Shaw vs Telus?

David

Well-Known Member
I'm deciding whether to stay with Shaw or switch to Telus for TV. I have shaw presently and Telus hooked up my house this summer. I like Shaw but the prices are crazy! $195 vs what I'm seeing from Telus for $133. I'm going to call Shaw tomorrow and ask to speak with their customer loyalty department and see if they are willing to lose a 30 year customer over the increased cost. My two-year plan expired and I was paying about $140 for the service.
Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who has Telus and reaching out to you guys for feedback. Any observation would be helpful....

Many thanks, David
 

DaveWT

Well-Known Member
Your plan to ask for the loyalty department is a good one. Just remember to have all your facts in order and be patient and polite. I have done the same thing with Telus and gained hugely. I have been with Telus (TV, Internet and home phone) for decades and wasn't on a plan so watched my rates skyrocket. Two years ago I asked for the loyalty department and after a lot of negotiating I got my service costs drastically slashed but had to agree to a 2 year plan. The rates stayed low for that period but at the end they jumped way up again. So recently I made that phone call again, agreed to another 2 years and have my costs slashed almost in half. I am happy with the service so have no problem committing for 2 year stints.

As to a comparison of the two companies (Shaw and Telus) my experience is very dated since it has been decades since I was with Shaw for TV. At that time I found Shaw staff very helpful but perhaps not as knowledgeable. Telus at that time seemed more knowledgeable but harder to deal with. I am sure nowadays, Shaw staff is equally capable as Telus in tech matters. Let's hope they haven't lost the helpful attitude along the way.
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
Thanks to my customers, I've had a lot of experience with both companies.

In terms of TV service, there’s a slight advantage to Telus as they offer some of the top streaming services (Netflix, YouTube, possibly others) as regular channels for a discounted rate on your Telus bill rather than having to pay separately. They also do offer an extremely small number of sports channels in true 4K. Shaw does neither of these things.

In terms of internet, they’re roughly the same. Customer service is better with Shaw IME. Telus now uses Google for email (you know my thoughts on this, but I’m not a fan of ISP-based email either, and if Rogers succeeds in buying Shaw you can kiss Shaw’s email goodbye as well), which … wasn’t handled well and hasnt been popular with their customers.

In terms of mobile, HUGE advantage to Shaw. As Alan Perry is always saying, if you are an existing Shaw customer you can get your smart phone bill lowered to ludicrously low levels depending on how much data you want and whether you already own a recent smart phone. We cut our bill for our phone service from $150/month (two lines with lots of data) to ~$50/month (these prices include taxes) for the same level of service with Shaw Mobile, not to mention that you can use the very widespread Shaw Go public wi-FI network when you are away from home to avoid going over your data quotient.

We have Internet 600 with them, and when we signed up it was $80/month for two years.

We’re not cable TV watchers so what’s best for you may be different, but as long as we’re using Shaw Mobile we’ll be sticking with Shaw.
 

David

Well-Known Member
Thanks to my customers, I've had a lot of experience with both companies.

In terms of TV service, there’s a slight advantage to Telus as they offer some of the top streaming services (Netflix, YouTube, possibly others) as regular channels for a discounted rate on your Telus bill rather than having to pay separately. They also do offer an extremely small number of sports channels in true 4K. Shaw does neither of these things.

In terms of internet, they’re roughly the same. Customer service is better with Shaw IME. Telus now uses Google for email (you know my thoughts on this, but I’m not a fan of ISP-based email either, and if Rogers succeeds in buying Shaw you can kiss Shaw’s email goodbye as well), which … wasn’t handled well and hasnt been popular with their customers.

In terms of mobile, HUGE advantage to Shaw. As Alan Perry is always saying, if you are an existing Shaw customer you can get your smart phone bill lowered to ludicrously low levels depending on how much data you want and whether you already own a recent smart phone. We cut our bill for our phone service from $150/month (two lines with lots of data) to ~$50/month (these prices include taxes) for the same level of service with Shaw Mobile, not to mention that you can use the very widespread Shaw Go public wi-FI network when you are away from home to avoid going over your data quotient.

We have Internet 600 with them, and when we signed up it was $80/month for two years.

We’re not cable TV watchers so what’s best for you may be different, but as long as we’re using Shaw Mobile we’ll be sticking with Shaw.
Finally decided to stick with Shaw. Got a very reasonable 2-year commitment and of course I use the iPhone for basically free. How can you go wrong. Cheers
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
Update to my post above: Shaw does now offer Netflix as a regular channel on their service like Telus has been doing. Other streamers may also be available, I don’t know.

A Shaw rep I was talking to about another matter happened to mention to me that I could have Internet 750 for the same price as I was paying for Internet 600 ($80/month), effectively “restarting” the two year contract. Naturally I took that deal!
 

TimRichards

Well-Known Member
Sorry to warm up this thread again but I've been having very unsatisfactory calls into Shaw to try get a better service and the currently posted price I see on the website. There is a big promo for Fibre 500 for $79 (two-year deal). I can see it when I log in on my phone (using Telus). So I call in to upgrade and they say "that doesn't apply to existing customers" Then they offer me Fibre 150 for $95 a month or fibre 75 for $85. I can't seem to win here. So I tell them I'm dropping our TV (we don't use) and may drop the phone in a few months. They then tell me that with a new plan they're upping the price of the phone service from $27 to $45 a month !!! I'm not sure if I'm more disgusted or more shocked. And when I asked to upgrade, they said, oh, ok, you need a new modem, you'll be renting that from us for $10 a month! Do they have a customer loyalty department? What does a long-standing customer of Shaw have to do to get a current-market promo price??? Haaaalp!
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
a. They do have a customer loyalty department.
b. You might have better luck actually visiting the Uptown or Mayfair locations to discuss it in person.

You definitely want to set a price before Rogers takes over.
 
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