Are there any alternatives?? Would love to hear about the...

[joblackcat59]

Are there any alternatives?? Would love to hear about them if so.

[ColtonW24]

@rstra I returned my third TV box and purchased a Fire TV Stick (3rd gen) down in the US for $27.24 USD after tax (works out to $36.79 CAD). It was on sale here in Canada for $39.99 (before tax), so I saved a decent chunk of change!

When I contacted Shaw to return the box I also asked about the billing, and the agent told me that the new rental fee is $12 a month for each additional box beyond the first one, but certain ValuePlans discount the second box. So in those cases, the second box only increases by $7. So if you get the second box for $0, then it will be $7 a month until your ValuePlan expires. It seems like the current ValuePlans on shaw.ca do still include the second box discount. Though I wonder if this will change in the future.

Anyways, the Fire TV stick has turned out to be a great solution. It actually seems a bit snappier to navigate around the interface and play/pause/rewind/fast-forward. Only downside is that you can't pause live tv, as you mentioned. But you can always just record something that's live, and then watch it via the recording which allows you to pause it as well as rewind. The slight downside honestly is worth saving the $144 a year on the TV Box rental!

[rstra]

@ColtonW24  Yes, most value plan customers will just pay the $7 extra per box. The Fire Stick is a great solution, and it is portable, we recently used it in a hotel. When I am at home and use the Ignite box, I find myself missing how responsive the Fire Stick is, especially when fast forwarding. 

I think in the coming years, Rogers will pretty much just be an app on the TV or a third-party media player.

[ColtonW24]

@rstra Comcast has their Xfinity Stream app on Samsung and LG TV’s, as well as Roku, Apple TV, and the Fire TV sticks. So Rogers could very well expand the Ignite TV app beyond just the Fire TV sticks in the future.

[Luke20]

I had a long conversation with a Shaw rep yesterday and asked if they could justify 140% increase on the rental. Of course they could not.

Also asked her as a consumer herself if she would accept a 140% increase on anything. Kinda stumped her there!

She did offer to sign me up on a new 2 year value plan that would have actually reduced my overall monthly costs but I told her that I can no longer trust Shaw/Rogers because they could easily impose another increase at anytime that I'm stuck with.

Absolutely unacceptable - 30 year Shaw customer gone come January !!!

[rstra]

@Luke20  Rogers reps have nothing to do with the price increases, try writing the head office instead of calling the agents with no other purpose than to rag on them for something they didn’t do. 

[rickatk]

Better to go to the competition bureau and your mp

[rickatk]

There has been many references to the small print. I looked at my user agreement and there is no reference to the box rentals not being part of the package. 

[g-idk]

@rickatk hi, I wonder is there any reference to multiple boxes actually being part of the package, a little play on words but maybe not to them.  

[g-idk]

@rickatk , just me again. I found this in the service agreement, could this be what they are talking about.