# Help: Change ISP or Renegotiate?



## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

I posted this in the Cable TV thread but perhaps it was the wrong place so I'll try here, I'm seeking tips for negotiating with Shaw or switching to Telus Internet. 

Shaw has been our ISP and cable company since .... forever. Our monthly bill for Internet and TV is about $150. We own our cable modem and all of our cable TV boxes. I contacted them to negotiate better pricing. Not only did I fail to achieve a single penny of savings, they informed me that any change to my plan would end my grandfathered bundle pricing and increase my monthly fees. They even refused to help with a replacement for our old PVR. The best they would do was to sell me a new PVR at the full retail price and let me pay it off over three years. 

My wife and I decided that we would switch to Telus. For around $93 per month we can get 25 mb/s and a few TV channels. If we sign a three year contract, it will be discounted by 50% for the first six months and include free PVR, digital boxes and ADSL modem rental. 

Switching ISPs is easier said than done. So much of our lives were tied to our ISP email accounts that we spent months changing the email account associated with our online lives to Gmail accounts. Bank accounts, Amazon, iTunes, Netflix, recipe clubs, cruise lines etc. etc. My wife uses her email to stay in touch with friends and family from all over the world so she also wanted to make sure they were using the new addresses before we even considered discontinuing the old email addresses. We're ready now but my wife is very reluctant to actually make the change. 

Has anybody here managed to successfully negotiate a better Internet rate from their cable company or telco without having to go through this exercise? Did you have to threaten to leave? 

Does anybody here use Telus as their ISP with an ADSL modem?


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## chantl01 (Mar 17, 2011)

olivaw said:


> Has anybody here managed to successfully negotiate a better Internet rate from their cable company or telco without having to go through this exercise? Did you have to threaten to leave?


When we cut the cable, we initially switched our internet from Rogers to Teksavvy. It was while actually cancelling the Rogers internet service that I received the best retention offer - 80% off my internet price and a reduced price on my cable bundle. But only if I would sign a contract that would lock me into both services for the next 3 years. As we had already been experimenting with doing without cable, and using streaming services only, I was fairly certain we could live without the cable service but would need a higher data cap on our internet service than what Rogers was offering. We cancelled the Rogers internet, implemented Teksavvy internet in its place and within a month had confirmed that we could stream everything we really wanted to see (and use an OTA antenna for local news coverage), so we cancelled the cable service outright. Your best leverage is when you call in and actually say you want to cancel your service. They will almost inevitably refer you to a 'retentions specialist' and start throwing better offers at you, because they know once you're gone there's almost no chance you will be coming back. You should check into third-party internet service providers in your area. At the very least, you can likely get better internet service at a lower price than what you are paying right now.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

chantl01 said:


> ... Has anybody here managed to successfully negotiate a better Internet rate from their cable company or telco without having to go through this exercise? Did you have to threaten to leave? ...


My neighbours as well as a couple of co-workers say they call on a regular basis, quote other offers and eventually get to someone who can offer something other than the bare minimum. They say the idea is to not accept the minimal offers that are started with and to be patient.

I am not sure how much of this is because each is trying to steal the other's customers.




chantl01 said:


> ... Your best leverage is when you call in and actually say you want to cancel your service. They will almost inevitably refer you to a 'retentions specialist' and start throwing better offers at you, because they know once you're gone there's almost no chance you will be coming back ...


Agree on the leverage but not so sure on the "no chance" one will be back (except where it is for being treated like crap, bad service).

Probably part of the reason one co-worker has been successful is because where the rep looks far enough back, he is on file as a customer how has left in the past. How much competition is in the area probably influences this as well.


Cheers


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## Tawcan (Aug 3, 2012)

We don't have cable at home so can't offer much tips. We tend to get a lot of calls from Shaw on cable deals though.

I've had a number of good experience getting Shaw to reduce our internet bill. Recently I phoned in to complain about that our router would disconnect itself somewhat regularly. I expressed my frustration and explained that I've thought about switching to Telus but would like to stick with Shaw as we've been using them for years. During the conversation I then brought up my monthly rate and the representative simply told me that she'd help me to reduce the rate. A few times I phoned in after finding great offers from Telus and asked Shaw to match the deal. Shaw did it without asking a lot of questions.


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## SN1 (Nov 27, 2015)

I just went through this with Shaw last week. One of my old Motorola PVR's had died. I own all my equipment, bought it all second hand from family and friends over the years (3 PVR's and 1 cable box). On advice of a friend, I went to a Shaw kiosk instead of calling. He had good results this way.

I pay the same monthly as you. I went in to see what upgrading everything to the new gateway system would cost. I was given a new Shaw gateway PVR plus 2 access points at no cost (covers 3 TV's). I agreed to purchase an extra access point for around $130 for my 4th TV. To get this, I had to sign an agreement for 2-years at my current monthly rate, plus $2/month additional because my old plan is grandfathered (like yours). I'm happy with the deal. My new hardware is now considered a 'free' rental and is covered by warranty for replacement by Shaw.

All this tells me I could have kept all my old stuff, paid cash for a replacement PVR and negotiated a lower monthly bill. However, I am happy to upgrade everything to the new system with no big up front cost.

Hope this info helps... worth a trip in to see what they will do anyway.


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

Thank you all for the tips. You must be far better negotiators than us. My wife called Shaw again today in the hope that she would be more successful than I was a year ago. She got nowhere. She then phoned Telus and they confirmed that the offer that we received in the mail was the exact price we'd pay. We'll save about $100 per month for six months and $50 per month thereafter. Telus will include free rental on one PVR, two digital boxes and an ADSL modem. 

My wife and I discussed the pros and cons of switching vs. calling Shaw to cancel and hoping that they would transfer us to a retention specialist. We decided to go with Telus. They can be here on Monday to install our new equipment and they will take care of cancelling Shaw on our behalf.


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

Well we figured out why Shaw was so disinterested in negotiating with us. Our Shaw Internet service is 25 mbps. When we called Telus to finalize the arrangements to switch to Telus Internet 25 and basic TV, the customer service rep realized that they can't actually deliver the 25 mbps service to our neighbourhood. He asked us to accept a lower priced 15 mbps ADSL plan and he would "put in an application" for a 25 mbps service upgrade. There was no guarantee that they would ever perform the upgrade to deliver Internet 25 to our neighbourhood. 

Shaw probably knows that Telus can't deliver the 25 mbps+ service to our neighbourhood which explains why they were so willing to politely decline our demand for better pricing.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

olivaw said:


> I posted this in the Cable TV thread but perhaps it was the wrong place so I'll try here, I'm seeking tips for negotiating with Shaw or switching to Telus Internet.
> Has anybody here managed to successfully negotiate a better Internet rate from their cable company or telco without having to go through this exercise? Did you have to threaten to leave?
> 
> Does anybody here use Telus as their ISP with an ADSL modem?


None of your posts above really address "frugality"...I try to subscribe to it as I don't need high speed or megabytes
of bandwidtht. Most of the time, it is just unused and you end up paying the higher rates anyway. Doesn't make
any sense to me unless you are downloading tons of programs. You don't need 100mbs for streaming netfllix.

I have tried Bell (wi-fi modem), robbers, Distributel and another ISP..they are all EXPENSIVE and service is not very good.

A couple years ago I switched to Teksavvy,and got a good rate for internet (150gb) and VOIP home phone.
No contract..just a one time connection charge of$50 and a monthly charge
of $29.95 for internet and $9.95 for home phone. Recently I went to premium Home phone for 3 way calling and unlimited NA long disance for additoi\onal $9.95.. My bill with taxes is about $57. I have OTA television antenna, so I don't
need cable.

I had to buy my own DSL7 modems (I have 2 of them, one is a spare) and the ATA adapter from Teksavvy (it's a Grandstream) that they can troubleshoot with me as they are familiar with it.
I keep a wiring configuration diagram on the wall beside the computer /modem and a notebook recording any service
calls with them
I'm an ex-Nortel techie, so troubleshooting is in my blood when working with Teksavvy technical people, because
they don['t have anybody to go to your house..you have to solve your own connection problems.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

olivaw said:


> Well we figured out why Shaw was so disinterested in negotiating with us. Our Shaw Internet service is 25 mbps. When we called Telus to finalize the arrangements to switch to Telus Internet 25 and basic TV, the customer service rep realized that they can't actually deliver the 25 mbps service to our neighbourhood. He asked us to accept a lower priced 15 mbps ADSL plan and he would "put in an application" for a 25 mbps service upgrade. There was no guarantee that they would ever perform the upgrade to deliver Internet 25 to our neighbourhood.
> 
> Shaw probably knows that Telus can't deliver the 25 mbps+ service to our neighbourhood which explains why they were so willing to politely decline our demand for better pricing.


you can't always get 25mbs from a bog standard DSL telephone pair line. you may need a bell condiitoned line to achieve those speeds.


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## wert (Jan 26, 2014)

I switch every 6 months or so. I have a Telus PVR and a Shaw PVR that I own. The only way to get a possible deal is to phone and cancel. No deals are forthcoming otherwise. After you switch and get the 6 month discount, you can keep getting deals if you are not on a contract. Check the classifieds for a cheap Telus PVR to buy from someone who is going the other way. Here in Vancouver there are a lot of them for sale.


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## ThinkingCapital (Feb 16, 2016)

I would say switch. I'd also suggest adding an auto-reply to your ISP email address before you do, to let people know that your email has changed. From my experience, ISP aren't usually that willing to negotiate.


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

Thanks for the additional comments. Shaw was absolutely unwilling to negotiate a better Internet rate for us. 

We did try to switch to Telus but it didn't work out. Their advertised bundles were great but we couldn't access the bundle that we wanted. Our house is limited to Internet 15 and the usage caps are far too low for our Netflix and iTunes streaming. 

In the name of frugality, we did find a way to reduce our Shaw bill to $95 from $144 by eliminating TV add ons. For $91 per month + tax we will have Business Internet 25 and basic TV. The Internet costs $85, the basic TV is free and we pay a $6 monthly "additional outlet" fee. Plus GST. It is not exactly what we wanted but at least we are under $100.


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