[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

This is a continuation of my original thread on Telus TV that was lost in the big Crash.

So, for those who do not remember, I was complaining several months ago about my Shaw bill. I had just basic cable (Ch. 2 to 58) with no HD or specialty channels, basic high speed internet (not Xtreme), and very bare-bones digital phone (only Caller ID included).

With the "No Contract" Shaw, my bill, after the first 3 months, went up almost monthly and by December was topping out at over $121/month plus fees & taxes (or over $130/month in total).

Called up Shaw and they wouldn't do anything for me, even though I was bundling everything with them. They did bad mouth Telus, constantly, which I think is in poor taste.

When I told them Telus TV offered me a great package deal, the Shaw rep LIED to me and told me I could get everything I currently had, but they would drop the monthly bill to $90 + fees & taxes if I would stay. I said OK. A couple of days later, called up Shaw & another rep looked at my account and said yes, my bill was going down to $90, but I was now down to Channels 2 to 28 and my internet was now "Light Speed" (equivalent of dial up). POed, I told them to cancel my entire package & signed up immediately with Telus TV.

Here's what I get with my Telus TV package:

12 months free Essentials package (73 channels) then $20/month for the last 2 years of my contract.
12 months High Speed Internet at $15/month then $32/month for the last 2 years of my contract.
5 Specialty packages for $25/month
HD Sports for $5/month
Free PVR
Free Wireless Modem
Internet speed is not shared, unlike Shaw, so I can have several laptops operating online at home without affecting MY computer's speed (not true with Shaw).
June 8th, my PVR Anywhere will come online boosting my Internet & PVR capabilities & allowing more TV to access the line without affecting speed.

So, my Telus TV bill is $45/month for 12 months plus tax for a total of $50.40.

After the 12 months promo - it jumps to a whopping $77/month + tax

My phone is now free since I don't require any special functions other than making local calls and receiving local & long distance calls. Telus has to activate a line for each customer, so if you don't need your "own" line with special features, it's FREE.

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

My Shaw bundle would have cost me $1572/year without any further increases on their "No Contract" system.

My Telus bill for year 1 will cost me $604.80 and $1034.88 in years 2 and 3.

I am saving $967.20 in year 1 and $537.12 in years 2 and 3.

That's a grand total of $4716 in three years with Shaw or $2041.44 in three years with Telus TV.

Over the 3 years term of the contract, going with Telus TV will save me a total of $2674.56.

This massive savings represents almost 57% savings compared to staying with Shaw.

This Telus TV advantage does NOT include the fact that I am getting more than double the number of channels, including 30+ HD channels that I wasn't getting with Shaw. Nor does it take into account the FREE PVR and Wireless Modem that I got from Telus TV.

To get those perks from Shaw would easily cost well over another $1000 out of MY pocket.

So, yeah, GO TELUS TV!!!!

Been extremely happy with the picture quality and internet & free digital phone service I've received over the last 3 months with Telus TV.

Anthony

 

[plantedinvertz]

There packages are very nice and so is Customer service but the interent may be a lot slower than shaw.

 

[Death's Sting]

saving money is the important part, but Telus internet is total crap.

 

[Crazy_NDN]

after the first month, i had telus tv, i was not the happiest, i kept getting black outs on my tv's would freeze and go to a black screen. after 3 tech's came by the last guy finally figured out the issue, the first two just fiddled around with the cable outside, one found the original installer, installed splitters backwards, the second guy tried replacing the line from the pole to the house, but the final fix had to do with, i had too much internet usage for the modem to handle, from me downloading movies and such, so he had to seperate the internet and the tv, cause they both run off the same modem, and now im stuck with 4 different boxes, of modems and switches, its a jungle of wires, but it works now. sometime june or july he said there will be a new firmware update for the modem. and its currently being tested. so once thats done i should hopefully just have one box like normal. telus did discount me the month of troubles of unpredictable internet and tv outages. all in all i am happier with the channels and the internet speed does the job. with no noticable lag during game play or surfing. even though it is slower then when i had shaw.

also i do notice the internet speed with telus is alot more consistent compared to shaw, during peak hours when i was on shaw i would notice a drop in speed. and it is not an issue with telus.

 

[kaisa]

we got an offer for telus in the mail for tv/net/phone for $50 or so a month for the first year then a little more after that and we're so close to switching but from what I understood the good tv channels we're all on different plans and to get all the channels we want like discovery, a&e, tlc, fox etc... we would of had to get the biggest/expensivist tv plan? is that how it works or did i misunderstand?

 

[Crazy_NDN]

the watch a bunch combo for $45 comes with tlc,a&e,fox and the watch alot combo for $59 has alot more channels including discovery.

http://www.telus.com/content/tv/iptv/programming/index.jsp
this info was helpful to me when figuring out my combo's and what not, it is definately a bit more complicated then shaw. but you can personalize alot more.

 

[Karen]

My phone is now free since I don't require any special functions other than making local calls and receiving local & long distance calls. Telus has to activate a line for each customer, so if you don't need your "own" line with special features, it's FREE.

'kay , maybe I'm dense...but whats with the "free" phone? Really? But no outgoing long distance?

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

'kay , maybe I'm dense...but whats with the "free" phone? Really? But no outgoing long distance?

It's free as in my house phone costs me $0.00 every month because Telus needs to open up a phone line to get your internet & Telus TV signal into the house. I originally planned to switch my phone number either to the original Shaw one or get a better number, but when I talked to the Telus rep, she told me that if I didn't need any other services or to make LD calls (I have a LD plan on my Telus Mobility plan anyways for US & Canada & I don't call LD anywhere else anyways), then I could just keep the line they activated and not have my "own" line. I really just need incoming (local & LD) and local outgoing on my house phone so to save the $21/month or whatever it is, I said sure.

That's how I get a free Telus digital phone line with my package.

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

A lot of the issues other people had with Telus TV resulted from either having a tech who was contracted out come install the system (many of these non-Telus techs screwed up big time) or from Telus trying to go too far too fast. Now mine was installed by an old-timer Telus tech who went above and beyond to make sure I'm happy with what I'm paying for. He even installed an extra 30' line over my kitchen door to run a line out to a TV on my deck in the summer if I want to.

Also, they have been busy installing fibreoptic lines all over the place, which will allow people with lots of TVs and computers to run everything faster. Their original bandwidth was the limiting factor but supposedly, any area that gets the fibreoptic upgrade will have a far faster internet and better PVR/HD/TV reception on more tvs.

Anthony

 

[neven]

Whether the tech is outsourced or not doesn't make a difference. In any field of work you got your idiots. I've had my walls butchered in a rental before from telus, and once from shaw too, they both were company men, not contracted. IF you do make a switch to telus cable or shaw phone, ALWAYS get them to properly disconnect the old supply line, but insist the cables stay.

The best scenerio is having it installed in the point of utilization, leave it at that. Do not have them tie in to the old wiring, when they do that they screw up, and often times its not the fault of their own, its bad workmanship of the persons before them.

Another thing is talk to your neighbours, not your friends who got it done, you need people close to you. several places in the lower mainland are horrible with shaw, or horrible with telus. Just be sure to look into negative reviews, often times people will make things out to be worst.

From what i've seen, telus tv signal sucks in many places, Their standard internet package is lacking by far, and their voice prompt customer service makes you want to murder whole families. Shaw, inconsistent Phone for many areas.

Oh and wiring, way less prone to interference unless a moron decides to kink the crap out of the wire.

 

[BostonBob]

I managed to get a great 1 year deal from SHAW a few months ago. My SHAW bills were getting pretty high ( I was getting Digital Cable plus High Speed Internet ) so I called Customer Service to see where I could cancel some things ( I had 2 Pick & Pay channels that were definitely going ) and knock a few bucks off my bill total. Anyway the guy mentioned an unadvertised special that SHAW was giving to customers that had been with them for a few years. Bottom line is that I actually added SHAW's phone service plus my Internet got faster and I ended up saving money. This is what I am getting for $ 84.95 a month for 1 full year:



- HD Plus Package which includes Digital TV, HD Basic and HD Plus
- Extreme Internet ( 15 Mbps download speed )
- Digital Phone ( 14 no-cost calling features )
- unlimited free long distance calling within North America for 1 full year
- the first month everything is free ( I did have to pay the taxes though )
- I am excluded from any of the rate increases that occur during this promotion.

After the year is up I will likely keep the same TV package but go back to High-Speed Internet ( 7.5 Mbps download speed ) and Digital Phone Basic which has none of the extras included with the Digital Phone package. This is an unadvertised special so you just have to call SHAW's customer service and ask for it. As long as you have been with them for a few years and pay your bills on time then you should be eligible for this promotion. Afer I signed up I mentioned it to 4 friends and they all were able to get it.