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Shaw Cable Launches Price War in Vancouver – $9.95/Month Sparks Complaint from Competitor Novus

Paul-Andre Dechêne July 28, 2009 Canada, Competition, Novus, Shaw, Video 71 Comments

Shaw's flyer distributed to Novus customers (click to enlarge)

Shaw's flyer distributed to Novus customers (click to enlarge)

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Letting Shaw get away with this will let them buy up competitors like Novus for a pocket full of Toonies.

[Update 10:16am EDT 7/29] — Brion, one of our loyal readers, had a chance to visit Novus’ website and discovered that Novus has usage allowances on its own broadband service.  That’s naughty.  They are far more generous than Shaw’s, which start at 10GB and are more commonly in the 60GB range for average customers, but that’s besides the point.  The Comments section is where the discussion about the usage allowances are taking place.  We call on Novus to explain their limit policy, and more importantly, consider dropping it altogether and using that as a competitive tool against Shaw, which has far lower limits.  If the vast majority of customers are unlikely to hit them, why have them at all?  Write an Acceptable Use Policy that allows for informal communication with the extreme users consuming terabytes of bandwidth a month and offers them a commercial plan for them to consider.  Don’t be a part of the Internet Overcharging crowd.  We celebrate the kind of competition Novus can provide residents of Vancouver and Burnaby, but we’d like to make sure the competition is worth fighting for.

[Update 6:12pm EDT] — Welcome to Novus customers who discovered this site through Novus’ campaign website. Stop the Cap! is an all-consumer website designed to promote and defend the competitive broadband marketplace in both the United States and Canada.  Paul-Andre Dechêne is our Canadian editor. We are unalterably opposed to Internet Overcharging schemes, which include bit/usage caps, consumption-based pricing, and fees or penalties imposed by providers for exceeding them.  We are pro-competition, pro-Net Neutrality, and opposed to throttles.  Companies like Novus which provide needed competition in the cable television, telephone, and broadband marketplace are essential for a healthy marketplace with rational pricing.  Shaw’s obvious predatory pricing tactics are designed to drive away Novus’ customers, making the company ripe for takeover, by Shaw of course, for a pocketful of Toonies.  While those Shaw prices sound good today, driving away competition guarantees much, much higher pricing tomorrow in a monopoly environment.  Novus is installing fiber optic-based service, which means they are already kilometers ahead of Bell and the usual assortment of the Shaw/Rogers/Vidéotron old school cable companies.

We welcome your views.  Just leave your public comments in the editor box at the bottom of the page (or click the comments link just below the headline).  You can explore more than 400 articles on our issues from the menu bar at the top.  Drop down menus will let you read about the issues that are most relevant to you.  Thanks for joining us.  The fight for affordable broadband continues across Canada, and we welcome your participation.  Bookmark us and drop by regularly. — Phillip M. Dampier, Editor]

Imagine paying $9.95 a month for a digital cable package with two free high-definition set-top boxes with personal video recorders, more than 200 digital channels, more than 25 high-definition channels, and a movie channel package.  Not convinced?  How about also getting two free months thrown in.

Need telephone service?  How about free nationwide/U.S. calling, free installation, and a whole mess of phone features for $9.95 a month?  Don’t forget broadband.  That’s just $9.95 a month as well for 15Mbps service with free Powerboost.  To sweeten the deal to diabetic coma proportions, Shaw will throw in two free months of service for each of those packages, too.

What’s the catch?  You have to live in an area currently served by Novus Entertainment, Inc., an upstart independent fiber-based competitor wiring metro Vancouver, British Columbia.  Novus has aggressively wired high rise condominiums and other densely populated neighborhoods and buildings in Vancouver.  Novus is a tiny company compared to Canada’s national cable companies.  Shaw provides cable television service to 2.1 million customers in several Canadian provinces.  Novus has 9,000 subscribers in 220 buildings in Downtown Vancouver and Burnaby and is planning an expansion into Richmond. Those buildings are being peppered with marketing from Shaw, including this special pricing offer.

Existing Shaw customers, and those who live outside of Novus’ service area, cannot obtain the special pricing.  That is the heart of a complaint lodged by Novus against Shaw at the Competition Bureau of Canada and in the British Columbia Supreme Court, charging Shaw is engaged in predatory pricing designed to put Novus out of business.

“Shaw is abusing its dominant position in the market by offering services – which it normally makes nearly 50 per cent margins on – at a sizeable loss as a means to destroy a local competitor,” said Donna Robertson, Co-President and Chief Legal Officer of Novus Entertainment Inc. “The millions of existing Shaw customers paying full price should be outraged because they’re unwittingly subsidizing the costs that customers with a competitive alternate pay, which is unethical and unfair. If they don’t make the offer available to everyone, current customers should call Shaw and demand the same deal.”

Novus points out Shaw has been “on a buying spree” picking up smaller cable operators and independent providers, but has “been unsuccessful in getting traction with Novus,” company officials suggest.

Stop the Cap! has discovered Shaw’s discount offer is a remarkable one, compared with the regular pricing Shaw customers pay elsewhere:

Shaw Deal for Novus Cable TV Customers

$9.95 digital cable with two personal video recorders, movie channel package, digital channel package
Two free months service

Shaw Deal for Other Canadians

$67.85 HD package
$16.00 Movie Central/HBO or Super Channel premium movie network
$26.95 digital cable “specialty channel” package
$ 3.95 time shifting option
$30.00 Shaw HD personal video recorder set-top box

The grand total: $144.75 per month, with no free months.

“Shaw enjoys increasing cable margins of nearly 50 per cent, which it boasts to investors is ‘best-in-class’ compared to other North American cable companies,” said Robertson. “We believe that Shaw’s targeted campaign is an attempt to eliminate Novus from the competition, which would allow Shaw to maintain its near monopoly status and raise prices for all customers whenever it sees fit”

“Based on Shaw’s actions, we can only assume that they are trying to buy our customers by gouging their own prices,” said Robertson. “They’re offering these services at an enormous loss, while forcing the rest of their customers to make up the difference. We aren’t big enough to compete with Shaw’s predatory pricing, but we are faster and more reliable, and our service is actually less expensive over the long term.”

Novus has launched a website and is busy on Twitter asking Shaw customers across Canada to demand the same special offer they are making available in Novus’ service area.

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Do you want the 10 Bucks Offer too? Sign our Petition and call Shaw to request this special rate.

Greater Vancouver – 604-629-8888
Kelowna – 250-762-4433
Prince George – 250-562-1345
Fort St John – 250-785-3039
Victoria – 250-475-5655
Edmonton – 780-490-3555
Calgary – 403-716-6000

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BrionS
Editor
14 years ago

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more blatant predatory pricing scheme. Canada’s government equivalent of the FTC and/or FCC is really impotent/corrupt if they can’t (or won’t) do anything about this move by Shaw.

A 93% discount for services? I’ve never seen a legitimate promotion that sweet.

Michael Chaney
14 years ago
Reply to  BrionS

Well I have no comment on their impotence, but I totally agree on their corruptness 🙂

Smith6612
Smith6612
14 years ago

Heh, I’d love to see a 93% discount on all of the services I pay for here…

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago

Yes, this was among the most obvious, ridiculous, predatory schemes I’ve ever seen, and it’s transparent. It’s designed to kill off Novus’ revenue to the degree that they are forced to sell… to Shaw, of course. I love the pricing as well, but it’s obviously way below their cost. Signup bonus promotions are one thing, this is something else. The one nugget from this I intend to harvest is their claim that Shaw’s current regular pricing represents a 50% margin. Cable television is typically the most expensive component of a cable company’s product line, telephone second, and broadband third. Can… Read more »

James Raymont
James Raymont
14 years ago

This should be against the law it is so unfair just another monopoly.

Gerry White
Gerry White
14 years ago

Is Novus going to price match? That would raise the ante…

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  Gerry White

I think that’s the point…they can’t price match and as such are being driven out of business by predatory pricing by the incumbent. In the U.S. this is an illegal abuse of market dominance or local monopoly.

DoorDoc007
DoorDoc007
14 years ago

These clowns know exactly what they are doing. Once Novus gets their fiber optic cables installed Shaw will be dead in downtown
Vancouver, because their speeds will be 1,000 times (no exaggeration) faster than present providers. There will be no competition, therefore Shaw must use any scheme legal or not to stop this from happening. If we are ever going to see first rate services in Canada we all have to do what we can to stop Shaw from being able to shut down Novus.

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  DoorDoc007

Fiber optic deployment in Canada is well behind the United States, all because of the “rationed Internet” approach in Canada. Between Bell on the telco side and Rogers/Shaw/Vidéotron (and others) on the cable side, they’ve got consumers stuck with Overcharging schemes like caps and limits, high prices, and traffic throttles. What is remarkable to me is that this nonsense started in North America in Canada and not in the USA. The Canadian CRTC has basically gone into a coma and is regulating telecommunications like the Securities and Exchange Commission regulated Bernie Madoff in the USA. We’ve seen what happens in… Read more »

Jenn
Jenn
14 years ago

We’ve also set up a Facebook group that you can join http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107302697894 as well as a mobile campaign. Text ’10buckstoo’ to 82442.

Thanks for the great coverage of our campaign and helping us to spread the word on Shaw’s predatory pricing campaign to try and drive Novus out of business.

Amlex
Amlex
14 years ago

predatory pricing? more like Shaw finally charges what their services are worth, no wonder prices for everything are so high here, the second a company that exists in more than one province drops their price they are accused of trying to kill the competition. So its a huge drop in price, its also in a city where the existing infrastructure is fairly up to date. I’ve noticed that most of Shaw’s deals only last for a limited time anyways, and they do have a tendency to just jack up the price on you. I would rather see a company try… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  Amlex

Yes, predatory pricing — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing It’s immaterial whether or not we think it’s how much services should cost. What’s important here is: 1.) Shaw customers outside of the Novus service area and existing customers are not offered this pricing. This means they are specifically targeting Novus customers to switch to Shaw with a nigh unbeatable deal 2.) Novus cannot bring their prices to parity with this offer without losing money and eventually going out of business. It’s sort of the opposite of price gouging. If I have the majority of the market in one state and a small competitor tries… Read more »

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  Amlex

On the surface, I’d love to pay $9.95 a month for each of my telecom services as well and laugh myself silly for paying so little. But there’s a difference here. If Shaw was offering this sign-up promotion to everyone in their service area, or at least everyone in Vancouver, they’d have at least some defense. But when they carefully target it to just current customers of Novus, where Novus is sold, and that cost obviously represents a loss for them (and in Canada that cost is below what the programmers are charging Shaw per customer), that’s predatory behavior. Personally,… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago

Since we’re defending Novus here we (meaning Stop the Cap!) really need to recognize that the Novus Internet plans are *data capped* plans. http://www.novusnow.ca/services/internet.php So while part of the mission of StopTheCap.com is to foster ethical competition, the other part is being diametrically opposed to data caps and we would be hypocritical not to criticize and condemn Novus for implementing such data caps. I invite the folks at Novus to explain clearly on this site why they feel data caps are necessary or what it affords them that other types of limits do not (such as speed tiers). By comparison,… Read more »

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  BrionS

I agree with you Brion. I think that there are two distinct issues here, and I have no problem tackling both: 1) The clear-cut case of predatory pricing at work here to put a competitor out of business, or reduce its value to allow Shaw to pick them up for a song on one of their acquisition frenzies. 2) For a fiber optic competitor to be throwing consumption limits that are akin to what AT&T is testing is a big problem for me. I hadn’t had a chance yesterday to explore their site while I was on the phone trying… Read more »

dnb778
dnb778
14 years ago

I don’t get it. Since this offer has been sent to select customers, some of which are outside Novus’ service area, and since Novus, like all telecom companies, has offered promotions to some of its customers that were better than others (like suite 411 gets a free PVR and 9.95 cable, whereas suite 513 wasn’t offered it) Other than being a really good offer, how is this so different from other promotions? It seems like the issue at hand is that a company offered a lower price to some of its customers, which happens ALL THE TIME! I understand the… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  dnb778

Good find. I’m having a hard time finding out exactly what the rationale was for removing that section (or what it used to say) but it seems that the section that the Wikipedia article referred to (section 50) was repealed in 2009. I wonder if that means Novus will have a harder time fighting back because the law they could have used was repealed for some reason. P.S. I did suggest on the discussion page of the Wikipedia entry that the page should be updated and gave them a link to the current law. **Update** It seems section 50 was… Read more »

dnb778
dnb778
14 years ago
Reply to  BrionS

yeah i see how some of that is covered by the Abuse of Dominance section, but it seems to me like Novus is likely to open such a large can of worms that it is unlikely to go anywhere.

This type of pricing, although highly aggressive, is not targeted only at Novus customers, and is completely temporary. Its a 12 month promo. All kinds of companies have sales, and this is exactly that.

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  dnb778

The more I read about this in the Canadian news the less sympathy I have for either side. Shaw is stating that while it’s offer is only targeted at multi-dwelling units in Vancouver (that’s a VERY narrow market segment in my opinion) it is not limited that offer to only Novus-wired dwellings. At the same time, Shaw is stating that Novus has been anti-competitive in the past by not allowing Shaw or other competitors into buildings it has wired with “fibre [sic] optic cable”. Reactions in the comments to the quality of Shaw’s service are mixed as well – some… Read more »

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  BrionS

Since Novus’ primary customer base is in multi-dwelling units (MDU), it’s completely ludicrous for Shaw to claim their offer is fair because it’s supposedly not just targeted at Novus customers. They know perfectly well Novus lives or dies based on their MDU customer base. There is no reason to target just MDU sign-ups. It’s an afterthought damage control response. Additionally, Shaw could also provide evidence it is blast-mailing all MDU’s in Vancouver and not just those buildings it knows perfectly well are wired by Novus. Current Shaw customers in MDUs don’t get the deal, and you can be sure the… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago

Well as I said, it seems that this is just another case of corporations behaving badly (Novus and Shaw). I applaud Novus for attempting to provide a competitive alternative to Shaw but they are by no means the golden poster child of what a customer-friendly ISP should look like in my opinion.

Duane Storey
Duane Storey
14 years ago

I think the cap argument is fairly weak actually. I was a Novus customer for a few years, and the only time I hit the cap was when I was running a server and accidentally had a file hotlinked off of a few major sites. I simply called Novus, paid a small fee, and my cap was raised. Other than that, I never came close to hitting the cap, and as a power user, it’s basically a non issue. I think a cap has to exist somewhere such that not everyone has to pay to support people who use crazy… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

Am I correct in understanding that you felt sorry for hitting the cap and felt you owed Novus more money for doing so accidentally? The cap isn’t about being hit by accident, or indeed on purpose. It’s about nickel-and-diming those who accidentally hit it….unless you’re Time Warner, then you set the cap so low as to virtually guarantee a significant portion of your subscriber base will hit it. (The latest out of TWC is that TV Everywhere would not be exempt from caps, so you get to pay for your TV shows on cable and again when you use this… Read more »

Duane Storey
Duane Storey
14 years ago

I’m saying I hit the cap because of an excessive amount of bandwidth usage on my part. Given that I was happy with Novus, that they’ve provided great service, that they were cheaper than Shaw, I had no problem paying the $10 or whatever to increase my limit for the month. I never felt like the cap was arbitrarily low — I torrent all the time and never hit it until that point. >> Putting a cap on usage doesn’t do anything beneficial except to deter people from using the Internet for large data-bound activities like online video and (legitimate)… Read more »

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

Our larger problem with caps here is that what looks generous today is punitive tomorrow. Not every provider increases them as people, in general, consume more bandwidth. Hell, Bell just lowered their caps a few weeks ago. That’s the limbo dance craze of usage caps. If they establish a beachhead, and consumers grudgingly accept them, then it simply becomes a new profit point for the provider to overcharge you for broadband. What might start at a low price can always increase later. What a lot of people do not understand is that bandwidth costs are rapidly declining, not increasing. People… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

Your case is rather interesting though. You said you got hit with overage fees because you were running a server and some content you were serving became popular on Reddit or Digg or whatever and caused a spike in traffic. Do you think it was unfair of you (or to you) that people wanted to see your content enough to punch you through your cap? Do you think that traffic would have lasted for a long time (or has it)? And do you feel that what you did was outside the realm of legitimate Internet use? That is, were you… Read more »

Uncle Ken
Uncle Ken
14 years ago

I actually felt / still feel bad about novus until I looked at their site, the pricing tiers with caps. Then again I think they all do it in Canada. Top tier as I remember was like $179 with a 50 10. Look you might have 50 10 in their system but you hit the big bad world you not going to hit those numbers if you try. You go as fast as the pipes allow and maybe a little faster if they pay for some extra space and I doubt that. Shaw is a sham… Think how customers will… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  Uncle Ken

As long as Internet access is not mandated we still have the power because we have the money. Until there are zero providers left in the United State who offer Internet without data caps I will not concede to pay any ISP for a capped plan.

Yes it’s bleak but it doesn’t mean we should throw up the white flag and cry in our soup for bygone days when the air was clean and Internet was unlimited. 🙂

Duane Storey
Duane Storey
14 years ago

Would you guys rather have a fixed price with a cap, or a pay as you go pricing scheme where you pay directly for bandwidth? I mean, someone has to pay for all that equipment. Fiber doesn’t just light itself up — lasers have to be replaced, receivers have to be serviced etc, not just on your local loop, but on other loops that Novus has peering agreements with. You really think every user should be allowed to max out the capacity of their pipe no matter what? If not, what safeguards do you propose?

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

Fiber deployment is not just driven by broadband. As we’ve seen in the States, Verizon is aggressively deploying fiber optics in many of their service areas because they see enormous profit potential from having an easily scalable technology that can do far more than their old copper wiring could ever do. Verizon, which was just a phone company, can now sell telephone service AND video and broadband services to their customers. They can make money on all of these services, plus pay per view, and whatever new services they can dream up that fiber can provide. Average revenue per customer… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

That’s a false choice. It’s like asking, “Would you rather be shot in the hand or the foot?” I would respond with, “why must I be shot at all?” Or in your case, “How does having a cap that I’m supposedly not going to hit going to help pay for network upgrades?” This is exactly why data caps are a fantasy in terms of revenue generation for upgrades (if they’re too high so as not to catch “legitimate use”) and in terms of solving network congestion (you can still get congestion if users choose to access the Internet at the… Read more »

Uncle Ken
Uncle Ken
14 years ago

Duane: I would prefer a fixed price with no caps. It is those TB guys they
need to shut off…. not by tier but by canceled accounts. I do not think many
are abusing the system. Caps and tiers are a money grab to support a
sagging TV sector.

Duane Storey
Duane Storey
14 years ago

See, it sounds like you want the best of both, like a client who wants the cheapest price and yet the best service. I don’t agree caps are a money grab all the time — if 99% of people aren’t affected, then really who cares? If it doesn’t affect you, why do you care?

Maybe it’s more of a money grab with Shaw, but as I mentioned above, the only time I hit the cap was when I really had excessive usage one month, and even then the charge was minimal (still under the competition’s normal monthly rate).

Ron Dafoe
Ron Dafoe
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

What we want, is to continue to enjoy the internet the way we have been enjoying the internet for the last 10 years and they way that they have advertised their services. ISPs have somehow managed to make alot of money off of us without arbitrarily limited our usage based upon some companies current economic condition. All you have to do is look to Canada, where the caps have actually been lowered and they now sell some kind of “cap insurance” for just in case you go over your cap. These caps have also practically stalled broadband deployment in Canada… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

I can’t say I’ve ever fully understood this line of thinking. If it doesn’t affect you (now) then it’s not worth thinking about until it does affect you? Sometimes allowing certain things to occur creates a snowball effect that is difficult if not impossible to stop later on when it suddenly does affect you. It’s a very short-sighted way to think. You know, dumping my trash and toxic chemicals into this stream that is flowing away from me doesn’t affect me so why should I care? Eating McDonald’s Big Macs every day hasn’t affected me yet and I love ’em… Read more »

Uncle Ken
Uncle Ken
14 years ago

I have alot of good to say about Novus. A start up trying to do everything
right. They are considered one or the best up there. To Shaw that was a
danger. I do not have the cheapest price but i will be damned if they here
are going to nickel dime me to death. Im sick of people reaching into
my pocket given any chance. Reach in my pocket you might find your
fingers cut off.

Uncle Ken
Uncle Ken
14 years ago

Duane: How about if you limit was 1 gig or 5. what would you think then?

Duane Storey
Duane Storey
14 years ago

I’d be upset with any cap that I hit doing legitimate usage. But that’s never been the case with me. Have you hit the cap?

Ron Dafoe
Ron Dafoe
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

I would like to know what you beleive is legitimate usage? Is legitimate usage Netflix streaming to the Xbox? I can watch 1 movie from netflix and easily hit 5Gb in one night. What about Steam gaming? Is legitimate usage http://www.direct2drive.com? What about WotC’s pay site for Dungeons and Dragons where every month you download an update to their character builder or magazines online? Ot the compendium searching while your gaming? What about World of Warcraft? or Cartoon network for your kids? Is legitimate usage listening to internet radio that you are interested in? What about uploading digital pictures to… Read more »

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

On July 31, 2008 this site was started because Frontier Communications, our local telephone company in Rochester, NY slapped a 5GB monthly usage cap on DSL customers which they’ve decided not to enforce at this time. Their claim is that the majority of their customers never come close to hitting 5GB of usage. Comcast, meanwhile, has a 250GB monthly usage cap. Many others have no caps at all. The wide variations in caps should tell you something — they are highly subjective and you can be sure are also designed knowing full well what kind of additional revenue overlimit fees… Read more »

Uncle Ken
Uncle Ken
14 years ago

No at the moment we do not have caps but my day is usually a lot of
news video, NASA TV, and a few U tubes. Maybe sometimes a movie.
But it will end up over 5 gig and im not paying extra for that. Ill trash the
damn thing before that Then I can spend more time in banks and libraries
with a hood.

Uncle Ken
Uncle Ken
14 years ago

Ron why don’t they just raise everybody’s price $5 a month and be done
with it. After 10 years a guess a $5 raise is in order.

Ron Dafoe
Ron Dafoe
14 years ago
Reply to  Uncle Ken

Ken – I don’t know why. There would have been the standard cable company raising their rates argument but really – at least for internet they have not. I think most people here would gladly pay a $5 or $10 a month increase in price for no caps.

My best guess is the internet video streaming is what they are trying to limit. After all if you are charged more for the movie to watch it online then on your cable system, then that could stop the cable bleeding.

Incognitojoe
Incognitojoe
14 years ago

Novus and 6s Marketing are behind this pr campaign. Not sure what axe 6s has to grind with Shaw but it`s odd that they would involve themselves directly with this.

Novus should have sold to Shaw when they first starting talk to them years ago, instead of playing the fool. Good for Shaw for putting the hammer down on these time-wasters.

Duane Storey
Duane Storey
14 years ago

Why is it odd? It’s a social media campaign run by a company that specializes in (amongst other things) social media.

Clearly you’ve never used Novus — it’s a far superior service to Shaw.

Incognitojoe
Incognitojoe
14 years ago

Clearly you`ve never been talked to by the Novus bandwidth police, had to pay out of your arse for a service call, or ever done business with Terry. Here`s $9.95. Use it to buy a clue.

My Choice
My Choice
14 years ago
Reply to  Incognitojoe

Hey Incognitojoe I would suggest that ALL of your comments are meaningless dribble. And yes I am an example of an extremely HAPPY Novus Customer. If you are privy to the information you post about i.e.. ” You have no idea how many have already switched before this new campaign, do you? They were already switching in droves which is why Terry approached Shaw a while ago about selling. He knew what was coming down the pipe”. then you must be associated with Shaw in some regard. At which point your “information” is probably fabricated. And if you are not… Read more »

blah
blah
14 years ago
Reply to  My Choice

incognito don’t know anything special. plenty of people know bits and pieces of what is going on behind the scenes. Here’s what I know. Novus is fast as hell, shaw has decent speed now that they doubled the high speed. Docsis 3 will make things just lovely but still not the speeds of Novus. Novus isn’t competition, however Telus is. Especially now that they are teaming up with Bell. They are probably being alittle more aggressive considering both the economy and the threat that Telus/Bell poses. Shaw ain’t even close to a monopoly. They may want to be one they… Read more »

Duane Storey
Duane Storey
14 years ago

Well first, way to hide behind an anonymous name. Second, I was a happy Novus customer, and if you read through the comments, you’d know that. I even exceeded bandwidth once, and was happy to pay the small amount to bump my limit up. Also in the comments above. I’m paying about $50 a month now for internet service through Shaw that goes down a few times a month, and is turtle slow compared to the Novus service I had in Vancouver. I paid about $30 on Novus, and it never went down on me in about 3 years. So… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  Duane Storey

Looks like Shaw will have to drop their price to free for 1 year. 🙂

Incognitojoe
Incognitojoe
14 years ago

“But judging from the response on Twitter” You have no idea how many have already switched before this new campaign, do you? They were already switching in droves which is why Terry approached Shaw a while ago about selling. He knew what was coming down the pipe. Once he started playing games, Shaw decided they had enough. So, now they target MDU’s, many of which are Terry’s. Novus isn’t the only winback target. They give away thousands of dollars a month in free PVR’s just to get Telus customers back also. Although “social networking” is fantastic, it sure creates a… Read more »

Uncle Ken
Uncle Ken
14 years ago

Morning Ron: Yes you are correct some would view a raise of $5 a month for internet just another raise for the providers. Everyone here knows that that is not the case with the internet. From day one my cost is always the same every month… has been forever. Education for the masses would teach them the real screw job is from cable TV. Maybe 10 percent a year while adding 5 more BET channels and even more junk filler. Anything worth watching is always PPV or on some bundled extra cost sub. I do not pick up the tab… Read more »

Ron Dafoe
Ron Dafoe
14 years ago
Reply to  Uncle Ken

I do not think that TWC has ever raised the price of RoadRunner, at least not in the Rochester area. I am a Direct TV sub. When netflix streaming came to the Xbox, I stopped subbing to all of the premium channels – HBO, SHO, MAX etc. I saw that I could pay netflix $8 a month and get alot of those streaming, or if not available, the discs through the mail. A TV show is typically around 40 minutes when the commercial are gone. I never watch live TV except for Football games. I record anything that I am… Read more »

Sheeple
Sheeple
14 years ago

Saw this comment on another site. Had no idea that Novus was run by those Concord-Pacific people. No wonder they are complaining. Developers losing big money in a terrible real estate market. Go figure! “Novus creating jobs? Ha! Everytime I hear this I LOL. They employ a total of what, 40 employees? Shaw just hired 15 reps last week alone! All within your community. Novus has such poor support, they had to hire a company to make posts and tweets and such to try and discredit Shaw? Shaw has is Canadian owned, employees over 10,000 Canadians, supports Canadian Athletes, supports… Read more »

BrionS
Editor
14 years ago
Reply to  Sheeple

I’m just curious, did you come her to rail against Novus because of their housing and urban development practices or because you have an opinion on competition and/or data caps? I don’t know much about Novus – never heard of them before this article. I’ve found out a little bit more since this story broke and I’m not ready to judge one way or the other (I’m also not Canadian). However the facts I have found show three things: 1. Novus as a company is far smaller than Shaw 2. Shaw’s promotion is suspiciously narrow in its scope and low… Read more »

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  Sheeple

Hi Sheeple. I honestly don’t know enough about Novus to declare them good or evil. I do know enough to say they are a competitor. I’m sure the people who work for Shaw are good people, just like you and I. In our battle, we’ve never involved the common worker who puts in a hard day’s work. This is simply a dispute between management and consumers. I also don’t have enough information to say Novus’ building practices are good or evil, either. That’s way off our topic here. How do you know about 6s Marketing and Novus’ involvement with them?… Read more »

Sheeple
Sheeple
14 years ago

Did a whois on the domain that 6S set up to help Novus. Created on ………….2009-07-23-23.06.11.687000 Expires on ………….2010-07-23-23.06.11.000000 Record last updated on .2009-07-24-07.26.53.782000 Status ……………..ACTIVE Administrative Contact: John Blown John Blown 402-1120 Hamilton Street Vancouver, BC V6B2S2, CA +1.6046426765 [email protected] John Blown is the Marketing Co-Founder & Director of 6S. My issue there is…Do they buy and own the domains of all their clients? I mean, if I was a client, paid them tons of $, only to find out that they own the domain, I’d be choked. If I didn’t have better things to do, I’d build a… Read more »

Bill
Bill
14 years ago

Incognitojoe, you are WRONG about Novus charging for service calls because they don’t. I know because they just came and fixed my datajack for free. Also, if you go over the bandwith, a pop up page with appear on your screen and advise that you have gone over the limit. At that point, you have 2 options. One is to continue with what you are doing but a reduced speed and wait till the month is over before your usage is reset to a fresh start. Option 2 is to buy extra bandwith at 50 cents per Gig and continue… Read more »

outraged Shaw customer
outraged Shaw customer
14 years ago

So if Peter Bissonnette (Shaw’s president’s)quote is TRUTHFUL(from business in Vancouver article) we should all feel ripped off. Peter is quoted as saying “that Shaw’s pricing is not below-cost”. If this is the case then their mark up is astronomical. After doing the math on this offer, it works out to $24.87/month, after factoring in the 2 months free, for all 3 services from Shaw. Now after this promo is done and you pay their regular rates, you would now be paying around $240.00/month!!!!!! That works out to approximately a 1000% MARK-UP!!!!!!!! This is what I call GOUGING your customers.… Read more »

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago

Yeah, I don’t believe Shaw for a second when they say this is at cost pricing. Of course it’s not. Programming costs alone for the various networks on the cable TV side would add up to nearly that themselves. The markup varies on what service we are talking about. Cable used to enjoy enormous markup on the television side, but programmers have been eating into that with higher and higher program costs, and cable companies can’t raise rates fast enough to guarantee the same enormous profits they used to enjoy from the cable TV business. That was one of the… Read more »

Novuskicksazz
Novuskicksazz
14 years ago

I have no problems with Novus and I had no problems with Shaw before. I have a problem with people/companies trying to insult our intelligence. Strange that they are paying 6s to try and sway public opinion,yet the 6s staff are Shaw customers. Talk about not putting your money where your mouth is. I hope Novus has a money back guarantee on what they paid 6s Marketing to create the 10buckstoo site. Hiring a company owned and staffed by Shaw customers, to create a blog and post on FB about how terrible Shaw is just not quite right. Ya know?… Read more »

Repeater
Repeater
14 years ago

Since “outraged Shaw customer” is posting the exact same message on numerous messageboards relating to this topic, they must either work for 6S Marketing or Novus themselves…Otherwise who would take the time to spend hours searching and cutting and pasting? So, let’s play cut and paste too! What Novus failed to mention is that they offered everyone in their areas $9.95 internet/cable to switch to them, and as Peter Bisonette mentions has been very unwilling to allow others into the building they’ve run fiber to. That is LITERALLY a “barrier to entry” into the market for Telus, Shaw, etc, wouldn’t… Read more »

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  Repeater

That is news to some of the people in Vancouver writing me who are not Novus customers and cannot get Novus service, which is common in high rise buildings but not individual homes, and Shaw told them they were not “qualified” to obtain that offer. It seems a lot of these flyers were target mailed to Novus-wired buildings and that even in greater Vancouver a lot of Shaw (or even competing satellite) customers never received them. In fact, the first time a lot of our Vancouver readers even recognized this was going on was when the story broke here, other… Read more »

INFORMED CONSUMER
INFORMED CONSUMER
14 years ago

Hey Repeater- I think it’s time to stop the inaccurate postings from you and the other Shaw employee’s posting here and on other message boards. I say this because ANYONE that agrees with what Shaw are doing have been either extremely MISINFORMED or are associated with Shaw in some regard. So I may do a little “cut and paste!” myself. As for your misguided notion that there is a “barrier to entry’ into the market for Telus, Shaw, etc” guess again. It was only SHAW that complained to the CRTC at which point their complaint was DENIED. So you think… Read more »

dnb778
dnb778
14 years ago

Hi Informed consumer.

This offer has been advertised to many non-Novus customers in Richmond, Port Moody, Coquitlam, and Burnaby where Novus does not service.

I know that 10buckstoo.com says otherwise but I assure you this is misinformation.

I can understand your frustration, but I assure you that you are equally misinformed.

Good day.

Phillip Dampier
Admin
14 years ago
Reply to  dnb778

If you have copies of any newspaper ads or other media showing this, I’d love to receive copies. You can use the Contact button at the top of the page to arrange this.

Carmen
Carmen
14 years ago
Reply to  dnb778

@ dnb778
I never got those promo offers, and I was with shaw and I am a richmond resident. In fact all we saw was our pricing being jacked up by 10% every month. Predatory pricing experience 1st hand. That was when we quit and left them for telus. Only reason we didn’t switch to novus is because they haven’t come in yet. When they do, we’re switching to novus.

Please don’t try to tell people that they offered ok? We never received the offer. I can attest to that

Nick
Nick
14 years ago

I live in a low-rise in downtown Vancouver where there is no Novus service. I’m not a Novus employee, nor Shaw. Just a customer who get hit by this price war. I had heard about Shaw’s promotion from my friends so I call them up to request for the promotion. They said I can’t get that price because my address do not receive service from their competitor. It sound odd but it’s fair enough to me until last month when I received the invoice. The base price for my bundle service increase from 96.95 to 100.95. That’s $4 increase. That… Read more »

Nick
Nick
14 years ago

PS. I just file the complain to CRTC and if anyone have the same problem like me, please file the complain. If there are enough case, we could make the difference.

Thanks

Nick

Joshua Lemmens
Joshua Lemmens
14 years ago

Nick has the idea…. if there was an action to create new rules on caps then we would get somewhere. I would spend my time on some sort of action that would actually eliminate a cap. In Korea the market is at the bidding call of the consumer as they don’t take any sh– from them and will organize in force to put them out of business using internet blogs and web demonstrations. We are a passive people who love to talk but don’t act. Email me if you are planning a real course of action. I am busy with… Read more »

brio
brio
14 years ago

I live in Novus-served building and have had Novus service, quite happily, since the company began. Recently, after trying unsuccessfully to log on to my Novus account I called Customer Service and was shocked to discover that some stranger had called Novus and simply closed my Novus account. I have no known enemies — at least none so unsophisticated that they’d waste their time closing my internet account. As for the fate of all of my precious data, well, it’s the old story: I’d never thought there was any urgency to back up my archive, and everything is lost. I… Read more »

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