What's New with Shaw Direct

What's New with Shaw Direct C & P

(The CSR's are also now telling people that F1 & F2 will no longer work in the US or Mexico as of the end of June. Hope this is not true!)

2nd Home Program:

2nd Home is a new program we have created for customers looking to stay connected with Shaw Direct all year round. The purpose of the program is to allow a 2nd dish to be installed at a 2nd Home location, so that customers can continue to enjoy Shaw Direct programming while at their vacation property. If the customer is in a self install area, we will ship them a dish. This program is replacing our current Home Away From Home program.

Over time, we will be contacting HAFH customers to see if they wish to move to Shaw Direct’s 2nd Home program. With 2nd Home, existing HAFH customers can have a 2nd account with identical programming to their primary residence, at 50% of the cost of that package.
Customers adding a 2nd Home, who were not previously HAFH customers, can have a 2nd account with identical programming to their primary residence, at 75% of the cost of that package – so a 25% discount.

Shaw Direct is the only Canadian provider to offer customers a discounted price for their programming at a second residence. Under Shaw Direct 2nd Home, a customer can have programming on at both addresses at the same time! This can be very helpful for those customers with family or friends in both locations at the same time.

Please note, as of May 30, 2013, the existing Home Away From Home (HAFH) program will be terminated for new accounts, and we will proceed instead with the 2nd Home program.

Shaw Direct e-Care Chat:

Shaw Direct e-Care Chat is coming soon. This offer customers an exciting new way to contact Shaw Direct; e-Care Chat! The Chat icon will appear on various www.shawdirect.ca pages, allowing customers to send a direct message to a trained agent.

Shaw Direct is now the leading HD content provider in Canada and we want to ensure our customer contact options are offering an exceptional customer experience as well. By adding the chat option, customers no longer need to call into one of the call centers directly to receive real time customer service.

As well, the addition of this option will lower the calls coming into our call centers.

Shaw Direct Video on Demand Search App:

We are very excited to make the Shaw Video On Demand Search app available to Shaw Direct customers on May 29, 2013!

With the Shaw On Demand Search App customers can browse and order Shaw Direct On Demand titles directly from your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. This application is for ordering titles only and cannot be used for playing back the titles you have ordered through your mobile device. Titles ordered via this application are viewable on your 6XX series receiver, and whenever available, via online streaming at http://vod.shawdirect.ca/.

CSR = customer service reps and they get lots of memos. Story goes that DTV threatened legal action if Shaw didn't pull out of the us. Here is a memo to an in staller questioning why.

We simply are not licensed to provide service in the US and customer's are not allowed to use our service south of the border. This is the only thing that needs to be communicated when speaking with customers about service in the US/Mexico. As for Canadian addresses, they have to open up a second home account in order to receive our services at a second location. I do understand that it is difficult to have these conversations with customers as you always want to help them to the best of your ability but in my opinion I believe the two policies I stated above are very clear and leave little room for interpretation. Thanks Txxxx.

modefan63 said:

who is the csrs and how do they know that shaw will turn for us in the usa like bell did?

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Shaw expects to have all channels HD in the next three yrs. They have lots of room to add more right now so you will see more specialty channels coming online in the near future. If they have to replace F1 & F2 satellites I could see them being the same footprint as G1. I would be looking into the VOD and see if it would work thru a VPN provider?? Then you would not have to worry about using a dish.

MCIBUS said:

F1 & F2 I do believe i will still be available through out the US as it also contains tracking system For trucking firms. Its G sat that won't be available though out the US or Mexico it'll have a more northern mapping. Some of it will still reach into the US as how far I'm not exactly sure. There's another thread that gives an approx mapping?

As for the most HD in Canada thats debatable?

It depends on how you look at it?
Do you count endless locals & PPV as more HD?
Or Specialties?

Shaw may possibly have the largest HD count, but they certainly don't have the most HD Specialty Channel lineup as does Bell TV/Fibe,Rogers or East Link Cable they beat Shaw Direct in this area.

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Think what you want, you live in a free country thanks to your Vets. I doubt you will see that anywhere in Print, But I can assure you that is the buzz in the office. If you have an account in the US, try calling Shaw from there and see what they tell you.

This is a letter from the CRTC in Canada in response to the question of why Shaw is cutting off the US/Mexico after all these years of promoting take it with you on Vacation. Could just be an excuse for another money grab to since they are now charging new customers 75% of their main bill for a 2nd location only in Canada of course.
Shaw knows at least 10% of their customers go south and will potentially lose all the newly acquired Bell/Teus customers if they drop signal south yet they still unfolded this new program at the same time as unrolling the new G1 satellite. Crazy!! After 2 weeks of chaos, they have added every available person to man the phones and brought in another 20 CSR's from the cable side to man the phones. Our wait times are now back down to 5-15 min instead of 1 to 2 hrs +
So read between the lines think what you want, just letting you know whats going on.

This is in response to your correspondence to the CRTC of June 1, 2013.

The CRTC has not issued any ruling requiring satellite TV distributors to block their signals from customers across the border (Bell TV nor Shaw Direct). The matter is one of licensing, in that the Commission is only able to grant a license to a company for distribution in Canada. The same applies to those in the U.S. - each distributor is licensed to do business in a given area. This means that companies have not acquired the rights to broadcast the programming feeds outside of their territory. Broadcasters enter into private agreements with respect to the distribution of their signals and programming rights – and then apply for licenses accordingly.
Bell TV and Shaw Direct must negotiate rights agreements to distribute signals outside of their territory, or obtain a license from the FCC. In other words, it is a business decision each company must make and the CRTC is not involved, nor informed.

Sincerely,

Jo-Anne P.
Client Services | Services à la clientèle
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission | Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0N2
Telephone | Téléphone 1-877-249-2782 / TTY | ATS 1-877-909-CRTC (2782)
Outside Canada | Hors Canada 819-997-0313 / TTY | ATS 819-994-0423
Facsimile / Télécopieur 819-994-0218
Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada

It proves the CRTC did not have anything to do with it, so why out of the blue after all these years Bell goes down first, then Shaw. You better read the letter again. Sure looks like pressure from the south to me. I do and I'm betting you work for DTV too.

I heard yesterday, it was actually pressure from Bell since they changed their system to appease Dishnetwork they don't think Shawdirect should be allowed to work there either.
Seems Dishnetwork is laughing now at Bell since there contract expired with them and they got Bell to change their footprint I am told, Dishnet will now sell a Pay as you go system to any Canadian with an American address which will work in Canada if they so desire to take it home with them
Also the word from Shaw is they know they have quite a following of snowbirds and have no plans to change the footprint for F1 & F2. Only time will tell for sure I guess?