Of all the kids in the hall skits, for some reason I always remembered this one.

Well, after much complaining, and eventually even contacting an exec, our issues regarding the promised and reneged $10 / month discount have been resolved.

I am pleased to note that I received a phone call this morning from the man I contacted a little over a week ago. He noted that while he could not find any evidence that we were offered the $10 discount, he has gone ahead and given us one anyways!

While having to go through all this hassle to get what we were promised was a huge pain, It is great that once we connected with the right agent, he was able and willing to help us, and has made us whole. Just goes to show that persistence pays off.

The first season Lost was on, I didn’t really watch it – I didn’t really care. Then in the late fall of 2005 that all changed.

My wife and I had just moved to the far North. Our neighbor & new friend Chad had also just moved and didn’t have his TV hooked up yet and asked if he could come over and watch Lost at our house – he was a LOST junkie. When he offered to bring some Crown Royal over with him, we said yes. Two things happened that night – I became a fan of LOST … & Crown Royal. We had a LOST party every Wednesday night for the rest of that Season.

It’s now 5 years later, and we are down to the last few remaining episodes. I have not missed a single one since that evening in November 2005. Somehow even my wife got hooked – and she hates these types of shows. There are still more questions than answers, but they are starting to fill in the blanks as we near the end.

It is kind of bitter sweet. It will be nice to put the show behind me and not be left wondering “wtf” but at the same note, I think I will miss it – I have never been as hooked on a television show before, well, except maybe The Office, but it’s a different animal.

LOST is like crack. I am in many ways sick of watching it as it can be frustrating with all the questions it poses, but at the same time I cant not watch it, I must get my answers. I wanted to stop a few seasons ago, but needed my fix when it was on. They did almost lose me in that huge dry spell caused by the writers strike a few years back.

Wonder if I will go through LOST withdrawl in a few months time. Chad, if you are reading this, Cheers! I’ll have my glass of Crown during that final episode – I’d watch it with you, but the 10 hour trip to get to your place is just a tad too long for a TV show.

Well, after some complaining and an email targeted at a high-level exec, we have made some headway on our issue with Bell Canada.

Here is the summary of our initial issue:

• When we first phoned, the rep promised us a $10 / month credit for 12 months, in ADDITION to the $200 PVR Programming credit
• We got the $200 credit, but they refused to give us the $10 credit, essentially saying that the don’t offer such a thing.

What it sounds like happened is that the rep did not know the services very well, and mistook the $10 PVR rental credit, to think it applies to all new sign-ups regardless of if the PVR is purchased or rented. That is how their current promo works apparently, however, as a customer calling to ask what they could offer is to determine if we should switch, one has to assume the rep knows what he/she is talking about.

In the end, the rep made an offer, we accepted it, and Bell declined part of the offer. Even if the rep made a mistake, it should still be honored.

Well, all of this made us angry, after all $120 in credits over 12 months is a decent chunk of change. While reading a forum thread where people were complaining about Bell I stumbled on a post that had the emails of some high-level execs, so I thought, if customer service won’t help me, maybe these guys will.

I fired off an email with my situation, and left it at that, never expecting to hear from anyone about the topic again, however, later that day, I got an email response from the assistant to the exec requesting my account number.

Today that assistant called me and we spoke. They are investigating and will be looking up that initial phone call. He said that if they can find the original call that promisses the discount, then they will honor it. That’s fantastic news. He promised to call me back next Friday either way with the outcome.

Now, IF they are able to dig up that original call, I know for a fact they will hear the offer, and should give us the credit. If this happens, it will restore much of my trust in this company, but not all of it – after all, this issue should never have been an issue in the first place!

My bit of pessimism tells me though that this assistant could do nothing and then simply call me back noting that the call could not be found, and decline the offer again. I would hope they are honest enough to look into it, but time will tell. I’ll post an update when a final decision is made.

Interesting Note: The manpower they are using to investigate this is costing them more than the $120 in credits – it would have saved them money to just give us the credit in the first place – oh well.

Bell Canada, Oh why did we switch to you? You tempted us with $200 off in credit if we bought a PVR. We got this credit. You tempted us with better programming options than your competitor. We got that programming. You tempted us with $10 off per month on programming for the first year. We got…wait? No we didn’t get this….

We called you to find out about switching from Shaw Direct, and what you could offer us. You told us, on more than one occasion about the $10/month programming credit. That helped cinch the deal, we signed up with you, we canceled our 5 year relationship with Shaw Direct – then you decided to breach this contract by reneging on part of the deal you offered to us to get us to switch!

We called numerous times to complain, and finally the best you could offer was a $20 credit, not the originally contracted and promised $10/month for 12 months. – yet we are still bound to your two year contract!?! We took the $20 you offered, cause lets face it, $20 is still $20.

We are in a touch situation here. In most cases this $100 deficit in your contracted promise would result in us canceling service with you and switching back to Shaw Direct. But you have us over a barrel

While we are extremely UNHAPPY with you, and will NOT recommend ANYONE to ever use Bell Satellite services we will stay with you. Here is why.

First let me note that we don’t care about the contract. If we wanted to cancel we are not worried about those contract cancellation fees simply because you breached the contract first. Its that simple. It will not go to court or anything like that, but if it did, you are clearly in the wrong. You breach first, you lose. (I may be wrong here, but because we are not canceling, this us a mute point anyways)

The reason we will stay with you is because the loss of the $100 in promised credit is exceeded by the cost to switch providers. If we were to switch back to Shaw Direct, we need to buy a new PVR. Even after credits etc, the cost of a new PVR would ultimately far exceed that $100, so financially it actually makes sense to stay with you, even though we hate you. Your programming / channel line up is great, we are happy with that. It’s just your policies in handling customer disputes that we are, well quite frankly, pissed at.

You say you record all calls – why you refused to listen to the original call from when we signed up is beyond me. It really makes me wonder how many other people have been promised an offer, signed up, then had that offer reduced with no recourse. Not a good way to run a business…. Or is it? You are probably making Billions off it.

Emma Emma Emma. During the week my two year old tends to get up sometime between 6 and 7 am. I have grown accustomed to that, and its just fine with me. For some reason she decided however, that on weekends 5am is a much better time.

5am? Come on! I think she is torturing me, and today, it was my turn to get up with her, so my wife is laying in our super-comfortable, nice warm cozy bed while i sit on the couch watching Tree House.

You know what – its not that bad. Any time I get to spend with my little cutie is good time, 5am or not – at least she is snuggling up to me while watching her show.

I have to say that when we first heard that Ellen Degeneres was going to be the new host on American Idol, both my wife and I did not think she would be all that great.

We thought she would be too funny for the show, taking too much of the spotlight. We were worried that she would be too much like Paula – super nice to everyone, everyone’s “biggest fan”, and just a waste of space.

Boy were we wrong.

We are both pleasantly surprised that Ellen seems to bring that perfect mix of honestly, niceness, and humor. She cracks some jokes, but doesn’t go overboard. She calls things as they are. If someone does a bad job, she tell them, but manages to do it in a somewhat nice way.

Ellen, If you are reading this (which you probably aren’t) My wife and I support you, and hope to see you on several more seasons of American Idol. I’m sorry we thought you wouldn’t be a good fit – I admit, we were wrong.

My wife and I started watching the latest season of Amazing Race a little late, with yesterdays second episode of the season.

One thing that I picked up rather quickly is the frequency of the cowboys and the use of the phrase “Oh My Gravy”. I think this would make for a great drinking game.

From now on whenever you hear the cowboys says “Oh My Gravy” Take a shot of whiskey. I dare you…. If you do, though, be warned, you may have to call in sick (or hungover) to work for Monday morning.

We have been loyal customers of Shaw Direct (Formerly StarChoice) since 2005. Five years of paying our bills on time and enjoying their programming.

We have been thinking about getting an HD PVR for a while now, and their prices are around $500. Currently Bell has a deal on where new accounts can get one for $299. We decided to call Shaw Direct to see if they would match that price and send us out a PVR. They said no.

We told them that we would cancel our account and switch to Bell – the girl on the other end said, “Okay, well, have a nice day then”. Are you serious?

Shaw Direct really doesn’t want our service at all! Back in the “StarChoice” days, customer service would bend over backwards to keep a customer happy – since their acquisition things seem less customer oriented. (see my Post “Free HD PVR – But Not Really” from last year for another Shaw Direct experience

To top it all off, we are saving by switching – in the long run!

The Numbers

Stay with Shaw Direct
$39.99 / month + tax = $537 (for 12 months)

Switch to Bell
HD PVR Cost + tax = $446
Service + tax (@ $25 promo rate) = $336
$200 Promo Credit (for PVR purchase) = -$200
Total Cost for 12 Month Period = $582

That’s like paying $45 for the HD PVR when the dust settles.

BUT there’s more. The regular package price for the service is also $34.99 with Bell, an additional savings of $5 per month, so after 11 months of paying the regular service price, we will have recouped that $45, and after that we will start saving. So, basically, in the long run, all this will have saved us money, AND we will have the HD PVR. Can’t go wrong with this switch.

If you’re with Shaw Direct and want a PVR, you might want to consider switching…

Summary of why we are switching

• Great deal on HD PVR
• Lower monthly cost saves us money
• Better HD selection (more stations) in basic package
• Better Pay Per View selection

If you like the muppet show, you will probalby like this clip from 1969… hard to believe it is from so long ago. Still entertaining today – so simple, but so catchy.