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Shaw Listens

Postby jon » Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:49 am

SHAW HEARS CUSTOMER VOICE AND LAUNCHES CUSTOMIZABLE ‘PLAN PERSONALIZER’
New choice and value with next-generation all-digital offerings

CALGARY, AB (March 8, 2011) – Today, Shaw Communications announces the evolution of their business with the launch of the Shaw Plan Personalizer. This new service enables all customers to customize their home entertainment services by choosing only the features they love and want.

“Our customers are telling us they want more choice, more value and more freedom to choose what’s important to them,” says Peter Bissonnette, President, Shaw Communications Inc. “We listened, and are proud to offer the Shaw Plan Personalizer, a new way for our customers, both new and current, to customize their growing needs and receive every day value – the right service at the right price.”

Bissonnette adds, “Our customers are the drivers of our business in so many ways, so I’m confident that the changes we’re making will demonstrate that we’re doing more than just listening – we’re evolving to meet their needs.”

The Shaw Plan Personalizer is the first of a number of new products and services to be rolled out over the coming months that are designed to meet the changing needs and desires of Shaw customers. Customers who sign up for the Shaw Plan Personalizer between now and May 31st will receive a three year rate guarantee on their core services.

With the new Shaw Plan Personalizer, customers can purchase a core home entertainment and communications package that includes Extreme Internet, Personal TV, hardware options and Personal Home Phone basic. They can then customize the plan exactly how they want it. Customers will pick the products and features they use and love to create a plan that’s made just for them.

“We feel like we’re building a whole new Shaw right now and we’re taking a Together is Amazing approach,” continued Bissonnette. “It’s exciting because we aren’t building in isolation; our customers and employees are helping us leap into the next generation. This is the beginning of something really special.”
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Re: Shaw Listens

Postby Mike Cleaver » Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:44 pm

Blah Blah Blah.
When are they going to let us cherry pick the channels we want to watch without "bundling" them with a bunch of crap we don't?
Cable and Satellite companies should be lobbying the CRTC to do away with "bundling."
To use a tired old cliche, this is more "re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."
The writing is on the wall.
Traditional Cable and Satellite tv are in for the battle of their lives with streaming internet gaining strength every day.
I'm still not certain what Shaw is going to do with internet as far as caps and speed are concerned but Teksavvy has rolled out cable internet through Shaw here on an experimental basis.
Shaw, of course, is making it as difficult as possible for people to switch because Tek offers a better price and a higher cap.
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Re: Shaw Listens

Postby jon » Tue Mar 08, 2011 6:35 pm

Mike Cleaver wrote:When are they going to let us cherry pick the channels we want to watch without "bundling" them with a bunch of crap we don't?

I worked for TELUS for three years in the late 1990s when they started developing what was then known as "TELUS TV". Their main selling point was "no bundling": you pick the channels you want and they would give you as few extra channels as possible under CRTC regulations.

It took them nearly a decade to get TELUS TV "out the door" and fully available even in their urban markets. So much time had passed that they seem to have forgotten what they said. Yes, they do offer some channels individually, but it is a pretty small and esoteric list. Oddly enough, Shaw was offering individual channels years earlier, when they first introduced "digital cable". But, again, it was a fairly short list, though arguably a more interesting set than the ones that TELUS offers individually now.

Of course, the list of channels that you, as a cable TV provider, HAVE to force all subscribers to take is huge, as mandated by the CRTC.
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Re: Shaw Listens

Postby jon » Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:13 pm

Hmm. I just spent a few minutes playing with the Shaw Plan Personalizer. I shaved $36.80 off my monthly bill. The three year rate guarantee would be an added bonus.

I rarely watch anything but TCM, but decided to pay $5.25 a month to continue to get PBS Detroit. For the few shows a year that I watch there.

The place to start is here:
http://shaw.ca/personalizer/

But you will quickly discover that you need pages like these localized ones, to determine exactly what channels are included in Personal TV and some of the Theme Packs, as many differ depending on where you live:
http://www.shaw.ca/uploadedFiles/Bundle ... 0A1828S116 - Vancouver
http://www.shaw.ca/uploadedFiles/Bundle ... 0A1828S116 - Edmonton

In other areas, go to shaw.ca and select your location, then click on this:
http://sas.shaw.ca/click/ad/1828/880/116

Unfortunately, when I finished going through Personalizer, it looked like it was only made for new customers, as the final screen talked about scheduling an installer. I couldn't find a way to get into the Personalizer from on-line Customer Care. And I couldn't easily ask why, as I haven't been able to get Shaw Support Chat to work for the last couple of weeks.
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Re: Shaw Listens

Postby beddows » Tue Mar 08, 2011 9:19 pm

I wish shaw would allow you to remotely program your PVR on the web like Telus does. I live 5 months a year in Mexico & would really like that feature. i worked for Telus for 30 years so would get 40% off Telus TV, but Shaw is bundled in my Strata fees.
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Re: Shaw Listens

Postby YesterDaze » Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:09 am

A friend who is a Shaw customer, was contacted by Telus offering cable, phone & internet for $45.95 a month for the first year. I got the same deal offered via a Telus mailing, it even included free rent of a DVR.

My friend called Shaw to see if she could get her costs lowered, and she says they matched the Telus price.
That's a huge saving, at least for 12 months.

We're blound to see a lot of undercutting as Telus tries to regain its share of the market. They lost a lot of the non-mobile phone market to Shaw in the past few years.
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Re: Shaw Listens

Postby jon » Wed Mar 09, 2011 11:33 am

Had a few extra minutes, so I dropped by my local Shaw office, and got my monthly charges way down, just like I calculated with the on-line Personalizer.
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Re: Shaw Listens

Postby Mike Cleaver » Wed Mar 09, 2011 6:50 pm

Jon: Both the links you provided in your post come up as a blank black page.
I went to Shaw.ca but the site doesn't explain anything unless you go through all the steps as if you're getting ready to buy into whatever it's selling.
I seriously doubt you will be able to cherry pick channels you want because of the stupid Canadian Rotten Television Commission rules that say for every American channel you want, you have to take four or five loser Canadian channels along with it.
As I have stated before, there should be a flat fee per month for your cable or satellite connection.
After that, charge a dollar per channel for every channel to which you wish to subscribe.
That includes so called "local" tv and everything else that is offered.
No mandatory CBC in English or French, no mandatory local "religious" channels, etc., etc.
The other thing about bundling is "having all your eggs in one basket."
There is little enough competition for services and all the "bigs" collude to set prices, caps, speeds, etc.
Yes, competition among the corpse is making them more competitive but the greedy bastards still make millions in profits and provide lousy customer service.
And they're still trying to kill off or limit any independent competition that say claim won't play by their rules.
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Re: Shaw Listens

Postby jon » Thu Mar 10, 2011 10:29 am

Mike Cleaver wrote:Both the links you provided in your post come up as a blank black page.

It took me a while to re-create that problem, but I did manage to. On another Windows ID, I got a black screen on that link in IE8. After almost 30 seconds, it popped up with an Adobe "you must agree to our onerous license agreement" dialogue box, that I had to agree to before it would show the PDF.

It may also be an issue of what version of Adobe you are running. I've only checked with the latest version of Adobe Reader (Version X) and the latest version Acrobat plug-in for whatever browser you are using. I'm no expert, but I think you need both.

After receiving a PM from someone scratching their head at this process, I spent the time writing a detailed guide to get you through the process:
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=9283

I've always eyed Warp Internet, but could never afford it. If I'm reading the Personalizer right, I think it is only $20 more than Extreme now, but only through the Personalizer. Very inviting, and affordable given that I just saved almost $40/month yesterday by going to Personalizer.
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