Shaw internet price increase - any retentions deals?

[Zero102]

We have been a shaw customer for 5 1/2 years now across 3 different houses in 2 provinces. In those 5 1/2 years the price for my internet service has gone from $34/month to $47/month, despite me going from what was originally a 10mbit plan down to a 7.5mbit plan. On top of this, the website still advertises the service for $45/month (my old rate before it went up this month).

Bandwidth is getting cheaper, routing equipment is getting cheaper, infrastructure has already been deployed in my area (and was years and years ago), and shaw is posting quarter-after-quarter gains even through the recession, but still my internet bill goes up 1-2 times a year. Shaw has been sending me junk mail to subscribe to their digital phone 2-3 times every single month for over a year now. I am sure this must cost them ~$1/letter by the time they print it, pack it and mail it, I don't want this and have asked them to stop sending it twice now, but still this crap shows up and I am sure in some way I am paying for it.

Given this last price hike we are ready to cancel and switch to telus, where at least the bill will go down to $37/month. Although it will only be 6.0mbit, the latency is the same and I only use my internet to download a couple movies a month and do some online gaming so it wouldn't be a big difference to me.

Sorry for the rant, but now that it is over, does anybody know what deals the retentions department at Shaw may or may not offer, and the best way to get these deals?

tl;dr: I am pissed at shaw for hiking their prices and want a better deal from them. What do I do and what can they offer?

[dj_rice]

Have u even called retentions and explained ur situation?

[bigbadboss101]

Is it only internet you are looking for? I believe Telus has a package deal, and if you go to Shaw and say you want to switch, they might offer you something for phone/internet/cable.

Have a look at this:

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/shaw-...nly-840580/18/

One year deal, and after that you phone Telus and Shaw again and work out another deal.

[Zero102]

I should have been more specific. It is only internet we are looking for. We have Bell for satellite and since we don't pay the bill for it we have a hard time justifying paying for another TV service.

My wife convinced me to let her call first (she said if I rant to them the way I ranted on here they would just cancel our internet) and we are now getting the High Speed (not extreme) package for $29.95 for the next 6 months, then we will be held at the $45 rate without any rate increases after that.

I doubt this is the very best deal they could have offered but it is still cheaper than Telus so they seem to have given us enough of a reason not to switch now

For anybody else who is unhappy with the rate increase, give them a call and they will probably offer you at least the same thing.

*NOTE*
I am not saying to just randomly call and try to manipulate shaw for big discounts, but if you are upset about the new increased rates then you should let them know how you feel and they may work with you as well.

[UndrgroundRider]

Shaw's price hikes are insane. They are losing a huge amount of customers to Telus right now with their new optik tv stuff.

Jim Shaw fucking makes 11.5 million a year.

There's no reason for a price increase, but they keep happening. I for one am switching at the earliest opportunity.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Cos]

I am getting choked, my standard cable and standard high speed internet has gone up to $77.85 a month. Used to be mid 60's.

I went to my dads today who has the new Telus TV and seems REALLY nice. One question I do have, does Telus still track and email people about downloads? I have been with shaw for years and never once received a letter or email.

I have however gotten those phone things 900 times a month. Seriously I probably get one every 3 or 4 days.

[hampstor]

They will match the telus optik $10/month for each service for 1 year. I called to tell them i'm moving to Telus and they transfered me to retentions - I was nice about it and explained why I was going to telus. They offered to match the telus deal, gave me extreme internet at no charge (i actually thought i was on it, but apparently i wasnt) so I'm still a shaw customer.

[Cos]

Originally posted by hampstor
They will match the telus optik $10/month for each service for 1 year. I called to tell them i'm moving to Telus and they transfered me to retentions - I was nice about it and explained why I was going to telus. They offered to match the telus deal, gave me extreme internet at no charge (i actually thought i was on it, but apparently i wasnt) so I'm still a shaw customer.

Let me get this straight, you pay $10.00 a month for tv, $10.00 a month for phone, and $10.00 for internet?

What levels? What about after that? PVR?

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak
Shaw isn't not what they used to be, it takes forever to get through to talk to anybody with them now and their prices are not competitive anymore.

They are the new Telus.

Just a side note; I have had "sales" people from SHAW come to my door now twice, and both times they outright lied to me about the price and how long they could give me promotional pricing for. Don't sign anything unless you can confirm it with SHAW on the phone first.

Our phone queues have been around 0 for the majority of my 8-4:30 shifts this past week (mon-fri), the longest queue was 21 people waiting on friday, and the longest waiting was about 4 minutes from what I saw and this is our busiest time of year. There has been about 90 new hires since July 19th.

We don't have any contracts so there isn't a whole lot to sign... Our longest promo's are 1 year, but most are 3 or 6 months. What did they say the price was?

I heard Telus's price increase is around 10 per service, vs 2 or so depending on the Shaw service. Can anybody confirm that?

[Type_S1]

Does everyone notice that every other company increases its price every year as well? Everyone bitches about Shaw because everyone has it but Bell, Telus, Rogers etc... all increase prices every single year as does shaw.

It's not shaw that has retarded price adjustments its the whole industry that needs a smack in the face.

[Cos]

Shaw, telus, bell need to become a regulated utility.

[e31]

I've been using Bell for TV, and Telus for internet as I cannot get any other services in my area. Knowing this, I will never enter a "price protection contract" with Telus, and will never touch my service bundle with Bell. With that being said, I have never had my price increase except when I went from Dial-up to High speed.

If you get denied when you ask for a lower rate, just cancel your long distance plan or another value add service. If you don't get a call back the next day begging for your service, call them and ask for the lower rate, this time stating that you've already canceled some services (they can verify this in the service notes).

[speedog]

Originally posted by Cos
Shaw, telus, bell need to become a regulated utility.

A little bit of history, when I started at TELUS, it was called Alberta Government Telephones and the services they provided back in 1981 were very regulated. But the general public wanted more competition in the communications industry and many telecommunication voice services became deregulated or regulated less by the CRTC since then. At the same time, data services were becoming available (300 baud, 600 baud data service, datapac, etc) and the CRTC, for the most part, shied away from regulating data services. General mobile radio was around back then too (1981), followed by the Aurora 400 radio system, the cellular 800mhz spectrum and everything we have now - all of which were unregulated for the most part as well. Deregulation came about because the public wanted it and the public also wanted more competition which is why we now have Bell, Rogers, Shaw and TELUS all fighting for the same piece of pie instead of just TELUS in Calgary.

Regulated communication utilities - isn't going to happen. The public didn't want it and certainly the shareholders in these companies don't want it either. Of note - since 1981, Alberta Government Telephones became AGT which became AGT Ltd which became TELUS which eventually bought Edtel (Edmonton Telephones), Clearnet and finally merged with BC Tel to become the TELUS you all love/hate today. TELUS also bought numerous smaller internet providers and absorbed them into their operations - so one has to question whether there is less or more competition now and whether or not that has been to the benefit or detriment of John Doe consumer.

So yeah, regulation may appear to be solution, but then again I can remember paying much more for my regular telephone services 30 years ago then I am now. What is the problem now is the constantly evolving plans and associated price structures, but that's what comes with competition - regulation would do away with all of that nonsense but you, as a consumer, would probably end up having little if no choice of who is providing those services to you.

But as time marched on

[Cos]

.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by hampstor
They will match the telus optik $10/month for each service for 1 year. I called to tell them i'm moving to Telus and they transfered me to retentions - I was nice about it and explained why I was going to telus. They offered to match the telus deal, gave me extreme internet at no charge (i actually thought i was on it, but apparently i wasnt) so I'm still a shaw customer.

Oh lawd is Shaw getting a call tomorrow.

[thetransporter]

instead of complaining, someone i know started his own ISP

http://www.businessincalgary.com/index.php?page=45

he is been selling fibre internet over wifi for years.

[hampstor]

Originally posted by Cos


Let me get this straight, you pay $10.00 a month for tv, $10.00 a month for phone, and $10.00 for internet?

What levels? What about after that? PVR?

I don't know what service packages are avail for TV as I have my TV thru Bell. I do know it's Optik TV tho.

I pay $10/month for shaw extreme, and $10 for basic phone for 1 year. After that, back to regular price.

[bball2]

Anyone in your home a student? You can get shaw extreme for $23/month if you go down to their offices and show them your student ID / enrollment verification