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inasmuch
join:2011-11-30
Picture Butte, AB

inasmuch

Member

[AB] Tired of SHAW - looking at TELUS: your experience?

SOUTHERN ALBERTA - PICTURE BUTTE

Hi all,

I moved in my house a month ago, and Shaw connected me to the line via the neighbor's backyard, and ran the wire over the ground all the way to the side of my house. We have a back alley and I'm worried about the wire being chopped by grader, truck, etc.

I called them 3 weeks ago, they sent someone to "look" and confirm. He went back and didn't file a report to ask for someone to come and bury the wire. I learned this tonight as I called for a follow-up. I was told they'll send someone again (tomorrow mind you) to "look" and confirm, then file a report to go to the next step of sending someone to bury the wire as it should be.

That person would tell me, upon leaving, the "estimated" time I'll have to wait till it's done. I'm getting frustrated, having to wait close to 2 hours to get these answers. Their customer support is so badly slow it's not even funny.

I was looking into an alternative for here. Telus doesn't offer more than 1.5 to 6.0, sadly, but still, I wanted to check with other Albertans (and others if you care to chip in) about their experience with Telus speed and service.

I am using the internet for freelancing in graphics and websites, so I need something solid with good download and upload consistent speeds.

If not Shaw or Telus, anyone has experience with other providers using Satellite?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Regards,

Inasmuch
bionemesis
join:2004-12-07
Calgary, AB

bionemesis

Member

Like many things, the services provided by both Shaw and Telus vary wildly between locations. We have been with Telus for about 9 months now and couldn't be happier. The internet is fast and their Optik TV blows away Shaw (I actually prefer the way Telus handles compression vs Shaw .. this is on a 150" home theater).

But, I'm in Calgary and not on DSL technology. My house is wired with fibre optic. People I know with Telus in Calgary, Edmonton and Fort McMurray who are running on older DSL technology have complained about the service. Location, location, location.

I will say this. In the 3 times I've dealt with Telus (1 technical, 2 billing) post-install, the customer service has been fantastic. And in all cases I waited only a few minutes to speak with someone. My $0.02.

RogueMonk
Premium Member
join:2003-02-11
Stoney Creek, ON

RogueMonk

Premium Member

I switched to Telus a few months ago. I like it better than I did Shaw.
inasmuch
join:2011-11-30
Picture Butte, AB

inasmuch to bionemesis

Member

to bionemesis
thanks! sadly i wouldn't get more than a 1 to 6mbps download service here with Telus, or I'd make the switch. btw the Shaw guy came today, looked and saw, and said they'd book me for next spring to bury/protect the cable running over the ground...

Patman023
Ex-TELUS employee, Ubuntu Lover
join:2009-03-01
Edmonton, AB

Patman023

Member

hit up a Home Despot or w/e and get some pink and yellow survey flagging. tie some (leave long ends) every 2 meters or so. that way it's somewhat visible...
pharrow
join:2011-09-30
Edmonton, AB

pharrow to inasmuch

Member

to inasmuch
currently i'm running shaw 100 unlimited and telus 25 turbo
i've done a few tests, and I'm leaning more to telus right now. on shaw it caps at 10,000kb/sec downloading multiple files. the telus caps at 3,000kb/sec when downloading 1 file. now the one benefit of the telus that i enjoy is its ability to connect to servers in the u.s. for example: The Onlive gaming platform is unplayable on shaw testing with unreal tournament III, you can't hit any of the targets as you can't move character without freezing every second. almost felt like 1 -10 frames per second if the game used frames instead of network speed. but tested with telus i get a decent speed like 20-25 frames, i could hit targets and kill a few players but it wasn't perfect. Onlive converts frames into network latency, so depending on what your latency to the server is, the better or worse the game runs. unreal tournament requires a really low latency in order to run good, I'm sure other games would run better such as batman and other slow paced games. shaw definitely loses in that category. onlive only has u.s. servers at this moment and they demand the best possible latency for smoothest game play it is why i used it in testing, i often connect to u.s. servers for video games such as world of warcraft and other MMO's as well as shooter games, so latency is a + for me. other than that they both play 1080p video files well on youtube, and i guess it also helps to be near one of the towers, the closest one is just 5 or 6 blocks from my house, i get my full 25 mbps and 3 mbps upload. that's basically my review of the 2 internet service providers.

JammerMan79
Premium Member
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC

JammerMan79

Premium Member

so it sounds like you're attaining 80% of rated speed for shaw and 96% for TELUS

all in all, a very decent speed from both.... do you see fluctuations in your shaw?
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000 to inasmuch

Member

to inasmuch
My experiences with telus were mixed. Any time i subscribed to telus or tried to upgrade my services, everything went wrong. (i've switch isps from time to time). One time they lost my order, but because i went from dsl to dsl, i had to cancel teksavvy first. So I was left without internet for a while.

Everytime I tried to upgrade a speed it would never kick in properly. I'd get stuck in tech support hell. Back in the spring when I lived in Edmonton I tried to upgrade from 15mbps to 25mbps. The telephone reps in foreign countries were no help. They sent out two tech's who said the line was fine. I spent countless hours on the phone. Then finally I got a tech in Canada who saw the problem. He sent out a tech... that tech also didn't seem to give a crap. I really had to push him to deal with it and actually check everything. Telus gave me a free month internet to make up for it, but I think my value on time far exceeded that.

I moved to BC and all I could get was 15mpbs internet in my new place. I gave it a few months and tried to upgrade to 25mbps. They said sure you can get the now. They kick in the upgrade. My download speed got worse, upload speed got better. Call them up.. they said oops you don't qualify for that! So I order a downgrade. They never actually downgrade it. I give up, shaw introduced new high speeds, I went to shaw. Just before shaw came in, my telus internet magically went to full download speed (but the upload speed was reduced).

When telus' product works, its awesome. It's goes at the same speed 24/7 and rarely has downtime. The problem is when things go wrong, you have to deal with their tech support and it sucks.
inasmuch
join:2011-11-30
Picture Butte, AB

inasmuch to Patman023

Member

to Patman023
thanks for the tip!
inasmuch

inasmuch to zod5000

Member

to zod5000
thanks for the report... I'm staying with Shaw so far, will wait and see...
inasmuch

inasmuch

Member

Re: [AB] UPDATE - Tired of SHAW -

So I took advantage of a promotion they had for Christmas to have phone, TV and internet (B50) for $99. Now it's over $100 every month, closer to $120. BUT I hoped my speeds would increase. Man, Broadband 50!? Wow... uh... nope.

Well, March 1 2012, and Shaw sent a technician yesterday who changed my modem, the cabling from the box to the modem and did more speed tests. Results were worst than before he came.

I disabled the wi-fi ability of the modem. I am using a LinkSys G router to multiply the signal to the other 3 computers in the house.

"Be that as it may", as Christopher Walken would say, yesterday night I had Graboid suddenly download a show at over 4mbps, sometimes 5mbps. Tonight, I barely hit over 250kbps.

So right now my "Broadband50" is giving me 31 ms ping, an average of 20mbps download (seesawing from 18 to 26 and back), and 2.50 average upload. ?? ??

Trying to reach them on the phone is horrible. Been waiting over an hour, then a ring and... the agent hangs up even though I'm yelling I'm here ! I'm here! Back on the waiting queue.

Just wanted to comment while I'm listening to their inflated self-important marketing messages.