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Shaw Cable rant thread, Leaving Shaw, etc

479K views 2K replies 323 participants last post by  faston 
#1 ·
Our Shaw Customer Service - Good and Bad - Post Comments Here thread has gotten out of hand. Very little Good, lots of rants that are off-topic so a new thread has been created to allow folks to rant about Shaw.

Now, c'mon get it off your chest.

If you have a problem with Shaw, then lets hear about it.
 
#1,189 ·
I agree with dabell. If you are a newcomer to a service, then you accept what's offered as the status quo. But if the other party keeps changing the terms of the deal, making it more expensive without adding any new benefits, then you start feeling like you are being treated unfairly. Offering discounts to new customers but not to loyal long-term customers is just adding fuel to the fire.

As for Acer77's rant, it is in fact a rant because he is complaining angrily about people who complain about Shaw. He just mislabeled it by calling it a positive rant when he meant to say it's a anti-negative rant. :)
 
#1,190 ·
Intro deals with shaw are pretty meh. They are designed to attract new customers not to retain old ones. IE a company offers a discount at the beginning, hoping to make more money in the long run when that customer pays full price.

I'm not sure why people take such exception to Intro deals. Telus uses them in an even larger capacity in their business model to try and attract customers away from Shaw.

I might gripe about the contant increases but intro deals are a business model used by many companies. They don't work if they offer those rates all the time.

edit: I think grandfathered rates for long term customers aren't a bad idea. I still save $20/month over a new shaw customer ($5 on my personal tv/bb50 bundle and $15/month on best of hd). I suppose to get those you had to be a client for over 2 years and have been on those packages before they were changed. Shaw does seem to use grandfathering to keep their rates a smidge below telus' to keep long term people from moving (it keeps me from moving). They do seem to be phasing out the grandfathered rates though. If they ever eliminate my best of HD rate, that will probably put me over and I'll do away with cable tv and get unlimited internet from a reseller :)
 
#1,191 ·
Just, wow. (link)

What else can I say?

(I was supposed to have had a lift truck come betweem 1-3PM today to replace the drop from the street to the house.)

In case they decide to delete:

Well, colour me confused.

I got a call a short time ago, the guy was on his way, but needed help finding it. Fair enough, it's a hard place to find being mostly hidden from street view by trees/shrubs.

He then called back a couple minutes later, to say the truck would come Monday or Tuesday........uuuuhm....huh? What did he come for if not with a truck to replace the drop? Seems like Shaw just paid someone to waste their time, along with mine. (Is that where the price increases are going?)

Yup, you did it again Shaw, pushed that "annoyance button" of mine. Good thing I hadn't canceled something to be here for this.

And here I was pleased he arrived early in the 1-3 PM window. Silly me...

*sigh*
Update:

I just got off the phone with the tech. I guess he came by and had a look, and said from what he could see the lines to my box where not in need of replacing, but the lines to the neighbours box was in need of replacing. (It's currently not being used by them though. It was just an observation he made.)

He also said the signals where really good.

At this stage, it appears a Gateway replacement is then next step in the process of troubleshooting. I'm reluctant to do this as I will lose all my (recently reacquired) series recordings and movies I have on my drives. The thought of reprogramming 127 series recordings does not sound like a whole lot of fun either. (The Gateway should be able to "save series list" to USB or use a "cloud system" to make series easy to transfer in cases like this, IMHO.)

Now, let me address my earlier rant. The guy was very polite and professional. *thumbs up* I told him about the above post, and he completely understood. Now (after the fact) knowing the drop is fine, I feel a little bad about my rant. A lift truck was not needed after all, and having just the tech out today actually turned out to be the better option. Though, I'm confident this was just a fluke in Shaw's favour. (As it was a Shaw tech that said it needed replacing. The guy today was also scratching his head over it.)

So, give the tech a pat on the back Shaw. He dealt with me in professional manner and I left the conversation in a much better mood about this ordeal. Though, the thought of having to swap the Gateway pleases me none. Especially with no guarantee it will remedy the issue. But if it must be done, I may just have to go that route.
 
#1,192 ·
GamerGuy,

Maybe you can talk them into leaving the old Gateway with you for awhile, long enough for you to test if the swap fixes the problem? That way if you switch back, you won't loose recordings.

Oh, now that I think of it (IIRC), if you have external drives full of recordings you'd have to test the new box without the drives.
 
#1,194 ·
I can't believe in 2014 that Shaw's billing systems can only have one "ticket" open at a time on an account. I want to port out my telephone number to a VOIP provider by May 15th, and cancel my TV and internet on June 1st. I was told they cannot put the request in to cancel the TV and Internet until after the Phone is done, and once the phone is ported out I lose my bundle discount and pay twice as much as I am now for TV and internet for a month....how does this make sense? So now I have to port out the phone and then call and give my 30 days and have Shaw TV and internet I won't need till Mid June at full rates. Why can't they put a note on the account saying I gave 30 days and just honour that?

The plan is to have my phone number converted to a VOIP provider, and TV/Internet from MTS on a 1 yr promo.

Shawguy
 
#1,195 ·
With most TV providers, only one service change can be open at a time, in order to prevent conflicts from arising (such as both cancelling internet and upgrading internet).

However, if you wanted all of your Shaw services (TV, internet, and phone) to be cancelled on the same date as the port-out, Shaw would probably be able to accommodate that.

The ideal scenario would be to get all your Shaw services cancelled and the VoIP port-out to occur on the same date as your MTS install (i.e. May 15 or June 1). That way, there'd be no billing overlap between MTS and Shaw and there'd be no mandatory 30-day waiting period to cancel your TV and internet.
 
#1,197 ·
I have had the occasion to use the Shaw Chat application several times recently and I must say the operators I spoke to were anything but rude. The average wait time was around 3-4 minutes and I found the operators polite and helpful. Just because you don't get everything you want is no reason to trash people. By they way , I do not work or never have worked for Shaw.
 
#1,199 ·
I would also state that if you take the constant price increases out of the equation, I've been very satisfied with Shaw. I've had no real problems since they did the initial installation 2.5 years ago. The speed is rock solid. Virtually no down time.

I have to agree with the other poster. All customers would be more satisfied if prices were lower. It doesn't mean the company is willing to sell to you at the price or give the CSR's the power to offer discounts. I see a difference between good customer service, and them not offering the product to you at the price you want..
 
#1,200 ·
I have to say, even with the issues I've had, (excluding the price increases) I too am mostly satisfied with Shaw. When things work, they work well. They have tried to remedy the issues, and I am appreciative of that. All the techs and representatives via the forums or chat have always been polite and have dealt with me in a respectful manner. Even when I was practically vibrating with anger/annoyance.

But, as you say, this is a rant thread, and I understand as well as respect your need to vent your frustrations. I'm sure I'll have cause to at some point again myself. Probably with the next price increase.
 
#1,204 ·
There is no problem subscribing for a month and then cancelling but you do have to give 30 days notice to cancel (so if you only want one month then you would have to give notice same day you are installed). Installation fees may apply and any equipment that a person is renting would have to be returned.
 
#1,208 ·
Thanks Shaw Champ.

It's too bad. I don't want to cancel it but it's just becoming unaffordable to have TV service for the few hours a week I want to watch it.

Perhaps we need per-hour billing.


EDIT: I meant to ask. I own my cable boxes, with everything being digital now they shouldn't have to come and reactivate anything each time I want a month of service, should they? I'd be keeping my internet connection.
 
#1,205 ·
After my grandfather package rose again, I dumped Shaw totally. I did call prior to cancelling and explained the pricing had risen to a no longer affordable rate, and was told that there was nothing that could be done.

Three days after cancelling (Internet 100, TV & full phone), I get a "come back" call from Shaw. They offered $20/mth for a year and then had the audacity to tell me that I didn't try hard enough to get my rate discounted when I called in two months ago and a month ago when I gave notice. Unbelievable...

Needless to say, Shaw gone bye-bye and sold my Gateway & portals...

Internet (25) from MTS with wireless phone total bill is $93/mth. Wireless was $60 before the move. TV is OTA...and whatever is free from the networks via the internet.

Total savings over $120/mth.
 
#1,207 ·
I canceled SHAW after 6 months of service.. Telus is coming tomorrow to give me back all my services.I did not like shaws services.Their HD offerings were frustrating,and we were unhappy with their internet speeds. We got 6 calls from SHAW to TALK about continuing our promotional charges.I didnt even answer their phone callls.Shaw will never extend promo pricing for anyone.20$ off a month for 3 months is an insult.(thats what my parents were offered 6 months ago) Very happy to welcome Telus back. AT least for 12 months anyways.Wink Wink.:)
 
#1,209 ·
visiter555 said:
They offered $20/mth for a year and then had the audacity to tell me that I didn't try hard enough to get my rate discounted when I called in two months ago and a month ago when I gave notice. Unbelievable...
Yeah, that's just Shaw-speak for "you need to prove that you're serious about leaving before we hand out discounts".

I've got a couple Shaw stories like that. Before my girlfriend and I moved in together in 2010, she had called to try and get a discounted cable rate. Shaw said that it couldn't be done - the published rates were all they could offer her. Then she cancelled cable. Then Shaw called her back a month later and offered $20/month cable TV (I think it was for 6 months) and she declined. Then the next month she got the same offer, and she still declined. The third time they called her they offered her free cable TV, $0/month for a year. So, she'd just be paying the same rate that she was for Internet service. She still declined because she figured she didn't miss cable enough to want it again.

Still, apparently discounted prices are available, but you need to go through the motions of cancelling first.

Fast forward to late 2013. Our Shaw Internet performance was really starting to suck. At the time I didn't realize that Telus had a fiber line run to the house, so I was very hesitant to move to DSL and have some crappy Actiontec router in front of my router. When I called asking about the status of their network upgrades, and whether I could get discounted Internet due to the horrible performance I was experiencing, I was basically told that the best they could do was a $5/month discount (BB100 for $85/mo instead of $90/mo).

I wasn't so much interested in saving $5/month as I was about not getting lagged out of Starcraft games. So I cancelled and booked a install with Telus.

While talking to the woman who was on the other end of the Shaw retentions department (I think that was her department, anyway), she called us back saying that in spite of all the data I collected on the situation that I didn't "try hard enough" at troubleshooting because I had never booked an appointment to have one of their techs come and poke the cable modem. And she wanted to make sure (again) that I had tried rebooting everything. Oh, and now they would be able to do better than a $5/month discount, now that I had actually pulled the trigger on giving them their 30-day notice on disconnecting the service. :rolleyes:

You see, that's the problem. We customers just need to try harder. :)

I really wonder if Shaw and Telus will keep handing out the 6 month intro deals if a particular customer keeps jumping between the two of them, or if they'll wise up to the situation.
 
#1,210 ·
@audacity, in 2012-2013, retention and win back deals were more frequent and better. Based on all the comments on Shaw forums (here and other places), retention could care less if they lose another cable customer. I think this is from the top down. My guess is, keep charging more for internet and you don't need cable customers anymore. :)
 
#1,213 ·
was out for coffee with a few people and was asked who my provider was and i told them Shaw. They asked what i thought about them and i told them there the worst they treat there customers like dirt, raising prices 8 dollars a month 2 to 3 times a year and having the worst hd lineup in Canada. I don't think he will be knocking on shaws door anytime soon.
 
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