What is up with that STUPID Blue Curve Modem ???

[arjay]

My neighbor got talked into a Blue Curve Modem because her old one doesn't support the speeds of her connection. 

What a disaster. Requires an app to configure, and the app just keeps going around and round tryng to register her modem. 

Get the modem working, but you can't use the app because all it does it try to re-register.

Try to do direct access through 10.0.0.1 and it won't accept the password. Hard reset it, same thing. Had to call into Shaw, got a nice but useless tech that I had to convince to reset the password (after 1.5 hours) and then was able to get in. Find out that half of the options can't be changed because you're supposed to use the Blue Curve app !!

What was I trying to do? Set up MAC based authentication. There goes an entire day. So what do we have to do? Call back in to Shaw and get them to put the old modem back. Navigate through the stupid phone menu and then re-authenticate yourself until you're blue in the face from the STUPID Blue Curve modem. 

What a joke. I finally walked off and left the 72 year to her own devices. Well done Shaw, you screwed everything up again by trying to make it easier. 

Oh, and the moron that installed it this morning? He didn't bother to port over her old SSID's and passwords. Probably because he too could not access the admin interface. It took 1.5 hours to get the tech to finally tell me that the username for the admin interface is Admin. How stupid can you get?

[arjay]

I've never seen anything as stupid in my life. Neighbor calls me back over because she has no Internet. She phoned Shaw and they got her to reset all her passwords all over again. This is a person that is 72 years old. Now she can't get her mail, can't log into myShaw etc. 

She told me she called in to get Shaw to put the old modem back. I ask her when, she didn't ask Shaw that question. We call back in, get some fool on the line that can't even speak English, just so we can try to find out WHEN Shaw is going to take this garbage out. 

What kind of an idiot ties the modem into an app that does not even work? I can't even change the network SSID through the Admin interface. Why? Because you have to use the app to do that. You know, the one that goes around and around in circles trying to register the modem that is already registered. How stupid can you get?

From 1 PM until now (6:16 PM) including at least two hours on the phone. We can't even find out if Shaw actually is coming back out to replace the modem with the old slow one because the fool we get on the phone cannot even speak english. What a useless company you are ! She's in tears, I'm furious because I just had everything set up for her including a new phone, a new tablet and refreshed her computer and got her Shaw account all straightened out so she can get email and check her Shaw bill. And what did you do? You destroyed all of that work by installing a garbage modem that you tied into an app, which does not work, and will not allow you to change granular settings in the admin interface. Two hours on the phone just to get the first ESL person to be able to tell me the username is Admin. 

[arjay]

All that work has been destroyed. Congrats Shaw, you managed to make a 72 year old widow ball her eyes out. Well done !!! I hope you feel really good about yourself. And hey, be sure to get someone that can't speak English to talk to her. That's all she needs right now. 

[Zeph]

Perhaps the information you're needing and/or looking for, can be found by looking at the bottom (underneath) of the BlueCurve modem.

[arjay]

That was the first thing we tried because, typically, that is the password. Unfortunately, it did not work. 

It took 1.5 hours on the phone with a 'technician' after telling him, repeatedly, that we were using a web browser trying to access the admin interface before he finally got it it.....after mentioning to him at least 4 times that it kept coughing up an error message saying 'incorrect user name' and asking him, point blank what the username is, he finally stated it was admin......

Even so, I could not log in to the admin interface using admin and the password on the bottom of the modem. Finally I interrupted him (because he was going to take us down another garden path) and asked him if he could reset the password from his end. I had to interrupt him 3 times to get him to shut up and listen. At that point he said yes, he could. I told him to set it to password and what do you know? Just like that I was able to log in....

Even so, if you hard reset the modem, it will NOT wipe that password and return it to the default (which is printed on the bottom) which is the behavior I was expecting. No matter. However, due to the 10 minute cycle time of booting up this 'modem', which he required us to do no less than 5x, adding 50 minutes to the phone call for that alone I managed to get it to work when he finally shut up and did what I asked him to. 

He was very proud of his work. I didn't bother to critique him and thanked him anyway.

So in the end, I 'solved' it only to find out that we still cannot manage the POS because it's linked to a crappy app that fails every time. 

The solution I presented to my neighbor was this. The best thing a shaw customer can do is to eliminate any possibility or avenue of having to contact them. As such, I ordered up a router last night, we will try and put the modem into pass-through/bridge mode, and then manage the new router's interface instead of the one that Shaw provided - because it's crap. 

It's worth noting that in about 2005 I sent a letter up to JR Shaw outlining issues with the equipment they were provisioning and highlighting the cost to the company of policies they created that were causing a direct hit at the tech support level. He got it, right away. He understood exactly what I was saying. At that time I was hoping to work there (this was back when Shaw had integrity and was an exceptional company). Unfortunately, he asked the President to call me (Peter Bissonnette) and he took TWO MONTHS to contact me. After which, he actively blocked me at every turn from working at Shaw. No doubt because I was finding issues, that cost millions, that he probably created! How's that for a President? The root of the word President is to preside. Which of course begs the question, to preside over what? Normally, that is supposed to be the best interests of the company. Sad to say, JR Shaw understood what I was saying but Bissonnette went out of his way to ensure those issues could never be addressed. This very forum actually came about out of a paper that I wrote and sent up to Shaw. It was never supposed to be like this, but Shaw leaned on their own understanding....

And yet, here we are, all these years later, and what do I find? They have learned nothing about what JR brought to their attention and made the situation worse. JR retired shortly after that, then died, Jim Shaw died, Bissonnette was sent out to pasture (good riddance for what you cost the company) and now the company is, quite frankly, disgusting. I feel sorry for Julie Shaw, I doubt she even knows that her husband's life's work is going down the crapper and that the company that was once exceptional is now considered something to be avoided at all costs. It breaks my heart to see what Shaw has become. Disgusting. 

[rickatk]

“What was I trying to do? Set up MAC based authentication.”

Seems to me you over thought this whole setup thing.

Shaw has taken great care to make these devices as easy as possible to set up. Everything can be done through the Blue Curve app. There is no need to get into the admin page any more. The tech should have been left to his/her devices to set this up, that is their job. Further why bother with porting over SSIDs and passwords. A fresh start using the Blue Curve app is much simpler. I have over 27 devices on my setup and most devices reconnected. The pods had to be reinitiated, using the Blue curve app. While you intentions sound well meaning it sounds like you didn’t follow the prescribed self connect methods.

[arjay]

Priceless. The reason I had to use MAC address authentication is because one of my standards compliant carrier-grade devices would not connect due to a WPA issue. Have to say, I have more faith in their ability to adhere to the protocol standard than Shaw's modem from VietNam. 

"Shaw has taken great care to make these devices as easy as possible to set up." - Sure, and I guess you missed that part where re-starting one of these modems takes 10 full minutes. Let's see, I think the last call I made to what apparently passses as 'tech support' required something like 5 reboots. At 10 minutes a crack that means 50 minutes on the line with tech support just waiting for the modem to start......Shaw certainly took great care when they sourced these modems, as usual, the hit to the help desk was not even thought of. 

"Further why bother with porting over SSIDs and passwords." Because my neighbor is 72 and needs to see the same SSID and password. New things can be difficult to handle at 72...

My point has been made, just as it was made back in 2005 to JR Shaw. He got it, he understood it. Sad that he was not able to get Bissonnette to do his job. And just look. A modem that takes 10 minutes to start up and not a thought during the procurement process of how that 10 minutes will effect everyone from the installer to the call center. Amazing.

"A fresh start using the Blue Curve app is much simpler. " - I guess you missed the part where the app just kept trying to register the modem in an endless loop. Speaking of endless loops, what do you think of Shaw's call centers being staffed with people that can't speak english? Maybe it's just me, but I would have thought the ability to speak english would be a prerequisite when working in an english-speaking country. 

The golden years for Shaw have passed, and that is sad. I do remember when it was stellar company with a great deal of integrity that it demonstrated every day. It's amazing how quickly a company can go off track. Next thing you know, they can't even talk to their customers. 

[rickatk]

@arjay Arjay

Yes it sucks when things don't go right with this stuff. Many complaints logged here in the discussions stem from people who possess more that the consumer grade smarts and gear. I don't know how many Shaw modem/routers I have provisioned over the years but I have to say this latest Blue Curve setup couldn’t be easier when it works and when I did it correctly.

My XB8 modem arrived and I began to set it up, diving right into the admin web page rather than following the enclosed setup instructions. The end results was a fussy network, things just weren't right. I finally contacted Shaw support via English language chat to inquire about the possibility of a secondary provisioning. That has worked in the past. The tech offered a reset which I had already done then a factory reset which I didn't look forward to. At any rate he performed a factory reset and this time I started with the prescribed setup procedure scanning the Q code on the bottom of the XB8 and then on to the Blue Curve app. This is a new front to back app based process which worked marvelously. I was pleased that even though a factory reset was performed, many of my settings remained requiring only some final wifi connection adjustments stemming from my initial setup.  All done through the app.

My point in all of this is Shaw has put together a good setup protocol using the Blue Curve app. Users should resist the urge to tinker and go it alone with their aftermarket gear. If you are using enterprise gear then maybe Shaw consumer internet and wifi is not for you.

Incidentally, most of todays electronics are made off shore. That includes Arris, Technicolor, Plume, and all those expensive third party wifi routers and the computers and TVs we use. 

[arjay]

Nice job of deflecting and putting lipstick on a pig and suggesting I shouldn't be monkeying with the modem. Duly noted as well as your possible motive in doing so. We have a proper router coming. The best thing a customer can do these days is take as many steps as required to minimize any avenue of needing to contact Shaw. That especially includes working around their customer premise equipment....

Shame to see JR's legacy being turned into a company that customers actively hate. It's the exact opposite of what he spent his life working for. But it's understandable. That Shaw company no longer exists. I think the beginning of the end began when he retired, and it died when he did. I can't think of a bigger black eye for the Shaw family than what we experienced the other day. Making a 72 year old widow cry. And let's be clear, that is now the typical Shaw experience today for a customer. It never needed to be that way. 

This experience has sure stirred up some ghosts for me. I remember when I put, in writing, my offer to come to Shaw to look after what was then, their $2 billion in long term debt. Peter Bissonnette called me and gave me the brush off. That guy could not do enough to keep me from ever setting foot in that place. Apparently, as of August of 2022, that debt had grown to just shy of $5 billion. Well done, Mr. Bissonnette! 

It has always amazed me how Shaw has pissed money out the window on these fruitless endeavours. But then, that's why JR originally told Mr. Bissonnette to call me and thank me. JR understood. He got it. For him, it was instinctive. He understood the dangers of the policies that I highlighted and what their costs were. And he cared. He had no axe to grind, no job to protect. All that motivated him was what was best for the company and the customer. But that's the recipe for success that allowed him to build the company in the first place. 

I take no pleasure in watching his legacy be destroyed. I had a much different vision for the company, one that was in line with his values, and one that would have blessed Western Canada. I mean it when I say that I was to be his legacy. To take what he had done with Shaw and help replicate that to the entire small business sector across the country. Enabling other people to attain wealth would have been a fitting legacy. 

Ah well, it's time to let it go once more, but it is amazing how these rare interactions always bring me back to what I originally discussed with him in those days. And how they prove out, time and again, that I was right, as was his discernment. What I was never able to understand is why, as the owner, he didn't use his power to bring me into the company regardless of Mr. Bissonnette's efforts to keep me out. I understood Mr. Bissonnette's motivations, he was always worried I was after his job, but I never understood why JR didn't just make it happen.

The past is the past, but it's always sad for me, on these rare occasions, like helping my neighbor with her cable modem, and I am reminded once again of how I brought this entire mess to JR's attention, back in what, 2006, and he got it. And yet, here we are. I explained it to him, he got it, he handed it to Bissonnette, and then it all went south. And as I said, this very forum was something that I freely gave to Bissonnette. But it was never supposed to be like this. 

A buddy used to tell me, all those papers you sent up there? They still have them. They put them in a vault. They look at them every once in a while. What's sad is that they never had the understanding on how to use them. They always looked at them from the perspective of a cable company. This very forum is the grossest bastardization of what I talked about in one of those papers. It was part of a new Shaw 2.0 that I called Shaw Connect. It was supposed to serve and foster business across the nation. To literally help build the economy. To enable people to do what JR did, for themselves.

The irony is unbelievable. Poor Shaw. Every day that goes by I see more and more that everything I talked to them about has come to pass. It's horrible watching JR's legacy go down the drain. It was supposed to be much, much bigger and better. A blessing to others. About giving back. I think Bissonnette's fear that I was after his job has cost Shaw more than anyone realizes. But that's what led me to say, what is the root term of the word President? It is to preside. Which begs the question, to preside over what? The answer should have been, the best interests of the company...not giving in to your fears about keeping your job!

The Lord used to say to me, "everything in your life has been preparation for this moment". And I'll tell you something else, I went to the same school that Jim Shaw did (CEO), had similar experiences in my life, that I had overcome, as Jim Shaw did. I wonder how important that would have been to the Shaw family? 

Isn't it funny how something as innocuous as helping the widow across the street with her Shaw modem can bring all of this back.  The Lord put a love for Shaw in me so deep that it was nearly painful. Every day the Lord gave me new insights on how to help that company. Nothing but pure refined gold. 

Such as shame that Bissonnette got in there. I still remember when he called me and told me 'let's keep the lines of communication open' which the Lord later explained to me was code for 'get lost'. As I said, I take no pleasure in seeing where Shaw is today, I was fighting against that for a long time. And I never got paid one red cent. Life can be funny, but the consequences for all involved, not so much.....

[g-idk]

Hi @arjay , you are certainly entitled to your opinion about Shaw, but it defiantly is not mine.  I have been a loyal and satisfied customer of Shaw's for over 20 years with no real issues.  For your own peace of mind, please try to remember Shaw is a Corporation ultimately driven for profit, by its stock holders, it's not a Mom and Pop Family run business anymore, and will never be again.  Maybe it would be better for you to switch providers and just forget about Shaw.  Here's wishing you peace and joy in this holiday season.