Is It Worth Bothering With Telus?

[DentArthurDent]

Shaw was horrible. Twelve months ago made the mistake of checking our ancient plan with them and they "upgraded" us to a "better" and "money-saving"plan that's so slow it's not even offered any more. And 12 months later it's become more expensive than what we were paying before, for far, far fewer channels. Also we started losing channels on one of our TVs, so that it doesn't receive anything but Shaw channels 1-29, 30 occasionally with some breaking up. After years of meaning to, switched to Telus a couple weeks ago. Apparently the wireless box the tech tried to install for the TV downstairs was part of a bad batch, and when he got one that worked, he'd come back. He hasn't been back. No wireless boxes that actually work yet?

Apparently you get a default email address and password from Telus to set up your email accounts. Well, we didn't get one, and after 3 days so far of waiting by the phone for someone to get us an email address, there is still some problem "at our [Telus's] end and we will try to fix it as soon as we can". Three days?? Has no new Telus customer been able to set up their email in three days? 

So we're completely without a second TV. And now we have no email either. This is not an upgrade from Shaw. 

And while customer service is nicer and more pleasant than Shaw's, they really seem not any more effective at all.

Should I cancel this Telus contract and try Telus again from scratch? I mean, has anyone in the last two weeks actually gotten a completely working account from Telus, and if so, how did you manage it??

Or should I just go back to Shaw? They are utterly incompetent, too, but they offered us a sweet counter deal to come back. And at least we had email. 

[NFtoBC · Accepted solution]

I suggest using the escalation process at this time.

[DentArthurDent]

Thank you for that link! It worked! After using, got a call back in about 40 minutes, a wonderful tech who guided us through the email set up. At some point in the previous 24 hours, we did get a temporary email address and password but we're notified of it, so there was no way of accessing it. A bit taken aback that you only get one email account (address) with Telus fibre. Another excellent second tech (later in the day for a second question) said that, that is because the fibre is still a new system and not quite up to running at full features yet, so if you need multiple email addresses for your family, you might be a bit frustrated. But email is up and running now. 

[DentArthurDent]

As for the television downstairs, of lack of, we're being posted a new wireless box for it and once it's in place (fingers crossed that it's a working model), we'll have to get it activated by tech support. Hope it's not another day on the telephone. It's been about 4 working days on hold, with mostly brief interactions with tech. The last two customer service people were terrific. Each of the four or five earlier support people provided an unexpected but crucial answer to something that we didn't know about so they were essential as well.

Physically, unless you have access to the copper cables that run through your house, you may have difficulties with the fibre installation. We had to lose some ceiling tiles downstairs to run the cable. And the cable left outside was just 10 cm too short for an easy connection downstairs. Needed a short splice. Wherever the fibre cable ends, that is where the wireless box goes. If you want a landline telephone, that is where the landline telephone goes, even if it's in the basement. Luckily I'd already cut access routes through the house for the old copper cables so we were able to pull them out and snake everything back onto the main floor where we wanted it. 

In the end, is Telus worth it? I'm going to finally say yes. Yesterday it was -36 up to a whole -28 here and my sister-in-law's Shaw went down for the day, according to the Shaw techs because of the cold. I was able to spend the whole day yesterday on Telus, albiet with Telus, though that turned out very good thing, too. Endlessly patient, they got us through this. I don't know if this was an uncommonly rough transition, but all I can say is be prepared. It may not go as easily as you'd think. 

But we're getting a whole lot more for our money than we were with Shaw, Shaw's customer service was genuinely awful, the television channel packages here at Telus are much better organized, and the quality and speed of the fibre blows copper out of the water, even using wireless connections instead of hard. Even without the second TV working yet, I'm going to say a provisional yes. Switching Has been worth it, tho' in our case it hasn't been an experience for the faint of heart. By this time next week, I hope the 2nd TV will be connected to something and that internet, tv, telephone, and all will just work become routine, taken for granted once again. 

Good luck everyone!