O Canada! > Canadian > Shaw > How to switch from Shaw to Telus

reply to Bandito

Re: How to switch from Shaw to Telus

I realize that....what I meant was people are trying to get Shaw to match Telus' 10-10-10 deal or even $15-15-15 and Shaw simply wont do it.
I'm thinking of ditching my internet and phone with Shaw and going with Telus but keeping cable and HDTV with Shaw.

reply to Roofer
I have never done any business with Shaw. The last time I paid for cable TV, Rogers still had the Vancouver franchise. For over a decade I have just used rabbit ears and DVDs from the public library and online viewing for my video entertainment.

I have been on Telus DSL internet for almost 10 years now. Haven't had a service outage since 2005 and never any telephone outage, unlike my neighbour who occasionally knocks on my door to use my phone to call Shaw about her phone not working. My usage "limit" is 75 GB per month. I just checked my account and found my stats for the past year. I found that I have often gone over limit (highest month of usage was 111 GB) but have never had any extra charges or even warnings. My average use over the past 12 months was 74 GB per month, so maybe they take long term average use into consideration?

My bundle includes: home phone, high speed internet, 1 calling feature and 200 minutes of North America long distance. Total cost, including HST, is $66 per month. This is the price after all the sign up promotions have expired.

With one exception, customer service has been very good. When I first took on my current bundle I was given the choice of either month by month or one year contract at the same price except with the contract I would get a free modem/wireless router. Since my old router had stopped transmitting, I took the 1 year contract and free router. I was told that after the contract expired I could continue on at the same price.

One year later when the contract expired, my bill went up. I called customer service and was told that I could no longer get the bundle price and would have to pay the unbundled price for each individual service. The person was very rude and said it didn't matter what I had been told previously, this was the only option. On top of that the rep kept calling me "sir" even though I twice reminded her I was female (as is my name on my account.) Finally I told her I was tired of being disrespected and was ending the call.

I called back and got different rep who was very polite and cheerful, called me "ma'am" right from the beginning, restored my bundle pricing without questioned and even rebated the difference from the unbundled pricing I had been previously billed. At the end I thanked him and mentioned the disrespect I had received from the other rep and her refusal to give me the bundle price. The very next morning I got a call from someone at the Telus customer service satisfaction office who apologized for how I had been treated and asked for the details.

Shaw sends me offers in the mail every month, telemarkets me every now and then, despite being on the Do Not Call list and even twice has sent people knocking on my door to give me a high pressure sales pitch. (The last time it was a 2 person team of a cute young woman and a good looking man LOL). Everytime I've talked to them I ask what the price will be after the 6 month promotional price expires and they refuse to tell me. The guy at the door said it was listed in the contract he had in his hand that he was trying to get me to sign. I asked him to leave it with me so I could read over the fine print at my leisure and I would call back if I was interested. He refused and even wouldn't let me read the contract then and there unless I agreed to sign it. I bluntly told him that I refused to ever do business with anyone who couldn't be honest and upfront about the terms so he should get the hell of my doorstep and never come back.

Bottom line: I am a very happy long time Telus customer and Shaw has never given me any persuasive reason to switch to them.

As an important bonus, my phone still works when the power goes out so I am never left stranded if I have an emergency and have to call 911 on a dark and stormy night. Not to mention I can switch to dial-up and web surf as long as my laptop battery lasts.

reply to Kyla T
Just wanted to add that when I started on the current Telus bundle it coincided with when I moved into my new place 2.5 years ago. The previous tenant had been completely on Shaw and the phone line had been disconnected for years. A Telus technician came the day after I moved in, climbed up the pole to reconnected my line, tested it and set up the new modem (although I could have easily done that part myself), all at no charge.

He was even going to install their software package on my computer for me but I declined since I usually run Linux.

reply to Roofer
HDman50 from the Telus forum yesterday: "you should ask about Telus' new offer of $9.95/month per service for 1 year, 1 free rental HDPVR and 1 Regular HD Box under no contract. (basic levels all services) I had the $15 letter in my mail box called up to make general inquires and they said I can actually get the above for just $9.95 instread based on where I live. Rep said some area's are for $15 and some for the $9.95 with no contract. Might be worth considering!"

reply to Roofer
On behalf of all Telus users, please don't switch to Telus. You will just burden the Telus network, especially in the Greater Vancouver area where the nodes are already overloaded. Stick with Shaw and stop using so much bandwidth.

reply to Roofer
Can someone using Telus confirm if there are blocked ports? While I do not run any web or file servers, I do have a VPN setup for when I am away from my home network. This would definitely be a deal breaker for me.

Thanks

Port 21 is blocked. I moved to a non-standard so I could still do my one-off file transfers when I'm away from home and that works. So there is some port blocking, but it's not universal.

reply to Roofer
Roofer, thanks for this information.

I was with Shaw for a number of years, then moved, switched over to using Telus ADSL for the last 2.5 years. I'm on the 15 Mbps downstream plan, forgot what it's called. No phone nor TV.

Overall I'm really happy with Telus vs Shaw. I had some major lag with Shaw, especially during after work hours that I never have with Telus.

I'm in the midst of moving again and would like to have Telus ADSL + HDTV. I do not need a phone plan. I'd like to bargain and negotiate with Telus to get the best deal possible. What kind of rates can I expect to get? I think I will buy the PVR as well, as I do not like contracts.

I might also need some installation work done. The place I am moving to may not have a phone line in the rooms I want to put a TV in. Will Telus charge for that or can I negotiate that as well?

reply to Roofer
Hello,

I am currently on shaw student plan, which originally included internet (extreme) and phone (call display included). A year ago, they offered 12 month free HDTV service, so I had that, but it is now almost over.

So, for all three, I paid around $43 per month. (My usage is around 350GB per month...)

Does Telus also have student plans? if not, is there a way to match $43 either with all three services or just two (phone+HS internet)?

Thank you!

Try calling Telus and asking.

reply to Roofer
This was posted on Telus' Twitter support last night:

"I spoke with my ADSL services further - In the future, we will be charging for overage charges for our High Speed product.
7:00 PM Jan 24th"

Telus

they will not impose overages, it nonsense.

Telus can't at the moment - one of the benefits of Optik they advertise is that you'll be able to watch your TV through your Xbox360. And the Xbox360's client looks like it requires internet service (if you look at the terms and conditions - it specifically requires the Optik service or somesuch). Indeed, the AT&T U-verse service also has this feature.

So Telus imposing a cap will be detrimental because they promote the Xbox360 as a legitimate way to watch Optik TV. Imagine all the phone calls Telus would get if all you had to do was watch 3 day's worth of TV before going over some cap (probably 100GB or so - more if HD).

bye