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Shaw Cable ~ Phone Call

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MonkeyMhz

Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2009
I have Shaw Cable for my internet, and I have to say its not that bad. However it is if I follow their rules. I have the cheapest (Lite-Speed) internet, its good enough for me, I get about 100kbps-500kbps on downloads from like file shack or just like normal sites. It spikes a lot sometimes its 300kbps other times it will barely reach 150kbps, but not bad. When I first signed up they allowed 80GB/Bandwidth per month.

Quite a while ago they phoned me yelling at me saying they are gonna cut my service off because I did over 100+GBs for the last 3 months, yea I use a old PC as a server on my connection. Just for like projects with my friends (exchanging programming.etc) And then my family just uses it for basic use.

I said sorry, and they told me to upgrade so I can get more bandwidth because I doubled the current limit. I told them I get 80GB/Month and i only did a bit over a 100. Thats not double, then they inform me that its changed the bandwidth limit is now 60GB/Month. I was pretty angry but w/e I agreed ok, sorry and hung up.

About 8 months after that last phone call I got another one, saying i've been consistently going over 80GB/Month and that they are gonna cut me off. I tried a new strategy this time, I acted dumb.

OMG theres a limit, I THOUGHT CABLE WAS UNLIMITED, THIS IS RIDICULOUS IM SWITCHING TO TELUS (Other internet provider). As soon as I said that he said oh no!. Its ok!, just try not to go over!. And I said, "I dunno, I don't like having all these limits!" they then told me how its not a big deal and I just should try not to go over. So i fake agreed to stay (since I wasn't actually gonna switch my ISP).

Its been a long time since then, I checked on their site a few days ago and now it says my Lite-Speed bandwidth limit is 10GB! and it says my internet is only 256kb. But im still rockin with a decent download speed and over 50GB/Month at least. Haven't got a phone call yet.

Strange, but even more strange is how can a company change their bandwidth limit on a service from 80GB/Month to 10GB/Month over a couple years. Thats kinda odd, and rude if you ask me, and the sad thing is the price hasn't changed.

http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Internet/?WT.srch=1&gclid=CIbnzIXdlpoCFQYqbAodCVpKOg

Most my friends have the high speed next one up from what I have and they have about 100kbps more download speed. But they don't spike they always are above 300kbps, as for mine is all over one day its 180kbps the next day its 400.

Here is their rates if your interested, how does it compare to you Comcast guys in the USA or other internet providers. I can't help but feel its a bit pricey in Canada. Thoughts?
 
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They can do it because the FCC doesnt slap them enough. Sounds like they also adjust the cap in order to use it as a marketing ploy against their subscribers to get them to upgrade.
 
They can do it because the FCC doesn't slap them enough. Sounds like they also adjust the cap in order to use it as a marketing ploy against their subscribers to get them to upgrade.

Yea, like normal people would have just upgraded. But I always managed to screw them somehow. lol.

Like my internet speed hasn't changed or anything, but according to their site it has. So its kinda strange. But regardless service isn't bad, its never down, in a year Id say the service goes down < 5 hours.

But still.
 
If they really set it to 10gb/month, which is insane, I would expect another call soon complaining about your downloading and trying to get you to upgrade.
 
If they really set it to 10gb/month, which is insane, I would expect another call soon complaining about your downloading and trying to get you to upgrade.

Lol its been at 10Gb for a long time now and I never knew and I haven't got a phone call for a long time. I think once they call you and find out that you know how they try to get people to upgrade they leave you alone. My friend tells them to F-off when they phone, and they haven't cut his service off. Its been going on for multiple years now.
 
I'm surprised that you even got a phone call. I used to go over constantly (I think 6-7 months in a row) and they sent me one email about it.

Lite has been at 10gb for a long time. It isn't really meant for downloading a lot of stuff. ;) I can't remember when it was at 80, but I never used Lite so I never really looked into it.

I still agree that Shaw's data transfer limits are very low. I have 15/1 myself, and 100gb isn't that much for this connection. They were bragging about increasing the connection speed by 50%, they should have increased the data transfer limit instead. At least it's a legit 15/1 and doesn't slow down, even in peak hours. Even though they supposedly throttle Bittorrent, I haven't seen this either.

Unfortunately in Western Canada, the options are limited. There is Telus, but their reputation is much worse than Shaw's, with frequent disconnects and slow connections.
There is TekSavvy (who basically resell Telus' connections) who offer 200gb/month but in my case I don't download as much as I used to, and their connection is slower. TekSavvy offer unlimited in Ontario (reselling Bell's connections), so maybe that will come to Western Canada someday.

Shaw isn't that bad however, they could be a lot worse. They are reasonably friendly with Tech Support, and if things break, they don't make you wait long before fixing things.

As for the overall situation, I don't think the CRTC (Canada's FCC equivalent) will do anything about this anytime soon. We need more competitors in the marketplace, and the infrastructure isn't very good.
Of course, I don't expect any of this to change. It costs way too much and takes too long for a random company to jump in and offer their own services using their own connections. I'm just happy I don't have to use Rogers or Bell like they do in the East. :rolleyes:
 
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