(This story is sponsored by oxio.)

Communicating with your internet service provider (ISP) when there’s an issue with your connection should never result in frustration or anger. But we’d be lying if we said our couch pillows haven’t been on the receiving end of a cathartic punch or two after ending a call.

“Have you ever felt like you’ve travelled the world three times because an ISP has transferred you to three different departments to try to solve your problem and after 59 minutes, nothing is done and your Wi-Fi still isn’t working?” asks Marc-André Campagna, CEO and cofounder of oxio. “We’ll never put our clients through that.”

Far too many support teams rely on chatbots, scripted positive responses, and the dreaded “let me transfer you” move when a customer encounters an issue. 

Digital ISP oxio is determined to transform the support experience by providing clients with a quick, stress-free solution to their problems. Customers can also take advantage of oxio’s high-speed Internet packages with fair and sustainable pricing without being locked into a long-term contract.

Since 2019, the Canadian company has been replacing the big telco bullshit we’re used to with honesty, transparency, and interactions that give you hope for humanity.

Gabriel, a full-stack engineer at oxio, recalls one of his most memorable customer-support stories from when he first started at the company. “I once drove two hours to personally change a client’s router because they were having home phone problems. I couldn’t solve it on the first trip so ended up making the drive twice. On my second visit, they offered to let me stay for a while to play video games and smoke some weed. I’ll leave the ending up to you.”

In addition to being the first digital ISP, oxio’s willingness to educate customers and commitment to humanizing the telecom industry sets it apart from other companies. Since the Internet’s inception, ISPs all over the globe, and especially here in Canada, have been taking too much money from customers while providing them with rather subpar support.

“Once I went to a customer’s house in Saguenay, Quebec, to help them solve an issue with their Internet,” says Matt, lead technician at oxio. “Helping the customer felt pretty good and their grandma even sent me home with a ton of candy—this was the best part of the visit, hands down.”

For oxio, changing the way Canadians think about the Internet comes down to culture, internally within the company and how the team interacts with customers and suppliers.

“You know we care when we go to bed worrying about a customer that’s still on our mind,” shares Carolyn, a customer service rep at oxio. “The first thing we do when we get to work the next day is check in on them. We also communicate about our clients as a team so everyone is up to date and on top of everything that’s going on from a customer support standpoint.”

When a customer has an issue with their connectivity or simply requires some information, they’re able to speak directly with a support specialist at oxio. It can be over the telephone, through messenger, or by email or SMS—whatever chat medium the client prefers. Customers will get the answers that they needed in five minutes or less, which is about two hours less than the time it takes with other ISPs.

Because of its responsive support team, sustainable pricing, and enthusiasm to share everything it knows about the shifty telco industry, oxio says that it wants to be the first ISP people actually like.

“Sometimes we have limits on what we can do for our customers because we depend on other companies for shipping and network infrastructure but we’re always trying to push those limits,” says Alexandre, head of customer experience at oxio. “The amount of times that I’ve said or heard someone else say ‘I know that we don't normally do this but could we make an exception for this customer?’ is incredible. And it’s always answered with a willingness to figure out how to make it happen. You’ll never hear us make excuses or say that it’s not our fault. Yes, sometimes things are out of our control but we’ll always go above and beyond in order to fix it.”

For more information or to say “hi” to the team at oxio, visit www.oxio.ca/.