6 months with TelusTV-21T – Basic system Improvements?

[MrSL]

Just concentrating on the really basic expectations I think every user would expect from a ‘TV Guide’ & a ‘Recording’ perspective for paying customers. This is for the TelusTV-21T STB with cloud recording.

I’m now 6 months in and how many improvements? From what I can see – Just one!  Extending cloud recording retention by just 15 days from 45 to 60. Why? Telus said “The plan is still 90 days, we're just making incremental changes to make sure nothing goes wrong” Well in that case, why not extend it to 90 now? Probably show the same result? Even 90 days is ridiculously short.

A TV guide – Should display New, Repeat, Live. It may be supplied by a ‘3rd party’ but 6 months in and still without. Why?

Single Recording – Still don’t have the ability to extend the recording time. Crazy. Means you have to record the following program too just in case it overruns. Why?

Telus (temporary) response was supposed to add 1 hour (3 hours for tennis) to all (?) live broadcast sports. Well if we can’t even tell from the TV Guide what is a live broadcast this is guesswork and appears to be intermittent anyway... e.g. No longer working for the LPGA (Golf). Why?

Series Recordings – A complete disaster. May or may not work, even on the same channel. Might just disappear, not record some programs in the same series. Of course we can’t add any recording time so forced to record the following program for overruns manually, which totally defeats the object anyway. If it does work, it only records on the same channel, useless for sports that often show the same series broadcast across different channels.

In the ‘good old days’ with my previous provider you would just select a ‘Series Recording’ add any additional time and it would record across any channels the program was broadcast. Done! You could also see all your series recordings in a list, prioritize these, delete, amend etc. Basically this was a similar 4k system with cloud recording. Oh and NO retention limits on recordings…

Now if I wish to record a 4 day golf tournament with Telus I have to:-

1. Open the Golf App on my cellphone to see when it’s scheduled, what time and channel its broadcast on. Okay, it’s broadcast 4 consecutive days @ 9am on Golf channel and NBC for 1 day. Can’t rely on the guide because I don’t know if it’s a live or repeat broadcast.
2. Browse the guide and select record. Can’t add time so record the following program too.
3. Select ‘Options’ in the guide and jump to next day. Takes me to 7p.m. I have to rewind through the guide back to 9.a.m. (Forward 24 hours would be handy here & suggested in ‘Ideas’). Hit record and once again record the following program for a likely delayed start or overrun.
4. Repeat the same laborious process for the following 2 days. Plain crazy!

So 6 months living with it, spending hours reporting issues on the Community Forum, looking for solutions etc. etc. and what is the general feedback from Telus?  “Thanks, it’s been logged, forwarded or noted; it’s coming but can’t give any timeframe etc”. As a side note, how much time did I have to spend on a community forum with my previous provider over 20 years… NONE! It just worked!

This release is clearly so far off being a stable, reliable, functioning, user friendly system I cannot fathom how on earth how this was allowed to be distributed to the public. It’s not even close to a Beta release.

So six months of use and no real improvement. At this rate it’s going to take years to even come close to the competitors.  Let’s not forget, in the meantime, we are full paying customers!

The damage this release has done to Telus’s reputation as a provider must be massive. I’m guessing it might not be obvious now with suckers like me signing up (oblivious to the defects) but wait till the 2 year contracts start to expire and see how many will be itching to sign back up…

Maybe it’s just me and everyone else is happy, but I’m close to throwing in the towel.  I don’t think this post is unreasonable or untruthful? If I’m wrong (Telus) please let me know.

Way beyond due Telus, enough banter - Let’s see some real improvements!

[RobG3987]

@MrSL, your comments and critique is 110% right on the money. I'm right around the same time span dealing with this disaster of a system and the frustration of the lack of significant improvement to major pain points constantly present. I wholeheartedly agree with everything you have described. The lack of responsiveness from Telus to these issues is deplorable.
I've been told I can cancel my TV service at anytime but it's my Internet service that's on a 2 year plan, so I'm stuck because the other guys don't offer TV package standalone without paying a fortune for unbundled services. Hmmmmm,, maybe I could get a big enough credit from Rogers to offset the cancellation fee...
I don't see this getting better,,as Optic Kate said on other posts "..it's not designed to be a cut & paste of competitors systems". Well,, the competitions system WORKS,,😅
I recently participated in a survey for design feedback, and was very disappointed to see it was 90% concerned about layout of the menus,, only 1 question about PVR and guide.
So that told me this was lipstick on a pig !
The basic functionality and flaws aren't going to be fixed with this platform.
We are only left to try and warn potential newcomers to stay clear of this platform.

[Optik-Kate]

Hi @MrSL, I am categorizing your feedback and sharing it with the team, but you already knew that. Not sure you want to hear from me again, but I thought I'd clarify that it's difficult to provide concrete dates because development timelines change all the time. I'd rather provide the neighbourhood with an update after the fix is launched, at least it will be a pleasant surprise than to provide temporary false hopes!

@RobG3987 The research survey isn't focused on PVR and guide because we're aware of the issues (thanks to everyone's feedback on the neighbourhood) and are working on resolving them. The purpose of the survey was for design feedback for the future state of things to come. Thank you for your participation. 

[MrSL]

It's not personal. You sound like a wonderful person! It's TELUS and this hopeless TelusTV-21T system.

After 6 months I'm (and I'm sure all the other poor customers) still waiting on any update that works! Beyond frustrating!

I'm really pi**ed this morning... Having manually recorded the last 3 days of the LPGA Maybank golf tournament - 6 hours per day, I managed to watch all 18 hours, excited to watch the finale this morning...

It apparently recorded and I tried to watch it via the telustvplus webpage on another tv but the playing of the recording wouldn't play, it just hung on a blank page with a circle going round and round so gave up. An hour later I tried to watch it via the TelusTV-21T STB on my main tv but the recording was no longer listed! Rebooted everything, but it didn't return. Before I managed to watch it on 'replay' noticed the result so no point now... Another colossal waste of time, just like this system! 😠

[ness]

How are you charging customers for a product that doesn't even seem to have made it past beta testing? You would expect a hardware upgrade to provide increased functionality or at the very least offer the same functionality. This is considerably worse than my old optik tv box.

[Flash54321]

Exactly.

[MrSL]

Oh, the icing on the cake.... I had also gone through the laborious task of manually selecting and recording the Ladies Euro Tour Golf, Aramco Team Series also on the CH925: Golf Channel. Guess what, no hour added! 😡As I had already added so many recordings after after each episode it's very hard to tell "what-is-what" and I didn't record the following program, so missed the conclusion of the final round...

Of course if 'Series Recording' and adding extra time was a working option, I wouldn't have missed anything!

I think the only option for me is to record every single program on the Golf Channel from Thursday till Sunday night, every week, so I don't keep missing out. Let's see what that does to the TELUS 'Cloud Storage'

[Flash54321]

This is just a dumb superficial corporate response. Absolutely nothing to give the customer hope that things will get better soon. At this rate I will have switched back to Shaw when my contract is up.

This is a 36 BILLION dollar company that can’t be bothered to do things in a reasonable amount of time. It’s almost like outsourcing everything is bad for the customer.

I’m sure Telus has given the developer a time frame for some functional updates but you can’t even give your PAYING Customers a hint of when to expect updates.

[KHR]

Hi @Flash54321 

Is there a specific feature that you're looking for more detail on? Some things are more concrete than others and we may be able to share some details.

[Flash54321]

Adding extra time in blocks 1hr, 2hr, etc

Favoriting a sports team and having all games recorded regardless of channel or time

Being able to record not just a block on the guide. I’d like to record a certain channel at a certain time regardless of what’s on.

These are standard from your competitors years OLD system.

It would also be awesome if I wasn’t forced to see your on demand advertising every time I turn on the tv. I already pay a premium for your service, I shouldn’t have more things to buy show up as the first thing I see.

Further to the above, why don’t you have a free section like your old system and your competition l’s system.

I’m sure there’s more but I’ve already spent enough time here.

[MrSL]

Hi @ness, I couldn't agree more! This system is a complete and utter joke. Paying $$$ for a system that, well, I frankly can't believe was ever allowed to be released! I had used the (what was Shaw) equivalent system, STB with cloud recording and guess what, it all worked! Six months using the TELUS equivalent and not only are there more problems than I could list, absolutely nothing has changed during the last six months! Oh, to be fair, they did increase the recording retention from 45 days to 60 🤣. TELUS clearly don't give a cr*p about their paying customers and giving value for money. Just waiting for more oblivious suckers to sign up for a 2 year contract... I will never, ever, ever, trust TELUS again.

[ness]

I feel duped. Telus can't figure out our WiFi so I thought this new TV box would be our answer for streaming without buffering every 30 seconds. Well, streaming works through the box, but everything else is wonderful. So looks we can either have cable tv in our house or streaming but not both.
I've given up on them fixing our wifi issue and now this digital box....I should have switched to Shaw.

[Flash54321]

You are not alone at all. I waited 7 years to get Telus high speed at my house and switched immediately as I (stupidly) assumed all the things you listed above would be standard. The salesman that signed me up basically said I’d have all the same functionality but he couldn’t have been further from the truth.

It’s like they didn’t even bother to check out the competitor systems or do any product testing before releases. You hit the nail on the head with this being LESS than a beta.

I am super disappointed and am back to not recommending Telus for anything.

[MrSL]

Hi @Flash54321 sounds just like my interaction with the salesman. Promised the world but delivered nothing!

Pity because their fibre optic internet is outstanding. I am still counting down the days till my contract expires, the TelusTV-21T system is lacking in so many areas and I suspect that although development is ongoing it's probably going to take years. As a full paying customer we should be getting at least somewhere close to what others are offering, or at a seriously marked down price.

As internet and TV is closely bound together, i.e you can't get Shaw/Rogers TV with Telus internet then I am and have been deterring others to switch. At the end of the day, most people want a reliable and function TV system that just works. It should have been withheld from release and not inflicted on users till such time. I suspect all the negative impact & publicity from this release is going to have a huge negative impact on the company.

I will not recommend and I will never trust Telus on 'face value' ever again...

[Flash54321]

Agreed. I was a Telus fan for so long but now I’m advising all to stay away. It’s super frustrating because I couldn’t wait to get back to Telus and now I regret it.

Did you know they removed the ability to set recordings from your phone on the legacy Optik TV so that you’d have to upgrade? It was a feature I used often before switching to Shaw and when I came back years later it was gone.

[KHR]

Hi @Flash54321

You should absolutely be able to set, manage and edit recordings from the TELUS TV+ app for both the new and legacy Optik TV platforms. If you cannot - you may need to talk to a technical support representative.