I received a call today from The Business Examiner about a post I wrote a couple of years ago with regard to the "broadband war" that is perceived to exist between Telus and Shaw.

To make a long story short: when I moved to Vancouver from Victoria, I had a hell of a time with Shaw and their bizarre accounting behaviour. We signed up. We were double billed. They insulted me on the telephone (they didn't realize they were dealing with a hard core geek who knew more about what they were selling than they did). In the end, they felt I was living in two cities at the same time and should be billed accordingly. How their accounting department arrived at that conclusion is amazing. I was able to convince them to cancel the service.

My post from Techvibes with more detail:

I am not here to defend Telus, but I am here to slam back at Shaw because I think Shaw is getting a little too much love on this thread. Here is my story (in point form) and in a nut shell.

Problems with Shaw
===============

1. Shaw came to install internet and cables.

2. Managed to disconnect the cables and screw up the installation.

3. Television and internet gone for six weeks.

4. No apology, no time to fix, no offer for rebate or refund. Within those six weeks, Shaw failed to come to house eighteen times (between the hours of and the continued to happily charge for the services I wasn't getting.)

5. Took time off work to wait for them fifteen of the eighteen times they did not show up.

6. Insulted by the tech people on the phone when I complained. Was told at one point to "deal with it".

7. When I called the final time (the day they showed up) I told them to come within 30 minutes or I would smash the box off the side of the house and repair the problems myself. The told me I couldn't do that, I said -- "My house. I do whatever I want to anything attached to my house. You have 30 minutes."

They showed up in 15 and all problems were repaired with me standing over the shoulder of the guy. It took the guy three hours to fix all of the cabling, and get the television and internet services repaired.

I called and cancelled the next day, received a refund for the six weeks of offline time they charged me.

Installed Telus the next day and had no problems with performance, installation, or tech help.

I have since moved from Victoria to Vancouver and installed Shaw first (since DSL wasn't offered in the area I was in) and had nothing but problems. Shaw began double billing me (since they assumed for some reason that I lived in Victoria AND Vancouver, thus, should be double billed) and then cut me off when I didn't pay "both" bills -- without any notice. This took four months of idiotic hassles and many calls to the "professional" accounting department. They never did correct the problem, and I never paid them the amount they claimed I owed them.

Luckily for me, Telus called me around the same time and said the service was available and I went ahead and requested the DSL service. I have never had problems whatsoever with Telus.

Shaw was the worst experience I have ever had with Internet service and I would never recommend them -- ever.

I don't believe either service is superior to the other - DSL or coaxial cable - as each of the technologies have their benefits and limitations.

My complaint about the Internet providers in question is derived from the experience had with the customer service people. The stupidity of those I dealt with at Shaw was dumbfounding.

I do recall one telephone conversation I had with an accountant at Shaw during my little fight with them. I am, of course, paraphrasing:

"Mr. Birley, I am forced to tell you that we must cancel your service if we do not sort out this issue very soon."

I replied: "Yes! Please! Cancel me! That is what I want you to do! Are you daft?"

Tags: telus, shaw, broadband war, dsl, broadband, techvibes