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Shaw Direct Complaint, Rant, Leaving SD Thread

325K views 1K replies 235 participants last post by  P2B 
#1 ·
This thread is for frustrated members to air their beefs and grievances over Shaw Direct.

If you have a technical problem that needs solving, please check out other threads, as this one is just for rants and complaints.

Please Note:

Although this thread is for rants and complaints, you are still expected to follow the rules of the forum when you post so No swearing, no oversized fonts, images etc.
 
#33 ·
Just my two cents...

Star Choice and now Shaw Direct subscribers have been waiting years for expanded guide features and other improvements to make their tv experience better.

So far what we have gotten in return is vaporware and a few new channels that most find lacking in appeal. (Still images in HD with music - wow, and AMCHD - stretched 4:3 movies with lots of commercials, etc)

Unfortunately I can only complain to myself because Shaw doesn't care. My only other option is Shaw cable. Why leave one when it just means more money spent for different hardware and nothing better in terms of service.

At this point I am saddened by my choices for viewing television and am actually considering saving my money each and every month and buying/renting movies and/or tv series that I actually want to watch. \End Rant\
 
#34 ·
<start rant> SD is so useless!

Signed up throught the online programming change on August 26. Received a response from SD that my request had been processed later that day.

Get home from the cottage to watch the game I had setup to record on the "fantastic" DVR. Go to the recording and have 1.5 hours of "a subscription is required to view this program"

Dail their "customer service" to get things fixed. Our wait time currently exceeds 60 minutes. Great!!! the game will be over by then! I can't even be bothered to wait that long, so I'll call later tonight.

My assumption is that they screwed up everyone's NFL sunday ticket and that's why they're so busy.

All I know is that when I managed a call centre (over 300 FTE) for a large bank, I would be getting raked over the coals if the wait times ever got to 20 minutes let alone 60!
<end rant>
 
#35 ·
My contact at S-D indicated the 600 series timeline is now showing public release for mid 2010 - that's still a long wait.
Since they won't be needed until 2011 if at all, what's the rush?

Telesat can't even order the new extended Ku band satellite for 111.1 until the real Shaw vs Rogers fight is over at Industry Canada - will extended Ku band be used for DTH or mobile in Canada?
Latest info I have:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/vwapj/dgtp-003-08-telesat-replycomments.pdf/$FILE/dgtp-003-08-telesat-replycomments.pdf

If Rogers and friends win, it means a 2 dish solution for SD HD starting in 2011.
 
#36 ·
in my case, the urgency isn't in the formatting requirements, but rather the HDMI repeater problems - I'd like to get rid of some cables.
(oh, and also the 500 series looks like the team from Playschool or Fisher Price established the appearance criteria, I'd rather a component that actually resembles a component...)
 
#37 ·
Why must I fight Shaw for pre season hockey?

Last year I noticed that Centre Ice subscribers with Bell tv got the Leafs pre season games & when I emailed Shaw Direct they fought me saying Bell tv has never done a pre season game ever finally I emailed the Bell guide & they admitted they were wrong & they started airing them this year shaw is doing it again saying the pre season is not covered by centre ice.Maybe I should just switch to Bell or Eastlink so I can get my hockey.
 
#41 ·
Shaw disconnected unrented bsmt suite

I posted this elsewhere on wrong thread so figured I'd post it here too:

We bought our house a year ago. It has a basement suite. We had our daughter move into the basement and we had Shaw split the cable so she would have her own bill to pay. In June she moved out so we turned the basement suite into a media room. Purchased $8,500 worth of media equipment and had a shaw cable tech come in and hook up 4 outlets in the house as we get 4 free outlets with our service. 2 outlets in the basement suite and 2 upstairs. I explained to the tech at the time that the girls were moving out (our daughter and her roommate) within 2 weeks and that we were not renting the suite. They were welcome to come by from time to time to check and make sure were weren't renting. He said fine. On Thurs morning my husband was watching the big TV downstairs and all of a sudden the cable went out. I had seen a Shaw van in the area. I called Shaw the next day as we could not get it working again and they said from time to time they "audit" and then disconnect cable in suites. They do this as many people with suites are getting free cable for their renters. I explained to her what I had explained to the tech and she kept saying "you have to understand that there are many people with suites and renters not paying for their cable". Nothing I said would convince her we were not stealing the cable. She said she could have another tech come out next week but she could not guarantee another would not come along and disconnect the cable. Our Shaw connection is on the outside of the house. Is it possible to move it inside? I am quite angry that their techs have the right to come on our property and disconnect our cable without even asking us first. We were home at the time. Another option I have is to reconnect our star choice but we live in a very nice area and I don't want the dish hanging off the side of the house. I also don't know if our house is "wired" to have a dish. Plus we've purchased Shaw 3 cable boxes, 2 HD boxes (1 records) and these were expensive.

I hope someone has some good suggestions. On Monday morning I am going to call the suites department at Shaw. I did talk to a second CSR at Shaw on Friday and she apologized a lot and told me to call the suites department. The first lady was not helpful at all. Basically accused me of stealing cable. I had asked the first CSR to have a supervisor call me. She said she would and I am still waiting for that call.

Thanks!
 
#42 ·
If you bought cable boxes, then nobody likely came to your house to disconnect any cables. Those boxes are programmed to work at the cable office. Try plugging one of the boxes into the line where you currently have service. If it still doesn't work, then it's not the cable - your box has been deactivated.

Personally I would switch companies if they are doing this. The cable companies make so much profit as it is. I can't believe they would make an issue out of something that they only suspect. What happened to the customer is always right?

It's time to switch. The dish isn't that big. Some people install them on their sheds in the back yard.
 
#43 ·
Shaw disconnect in unrented bsmt suite

No, they came to the house, made sure all 4 connections were working including the ones in the bsmt. They came to the house when they connected it in June/09. We had the cable box activated shortly thereafter and were enjoying our big screen TV for a month in the bsmt suite until they disconnected this past Thursday. We purchased the media room stuff in Aug/09. I called Shaw when they disconnected and they were not receiving a signal to or from the cable box in the bsmt. As I said, that cable box WAS working since early Aug. I connected the cable directly to the TV and there was snow. I tried the other outlet connected in the bsmt and still snow. The upstairs outlet is working.

Note: the first CSR I spoke with told me we had to get rid of our stove and fridge down there so it was not a "suite". How freaking expensive AND ugly would that be? That is the "man room" in the house and my husband does not want to run upstairs for a cold beer!!!!

Does anyone have another suggestion other than switch companies as we've sunk so darned much money into this already. I've sent a complaint in to the CRTC as well. If our only choice is to switch companies, does anyone know if a sattelite can use the existing Shaw wiring? Our house is new and I don't want to be punching a bunch of holes in our walls for a new cable system. Telus TV is not available in our area yet.

We are switching phone service back to Telus over this. I've made that very clear to Shaw. We've been great customers to them and our bill was over $225 / mo for almost a year. It'll be down to just cable now as we've also disconnected our high speed internet with them. Boy they're frustrating.

Thanks!
 
#44 ·
Well it's not legal, but you could run another cable from your jack that is working. If you can't hook it up yourself call an electrician. If you'd rather not do that, call your alderman and tell him what's going on. See what advice he can give you. Perhaps he could call Shaw on your behalf. Write a letter to the CEO at Shaw.

For them to be so adamant about this, it makes me wonder if this room in your house has a separate street number. If it has its own address then good luck. You would need the city to remove the address from record.
 
#45 ·
Well, it was a pretty good 3 1/2 years with Shaw Direct, but today I had Telus Satellite Installed and I must say I am glad I did for the HD PVR 9241. I now have a great PVR with the features that all of you are STILL waiting for. I don't see any difference with the HD picture either. So, if some of you were thinking of switching, don't worry and jump of the fence. ;)
 
#47 ·
I switched too and am very happy about it. However I would not want ShawDirect to go out of business because there would not be much competition left seeing as we have such little competition to begin with.

I really hope they adopt a new line of receivers. It would be ideal if they got TiVo to work on their system. If they went in on a joint effort with TiVo and Motorola they would likely come out with the very best PVR. The other thing they need to do is watch their pricing. When I joined them in 2005, I was paying around $43. When I left them recently, my bill was $64. They just bumped me up another $4 per month. It's unreal what they are charging but not delivering a good product. Here's hoping that they'll wake up!

Now that I've left them my bill is now $26 per month and the PVR is awesome.
 
#48 ·
Originally Posted by riko
I don't see any difference with the HD picture either.
No offense to you but the difference in PQ quality is VERY noticeable, especially on the American HD channels. I have both so I get to compare their greatness or lack thereof everyday.
 
#49 ·
I currently have both too - the Bell 9241 PVR and the StarChoice/ShawDirect DSR530. One of the reasons I stayed with Shaw/Star for so long was due to the fact people were saying picture quality was poorer with Bell. I actually find the SD picture quality better as it is smoother with Bell. Starchoice had a lot of artifacts on their SD channels. On the HD channels, I notice no difference at all. I will say that my ShawDirect 530 is picking up Fox from Spokane. With Bell I'm picking it up from Boston. I truly don't notice a big difference in quality - just the news is different. :)

The thing I hated with ShawDirect is their HDCP issue. I could not plug the DVI to HDMI cable through my high end receiver as it would not work. With Bell it works thank God as I've swapped my PS3 HDMI cable to the 9241 to test it. I'm going to be buying an HDMI cable specifically for the 9241 next week. For now, I'm running it through component - the same as ShawDirect, and I can't be more emphatic that the picture quality is not worse, but in fact better on the SD channels.

My subscription to ShawDirect runs out in October. At that time I'll just happily have the one.

I see you are using the 9242, perhaps the 9241 loans itself to a better picture.

My television is a 50" Pioneer Elite. One of the best plasmas ever made. If there was something wrong with the picture quality I would know.
 
#51 ·
In HD it is on 421. In SD it is on 427. The guide is messed up on the upper half of the SD channels but it only takes a few seconds to scroll through them. It seems it is too much to ask though, just like it is too much to ask to have a late afternoon game in HD on channel 421.
 
#52 ·
FunkyTown on Monday night watch Letterman & Conan O'Brien at 11:35PM, or for an apples to apples at 2:35AM on both ShawDirect & Bell in HD. Then tell me there's no difference. I work in consumer electronics I see it everyday, and no its not my TV's or or receivers etc..
 
#54 ·
Looks like you are very happy with your DSR530 and Shaw Direct Kittys. Why would you pay for both Bell and SD? Is it to get some of the channels that one doesn't carry? Oh well, to each his own.
 
#55 ·
I get Bell free through work, so I get the best of both worlds I guess. I just keep Shaw Direct for right now because of the sharper picture in HD on American channels + plus no Global,CTV crappy sim-subs. If Bell goes to mpeg 4 then who knows.;)
 
#56 ·
I watched the episode of Letterman with Obama and actually find the Bell picture is a bit more vibrant in color. As far as details, the pours in people's skin and such is the same.

I've been heavily involved with electronics all my life too. I know that some equipment can behave differently depending on when your PVR was manufactured and the model. We have different model numbers. My machine was manufactured May 2009. I would not leave Starchoice for the picture quality, but I'm glad I did as I'm more than pleased with Bell's.

You are right, they do simsub, but only when the same show is playing on both networks. So I choose to record from the Canadian network. It works great. I skip commercials anyhow. Many of my shows are not subbed because the Canadian station doesn't carry the show.
 
#57 ·
FunkyTown I'm not going to argue with what you think you see. If your happy than great I'm happy for you because that's what counts. All I can say is at work we have 5 TV's professionally calibrated for reference viewing. Two Pioneers 60" Pro141FD, 50" Pro111FD, 2 Panasonic's 58"Z850, 50" Z800 & my least fav a Sony XBR8 series (working on getting a Pana V10 done next). Some even use the 9241 not the 9242. And on these sets as on my own calibrated sets we see a difference. As a side note the best picture we see on any of them is actually Rogers HD(Toronto), ShawD #2 Bell #3. Shame I live just outside Rogers country:(

If you wish to continue we should move this convo to the Bell vs ShawDirect thread I would think. If not enjoy Bell its a good PVR and the Oasis,Equator channels are good PQ too.
 
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