Go nuts...

# Vice President, Customer Care – The entire Shaw team is committed to providing exceptional experiences to our customers. Our Vice President, Customer Care is available to ensure we find an appropriate solution to your concern. Our local management teams will be happy to put you in touch with our VP, Customer Care as required or the Vice President can be reached directly as follows:


* Address: Suite 900, 630 3rd Avenue SW, Calgary, AB T3A 5S3
* Phone: 1-888-750-7429
* Fax: (403) 750-4501
* Email: vpccare@sjrb.ca

That e-mail address is not valid.

After failure to post an email letter to that "out of service" address, I sent a snail mail letter, I am interested n seeing if I get any kind of response. Shaw is failing it's customers big time and they should be aware of this failure. Yes, they say they are hiring up to 400 to stem the blood flow of terminal customers, they blew it, big time! To be fair they have some great people working for them, that is their saving grace, but their complete lack of response time to frustrated customers will indeed cause them customer losses.

A big factor for Shaw is it takes them 4 weeks just to train new CSRs. So, combine that with probably another 4 weeks, at least, to just screen and interview applicants for the positions and you are looking at a minimum of 2 months before any 'new' CSRs are available to hit the floor.

I know this because it is what my girlfriend was told at the interview she had earlier this month and she wasn't offered a job so clearly they are looking for inexperienced people as she has a previous 2 1/2 years of cable co. call center experience.

The training course she would have been in doesn't start until the end of this month so there is a good chance it's going to be at least another month before things improve.

You know, in the business world, people work overtime when there is a shortage of staff to help through the high volume times... With all the existing employees there are at Shaw, I have a hard time reconciling they can't offer overtime to mitigate their existing shortage of staff... Another option would be to take administrative staff to assist in their call centres, surely a lot of them have experience and have moved on to other positions. I know if I was running the show, I would be concentrating on the customer response, which in turn would likely reduce the wait times and in turn the other work that must be done as a result of the backlog. Sometimes it is worth taking a bite out of one part of service to improve another. I notice billing hasn't come late... :-)

There are many of us working huge amounts of overtime right now, and it is being offered to all representatives. Training classes have also just begun to hit the floor within the last week.

As I've gone through the process of looking at options on whether to stay with Shaw after my promo ends, or move elsewhere where my mindset was to very likely stay with Shaw (I would say I was 90% sure) price and service were the 2 biggest factors when I started looking at post promo. Through posting I had contact with Shaw and eventually senior staff. In the midst of discussions, offers etc. I came to the conclusion I would commit to Telus for 1 year on TV and add their internet and telephone as well. I talked with Shaw on my reasons and I believe they are getting the message from us- they told me they are diligently working to correct the customer service problems and I believe them. I told them it was simply "awful" people had to wait I told them a couple other things as well but on the CS I think they're getting the message because the consequences are more and more people who would stay with Shaw if price and service were competitive are going to go elsewhere. Why it got to this point baffles me. As to the people who work for Shaw- for the most part do a really good job.

We might all consider, when dealing with Shaw employees about our problems, that if a company treats its customers badly, how likely is it that it treats its employees any better? We can take our business elsewhere. Employees are frequently stuck where they are and have to make the best of it. I'm not saying that this is the way it is at Shaw, but I have to wonder.

I have spoken to several Shaw employees and have not heard one negative about how Shaw treats it's employees. I have had nothing but positive encounters with all frontline employees, they do what they can to help, unfortunately because of limited tools (re Gateway), and limited knowledge base on the products they are very limited in what they can offer. IMHO Shaw did not provision manpower for this new technology, a BIG mistake that they and their customers (us) are paying for now!

Thanks for the post Rock1.

Too often we get guys coming bitching and complaining but they lack any perspective and have unrealistic expectations.

You've weighed the options and made your decision objectively.

I have spoken to several Shaw employees and have not heard one negative about how Shaw treats it's employees

Yeah, while we have the minority who like to complain about everything, the fact is that Shaw is very well regarded by the bulk of people in Western Canada.

Are they perfect? No but I do sense from talking to people that they are trying much harder than their Eastern cousins.

From my cross country comparisons, I think I like Shaw's offerings, pricing and customer service than what we get here in Ontario.

Shaw has just moved there channels around.
Now I get poor reception on about a third of them.
They tell me I may have to replace cables at my expense.
Reception was fine before.

Wow! Just browsing through this thread, people are incensed!

I'll throw in my 2 bits.

Hate the long hold times, and they've definately gotten MUCH worse since the gateway launch. They were a problem before particularly at night, but during the day were usually okay, now it's a crap shoot, I called around 9am one day this week and got the message about long hold times and chose the callback option, it said I could expect a callback in 27 to 49 minutes, 2 hours later no callback, I called again, this time the callback time was listed as more than 4 hours!

I finally got a callback around noon.

Generally speaking, I find that when I actually get through to someone, they resolve my problem or issue just fine.

For those of you who don't remember, Telus had the same problems with long wait times (several hours+) particularly for tech support and they didn't have a callback system. If you got through and a tech was supposed to call you back, the likelyhood of that happening was less than nil.

I had a 3rd portal install last week, tech complained that they weren't trained for installing the new Gateway system, after 2 to 2.5 hours a 2nd tech came and they eventually decided that the portal was DOA, the provisioning tech scheduled a visit for today. When the tech arrived this morning he complained that he had no training and very little experience with the gateway stuff and that the appointment was scheduled as hardware swap and should have been a repair/install appointment.

He did get it up and running in about 30-45 minutes which I was pretty happy about. He also indicated that they had only assigned him 40 minutes for the install.

So from my point of view it seems Shaw has a lot of internal procedural issues they need to resolve moving forward and I suspect even if they had enough people power we'd still run into a lot of these problems since the internal procedures aren't designed properly and result in lots of errors and problems.

From a bottom $$$ line point of view, it would makes sense that they get the procedures sorted out as all the mistakes and screw-ups are definately costing them money which gets passed onto us the customer eventually (evidence the Nov 01 price increases for the non SPP customers)

Gotta give props though to ShawChamp, Shaw Guru and Deaenforcement for their ongoing help, particularly with problems noted above. These guys (and/or gals) continually go above and beyond. If it wasn't for them, I'd definitely be in the "grrr, Shaw Sucks, let me find another provider" camp. Now if only Shaw could come out with more competitive pricing (offer the $99 gateway bundle deal to existing customers for example), and I'd be a really happy camper rather than one that grumbles every now and then.

Yeah, while we have the minority who like to complain about everything, the fact is that Shaw is very well regarded by the bulk of people in Western Canada.

Hugh not sure I'd agree with you there based on my circle of family, friends and clients, and friends of friends, most of them are running to Telus Optik tv in droves. Very few people I know still use Shaw. I'm in Vancouver btw.

My last three weeks with Shaw have left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I have a had tech in my house for the past hour, I have tried to convince him I have a Gateway box that has failed, but at this point he isn't convinced. He has changed the patch cable to the box stating it was a bad cable. He just came up and looked at the Portal which as I told him shows no DNS or Network, well I am not really impressed at this point (once again) :confused:. He can see the Gateway box continually cycling...

Sorry I didn't see this sooner Reboot. If your tech is still there, have him call engineering in Calgary and he should get the info he needs to tell if it needs replacing or not. I'm sure they will set him straight.

This guy is not the type to take instructions from a customer, too bad. He is running around in circles and I have already done everything he is currently doing (for Engineering in Calgary), they told me the Gateway box was at fault, but I will have to wait until he decides this for himself. I will not be happy if they try to leave without replacing the box.

He just replaced the Portal, guess what same results, no DNS, no network found, is it me or is there something wrong here :confused:, I tried to explain the history but he wasn't really interested.

Is there anyone on from Shaw, HELP!

Well, the tech threw up his arms and has left. Now a Gateway Instructor is coming (with a Gateway box under his arm), some time in the next hour I'm told. There goes the rest of my day. Shaw are you listening?

When I was talking to the senior shaw rep last time by phone (Sept 5) which was the 2nd time I talked to him. I have since and before had email with him I had made up my mind to switch.
From my perspective I know Telus did not have a stellar customer relationship in the past. Shaw did for the most part. But what I saw was Telus getting better in that regard. I called them on 2 occasions- both answered right away, and used the online chat 4 times. 3 times were instant- the 4th was 35 minutes. What I liked on the wait- not the wait but they said I was 5th in line, then 4th etc. I knew where I was and 35 minutes is ok. So Telus is improving Shaw is going the opposite.
Telus like Shaw being a new customer I got some good perks. In reading/researching I feel comfortable enough to be confident that the product and service are going to be decent. I did not commit other than 1 year on TV to a contract.
I was told Shaw is in the midst of hiring and addressing the CS issues. I believe them. I think competition is a big reason for this. It's no different why Telus offers perks and has been working on CS as well. Competition is good.
The Shaw rep was very good in all dealings and advised I would be welcomed back in the future. I may- I will likely weigh my options in 1 years time and see. The irony is I'd qualify for those special deals. :)
Let's hope Shaw can get back where they need to be aqs soon as possible.
PS- On callbacks- I actually like that option- just they need to be a lot faster.

@Rock1

Shaw actually needs to offer the callback option, as often as not, they don't give you that option and you are just stuck on hold until

a) you give up in disgust
b) your battery runs out

:-(

I've had both happen numerous times.

In one case I was on hold for about 4+ hours.