Have you ever had a point in your life where you realize your getting ripped of BADLY. The ripping off is kind of similar to sex with a vacuum, it seems like a great idea at first… hell, it might even feel great for a short period of time. The vacuum I’ve been fucking is Shaw Cable, and I’ve finally reached that point where the vacuum has sucked my balls into the tube and wrapped them awkwardly and painfully around my dick.
It all started with the purchase of my first HDTV, I had this great new technology and very little HD content. Longing for a constant source of crisp and visually pleasing content I decided to buy my first HD cable box. It felt good at first, I was able to watch two shows I cared about (Late Night w/ Conan O’Brien and Heroes) and a bunch of other crap that I didn’t care about. About 99% of the TV I’ve watched over my past year and a half with Shaw Cable has been standard-def programming and any of the HD channels (and their HD channels should NOT be called HighDef). Without getting into a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo I’ll just put it this way: Shaw compresses the SHIT out of their channels, this reduces the quality of the channels to the point that it looks worse than a DVD. Their OnDemand service is expensive, unreliable, and flaky (sound a lot like every relationship I’ve ever been in, ever).
Here is a quick list of the shit i’ve gone through with Shaw Cable over the past year and a half:
- Macroblocking (the signal drops and the image turns into a bunch of random boxes)
- Temporary Audio Dropouts (the audio drops out randomly for a few seconds, this happens A LOT)
- Extended audio dropouts (this happens less frequently, but when it happens I have to change the channel and back again or restart the digital receiver)
- ShawOnDemand giving me the wrong movie (I’ve ordered ShawOnDemand a few times and had the wrong movie start to play…. NO, I DONT WANT TO FUCKING WATCH TMNT AGAIN!)
- ShawOnDemand HD Movies are expensive (anywhere from $6 to $10 for a fake HD movie, the quality is nowhere near as good as HD-DVD or BluRay [Fuck you BluRay, HD-DVD was a better format] )
- Terrible User Interface (Both the channel guide and the ShawOnDemand menu are terrible. They’re about as slow as a shit coming out sideways and there is no easy way to search for shows or movies… The shawondemand.ca website is slightly better than the PVR menu system, but its still like trying to open a door without any arms)
You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m slightly unsatisfied with my service. It wouldn’t be a bad service, if it were free… but unfortunately, its not. My bill for this month is about $162. This bill is for Shaw Cable, Shaw Internet, 3 OnDemand movies, and about $7 worth of extra one-off programming. Shaw tries to organize the bill to make it look like your getting a deal: “Entertainment Bundle: $110″, “Internet Service: $5″ “Digital Service: $17″… the list goes on. Hold up a second… Internet service $5? Holy fucking shit I’m getting cheap internet! What Shaw is doing here is shitting in my mouth and calling it a sundae.
Shaw tries to make it looks like I’m getting a deal by saying I’m getting internet for $5, but in reality half of the Entertainment bundle covers the cost of internet. To top it off, they are charging me $17 for “Digital Service”. Most people would overlook this, I overlooked this at first. Having Shaw charge me for “Digital Service” is like me paying to have sex with an fugly chick with crabs. By making the switch to digital, Shaw is able to push more channels to their customers (because of video compression, digital TV takes less bandwidth than analog TV). Thanks to me choosing to use a service that in the long run makes it easier for Shaw to provide me with content, I get to pay them more… this is ass-backwards, if anything they should be charging analog customers more.
My time with Shaw Cable is coming to an end, I’ve put up with Shaw because it’s nice to have something to watch when I get home from work. Thanks to Apple’s TV/Movie downloads and Revision3’s amazing programming I can get cheap or free content when I want it (and I don’t have to worry about getting my cocknballs sucked into the vacuum that is Shaw).
Shaw, you are quickly becoming irrelevant as a TV content provider. You have nobody but yourself to blame. You’ve provided a terrible service and you screw your customers by charging them an arm and a leg (especially your early adopters). Think about this when your looking towards the future… Shaw executive you are old, you think that your target demographic thinks like you… they don’t. The new customers you will be getting in the future will mostly consist of young adults, people that have just moved out of their parents house. They know how to acquire alternative content, they want the latest and the greatest, and they are A LOT smarter than you. If your provide an unreliable service at a high cost they will go elsewhere (Hulu).
It’s time for this bitter man to pull his swollen genitalia from the vacuum of Shaw. Apple, Revision3, and hopefully Hulu (its not available in Canada yet) will be the melted butter I’ll pour down the vacuum tube to make pulling out less painful.
– Angry Canadian
June 8, 2008 at 7:35 pm |
Add on the current audio problems on Analog Cable (blipping), the hardware upgrade from fall 2006 that started forwarding CGMS-A signals (and killing MediaCenter as a PVR) and I’m not sure why I stick with Shaw at all – I should probably just watch everything on DVD and be done with it.
July 21, 2008 at 11:02 pm |
Amen to your rant(words of truth)!!ShawTV blows & their “fast” internet is either painfully slow or sporadic.Aka,sometimes it seems close to dial-up speed & with out the the cool screeching dial-up noise….~sigh~…Shawcable both sucks & blows….and not in a good way….
November 4, 2008 at 5:37 pm |
Compression is a problem on Standard Def too. Some channels and shows look like absolute crap. My TV is SD 480i CRT and the difference of watching a show on Cable vs. DVD is amazing. Both are SD and 480i but the results are day and night.
Like you say, with Podcast–like those of Revision3–and sites like Hulu, I haven’t watched too much actual cable. The only exception is Heroes, but now that I found out Global has the full episodes on their website, I’m not making it a point to be home by 9 pm on Mondays.
DVD box sets and IPTV is the way I go.
December 12, 2008 at 4:21 pm |
I have a solution for all you cable haters out there
DISH network
TV and DVR for $40-50$
HD for $10 more
and thats for four TV’s
Ask for Zac Carver
922 S. Main St
Adrian, MI 49221
1-866-GET-A-DISH
December 12, 2008 at 4:24 pm |
We Also have satellite internet its not as cheep but its an awesome service
Hughes Net
1-866-GET-A-DiSH
December 13, 2008 at 10:10 pm |
I’ve never hated a company as much as I hate Shaw. I’ve hated them for years and now that I just dropped a bundle on an HDPVR and a HDTV I am shocked an saddned at the shitty quality of their signal and so called HD channels.
Why can’t the CRTC actually do something usefull and legislate standards of quality instead of legislating Canadian content rules?!
January 30, 2009 at 10:42 pm |
Have you tried good old antenna? Not sure about your area, but near Toronto I can get bunch of HDTV channels in “as good as it can be” quality using antenna made from Beer Can
February 27, 2009 at 2:29 pm |
The CRTC needs to restrict their rate increases. Basic cable has gone up from 19.95 a month to 33.95 here starting in April over 8 years.
February 27, 2009 at 2:30 pm |
In the last 2 years they have not even gone a full 12 months between rate increases!
March 17, 2009 at 3:51 pm |
I hated shaw cable internet so so so much as well. First of all they will be very nice to you and say everything is cover once you have paid the service up front. But after the payment they will keep calling you and calling you and say well you have been downloading too much. If you want to download more, then pay more. Otherwise we will have to disable your services.
May 18, 2009 at 7:17 pm |
Yes, their internet slow but my biggest problem has been with their digital phone service. I’ve been unable to make a long distance call for going on 11 days and all they can tell me is that they are working in it and “No, we don’t know when it will be fixed.” and “Feel free to use your cel or purchase a calling card and we’ll reimburse you.” They have said they’ll give us credit that will not even cover my time spent on the phone trying to get some answers.
July 26, 2009 at 9:23 pm |
Yes exactly how I feel. Has anybody else accidentally hit the ‘on demand’ button and had to sit for a minute for it to close. Also to pay that much for a couple useful hd channels, completely useless digital package, and the only way to get the comedy network is to pay $16 for tier 3 which has no other useful channels. and damn when is showtime coming to canada