Big Changes To TV Plans

[bostonbob]

Well it looks like SHAW has made some big changes to their TV plans. Not only have the prices gone up ( $ 60/ month for Small TV, $ 80/month for Medium TV and $ 95/month for Large TV ) but now you don't even get to pick your own Theme packs as SHAW has now designated the channels that go into each package: https://www.shaw.ca/uploadedFiles/Ecomm/Television/Plans/Channels-comparison.pdf 

I'm not sure just how complete this list is as I have a few channels that are not listed at all: TMN Encore 1, TMN Encore 2, IFC, WSBK, KTLA and WGN.

I'm hoping that this new setup applies only to new SHAW customers as I definitely want to be able to pick my own Theme Packs. Suddenly I'm very happy that I agreed to a 2-year deal back in May as I not only get to keep my Theme Packs but also only pay $ 53/month ( $ 68/month minus a $ 15 promotion ) for Medium TV. Hopefully all current SHAW customers would be grandfathered in and be able to keep their current Theme Pack package.....if that's what they prefer.

[#2]

Ouch

[#3]

Ouch is right. I'm with the other guys now and get the basic channels with eight theme packs, Crave and all the Crave movie channels for $90.00 a month.

[sunnyinvic]

My understanding is that existing customers will not be made to change from their current package, but new customers and existing customers looking to upgrade or downgrade their TV will have to choose one of the new packages. Its an interesting change.

[bostonbob]

sunnyinvic wrote:

Its an interesting change.

In my opinion there will probably be more customer complaints about the new " forced " channel lineup than there will be about the rate increase. Everybody expects the rates to go up (although this is a huuuuge jump at least for the Medium package ) but nobody expects to have no say in their own personal channel selection.

[#6]

There has never in the past been this little selection in channel selections.

Even analog cable had Basic, Tier1, Tier2, and Tier3, but you could choose 3, not subscribing to 1 and 2..

But yes, as with all previous changes, I expect existing will be grandfathered...

[doug_scott]

I don't get why my cost has increased two months in a row so far.  First increase was larger than the second increase, together its just over $10 per month.  I would imagine they did it this way in the hopes that the customer won't notice the big increase.  This is one of the biggest downfalls to paperless billing and automatic payments, you are less likely to notice the price increase that you may or may not be warned about.  We're we notified of this somewhat large price increase prior to it being split across two months?  I am hoping it is only going to be split across two months and that I am not having another increase next bill.  Anyone else seeing this increase over two billing cycles so far? 

[sunnyinvic]

I would guess your promotion ended part-way through your billing period. Say you are billed from Dec 1-30, if your promo ended Dec 15, the November would have the full discount applied, the December bill would have half the discount applied, the January bill would have no discount applied. 

[shaw-tamara]

Hi doug_scott 

There are many reasons why your monthly rate may have changed. For example, there was a change to the Movie Network/Crave TV package recently, so if you subscribe to that package, you would have been affected. If you added or removed any channels there would have been pro-rated charges or credits, depending on the situation. If you had a promotion that ended, that would have affected your rate, too. If you take a look at your invoice it should be broken down there, and we also have Shaw Billing FAQs to help with most questions. If it's still unclear, then your best bet would be to get in touch with our billing support team and they can go over the bill in detail with you. 

[doug_scott]

I have not made any changes to my account in the past 10 years.  Suggesting that maybe the price changed due to changes I made is actually insulting.  Asking me to go back 3 months and compare my bills to see which areas changed would still not tell me WHY that area increased in price. And having an increase 2 months in a row without any information in the bill explaining the increase, and no changes requested by the consumer (me in this case) wouldn't it be prudent to at the very least add a couple lines of text explaining the price increase?

At the very least you could have taken this offline and asked for my account number and figured out why my mothnly price has gone up approx 8%.