Shaw Cable

I’ve been waiting for Shaw to come and setup the new broadband 50 that I was supposed to get in September, but they forgot to hook it up and bring the new router. Nothing was ever mentioned and until someone pointed out that I’m still not upgraded… Hmmmmm.
Called Shaw many many times, waited hours on end (no joke, I’m waiting again!).
After numerous attempts was able to get ahold of a nice lady at Shaw who knew what she was doing. The last four people didn’t and it was funny when someone in the background is telling the rep what to say and how to respond to my inquiries.
I was able to confirm what my brother got for his promotion and I was able to get the phone promotion and my upgrade to the cable that was supposed to have happened months ago!!!
Now I’m waiting for an appointment long overdue, nobody showed up and I’m still on hold.
Shitty shitty shitty service. Even their chat won’t work!
Telus you are really looking good right now. I am thinking of having everything I have on Shaw moved out and over to another company becuase of the bad service.
At my other house, I had problems there too!
Right now I am not your friend. Poooh!

If you are in the market searching for an Internet and/​or Cable provider in the lower mainland Vancouver, British Columbia then I strongly suggest that you DO NOT consider Shaw. One of the main key concerns that I’ve had — being a customer for years is their customer service. They have great ads to lure customers in but, when it comes to providing their customers with service, they really don’t seem to care at all! You will be put on hold of HOURS.. .and in the end, your issue will not be resolved, you will have to continue to follow up until someone actually does the work.
If you are looking for great service and selection then you really need to consider TELUS. After this review posts, I am going to call Telus and sign up!
With Shaw I found that if/​when you need help, their turn around time is about five to seven business days, and I mean that literally! I recently moved and wanted to change my address, I was on hold for 30 (thirty) minutes the first time before I finally gave up. I went home and tried their on-​line chat help line and was on hold again for another 40 (forty) minutes! I decided that an email would suffice, I sent two emails to two various department within Shaw and to date (that’s five days later) I haven’t heard anything back!
Today, I thought it is time to get to this done, so I called Shaw at their local number (604) 629‑8888. I was on hold for 10 (ten) minutes and was given a choice to either continue holding or leaving my number — without losing my priority sequence. I left my telephone number and was called back within 30 (thirty) minutes. Once I did get a call back, I was instructed to hold and was put through yet another department now, and honestly as I type this review — am still on hold!!! I have now been holding for 1:03, that’s one hour and three minutes!
Needless to say, if you are looking for good customer service, selection then SHAW should be eliminated from your choice!
I really hope that my post help you with your internet selection! Good luck!

As difficult as it is to even wrap my own brain around the concept, my recent experience with Shaw has made me a fan.
Despite the fact that the fellow trimming our trees had been shown multiple times exactly where all of our utility cables were, he decided at 6:30pm last night to slice right through them. $%*&! Shaw fortunately has 24hr tech support service so we could get through to someone who might be able to help. Normally waiting on hold with the hope of speaking to someone in Bangalore would have me raging, but I was feeling slightly contrite over the circumstances so Shaw earned a pass on this one.
Twenty minutes later I was on the phone with Steve in Tech Support. No, Steve wasn’t in Bangalore, he was local! He also seemed genuinely sympathetic to our predicament and was extremely pleasant to deal with. He promised that he would work with both the Service Dept. and the Installation Dept. to see who could restore our service first.
You can not imagine how suprised I was at 8:00am this morning when I answered the phone and it was Steve from Shaw telling us that we would have a service tech at our home at 9:00am. At precisely 9:00am, Jim, another very pleasant Shaw employee, pulled up and got to work. He not only replaced the line from the utility pole to our house, he tidied up the box attached to our house and replaced some corroded junctions at the pole. Amazing!
If Shaw can do something to reel in their exhorbitant charges for cable and internet and also do something to reduce the ridiculous waits for phone support they would earn 5 stars from me.

I have always been a Shaw customer. But I have to be honest– over the last few years I’ve been a Shaw customer that has been content (we would not use the word ‘happy’) to pay Shaw a bit more for their bundles in return for not ranting and raving about internet outtages, pixelation and long customer service waits with Telus.
However I’ve started hearing that there are improvements on the dark side… and have a few friends now that are actually happy with their service… and I have started to covet their savings and crisp picture quality… So I did some research online– bundles, comparisons, techie reviews, user reviews… but wanting to be loyal– I called Shaw.
1. Shaw indicated that they do not match pricing with Telus as it is a different business model. (I’m a business major by the way– that’s fancy talk for we have given up trying to match prices with a different model even though it’s for the same consumer. Business nonsense).
2. They also claimed that both have the same number of HD Channels. Well… true and not true. It’s true that Telus makes it appear that they have more channels when in truth they are the same channel just with a a different regional feed and therefore ⁸⁄₁₀ they are showing the exact same programming/​show on multiple channels. But ²⁄₁₀ the programming/​show IS different. There are some regional shows that are not available in other areas and allowing Shaw to choose when to shift from one regional feed to another *does* and *has* cut me off from a show on a occasion. Nothing earth shattering but I thought I’d mention it.
3. They pointed out that Telus’ pricing was unstable and always changing. True– it’s called promotions and consumer attraction. I don’t think though that you should quip ‘You can always rely on our [higher] prices to remain unchanged’ on any posters though…
I mean… come on Shaw… you can do better than that. Or are you content with the marketshare of disgruntled Telus customers? What happens if they start becoming less disgruntled? They are starting to sound decidedly less disgruntled with the new Optik TV and major upgrades done in June… so hang on let me run this through my head one last time here:
Move to Telus:
$ 170/​mo (without promos)
PVR rental included in above price
No contract
Of course– very interested in your business
Stay with Shaw:
$ 190/​mo (without promos)
+$ 175 Purchase of HD Digital Box or $ 350 Purchase of PVR
No contract
Apathetic as to whether I stay or go
Hmmmm… Me thinks I would be foolish not to try the OptikTV and see if it is better, and therefore the savings worth it along with the PVR addition. I won’t get a contract (so I can nail Telus to the wall if they do suck and come back to Shaw). But either way– look out Shaw. Telus is starting to raid your basket. I’ve been happy to be a Telus-​hater up until now and here I am switching.
I’ll update my review with the final result.
Sisterpost:

I couldn’t be happier with Shaw. Friendly local customer service. My tech calls are NOT outsourced over seas and I’m supporting a local Canadian company. I’ve had a few issues over the many years I’ve had some issues, but it’s a cable company of course it’s a given to sometimes customers have issues. I’ve always been very satisfied with the service I’ve received and can only recall one outage that was caused by the construction during the Canada line. I’ll continue to be a loyal Shaw customer as they don’t have hidden contracts, are honest and have provided me with exceptional customer service.

A monopoly so that’s not good.
Service is fine but living downtown have had outages more than in ‘burbs.
Pricing is brutally bad.
Whereas my cell phone, Hydro even cost of computers/​software, TVs, whatever goes down as technology improves, Shaw somehow has gone up over 30% in six years and all I have is basic cable + cheapo Net connection.
The only bargain is hooking up the digital box costs something like $ 2.95 a month (which is now zero thanks to the entire service going digital – finally). Having said that they’ve zapped the box on three different occasions to update firmware and it’s knocked the danged thing out. they always ask me if I have a splitter (as if that’s the porblem) and I say «Yes, you doofuses, you actually installed it as that’s what I wanted to have one to the VCR and one to the HDD.»
They don’t offer MLB Ticket.
You never know when other digital channels are having free previews. You just basically flip around and find out by fluke.
They do have «Mad Men» free on demand but you have to hunt ot find it. It’s not under the «FREE» section. It’s listed under «TV» and you wouldn’t know it was free until you actually press the button to get it.
When problems arise good luck getting through to customer service on the phone. Online they have a chat thing that does not work with my OS or browsers (have two different ones). Unlike a cell phone p[rovider where you can negotiate cheaper prices, they do no such thing for long-​time customers.
Basically, if I could I would bag Shaw and go with a high-​speed Net connection and watch TV on the computer (but the wife insists we keep the «TV» and she’s the boss of me).

the biggest idiots everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
wasted my time. at least 3 hours. made me drive from vancouver to surrey for no reason when they could have solved my problem with a click of a button. they then tried to bribe me with free PPV for their stupidity once they owned up to it!
but damn it. theres no better options for a cable/​internet combo. so i’m stuck