No Shaw Service in USA

[ggmac]

Just brought our RV to Prince Edward Island for the summer season,Hooked up the Shaw Satelite nothing called and found that starting June 1st need a second account that will cost 50% of the package you have at your principal residence. Got every thing set up with the second account a service guy is suppose to show up Wednesday to install the new LB etc.
The big problem as i see it is when we go South for the Winter The lady we were talking to said no more US service.You can suspended this service for up to 10 months so guess when we are ready to go South and we get this second account activated just don't tell them where we are headed and hope that it will work in the US.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this.
















































island

[toban]

Can some one tell me once the Shaw receiver has received a hit and all the programming has been downloaded and working okay, how long will the programming stay in memory in the receiver before it starts to lose the information and need to be rebooted or refreshed?

Toban

[Mootpoint]

Are we talking customer service or reception?
I think some are confused. You may not get service but I think you will still get reception until the old satellites are decommissioned. JMO :h

[Keily]

Thanks Gadget Guy, I re-read the posts from Installer, and I understand it a little bit better now. But I am still not sure if I don't get a new LNB and continue to use the old 600 rec and LNB combo , would I get service if I am able to get south this winter. I don't give a darn about HD channels, even though I am getting them now, if I don't get them in the RV it won't bother me at all.

Yesterday I got up on my roof and ran a second coax from my LNB and hooked it up to my RV in the back yard and that works fine. So now if Shaw checks they will see both rec's on the same LNB and I still got service in my RV. It may now be moving for a while, but it makes a nice man cave for the time being.

Maybe mid Sept we may take it on a short trip to NB and see how we make out, I'll take the portable dish with me, but this time I'll take the roof LNB with me.

It will be nice to hear from the folks when they get south to see if their systems are still working, it is early yet so I assume there will be more posts here when the weather gets colder.

Thanks for your info.

[Gadget_Guy1]

To Keily, read the last few post by the installer. You will need to upgrade the LNB on your unit if I understand things correctly.

[Keily]

I am wondering if maybe I may have caused myself some harm 2 days ago when I was talking to Shaw. I was having some problems with missing channels at 12:00 noon, and 9:00 pm. Some HD channels would disappear and come back a couple of hours later. When I called Shaw they told me my receivers(2) had to be reloaded by them so they can accept the new HD channels, they also informed me about the change in May regarding the home away from home policy. I have one receiver in my motor home in my back yard, I will have to do the 50% thing. I refused and told them that our situation had changed and I will be no longer using the RV , so I want to use the receiver in an extra room in my house. That's ok and no need of the 50% rule. Anyway they downloaded something to my receivers and I then got the missing channels. My question is this, Did I do harm to my service in that now if I have a change on our situation here at home and do go south this winter, will my receivers work? I think I have read when they upgrade the software on the receivers to accept the new channels it may do something that prevents it from receiving anything when you go south.

I hope not, but I would like to know for sure, at this point we don't know for sure if we will be travelling south this winter, but we are still hopeful. If we go and got no TV service from Shaw I am sure going to miss the Curling on TSN.

Let me know your thoughts please

[installer]

Yes it will for sure, just swap it out for the new one. 🙂

[Gadget_Guy1]

Installer, may I ask you a question? If I install the new LNB on my traveller will it still find the satellites or do I have to do something else??? Thank you for your reply and all the advice you have already provided to us Canadian snowbirds.

[installer]

Ex-actually what I have been saying too Wilco, if Shaw knows you have a coach as well as a house with rec's, a lil white lie telling them you sold it and all the rec are now at the house in one location. You can then still take 1 or 2 with you and plug them in on a different dish with the same lnb as at home and they should work fine. Much easier than having 2 accounts and having to call all the time to turn one on and the other off etc. or paying 50-75% in addition to the main Bill.
Even the old rec will work on the new lnb almcc, we have a lot of customers with mixed new and old on thee accounts. No worries 🙂

[almcc]

Installer, it was my understanding that the older series receivers are incompatible with the new third satellite (can't see programming from the new sat), does that mean that they can't be programmed to work with the new LNB? If so, it might be a problem for customers with a mix of old and new receivers.

[Gadget_Guy1]

Thank You wilco for your summary of your experience. Thank you installer as well. All good information of actual experiences helps a lot in making decisions that may avoid some pitfalls.

[wilco]

Gadget Guy,

Good summary of your experience. Here are some comments on my recent experience.

I decided to switch from Bell to Shaw for two reasons: hope that it would continue to work in the south, and the new rig came with a Travler Dish installed at the factory (a $2800 option). I was using Bell both at home and on the road and decided to switch both over to Shaw. This happened this year so the home system came with the 600 series receivers programmed for the new sat and, of course the dish had the current LNB. That was the easy part.

The Travler came set up for the old system. To bring it up-to-date, it needed the new LNB (that my home installer provided at no cost). The messy problem was that the Travler also needed new software and that required paying Winegard $70 plus shipping both ways for them to send me a box to plug into the controller to do the update. Two or three minutes and about $160 later I was good to go. (I suggested that in future Winegard might want to move into this century and offer downloadable updates and a USB port on the controller). This was a stupid waste of time and money IMHO!

Now, possibly the really tricky part, at least for new Shaw users that are not grandfathered on the old "Home Away From Home" program. Shaw apparently now only offers a second account with a 25% discount if you have a second location, be it a cottage, RV or winter home. So, in my case, the sweetheart deal might be that I pay 175% of my monthly subscription for service I may or may not be able to use while away in the winter. I don't think so! I only use the service in one location at a time and don't believe I should have to pay for it twice!

To potentially avoid this situation, my installer was adamant that all my dishes and receivers must be on the same program (I had suggested that he give me one receiver on the "old" system for the RV to avoid dicking around with the Travler since the new Sat wasn't going to be available down south anyway). His point was that if you are running two different configurations on your account Shaw might logically deduce that you are running two locations and charge you accordingly.

So, assuming the above is true, i'd be cautious about using two different configs on the same account.

FWIW

[installer]

Of course, all the new units come with the XKU on them. I am installing one on tuesday matter of fact. I have been working closely with Satellite Electronics in Yuma and they have also been putting them on for Canadian customers as well.
The new lnb pick up 3 satellites the old one only 2 that's it. The receiver needs the right V-code for the LNB you are using, that's all.

If Shaw changes anything I think I will hear about it pretty quick as my father-in-law lives year round in Mexico with a 630 and XKU. 🙂

[Gadget_Guy1]

Quote "You can also buy a new XKU LNB to take with you south if your place in Canada has been updated, Your local dealer should sell you one for around$65."

My question to you is if I put a XKU LNB on my "traveller" will I be able to pick up the 2 old satellites south of the 49 with my reprogrammed receivers????

[installer]

The Flag is already there my friend. You can not have your receivers on two different LNB's without them Knowing. You will one day get a call about it and they will offer you a 2nd Account for those and then you can turn off the home account while you are away, but you Still can not let them know you are going south with it. The 2nd location is only allowed in Canada. They cannot get to everyone at once, but if they talk to you and check your account I guarantee you there will be changes you may not like.

To go under the radar you need to have all your receivers on the same LNB and they need to think they are at your main location. We are instructed to upgrade every dish to the new one when we are on a service call. There is no going back and forth to the old LNB. (another flag) As will a US phone or IP address. You may get away with it for now, but in the future??
Next, don't leave your receivers down south for those that do. Bring them home, easier to hook them to a dish here and get a hit so they are good to take back down with you. Chances are you won't need to call them then.
You can also buy a new XKU LNB to take with you south if your place in Canada has been updated, Your local dealer should sell you one for around$65.

Please remember this program was slapped together very fast and still has a lot of bugs in it. I just talked to a customer yesterday that went for the 2nd location for his Coach and got 2 bills for the same amount. He told me that Shaw's system does not even have the 50% off for the 2nd location up and running yet.

Your not the only long winded one Gadget Guy 🙂

Keep the Shiny side Up. 🙂

[Gadget_Guy1]

I had the first opportunity to personally check out what may or may not happen now that Shaw has decided not to offer support for us south of the 49. Our unit had been parked in our Calgary back yard since we returned from our winter trip south with no clear site to the satellites. We had occasion to use our unit this weekend. When we arrived at our destination I hit the search button on our “traveller”. It found the satellite as always but I received a message on the screen saying that my receiver needed a refresh(this receiver had NOT been turned on since March 31st). I used my US VERISON Cell phone with a 406 area code and called the same 800 number just to see what would happen. It worked as always, the same as it has done in the past. The receiver received the refresh and I had TV as normal.

I had also brought my HDPVR630 with me that I have been using in our Calgary stick house this summer. This one was reprogramed in June to receive the new 3rd satellite along with the installation of the latest LNB. I hooked it up in our unit and it would NOT work at all. We returned home this evening and I hooked it up in our house and it works fine.

My observations and humble suggestions would be as follows:

You will be fine using a US cell phone number to get a refresh.
You should be fine(Not verified because we had no internet available) to use your computer to get a refresh.
Don’t try and use a receiver that has been programmed to receive the new 3rd satellite. It will not work! You may be able to get them to change the program back to the old system before you leave Canada. I won’t be trying this because I have more than enough receivers that are still programed to the old system that I won’t have to ask them to do that and possibly raise a “red” flag.
Stay under the radar and you should be fine.
Our receivers that we use at a fixed location south of the 49 have been working fine without any problems. We are using the “old” program and have NOT tried and will NOT be trying to reprogram to get the new HD channels. HD is just not that important to us.

I hope this helps and I apologize for being so long winded.