A former Xplore customer in Manitoba is suing the rural internet provider for allegedly offering unreliable service that doesn’t live up to advertised speeds — reports the CBC.
Xplore, known as Xplornet until a rebrand in September 2022, is an independent internet service provider (ISP) headquartered in Woodstock, New Brunswick, that operates fibre networks in rural parts of Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.
The plaintiff, identified only as “Darcie” by the publication, is seeking damages from Xplore for the “annoyance and inconvenience” she experienced as a customer and wants to have her complaint certified as a class action.
In her statement of claim, filed with the Court of King’s Bench on January 27, Darcie said she sunk more than $4,500 into services and products from Xplore that she either never received or that didn’t live up to the company’s claims.
According to Norman Rosenbaum and Jason J. Zushman, lawyers for the plaintiff, Xplore either knew or should have known that some of their marketing materials and packages claim to offer internet speeds that the company “could not provide” to all of its customers.
“Xplore manufactured, marketed, and distributed internet service packages and associated products and services in an unlawful, unfair and deceptive manner,” the lawyers wrote in the filing.
The lawsuit, which is yet to gain class-action certification, is seeking a variety of damages for both current and former customers (going all the way back to January 2003) for Xplore’s alleged “misrepresentations” of available internet speeds and services.
These damages include refunds for purchases of some satellite and traditional wireless packages, along with the associated fees and interest for any person or company who paid for services that didn’t live up to expectations.
Darcie and her lawyers further claimed that Xplore’s “onerous” cancellation policies make it unnecessarily hard for customers to cancel their subscriptions.
When Darcie wasn’t satisfied with the 25 LTE unlimited package she purchased from Xplore in June 2019 for $130/month, she repeatedly complained about the lower-than-advertised internet speeds and “lack of reliability” in both writing and over the phone, but ultimately decided to cancel the service.
Where most providers offer “button click”-style cancellation options on their websites, the statement of claim noted, Darcie was told that the only way to cancel an account with Xplore was by phone and that her previous written cancellation requests wouldn’t be accepted.
Even over the phone, she had to spend hours on cancellation attempts that were ultimately unsuccessful. According to her lawsuit, Xplore representatives suggested that other providers in Darcie’s area were unreliable and urged her to retain her Xplore services “as a backup.”
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
Xplore either knew or should have known that some of their marketing materials and packages claim to offer internet speeds that the company “could not provide” to all of its customers.
——-
“Speeds of up to” is such a common line that is so prevalent in today’s advertising, it has become pathetic.
It is about time somebody had the stones to call a company out on it and I suspect there are thousands of other Canadians that would like to do the same regarding other providers.
They claim “speeds of up to” but many providers don’t’ even provide these speeds on the portion of the internet that they are responsible for, making it impossible to have the promised speeds. Then, you open a ticket, and they get it “faster” but not where they said it would be. I am talking about a different provider than the one mentioned in the suit, but this sort of shortfall is commonplace, yes.
I think SaskTel has one of the most reliable internet speeds as I found through multiple speedtests, it’s within 3-4 Mbps of advertised speeds around 80% of the time.
My parents (rural ontario) had Xplorenet and were on the phone with them constantly, their service dropped all the time, speeds were never up to speed.
Good for her!
Honestly Bell & Rogers WTTH is fast and reliable from what I’ve read.