ContactTel vs ACN Digital Phone Service

TERRIBLE TELEPHONE COMPANY! Was charged $60.00 for the equipment that I was also not apprised of an extra expense when I connected with the service. Asked why the extra charge and was told it was for equipment. When I went to ask where to return said equipment, it is now an extra charge for starting and there is an extra charge to terminate service. The early termination charge was over $80.00...so that is one hundred and forty more for a really crappy service and equipment that is now more e-waste. Had been assured it would cost no more than the current service with the land line per month, it was ten dollars more per month...with the start up costs and the early end fees it was a lot more than ten bucks a month more. Was disappointed that I had to go through the inconvenience of changing #’s temporarily to port my # and was not pleased to be charged for equipment in order to use ACN's service. I would not have had to pay an extra amount to continue to use a land line without a temporary change in my phone # and I would not have been out of commission to receive calls during this time either. However, I paid this extra expense without complaint, assuming that the inconvenience of the switch and the extra expense would see some benefit to having a digital service over the land line. However, I had a number of times where the phone was not functioning at all so I had no phone service at all and a number of times that I had to wait a lengthly time to dial a number and a number of times where the dial tone was delayed in functioning as well. However, I continued to use the service without complaint on my end, even though I was finding the service much less than satisfactory than the land line that worked without fail. The reason I returned to a land line is because I had an incident with the home alarm company that highlighted the fact that ACN's service was not compatible with our alarm company’s service…and many others as well…without a large expenditure and another dedicated phone line. We have a monitored alarm system that was not in service during the entire time that we were a ACN customer. Had I had a fire, theft or emergency incident I would not have been able to use this service. Had I had issues during the times the phone was out of service entirely, I would have had to go my neighbours for 911 service. During this time my husband was out of town working most of the time and I was alone in the home. I don't use a cel phone, one cel phone bill is enough expense for us. We paid for this security service the entire time without actually having a land line connected to the service. Over 30.00 a month for 11 months for service I was not actually receiving ~ $330.00 for security I was not actually benefitting from because I was an ACN customer. Asked ACN to please, please notify their customers that their monitored alarm systems do not function with this digital service. No feedback. Had I been aware of this issue, I would not have become an ACN customer in the first place. Would expect that this would be an issue with many other customers who also have monitored alarm systems with land lines. Would like to return the ACN equipment and had expected some refund of equipment costs. Nope, there was a large charge to end a dysfunctional relationship. More e-waste in my home needing to go to the recycle centre. Have had other tech companies collect their equipment but ACN likes to download the costs onto everyone else, instead of taking some ownership of the fact that they are creating more e-waste with starting up clients and then very shortly, in my case, having them disconnect services. Had they been a decent service we would have been long term clients and the equipment would have had a lengthly service. Was not going to complain about the fact that I was left unsecured for almost a year (and paid over 300.00 for nothing). The fact that I am not the only one that would not have an alarm system functioning in the home is a larger issue so it's prompting me to add this review. The fact that the story of charges changes to suit them is pretty brutal customer service. The fact that you could be entirely without a phone all together is a pretty big problem with a phone service provider. After my last chat with customer service I don't feel they are interested in communicating the down sides of porting a land line to a digital platform to current or new clients. It would be much better customer service to recognize the safety issues that are not being dealt with in the home. ACN is going to be involved in some court cases for liability issues in the future. This is a terrible company to deal with. Don't compromise your safety - do not deal with them! Having a functioning phone is a basic safety issue.