I have been with shaw forever! Im from Richmond, BC and i have the following package:
I get HD Plus and High Speed internet for $115.95/month.
Am I being ripped off?
Also, I own a Motorola HD box without PVR capabilities and a cheap digital only box.
I really want a HD PVR. Should I switch to Telus Optik? They are offering basically the same thing that I am getting now for only $112/month ($65 for first 3 months) and a free HD PVR and a free xbox 360.
Thank you!
I'm in a similar situation, my bill is $138.85 per month for:
- Basic Phone + voicemail
- High Speed internet
- HDTV with HD Plus
- HDPVR, SDPVR
I'm getting another HDTV, so would need to replace the SD PVR with an HD box. Knowing that just a simple HD Box is $178 and a HDPVR is at least $300, I started to look at what Telus has to offer.
With their current incentives for new customers, I can get the following:
- Optik TV with Your Pick Combo
- Optik High Speed
- Home Phone with 5 features
- HDPVR (free rent for 3 years), HD Digital Box (free rent for 3 years), Xbox (with 2 year internet)
Over three years it works out to $5,016 versus $4,998 for Shaw (assuming no price changes in that time). Essentially the same price, but with the following improvements:
- HD on both of my TVs
- PVR Anywhere eliminates need for second PVR
- 15 Mbps versus 7.5 Mbps download speed (I understand that the 15Mbps can be lowered by TV usage)
- 1 Mbps versus 0.5 Mbps upload speed
- 125GB/month (currently soft cap) versus 60GB/month (increasingly hard cap).
- Xbox
Seems like a simple choice if Optik TV works as advertised. The higher bandwidth alone makes it very attractive.
I called Shaw to ask what they could do to keep my business, and got a bunch of arguments about how contracts are bad, most people don't need more than 60GB per month, etc., summed up with "we don't price match, and we don't give away hardware". I was talking to whoever answers when you select "disconnect service" from the menu, which I don't think is the retentions department. Maybe I'd get a different answer from them.
I don't have any complaints with my current Shaw service, and switching is a bit of a hassle, but Shaw sure doesn't seem to care if they lose a customer.