Telus or Shaw

[Doug]

Which is the preference in Kamloops. They both seem to have good bundles, both have similar complaints, etc. I need everything except my cell, which is still with Rodgers

[MarkoD]

if you choose to go with telus. pm me and i can get them to call you with a good deal

[knickle22]

I just switched over from shaw to telus and here is my story/ rant
I have had Shaw for the last 2 years and never had a problem until a few weeks ago. I was getting cable and internet (using cell phone so no need for home phone). Then just the other week a shaw rep call me up and said about their new plans, telling me how if i sign-up for home-phone and got the same plan my bill would actually be less . So i signed up for the phone, repetitively asking if anything else on my plan would change, the rep assured me everything would stay the same.
A week or so went by until my new plan went into affect. and then i noticed i had less than half the channels i previously had. so i called up shaw to see what went wrong, they told me that is what i signed up for. i then asked to have my old plan back as i was saving $10 but had no channels i wanted and had a phone i would never use. they then told me the plan i was previously was on is no longer available. I was ****ed. Right then and their i asked to have my services disconnected and was sent to another department,
The next lady then tried to talk me into staying and now all of a sudden i could get my old plan back, but at this point i was too mad and said no way.
I just got my telus optik setup tuesday and so-far i am very impressed. I get better quality TV, and alot more options for channels shaw dosn't offer, my internet speed hasn't gone below 20mbps (using internet and 2 tvs and same time) when with shaw i rarely seen over 15mbps (paying for extreme 25mbps) At this point telus would have to screw-up pretty big for me to even consider shaw again

[rynoe]

Both companies have there bad points as far as customer service go. I went with telus recently simply because their hardware is much better. I love the fact that all of the tv boxes are connected to each other, something shaw charges $400 for. With telus boxes you can watch your recorded shows on any tv and pause on one and continue on another if you like.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I also got the run-around with Shaw and they try to add $5 here, $10 there and my bill would suddenly jump every couple of months. When I call, they would say "oh, I don't know why that charge is there. Do you want me to remove it?" Well duh!!! Then got a sweet deal with Telus when Optik was just coming into Burnaby. I called up Shaw to cancel my services and the rep lied through his teeth saying that he would price match and I would keep all my channels and have high speed. Instead, they billed me almost $40 more than my Telus price, cut my internet to "light speed" (which is almost like dial up) and cut all my channels to just the basic which is about 24 channels. When I called up a few days later, and found out that the Shaw rep had lied, I blew my top and cancelled everything with that company. Since then, they send me a notice at least twice a month with new offers which they wouldn't offer when I was originally planning to switch.

Been very happy with my Telus TV. I can PVR 3 shows including a HD channel and watch a fourth recorded show at the same time, while using my internet and having my wife and sister-in-law downloading on their laptops. They even through in a free second pvr when I installed a LCD tv on my back deck during last year's Stanley Cup playoffs.

I calculated that compared to my Shaw billings, I will save well over $2000 over the 3 years contract. NEVER GOING BACK TO SHAW.

My Telus bill (TV including HD & 7 packages; High speed internet and free land land) was about $48 for the first year, then $65 for the next year and is still under $80 for the last year.

My last two Shaw bills were in the $120-$135 range and I had NO pvr, no HD channels, only Channels 3 to 55, regular high speed, and a no frills land line.

Since switching, I literally saved enough to buy an extra coral colony or two just from the difference in bills between my old Shaw and my Telus TV.

$135 vs $45 (or even <$80 now). Hmmmmmm.

Even at $120 for Shaw, I saved/am saving over $2100 over the three years contract. And when I phoned Telus, they threw in 6-7 free movie channels for three months just for fun.

My sister had to buy her Shaw pvr and its the one where you can only watch one channel or pvr it, you can't watch a different channel while pvring. Kinda pointless to me.

Anthony

[AquaPin]

I was with Shaw for over 10yrs, switched to Telus a few weeks ago, NO REGRETS. Faster internet connection, love the PVR linked to all the TVs, nice bonus laptop, plus I save $17 a month (after the promo price, even more $$ right now). Shaw had no interest in being competitive when I initially called them. However after I gave them notice of termination, they the suddenly had all new pricing available to me...too little too late.

Jason

[mike31154]

I'm with Shaw since moving to Vernon. Getting a bit annoyed with the TV side of things these days, although I'm not sure Telus would be any better in that regard. My daughter & her partner are with Telus & seem to like the deal. Trouble for me with switching is Telus would have to come in & install a bunch of new wiring I think. Not too keen on that. With regard to my comment on TV, I simply find with almost any standard service provider, there are way too many channels but nothing worth watching & commercials taking up half the programming time. I can't stand paying for a bundle that includes a crap load of channels I don't want with too much advertising & most of them switching to paid advertising late at night. The stuff I really want to watch costs extra. None of them (that I'm aware of) allow you to choose a specific range of channels & pay for only those. Netflix & the like are starting to look real tempting with your choice of what you wish to watch & when for $8 a month? And with the newer smart TVs coming out these days, you no longer need an Xbox or some other device to subscribe to Netflix. I think the fat corporations like Shaw, Telus, Rogers et al are going to get a bit of an eye opener in the not too distant future when folks start figuring this out & migrating to on demand TV providers. I think they might already be getting nervous since a Shaw rep phoned me this afternoon asking if everything was ok with my service.

There, my rant is done. I'll probably stick with Shaw for internet.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Shaw had no interest in being competitive when I initially called them. However after I gave them notice of termination, they the suddenly had all new pricing available to me...too little too late.



Yup, Shaw seems stupid that way. I wonder how many customers they lose every month because of this backwards approach. I just call Telus when any of my promos are over and they give me a new promo to help drop my monthly bill.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

There, my rant is done. I'll probably stick with Shaw for internet.

My Shaw internet was tortoise slow, while my Telus Optik internet is fast, even when I have 2 or 3 other people streaming videos on their laptops. Does NOT affect my wired PC's speed at all.

[mike31154]

My Shaw internet was tortoise slow, while my Telus Optik internet is fast, even when I have 2 or 3 other people streaming videos on their laptops. Does NOT affect my wired PC's speed at all.

At the moment I'm not what you would call a heavy internet user. Don't stream much, but perhaps if I go with Netflix, that would change, since it would have to come over my net connection with Shaw.

[burgerchow]

I just switched over from shaw to telus and here is my story/ rant
I have had Shaw for the last 2 years and never had a problem until a few weeks ago. I was getting cable and internet (using cell phone so no need for home phone). Then just the other week a shaw rep call me up and said about their new plans, telling me how if i sign-up for home-phone and got the same plan my bill would actually be less . So i signed up for the phone, repetitively asking if anything else on my plan would change, the rep assured me everything would stay the same.
A week or so went by until my new plan went into affect. and then i noticed i had less than half the channels i previously had. so i called up shaw to see what went wrong, they told me that is what i signed up for. i then asked to have my old plan back as i was saving $10 but had no channels i wanted and had a phone i would never use. they then told me the plan i was previously was on is no longer available. I was ****ed. Right then and their i asked to have my services disconnected and was sent to another department,
The next lady then tried to talk me into staying and now all of a sudden i could get my old plan back, but at this point i was too mad and said no way.
I just got my telus optik setup tuesday and so-far i am very impressed. I get better quality TV, and alot more options for channels shaw dosn't offer, my internet speed hasn't gone below 20mbps (using internet and 2 tvs and same time) when with shaw i rarely seen over 15mbps (paying for extreme 25mbps) At this point telus would have to screw-up pretty big for me to even consider shaw again


yep, same thing happened to me about 6 mos ago. Been using Shaw for the last 6 years, just for their cable. Big time customer. My cable bill just for TV was $185 a month. ( I know, but I just hate seeing blank channels when I'm channel surfing).
Anyhow, I get some marketing rep call me one day and offer to lower my cable bill if I sign up for their new high speed internet. She offered me a promotion that sounded too good to be true, so I said " Deal" , just send me an email confirming what you offered.
That's where everything went south. She said they weren't allowed to send emails. " WTF" ( in my business, we deal with everything via emails)
I asked her name, and she wouldn't tell me, so I phoned back asking to speak to a manager and was told one wasn't in. Took me 4 calls to get somebody in charge. I said all I wanted was written confirmation of the package that was offered. He too said that they couldn't do that. By now, I'm ****ed, so I said I was going to switch to Telus, and the guy said go ahead.
Called telus right away, got a package way better than Shaw's, including 5 optik pvrs, and love how the boxes work.
It wasn't till I called back shaw to cancel my services that a head honcho got on the line and begged me to stay. I said "too late, telus just did an 8 hour installation. You had your chance."

Stay away from Shaw. They suck . Have only experienced good things with Telus so far.

[Doug]

Thanks for all the views everyone. Its much appreciated.

I agree Mike, about the many fill in channels we are forced to take in packages. I imagine if all providers had a choice where you only pay for channels selected, most of those fringe channels would go the way of the dodo bird, as very few would watch them.

[mike31154]

Yeap, channel overload big time. I can count the ones I watch regularly on one hand. I pay an extra $5 a month for DW TV so I get a bit of a European/International flavour to my programming with NO ADVERTISING! For sports I like to watch the odd soccer match, but those channels are not part of my bundle & cost extra, along with most other programming I find worth watching. I like local news & stuff so I watch CHBC for that and guess who owns the network? Shaw. Last year I dropped a bunch of channels that were making my monthly bill just too hard to take. Trying to spend a little more time in the real world instead of the fake world of 'reality' TV. I could spend hundreds a month if I used their pay per view service! They must think I'm made of money.

I didn't talk much about hardware in my last rant. The Motorola HDTV cable box I purchased when first subscribing to Shaw is somewhat dated by today's standard. I think they're in the process of bringing out new ones. Another reason I'm hesitant to switch providers is the hardware. That stuff is getting obsolete almost as soon as it hits the market these days, just like LEDs or even TVs themselves. I thought I made a pretty good buy a few years back with my LCD TV, but the thing's already a dinosaur. Only one DVI input, no 3D and certainly no 120 Hz refresh rate. Back to the Shaw cable box. It's a power hog, warm, even hot to the touch even with the TV off. I measured the wattage last year & the thing uses over 40 watts just by being plugged in. It needs to be powered to retain the Guide & Menu info, but I've started unplugging the thing at night now. This means it takes 5 to 10 minutes after plugging back in to get all the Guide info loaded back up. I can live with that to save the wasted KWhrs of having the thing plugged in 24/7. Might not seem like much, but over the long term, that's a lot of wasted power.

The box also comes with a myriad of inputs such as USB, ethernet, smart card etc. None of these are enabled so pretty much useless. I phoned Shaw one day to ask why and/or how I could use these ports & they had no clue. I got the proverbial Catch 22. The box manual says to contact your service provider about those features & the service provider Shaw, says to get the information from the manual. I did not buy the box with the hard drive for PVR option. They wanted way too much extra for a stupid hard drive inside the box. I managed to find the info on the net (some home theater forum) on how to use my notebook hard drive connected to the box to record programming. One of the Shaw reps I talked to said "Really, how did you do that?". Duh. Anyhow, conventional hard drives are quickly being replaced by Solid State drives. So all you folks with the built in PVR hard drives already have dinosaurs as well. This is another reason I wouldn't be too hasty to switch at the moment. Not sure what Telus Optik hardware has in it, but I doubt they are Solid State drives at this point. We're only now seeing the odd notebook computer being offered with Solid State drives & they're still pretty pricey. Either way, PVR is not an option I'm that excited about. If I'm not home to watch something, so be it. Can always catch up by streaming or web cast on the interweb.

Whew! Another novel...

[StirCrazy]

ok since no one from Kamloops has answered you. I will :mrgreen:

out here Shaw seams to be the better deal. I am partial to shaw so I will state that now, and i have internet/phone and HD digital TV. 5 people on my street are changing from telus to shaw, they switched from shaw to telus two years ago when the optek came out and have had nothing but problems. I have had shaw for 3 years and the only problems I have had is from the PACE HD box, they changed them out for the motorola boxes (3D and EVO ready) and all problems are gone. one thing to note is with optek if you are using your internet for downloads it does affect your TV bandwidth, where shaw doesn't. if you want to be able to record more than two shows at once (if you looking at PVR and HD) go with the gateway you can record 6 shows at once and watch them anywhere. my other niebour has just telus internet and he is switching because of lousy speeds, but I think that one is a factor of us being 14Km or more from the main hub, and we all know the farther away you are with telus the slower it is.

are you here now Doug?

Steve

[MarkoD]

ok im gonna clear something up. On telus, when watching all 3 streams of TV at once, they still guarantee high speed internet on your computer (which is 6meg) with every tv that you turn off, your speed goes up to a max of 26meg.

shaw internet is not effected by your TV, but it is effected by everyone in your neighborhood that uses Shaw Internet. at 4pm when everyone gets home from work and jumps on their shaw internet you'll be lucky to get 3meg

[Doug]

Hi Steve. Thanks for the reply. Not there yet. Leaving at the end of May. Still not sure where we are living. :lol: Our place we purchased in Brock is for sale, although we may still keep it. Looking at a nice larger mobile out in Campbell Creek. Not new like the one we own but sure purdy and some privacy out there. Lost of room for a nice tank in the one we were looking at.

[Doug]

ok im gonna clear something up. On telus, when watching all 3 streams of TV at once, they still guarantee high speed internet on your computer (which is 6meg) with every tv that you turn off, your speed goes up to a max of 26meg.

shaw internet is not effected by your TV, but it is effected by everyone in your neighborhood that uses Shaw Internet. at 4pm when everyone gets home from work and jumps on their shaw internet you'll be lucky to get 3meg


Appreciate the input Marko. My current provider is a cable company, tv and internet. I just checked. Running just under 1m upload and about 8m down. Fast enough for our use.

[sphelps]

Telus optik is pretty good, I like it better for TV over Shaw, but I find Shaw internet to be better overall especially in more remote areas. If all you can get from Telus is satellite don't even consider it.

You'll find rants on both sides relating to promos and bad service, neither side is better in this department but Shaw is more likely to service remote areas better than Telus in terms of how quickly they get techs out to your place, but it will depend on the area.

[whatcaneyedo]

My brother works for Telus right now so after 6 years of Shaw we're back to Telus. Although we never had any problems with Shaw the Internet speed with Telus is definitely faster and because my brother advises me on how to capitalize on all of their promotions we're getting more channels now and paying less than we were with Shaw.

[cav~firez22]

Biggest thing to consider is how fast do you want your internet? Telus, with a MAX SPEED of 25 Mbps,
or Shaw, with an Average of 50Mbps?

do you like live TV? Shaw
or streaming internet TV ? Telus

[StirCrazy]

shaw internet is not effected by your TV, but it is effected by everyone in your neighborhood that uses Shaw Internet. at 4pm when everyone gets home from work and jumps on their shaw internet you'll be lucky to get 3meg

I can tell you that just doesn't happen. once the levels drop below a level they add another node. (I have seen two nodes added to my niebourhood in the last two years because of all the people switching to shaw) in the begining days of shaw internet it used to happen. Telus has been using a problem they fixed almost 20 years ago as a bad thing to try make them look better than shaw.

not trying to turn this into a Pi$$ing match as I have no vested interest in either company and my beef with telus was from there residential home phone days when they screwed over 1000's of people. If telus was beter than shaw I would be the first to admidt it even though I will never go back to them, although I do have a telus cell only because I don't like rodgers coverage in BC and Shaw doesn't have cells.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

quote=Doug;716252] Looking at a nice larger mobile out in Campbell Creek. Not new like the one we own but sure purdy and some privacy out there. Lost of room for a nice tank in the one we were looking at.[/quote]

hmm out my way now eh. there is another brand new park out here only two units in it now, but you actualy own the land so no pad fees. it is accross from the flying J can't remember the name right now off hand though.

Steve

[Doug]

Biggest thing to consider is how fast do you want your internet? Telus, with a MAX SPEED of 25 Mbps,
or Shaw, with an Average of 50Mbps?

do you like live TV? Shaw
or streaming internet TV ? Telus

Just regular ole tv I guess. Decent speed internet and a decent home phone plan. As mentioned, still with Rodgers for a couple yrs. on my iPhone.

[Doug]

quote=Doug;716252] Looking at a nice larger mobile out in Campbell Creek. Not new like the one we own but sure purdy and some privacy out there. Lost of room for a nice tank in the one we were looking at.

hmm out my way now eh. there is another brand new park out here only two units in it now, but you actualy own the land so no pad fees. it is accross from the flying J can't remember the name right now off hand though.

Steve[/QUOTE]

Always did like it out that way when we were touring around. That new place is similar to ours here. Yes you own the land. I think its an Eagle homes project. Very nice but much more money up front.

Other place is across river on other side of Shuswap road, backing up to the hills.

[ashr]

I work for Shaw, Let me know if you have any questions. Just PM me

[Dr_Hicks]

Just moved home TV to Telus from Shaw because we were experiencing awful HD quality; WOW what a difference Telus makes when it comes to watching HDTV channels; and Telus paid us $200 to switch + PVR and two extra receivers.

Based on my first experience receiving TV from Telus I would hands down make the decision to deal with them again, smooth to setup appointment ( $100 ) to take an appointment during the week, other $100 to say fair-well Shaw, and it's actually $27 a month cheaper than Shaw and we get 103 HD channels now and not 14.... way better deal..

Your milage may vary as in all cases, however if anyone is thinking about switching because you're unhappy with current vendor; Telus had made me a believer.

** Make sure to ask them "What are you going to do for me if I leave Shaw" <--- my exact words.... BINGO $100 BUCKS..... then ask if there is another credit for taking an appointment during the week BINGO ANOTHER $100 BUCKS !

:-)

pps.... if you have home phone, internet and tv through Telus you will receive an extra $5 off each service a month.

[Seriak]

I just can't get over the contract. I don't want a 3 year contract where after I sign up my customer service dissappears. I want a month to month contract where they know, if they screw up, I might leave. :)

[MarkoD]

I just can't get over the contract. I don't want a 3 year contract where after I sign up my customer service dissappears. I want a month to month contract where they know, if they screw up, I might leave. :)

Contracts are 2 way. If they screw up its a breach of contract and you can get out of it.

Plus you can go month to month, you just won't get the bonus stuff like a free laptop

[Nano]

Telus doesnt by any chance have a plan that I could bundle both my cell phones, internet and then add cable on top of it do they? gotta get my "Swamp people" fix lol:lol:

[Doug]

I just can't get over the contract. I don't want a 3 year contract where after I sign up my customer service dissappears. I want a month to month contract where they know, if they screw up, I might leave. :)

Agreed but I,m easily bribed. :lol:

[Gizmoh]

Move to Ontario and call me for Rogers :). Lol, or just switch every 2 years for the best prices/free stuff. But I never said that.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I just can't get over the contract. I don't want a 3 year contract where after I sign up my customer service dissappears. I want a month to month contract where they know, if they screw up, I might leave. :)

With Shaw's "no contract" plan, I had to carefully check my bill every month because they kept making a mistake by adding another $5 or $10 charge for no reason and over less than a year, they somehow justified increasing my bill for basic cable (no HD), basic house phone and regular High speed to over $130 a month.

Since signing my Telus contract, my bill has never gone over a hundred and even with all my signup bonuses done after 2+ years on this contract, my bill last month was $78 and that's with far more services (ie. HD channels, faster High Speed internet) than with Shaw.

As I posted earlier, my final savings over the 3 years contract period will amount to over $2100 minimum. Enough to buy a new 60" HD LED Sharp Aquos including tax with my savings.

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/sharp-sharp-aquos-60-1080p-120hz-led-hdtv-lc60le640u-lc60le640u/10197026.aspx?path=b4165a32ed822905e9f990d6da5798d ben02

:biggrin:

Since I'm very happy with my 46" Sony LCD, I used my savings to pay down my mortgage instead.

Anthony

[Doug]

Move to Ontario and call me for Rogers :). Lol, or just switch every 2 years for the best prices/free stuff. But I never said that.

I do have my iPhone on a Rodgers plan. Over a year in now and could not be happier. Excellent customer service, so far.

With Shaw's "no contract" plan, I had to carefully check my bill every month because they kept making a mistake by adding another $5 or $10 charge for no reason and over less than a year, they somehow justified increasing my bill for basic cable (no HD), basic house phone and regular High speed to over $130 a month.

Since signing my Telus contract, my bill has never gone over a hundred and even with all my signup bonuses done after 2+ years on this contract, my bill last month was $78 and that's with far more services (ie. HD channels, faster High Speed internet) than with Shaw.

As I posted earlier, my final savings over the 3 years contract period will amount to over $2100 minimum. Enough to buy a new 60" HD LED Sharp Aquos including tax with my savings.


Thanks Anthony. :smile:

[2pts]

I switched to Telus 15 months ago. Telus was cheaper, though I got what I paid for.

Telus I liked that the one PVR worked in both the bedroom (via a cable box) and in the room the PVR was in. Shaw they were 2 seperate PVR's. Shaw's menu system was way better, clearer and easier to use. The PVR's with Shaw were nearly flawless, but nothing but troubles with the Telus cable box communicating with the Telus PVR, it loses connection all the time. Reepair guys have come and gone twice, although nice, same **** still happens, when I call they say "it is a known issue with the equiptment". I tried to get out of my contract because in my opinion they were breaking their end of the agreement, to no avail but perhaps I should have went higher up.

My Telus internet is superior to my Shaw, I had both for a week and did speed tests alot during that week, Telus was consistently twice as fast at download speed, I didnt care about upload speed so I cant remember.

I never had Shaw phone so I wont comment on it.

[subman jr.]

Shaw!!!:snipersm::snipersm::snipersm::snipersm::sn ipersm::snipersm::snipersm::snipersm::bananahuge:: bananahuge::bananahuge::bananahuge:

[t-rex]

When I moved into my new place I decided to try telus. Less than 24 hrs after the service technition left my internet would stop working lag or reboot. The TV froze. I called to ask for someone to come look at it the lady said there was nothing she could do for some b.s reason. I called back and they said it would be 2 weeks before they could come. So I ripped it right out of the wall and went for shaw. Thay came same day never had one issue and I got a bunch of channels free. ( I knew the tech and he hooked me up nicely)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997R using Tapatalk 2

[StirCrazy]

Ok so I just went on the telus website.

for me to get what I have with shaw it is 133 for the first 6 months then 181 a month after that on a 3 year contract. yes you get a new laptop of x box so a 300 buck value that they make you pay 400 back of you don't finnish the contract, and its not prorated even if there is 6 months left in the contract you pay the whole amount (ask my daughter).

so that is 798.00 for the first 6 months and 5430 for the rest of the contract, so a total of 6228. for 3 years shaw costs me 5940.

so I really don't see where people are getting this "I saved so much money".

as for people in other places talking about speed, its useless info especially since telus' speed is dependent on how far from the "hub" you are. and if Doug buys where he is thinking Telus Internet will be crap, and optic tv. everyone in my area is switching back cuz of the problems telus cannot fix due to the distance and that place is even farther.

Steve

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

For each of us, it really depends on what type of deal you're able to sign up with and what services/packages you're interested in. Compared to what I had with Shaw and what I now have with Telus is far better & less expensive. Of course I'm in a major metropolitan area so that would be different from where Doug or some other members might be.

[Doug]

For each of us, it really depends on what type of deal you're able to sign up with and what services/packages you're interested in. Compared to what I had with Shaw and what I now have with Telus is far better & less expensive. Of course I'm in a major metropolitan area so that would be different from where Doug or some other members might be.

Ya agreed Anthony. We may in the center of Kamloops or if we can sell what we already bought, :lol: , out where Steve is talking about. I imagine its satellite out there. Hopefully some type of decent internet connection though.

[StirCrazy]

Ya agreed Anthony. We may in the center of Kamloops or if we can sell what we already bought, :lol: , out where Steve is talking about. I imagine its satellite out there. Hopefully some type of decent internet connection though.

naa only a couple Km from me. there is shaw lines out there. got to go a lot farther befor you need satalite LOL.

I wouldn't call the other place the center.. would be the north edge, but ya a lot closer to down town.

Steve

[Doug]

I will just put a coat hanger on my 15yr. old 14 in. tv...:lol:

[Dr_Hicks]

I will just put a coat hanger on my 15yr. old 14 in. tv...:lol:

haha I did not think peasant-vision still worked after they changed it over to HD via the airwaves....

I do clearly remember the tinfoil LOL

[Doug]

haha I did not think peasant-vision still worked after they changed it over to HD via the airwaves....

I do clearly remember the tinfoil LOL

Due to my birthdate I can remember thats all we had...:lol:

[mike31154]

I will just put a coat hanger on my 15yr. old 14 in. tv...:lol:

Chuckle, that might work well for a few channels in the flatlands of Manitoba, but you're in them thar mountains now & nowhere near a major broadcaster. Might be lucky & a CBC signal will bounce off the clouds for you on a rainy day.

When I was living in Ottawa all I had was a small TV with rabbit ears as well. Free TV and when it comes right down to it, what I got (about half dozen channels) was really all I needed. Some local news & programming in fat cat city. For internet I had Bell DSL, worked fine too. Now I'm forking out close to $100 a month for a Shaw bundle that offers little flexibility in programming choices. Internet is pretty good & Shaw actually offers a few neat features like photoshare, web page etc. I imagine Telus offers similar stuff & there are plenty of other ways to share photos & files these days. Definitely thinking of cancelling the TV though. Gazillion channels & nothing on but reality & infomercials.

[Doug]

I also got the run-around with Shaw and they try to add $5 here, $10 there and my bill would suddenly jump every couple of months. When I call, they would say "oh, I don't know why that charge is there. Do you want me to remove it?" Well duh!!! Then got a sweet deal with Telus when Optik was just coming into Burnaby. I called up Shaw to cancel my services and the rep lied through his teeth saying that he would price match and I would keep all my channels and have high speed. Instead, they billed me almost $40 more than my Telus price, cut my internet to "light speed" (which is almost like dial up) and cut all my channels to just the basic which is about 24 channels. When I called up a few days later, and found out that the Shaw rep had lied, I blew my top and cancelled everything with that company. Since then, they send me a notice at least twice a month with new offers which they wouldn't offer when I was originally planning to switch.

Been very happy with my Telus TV. I can PVR 3 shows including a HD channel and watch a fourth recorded show at the same time, while using my internet and having my wife and sister-in-law downloading on their laptops. They even through in a free second pvr when I installed a LCD tv on my back deck during last year's Stanley Cup playoffs.

I calculated that compared to my Shaw billings, I will save well over $2000 over the 3 years contract. NEVER GOING BACK TO SHAW.

My Telus bill (TV including HD & 7 packages; High speed internet and free land land) was about $48 for the first year, then $65 for the next year and is still under $80 for the last year.

My last two Shaw bills were in the $120-$135 range and I had NO pvr, no HD channels, only Channels 3 to 55, regular high speed, and a no frills land line.

Since switching, I literally saved enough to buy an extra coral colony or two just from the difference in bills between my old Shaw and my Telus TV.

$135 vs $45 (or even <$80 now). Hmmmmmm.

Even at $120 for Shaw, I saved/am saving over $2100 over the three years contract. And when I phoned Telus, they threw in 6-7 free movie channels for three months just for fun.

My sister had to buy her Shaw pvr and its the one where you can only watch one channel or pvr it, you can't watch a different channel while pvring. Kinda pointless to me.

Anthony


Wow Anthony. How do you get that for under $80. If I read correct the package I looked at had only 5 theme packs and is $133 after first 6 months

[Flash]

my parents have telus, and would rather watch my shaw tv! I like shaw, they are very helpful. i have a pvr and digital cable. love it!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Wow Anthony. How do you get that for under $80. If I read correct the package I looked at had only 5 theme packs and is $133 after first 6 months

I signed up very early on before the optic-fibre line was installed and got their best price. I also don't pay for my phone line (I called to set that up, but their customer service rep told me if I don't need caller ID or long distance, etc. and just used the phone for local calling & incoming calls, I didn't have to pay for it). Telus has to activate a line anyways, so its their line, not mine, but I use it as my local house phone.

I have long-distance on my cell & almost everybody who calls does so on my cell so I don't need an extensive house phone package. Its for my own use or my family to call us mainly. But what works for us may not work for others.

So I only pay for tv & internet & I get discounts on both. I find that when I call them as my discounts expire, they're good about giving me another 3-6 months of other discounts or free movie channels, etc.

[Doug]

Ok I see Anthony. Thanks. I was talking with them today. They are checking to make sure its available in my area, as its a new address. I also talked to Shaw. :D

[StirCrazy]

Ok I see Anthony. Thanks. I was talking with them today. They are checking to make sure its available in my area, as its a new address. I also talked to Shaw. :D

what ever telus says they'll give you, write it down and then call shaw and they will beat it. a friend went back and forth between them about 3 or 4 times and got a sweet deal out of shaw.

Steve

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

what ever telus says they'll give you, write it down and then call shaw and they will beat it. a friend went back and forth between them about 3 or 4 times and got a sweet deal out of shaw.

Steve

Yup, I always do the same. Got the Telus offer in writing and called Shaw about beating it. Play one against the other.

Anthony

[burgerchow]

the problem is that Shaw won't put anything in writing. That's why I left them.( see my previous post)

[Doug]

Thats ok. I will get a quote from each for sure. Still waiting for Telus to get back to me after they check to see if I can get the service in my area.

[sphelps]

If Shaw has broadband internet out there yet you might be able to get a promotion if it's still new. When they released it here I got the broadband 50 and basic digital TV for $40/month. I also managed to lock that in for 2 years instead of 1 but mostly because of a mistake the sales guy made. The broadband 50 service alone is regularly $70/month.

[Doug]

I,m going to call them Steve. Apparently Telus not to interested in new business. They were suppose to call me back but nobody has.

[acepumping]

go telus. i pay 135 for phone internet and all t.v, way better bundles then shaw..

[Doug]

And how would one do that if they cant bother returning calls?
Had a nice chat with Shaw yesterday. Not much different in bundles actually. Shaw has a nice large bundle for $150 with no contracts. Telus similar bundles is $134 as you said but with a contract.

[StirCrazy]

And how would one do that if they cant bother returning calls?
Had a nice chat with Shaw yesterday. Not much different in bundles actually. Shaw has a nice large bundle for $150 with no contracts. Telus similar bundles is $134 as you said but with a contract.

are you looking at digital tv or just normal cable? If digital, I have an extra digital box laying around (not HD though)

Steve

[Doug]

Figured on one HD box, and two digital, one of which I get free and have to buy the other.

[oyf709]

I can say both has their own good and bads. My huge issue with Shaw is when you are in a populated area your HS internet will never get to where it suppose to be. However, with TELUS, unless you 1) never got any issues or 2) know who to talk to when you have problem, you will have nightmare at nite.

[martinmcnally]

Both are bad and good. I finally ended up with Shaw after the 20th technician at Telus finally told me the truth (I am just a little to far from the exchange for ASDL to work correctly). My internet used to drop out during the day and come back on at night a symptom of signal fading on the line due to the increase of temperature during the day.

Also had some friends say Telus was terrible even in the new neighborhoods in Red Deer with fiber to the door. I seen it myself. The TV would go all fuzzy if the phone rang and stuff like that. They tried to cancel and told they were locked in a 3 year contract which they definitely did not agree to. Telus were unable to produce the audio recording of them agreeing to the 3 year contract so they got out of it in the end.

[StirCrazy]

Figured on one HD box, and two digital, one of which I get free and have to buy the other.

I'll give you my one down stairs so don't buy a second one.

Steve

[Rice Reef]

Shaw wins this year for me. I was solicited by Shaw last dec and got a $30 per month deal. Extreme high speed, telephone and standard cable which incl tsn, sportsnet and Disney for my young kids for one yr no contract commitments and also $300 visa gift cards.

[mike31154]

Shaw wins this year for me. I was solicited by Shaw last dec and got a $30 per month deal. Extreme high speed, telephone and standard cable which incl tsn, sportsnet and Disney for my young kids for one yr no contract commitments and also $300 visa gift cards.

$30/month for all that. Sweet deal, sounds too good to be true. My Shaw bill is close to $100/month with high speed internet & TV bundle, no phone & fairly basic with the TV channel selection. I'll have to give them a call to see what's the deal here with long time customers like myself.

This thread reminds me that I have a Bell ExpressVu satellite dish still attached to the outside of my house. Been there since I purchased the home in 2004. I guess it's about time I took it down, never used it, might make a nice bird bath for my garden, or if anyone wants to buy it for cheap, shoot me a pm. I took a quick look at their web site & it appears they don't have much to offer, especially out west here. Looks like they're pretty much out of the running in these parts.

[Doug]

Agreed Mike. What kind of deal is that? What, they just pick a customer every so ten and say here is a deal?????

My Shaw large bundle is regular $149 as listed on their web page. Premier tv, best of HD, great channel selection, everything but the movie crap channels, high speed internet and home phone with a long distance package. And no contract.

I still have to buy my HD receiver, get one digital box free and pay for the other. Yet a decent overall deal, as compared to what I have here.

And as Telus still cant bother calling me back, I guess its Shaw.

[mike31154]

Could be one of those 6 month 'get you hooked on a bundle' deals & after that the rates crank up to 'normal' levels the rest of us schmoes get. And yes, I had to buy my Motorola digital cable receiver as well.

Or we might all have to move to Victoria, but it rains too much there, so I reckon I'll stay in the Okanagan & deal with the sunshine tax & high Shaw bills instead.

[Rice Reef]

Agreed Mike. What kind of deal is that? What, they just pick a customer every so ten and say here is a deal?????

My Shaw large bundle is regular $149 as listed on their web page. Premier tv, best of HD, great channel selection, everything but the movie crap channels, high speed internet and home phone with a long distance package. And no contract.

I still have to buy my HD receiver, get one digital box free and pay for the other. Yet a decent overall deal, as compared to what I have here.

And as Telus still cant bother calling me back, I guess its Shaw.

Could be one of those 6 month 'get you hooked on a bundle' deals & after that the rates crank up to 'normal' levels the rest of us schmoes get. And yes, I had to buy my Motorola digital cable receiver as well.

Or we might all have to move to Victoria, but it rains too much there, so I reckon I'll stay in the Okanagan & deal with the sunshine tax & high Shaw bills instead.

It is for 12 mths and it goes back to regular pricing. They ( Shaw) set up a booth in front of Walmart back in dec. this was to attract new customers to Shaw. I was with Telus and was paying $45 per mth for the three items then and my contract was coming up for renewal. Telus was not able to match nor was willing do anything so I switched. As I was about to switch Telus gave me a retention call and was going to extend my $45 per mth for another year... Isn't this ironic?
My brother and parents had also switched and got the same deals.

[Doug]

$119 for first 6 months Mike, then $149 after

[mike31154]

It is for 12 mths and it goes back to regular pricing. They ( Shaw) set up a booth in front of Walmart back in dec. this was to attract new customers to Shaw. I was with Telus and was paying $45 per mth for the three items then and my contract was coming up for renewal. Telus was not able to match nor was willing do anything so I switched. As I was about to switch Telus gave me a retention call and was going to extend my $45 per mth for another year... Isn't this ironic?
My brother and parents had also switched and got the same deals.


Hmm, might have to move to Vic after all. I have to ask though, what's the regular price after 12 months?

[Doug]

Just an update. I,m with Shaw. No particular reason, except as I said ,Telus never called back????

My Shaw package is $149. Similar Telus is $133. I did not look at the differences in them however for channel selection. No contract is what appeals to me, even if I get nothing for my $16 more.

Mind you I said so far........:lol:

Now as for my cell phone. Good thing I called Rodgers and asked about any charges when keeping my Manitoba number here for awhile. Its all good. :lol: Someone changed my long distance plan to 500 m texting, when I already have unlimited texting. Then every local call I received was long distance.

As usual however the customer service was excellent and we worked it out to the best outcome possible. One thing I,m not happy about is the loss of my Manitoba plan. The called it a small population base. :lol:. So data plan is more here for similar. I ended up with taking less for a plan but actually saved a bit of money, so thats fine. Phone time is ok but not much data plan. I had 2g on my old one and only 250m here but likely fine for what I use it for. I just have an i phone for calling and texting anyways...:lol:

[globaldesigns]

Both are bad and good. I consider them both the devil, it is just a matter of which devil you wish to pay.

Here is my point of view, based on technology:

Telus = DSL, your speed will be determined by the distance your house is to the hub. The farther you are, the slower you get. Benefit though, whatever your speed is, will not change...

Shaw = broadband, you are basically connected to a very large network, the more people on it, the slower your connection will be. However, this technology can have faster download burst rates than DSL.

I would determine what you will use it for. If you use Netflix, then you want to make sure you have the bandwidth alottment, the more you watch, the more bandwidth you will soak up. Especially if you do things like Torrent. All providers have caps, nothing is unlimited like the advertising states, except for your actual connection. You have unlimited connection to the internet, but NOT unlimited bandwidth/data.

Based on what you want to use it for, then you can decide whom and what package to buy.


Edit: OOOPS!!! after typing all this, I reread and realized you were talking about tv bundles. Oh well, I will leave and hopefully this helps someone else. In regards to tv, I went with Bell, use to be on Shaw... Bell is 100% true digital in transmission, even though a program may still be old with poor quality. Bell was same price, but HD (lots of channels) were free, free network roaming, and so much more for the same price.

[chewie]

what ever telus says they'll give you, write it down and then call shaw and they will beat it. a friend went back and forth between them about 3 or 4 times and got a sweet deal out of shaw.

Steve


Did the same thing. Have ALL channels, fastest internet ( xtreme) and land line plus shaw sent two HD pvrs to me. Paying $108 a month, good for one year...
My In laws have Telus and I think the HD channels are garbage. We both have the exact same 50" LG Lcd TVs and Shaws picture wins Hands down. Telus' picture is more grainy and thier picture keeps cutting off and on every once and a while. Had to have Telus visit a few times to get things sorted out ( phone cutting in and out, pvr not working etc)
The only thing I do think is neat is the call display coming up on the tv when someone calls....not cool enough though to put up with crappy (IMO) service and having to sign a contract.

[Doug]

So how the heck does one get that, when I have the medium package, which is regular $149, paid for my one HD receiver, pay rent for 2 of my other digital boxes and only get 6 months at the cheap rate??????????????????????????????????????

[chewie]

My wife called up and said we are going to cancel and go with telus if they cannot beat their price. At the time we where paying just under $200 /month. So that is what they gave her. Maybe we just lucked out and got a good representative or it may be because we have been with them for years and have referd alot of friends to them. (Get so much off as well for each referal)

[Doug]

Ohhhh. I see. I think. Not sure how a company, {and I,m sure Shaw is not alone}, can charge some one price, another a different price and so on, for more or same packages.

[chewie]

Yeah i totaly agree. Large corporations are all the same, they will gouge you for every penny they can to increase their profit. If you dont complain then they will continue to do so. Its like walking into your bank and seeing a posting saying that "as of --date-- we have to increase service fees for blaa blaa, due to increased costs of operating" yet every year you hear on the financial news that the banks have yet again made a record profit that year...:idea:
The rich get richer....

[jorjef]

Ohhhh. I see. I think. Not sure how a company, {and I,m sure Shaw is not alone}, can charge some one price, another a different price and so on, for more or same packages.

I'm just guessing but I would think rather than cast in stone pricing schedule the reps are given a wider range to work with selling their services. I sell a commodity, and very few customers get the same price for the exact same item. I make a judgement call when I quote, some times I win sometimes I loose. I would think it would be the same for them...

[mike31154]

Hmm, IMO selling a commodity is somewhat different than providing a service such as cable, internet or phone. Commodities are sold under much more of a free market principle, no?

The problem with cable & phone companies is that they've been fortunate to operate somewhat of a monopoly with little or no competition. The CRTC gets involved & messes things up too with their restrictions. Things get even more complex when you get a commodity such as natural gas provided by another pseudo monopoly like the gas company. Whether you purchase the gas from a broker or from the gas company, you'll always be paying something to the gas company to maintain the infrastructure, pipelines etc. When I think pure commodity, I think more of natural resources or agricultural products such as gold, silver, cattle, grain... Much more open market driven than the pricing schedules offered by cable & phone companies. I could be totally out to lunch too though, just thinking out loud.

All I know is the cable & phone companies have the markets cornered/divyied up in certain regions of the country and they've had an easy ride for too long. Things are opening up & services like Netflix etc. are probably starting to instill some fear in the established outfits. They're going to get what they can while the getting's good, because the winds of change are on the way with respect to cable, internet & phone services. You can usually tell how well off a company is when you get the glossy, high quality mail advertising a service you probably already have from them, but they can't be bothered to check files of customers before they mail this crap out.

It's time to UNBUNDLE!!

[MarkoD]

Anyone on telus tv that wants a free trial for channels can pm me

[Lampshade]

I've been with Telus for 3 years now, overall, amazing service, better than I've seen from any company (Including telus mobility). What I've Noticed:
Telus internet is screaming fast, double what I've ever had with shaw in 4 different locations.
Telus Internet has a fast download AND upload, making gaming way faster. recently they're tuned it back it seems(in the past 1-2years), but still is far better than I've seen on shaw.
Shaw HD TV looks WAY better than Telus HD, the day someone told me this I was ruined, I compared a few different peoples shaw TV's, and set up a HD antenna to test my own, and damn, it does look snowy. Telus says they're working on this, which is good.
Telus forwards you email from "we where able to upload part XX of movie YY, please don't upload" Shaw doesn't bother with the emails. (I heard this from a friend that downloads....).
If you download over your cap on Shaw 3 months in a row you get bumped up to next pay level, telus has never cared how much LAfishguy/mrsaltwatertank I watch.


After all that... I'm cancelling TV once my contract is up, Theres another + for show, no contract. My PVR died last week and honestly, i didn't notice till this morning when my son wanted to watch his shows. So I had to go to netflix and select the show manually. what a painful ordeal....

[jorjef]

All I know is the cable & phone companies have the markets cornered/divyied up in certain regions of the country and they've had an easy ride for too long. Things are opening up & services like Netflix etc. are probably starting to instill some fear in the established outfits. They're going to get what they can while the getting's good, because the winds of change are on the way with respect to cable, internet & phone services.



That in a nut shell is why I think these reps have flexibility when quoting. A more open market has forced them to be competitive with the next guy.

[Madmak]

I totally had it with the satellite providers, way to pricey and crappy service, Bell especially. I had Shaw phone and it was ok, as was their Internet so I recently bundled the EXO HD TV with Broadband 50 Internet and basic phone. The new Arris system is cool. I think this is the best package and pricing I've had for years for these services. I don't mind paying a fair price for these services but Bell TV was over $160/month alone, that's robbery. Of course the retention departed could give me anything I wanted but it was too late. So far I am a fan of Shaw and the EXO stuff.

[rynoe]

I think it depends on who you talk to. I was with shaw for 6 years and had just about everything you could get with them. I was unhappy with some service I was getting so phoned and threatened to go with telus and was told to go right ahead so I did.