Many customers in Surrey and Delta are impacted by the outage

Shaw internet customers are the latest to complain about outages in the Lower Mainland

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — As Telus continues to deal with email-related problems for it’s customers, it looks like a similar situation is unfolding at Shaw.

Some people living in Surrey and Delta say their service has been down since around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, and were told it would be restored, “soon.”

However, it appears the outage stretched into the night, with the last update from the provider showing a “fix” was still in progress on Wednesday morning.

It’s unclear what exactly caused the outage, but Shaw says interruptions may be impacting customer television and home phone services as well.

Shaw customers latest to complain about Lower Mainland outages. Not clear how widespread problem is, but clients in #SurreyBC say service down since 8:30am and keep getting told it will be restored soon. They join @TELUS customers who've gone 5+days without email. @NEWS1130 — Marcella Bernardo (@Bernardo1130) August 20, 2019

“You know, they tell you that you’re number 301 in line and they’ll call you back in 15, 20 minutes,” Dave, who is among the customers complaining about the lack of service, said. “Then you get the ring back, and you’re number one, then you’re put on hold for another 15 minutes — their customer service is just atrocious.”

Dave says his business relies on internet access, and claims the outage cost him money.

“I asked about compensation and the fellow said that they don’t pay compensation, this is just a hazard of internet,” he explained. “So, needless to say, we probably lost a couple thousand dollars today. I can’t speak for the other businesses in the area, but some of them are body shops, they do transactions with ICBC and such, there was money lost all over the place, various businesses, and Shaw doesn’t seem to care.”

Michelle Gaucher, who lives in North Surrey, says she’s been without her home phone, internet, and cable for more than 24 hours. She has worries about her neighbours who rely on their home phone in case of emergency.

“Anybody that doesn’t have access to a cell phone — you rely on your home phone for 911,” she says.

Meantime, many customers with Telus have gone the better part of a week without being able to send an email.

That system went down on Thursday, when Telus said outside workers mistakenly took telus.net offline while trying to repair data storage equipment. Telus says more than 90 per cent of customers had their accounts restored, but those who didn’t continue to express their frustration online.