Grey Bruce Telecom ("GBTel") provides its customers ("users") with fast, reliable high speed Internet service, subject to the following terms and conditions.
For details regarding our commitment to confidentiality and security, please read our Privacy Policy.
GBTel does not guarantee that all locations will achieve "best results". Many locations will have poor to no signal and as such, it is to be left to the installer's discretion to determine whether or not the signal is of an acceptable level to purchase and use the service. If, after installation, the wireless signal falls below acceptable tolerances, due to forestry growth, landscape modification, or building construction; GBTel is under no constraint, legal or otherwise, to provide the upgrades necessary to maintain service, or to provide a refund for services lost.
The user accepts and agrees that he/she will not use web hosting technology or any type of "peer-to-peer" technology including file-sharing technologies. The use of such software is grounds for immediate dismissal from the network and all products and services associated with GBTel's network. No refund shall be offered or provided.
GBTel makes every effort to maintain 0% packet loss within its network. However, due to radio interference hazards, and changing landscape (see Geographic Location), GBTel can offer no guarantee of service quality, and will not be held accountable for any loss of efficiency due to packet loss.
The speed of the network shall vary from time to time according to network load and conditions. No guarantee in terms of speed for the network shall be given as users have the ability to significantly degrade the level of speed and performance by their location and their proximity to interference-creating products such as microwave ovens, baby monitors and other 900MHz, 2.4GHz, and 5.8GHz equipment.
All of our residential wireless plans operate on a fair access policy, whereby maximum expected speed is maintained, before being tapered back to minimum expected speed of the package purchased, until sustained downloading has ceased. This allows for unlimited data by incorporating fair network sharing. For service that does not operate using our fair access policy, please see our Business Wireless Plans for more information.
GBTel will make every effort to maintain 100% uptime within its network. However, due to electric surge, and static electric damage, as well as radio interference hazards, and changing landscape (see Geographic Location), GBTel can offer no guarantee of network uptime, and will not be held accountable for any loss of efficiency due to intermittent, or sustained network failure. By purchasing a GBTEL account, the customer understands that from time to time there will be service disruptions. GBTEL will work to the best of its abilities to restore service as fast as possible. However, customers acknowledge that GBTEL has a fixed amount of time in order to restore service when an issue arises. GBTEL strives to restore service for its business clients typically within 24 hours or 1 business day. GBTEL strives to restore service for its residential customers typically within 24-48 hours or 2 business days. Please note that if service is not restored within the timeframe therein, it is the sole discretion of GBTEL -- on a case-by-case basis -- to provide compensation in the form of a credit to the customer's account. Please note that GBTEL does not actively monitor the status of a customer's connection and therefore has no knowledge as to whether a customer's connection is damaged or not. Service level agreements are available for customers that need 100% uptime or compensation for down-time. Please contact GBTEL sales for service level agreement pricing.
Wireless high speed Internet service is a low latency service by nature. But during high traffic times, users may notice fluctuations in latency.
GBTel requires payment in advance for all network services. If payment is not received within 30 days of an invoice's issued date, GBTel has the right to suspend the user's Internet service, without warning, until payment is received.
If GBTel doesn't receive payment for your bill within 30 days of the bill date, you may be charged late payment fees of 3% monthly (42.58% per annum). A late payment charge may be applied to any unpaid balance 30 days after the billing date.
If a payment does not clear due to insufficient funds, GBTel reserves the right to charge a $20.00 NSF fee, when notice is not received 24 hours prior to attempting to process the payment.
Any customer whom is disconnected due to non payment, will have their billing continue. Once payment has been received and applied to the customers account, the customers account will be credited for any time they were offline.
Please note that any "bounced" payment or payment that is sent back to GBTEL as "insufficient funds" from the bank will be defined as an NSF payment. NSF fees will be automatically charged back to the customer at a rate of $15.00 per NSF occurrence.
All customers are encouraged to pay with direct debit or deposits. This can be done by submitting to GBTEL a VOID cheque and the appropriate documentation (found in the My Account section).
Please note our policies concerning NSF payments on direct debit transactions include an automatic $15 NSF fee on any "Not Sufficient Funds" transaction. We will automatically apply this amount to your account and re-attempt to debit your account the following month without contacting the customer.
If multiple NSF transactions occur, GBTEL has the right to temporarily terminate or suspend an account until the outstanding bill has been paid.
GBTel will provide the user with one(1) Ethernet connection, and any necessary configuration information, for successful connectivity.
Wireless equipment installed at a user's residence, remains the property of GBTel. This equipment is maintained, and replaced upon failure by GBTel technicians, as required, without fee. Damage to GBTel's equipment, through vandalism, lack of protection against power surge, or failure to meet home grounding protocols, is not covered under this maintenance agreement. Any repairs that are not covered by this maintenance agreement will occur at the user's expense.
GBTel is not responsible in any way for any damage to the users computer(s)/network(s), including hardware damage, computer viruses, or loss/theft of personal information.
GBTel reserves the right to, at our discretion, reduce the speed of a user if excessive usage is causing network deterioration. This fair access policy is in place to protect our valued customers and allow a fast and reliable internet experience for all users.
GBTEL has long been committed to maintaining the accuracy, confidentiality, security and privacy of your information. Our constant and never-ending commitment to ensuring the quality and completeness of your privacy has been fundamental to maintaining a strong and vibrant relationship with our valued customers. As part of their on-going training, our staff continually undergo privacy training to ensure they are aware of your rights. To download a PDF of our Privacy Policy, please click here.
GBTel requires the user to provide 30 days notice of intent to cancel their Internet service. Notice can be communicated in writing, via email or by telephone.
As per the Equipment Warranty, wireless equipment remains property of GBTel, to be collect upon arrangement. Should a new property owner wish to reactivate our Internet services, the pre-existing equipment can be used and the connection reactivated, for a fee of $50.00 plus HST.
Please note that we do not prorate for seasonal or standard disconnection notices. For example, if you want service for a partial month (ie if you want service until September 15) and your billing falls before or after that day (ie September 1 or October 1) we will not create a special bill for the half month.
We respect that you either want to purchase the service for the whole month or not at all. Please communicate this effectively to us via either phone, email or fax and please give us an appropriate degree of time -- typically around 30 days -- in which to process your request. We do this in order provide an orderly and clear set of guidelines so that we can meet or exceed your needs.
If equipment that is owned by GBTel Inc is not provided for pickup at the time of disconnection, a $400 equipment fee may be applied. If equipment is requested and denied, the $400 equipment fee will be applied and if not paid upon request, collection will be pursued.
GBTel requires seasonal users to give a minimum of 2 business days notice of intent to deactivate service for the fall and winter seasons. Notice can be communicated in writing, via email or by telephone. Additional fees may apply when adequate notice is not provided.
Billing is not pro-rated upon seasonal reactivation. Service will be billed from the 1st or 15th of the month, depending on the reactivation date.
GBTEL does maintain an active email server, however, in doing so it does not claim control or represent to control emails once they have been received by its customers. Customers are responsible for their own email -- whether that pertains to content or record-keeping. GBTEL will attempt to regularly backup email but customers are ultimately responsible to backup and maintain backups of any important emails. In being a GBTEL email customer, the customer resolves GBTEL of any liability and holds harmless GBTEL of any action pertaining to loss of email or issues thereof.
All of the terms in this document apply not only to our monthly residential and business customers, but also to users on our numerous wireless hotspots.
Additional hotspot users can be purchased for select hotspot plans, which will allow a second device to connect to the internet simultaneously. These extra users must be added to the plan at the time of purchase, and cannot be added part-way through an already active plan.
GBTEL strictly adheres to and enforces a zero tolerance policy with regards to the physical or verbal abuse of its staff members by customers. Both field technicians working on-site, and support staff operating in our office, have the right to a non-abusive work environment.
Our team is trained in conflict resolution and will aim to satisfy customer needs whenever possible. Should an incident of abuse occur, the customer will be informed that their behaviour is not acceptable and the staff member will end their interaction by leaving the work site or disconnecting the phone call.
An internal review is then conducted by management, at which point GBTEL reserves the right to terminate any services provided to the customer.
VoIP services allow you to make or receive telephone calls over the Internet to or from the public switched telephone network. The nature of VoIP telephone calls, while appearing similar to traditional telephone calling services, create unique limitations and circumstances, and you acknowledge and agree that differences exist between traditional telephone service and VoIP telephone services, including the lack of traditional 9-1-1 emergency services.
Because of the unique nature of VoIP telephone calls, emergency calls to 9-1-1 through your VoIP service will be handled differently than traditional phone service. The following provisions describe the differences and limitations of 9-1-1 emergency calls, and you hereby acknowledge and understand the differences between traditional 9-1-1 service and VoIP calls with respect to 9-1-1 calls placed to emergency services from your account as described below.
When you make a 9-1-1 emergency call, the VoIP service will attempt to automatically route your 9-1-1 call through a third-party service provider to the Public Safety Answering Point (“PSAP”) corresponding to your address of record on your account. However, due to the limitations of the VoIP telephone services, your 9-1-1 call may be routed to a different location than that which would be used for traditional 9-1-1 dialling. For example, your call may be forwarded to a third-party specialized call centre that handles emergency calls. This call centre is different from the PSAP that would answer a traditional 9-1-1 call which has automatically generated your address information, and consequently, you may be required to provide your name, address, and telephone number to the call centre.
The VoIP service will attempt to automatically provide the PSAP dispatcher or emergency service operator with the name, address and telephone number associated with your account. However, for technical reasons, the dispatcher receiving the call may not be able to capture or retain your name, phone number or physical location. Therefore, when making a 9-1-1 emergency call, you must immediately inform the dispatcher of your location (or the location of the emergency, if different). If you are unable to speak, the dispatcher may not be able to locate you if your location information is not up to date.
You are responsible for providing, maintaining, and updating correct contact information (including name, residential address and telephone number) with your account. If you do not correctly identify the actual location where you are located, or if your account information has recently changed or has otherwise not been updated, 9-1-1 calls may be misdirected to an incorrect emergency response site.
You must not disconnect the 9-1-1 emergency call until told to do so by the dispatcher, as the dispatcher may not have your number or contact information. If you are inadvertently disconnected, you must call back immediately.
For technical reasons, including network congestion, it is possible that a 9-1-1 emergency call will produce a busy signal or will take longer to connect when compared with traditional 9-1-1 calls.
For technical reasons, including network congestion, it is possible that a 9-1-1 emergency call will produce a busy signal or will take longer to connect when compared with traditional 9-1-1 calls.
If your system access equipment fails or is not configured correctly, or if your VoIP service is not functioning correctly for any reason, including power outages, VoIP service outage, suspension or disconnection of your service due to billing issues, network or Internet congestion, or network or Internet outage in the event of a power, network or Internet outage; you may need to reset or reconfigure the system access equipment before being able to use the VoIP service, including for 9-1-1 emergency calls; and changing locations - if you move your system access equipment to a location other than that described in your account information or otherwise on record with GBTel.
If you are not comfortable with the limitations of 9-1-1 emergency calls, GBTel recommends that you terminate the VoIP services or consider an alternate means for accessing traditional 9-1-1 emergency services.
You are responsible for notifying, and you agree to notify, any user or potential users of your VoIP services of the nature and limitations of 9-1-1 emergency calls on the VoIP services as described herein.
Customers are advised to review this section with respect to GBTel’s limitations of liability.
As per CRTC regulations, GBTEL is hereby listing its current and authorized tariff agreement - CLEC Tariff
VoIP Customers - Important 9-1-1 Information
GBTEL regularly collects basic information about usage and available bandwidth. This is used primarily for its internal record keeping along with the ability to prove to 3rd parties (ie. governing agencies) for required statistical metrics. As a GBTEL user, you are hereby notified that this information is collected as we are legally required to provide this information to various Federal and governing agencies, from time-to-time.
GBTEL always strives to deliver the best possible customer service. However, we understand that sometimes things can go wrong. If you have a complaint, we want to hear about it and we will do our best to fix it. We will treat your complaint seriously, and will work with you to find a solution. We will also make sure that we learn from your experience and use it to improve our service in the future.
Contact us and let us know your complaint.
There are 3 ways to contact GBTEL:
After contacting us, if you feel your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction, please proceed to the Complaint Step 2 section
Should our Customer Support team fail to resolve your dispute to your satisfaction, you have the option to elevate the matter by engaging with a leader from our team or by forwarding an email to info@gbtel.ca
Please include the following information:
If you still feel your issue is unresolved, please proceed to the CCTS complaint section
Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) CCTS is an independent agency whose mandate is to resolve complaints of consumers about their telecom and TV services, and complaints of small business customers about their telecom services, free of charge. If you have a complaint about your telephone, wireless, internet, or TV service, you must first try to resolve it directly with your service provider. If you have done so and have been unable to reach a satisfactory resolution, CCTS may be able to help you. To learn more about CCTS, you may visit its website at www.ccts-cprst.ca or call toll-free at 1-888-221-1687
