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 Review by MerinX 
member for 2.2 years, 266 visits, last login: 7 days ago
updated 1.9 years ago
 undisclosed location
 $140 per month "Connection is not really congested during peak hours where i live" "Since the extreme tier upgrades speeds have dropped below the 15 it used to be during peak hours." "Go with Telus Novus Teksavvy sasktel if you use a lot and do not need faster speeds"
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Any company that would have such low limits in this day and age is pathetic, to then lower them further like bell is downright criminal. Then to ask us to re-buy the very same usage for 10 GB for $5/month when i lost 25 gigs of my extreme package is an insult to my intelligence when i know a gig costs 1-2 cents.
»www.theglobeandmail.com/news/tec···1890596/
Clearly shaw can no longer be trusted to provide quality internet now that they are so invested in the canwest buyout and the future of traditional media models.
For a guide for massive savings in switching check out
»How to switch from Shaw to Telus
For more info on UBB
»UBB articles and video compilation thread (shaw)
Fundamental flaws to shaw's UBB system
First the rates are bhellshit, 1-2 dollars when they cost 1-2 cents to supply is inexcusable.
»www.theglobeandmail.com/news/tec···1890596/
»What exactly is a bandwidth hog?
Second the data plans, to expect us to buy these to replace usage you just took away from packages with already pathetic caps is exactly what bell/rogers pulls and that is unacceptable. As for the rates on them
10 GB at$5/month, 50 cents/gig that cost 1-2cents /gig
60 GB for $20/month, 30 cents/gig that cost 1-2 cents /gig
250 GB for $50/month 20 cents/gig that cost 1-2 cents/gig
No matter how you look at it there is a 2000-5000% markup. Of course this is assuming you want to go threw the utter and total hassle of watching your usage and call shaw and wasting ones time!
At overage costs the markup is 10000-20000% how can that be justified.
If this was real UBB we would
A) get a refund for under usage
B) have roll over limits each month since every gig is magically more valuable due to artificial limits imposed by our fail telecoms.
C)Be charged 2-5 times the cost and no more if this is about recouping losses which it is clearly not.
D)Have an acceptable limit like in the USA or any country in the developing world if they can have unlimited we can have 250 gigs like Comcast the only ISP that enforces such limits with a soft cap(throttling after you go past your limit)
F) Understand that just because some people do not use the internet or work most of the time etc etc that basing our usage on their usage is utterly and totally silly.
G)Do not go about lowering usage limits as you please just because bell/rogers get away with it.
Please exam the real costs and the pathetic limits you feel are justifiable.
* Light Speed – 15GB per month cost 15-30 cents
* High Speed – 60GB per month cost .60-1.20$
* Extreme – 100GB per month cost 1-2$
* Warp – 175GB per month cost 1.75-3.50$
* Nitro – 350GB per month cost 3.50-7$
Of course this is assuming you use all of our pathetic allotments.
Yet the cost of a 10 gig data pack costs more then everything except maybe in some cases nitro.
Before -> Current
»shawshank.orgfree.com/shaw.html
Lite 13GB -> 15GB ($2/GB overages) shaw added 2-4 cents to this package how nice so worth the 20000% markup fee on gigabytes.
High Speed 75GB ->60GB ($2/GB overages) shaw took 15-30 cents of the cost to provide these, and buying the data plans to make it up will cost 5-10$ or 15$ without worrying about hassle overage fees
Xtreme 125GB -> 100GB ($1/GB overages)
Shaw took of 25-50 cents worth of usage at their costs and then expects us to pay 10-15 dollars for data packs to make up what they blatantly took away. Or 25 dollars in overage fees.
Warp 250GB -> 175GB ($1/GB overages)
.75-1.5 $ worth of usage removed at their costs
Extra 20$ for the data plan to compensate what shaw is nice enough to adjust down for our down good or 75$ in overage costs.
Nitro 500GB -> 350GB ($1/GB overages)
Cost savings to shaw for the nerf to usage is 1.50-3 dollars
Price of the closest data pack to compensate is 50$
Now factor in the rate increase on just internet which will be 2$ which can buy 100-200 gigs at an ISP's cost then explain how we are not more then paying enough already let alone should be charged such outrageous fees when shaw/bell/rogers are allowed to roll down our usage as they please.
And using Shaw's old monitoring tool that was highly inaccurate basing future growing rates on such stats is not justifiable.
Needs are going to continue increasing and enforcing artificial limits at such rates just because clueless Canadian's will accept it is criminal. Such overage fees are not the solution anywhere else in the world why should they be here?
»www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/co···_WP.html
»www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/co···per.html
Lack of any real notification of these changes to usage/rates and how overage fees will work for all customers has not been sent out and that is unacceptable. Not to mention even bell has better data pack prices then shaw, which says a lot..
UBB myths debunked
»opinion.financialpost.com/2011/0···l-myths/
Update:with UBB supposedly on hold i have upped my score slightly, however if they really want some good will they should restore the caps to their former rates!
Update April 21: After blatant cash grabs by the usual price hikes, shaw has at least increased the speeds on my extreme tier. However the pathetically low limit of a 100 gigs remains in place(for a 70$ service). As such my rating on shaw has increased slightly due to the fear of a looming UBB model being put in place.
Update May 26: Shaw has made moves to increase monthly limits to more reasonable levels and rather then pay per gig you will be bumped onto higher tier for the month which beats dealing with the stupid data packs each month as they had originally intended. I will do a full redo of my review once the changes are put in place and enacted.
Comments:
 pinjas
join:2011-01-31
River Falls, WI | Yuck Most ISPs have fair usage regulations. I don't particularly love that concept, there are other options though, depending on where you love.
If I was in your situation, I would strongly consider doing what Monticello MN did. Their local ISP had some poor prices with poor service and the population became fed up so the town started their own fiber ISP. They didn't have it nearly as bad as you seem to in terms of prices, if you were on the moon or deep under the oceans surface, I might say those are acceptable prices. But I bet you are well within the reaches of fiber optic cables.
The mark up is kind of outrageous, but giving them a zero percent ranking is like they raped your mother or something. They just charge harsh pricing, everything else sounds likely to work well. Start up an ISP, or shop for another if it is an option. | |
| | MerinXCrunching for CuresPremium
join:2011-02-03
kudos:1 Reviews:
 ·Shaw
| Re: Yuck It does not work like that in Canada anymore bro, it is a 2 party system like in the states where they can get away with anything.
Can you honestly say it is acceptable for an isp that has more market dominance then any American ISP can get away with 75gig limits on 100 dollars tiers?
We have cable or DSL from to providers that collude to lower limits and enforce these inflated fees. Heck our regulators where just about to enforce these limits on wholesale independent isps saying a 15% discount on them was more then fair because bell said so....
15% off a 10000% markup up per gig great...(especially when you can enforce it on customers that are not your own)
The system is broken so any isp that supports such actions should get a zero in scores regardless of how fast they install service etc. | |
| | | | said by pinjas:Most ISPs have fair usage regulations.
Those of you who are fortunate enough to be in TekSavvy's service area, it has increased its cap from 200G to 300G (while Bell & Shaw have dropped theirs). It also kept its price the same (while Bell & Shaw increased theirs). And on top of all that, for an additional $10 a month, you can get unlimited (no such option with Bell or Shaw). | |
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| | Telus also has Draconian overage fees as well. As much as Shaws new crap is pissing me off, when looking into switching to Telus, I found that they also have caps, and $2 a Gig over regardless of what package. Their monthly limit is a little higher than Shaws but not by too much (their Extreme equivalent has an extra 10GB of bandwidth then $2/GB after) and they have no packages to buy either, you just pay the $2/GB over. | |
| | | | Re: Telus also has Draconian overage fees as well. Telus does not enforce their limits, their bandwidth monitors is not even working for most users. Plus those have been on the site for years with not one person being charged. Where as shaw's new site hides the limits they just added in December. | |
| | | | | Re: Telus also has Draconian overage fees as well. That is a fair point Telus has had those for years.
Haha I just went to look it up in the terms and conditions on Telus say it says limits are only enforced for a severe breach of contract and misuse of service and that Telus reserves the right to not monitor your usage, and has no obligation to do so. | |
| | | | | | Re: Telus also has Draconian overage fees as well. Telus has no bandwidth counter as putting one in place costs more money than the actual buying of bandwidth something Bell Canada out east never figured out. Telus can't track bandwidth useage therefore can't charge overuse fees. | |
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Review by marcelgerber
(review was emailed from domain ymail.com)
lodged 1.9 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
- Contract price not specified.
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I am fast becoming disillusioned by Shaw Cable. The UBB debacle has
severely compromised my trust in the company, and obviously I don't feel
like being charged any more for the service.
The biggest issue, however. is the product. What we're getting is never
the quit what we pay for. The three locations that have indeed had Shaw
Cable have always had some or other issue. From latency to, packet loss
to complete signal drops. It's frustrating to pay such a high price for
a product that isn't what it was made out to be on the box.
Comments:
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 Review by Pentangle
member for 6.9 years, 2171 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 2 years ago
- Vancouver BC
- $43 per month
 about 5 days- "Excellent home and telephone support, very little telephone waiting time."
- "Speeds are somewhat slower later in the day; company will introduce UBB this summer (2011)"
- "The competition is worse; Shaw really isn't too bad, few complaints."
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I'm not a tech like some of the other board members so my observations are subjective rather than technical--I'm just an average user looking for reliability in the provider. The Shaw service is up and available almost all of the time. Download speeds appear to be slower later in the day but that isn't really a concern for me as I do very little downloading; the occasional shareware or freeware application, upgrades for Avast, MBAM, SUPERAntiSpyware, Online Armour. That's about it--I upload very little, some text or jpg email attachments. Most of the time I spend on the Web is spent reading and researching and I'm happy with Shaw; they deliver what I need and are happy to help me when I need help. I have the extreme service which is ample for my needs.
I recently phoned Shaw to discuss the slower download speeds I'd recently begun to experience and they immediately offered to upgrade my modem to a Motorola SB5102 from a Terayon. The installer arrived a day later with the new modem and my download speeds immediately doubled. A nice part of this is that I _owned_ the original modem and I now own the new one. While here, he also changed the television cable and reception vastly improved. There was no charge for this service. In the six years that I've been with Shaw there have been moderate price increases for the service. Download/upload speeds are currently 7650/1800 kbps. Ping = 31ms. Location is Vancouver, BC.
Comments:
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 Review by pcguy
member for 13.6 years, 875 visits, last login: 47 days ago
updated 2 years ago
- Winnipeg,MB
- $94 per month
- (month by month)
- about 35 days
- "Competition for other"
- "secret reversal of caps"
- "use only as a last resort"
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Ordered the service and was never told that the current caps were being reduced and implementation of overage charges. Also was told erroneous information about the capabilities of their PVR.
Personally had not use Shaw for several years. Seems they have gotten worse and are less of a customer oriented company and more of a company squeezing their customers for their last dime.
Comments:
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 Review by unbrkabl
member for 5.6 years, 3 visits, last login: 2 years ago
lodged 2 years ago
- Spruce Grove,AB
- $99 per month
- "great speeds"
- "pricey"
- "the best"
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by far the best I have used in Canada-
Comments:
MerinXCrunching for CuresPremium
join:2011-02-03
kudos:1 | har har Lol in Canada, i guess that is sorta true at this point since they backed off UBB and bumped extreme to match up with telus's fastest tier.
--
Can you BOINC it?!? | |
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Review by analog andy
member for 8.3 years, 146 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 2 years ago
- Surrey,BC
- $50 per month
- "Stable for years"
- "Technicians suck"
- "Use to be good for the money..."
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I've had SHAW since 2003 up to 2010. I've never had problems with them, mind you I always had their Business plans for the extra speed and data transfers. I've ran web servers and shoutcast for several years with no issues.
In 2008 I moved into another house and this is where my problems started. I also switch from Business account to personal and did notice a difference in customer service.
In the new house the cable lines were old so I had issues with the signal to the modem isf there were any splitters on the line. Also when I got digital cable I would lose sync with quite a few channels below channel 11 and above channel 25.
I phoned SHAW several times but all I got was "just come in and get new splitters" Eventually I got a tech to come out but all he did was put in "quality splitters" and didn't do anything with the lines.
I got fed up and gave back the digital boxes and just stuck to analog cable. The Internet was still intermittent so I called again. Was told the signal looked good blah blah blah BUT I fluked out and the modem went off line as I was talking to the tech rep. Finally someone acknowledged that there was signal problem and would send out a tech in TWO WEEKS! WTF? Ok I guess I'll have to wait then.
I couldn't take the day off for the service call so told my daughter to tell them that we have expensive and even powered signal boosters and nothing works, so we need at least one new cable line to be run. Well that day the tech came in and it was raining a bit. Stupid guy rinsted fo getting a little wet from some outside work replaced the splitters with the same ones I already got and said give it a go and if it still happens make a new appointment for anther tech to come out. Seriously? I'm not waiting two more weeks!
So the next call was to cancel my Internet account although since there were no options for other tv providers I was stuck with SHAW for TV.
Comments:
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 Review by muqmeqe
member for 8.4 years, 52 visits, last login: 166 days ago
updated 2.1 years ago
- Coquitlam,BC
- $38 per month
- "Better than Telus, but moving to Teksavvy cable"
- "Long phone queues, occassional dropouts"
- "Until recently the only choice, speeds as advertised,"
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Had service since late 2006, speeds as advertised an has been reliable for the most part, cuts out once a month or so. Techs that have been to the house (subcontractors) have been helpful and have helped with extra requests. For a big player, OK - better than Telus. I'm moving over to Teksavvy now that they resell cable in Metro Vancouver. Same price as Shaw for x2 the speed and 5x the GBs.
Comments:
| | Teksavvy Cable is Shaw Surely the OP realizes that Teksavvy Cable in lower B.C is simply Shaw resold under a different name. It's performance is the exact same as Shaw and is directly affected by Shaw's customer activity on each CMTS node, seeing as how you are connected to Shaw's network. | |
| | | | Re: Teksavvy Cable is Shaw Sorry, let me clarify the title. Teksavvy Cable is just Shaw cable internet resold. | |
| | | muqmeqe
join:2004-12-27
Coquitlam, BC | Re: Teksavvy Cable is Shaw Yes, that would by why I said they resell cable in my description. | |
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Review by Rob420
member for 2.2 years, 3 visits, last login: 2.2 years ago
lodged 2.2 years ago
- Victoria,BC
- $41 per month
- about 1 days
- "Best customer service of any company I've known. Good techincal support."
- "Could be cheaper."
- "One of the best."
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I've been with Shaw for over 8 years. They support their equipment 100% even beyond warranty. Completely rewired my house with multiple outlets ( 4 hrs work) for FREE.
Technical phone support very helpful and competent. Fast, reliable service with some slowdown during high usage. No inclination to change this ISP.
Comments:
| | Best... no... top 2... maybe Top 2... assuming you have 2 different ISPs to choose from. :S
"could be cheaper" could be a lot cheaper... as prices go up year after year. | |
| | | | Re: Best... no... top 2... maybe To be fair, he lives in BC. There may be better alternatives to Shaw if you live east of Alberta, but in BC/Alberta the only major alternative is Telus. If you ranked those ISPs, Shaw is #1 and Telus is #3. A tin can attched to string is #2. | |
| | | | | Re: Best... no... top 2... maybe It depends on how you rank each ISP. I don't think simply whoever has the highest download speed should be ranked #1.
I would propose:
Internet Speeds: Up & Down
Ping
Value
Stability / Consistency / Reliability
Customer support / Customer care / Customer satisfaction
Availability
If you exclude availability from that list Novus as far as I know would be a clear 1st so don't be so quick to judge. | |
| | | | | | Re: Best... no... top 2... maybe Yes, Novus is definitely better than Telus and Shaw, which is why I indicated 'major ISP'. For the purposes of comparing ISPs, Novus isn't nearly as widely available as the other two. Of course, that is also likely a factor as to why Novus is better. | |
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Review by Steve Smith2
member for 2.2 years, 2 visits, last login: 2.2 years ago
lodged 2.2 years ago
- Calgary,AB
- $151 per month
- about 7 days
- "I suppose getting one bill for TV, Internet and Phone is nice...but expensive."
- "UBB; Unreliable service; speeds nowhere near advertised; unhelpful, inept technical support"
- "Stay away from these guys - It will end in tears."
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Bought a brand new house in a new neighbourhood about a year ago. I purchased their "Extreme" High Speed offering, which promises 15 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. Since then the connection has been unreliable at best. I have never actually got anything above 10 Mbps, and even then, it is not a continuous 10 Mbps.
The other evening, my connection died, and the ham-n-eggers in Shaw tech support had no clue what to do. It's 3 days later, the repair guy is scheduled for the weekend, and they won't credit my account until the problem is resolved. I then have to sit on hold with Shaw for another 30-45 minutes just to get credit back for their crappy service in the first place.
The icing on the cake is that they recently dropped the bandwidth cap from 150 to 100 GB without notifying me, and there is no way to check your usage from their site, (the feature is only activated after you go over your bandwidth the first month). If you go over your bandwidth you are charged insane penalties.
I would only recommend Shaw if you are fan of crappy hold music, unreliable service, and paying too much for service you won't actually receive.
Comments:
| | So... when do these unfounded "reviews" get banned/removed.
When/If Shaw decides to implement UBB fees, I'm jumping ship as quick as the rest of you. But all you clowns posting this crap before ANYTHING is official makes you look like nothing more than Telus fanboy crybabies.
Let people make up their own minds by providing them with ACCURATE information...
not this crap. | |
| | | | Re: So... Sounds like he was giving an accurate account to me, what is your justification for saying this review is unfounded. His negative comments seemed focused around poor internet performance, poor customer support, and high cost, not UBB which was only mentioned once. It is fortunate that people are allowed to post how they feel and are not censored because others, (ex: grabeck), disagree with their opinions. | |
| | | | Hey grabeck... Thanks for your insightful comment. I really don't see what you think is unfounded. My experience with Shaw customer service / tech support alone should be enough to stay away from these guys.
I also am not planning to go Telus... Was there something specific in my review that made you think that I am a "Telus fanboy crybaby"? | |
|
pcguy
join:1999-10-15
Winnipeg, MB | Just one slight error in the review The only erroneous information was that Shaw lowered the monthly data caps from 125GB a month to 100GB for Xtreme. Other than that I see no problem with the review. That is his experience with Shaw and I see Shaw still implementing UBB to the end user after this 60 day consulting aka cooling off period is over. | |
| | | | Re: Just one slight error in the review Really? Was I incorrect in the bandwith cap? I'm pretty sure I had 125 GB before. Anyway if not, good catch. | |
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Review by danfin
member for 2.2 years, 161 visits, last login: 17 days ago
lodged 2.2 years ago
- New Westminster,BC
- $33 per month
- about 4 days
- "Quick (15Mbps down) and reliable connection. Cheap for the moment"
- "100GB cap. Expensive after the 6 month discounted period ends."
- "Good if you qualify for the cheap Extreme package."
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This is for Shaw Extreme 15Mbit down/1Mbit up with a 100GB cap.
The internet is quick and reliable. The only problem I've had with speed has been router based.
I have the $30 price for the first 6 months, after which it will be going up to 57 (!)
I am consistently able to get my max up/down speeds through Speedtests and 8Mbit down on torrents. When I'm hardwired to my router Netflix HD streams really well (my laptop is still stuck in wireless G land)
Comments:
| | price remember, it going up
fifty-nine dollars after your
six months cause of the April fools rate increase. Which is April1st. | |
| | danfin
join:2011-02-12
New Westminster, BC | Re: price Yeah, I've already called Teksavvy and will be moving over there in a month or so. The 100gb isn't quite enough and Teksavvy will offer the same speed with a 300gb cap for ~$35/month. | |
| | | | | Re: price remember these prices as well,
Activation fee = $49.95, Save $20 with a modem purchase!
Move Fee = $65
If a Dispatch is required for troubleshooting = $99
Additional Bandwidth = $.50/GB/mo
Account changes = $5 | |
| | | | | | Re: price What is a move fee? | |
| | | | | | A fee that you pay to transfer from shaw or
telus
to
teksavvy | |
| | | | danfin
join:2011-02-12
New Westminster, BC | Yeah, I know. Which is why I'm probably going to put off the move for a little bit longer. But if I'm saving ~$20/month with the switch (and not having to worry about data caps) I'll have covered all the added costs fairly quickly.
Not to mention this move is half based off pure principle since I'm not pleased with Shaw's UBB plans (but at least they're consulting with customers unlike Bell) | |
| | | | danfin
join:2011-02-12
New Westminster, BC | The move fee doesn't apply. It's the cost if you change addresses not the fee that you pay to change providers. The change providers fee is effectively the Activation fee. (I just checked with Teksavvy to verify all this) | |
|
| | | | maybe
telus, they have
250gb
twenty five
megs, called optic turbo. | |
|
| | | The funny thing is people like you think 15Mbps is fast. It's a shame that Canadians live so far behind the rest of the world. I could get 5Mbps in Kenya why is 15mbps so over hyped.
When you can get 100down/100Up for $50 a month makes you wonder why you are paying that much for 15 down and 1 up. Oh right I forgot you think that is fast.
15 megabits per second = 1.875 megabytes per second...
I guess Shaw would not sell as much service if they advertised in amounts that people commonly used rather than misleading them with abbreviations. Then people might understand the speeds they were actually paying for and realize they were being ripped off. A company that made billions in profits last year should probably consider investing in a quality product. I guess they feel they don't have to worry as this is not a competitive market and there is no competition.
Look at the speeds after changed from megabits to megabytes:
High Speed $47.00/month 0.9375 Download/ 0.0625 Upload
Extreme $57.00/month 1.875 download/0.125 upload
Warp $107.00/month 6.25 Download/ 0.375 Upload
Nitro $160.00/month 12.5 Download/ 0.625 Upload | |
| | | | | Re: price Connection bandwidth has been measured in bits/sec since the beginning of time, way back with 150 and 300 baud (effectively bits/sec) 20 years ago. So, they are in fact selling bandwidth in an accepted and normal measurement. | |
| | | | danfin
join:2011-02-12
New Westminster, BC | Re: price As DaveInCgy mentioned internet speed has pretty much always been measured in bits/sec. I spent 6 months in Germany and it's how they measure it. And from an engineering standpoint bits/sec makes more sense anyways.
And I know we have miserable internet speeds here in Canada. In Germany I had 100Mbit/s (or 12.5MB/s if you prefer). I don't know the price since it was included in rent at the University, which was 280euro/month. And most of the advertised internet packages over there cost about half what they cost here for the same service. | |
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