Hello @HR3
For time-sake, you can skip a lot and just read the stuff in bold.
As suggested, I read your two posts under “Disappointed with SHAW”. It was hard to find since so many posts include the words "disappointed" and "shaw".
You have my sympathy. First, remember that the 'contract' says "up to". I've asked many times what that means and I get dead air until I ask "Does it mean anything from zero up to (insert speed here)"? I can almost hear the deer in headlights.
A support tech explained this way ...'Up to meaning up to whatever your devices can handle.' (paraphrased)
That aside, I confess, it is I that they write all those policy agreements for as it seems I am the only one that reads them. I am also still looking for that elusive "Administrator" I am so often referred to when any support can't, support.
I've been a Shaw customer (sometimes I feel more like a victim) for some 24 years, mostly out of necessity and can say while I am not a person at Shaw employed as a technician or support or whatever the title is this month, I am a Professional Shaw Customer (PShawC (pronounced pshshock) for short)).
But this is about you 🙂
About the Shaw Contract, that they didn't have that became the Shaw "service agreement" that became the Shaw Contract they didn't have.
When signing up, I was told the 'contract' can be cancelled within 10 days, but I think that is a law, not Shaw being Ms. Nice Gal (gender equality) and may be provincial law. You should ask how it applies in AB. Your posts appears to put you way out of that 10 day grace period.
- I suggest you take a look at your NIC, (ethernet) card and cable. A well experienced and trained tech @ Shaw passed this along to me:If your speeds are horrible, AFTER -/+GRADE check your NIC Ethernet card. Many are 1/100 and to push 300, you need one that is 1/1000 - verses 100 being the possible limit on a older card. I'm told two different stories now, that (1) If you're using Wi-Fi (I think you call it "streaming"), it won't matter, but I agree with Mr. D. (tech at Shaw I spoke with) that it does matter. A laptop WiFi below 802.11-AC may be the issue as well as any NIC.
- Your card/s should be 1/1000 802.11 AC, not N, or G
- Also, check cable - should be minimum CAT5E or better CAT6
Myself - I have 4 useless laptops now. Only one WiFi meets the BlueCurve Gateway system requirements. There are no names on the 'box' made in Vietnam, but you can call it a XPS-6.
I'm buying new cables and hopefully will find a '802.11 AC 1/1000' NIC for desktop and three laptops.
Bear in mind (or bare in mind if you were a pre-google kid) that the Shaw agreement sums up to providing service and speed "up to" your router/modem with speeds "up to" what your devices are capable of gulping in.
BUT - you can complain to the higher anarchy and Shaw has a method and you can require they extend your cancellation date. When you reach this higher level of support, they will work to make you happy and want to ensure that their service level meets or exceeds expectations ... and provide that support/service "up to the modem". As I have experienced, anything else, is your problem. And so it should be. We can't expect Shaw to be that slacker "Administrator".
You can can go to "Commission for Complaints for "Telecom-Television Services (CCTS)" and use the form to file your complaint. It is Shaw that would respond, but you get a dedicated person you can call back almost directly. I say 'almost' because they have other callers too.
My suggestions in the complaint are:
- Prepare the text ahead of time. Re-read it for:
A}- accuracy.
B}- remove gripes, digs, quips, grumbles, innuendos and groans - save those for other forums 🙂
C}- just the facts - just the facts. - Give brief description of the issue.
- Provide a brief summary. You will detail it later.
- The form appears to take a lot of text, but won't. Be BRIEF!
- Check the form again, and make sure it is precise sans any knee-jerking (Step 1, Part B above).
All that said, I HAVE run into several great, trained, and experienced support people and some are willing to look a little bit beyond the modem. Yes, the proverbial Catch 22 isn't funny when on the receiving end. it's part of the micro-management style of the digital generation of less should cost more mind-frame. Choices are explained in the agreements - agree or pound sand.
As for switching out to another provider, sometimes it is better the Devil you know than the She-devil you don't (practicing gender fairness) - at least, I know who Shaw shares pillows with, I can block their attempts at SMRCing. And as the saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Good luck - and hope you don't fall to the binary bit-chomper,
~w~
CAUTION: ISP ahead!
