Dear Shaw Cablesystems:

I remember when you were the only show in town for cable. Back in those good ol’ bad days, we had no choice but prices were reasonable for cable, largely because there were some intelligent folks out at the Canadian Telecommunications and Radio Commission (CRTC) that prevented you from arbitrarily changing the cost of cable.

When you came out with high-speed internet, I went with you instead of Telus/BC Tel for ADSL. It, quite frankly, was awesome.

Now you’re no longer the only show in town. Telus provides digital TV as well. Okay, we don’t have digital cable, but I have been a good customer for a couple of decades. Yet every year, I see my cable/internet bill go up and the number of programs I get on my basic cable seems to keep dropping. I’m out of the house for 12 or more hours per day, at least 5 days per week, so I don’t get to use the cable all that much. When I do, it’s primetime programming. Primetime! Wooo!

BUT a lot of the channels broadcast the same program because the same feed will be broadcast on both an American channel and a Canadian channel. So I’m basically paying twice for the same program.

Then there’s the point where you encourage me to get my bills electronically, and because I hate having too much paper around, I do. Once a month, I get an email from you to my Shaw webmail account advising my bill is ready.

The funny part? More often than not, your own spam filter catches that email and dumps it in my junk mail folder.

You encourage me to do this because it is environmentally friendly and The Right Thing To Do To Save The Environment.

Add to that that we only check our mailbox about once a week, and it’s just easier.

My problem is, you need to practice what you preach. Every month, I get at least two, if not more invitations to switch to Shaw phone service. IN MY MAILBOX. Printed on bright white paper (although it’s made of 30% recycled paper products). Oh, and I get offers in my inbox, which oddly enough are never tagged as junk mail even though they are.

So every month, you’re mailing me a piece of paper in a sealed envelope (which is made of 100% recycled paper fibre). Plus all the unaddressed brochures I get in my mailbox that just go straight into the recycling bin. Then let’s add in the carbon footprint from our mailperson running around in her van (because we live in a rural-ish area) and you get a whole lot of environmental impact.

So I guess I know where my fee increases are going: to buy more paper so you can try to get me to buy other services. Hey! I have an idea! How about you lower my cable fee (because you’re basically charging me twice for the same cable feed a lot of the time) and stop sending me advertising for services I’m not interested in because you’re charging me too much already?

You proclaim to be environmentally responsible, yet I doubt this sort of advertising is either environmentally or financially sustainable.

Tell you what: you stop sending me so much junk mail (which will result in lower rates because you’re overcharging by a massive amount anyways and you won’t have to buy so many paper products) and I’ll think about getting more services from you.