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Shaw vs Telus Discussion

27K views 16 replies 13 participants last post by  roger1818 
#1 ·
Hi!
I need everyone's help. I want to order high speed internet and HD cable. I want an HD PVR but I don't really want to pay 20/month to rent an HD PVR. I definitely want the standard channels, HD channels, and would like HBO/Movie Central, but with shaw it seems that i'm looking at 130/month for both which seems a bit pricey to me. I could also get phone as well, as long as I can get all 3 for cheap. Any suggestions?
 
#2 ·
Hey. I dont acctually pay for any of this as im a renter (landlord pays for it) but i have an idea as to the prices. I am curently with Shaw and i would definitly pick Shaw high speed internet over Telus. I have never had problems with Shaw...ever. Telus...well, (weather its the modem or not its telus product) about every 2 days or so i have to reset the modem because it just wont give any output. Gets kinda anoying after a while esspecially when you just want to check something quick before you head out the door to work, say the weather. Quicker to just click a couple of buttons and see it in a matter of seconds then wait 10 minutes for the TV to tell you. I also find that Telus is slow. I stream movies and TV shows (cuz i got 2 kids and they always interupt everything im doing) so that i can watch them when i have time to rather than renting etc. Telus slows down, every so often (about 10 mins) it has to buffer the movie because the internet was to overloaded.

As far as TV goes im either or. I find Telus is cheaper over all but Shaw is much better for service. I work with a guy who waited a month for a telus guy to come hook up his cable so he could get a 50% off for 6 months deal. 2 years earlier when i hooked up my stuff (Cable and internet with Shaw) it was about 3 days (till the weekend when i was avalible). I personally dont find that the end product itself weather you go with Shaw or Telus differs much. You do get Shaw On Demand which is a real treat if you want movies with a draw back, it only has new realeses and when shaw gets them is when they come out on video anyway. It does save you from having to go to the movie store search around return it the next day. Every so often it will put out the new realese between the theaters and out on video but its rare.
Overall i would pick shaw TV, you get the service and (like me) watching 2 kids under 3 years old on a saturday (while the wifes at work) Shaw on Demand is great chance for me to rent a movie as soon as they go for a nap without having to pack them up just to go to rent a movie.

As far as phone goes i dont have it. I have a personal Cell phone and a company one as well, no need to have a land line.

Go with Shaw, Internet beats Telus. TV...well Telus is cheaper (maybe you can work out a deal of sorts) but Shaw does have the Shaw on Demand. You may pay the price for Shaw but you get the service. All of this is my opinion from personal experience.
 
#3 ·
Get Digital TV basic for $35.95, then get them to add HD plus for $10.00 and add movie central package for $16. $61 for TV. Add high speed for $35, and I think you save $5 for bundle. So $91. You do miss out on some channels, but I find most of the ones you miss are on HD plus anyway.
 
#4 ·
I use both.

Telus doesn't currently monitor bandwidth on any internet services that are on their newer ADSL2+ system (thats some 6.0 packages, and all Turbo 15.0 packages.)

The few times I've used Shaw over the years, my bandwidth consumption results in nothing but warnings. I also live in in a fairly population dense area, which means Shaw slows down at peak times.

That being said if you get telus tv HD, and the box is on, it lowers your available bandwidth.

So I use Shaw for my TV, and Telus for internet/phone. Telus now matches shaws digital phone pricing (or close to it.. 20.95 a month, 4 cents LD, and call display included). This lets me get HD tv, but a decently fast 15.0mbps internet connection as well. It probably cost(s) a little more to not bundle all 3 services at the same company.

I suppose if Telus ever starts to monitor bandwidth on their upper tier package, I'd have to rethink my strategy.
 
#5 ·
Shaw

Since Telus is kinda new to the whole TV thing, I'd say for now, go with Shaw. I have Shaw Digital Cable and Shaw High Speed Internet and I'm pleased with it. The Customer Service is actually pretty good too.

For more info on Bundling costs for Shaw, go to: http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/BundlesAndPricing/default.htm and then from there, just fill in your Postal Code and just play around with it and see what suits you best :)

I hope this helps :)
 
#7 ·
Telus TV vs Shaw for additional TV

I just finished signing up for Telus TV. I have 5 TV's in our house. After talking with the very nice and very helpful Telus rep, I booked an appointment for an April install for their "Watch A Lot" and I took their offer of a Free PVR for a three year contract, and ordered four STB for the other TV's, here is the problem you can purchase them for $208.00/each or have them charge you $10/month for 36 months ($360.00). I asked the rep what channels will I get on the TV's that I don't hook up a STB to, she said only local channels, so virtually nothing. Although I really hate Shaw I do have the ability to watch 50 channels on any of the 5 TV's that I have in the house.
Sorry Telus but I have to stay with Shaw.
 
#17 ·
I asked the rep what channels will I get on the TV's that I don't hook up a STB to, she said only local channels, so virtually nothing. Although I really hate Shaw I do have the ability to watch 50 channels on any of the 5 TV's that I have in the house.
Sorry Telus but I have to stay with Shaw.
That is where cable has a huge competitive advantage over satellite. With satellite, you need a STB on every TV since they don't provide analog service. Cable on the other hand provides both analog and digital service on the same cable so TVs that don't have a STB can have the cable connected directly to the TV and still receive some of the channels. It is for this reason that I believe cable companies will never (or at least not any time soon) completely get rid of analog service (though they may reduce the number of channels available).

When the rep says you will get local channels, what she meant is that you can connect an antenna to the TV and receive programming OTA. In some markets you can get lots of channels for free OTA, but after the analog shutdown in a years time, in some areas, TV's that don't have a built in ATSC tuner will need a DTV box to receive these free channels (though they will be in HD and the PQ will be better than cable or satellite).
 
#8 ·
Help a n00b pick a provider/package

Hoping you guys can help a n00b pick a cable provider/package.

Now that my current Shaw promo is about to expire, I originally planned on cancelling cable, and downgrading my extreme high-speed, to a regular high-speed connection. But just last week I bought a 46" LCD 1080p TV, so now I want HD!! This where you guys come in. What are my best options for an HD/High-Speed package?

I still only need basic cable (right now I get to channel 28 + a few random high channels like 120), but I'd like some HD channels in there. I'm also going to be downgrading to a regular high-speed connection as previously mentioned. And I'm going to need to get an HD PVR as well. I see that Future Shop has them for $499 right now, and I'm not willing to pay that. I was hoping to get a deal on a rental or a free box (with contract), but if that doesn't pan out, I'll start looking for a used one or wait for them to go on sale.

Am I going to get what I want for under $100/month? I'd like it to substantially less than that if possible. They have bundle discounts right? And I have my own modem, so that saves me $5/month right? I have no idea how this works, and Shaw's site is a bit confusing. Or should I just go with TELUS TV? They have a free HD PVR with 3 year agreement. I'm a little leery to go with TELUS after how bad the internet was in my building, but I'm willing to use their offer as ammunition with Shaw if needed.

A bit of background: As I'm sure this is relevant, I live in Surrey, BC (Metro Vancouver). I currently have a killer bundle that costs me $19.99/month for Extreme internet, and $9.99/month for basic cable with a free digital box rental. This promo is expiring at the end of May, and now I want to explore other options.



I cancelled my Shaw account two years ago because they were constantly throttling my connection, and I really had no need for cable TV. I ended up going with TELUS for internet, which costs me a fraction of the price. The problem is that the speed was terrible. Tech support couldn't help other than to say they weren't getting a proper signal through to my modem. I asked them to come look at the lines, but they wouldn't do this until I moved my computer to another phone jack to test it out. I told them I wasn't moving my whole computer into the kitchen just to try another jack. Because of this they refused to send a tech, so I cancelled my service.

In conjunction with the cancellation of my TELUS internet, I got the amazing offer from Shaw which is expiring next month. It gave me 2 months of free service, and then 10 months @ $32.80 including tax. Shaw seems really aggressive in trying to acquire customers. In the year I was with TELUS, I probably got a new/better offer every month. The icing on the cake was my $32.80/month offer for extreme + basic cable. They were also pretty aggressive in trying to retain my business when I initially cancelled 2 years ago. They guy was willing to offer me two HD boxes (I don't think they were PVR's), plus HD service & extra channels for 6 months free. I was determined to leave regardless, so I thanked him for the offer and cancelled my account. Because of how aggressive they were last time, I’m hoping I have some bargaining power this time around as well.

The past year I've been more than happy with Shaw. They no longer throttle my connection which is great. I'm not sure if this is because I'm on an Extreme connection now, whereas the first time around it was regular high-speed??
 
#10 ·
I called Shaw and they told me it doesn't cost anything extra to get basic HD channels. I also found out my promo is good until June 21st, so all I need is the HD box. After the promo is over it's apparently going to cost me $80.95/month, or $70.95/month on regular high-speed. Not bad at all. Now I just need to find a used PVR for a reasonable price.
 
#11 ·
shoul i switch to optik tv?

Hi all, I live in a new subdivision in south Edmonton and Im thinking about switching to telus tv based on price, bandwidth, reviews from this forum and the extra "goodies" being thrown in.

Since I moved here over 5 yrs ago, ive been a shaw subscriber. Is anyone else thinking about doing the same?

Tell me why I shouldnt switch!
 
#12 ·
No, but I can tellyou why you should...

In a word Optik. I just moved to Optik and I have one HD PVR at present and room for 2 more hd and ons sd box.
With one box on watching HD content and recording one HD channel my internet is still running at 5 Mbps. When watching one hd stream I get about 12 Mbps.
The unfortunate part is I'm on an older package as far as channels that is no longer available.

I like the service. It allows you to watch recorded content from the pvr on any other box or device. (Current promo gives you and xbox which doubles as a receiver with a three year contract) In three years the only outage I have had other than a power outage was for an hour and a half a week after they hooked me up. You get local repair service and very quickly as well - if you are an ADSL customer and you router fails they mail a replacement from Burnaby, as a tv customer they show up by the next day and fix you up.
Best of all they use Bell's award winning backhaul. No repeated or rebroadcast signals, they all come strait from the source, unaltered and crisp.
 
#13 ·
I'm a bandwidth hog, so I stick to Telus as they don't seem to care. I know shaw has some leeway, but I'm in a congested area, so they do get on my case. Also because I'm in a congested area, shaw lows down in peak periods.

I use telus turbo 15mbps and it operates full speed 24/7, and telus isn't too picky on cap enforcement.. so that works too. I also use Telus for phone, because you may as well, otherwise you pay the fee for dry loop. (phone lines are partially paid for through landlines, if you don't use a landline, DSL fee goes up to compensate).

For TV I shaw. I used to have Telus TV, but they wouldn't upgrade me to turbo while I had telus tv at the time, so I went to shaw for cable and haven't bothered to go back. Shaw keeps raising prices, so I am tempted to go back to telus for TV. Especially now that VSDL is being rolled out and you can watch tv, and still keep decent internet speeds.
 
#14 ·
Obviously, my opinion may be a little biased. I do work for telus. :p

But here's been my experience with both companies. For the longest time, I had shaw tv (lol sega channel) and then their internet service which I had no complaints about. Everything was very plug and play and they gave me a free modem which I still have (just in case). The connection was good and eventually I ceased my telus landline to try out the shaw digital phone and go with their unlimited LD pack.

The phone was a little sketchy. Hopefully they fixed some of the issues I had back in 2006-2008. I would dial out and frequently get "all circuits are busy, please try again later" and this even happened when a friend tried to dial 911 from my house! Very unsettling, but hoorah for cellphones. Other than that, I was happy, although I did wish it was more inexpensive.

After that I went to stay with my aunt, who is a telus pensioner and had their services. It wasnt that great. She was on the older imagic platform(third oldest now) and although the phone worked worked flawlessly and the internet was just ok, the tv was pixelated, would freeze, I'd have to reboot the boxes and I cursed quite a bit.

So when they upgraded her to optik, I admit I was skeptical. But the difference was a huge improvement over the old telus platform. I like needing only 1 pvr to use it's functionality on all stb in the home. The internet, which is the most important of the services to me, is super fast and hasn't gone down since hookup so no complaints.

I'm moving into my own place this friday and after much going back and forth, I'm giving telus a try and going with their xbox as second stb promo/ buying the pvr outright for 250.00 promo price. we will see how it goes. At least their cancellation fees have improved. 10 per month remaining isn't too shabby if you go on a term with ttv, 13 per month remaining on my 2yr xbox promo. But i've been happy with the set up at my aunts so I don't think I will need to cancel.
 
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