Shaw, Bell or Telus Services?

[JerzeeGirl]

Hello All,
The last thread of this type is over a year old and rather than bumping it, I thought I'd start a new one and not make everyone wade thru all the old.

I'm moving next month and hoping to get a good deal from Shaw to stay with them or maybe some nice incentives from either Bell or Telus to move to them.

Has anyone had any luck putting the screws to any of them recently & care to brag about the deals you've gotten? Any tips for bargaining you might want to pass on?

Cheers,
JG

[csnarpy]

There are a lot of advocates for all 3 systems. I personally use Shaw internet and phone but use Bell for tv. With Bell, been with them for over 7 years. No problems whatsoever. I've gone to retentions for the last 3 years and I pay $74/month for 11 themepacks + movies, HD and an HD pvr rental. I have 5 recievers (2 SD, 2 HD with external hard drives for pvr usage and the rented HD PVR)

[Prototype]

I second Bell for TV. They have horrible customer service, but you'll never use it. Shaw has awesome customer service, but you need it once a month.

I use Shaw for Internet and Internet Home Phone, Bell for TV and mobile.

Telus for nothing.

[BurningYears]

I have TELUS for all 3, you'll hear a bunch of horror stories for TELUS TV but alot of that was from the first platforms of IPTV that they were using. they actually just starting promoting the newest platform and finally named it Optik TV, it uses microsoft mediaroom and is super awesome i havent had one problem with it, the pvr if you choose to get one lets you record 2 HD streams and watch a completly differnt SD channel or record 1 HD and watch a HD channel.

[kermitology]

Bell's customer retention is pretty sweet. I got 50% off of my entire bill for 1 year after threatening some accidentally false numbers about switching to Shaw.

[ken0042]

Bell recently moved their call centre from India to Central America. (I forget the exact country.)

I have only had to call once, but it was way better than any call I made to India.

[Flaming Choy]

I keep getting flyers from shaw that has $10/month each for internet, phone, and TV. I think it's that price for the first 6 months then goes up a bit. Since you don't need a contract you could start with that and then move on to something else later.

[Buzzard]

I'm pretty interested in getting Telus to save a few bux a month, not to mention the PVR anywhere has me quite intrigued.

Can anyone using Telus tell me about the install? Do they just use existing cable/jacks or do they have to rewire everything?

[Diemenz]

Telus recently did all new systems in my neighborhood and offered a stupid deal of $55 a month for the first year (on a 3 year contract, $110 after that) for optik internet (15mb) optik tv all channels except specialty (no porn and movie channels, sports are included) and 1 free pvr with 2 free extenders.

I am seriously considering it however im kinda bummed out that you lose 3mb per HD stream running. So if 2 tv's like normal are going in my house my speed is 9mb. If i am recording 3 shows (i was told you could use 3 streams at once) im down to 6mb on internet.
{{this is what the rep told me so take it with a grain of salt those numbers could be way off.}}

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by Buzzard

I'm pretty interested in getting Telus to save a few bux a month, not to mention the PVR anywhere has me quite intrigued.

Can anyone using Telus tell me about the install? Do they just use existing cable/jacks or do they have to rewire everything?

It depends what you have existing. It goes in through a phone line to a modem which converts it to cable, so if your phone line is good enough, they'll just use that.

I was just installed today and as my phone lines were dead, the guy needed to rewire them, but other than that, not a problem. I love the menus and the VOD is cheaper than Shaw, not to mention the package is cheaper as well. I don't use everything and don't want or need all the bells and whistles and I'll still be saving $20/month over Shaw. Every movie rental being $1 cheaper as well will be great too.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Prototype

Shaw has awesome customer service, but you need it once a month.

For what? The only time in years that I've needed any customer service from Shaw was when I moved a couple of months ago, and I changed my address and booked the hook-up entirely online.

The last time I actually called Shaw Customer Service was when they were screwing up the Flames HD broadcasts before they had Sportsnet West HD up and running.

[FlamesKickAss]

We just signed up for the telus bundle based on the flyer we got in the mail. $65 a month for all 3 services for the first year. 108 after that. Signed up for three years to get the free pvr and purchased a 2nd reciever for 149.

[GreatWhiteEbola]

Originally Posted by FlamesKickAss

We just signed up for the telus bundle based on the flyer we got in the mail. $65 a month for all 3 services for the first year. 108 after that. Signed up for three years to get the free pvr and purchased a 2nd reciever for 149.

Let us know how it goes, I'm paying almost $200 a month with my current Shaw package, I would like to save some money.

[CMPunk]

Originally Posted by GreatWhiteEbola

Let us know how it goes, I'm paying almost $200 a month with my current Shaw package, I would like to save some money.

But what extras are you getting? I hear the $108 telus package is a pretty basic package

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by GreatWhiteEbola

Let us know how it goes, I'm paying almost $200 a month with my current Shaw package, I would like to save some money.

200 bucks for Shaw?! I don't pay the normal rate but is it really that expensive.

What package do you have?

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by CMPunk

But what extras are you getting? I hear the $108 telus package is a pretty basic package

http://www.telus.com/content/tv/iptv...ming/index.jsp

That's just TV, but up to 40 HD channels included for $75...

The thing I like about Telus is that it's more customizable than Shaw so you pay for only what you watch.

[CMPunk]

Depending on how hard it is to build your own package...I hate that you have to upgrade to the large package just to get TSN

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by GreatWhiteEbola

Let us know how it goes, I'm paying almost $200 a month with my current Shaw package, I would like to save some money.

Yeah I'm paying astronomically with Shaw as well. I switched over from Telus about 6 months ago, but now that all my promotional deals are over its back to regular pricing. When I consider how many channels I watch compared to the package I have to order in order to get those channels, it just feels like a major rip off. I honestly watch about 6-10 channels at most, primarily for sports.

I just reduced my package from HD Plus to HD Basic, because its just not worth it. And when I add in Setanta and Centre Ice in a couple months, my tv bills are just going to look ridiculous.

I've checked out the info on the re-named Telus Optick service, and it doesn't seem their pricing is that much better anymore. And I don't want to sign up for 3 years just to get a deal on stuff.

[CMPunk]

I dunno, just a quick check of the bundles...the Telus one is $20 more then what I'd pick from Shaw...so ultimately it's gonna come down to what you want/need

[Vox]

Originally Posted by GreatWhiteEbola

Let us know how it goes, I'm paying almost $200 a month with my current Shaw package, I would like to save some money.

Call Shaw and tell them you've seen better Telus offers, and they will match. They are very aggressive at retaining business. I was paying $150 per month for Shaw phone lines, digital cable, PVR rental, and extreme internet.

I called just to ask for some more HD channels. By the end of the conversation I had TWO phone lines, extreme speed internet, TWO HD PVRs, 5 movie channels, standard HD channels, HD Plus, family channel and a few other speciality channels, and free long distance for a year, for $100 per month.

I love the Shaw voicemail to email option, as I use unified messaging for everything and now get all my voicemail from work, my cell phone, and home phone by email.

There is a bug in the new HD PVR firmware on one of their manufacturers (they use Motorola and Pacer, and the Pacer box is the one with the bug), but Shaw is usually pretty good at fixing those and will push the fixes automatically to the PVR when it is available. I have one of each PVR and they are both pretty good. This latter info was aimed more for some of the others asking questions, as you've already got the Shaw box I presume.

EDIT: One more thing - Shaw doesn't advertise this agressively but they will match ANY offer or bundle from another carrier, so if you get one save it for when you call. They also tend to have copies of all the competitive bundles they can get there hands on to refer to them, so if you got an offer just reference it and they may already have it. If they do, they will match it.