Question about Bell TV. - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Netskot · 02-23-2010, 12:49 PM

Hey guys,

Quick question. I'm seeing alot of Bell TV ads lately and it peaked my interest.

Do you need a dish in order to have Bell TV or is an HD receiver enough? Also, do they use the same cable outlets as Shaw or must you have your house wired differently?

Does anyone here have it and is it good?

Thanks.

Netskot · 02-23-2010, 12:50 PM

Oh I just found that you do indeed need a dish. Hmm.

Still trying to find the wiring procedures.

HotHotHeat · 02-23-2010, 12:54 PM

They come and install the wires, or at least they did for us.

Netskot · 02-23-2010, 12:55 PM

Is it pretty evasive? Do they drill holes and are the wires exposed every which way?

old-fart · 02-23-2010, 03:14 PM

They can leverage existing cable as long as it is relatively new. If not, they'll probably use the old cable to "pull" the new cable.

Also, TELUS satellite TV is basically rebranded Bell, so you might want to see what kind of bundle you could get with TELUS if you have a home phone with them already.

4X4 · 02-23-2010, 03:40 PM

Allow Bell Satellite into your home at your own peril. Inspect every single bill. Keep every single piece of documentation. Print off your bank statements to prove that you paid them. Check your credit regularly to make sure they didn't invent something and sent it to collections. Always get names and employee IDs of who you talk to. Keep records of when you talked to them about anything. Follow up on any changes to your service.And for the love of god, if you ever cancel, scan your final "paid in full" bill and save it in your gmail so that you can bust it out and send it to them in 6 months when the collection agency calls. (and again in 12 months, and again in 24 months, etc)

old-fart · 02-23-2010, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4X4

Allow Bell Satellite into your home at your own peril. Inspect every single bill. Keep every single piece of documentation. Print off your bank statements to prove that you paid them. Check your credit regularly to make sure they didn't invent something and sent it to collections. Always get names and employee IDs of who you talk to. Keep records of when you talked to them about anything. Follow up on any changes to your service.And for the love of god, if you ever cancel, scan your final "paid in full" bill and save it in your gmail so that you can bust it out and send it to them in 6 months when the collection agency calls. (and again in 12 months, and again in 24 months, etc)

So... bad experience I gather?

My experience thus far with the TELUS satellite TV version has been great.

Vulcan · 02-23-2010, 04:14 PM

If you get a dual tuner HD PVR receiver (best receiver in Canada from any supplier), you'll need two cables. My original installation in Calgary, more than ten years ago, was pretty basic and he ran a cable up through a heat vent. Hopefully they do a more thorough job these days. I'd try to be home to keep an eye on them.

I've done my own installations out here (two satellite dishes because of poor signal strength here, should be good in Calgary though, try to get the dish installed handy to a broom to sweep the snow off the odd time it's needed) as Bell doesn't recognize my area as being part of their coverage.

One other recommendation, go for the dual tuner HD PVR and search the web for the older 9242, it's much better than the newer 9241. Also any new Bell HD receiver ( 9242, 9241, 6241, 6231) can be expanded with an External hard drive and you can create timers from a computer and some wireless phones on a dual tuner.

and oh yeah, pay attention to 4x4's advice as many have had similar experience. Imagine you're making an arms deal in Pakistan when dealing with them, though I haven't had any problems for a couple of years now and I managed to get 30% off every bill for a year and an extra HD receiver for 30 bucks.

HOOT · 02-23-2010, 04:34 PM

4X4 has a hard-on for hating Bell. He had a bad experience so that means everyone else will, but just like any huge company people will always have problems, personally I haven't. Their customer service is questionable, but getting better, but really you shouldn't have to speak to them. Maybe once a year as you can do most, if not all, your business online.

Best HD, best hardware and being able to record on your PVR from a computer or smart phone is amazing. They have even added 5 HD channels just for Olympic viewing with no commercials, two player cam (mens hockey) channels and a multi view channel where you can watch 6 channels at once. I love my Bell TV.

OilKiller · 02-23-2010, 04:39 PM

4X4 and me...that's 2. Keep 'em coming people...

Oh, and I also would challenge Hoot's "best HD and hardware" claims.

HOOT · 02-23-2010, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OilKiller

4X4 and me...that's 2. Keep 'em coming people...

Oh, and I also would challenge Hoot's "best HD and hardware" claims.

Of course you would.

Should we start a count on the amount of Flames game missed or partially missed by a Shaw customer? lol

Lets make this short: Personally I really like my Bell set-up and wouldn't switch to Shaw even if it was free. OK and 4X4 didn't like their time with Bell. Show me a company with millions of customers that doesn't have a few unhappy ones?

4X4 · 02-23-2010, 05:00 PM

I'll hate Bell until the day I die. They're fricken scammers and liars. They sent me to collections three times for the same BS debt. I've told the story enough times here, so I wont bother again. But every thread that ever pops up about Bell, you can count on my presence reminding everyone that they're SCAMMERS and LIARS.

I've had disagreements with almost every company (Bell, Shaw, Rogers, Enmax, DE), but only Bell went the extra 10 miles to really BS and lie and steal. The other companies fixed their mistakes, or at least explained to me where my interpretation of the problem was wrong.

Bell can suck my balls.

ken0042 · 02-23-2010, 08:44 PM

4x4 is somewhat correct. I will also add never pay the same amout twice to them. Even if your bill is the same every month, pay and extra 40¢ here, short 25¢ there.

Because if they miss crediting your account, good luck trying to convince them that the two payments were on different months.

That said, I still have Bell- and prefer it over anything else.

Mad Mel · 02-23-2010, 08:53 PM

Wow, sounds like 4x4 had a terrible experience. I had Bell for eight years, and never a problem. But with any service company, there will be some people who get boned, I guess the question is: how many? Not sure where you can go to find out that kind of stuff.

I have watched many hockey games while Shaw viewers were steaming mad because Shaw f'ed up, yet again. For me personally, it's no contest, if/when I move back to Canada, it's Bell all the way.

As far as wiring goes, you need RG6 coax cable. If you can find some exposed wiring someplace (basement maybe?), it should be printed on the cabling. If you get a dual-channed PVR, they'll have to run extra wiring, but when they did that at my place, they just ran it through the same location as the existing stuff, so no new holes in the wall or anything.

csnarpy · 02-23-2010, 10:26 PM

Unless we can get Direct TV (legally) here in Canada, I'll never be without bell. Never had a problem and now with retentions, I basically only pay half of what i really should. (free hd pvr rental, free hd and 40% off my entire bill - gawd i love retentions)

HOOT · 02-23-2010, 10:44 PM

Retentions once gave me a free 9242, not a rental but outright own one.

If you know how to deal with people they are easy.

Tyler · 02-23-2010, 11:35 PM

I'd go back to Bell time and time again because their PVR's rock my socks.

Shaw's Moto box is such a heaping pile of garbage.

OilKiller · 02-24-2010, 06:14 AM

Meh, not going to get into this again with you Hoot. Shaw is about the least evil out of all of them out there and Bell sucks.

WilsonFourTwo · 02-24-2010, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Netskot

Hey guys,

Quick question. I'm seeing alot of Bell TV ads lately and it peaked my interest.

Do you need a dish in order to have Bell TV or is an HD receiver enough? Also, do they use the same cable outlets as Shaw or must you have your house wired differently?

Does anyone here have it and is it good?

Thanks.

I suggest you go here:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=3

When I had Bell (back in the day) it was terrific. Really reliable, reasonably priced (coulda been a touch lower) and plenty of channels to choose from. If I had the southern exposure for a dish, I would gladly sign up again.

WilsonFourTwo · 02-24-2010, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Meh, not going to get into this again with you Hoot. Shaw is about the least evil out of all of them out there and Bell sucks.

The truth is.....I agree with you. The sliding scale of evil applies.

Telus=The Devil
Bell=The Devils Minions
Shaw=Hitler (with polite customer service people at least)