Has anyone else done this lately? I think I had enuf and it's time to look elsewhere and I wondering how painful or painless it can be?

It's completely painless.
Just set up the appointment with Eastlink and they will do all of the heavy lifting.
Make sure you return all of the hardware to Bell as soon as you are set up to avoid rental charges.
Eastlink will probably be running some sort of Easter Promo so you may want to hold off until then.

Make sure you give bell 30 days notice, and it takes 4 business days for your phone number to get released from bell to eastlink. Curious though, what troubles were you having with bell aliant?

Before switching I would call Eastlink, tell them you are considering switching and see what they can offer you to switch, they may cut you a deal for a few months. Once difference between Eastlink and Bell, it seems like with Bell they don't care if they keep you as a customer or not whereas Eastlink will work with you in fixing an issue.

I have issues with playback from PVR and poor reception on some stations lately and I'm still pissed since they removed the on-demand for the non-subscriptions channels(ie global, ABC, NBC etc) and when I called today to have someone look at my fiberOp setup I was told it may cost me $60 for a service call.

Be forewarned...Eastlink service is no better. They may be slightly better with service calls, but when equipment goes tits up, they aren't the quickest to show up. Plus, the billing department is bloody pathetic. I've been fighting with them for 9 months trying to get either a paper or email version of my bill, and I could name 15 other people who are going through the same thing. They have zero problem calling you when the bill (which has not been received) is overdue!

I had zero response from them until I put an angry post on their Facebook page. That fixed the issue for two months, and back to the same old, same old. I'd switch to Bell, but I rent now, and cant get fibre op. Just a heads up that Eastlink service sucks pretty badly as well.

We switched from Eastlink to Bell a couple months back and have yet to have a problem!

Eastlink just kept getting to expensive and nothing was ever done properly. Most cases you would be correcting the serviceman... Then when it came to billing... This was quite an impossible feat for them!

Glad we made the switch but starting to think we only need internet now as Landlines and Cable tv are becoming a thing of the past...

Thanks for those updates and I will be careful in whatever move I make. I haven't quite given up on Bell Alaint just yet, but unless they start paying better attention to their loyal customers(these days they seem more focused on new customers), I will not hesitate to move elsewhere, when the time is right.

They all suck in their own special ways.

I think most people I know who "never have a problem" didn't need anything out of the ordinary.

If you plan on getting only internet from bell be prepared for more fees because you don't have a phone plan with them.

I'm currently paying $61.95 before tax for their slowest speed. If I were to disconnect my land phone with them they'd charge me another $10 before tax each month.

A $10 monthly High-Speed Network fee applies for customers without either Bell Aliant Home Phone or TV.

~6 years ago I was paying the same amount for 10x the speed with eastlink (1 megabyte/s vs the current 0.14 megabyte/s) in ch'town. Currently in rural area so no competition (only aliant available thanks to ghiz gov granting them monopoly without a tender), so I'm screwed.

I'd love to upgrade to the 7mb/s aliant plan for $10 more, but I doubt they'll upgrade the lines for another 20 years. So as internet becomes more data intensive (video streaming) I get screwed even more.

I'm jealous of people who can choose between aliant or eastlink, because you get deals all the time.

So both offer TV, mobile, internet and landlines in any variety of bundles then they bill you. Then if you have a technical issue they have troubleshooting and repair services.

With me and people I know, only Bell has ever been a problem while Eastlink has been stellar with one little exception and I had no problem with Aliant until it went under the Bell banner.

The only issue I had with Eastlink was their ridiculous decision to charge their internet customers a $2 surcharge to go toward "bringing you improved Cable TV service". In my life I've never subscribed to cable TV but I'm shelling out 24 bucks a year for Cable TV. I've used their troubleshooting and repair services a couple of times each and received prompt and intelligent service without any bureaucracy.

I've had issues with Aliant when I had a land-line with them, especially when I discontinued the service to go strictly mobile (with Telus), and with their parent company we had an amazingly ridiculous - even criminal - treatment from Bell when we cancelled my wife's Expressview. Our opinion is that Bell-anything sucks so hard you can hear it.

Father just switched to fibre op. Eastlink did everything but send a band to his door to keep him.

We cant get fibre op, but what the hell I called and told them I was moving to Bell.

Eastlink offered me 1 PVR, 3 high def receivers, free installation, and cut our package rate by 30 bucks a month. All for 2 years.

Guy who did the installation told me he'd never seent his deal before, for a 2 year term.

Edit to add, we did not have high def or pvr before this.

Sounds like a sweet deal. For now, I moved my shared PVR to a direct Ethernet connection for better throughput and I'll just see how things work out.

We are building a house this spring in Mermaid. My understanding is that Bell doesn't offer fibre op (yet) so I'm looking at getting Expressview. I've had Expressview before in Ontario and experienced very few service interruptions due to very heavy rain or snow.

Can someone please comment on satellite service interruptions due to bad weather. Thanks!

-- Bill --

Right there I think that is a difference between Eastlink and Bell. In my experiences with both, I find Eastlink will work with you to keep you satisfied whereas Bell don't give a crap if you are taken care of or not.

I've heard that quote for many years and now I'm pretty well experiencing it.

It's really good. Sometimes there's a little fuzz over a few days twice a year lasting about 15 minutes when (what I'm assuming is because) the sun passes right behind the geo-synch satellite. Only the worst rain will shut you down and we don't get the worst rain all-day long... usually a few minutes until the storm passes. I'm sure it's better in the central and west of Canada because you have less atmosphere to punch through, but it's good here too. I don't remember snow being a problem.

I've had Shaw for a few years.Weather is not usually a problem except in the heaviest rains & that doesn't last very long.

I switched from shaw to bell fibre op (tacking advantage of the free tv offer), no problems either with shaw since 2000. Fibre op seems good to me so far, at any rate I have the newest shaw direct pvr, the newest receiver, and their basic receiver for sale if anyone is interested. I left shaw with my account in good standing and transferring these receivers will be no trouble.

We are experiencing it also but with Bell mobility, as soon as our contracts are done or close enough to pay them off we are through with them