Review by brooklynali 
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 2.5 years, 32 visits, last login: 12 days ago
 Astoria,Queens,NY
 $109 per month
 about 4 days
 "Installation available in less than 3 days, NEVER FAILS OR DROPS, Affordable, Great Svc and range of Services"
 "Website is uncoordinated, inefficient and often inconvienient. That's it."
 "If given the choice b/w any other Cable carrier (FiOS excluded as I don't know enuff) and RCN, RCN is always the right choice!"
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(ratings above consensus)
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I live in NYC. I grew up here, spent some time abroad and in Boston for college and then moved back. In my life, I have personally used RCN, Time Warner (roadrunner), Optimum Online and Cablevision at one point or another, as well as Verizon ISDN (1995-96?), Verizon DSL, a dedicated university T-1 Ethernet connection and local Dial-up.
I've used RCN twice, because Time Warner and Cablevision are essentially evil. Time Warner in both Boston and New York is EXTREMELY expensive, very inefficient, uses admittedly old equipment, (one support person said to me verbatim, "Sir, what do you want us to do? Our network is from 1978. Your area is especially old. We can't always handle all the bandwidth, especially in areas that are completely outdated. It's just the way it is. We're working on the problem." But wouldn't refund me for services not rendered), and takes weeks for them to install and repair any problem. I have never waited for less than 10 days from the date of report before a tech finally came to solve it, even when I knew the problem and could have fixed it via exchange ("a tech needs to see it,") or a transfer (from a move, also something I could do). And then, they would often not ring the buzzer and when they had the decency to call, would usually call from a restricted number, and I wouldn't answer. If I didn't get their message in 2 minutes, they were gone. Then I needed to wait another 10-14 days.
Sometimes after waiting, my problem wouldn't be resolved and while I would get my refund (another thing they needed to send techs out for, my Showtime channels didn't work for 18 months, they sent four techs out over that time because despite my daily calls, and the fact that they allegedly "could see that [my Showtime] wasn't working," they needed a tech to verify that it didn't work. I would also get tiny refunds in comparison ($39.95 for what was really $120 worth of failure, or some kind of channel exchange). I also paid on average $179 for Cable+Internet. My internet was down almost as much as it was up. My bandwidth was pitiful. They don't offer anything above 5mbps and you won't get anything near that, even in the middle of the night. This was true in New York and Boston. Cablevision was just as bad, and Optimum is reliable, but have poor services (worst channel selection, worst boxes, weak internet).
RCN is the cheapest (I pay $147 each month, plus any on-demand movies if any, and never more), for Unlimited Dedicated Phone (a true land line, not internet dependent, with three services, caller ID, call waiting and call forwarding, you can choose 3 of 7), 20mbps Cable Modem with a (now canceled) Static IP address (static IP can cost you b/w $5 and $20 more), and Cable TV (one room, HD-DVR box, Basic+, HBO, Starz and Showtime, TMC channels in regular and HD). My cable has NEVER been down, nor has my internet. Not once in six months. Not even for an hour. My TV acted funny once, for about twenty minutes at 4:30am on a random Tuesday night or something and when I called tech support, I never waited on hold, and spoke to someone who knew the answer immediately and explained that they were updating firmware, not to turn off my cable, they were sorry, refunded me for an hour pro-rated (like .47cents or something) without me asking, and said it would take about 15-20 mins and I could keep watching TV (the channels were scattered and listing wrong, and lots of stuff was coming in poorly).
When I called to have them install their service, I had an appointment that matched my schedule (i.e. not Tuesday between 9am and 1pm), A Saturday morning, and the guy arrived right on time. Unfortunately, due to my lack of a key to the backyard, he had to come back. They could have come back as early as Monday morning, or evening (yes, between 6-9pm), but I needed until Wednesday. Wednesday evening, they were there at 6pm sharp and *I* was running late getting home from work. They called me, and I asked them if they could stay 15 mins and wait for me, as I was just getting home on the subway, and they agreed. It took them 30 mins to install, set-up and clean up everything, and no tech has been back since.
When I moved here six months ago, I had Time Warner service still technically in my name. When moving, I called Time Warner to cancel or exchange my service, but I didn't know where I was moving yet. The tech told me to suspend my service for a month (it's for vacations and stuff like that), as I didn't have my new address, and I could save money and keep my DVR recordings, if I transfered the service (moving the box, etc.) rather than cancel and re-subscribe. I did that and found out my new address about three days later. When I called to transfer a few weeks later, right after moving, I was told I had to wait until the end of the month, or I would have to pay for last month's cable bill in full. It was all or nothing, if I didn't wait, they wouldn't pro-rate me, despite my NOT HAVING SERVICE for 3 WEEKS!!!, so I had to wait a week to even have my service, "turned back on." I asked if I needed to have a tech come, and they said (for a second time as I asked this when I suspended my service), "No, all you have to do is plug in the cable that's there, and as long as it's a Time Warner cable, we can do it all from here."
So, I wait the week or so, plug in my cable to my box (the previous tenants had TW) and ask to have my service restored. They do so and I explain that I've moved and would like to transfer my service. The person has no idea what I'm talking about. I told her it was supposed to be noted in my file. She said it wasn't. I told her my story thus far. She told me everything was wrong. I didn't have to suspend my service, I could have just transfered it when I moved, and they would have prorated me. I could have had my suspended service stopped and prorated at any time. I needed to have a tech come and install my moved cable but because of my circumstances, they would wave the $99 installation fee (despite being told four times that there was no fee anyway). The earliest date they had was a Thursday morning, ten days from then. The next day was another weekday between 1pm and 6pm. The first weekend or evening (there was a $24.95 charge for evening as well) was 17 days from then, on a Saturday. I asked how that could be possible, and complained and then said, fine, I'd take it. In the 15 seconds that I complained the time slot was gone and I had to wait a total of now 18 days (and was lucky to get that apparently). I could call daily and see if there were cancellations. But that was it.
When I found out my downstairs neighbor had RCN, I canceled Time Warner and RCN came faster than I could be ready. I consistently clock between 1.3mb and 2.0mb upstream and 15.5-19.8mb downstream. No matter what time of day. My cable always works, never has any signal issues and is constantly expanding, (especially on the HD side). It's significantly cheaper for what I get (more movie channels, HD, faster internet, a real phone line, and more bandwidth and reliability) at $147 for everything per month vs. $199 a month, I paid TW for fewer channels, no HD, no phone and slower, unreliable internet and garbage service.
My equipment is a Toshiba PCX-2600 20mbps Cable Modem and a Motorola DCT3416 I, Dual-Tuner HD-DVR Cable Box (with one HDMI i/o, one firewire, one VGA, one ethernet, one component, one s-video and one composite). I declined the free router. An additional box doesn't require a tech, as I can pick up the box myself at any of their locations (of which there are 6 to TWs 3), and plug it in and only costs $4.95 a month for the same box I have. They have been very gracious when my bill has been late. After having so many problems with TW in two cities over seven years, I was so happy to have RCN again (I had them briefly in Boston). TW has such a monopoly in some places, that even when I wanted RCN, and it was available ACROSS THE STREET, I was told that I couldn't have it because TW had a contract with my building or for that street. Well, it's easy to be that lax when you don't have any (or much) competition by what I thought was an illegal monopoly.
I have heard some GREAT things about FiOS and may have even tried it, but didn't hear about it coming to my area until about six weeks after RCN had already come. I don't know if it's any better or faster, but I'm told it's incredible and will use it when I move next if RCN isn't available. The only weakness RCN has is its website sucks, has poor login capabilities (you log in, but look at services, it doesn't cater to you, and in fact, logs you out), limited content and limited responsiveness (it asks you questions, but gives you no ability to answer correctly). Otherwise, I'd say they are the best cable/internet/phone company I've ever had and are super well priced.
I think that covers everything. In brief:
Options - Time Warner, Verizon FiOS (six-weeks after installation), a few local T-1 delivery companies, Verizon DSL and a satellite provider, RCN.
Speed/Package- 20mbps Cable Modem, clocking b/w 1.5-2.0mb up and 15-20 down, averaging at about 1.8 up and 18.9 down, from randomly selected times over 20 randomly selected days. Cable package includes all basic and "standard," channels, (i.e. comedy central, ESPNs, etc), HBO, Showtime, Starz/Encore and TMC, and HBO,TMC, SHOW HD, HDNet, HDMov, all network HD channels, National Geographic HD, Discovery HD, ESPN HD, YES HD (Yankees Channel), SKY HD (Mets channel), and more, with DVR and dual-tuning, and two HD outputs on the box. Dedicated Land line, unlimited nationwide calling, 3 basic services (ID,FWD,CW). Total cost is $147 a month.
Order/Install - One twenty minute phone call and could have been installed within 48 hours. Total time for me was 5 days due to a delay caused by me. Install was above and beyond and took less than an hour.
Brand Model - Motorola HD DVR box (see above), Toshiba 20mbps Cable Modem (see above).
I hate Time Warner and honestly can't say enough positive things about RCN. I almost feel funny re-reading my post at how long it is, and that is after editing out a dozen or so specific instances of pure failure on TWs part compared to NONE by RCN (both in two cities). I'm open-minded about FiOS but am pretty loyal at the moment and it would take A LOT to sway me.
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