Hello again,
Okay, so my original agent (Holly) called me back this morning to inform me that the manual port push had supposedly been completed. I told her about the situation with conflicting information regarding the 30-day cancellation. She contacted one of the cancellation agents herself, and the agent told her that the 30-day policy is federal law, and that they always honor the cancellation request when the user calls in. I will probably still contact the cancellation agents myself to confirm this personally.
That said, the only reason for me to go on a 3-year term right away is because they're offering a deal where I can get both an HDPVR and a second HD box rent-free for the entire term. This offer may or may not still be in effect in February, but Holly doesn't know what the February promos are at this time. I currently only have one TV, but I could always pick up a small second TV for my bedroom. I actually have a spare 19" computer monitor that has a DVI input; do the Telus HD boxes utilize HDCP? If not, then I could probably just hook the second box up to my monitor, using a DVI->HDMI adapter for video and a separate stereo system for sound.
Meanwhile, Holly informed me of a promo for $10 off TV for the first 3 months, which would bring down my TV Essentials to $13/mo for months 2-3 (Edit: I was going to update my previous post with this info, but it looks like I can't edit older messages once I've posted a new one). Diago, Holly also explained your promo to me, and it definitely sounds like you'd get the $45/mo offer for months 2-6, not 2-7. You should call to confirm, though.
Lastly, it appears that one of the systems still shows that no ports are available, so she's currently straightening things out and will call me back again. What a ride so far...