 Review by louist 
UPDATED: 299 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 1640 visits, last login: 6 days ago
 Oakland Gardens,Queens,NY
 $44 per month
 about 25 days
 "Used to be reliable. RIGHT NOW IT IS TERRIBLE STAY AWAY!"
 "VERY unreliable speeds. POOR ALL DAY!."
 "IN NYC, since April 2007- service and speeds are a DISASTER and they deny anything is wrong!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
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Update: October 1, 2007
We are terminating our Roadrunner Account this month due to poor service and undependable delivered speeds since last April.
We ordered Verizon “Dual Play” Internet and Phone FIOS via internet on Tuesday. 9/25. They offered installation date of Thursday. I chose to delay the installation date till Friday, 9/28. We received at least 3 calls from Verizon on Wednesday and Thursday confirming the installation date and making sure someone would be home.
The installation tech showed up at about 8 AM on Friday. He was friendly, communicative and professional. I asked him to install the ONT in my attic near where my current phone lines enter the house. He was more than happy to oblige my requests.
The total install took about 5 hours. Phone service was very momentarily interrupted as expected. He spent most of the time running the wiring and installing the equipment in my attic. He installed the router downstairs and a few moments later, internet service came on line. (We ordered the 20/5 service and generally get about 20.6 Megs down and 4.7 Meg up).
The only hitch was that he was unable to get his SW application to correctly provide me with my primary ID and Password (Used for user account maintenance and to set up the sub account email addresses and passwords. He tried several times and gave up. He gave me a customer service phone number to get help. It turned out to be the wrong number (DSL not FIOS service), but they routed me immediately and the service was excellent. All done in a ten minute call.
The free router has 4 hard wired 100 base ports and has wireless support with both WPA and WPA2, but they are set up default to WEP. No big deal for informed users to adjust to personal preferences.
So in summary: We suffered along with many of you since last April with sporadic service and congested Roadrunner facilities, poor customer service and a lack of improvements. We were reluctant to change because of the pain of change and because we realize that all services occasionally stumble. We gave Roadrunner 6 full months to straighten itself out and it did not.
The cost of change was nominal. Installation and the new router were free. The cost is lower first year because of the discounts. Thereafter, it is about on par. The actual pain of making the change was surprisingly little. Frankly If I knew it would be this easy and trouble free I would have switched months ago.
I am posting this not to gloat, but to inform the readers of this thread. I do hope for those of you with no choice but Roadrunner that they fix their problems soon and provide you with decent service. For those of you with choice, you now have an example of how the switch went for someone else. Perhaps it will encourage you to make the move.
For those of you left with Roadrunner: I hope that my defection and those of others who can and do switch will send a strong message to the management of the Roadrunner Service at Time Warner-NYC. If they lose enough customers (And you know that they at least watch those statistics because they tie to revenues) they will inevitably take corrective action and finally provide better service to those of you who don’t choose to switch or do not have an alternate choice.
UPDATE September, 2007:
Personally I am very unhappy with the unreliability of the Network and service speeds actually being delivered. Most of the time, even though the speeds are bad, they are good enough to do what I need to do. ( I cannot imagine how it must feel to be getting sub 1 Meg downloads ALL of the time as some of us are - even while paying for "Premium" service.) However, I can tell you why I am hanging in there for now:
Back in 2000 I had Verizon DSL service. It was OK. But dealing with their installation people was a nightmare (missed appointments when I took time off to meet them) , etc. Their Customer service people were a tad better than RR (but that is not much of a compliment). Their network (once I got all sorted out) was reliable, but slow (but it was reliably 90% of advertised ). The biggest problem was that their email servers were VERY unreliable. They often went off line and You would get no email then a load of it that was backdated.
If you go to the FIOS forums you will see many very happy customers, but there are also reports of Installation appointment snafus much like I experienced with DSL. I don't see complaints about the email and the speed satisfaction and network reliability sounds OK. So why not switch now (I can order it - it is available) Well, I am an optimist. I keep hoping that RR will get its network sorted out. I keep hoping that they look at forum threads like this one and take a "pulse" on customer satisfaction and eventually take action. In short, I keep hoping. If I do decide to switch to FIOS, I have to snake new Cat 5 from my Network center to where I would want them to demark for my home. I'd also have to take a day off of work to meet them for installation. Pain in the neck and not time I want to give up. But I can do it if I decide it is necessary, so I have hope.
People are usually willing to suffer with a less than satisfactory situation rather than take the actions and deal with the consequences of change, even change for the better. It is the human condition to act this way. For those historians and students of government out there, consider what the writers of the "Declaration of Independence" had to say about this way before there was a grasp of electricity beyond the fundamentals and no inkling of problems to come with ISP services:
(For fun, just substitute the word "ISP" or "RoadRunner" wherever the word "Government" appears!
"...Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security..."
So when will I declare my family's personal Declaration of Independence from Time Warner RoadRunner? If things don't get better soon, it may not be long.
Anyone from Time Warner listening out there?
Update August 2007:
Since April, 2007 speeds have deteriorated overall. Most of the day only getting about 60% of advertised speeds during most of the day and night. ONLY very early in morning do we receive speeds of 90% or the 10MEGS downloads that are advertised. These results come from several machines all of which are fully up to date and "tweaked" using DSLREPORTS utilities
UPDATE July 2007:
SPEEDS in our area have become extremely unreliable. Generally get half or less than advertised speeds ALL DAY (we only get approximation of advertised speeds very early in morning.)
We have Standard service. Our $40 price is based on our also purchasing premium Cable TV service.
In 2007, RR raised speeds to 10 Megs Down and 512 up. Would prefer at least 1 Meg up even at the expense of loss of 1 meg down. Initially the speeds were great and consistent. Since April, speeds have become extremely variable. Clearly a time of day problem (caused by congestion on RR facilities, maintenance problems or Roadrunner throttling the service) basically speeds are well below 8 megs most of the day with evening speeds often even lower.
Biggest complaint with RR is customer service. They consistently refuse to check office settings when confronted with a customer service request. They insist on a service call to house and consistently say they cannot schedule one for a week or more away. I have NEVER found that they had to do any repairs at my home. They always make us wait for an appointment a week or more, then they arrive, find nothing, call the office and then the correction "magically arrives". No repairs have been required on my premises. Clearly the premises check and the wait for them to do so were unnecessary. Their customer service approach is a waste of customer and field tech time . We always pray that nothing will go wrong, because every time we have to call for service it is a major waste of time and lost work hours. If they had a head to head competitor I would certainly try the alternate, especially if they seemed to promise more customer responsive service.
UPDATE: September 17, 2003 (After almost 1.5 years of RR service.)
This is a good service for reasonably informed users. It is a GREAT service for the techno-savvy! NYC RoadRunner is doing a great job.
The service has been consistent and reliable. Few service interruptions and none more than an hour. For over a year My download speeds tended to be at or just above 2000 down and about 350 up. Then a few months ago, there was a noticeable reduction of average speeds to no more than 1950. Uploads stayed constant. Nevertheless, except for big downloads, that was fine.
TODAY there has been a significant increase of speed on Download side only. Now seem to be averaging between 2800 to a bit over 2900 down. Many other people reporting higher speeds also. Hope it is persistent over the next months.
I am a very satisfied RR customer. My only major wish was that they had more SPAM blocking in effect.
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The following is my original review content:.
Before I ordered, I was turned off by Time Warner (NYC.RR.COM) customer communications. In fact I waited months for them to even answer my e-mails!
To be honest, The only reason I finally went to the trouble of getting in contact with Time Warner NYC was because after 9/11/2001, I was having trouble keeping consistent VPN connections using Verizon DSL for e-mail and files I needed. When I finally had Roadrunner installed, I found their customer communications and information a bit sub-standard. However, I am an advanced user and don't need much support (read that as NONE) from Time Warner-NYC.
I have never been sorry I switched. The service is reliable and fast. Basically set it up and then forget it.
They use a dynamic IP address approach, which is no problem at all. They provided an RCA modem which no one seems to have heard of, but it works fine.
Their e-mail servers are reliable, but they could use a more customer-centric spam elimination process.
What I like MOST is that it works and that it doesn't require me to use special or proprietary e-mail or browser products. I use IE 6 and Outlook / POP3. No problems whatsoever!
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