June General Meeting Question

Cougurr

Well-Known Member
Just wanted to say the June General Meeting on Zoom was another enjoyable event.
Unfortunately it got a little rushed near the end with the announcements shared with us by Alan about Shaw and Telus internet speed changes. I did understand the major step for both offering Gigabit speeds and how Telus was doing so for both upload and download. The screen shares on the Shaw Web site for new offerings was very quick and I missed the specific information Alan mentioned about how regulations required the new offerings by Shaw having to be available to both new and existing customers. I found that very well timed as my Shaw Internet bill just went up significantly as my account just ended the two year plan I was on for Internet 300. My new cost is now the same as the offer for the new Gigabit speed. When I researched their site today it specifies in the fine print that the new two year price offer on any of their internet speeds is only for NEW customers who have not subscribed with them for the last 90 days on one of their plans. I tried to find information out on the internet about this and only got references to individuals complaining about Shaw not supporting its long time loyal customers with any deals and not allowing them currently the opportunity to move over to one of these two year plans without paying the full price it would be at the end of the new customers 2 year plan. Did I miss something here on this as I was sure Alan said something different. I want to sort this out before attempting to contact Shaw about my new higher billing. Thanks in advance for pointing me in the right direction with a link to where Alan found this information.
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
The Shaw page for plan options likely has the details and disclaimers you’re looking for, and you can check with Alan, but I think you already have it right: as an existing subscriber, the discounted plans are not available to you (since their purpose is to attract new customers).

If, like me, you are only using Shaw for Internet, it’s almost trivial to switch over to Telus… who offer a substantially cheaper gigabit Internet option in exchange for two years of loyalty. then, you could switch back to Shaw for whatever their promotional pricing and plans are two years from now.

If you presently also rely on Shaw for TV and/or other services (or Telus… this works the same for their existing customers as well), then switching becomes a pretty complicated affair. Staying means that the reality is that your costs are going to go up somewhat. You can threaten to leave Shaw, get sent over to customer relations, and likely get an upgrade in speed, but your bill will almost certainly still be going up. That’s how they pay for these structural improvements ... and executive bonuses!

This is one of the reasons why I “cut the cord” on TV a few years ago. For quite a long time, I just didn’t have TV service at all, and this “broke” my “addiction” to it. I relied on things like YouTube, my DVD/Blu-Ray collection, or iTunes rentals for video entertainment, but I quickly found plenty to do, read, or go out to rather than so much “channel surfing.”

Over the past year, I have added a small handful of paid subscription services (four at present, which I’ve talked about in the monthly meetings). Excluding the cost of the Internet service itself, my yearly streaming entertainment bill runs somewhere in the neighborhood of $300. Again, that’s per YEAR.

i’m sure I’m missing some shows/movies/events I might enjoy, either because they’re on a different subscription service or because you would need regular cable TV to get them, but I know those shows will be available in some other format for me to rent or purchase eventually, so I don’t worry much about that. I feel like I have more entertainment, with more content I’m likely to like, with no ads, for far less than anything I ever got from cable. But your mileage may vary, as they say.
 
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