If you live in Calgary, chances are it's probably Shaw. In most of Western Canada they have a monopoly on High Speed (Cable) internet. How this came to pass is beyond me. There are, as of late, alternatives - for example 3web , or CyberSurf as they now call themselves, but, as luck has it, they are merely a vendor selling on Shaw's services. So, for example, if you have a problem with your internet service, you call CyberSurf, who then call Shaw. . .apparently this arrangement is so that consumers aren't led to believe they don't have a choice.
If you're willing to sacrifice a fair measure of speed you can always go with Telus - But if you have any sort of memory you'll recall how sorely they abused their monopoly on the telecommunications industry and realize that things probably haven't changed that much (despite their cute ads).
So how is this monopoly handled? Well, like all monopolies, frankly. Countless of our consumer dollars are spent persuading us how personable their staff are. There are few ads that remark upon the value or quality of their service, perhaps because they've been threatened with a few too many lawsuits. In the event you should ever have to call them you'll be directed through an automated voice menu that advises you of all the extraordinary products and services they offer, then advises you to select from a menu of options. . .should your option be, for example, to sign up for one of their services, you are routed right away to a personable customer service agent who gets you service right away. If, however, you are calling about technical support, your call will be routed to another queue where you may or may not be given further options - problems with your TV? High Speed Internet? Digital Phone? Here I can only be grateful I don't get my phone service from them - If I did I'd be calling from a payphone. And finally, after what seems like forever (in reality perhaps only 2-3 minutes) my call is routed to an agent. Actually, I made that up. . only once have I ever called and spoken to an agent right away - they have instead one of 2 things that will happen - you enter in a phone number, and they call you back after a delay that ranges from 30 minutes to half an hour. Or their automated callback is down, and you end up waiting 30 minutes or an hour for an agent to answer your calls. The standard message is "We are experiencing higher than average call volumes". . .Odd, that given the wait time is usually around 45 minutes to an hour they haven't realized that there is a new "average" call volume that they should staff for.
When I lived downtown it became somewhat predictable that internet service would be down between the hours of 5:00 and 7:00 or 8:00 pm. And, being new to their service I would call, wait for their callback, which inevitably would come after service had been restored. "No Problem" as far as they could see. And in a while one realizes the pattern, and stops calling. In my new residence it happens again, this time at odd hours of the day, multiple reboots, modem resets, and eventually service is restored. Calls to technical support are answered in the order they are recieved, agents call back, if the computer should end up online after numerous of their troubleshooting strategies (all tried before calling them, I've been through this before. . ), the analyst reminds me that she fixed the problem (I'm skeptical, it's not certain that they've fixed the problem, having dealt with the issue I realize it's nature is intermittent) - and the next day the issue recurrs. Finally an analyst on their end diagnoses a faulty modem, and I bring it in to have it swapped.
My troubles, it would appear, are at an end. New modem set up, back online. And after a few days the problem resurfaces. I'm getting annoyed, not with the analysts who are after all just doing their jobs, but with the entire run around and policy that sees me wasting an hour a day to get online, that has me swapping modems, that reminds me on every call just how friendly, well meaning and inept their service really is. Another call, now they schedule a service call, in a few days, "free of charge" they remind me, my loyalty is to be rewarded.
The first technician doesn't show up, the 2nd technician comes, 30 minutes late (this is a standard, you will be at home for a 4 hour window at which point they may/may not arrive) - he goes through the connections and in the end diagnoses a faulty/corroded cable connection outside the house. This replaced he checks my speed and makes off for lunch.
Service is restored. After a couple of weeks I recieve a follow up call from a Shaw representative to check on my service. I thank them for their interest, it's working much better, thank you, but, I observe, the speed isn't quite what I've come to expect from high speed internet.
So the agent walks me through going to a website and checking my bandwidth, and, lo and behold, I seem to be getting about half of what they promise. He's perplexed, I've swapped the modem, they've replaced the cable, what else can be done? He has a suggestion - they are currently offering a special on "Ultra High Speed Internet" - for an additional $10.00 per month they can double my speed. . .
Shaw has the monopoly on cable based internet in most of Western Canada. If you're calling to subscribe to their service or upgrade an existing service, your call will be routed to the next available agent. Existing customers experiencing issues with their service are in the 2nd tier of service.
Policies: Billing is done month-ahead. So that if you haven't paid your bill, you haven't paid in fact for service that you have not yet recieved. This 'late' payment is subject to late fees. Should you pay your bill, then disconnect the service partially into the month, be reminded that Shaw will not issue cheques for under $20.00. In other words, if they owe you $19.99, too bad, it's theirs. If, however, you owe them $19.99 you are expected to pay (how, I ask myself, do we as consumers allow this to happen?). As a client of Shaw's you must expect that your patronage is of less importance than someone who is a potential client (ie. Call them for technical support).
On a related note I discovered after disconnecting from Telus that they have a similar policy regarding overpayment - having overpaid my final bill by $10.00 (roughly) I was sent reminders for several months advising me they would be issueing a cheque for the balance due. After several months of this the reminders stopped coming. No cheque ever arrived. (One wonders if I owed them $10.00 when the reminders would have stopped coming. . .).