Telus vs. Shaw - a Personal Story

With the economy and wages the way they are today, it doesn't stand to reason to spend money irresponsibly on something that you can find elsewhere for a better price. With this in mind, we decided it might be time to switch our television, internet and home phone provider from Telus to Shaw.

The three products, including 'specialty' channel bundles, and call display came to the unbelievable sum of $240.00 per month. Aside from being able to access the internet from our television, and being able to record programs automatically, there did not appear to be a good enough reason to keep spending that amount of money every month, especially when the competition was advertising sale after sale.

After looking into a couple of the advertised specials, we decided it was time to switch.

The sales representative who contacted us assured us that we would still receive all the television channels that we were enjoying through Telus, plus a few that weren't in their line up, and we would have everything for the price of $180.00 a month. Already this was shaping up to be a good move with a savings of $60.00 a month. We would only be paying a rental fee on one PVR, and be able to have four connections (for other televisions) installed for free. We set a date for the technician to come out on January 30th.

On January 17, we received a bill from Shaw stating we owed $95.00 with a minimum payment of $24.00 due immediately. Excuse me? What were we being billed for? We did not have any Shaw equipment, and were not slated for connection for another two weeks. After a quick phone call to Shaw, it was discovered that the sales representative dated the service order for January 1st, and quoted us the wrong price to boot.

As it turned out, we would be charged $120.00 a month, which gave us an addition savings of $60.00 for a total savings of $120.00 a month! The bill we received was for the PVR rental, and was the result of the original representative dating the service order incorrectly. Somewhat mollified for the moment, and pleased with the reduced prices, we confirmed the service date for January 30th at six p.m. - the only time we could be there to have everything installed.

On January 30th, we awoke to find our television signal 'lost' and our internet listed as 'unable to connect'. We thought to phone and inquire why, but as we wouldn't be home to use the services and we were scheduled for connection to Shaw later that evening, we decided not to bother.

As it turned out, I had a short day at work and was home by noon. As I parked my van, I noticed a small notice hanging from the front door knob...you guessed it - it was a note from a Shaw technician saying they couldn't connect our service because we were not at home. This was a huge surprise. Shaw wasn't supposed to connect us until six that evening, not nine in the morning! I immediately got on the phone to Shaw, and discovered that because the service installation would take approximately four hours, there was no way a technician could do it that late in the evening. Nice to know that now!

To top things off, they couldn't send another technician before February 10th! Not acceptable! After finally speaking with someone who knew what was going on, we were told the original order was done incorrectly, the service time was changed without our knowledge or confirmation, and because of these discrepancies, we would be compensated for our inconvenience. They also placed us in the queue for double booking, meaning that as soon as a space opened, a technician would be sent to complete the service.

Having no internet or T.V. was not acceptable, so it was time to bite the bullet and call Telus. I can't begin to tell you what an eye-opener that was! Our first phone call established the fact that our service had been disconnected (big surprise there...) and that it was up to us to contact Shaw, as that was the reason we had no service. After re-confirming that Shaw had didn't have any of our services, we phoned Telus to report our findings.

(I should mention that the phone calls to Telus were made with our home phone, not cellular phones, and for whatever reason, it still worked.)

After three days of phone calls back and forth between Telus and Shaw, no television or internet service and six different answers from Telus as to why we had no service and what we needed to do to have it reconnected, (all of which did not work,) it was determined that we did indeed still have an account with Telus. Our clue that we still had the account, regardless of what we were being told, was our home phone.

Even though Telus tried to say that it was connected through Shaw, a representative who stuck with us through all of this turmoil explained that in order for our phone to work with Shaw, a technician had to connect a box which rerouted the service. No connections had been made, and there was no box! As it turned out, Telus finally told us that our phone had been placed in 'limbo'. As to having our service restored, the only way they could accommodate us was if we paid our monthly bill in full and then they would send a technician out to reconnect our service, with the only opening being February 17th!

Not only did they repeatedly give us misinformation, they cut off our service (with the flick of a switch at 4:10 a.m., January 30th,) illegally. They then sent out a disconnection notice dated for February 12th listed as the payment date, and refused, regardless of the circumstances to reconnect us.

Not once during any of this confusion did a Telus representative ask why we were wanting to switch our services. They were not concerned that we did not receive adequate customer service, and not one representative asked if there was anything they could do for us to make us change our minds and remain Telus customers.

On the other side of the fence, Shaw further reduced our monthly bill for the first year of service to less than $75.00, for a total savings of $165.00 a month, and this was not including the compensation for our inconvenience! They also managed to send out two technicians on Thursday, February 3rd who hooked us up with basic cable, internet and phone, and booked an appointment for the complete service. Total time without television and internet - four days.

As of the date of this posting, we are still waiting for our complete service to be installed, (the date agreed upon was for February 17th,) but considering our savings and the fact that we do have cable, internet and phone service, it did not seem too much to ask to get exactly what we wanted in the first place.

While it is understood that there are horror stories about customer service with both of these companies, and that it totally depends on who you have on the other end of the phone line, we were still very surprised that not one person at Telus was concerned with the fact that we wanted to switch our services.

I guess it comes down to the numbers game, with the individual customers left to fend for themselves when it comes to the quality of service and pricing. When we initially signed up for optic T.V. we were treated like preferred customers. Considering I had been a Telus customer long before they changed their name, I presumed we would continue to receive the service I had come to expect.

Unfortunately, no effort was made to help us keep our monthly bill within reasonable expectations, (although several attempts on my part were made throughout our term as customers,) and nothing was done to convince us to stay. That attitude speaks volumes about our importance, even if we are only one small account in the midst of thousands.

I can hardly wait to see what type of service we can expect from now on!