Telus woes

Thorin · August 22, 2011, 01:07:50 PM

So my internet got flaky on Thursday night, dropping five times. I'm with Telus, with their Optik package, which includes a PVR. Every time the internet dropped we also lost TV signal. And every time the internet dropped we also couldn't play shows on the PVR. Turns out it requires an internet connection to check if we're allowed to watch the show.

So Friday evening while I was at D&D, the internet dropped completely. CowGirl called Telus and they said they could put in a temporary fix and would send a tech out on Sunday. Sure enough, the temporary fix didn't work and we were without internet for two days. Yes, that's right, two friggin' days of no TV, no recorded TV shows, and no internet!

So the tech shows up for the appointment, unplugs the old modem, plugs in a new one, and says, "There ya go".

@%&#.

_I_ can plug in a new @%&#ing modem! Two days of no internet for some guy to spend three minutes unplugging one device and plugging another one in?

He told us they were upgrading equipment in the area and new ports were being connected and probably our port was connected wrong and it blew the modem.

Nice, so they're @%&#ing around with my connection, break it, then leave me hanging for two days for something that I could have fixed myself if they gave me the equipment.

silver lining: because the guy just took the modem without asking about any settings on it, my entire MAC address white-list was gone so I took the opportunity to set up two separate SSIDs in my house - one for equipment white-listed by MAC address with no password (this allows old Nintendo DSes to connect), and one with the highest possible security - WPA2, AES cipher only - for people visiting the house.

Melbosa · August 22, 2011, 01:32:30 PM

Wow your story sounds like my buddies on the weekend with Shaw. Saturday morning he had no internet, cable or phone (all with Shaw). He couldn't lookup Shaw's number (as he shreds his bills) so he called 411 from a Cell and finally got their support number. Was on hold for 40 minutes with his cell to get told they were doing upgrades in his area and that his Modem/Telephone Exchanger would need to be replaced with the new Router-Modems that Shaw offers and that his Telephone thingy would need an upgrade. They apologized for no advanced notice, but seemed to not have his address right on file, why he was never notified of the updates.

They sent one of the techs out on Sunday that was already doing the upgrades in the area, and they ended up having to replace his PVR as well, as it cratered for some reason - and he lost all his saved shows. Today he looked at his account online, and they charged him for the install of the new equipment... man was he pissed!

On the note of the Telus; I didn't realize you needed internet to watch your PVR... while a surprise, now that I think of it, knowing how the Cisco gear works for Telus, it makes sense why. Still a bummer though

.

Still good on my end... /crossfingers & sacrifice a chicken.

Thorin · August 22, 2011, 01:53:27 PM

<bok, bok, bok, squawk!>

Poor chicken, getting sacrificed to the Telus gods (aka Cthulhu).

Since Shaw implemented the call-back feature on their help line, I haven't sat and waited on the phone for them.

Charging him for the new equipment? That would be a big EFF YOU!

Melbosa · August 22, 2011, 02:00:28 PM

Quote from: Thorin on August 22, 2011, 01:53:27 PM
Since Shaw implemented the call-back feature on their help line, I haven't sat and waited on the phone for them.

Telus has that as well. Have used it in the past about my XBox woes. Wonder why my bud didn't use it... will have to ask him "after" he has a few drinks or breaks a few things to calm down lol.

Mr. Analog · August 22, 2011, 02:14:00 PM

Forced surprise hardware upgrade is why I dumped Telus for Shaw in the first place.

Why would he stay on the line for 40 min though? That makes no sense, especially on a cell.

Darren Dirt · August 22, 2011, 02:35:35 PM

based on a quick skim of the OP, I'm having flashbacks. Some of you may recall that between February and July I was getting such inconsistent connecitivity, my modem would disconnect (and often a series of them within 5 minutes!)

and do a full cycle of all the lights (i.e. a wait of 15-45 seconds to get back online) probably more than 40 times overall ... and in that time sometimes I would have 1 or 2 weeks pretty much incident-free -- but then suddenly one day I can't stay connected for more than 30 seconds, disconnecting a dozen times in the span of under an hour.

They checked the line and port and whatnot on "their" end, had a tech drop by and check the line at my end, did some tweaking somewhere over there, seemed to work. For about 3 hours. So obv. problem not solved, I finally demanded they replace the modem, since if that final step didn't resolve it then I'd give up on Telus.

Amazingly, the modem replacement has worked for over 4 weeks. Closer to 8. Yay, I can actually remote to home during lunch and rarely get disconnected the way I used to.

So here's hoping that for YOU it's also a "fix" with this modem replacement... and if not, well I'm sure Shaw has some sweet "switch" deal they can offer ya.

Thorin · August 22, 2011, 04:00:29 PM

I've had my PVR replaced and now my modem/router replaced, both in less than four months of being on Telus. While I like that they don't mess around and simply put in a new piece of equipment, I don't like that it takes them two days to stop by.

That said, Telus offers a different experience than Shaw right now in my area - Optik TV lets me record shows on a central PVR and watch them from multiple places in the house (assuming I've got internet). It's also cheaper than a similar HD offering from Shaw, and has that one channel with that one show that caused us to switch over in the first place.

Shaw has a much faster internet connection, though, and all I'd be giving up is the ability to watch a PVR'd show on a second TV while the first is in use (with six people in the house, this does come up sometimes). Oh, and an $20 to $30, depending on what package exactly I get.

But yeah, this is typical Telus customer service - not fast, not speedy, but eventually the problem does get resolved.

Lazybones · August 22, 2011, 04:05:22 PM

Quote from: Thorin on August 22, 2011, 04:00:29 PM
and all I'd be giving up is the ability to watch a PVR'd show on a second TV while the first is in use (with six people in the house, this does come up sometimes). Oh, and an $20 to $30, depending on what package exactly I get.

Shaw offers a multi-room DVR Gateway now... but it will cost you way more than the Telus one.
http://shaw.ca/Gateway/Features/

Thorin · August 22, 2011, 04:46:59 PM

The Gateway isn't available where I live yet. At least, not when I checked last week. I've been looking at it, but dayum it's expensive!

edit: found a new list here that says it's available in "Edmonton / Northern Alberta": https://shaw.ca/Gateway/Cities/ (from https://shaw.ca/Secure/gateway/form.aspx)

Tom · August 22, 2011, 05:30:07 PM

Quote from: Melbosa on August 22, 2011, 01:32:30 PM
Wow your story sounds like my buddies on the weekend with Shaw. Saturday morning he had no internet, cable or phone (all with Shaw). He couldn't lookup Shaw's number (as he shreds his bills) so he called 411 from a Cell and finally got their support number. Was on hold for 40 minutes with his cell to get told they were doing upgrades in his area and that his Modem/Telephone Exchanger would need to be replaced with the new Router-Modems that Shaw offers and that his Telephone thingy would need an upgrade. They apologized for no advanced notice, but seemed to not have his address right on file, why he was never notified of the updates.

They sent one of the techs out on Sunday that was already doing the upgrades in the area, and they ended up having to replace his PVR as well, as it cratered for some reason - and he lost all his saved shows. Today he looked at his account online, and they charged him for the install of the new equipment... man was he pissed!

I hope he called and complained. Shaw messed up on my promotional package. Turns out the people that sold me on it forgot to add the promotion code to my account, so I was paying full price ($94?) for my current PPTV+BroadBand50 plan, when it was supposed to be $47 ($50 with tax). I wasn't too happy. Called up last month and they fixed it right up, including discounting the past two months where I was charged full price. So at the very least they seem to fix their mistakes.

Thorin · August 22, 2011, 07:54:15 PM

Well, bad news always comes in seventeens, right?

The kids wanted to play Freeciv but the two computers were on different versions, so I told them to just upgrade both. Freeciv installed and runs on one computer, but doesn't run on the other one. So I tried rebooting the machine it doesn't run on.

Now I have a computer that can't start up because it can't find %Windows%\system\hal.dll.

Mother@%&#er!

At least there's lots of articles about how to fix that error. Hopefully one of them works for me.

Tom · August 22, 2011, 11:01:53 PM

Quote from: Thorin on August 22, 2011, 07:54:15 PM
Well, bad news always comes in seventeens, right?

The kids wanted to play Freeciv but the two computers were on different versions, so I told them to just upgrade both. Freeciv installed and runs on one computer, but doesn't run on the other one. So I tried rebooting the machine it doesn't run on.

Now I have a computer that can't start up because it can't find %Windows%\system\hal.dll.

Mother@%&#er!

At least there's lots of articles about how to fix that error. Hopefully one of them works for me.

Ouch. I hope all it takes is a system restore roll-back. If not, you're looking at a full restore, or re-install in the worst case