Automated messages on my machine advising me that if I don't make payment soon I risk having my service disconnected.
It's urgent, I should call their customer service center right away.
I do, but their customer service center is not yet open.
It's amusing as I disconnected my service several months ago, the end of February to be precise.
And numerous follow up calls, whilst winning the agreement of their customer service reps that I should be long since disconnected, aren't getting me off billing. In their minds, the itsy-bitsy teeny corporate mind of Shaw cable, the only mystery is why on earth I haven't consented to direct debit.
It would be easier. And hey, despite the numerous cock-ups and mistakes wouldn't we all just be happier if I just paid my bill? Because even if they make mistakes, as unlikely as it is (ahem!), I can be sure that they'd quickly set things right....
I'll call later. After garage sales. And report on the outcome then.
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And, in a move very similar to the Domain Registries of Canada scam, a bill from Shaw. Billing until June 4th, despite being told that I was disconnecting service on February 26th and having paid my 30 days notice, still they're sending me bills and hoping that I quietly pay them...
Systematic and premeditated incompetence.
Why wouldn't I? I mean really, it's a bill, don't people just pay their bills and shut-up? Even though for the past 2 months my service has been through Telus?
I don't.
SO I call, am put on hold, eventually choose the callback option and 10 minutes later an agent calls me and gives me my billing over the phone, I state my grievance and she puts me on hold. Crazy carnival music, jazz or ragtime, designed to placate me but strangely appropriate.
The agent picks up the phone and reassures me that it's being dealt with and she's sent off an email....
We'll see.
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Today was the deal-with-internet shit day.
I resolved to leave Shaw upon my eviction from the previous house. I'd had enough, would disconnect my service, went down and paid my bill and asked for a disconnect. They advised me they needed thirty days notice to disconnect me.
Now of course they don't. They can disconnect you in 30 seconds or less, if they're so inclined, but they weren't and so I was stuck for paying for thirty days service they knew I wasn't going to use.
They make a fortune off of unorganized schmucks like me. Inwardly fuming, but what can you do? And so I pay the bill and future date my disconnect.
After I moved it dawned on me that, still being a customer, I probably still qualified for their move program, and so called them and arranged for an installer to come out and reinstall Shaw at my new address.
Which they did, except there was a problem with the internet that day and so the installer told me to wait and eventually it would come on by itself.
As you'd expect it didn't, and a call back to Shaw revealed other issues and they promised to send another installer out to correct the issues.
Which he did the next day, and after an hour and a half of his troubleshooting and installing, and if I didn't mind the computer being hooked up in the bedroom I was all ready to go.
Which I did mind, but after an hour and a half, plans for the day and my daughter slowly being ruined, and the resolve to quit Shaw after my 30 days notice were up, I simply accepted.
SO I'm learning and I get the jump on my departure from Shaw by calling Telus and ordering their high speed internet. I'll overlap them, that way I won't be out of internet.
They have a great promotion, 6 months at $10.00 per month, $45.00 less than Shaw, no contracts or commitments, and it would seem they can get the setup done in my living room/office, which is, after all, far more convenient than having it in the bedroom. They book me a service call for Wednesday the 24th of March.
Now I've never had problems with Telus, really, although I know by reputation and from conversations with their brighter employees that really it's no different than Shaw. Same shit, different pile. But maybe I'll get lucky.
The modem arrives after a day, impressive.
But at 11:00 today, waiting for the installer to show, I get impatient and call to confirm that there is to be an installer to show up.
20 minutes wait to speak to a person. 20 minutes. And when I do I ask him if he'll confirm that I have an appointment for an installer to show up today, but he hums and haws and wants to discuss the parcel that arrived for me in the mail, wants to know if want to try to set it up now, wants to know if I have multiple jacks in the house (shouldn't this be on their computers?), and after 10 minutes of discussing dollar store splitters and my limited technical knowledge I manage to get him to confirm that an installer will be showing up in the 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM timeslot.
I assure him that I'll be fine, that's all I wanted to know. I somehow got the times wrong, I was expecting the installer between 9:00 and 11:00.
I wait until 12:00, 12:15, still no installer.
I call Telus again, they're having a problem with their phone lines, they give me a number to call for internet assistance.
Promising.
I call the internet number and wait, again, after talking through their automated voice message machine, another 15 minutes to speak to a human.
I ask about the installer. Where could he be? Hopefully he hasn't been hurt, should I call 911? The agent puts me on hold for another 5 minutes. She comes back. She too wants to talk about my package from Telus, do I want to set up the package with her? I tell her no, I just want to confirm that an installer is coming out....hold again....back...yes, an installer should be coming out, there's an appointment booked....Is he coming out I ask her again, but she wants to talk about splitters and setting up my new modem....I ask the uncomfortable question again, is there an installer coming out, if so when, if not, why was I told there would be?
Hold again.
And it dawns on me, I've switched companies, but I've really just moved the same shit into a different pile.
When she comes back she informs me that no installer will be coming out.
I wonder how I got so confused. I confirm the appointment, yes, it's there, but no installer will be showing up.
I set it up myself. It's easy enough, there was a splitter in the package, as well as cable and all sorts of noise filters and Ethernet accessories. And the internet works fine, as good as Shaw's, certainly, and I'm on the bottom package of Telus and was previously on the Top package at Shaw and so far have noticed no difference whatsoever in speed. And as an added advantage, the Telus modem has a wireless router built in, so no messy cables or additional fiddling with connections, so, despite themselves, their incompetent customer service, inordinate wait times and their no-show installers I'm happy.
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An article of note today: Bell, Canada's Other ISP, awaits a decision from the CRTC - quote:
"The regulator will hand down its decision at 9 a.m. ET after twice delaying the ruling. The decision will determine whether Bell Canada has violated the Telecommunications Act by slowing down the internet access it sells to wholesale customers." - From CBC.
Further reading here: www.saveournet.ca.
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