crappy but use able Huahei hand set. But if I can get my hands on a unlocked Mytouch slide, oh yeah.

I live in Edmonton myself and thinking about making the switch to WIND. IS it still touch and go for reception in Edmonton?

windinmysails
09-20-2010, 10:39 AM
Growing pains.. I look forward to having a Wind Huawei U8100 in the computer engineering building at U of A..:D

rich1net
12-09-2010, 02:08 AM
I am wondering how wind would compare to Mobilcity?

AbsoluteDark
12-09-2010, 07:27 AM
I wish that they would come more eastern. I mean they would compete with Koodo here in Nova Scotia if they would arrive from the sounds of things. too bad that they are only a western based company.

namjeep
12-09-2010, 05:34 PM
+1

This is so awesome. thanks for the review.
I might take a second look at mobilicity now, seeing as wind seems to be annoying.
Of course, it's for my mother, who only wants to call and occasionally text, which shouldn't be too worrysome.