So I'm Pretty Mad at Shaw right now

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by pylon

Wow, I have to wash the gayness off of me after reading that comment.

Hide my ass. For 70 bucks a year, you get a VPN that gives you IP addresses in any part of the world you want. So you can get around content restrictions. You just need to make sure your router is compatible.

Shaw is without a doubt the biggest piece of crap company in Alberta. 5 years ago, they were ok, now their customer service is absolutely firkin atrocious. I have screen shots of my phone with 2+ hour hold times to cancel. Twice I had to wait, then eventually hang up. When the girl picked up the phone and even offered me a very good deal to stay, I told her to stuff it. Any company that makes you hold for 2 hours, to get the chance to sweet talk you into staying, can lick my taint. If you are gonna try and talk me into staying, you better pick it up within 30 seconds. Shaw is a great example of how the CRTC monopoly, total makes companies not give a flying you know what.

Did you call the right number? Every time i call shaw i get the call back option. never on the phone for more than 5 minutes.

[GreatWhiteEbola]

I used Shaw's concierge chat service today. I had a response with 2 minutes of activating the chat, within 5 minutes, I had cancelled Super Channel, and added a distinctive ring number to my account (concierge service is only available to existing Shaw customers that are awesome.)

[karl262]

Originally Posted by pylon

Do what I did. Cancel everything except basic high speed internet.

-Get an HMA account.
-Get Apple TV.
-Get US Netflix and Centre Ice package from US IP.
-And let shaw know, you are using their internet service against them to get illegal US content at a fraction of the cost.

Shaw can rot in hell. I hate that company.

When you use an HMA does you internet speed slow down?

[Grimbl420]

Originally Posted by pylon

Shaw is without a doubt the biggest piece of crap company in Alberta. 5 years ago, they were ok, now their customer service is absolutely firkin atrocious. I have screen shots of my phone with 2+ hour hold times to cancel. Twice I had to wait, then eventually hang up. When the girl picked up the phone and even offered me a very good deal to stay, I told her to stuff it. Any company that makes you hold for 2 hours, to get the chance to sweet talk you into staying, can lick my taint. If you are gonna try and talk me into staying, you better pick it up within 30 seconds. Shaw is a great example of how the CRTC monopoly, total makes companies not give a flying you know what.

When you find a provider that is better once your already a customer, let me know. Telus and Bell are both just as bad, I've had both as my cell phone provider.

[LockedOut]

Monday wasn't really a business day. Lots of people have it off for New Year's Day falling on a Sunday.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Rathji

3 year term? You mean the interest free purchase payment plan? Is it really surprising that if you purchase something, you actually need to pay for it? That's not the same as paying out a contract.

And you can walk away from the box right then and there, you just don't keep the box.

[kermitology]

As an ISP, I can't think of one that is honestly better in terms of speed, data, price combo than Shaw throughout North America. But compare your services here to what you get in Ontario from Bell: 25Mbit with a 5GB cap for an obscene amount of money. It's unreal out east.

I also can't believe anyone would put up with Telus, even as bad as Shaw's customer service has been recently. There is not a company I hate more than Telus for all the times they messed around with me almost 10 years ago now. I've vocally trashed that company as often as possible pretty much since they took over my awesome Clearnet service and ruined it. I'm still bitter about that without the rest of the crap they put me through.

[Shin Pad]

Between Bell, Telus and Shaw, Shaw is the lesser of the three evils. I have Shaw direct, and I have purchased my PVRs - I have 2 at my home in Alberta and I have brought one down here to Phoenix. The advantage for me, is that I'm still getting all my TV down here, without paying any extra for it. Also, when I order a movie or special event - ie - UFC, I can watch it here in Phoenix, and my son can go over to our place in Alberta and watch it there - we only pay for it once. I'm not saying it's great, but it isn't that bad. Also, I have Cox cable in Phoenix - if you get the bundle, with phone, internet and TV (with the a similar channel package as I have with Shaw) - it isn't any cheaper than Shaw. Having Shaw direct down here, I just get the very basic Cox TV package - so the bundle is much cheaper.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Pipty

I mean if you don't want to fork out the money to buy the portals or older hd boxes and want to rent them. If you do get lucky with a CSR make sure that you aren't somehow locked into the equipment for 36 months unless thats what you want.

You are not making sense.

Shaw does not have contracts, for rental or purchased equipment. They never will. You are not locked into anything for 36 months. You can cancel at any time, without being charged any cancellation fee.

I think you might be confusing them with another provider, honestly.

[HPLovecraft]

I use TekSavvy here in Toronto. Left Robbers for them, and could not be happier. Saving over $100 for similar speeds (faster upload), far, far better customer service, and no wait times on the phone. Ahhhh yyyeahhh.

[wooohooo]

I always liked Shaw. Got consistent fast speeds with them. Telus on the other hand... don't even get me started. I just switched from Telus to Shaw a few days ago and got the Student deal.

[WilsonFourTwo]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I know people that switch every 6 months to take advantages of offers and deals and loyalty programs. That's really how you save money. You can't stick with them too long or they just take advantage of you.

I would like to mention that I am one of those people, and have saved (at least $50/month) for many many many years. I would also like to note that Shaw has started offering promos for an entire year. Currently have 50 mbps, telephone and basic (3 tier) cable for 45.95/month for a year.

I feel for OP......you gotta beat them at their own game.

[Burn13]

Switched from Shaw to Telus had no problems with Telus they've been helpful and quick on the phone. Shaw can rot in hell.

[flamesflames444]

I went and tried calling Shaw to cancel my cable and internet mid last week which comes to around $180/month all in in favour of Telus Optik (wife gets a deal as she works for Telus). After hearing many horror stories of being on hold forever, I was surprised to get someone on the line within 3 minutes after selecting the prompt for 'making changes to your Shaw account' or whatever it was. After I said I was cancelling she said, "Oh - I'm going to have to transfer you to another department" which resulted in my being on hold for 45 minutes before I just gave up and drove down to their head office in Eau Claire and cancelled my account in person at that service desk there.

If that is their new strategy for customer retention by making it as difficult as possible to cancel your account, something tells me that this needs to be re-examined.

[wooohooo]

I've waited two hours to talk to a rude CSR from Telus. The problem's not just Shaw, it's the industry. My contract is up on the 7th and when I asked her when my contract was due she said "it doesn't matter, the prices remain the same". So I asked her whether my loyalty discounts etc which accounted for over $60 would stick she said "no". So I asked to have them reapplied and she said she would figure out a new package for me and asked whether I wanted a 'better' package or the same. I asked for both and her better package was less channels at a increase of $40 dollars. Hmmm... asked her to keep the same plan and said she couldn't do it. I hung up called shaw and got a pretty good deal for cheaper. I tried to call Telus and see if they would match it or at least honor my old plan because I didn't want to book a tech and time off work for this anyways, spent an hour and a half listening to the same darn song so I gave up.

Two days later Telus calls me saying they have on their records I was on hold for a few 'minutes'... few hours more like it. I told her the situation and she said she'd match it easily no problems and she would put it on my file but I should call shaw to stop their transaction. Fine, I do that. Call Telus again afterwards, rep said there's no such thing on your file. Re-explained it and said sorry, best we have is this plan if you look on the internet. So I tell her that I'm not interested in some regular plan, I've (my parents, I'm negotiating for them) been with you guys for 5 years with all three services + 2 cell phones and you won't give me a break? Apparently not... so off I go back to Shaw.

I can for sure say that while Shaw does occasionally have long wait times, Telus does too. Both have shoddy customer service, but of the two I prefer Shaw.

Service of their technicians, Shaw's is much better. I've posted here before the horror story I had with Telus. I had 3+ techs come to my house rewire each other's mess and still have problems. I've even had a whole technician come to my house for over 7 hours trying to figure out how to wire the boxes. I've rarely had problems with shaw,but when I do it's always a quick fast fix and they make sure it's fixed.

Speed of shaw and TV quality is way better with shaw. Before Telus we had shaw and it was amazing. Telus, it's slow slow slow. I also have Shaw at my own home and it's wayyyy better than Telus.

Sorry, I just got angry talking about shaw/telus again. I wish we could have options for more providers but of Shaw/Telus/Bell, Shaw is the lesser of the evils. TELUS IS EVIL!

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Did you call the right number? Every time i call shaw i get the call back option. never on the phone for more than 5 minutes.

I don't get the call back option all the time. I called in last week to activate my new PVR and I didn't get a call back option or an estimate of how long the call queue is. After waiting for around 10 minutes I heard the message regarding going online to activate. So I hung up and went online, unfortunately because I bought my PVR from Future Shop and not Shaw I had to use the online Chat to have them activate it, and the chat would not initiate. I'm guessing I was "on hold" there too. So I called back and got the call back option and how long it would take. Unfortunately I wasn't going to be around much longer so I waited to call back. When I called back the next day, I didn't get the call back option but they did tell me how long I would be on hold for, which was only 10-20 minutes.

Now that I moved my old cable box to another TV I've been having problems with it, and I called yesterday and got the call-back option, which was 30-55 minutes. I used that but never got the call back, likely because my wife proceeded to talk on the phone for the next 90 minutes!

[Pipty]

Well its not a contract but if you sign up for the easy own it pretty much is... cancel out and pay the remainder of what you owe on the equipment at an inflated price. I could understand that for their new portal equipment but at least give us an option to rent the older equipment instead of easy own. That way you can switch to the portal stuff when the prices come down or goes on sale every now and then.

[CaramonLS]

I have a good one from Shaw:

My PVR Expander stopped working (therefore disabling my PVR), so naturally I call shaw tech support. I have one tech support rep who procedes to get me to unplug my box, etc, he is resetting a bunch of stuff on his end.

45 minutes I am on the phone with this guy, he ends up screwing it up so badly that he completely locks out my cable, so my TV is completely useless. He tells me he is going to send a tech support truck out to see me, says they can come the next day (sunday) between 2-4 PM.

4 PM Sunday comes around - still without cable, and no tech support truck.

I call up shaw pretty pissed off at about 5 PM saying that the tech support still hasn't come out to see me that they told me was going to come to my place. The shaw rep then proceeds to tell me that he has NO RECORD OF MY CALL and NO TRUCK HAS BEEN DISPATCHED. There was nothing on my account to indicate that I was even helped.

So basically the tech screwed up so badly that he just lied about his mistake and left me without cable to 24 hours.

So the guy who I am now on the phone with actually fixes my cable in about 10 minutes (so at least I have TV) and dispatches a truck to see about my PVR.

For this - 1 free VOD movie rental.

Get ######ed Shaw.

[bossy22]

I cancelled shaw cable and have them for Internet. I keep getting calls offering me these 'amazing' deals. When I ask if the deal is for the life of the service they say no it's 6 months, then the prices skyrocket. Not interested. Apple tv and an OTA has been working great for us.

Pylon, how are you getting gamecenter?

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Pipty

Well its not a contract but if you sign up for the easy own it pretty much is...cancel out and pay the remainder of what you owe on the equipment at an inflated price. I could understand that for their new portal equipment but at least give us an option to rent the older equipment instead of easy own. That way you can switch to the portal stuff when the prices come down or goes on sale every now and then.

I was actually going to correct you, on every single point in your post, but it is actually pretty obvious that you are trolling me, so I will just go eat my lunch rather than spend my break at my computer.

For your reading pleasure I provide a quote that explains what actually happens if you cancel your easyown.

Originally Posted by kermitology

And you can walk away from the box right then and there, you just don't keep the box.