Talked to a supervisor yesterday. Again, a two hour wait to talk to someone, but at least this time I had the option of a call back. Then had to argue with the CSR to actually talk to a supervisor. Ended up getting the box attached to my account, but had to cancel my Gateway installation for next week and rescheduling it after the box was attached to my account, which ended up with an appointment one day later than originally scheduled. Not the end of the world.

Had my discounted Internet attached and extended for another 6 months, so I'm ok with the way things turned out.

Still really frustrated with the process, though. Wasted WAY too much time on getting cable set up in my place.

Clint

I'm close to cancelling Shaw entirely. Recently moved from Edmonton to Calgary. What a nightmare it has been getting Shaw to take equipment back and "log" it properly, give proper credit for said equipment as well as credit for trade in equipment.

These hold times of 1 1/2 to 2 hours is insane. No option for callbacks and when I do talk to someone they say they are taking care of it, but they never do. Again, I received a collections notice in the mail from Edmonton because Shaw did not properly return the equipment I gave to them when they installed the Calgary system. I also still have yet to receive proper credit for trade in equipment and have been flat out lied to by customer service.

I have a call in to get a supervisor to call me but I am seriously at my whits end. Enough with this...we pay a lot of money every month and I shouldn't have to spend 2 hours of my evening waiting on hold because none of these morons can do anything right.

You know what is the worst? Not a single "We are sorry for the inconvenience Mr. xxx"...."We messed up Mr. xxx". Nothing. Not one person has said anything like that and not one person has offered me anything as compensation for all my lost time and troubles and collection notices and improper bills...etc. If the supervisor calling me does not straighten things out and give me some kind of compensation, they can take their gateway and portals and...well, you know the rest.

Uh oh.... please don't tell them to shove it where the sun doesn't shine... they'll charge you an installation fee!:cool:

Shaw's customer care team must be grossly understaffed. On my most recent call and chat, I the call back was more than 30 minutes after I confirmed my telephone number for the call back while I wasn't able to connect to an agent once on one Sunday between 9pm and Midnight (Central Time) using the Online Chat tool. Hey, if online chat is advertised to be open until 10pm (Pacific Time) seven days a week, why can't your sales desk be open to the same time if your self-service ordering tool doesn't work?

Had a Shaw tech out today because I informed tech support that internet was not operating at 100%. Supposed to be getting 25mb down but am only getting 15-17mb.

An install crew will be installing a new line out to the road tomorrow. Current Cable wire is possibly 20 years old,100 feet long and is to light of a wire for the internet to reach the expected speed. I also upgraded to 50 Broad Band today. New modem arrived Friday or Monday. Hoping it will work at its best with all the new lines and connections checked!

The Tech guys in my experience are usually the best. Nothing like the sub par service from customer service. I called customer service to tell them I wanted to cancel my Internet a week ago. All the customer retention person could offer me was a $10 credit to try High Speed Extreme for a month. My monthly Internet rate had just gone from $9.95 a month to $53.00! The rep acted like I owed them something because I had saved over $500 in the year I had the promo rate. I spent half an hour talking to that rep. Today I got 50 BB for $29.99 for 3 months. Used the On-line Customer Chat to get that.

I am leaning towards Telus when my promo expires. Shaw is going to lose a lot of customers the way they have been treating people- at least in my experience.
I am one who has and is giving Shaw 1rst choice to retain me. What I've asked them for is a similar discount that I got last year. They won't even reply although they state they will within 3 business days. The customer service used to be excellent- now it's awful. Over 1 hour phone waits are common and on my last one the rep was short and unhelpful. Uncaring as well. I had up to this point got very good reps even with waits- but this was new to me.
I had Shaw tell me how bad Telus Optik is- but from what I see- they are offering free PVR rental, free laptop, discount for 6 months, then lower costs after. Yes that is a 3 year contract price- but the service I hear is decent- depends who you talk to/read. Does Shaw post some of the negative comments? Hmm.... Well it's really poor. Still waiting for Shaw to respond but getting to the point I don't care if they do. Maybe the next call I get will be- why are you leaving- actually that will be when I cancel. Take a couple thousand switching- probably way way more and.....well Shaw is rich- I guess they don't care. Do I qualify for the $10 discount??
Also need better equipment the 6412 hums and I asked if they could upgrade it- no. Well I'll take the $148 I pay Shaw now- won't pay the $215 regular take it to Telus pay about 80 or so for 6 months then less than 140 and get free stuff. Sorry I'm not worth replying to Shaw.

Shaw's customer care team must be grossly understaffed. On my most recent call and chat, I the call back was more than 30 minutes after I confirmed my telephone number for the call back while I wasn't able to connect to an agent once on one Sunday between 9pm and Midnight (Central Time) using the Online Chat tool. Hey, if online chat is advertised to be open until 10pm (Pacific Time) seven days a week, why can't your sales desk be open to the same time if your self-service ordering tool doesn't work?
Agreed. I've been trying to contact Shaw for the last 4 days...I've been on hold for over an hour on two occasions on the phone before hanging up. I've not been given the option for the call back? I've tried "Chat" and waited around 2 hrs on the first try and 45 minutes so far this morning.

I have things to do, so I can't just sit here all day waiting for them to pick up.

It appears as though my old 6412 is dying...it has reset itself about a dozen times over the last week. Thankfully I have 3 Shaw services so I should be covered, but the wait is frustrating. Especially the stress I get from the family when "my stupid cable box" reboots in the middle of Big Brother...

@Rock1 Please give details(price etc...) on the Promo you were on for the last year. Someone may be able to tell you what you might be eligable for. Try the Shaw on-line Chat off their website. I've had 10-15 minute waits using it but some say they have waited much longer. Customer retention by phone offered me nothing and only seemed interested in telling me how I saved over $500 in the last year and should be happy paying $53 per month now. When I used the on-line Chat, I was offered 50 BB for $29.99 for 3 months.

Holy Crap!!! over 2 hours wait time... NOT Acceptable for a simple call back!

So the first "Chat" session took about 90 minutes...I went to the washroom and missed it.

I logged on again right away...took about the same time. This time I logged on from my laptop so I could take it to the bathroom with me :)

So, today I was "on hold" for Chat for 3 hrs.

The solution was to re-boot my machine...something it's been doing on its own a few times per day for the past week. We will see.

I finally got a reply from Shaw by email apologizing for delay in answering. The bottom line for Shaw is that if you've been on a promo there is no more deals unless you are upgrading to something you didn't have before.
My deal was the all-in TV package, High speed internet and basic phone with free long distance in N. America (I don't use it hardly ever and didn't ask for it) and Movie Central (wife watches a lot) for about $149 after all costs factored in. After Nov. 4th this increases to around $215. That is a breaking point for me. That and a couple other points.
Shaw and Telus aren't nice companies. Any deals are a result of competition. I am surprised Shaw would let existing customers- especially long term customers with hefty packages walk but it's their right.
As i've been pondering what to do I've heard the positives and negatives of all and tried to weigh them. Shaw has been hard line so not a lot of wiggle room. I have a dying 6412 and a 6416. Looking at PVR's the Optik has better features like being able to see your show while searching menus etc. I do need an upgrade on the equipment I have. The 6412 runs hot and hums. Shaw won't replace it.
I have thought about contracts, etc. and although not thrilled with them I see one by Telus I can live with- 2 years on the TV, none on internet and phone. The internet seems to be where most people complain- but I thought a Turbo Optik should be good 25 Mbps with 2 TV's. If it doesn't work I don't have a contract on it. Shaw will give me a deal in what 30 days? 90? :) or someone else but I think it will be fine. I also looked at my all-in and decided I don't need it all. Telus will give me 9 theme packs of 16 much of what I want. Less cost. Plus basic phone.
This deal will cost me $122 plus tax for 6 months. Then $172 plus tax. Better equipment, and a significant saving. Includes the Optik PVR, plus digital PVR, rental credit of $10 on $20 rental, $15 credit for the package and at the end of 2 years I'll see what happens on the TV. On the rest no commitments. Plus 3 months free Superchannel. I'll look at my options there after that.
So as I see it I'm getting modernized at a better price with only a 2 year deal. I believe Telus will offer deals when that time comes as opposed to Shaw who have been very clear with me- no deals. But in 2 years I may very well take a deal Shaw is offering.
I did talk with Telus by online chat- they answered instantly and spent a lot of time answering questions. It is true I don't know their service once committed but Shaw's where once it was excellent- is very poor now.
So where once I would have said I'd continue with Shaw- just work with me- now I'm pretty much decided to go to Telus.
The other point is Shaw's Gateway. While it looks decent- it costs/rents more and the price on Telus is better.

@Rock1 ~ Will Telus TV be reliable? I have not seen a TV plaing it yet. I wonder if it will cut out or have other problems. Don't let Optik TV(spelled with K) fool you. It is not fiber Optics.Try the on-line shaw Chat and try and hammer out a fair deal with Shaw. Upgrade to 50 BB. If your 6412 was to "die" then they would replace it.

From what I've heard and tried to disect- Optik is decent. The internet seems to be where most concern is but I'm not concerned too much as I'm not doing a contract on the internet. Shaw is good- but pricey. I had a Shaw tech who works in their promo dept. in Kelowna as well as a rep reply to me by email saying no deals. I wrote back and said if that is the case I'm history. I went on to say I would be willing to listen if I got some type of offer that made sense to me. They both said- sorry we can't do that. Where can I go from there? Sounds pretty hardline to me. To the point I've contacted Telus. The thing is- I can see Shaw getting business on new customers, Gateway (heard they have a deal on Gateway now for new customers only) and decent TV/internet but I know people who are like me and will jump ship to Telus. I suspect lots and lots. Simple math says you can save money and upgrade equip. On replacing the 6412- I talked to a Shaw tech- and I will qualify this by saying Shaw's tech's have always been very good to excellent- except the last one- short and unhelpful. I know they laid off a lot of staff so stress and well- 1 hour 2 hour delays on call backs. They said no upgrade on the 6412. A reason I'm going to rent rather than own. Also when the new machines get upgraded- I just give the old ones back.

Either I tried to contact a CSR today by the telephone. Once I was informed by

the phone operator that "all circuits are busy now". Another time I was told

the wait time is "2 hours", and that I could leave a call-back number. I wasn't

home or else I would be able to leave them a number to call me back. I'll

try again tomorrow!

The CSR's are great once you actually get through to them. It's the getting to that point where Shaw's great problem lies. It starts with their system not recognizing your Shaw phone number and continues with waits of an hour to two hours plus and them getting told you're being transferred to the top of another queue and then waiting well over an hour more all the while having to listen to their 'loop of boredom' and being told that I am important to them. Their accessibility used to be great; now it's a frustrating joke! What a surprise in my contacting of Amazon.com a couple of weeks ago. On their web site their were two buttons; one was 'phone me in five minutes' and the other was 'phone me right now'. I hit the latter and started scrolling back to the page where my information was. TWO SECONDS later my phone was ringing and they were greeting me and asking how they could help! Now that is showing how important I am to them. I was impressed and blown away. The people in charge of Shaw need to get their act together; they might have the 'best' show in town right now as far as they are concerned but things can change pretty quickly. They shouldn't be so arrogant with their customers. Get the public riled and watch out...

Phone CSR service took a nose dive in February 2010, it was almost as bad as now. Their response at the time was they were hiring more people.

Shaw has money, they really need to clean this mess up, it is not acceptable for what is supposed to be a first rate company and they should have anticipated high demand - this time of the year and all the product roll-outs....

Somebody better fix it quick because it really is getting more and more ridiculous.

I just spend 1:10 on the phone, I gave up as I had things to do. So frustrating, it never was this bad. If I try to cancel I'll be on hold for days lol.

Well, I spent a little time writing a complaint to the CRTC. The next day I got a call from Shaw customer service, aplogising for the problems (excessive wait times). The fellow I talked with told me they didn't anticipate the demands of all the products but are working to quickly hire another 280 CSR's and deal with this asap. I did mention this was not the first time the wait times have got so bad, and he agreed, saying they were doing all they could to fix it. He also gave me his direct number and said he would be happy to hear from me again, and would personally ensure I got a call from the right person should I need assistance.

I guess you really can't expect more than that for the time being, but they should have anticipated these volumes...

[JOKE] I'm on hold for two hours this morning and as a bonus to my crappy service, I now have a new weekend job as a CSR ;) [JOKE]

I can't believe they advertise employment opportunities between songs while you are on hold, hilarious... :rolleyes:

PS - If the estimated wait time is between 1:15 and 1:50 Shaw should really offer a call back option. Seems like only over 2 hours you get an option for a call back, but waiting on hold for 1:15 to 1:50 is ok??? Come on...

what's really funny is that the webchat isn't working for me anymore .. Been sitting on hold for 35 min so far.. I'm assured that my call is important and that they are hiring in my area!