My 505 went dead 3 weeks ago. Called in and had my 505 replaced and so they charged me $250 replacement fee untill i send back my old 505 in which they would credit the $ back. Sent my old 505 back. After two weeks no credit yet, had phone messages asking to pay the due amount. Phoned back twice and they say don't worry it will be fixed up. Today i get a call saying i will be losing my service if i don't pay the $250. Again i explain it all over again and after waiting for close to an hour the rep realized that the last three reps made the mistakes on my account and he blamed it on the high turn- over and that he will be "coaching" the new reps. This mess took me almost 2 weeks to clean up. I pay good money for the service and i expect good service in return but if Shaw Direct keeps cutting back on training new employees then they will not get my buisness.

My replacement 505 was dead out-of-the-box. A CSR rep told me they would ship me a new replacement and waive the shipping fee. (They usually give about a month before they hit you with a non-returned fee for the dead box.) I also asked to have a spare box deactivated, but the CSR suggested I just leave it on in case any of the other units in operation went south. This left me with six boxes active, but only five in use.

I was away so I asked them to hold off shipping. Last week, I called and asked them to ship. The "new" CSR said he would have to charge me for a new account, because when I got the new box, I would then have seven boxes... . When I told him "No", I could have as many boxes as I wanted, he put me on hold. 10 minutes later he came back and said he would have to deactivate one of my boxes before he could ship.

I said "No", you can deactivate one of the boxes when I call in to activate the new box, thereby leaving me with six active boxes. He put me on hold so long I hung up, at which point I wrote a long, unhappy email to Elevated Support, and they promptly answered me with sincere apologies, a promise to drive this point home to all CSRs, and of course they would ship right away.

The box arrived in two days.

I kinda doubt it: I've got a few things to reconfigure, and today's 1st call to Service got me a "16 to 36 minutes" wait message, at 1 pm. Now at 6 pm, the on-hold estimate has gone to "46 to 1 hour and 6 minutes". That's uncanny and disgusting for any kind of service.
At least they give you an option for them to call you back when it's your turn in line. Unlike rogers who makes you hold for the entire time.

That's one of many reasons why I am leaving them for shaw direct.

I've had Shaw Direct for a couple months now

I'm pretty disappointed to tell the truth

the guide is horrible (how is not possible to sort by subscribed programming?!?)

frequently lose guide data, and from time to time, get what I assume is signal loss (the picture just freezes for 2-4 seconds) then continues on.

I really can't wait until Max is available in this area of the country

I've had Shaw Direct for a couple months now

I'm pretty disappointed to tell the truth

the guide is horrible (how is not possible to sort by subscribed programming?!?)

frequently lose guide data, and from time to time, get what I assume is signal loss (the picture just freezes for 2-4 seconds) then continues on.

I really can't wait until Max is available in this area of the country
Did you call tech support about those issues?

yup

there's no way to sort only by subscribed programming (you can build favourites list, but its defeated by channel +-)

guide data disappearing is relatively common apparently

Unsubscribed channels will be greyed out when the new software becomes available, which is allegedly still on track for September.

It's now October 5th and still no firmware update. The wait continues.....

And pre-season NBA has started and we still do not have The ScoreHD :(

went to watch the Canucks game tonight, suddenly need a subscription for sportsnet pacific (which I have)

60+ minute wait for a chance at talking to a real person. I'm not sure what I expected when I moved to starchoice, but this has been really disappointing

Wow, StarChoice, musta been a complete newbie on line, eh? I thought service calls were just part of the package: if the CSR can't solve the problem on the phone, they send out a tech (never an employee, always a contractor). You've been here for almost 1,500 posts: that's a lot, by any standard, and so you've seen along with me, that this happens all the time (no-charge housecalls). I can't imagine what they must have taught this CSR, to have her go completely off to la-la land like that.

And on top of that, a technician who arrived and took the easy way out. He musta wanted to get home for a meal or something. But you can't quit SD until the new Guide arrives, right? So you'll be here for a while... lol.

I've been a SC subscriber for 6 years; was Bell for 9 years prior.
I have 3 boxes, two in the house and one in the 5th wheel.

On Oct 29th HD box/TV was only getting some of the subscribed stations-I figured one of the satellites was out but other hs box was getting all stations. So thought the box might be having a moment. No change on the 30th so I phoned.
Went thru 30 minutes of diagnostics-no change. Tech asked me to hook up the other hs box and see what stations I got. Did so and was missing some stations.
Phoned again, different tech-determined it was a line problem, somewhere between the dish and the box. She would create a work order and send a serviceman out. First date available was Nov 18th......19days hence.

I was completely flummoxed, I thought maybe 2 or 3 days....I live an hour from Kelowna BC on Hwy 97, not real boondocks. I had a conversation with the tech about this, advising that I don't blame her but 19 days isn't poor customer service, it's almost none. I spend $96.30 monthly for programming; have bought receivers, an extra dish and tripod and they think 19 days for service is ok.

Just a couple other comments on SC
Good-when you phone they give u the option of the callback service
-they've replaced 2 boxes free excepting the shipping charge

Bad-I bought a box, dish and tripod for the RV. I was warned by the CSR that the mast on the tripod was smaller in diameter than the dish bracket diameter and I would have to figure out how to use a piece of pipe or other fix so the bracket and mast were tight. I thought this sucked at the outset-they sell mast and bracket that don't fit each other. So I get the pieces-they definitely are different sizes like about 3/8" difference in diameter. So I looked around for a thick walled piece of pipe that would be tight in the bracket and also be very tight on the mast-it was impossible. But I got lucky.
Spied a piece of AbS pipe which was too large in diameter but I cut an inch out of it lengthwise and squeezed it into the bracket and coincidently the mast fit snugly. Got lucky.
The point of all this is that SC should include the fix and directions, not sell a incompatible setup which the customer has to jerryrig.

-Another bad related to the RV setup. I print the instal. directions off the website and set off to put all together. Turns out I have a completely different bracket, mast and dish. The whole bag of fastener is completely different than what's described in the directions. Another 'unbelievable'.

-I have a housesitter coming for 2 months while we leave with the RV (with CS box etc). I asked the CSR if there was a way to give my house sitter access to my account for the purpose only of dealing with tech problems. He told me that if I'm using the RV box then no one should be using the hs boxes; that the account was for me only and if I'm in the RV then the hs boxes shouldn't be in use. I said I have friends with a cottage-boxes at the hs and a box at the cottage-parents at the cottage and teenagers at home, all boxes in use. He said it's supposed to be one or the other. I didn't bother pursuing the housesitter question. Anyone else have problems with this? Solutions?

>He told me that if I'm using the RV box then no one should be using the hs boxes; that the account was for me only and if I'm in the RV then the hs boxes shouldn't be in use. Anyone else have problems with this? Solutions?

There are several discussions about this on here elsewhere. Basically the cable companies argue to the CRTC that Sat operators had an unfair advange in that they can deliver a single account to two different addresses. SO the Sat companies have to be carefull not to lose this competitive advantage.

Therefore, BEV apparently insists that you either move your receiver from A to B each time so that it can't be used in both places at once OR you register each receiver with the address it will be used at and call them to deactivate A when you go to B.

Starchoice just says that it is up to each subscriber to enforce that only one location is in use at a time and on behalf of those of us with vacation homes....don't rock the boat on this topic!

Problem at house is probably bad LNB , internal multiswitch will give you missing channels on one line UNLESS you got hidden splitter or rusted connection on that line.
Ask the service guy to sell you a dish for your RV , keep it the same as home, makes life easier.
Call and get your wife on the account , your housesitter can call in and "pretend" she is your wife if she has trouble- use her name.
Really is that simple.
Being honest and upfront really does not work in these situations.:eek:

Uhm that's call fraud:rolleyes:

Just tried calling 1-888-554-STAR.

Recording states that due to high call volume, they are unable to take the call and to call back later.

The other strange thing is that the recoding states thank you for calling Star Choice.

I love the callback feature why stay on the line for an hour when they can call you back! Nobody else I have dealt with does that and that a big plus to stay with SD.

i get bad/lousy service when i call them in french and when i call shaw in english ..oh boy a different world!!! very understanding willing to help offering lots of options trying to work out a good package of channels and so forth. much much better service in english than in french i found them rude and they have no patience and sometimes they don't understand quite well-- i'm no racist-- but they are some immigrants.. so they have sometimes trouble understanding the french language. just my 2 cents......:cool:

My aunt just cancelled with SD. Was charged $30 for this. Is this standard?

P.S. When will SD offer Aljazeera English. They do offer a terrorist network already and its called Fox News (sic).

what a ridiculous thing to say....