[greenthumb]

I'd like to see our Shaw bill reduced but my partner doesn't seem willing dissect the bill.
We currently pay
Digital TV & High Speed 104.95
HD Plus Pkg 12.00
Home Phone (Digital) 55.00 Includes unlimited LD. (used to call aging parents in the Lower Mainland)

When you add the HST we're creeping up on 200/month.......YIKES!!!
I think we're being hosed but how do we reduce?

As all the family has cell phones the digital phone (which isn't any different than Telus analog phone) and Shaw voicemail is very glitchy....seems like
over kill on the communication thing in our household.

My parter watches the HD tv while I couldn't care less about it. I watch the little tv with half the channels.

Sorry for the rant.........Any suggestions?

 

[loracweb]

You could probably reduce the phone costs depending on how much LD you use. Shaw Basic LD is only $0.04/m. Drop VM / CW and save an extra $5.95 /m.

 

[RalphG]

We lopped $22 per month of our cable bill by dropping tiers 1, 2 and 3. Most of the tier 1, 2 and 3 channels that we ever watch have HD conterparts which we get with HD Plus. Food Network is the only one we do miss.

Dropping the tiers reduced our bundle discount too but the net savings was $22 per month.

 

[wlee15]

Take a look at your Long Distance minutes, do you really make 10 hours of long distance calls per month? If you don't then going down to Home Phone Lite can make a lot of sense. If you fine with basic phone service going down to Basic can save quite of bit as well.

 

[kshort23]

I would agree about dropping some channels. I have basic cable, with HD plus and that covers everything i need. Just sign up for Netflix if you really need some extra viewing. 8 bucks a month for that for unlimted older movies and tv shows. Probably better quality then you will get on the digital sd channels.

 

[Mixar69]

Just sign up for Netflix if you really need some extra viewing. 8 bucks a month for that for unlimited older movies and TV shows. Probably better quality then you will get on the digital SD channels

There is some newer movies as well.

Yes with NetFlix you would indeed have more selection for less then half the price as Movie Central or Superchannel. I signed up for NetFlix 2 weeks ago and stream it through my PS3 to my TV or you can use your computer. The quality is good as alot of the movies are in HD and even the SD ones are good in my opinion. its just the selection that may be a problem with some as they could beef it up but for the price you can't complain. So my recommendation is try it you get your first month free so you can decide in that time weather you like it or not.

BTW I never had a problem with any glitching or pausing due to bandwidth issues. All movies played great

 

[hugh]

Home Phone (Digital) 55.00 Includes unlimited LD. (used to call aging parents in the Lower Mainland)

Find a new Telco. You should be able to save $20 to $30 a month.

 

[ShawViewer]

Using skype for a telephone service. $2.99/m for anywhere within USA and Canada, unlimited. Dropped Tiers 1/2/3 after latest price change.

 

[dbarron]

Basic phone is $21 per month and comes with call display and 4 cents per minute long distance. That's $34 per month right there, so unless you make a lot of long distance calls you come out ahead.

 

[shawsean]

digital basic TV = $36.95
High Speed Internet = $37.00
digital phone basic = $20.95
and keep your grandfathered HD plus package = $12.00

= $106.90 plus HST... there's some savings for you.

 

[Thunder]

I was feeling very much like you greenthumb so I dropped Teir 1 & 2. Could not drop Teir 3 as it had the food channel for my wife. I also dropped my Digital phone and the bill including the HST is now $135 from $195. I will review this in the next three months, and if further cuts are needed we will consider the elimination of teir 3.

 

[Nanuuk]

Greenthumb, if your aging parents were on Shaw home phone there would be no LD charges. You could drop your $55/month line in favour of the basic service at $20.00. Other LD charges are only $.04 a minute which is quite reasonable. My service has the basic phone, high speed internet (7.5 mb), HDTV Plus and Movie Central for $150.0 plus GST.

 

[mike70sk]

Drop high speed internet and go with high speed express. its still high speed and is 2.0 megs faster then a standard dsl line. no difference in speed for websites. If you download 10 gig movies files you will have to wait a bit longer. but that should save you 18 a month plus hst. as others said drop tier one two and three there a rip off. reduce your phone to digital basic that will save you 30 bucks. use the 4 cents a minute or skype in total that should save you about 70 bucks give or take.

i currently have basic digital, hd plus 12 dollars, high speed express 19 dollars, digital phone basic 21 dollars, with tax i have all there services for 98 bucks a month tax paid (5gst and 5 pst)

 

[Shaw Guru]

Easiest way to drop your bill is to drop to the Home Phone Basic plan for $20.95/month. Also what most people don't realize is that if you are a Shaw home Phone customer calling long distance to another Shaw home Phone customer the call is FREE. Shaw implimented this a couple months back for all levels of phone services so you can cut your bill down to about $140 + tax a month by doing this.

 

[joudbren]

Find a new Telco. You should be able to save $20 to $30 a month.

Have to agree with this. $55 per month in this day and age is ridiculous. Do you have Telus in your area? They are offering unbelievable deals to switch everything over to them. They sent me a package that was $10/$10/$10 for phone, tv and internet for the first year! Granted, it's basic TV but even if you upgrade it the deal is still great.

I've been with Shaw for years and was paying them $160 a month for Extreme Internet, TV with full HD and Movie Central and basic digital phone. My long distance even at 4 cents a minute still added another $15 a month on top of that.

I made one phone call to Shaw re: the Telus deal and voila! They apparently have a "loyalty discount" now for their "good customers" and dropped my total bill down to $100 a month and free long distance for a year so we're staying with Shaw for now. Moral of the story, it pays to shop as none of these guys is going to call you and offer a discount unless they have to. Cheers!

James

 

[bkelowna]

Yes, think I'll have to drop shaw for phone and internet cause Telus is cheaper (even with shaw's so called discounts) and likely tiers 1, 2 and 3 (actually only watch a couple channels on Tier 3 but not worth the price.) Dropped Movie Central already and will try netflix instead next time I'm ready for movie channels. Shaw HD basic is Ok if you like the paid programming lineup (yeah love paying for paid programing channels) and HD Plus includes another 70% channels I don't watch and not just because of the random sound drops. Think I'll be droping my shaw bill to 36.95 a month soon.

 

[alejandra]

Shaw charges me $62.95 for Digital TV and $52 for high speed internet.
$62.95 + $52 -$10 bundled discount - $5 purchased modem discount.
Is this a fair price?

 

[Egghead1969]

$52 for high speed internet is insane expensive

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

But it's not really $52. It's really $37 (by adding internet to the Digital TV that gets a $10 bundling discount and then there's the modem discont: $52-$10-$5=$37).

 

[loracweb]

I don't have a problem with their Internet prices. It is reliable and I can download hundreds of gigs a month w/o any issues.

TV service on the other hand is way overpriced IMO.