Whose Customer Service is better? Shaw or Telus?

[ZMan2k2]

I'm having some issues with my service provider right now, and I'm wondering, whose service is better? I will leave my service providers' name out of this, so it can be a "somewhat" unbiased poll. I'm going to put a poll up, but if you have comments, please leave them. It will help me make my decision. Thanks for your help.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

I don't think either are better. Telus used to be awful, and Shaw used to be great, but Shaw has been slowly declining in terms of customer service these last few years, and the complains I hear about Telus seemed to have tapered off. I'd put them on par these days. Neither are great, neither are awful.

[HiTempguy1]

I've found Shaw will f*&k you six ways from Sunday on anything they can.

Telus at least gives you lube and seems to want your business.

Dealing with either has always been shitty.

[Mitsu3000gt]

You're going to get highly polarized viewpoints here from people who have been burned, so all I can do is offer my own.

Most of my experience with Telus has been on the cellular side and their service has been absolutely abysmal. My experience with their TV/Internet reps has been that they have no clue what they're talking about half the time. They do annoying door-to-door sales as well (Shaw might do this too). It also seems like they rarely come up with deals or promotions on their own, and are always just doing whatever Shaw does first. Their fiber internet service is extremely limited, and their traditional service isn't nearly as good as Shaw's.

Shaw has on more than one occasion given me an unexpected discount, upgrade, etc. and the techs I have dealt with were all professional and knew what they were doing. Most recently I called and got a great deal on their 300Mbps internet with no arguing or hassle, and they thanked me for my loyalty.

I'm sure some people have had the opposite experience but I've been very happy with Shaw.

[ZMan2k2]

Interesting. Keep 'em coming, please.

[colsankey]

Both are hot garbage at times.
Telus lost and billed me $400 for a modem.and phone gateway. 9 months later of telling them they could send me to collections i wasnt paying for something I returne, they found it ine the warehouse, and quietly went away with no appology.

Shaw installed BB150, did a firmware update of some kind on my modem. Did the whole gateway demo and then power cycled the modem before walking oit the door. Left me without internet for 18 hours and 3 phone calls before I got someone who knew a 192.168.1.1 ip as my external router up wasnt going to work.

Take whuchever will give you the best deal.

[ExtraSlow]

Telus is mostly decent for me, but it's annoying how antiquated thier home services customer records system is. They still have me listed at my former Telus landline number and apparently its impossible to change it, even though I haven't had any landline in years.

The reps for home services also seem to be segregated by service, so if you want to change an appointment relating to going to fibre, but you currently have copper, the first three people you speak to may not be able to modify your appointment.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[GQBalla]

Depends where you live, both are pretty comparable

[Hero_X]

Neither are better in terms of customer service. I like shaw because of added perks like Shaw-Go wifi, and better availability. Customer service is crap either way. You don't get anything until you cancel.

[ZMan2k2]

Well, the small poll results show me that, as Hero_X said, "You don't get anything until you cancel." is a very apt phrase, because once they have you in contract, they're betting you don't want to pay the fees to get out.

[jwslam]

I don't have experience with both, so I can't comment on the other.

Also, just wanted to jump in and applaud you for using "whose" properly.

[eblend]

Haven't had Shaw for nearly 10 years now. I know Telus used to suck, but I heard they had a huge push to improve customer service, and it shows. The few times I dealt with them they were always nice and resolved my issues. Every once in a while there will be a billing issue due to some promotion or some perk they give you, but every time I called in it was resolved. I have gotten them to give me deals as I call in, so no complaints.

Shaw seems to have taken a dive in terms of customer service, but my experience is just based on what everyone else says on here and other forums, no first hand experience.

I am very happy Telus customer myself, lots of it to do with my Fiber Optic line to the home, I don't remember in the last 8 or so years I had Fiber that I lost internet or had to do anything to make it work again, it just works. Main reason I switched from Shaw was back then, my internet would randomly drop out requiring a modem reset, and inability to watch porn in the evening as my internet would max out at like 160kbps.... Once the internet dropped as my wife was doing an online quick for her school stuff....that did not go down well, and thus I have been a Telus customer since and it's been rock solid, and I like their product offerings more, including their whole home PVR system that I have been using forever, and it just keeps getting better.

If given a choice, I would always choose Telus Fiber Optic over anything that Shaw offers.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Honestly, at this point, if I could get fiber to my house, I'd go with Telus for their 300/300. Unfortunately Telus 50 is only available at my house, so I'm a Shaw customer for another 2 years.

I have no loyalty or hate towards either.

[schocker]

Shaw is the best. Didn't telus get offshored and then turn to terrible service years ago? Shaw chat or call back. Fast, instant results for tech/billing questions/issues.

[ZMan2k2]

Looks like this was a loaded thread to start. Opinions rule. Sorry, I don't mean to start anything.

I just had a horrible experience with Telus, where I, for the third time straight, had the tech not show up in the scheduled window. I phoned and left a message for my personal rep, saying "I'm one mouse click from switching to Shaw!" I got a phone call back within 5 min., promising a tech in the next half hour. 20 min. later, the dumbest tech who, in her words, "don't work this far north, I'm pretty much strictly beltline." All she did was run diagnostics on things, said "Hmmm, can't see your router on the system. Oh well." Then was completely clueless on the problem with the remote for the MIL, who has dementia, change isn't good. I told her you could tie the box and TV together with the remote, but this one wasn't doing that. She said "No way!", and had to call a senior tech to confirm.

I called her on what she was doing, and she admitted it was basic install stuff she was doing. I said it was time for her to leave, that was that.

That's why I'm asking.

[ZMan2k2]

As a question, how's Shaw for HD channels? It used to be a lot of them were HD scaled down to SD, has it changed at all?

[hampstor]

I was fine with Shaw internet until I actually had a major outage 3-4 yrs ago. Somewhere on beyond is the details about it, but the coles notes was my connection would completely drop every few minutes, for a few minutes. After hours on the phone with Shaw, they said they'd dispatch a tech to come out, however they were booking 2 weeks out. After a few days, I called Telus and they could have a tech come and do a new install within 3 days. So I cancelled Shaw and went to Telus.

When I had an outage with Telus last year, they had a tech at my house within a few days (line signal issue).

[ipeefreely]

and inability to watch porn in the evening as my internet would max out at like 160kbps....

Nobody likes jerky porn! :rofl: I've had both Telus and Shaw.

Telus's customer service has always been poor for me, techs not showing up etc.. They still owe me $5, keep saying the cheque in the mail. :rolleyes:

Shaw's techs have all showed up on time or early and they call before too. Calling in can be hit of miss as for how long the wait is be lately it's been less than a minute! :thumbsup:


Shaw is the best. Didn't telus get offshored and then turn to terrible service years ago? Shaw chat or call back. Fast, instant results for tech/billing questions/issues.

Ya, they were off shore when I was with them and it was terrible. :banghead: Probably the main reason I left. I think they learned from that and have local support now.


As a question, how's Shaw for HD channels? It used to be a lot of them were HD scaled down to SD, has it changed at all?

HD channels are HD. Satellite TV still has the best quality?? :dunno:

I remember Telus would compress the hell out their channels when they only had DSL. Pretty sure they don't do that any more.


All that said when they finally light up my fiber install I'll probably to switch to Telus. 2+ years waiting :nut:

[ExtraSlow]

Of Telus has offshore people, they all speak perfect English with a Canadian accent.

[bjstare]

I've been with Telus for a long time, and decided to shop around a couple weeks back.

Shaw was very very easy to get on the phone with, spent about 30s on hold before actually speaking with an agent. That being said, he was useless. Had absolutely zero information or incentive to offer me that wasn't listed on the website - it was as if he was just reading right off the site and had no other knowledge.

Telus is atrocious to get someone on the phone, takes me 15-45 min on hold whenever I need to speak with someone... but once I actually am speaking with the agent, they are very good to deal with. I let them know I wanted an upgrade on services and wanted to know what they could give me for discounts, and they gave a decent discount on both TV and internet services. I wound up with upgraded internet for less than I was paying for my previous internet service. In the course of 10 years with them, I've only had one tech not show up during the window (he was gonna be 5 min after the end of the window but I had to leave so got them to send someone else) and to make up for it they gave me a $40 credit on my acct. It's peanuts, but its the principle.

Anyhow, obviously this thread proves that YMMV, but my vote is telus.

edit: It's also valuable to research the individual channel groups/packages each provider offers for TV. I found that the way telus packages the channels together is WAY better than shaw (for my interests anyways).

[ExtraSlow]

The Telus live chat is very good, but unfortunately you can't get all types of service reps on that system, like the "fibre team" apparently. That's annoying because yes you do tend to wait a long time on hold for a live agent on the phone.

[botox]

Been back and forth with both over many many years. My vote is Telus. Shaw doesn't seem to care about retention and will make no offers or attempts to keep customers from cancelling. Telus seems to try more and will give you better offers and freebies if they make mistakes. I got 1 year free phone service for some billing mistakes that I had to call in a couple times for. Tech support seems fine and all the tech arrived in the window and resolved my problems. Tip: Never take the telus gift, just take the discount. If you take the gift it makes it difficult to negotiate later on if you aren't happy or want to change something.

[eblend]

Shaw is the best. Didn't telus get offshored and then turn to terrible service years ago? Shaw chat or call back. Fast, instant results for tech/billing questions/issues.

Yah don't think they do this anymore. It's always a very Canadian sounding person the few times I have had to call.

[rage2]

Nobody likes jerky porn! :rofl:
It's only a problem when it stutters and freezes up on a dick or dude's face frame when you're about to finish. But hey if you don't look him in the eye... :rofl:


HD channels are HD. Satellite TV still has the best quality?? :dunno:

I remember Telus would compress the hell out their channels when they only had DSL. Pretty sure they don't do that any more.
I'd say both Shaw and Telus has caught up and surpassed Bell ExpressVu in quality. Bell is still 720p but zero macroblocking on high action scenes. Shaw and Telus still has some macroblocking, but it's very rare now, only extreme cases such as filming strobe lights. Bell just looks dull at 720p these days when I'm so used to 4K.


Been back and forth with both over many many years. My vote is Telus. Shaw doesn't seem to care about retention and will make no offers or attempts to keep customers from cancelling.
Really? Everyone seems to be getting the 300mbps deal at $85/month for the entire duration of the contract through retentions without much problems. :dunno:

[HiTempguy1]

but once I actually am speaking with the agent, they are very good to deal with.

I've found all of them to be atrocious across the board (speaking specifically to my dealings with Telus this past month). I had to (literally) twice go through guiding a Telus agent to where on their website it said the deal I wanted was available.

The first time, I had them note specifically the conditions that were listed IN THE FINE PRINT saying no term, payment $XX forever, no contracts, first month free, no bullshit.

Then I got my first bill which was over $200, called to yell at them, had to go through it all over again, and the 2nd lady even said all of this info was already in the notes :guns:

The two most aggravating purchases I've ever made in my life, internet/tv and dealership car purchases.