I am having a horrible experience upgrading my TV and internet to Blue Curve, have tried to address my concerns to customer support, and have received wrong or conflicting information from various levels along he way. I do appreciate that this is probably the worst time in recent history to be dealing with technical problems as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, but that should not prevent customer service people from understanding their basic products and services.
Things started with a visit to the Shaw Store where I wondered what internet and TV plans were available on Blue Curve, since I have been experiencing price creep in my cable and internet for some time, and I have two older Motorola PVRs which work fine, but are on the old guide and do not get the MPEG4 channels. Three different trips, talking to three different people, I received different and conflicting information from all of them about what channels and packages were specifically available on Blue Curve compared to the regular system, and then how pricing worked. Finally, on the last visit, I got the Customer Loyalty number and decided to try them.
The Customer Loyalty agent confirmed how the TV packages worked, how pricing worked for existing customers, offered a good deal, and recommended using the wireless TV boxes even though I have doubts about the reliability with WIFI and HD video. He also said that installation was very easy, could either be done with the Shaw app, online, or on the phone. I received the wireless TV boxes and Gateway modem very quickly, placing the order on Monday Mar. 16, and receiving the hardware the morning of Tuesday Mar. 17, so I was very happy about that. Unfortunately, this would be the last thing that I was happy about, as the installation, which was supposed to be easy, was anything but easy.
The Loyalty agent neglected to tell me that the wireless boxes only have HDMI, and since one of my TVs has an audio receiver that is not HDMI, I need a digital coax or optical audio output. I followed the instructions that came with the hardware, downloaded the Shaw Blue Curve app, logged in, it said I needed to connect to my.shaw.ca and activate Blue Curve, but there was no activate Blue Curve option. I called tech support, and the agent explained to me that this was common, and he didn’t understand why they were telling people to activate online when it does not work. He activated the Gateway modem, and I explained that I would like to use my own router, as I have multiple wired devices, and he said that the only way to use my own router with Blue Curve was to bridge the router, but that the wireless TV boxes would not work with a bridged router, so I would have to go to wired TV boxes, which I was fine with because of my aforementioned preference for wired video and the HDMI issue on the one TV. I was confused by the modem because the Cisco modem and the Hitron modems can be used with a separate router, they just have a double NAT if not ported, but that does not cause a problem for me, so why would the Gateway not just assign an IP to a separate router, yet he insisted the Gateway was different. Tech support said they had to transfer me to Customer Service, and they would order the wired boxes and port the modem or order the Hitron modem which can be used with a separate router. Customer Service ordered the wired TV boxes, but said there were none in stock so I would have to call back later. I was confused by this because I do not understand why they can not put in an order without stock, but he explained the system does not allow for orders to be placed when there is no stock. I said that was unacceptable, that I had already been at this for over an hour, and we needed to deal with the issue, so could he please give me a better option. We checked but said that there was nothing he could do. I relented, and said that I also needed to bridge the modem, and he said he would have to transfer me to Tech Support. I waited to talk to Tech Support, explained the issues again, and the agent went about bridging the modem. Once that was complete, I explained the issue with the TV boxes, and she insisted there was nothing that could be done. I said again that this was unacceptable, and that I was on the verge of canceling the whole thing, so in the interest of good customer relations, I need another option. She insisted again there was nothing she could do, so I asked her to cancel everything, and she said she had to transfer me back to Customer Support. I strongly insisted that it was not okay to transfer me again, that I had explained the issue to the first Technical Support person, had now been transferred three times, so she either needed to figure out how to address my issue or let me speak to someone who could.
At this point I asked to speak to a supervisor and was transferred again. I explained the whole issue to the supervisor, and he confirmed there was no way to order the TV boxes when they were out of stock. I said that makes no sense, is very inconvenient, to which he agreed. He said he would try to manually add a note to my account, but then said he could not make the system do that. He spent some time looking around in the system and finally found one box he could send me, but then said I would have to call back and order the second box in a few days. I then speed tested the internet, it was slow, they reset the modem, it was still slow, so they arranged to send a tech out the next day. I also happened to notice the display on my old TV box flash a message, so I decided to check my TVs, and one of them was working and the other was not. I mentioned it to the Tech and he said that the old TV boxes stop working when Blue Curve is activated, and that they would have to be reactivated on my account, so he transferred me back to Customer Service where we went about reactivating the boxes. I was glad I checked the TV, because they neglected to tell me the old boxes would disconnect, so then I would have had to call back and have them activated.
Following this, I tried to call the agent from Customer Loyalty directly a couple of times, only receiving voicemail. The next day I called again, receiving voicemail, called the main number and it had a recording noting the office was closed due to COVID-19 which is understandable.
The tech came the next day, checked the line strength, said it was fine, and installed a MOCA filter on the line. He was friendly and informative, so I mentioned the issues I had been having, and he said that wired boxes are definitely the way to go, and when I mentioned they did not have a way to order boxes when they were out of stock, he looked confused. I also mentioned the modem issue, and he said that the Gateway modem can be used with a separate router, just like the Hitron, it will just have double NAT. This baffled me that Technical Support would not know that, and insisted I had to run the modem bridged if I wanted a separate router. He then said he would make a note on my account that the customer was unhappy but I have yet to hear anything further from customer service. There again, this is understandable as things are slowed down from COVID-19.
On Mar. 22 I connected to the live chat to check on a wired box, the agent said they still do not have any stock, and it will be a few weeks before they get more. I reiterated that this whole situation would not have happened if they had given me the correct information and sent me the correct hardware in the first place, and while I appreciate the issue surrounding COVID-19, giving me the wrong info, sending me the wrong hardware, and not knowing how your products work has nothing to do with that. He said he would make a note on my account and check back in a few weeks and order a wired box. I confirmed this was something he could do, as multiple people before had said they could not do it, but he said that he could.
The problem on the TV end is I cannot activate before receiving the second TV box, as my old TV boxes will stop working once Blue Curve is activated. Now that I know I can use a separate router, I could use the one wireless box on the HDMI receiver, and the wired on the non HDMI receiver, but this would involve having to reset the modem in order to unbridge it. I am concerned about the modem not connecting properly in the process so wondering if it is worth trying to do that, or just wait for the second wired box, because I could be on hold for hours if either the modem or the TV boxes go off.
I have no choice but to wait and see, however, I am tempted to return all of the new equipment and just go back to what I had before, or possibly even cancel Shaw altogether.
