 Review by bionicRod 
UPDATED: 40 days ago
member for 146 days, 28 visits, last login: 4 days ago
 Jefferson City,Cole,MO
 $85 per month (12 month contract)
 about 14 days
 "Internet rarely goes completely down"
 "Incredibly frustrating customer service, internet speeds vary greatly"
 "Not worth all the hassle"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Mediacom has to be the most frustrating company I've ever dealt with. I recently moved, and they've just been a nightmare. I've had to call them probably five times in the past month regarding my move, they just can't get their act together. I had Mediacom at my old place (I live in Mid Missouri) and wanted to get my service switched to a new home I had just bought. I have a Tivo HD which requires cable cards, a digital box for a non-HD TV, and cable (no box) in another room. I also needed to get broadband hooked up and phone service installed. When the tech showed up he had a HD digital box and that was it. I didn't need a HD box as I have the Tivo and cards. Luckily I still had the equipment from my old house. The tech wasn't aware I was getting phone service installed. He was able to hook the phone up for me, but not with the number I had picked. I had to call my cell from it to find out what it was. None of this was the tech's fault, he was good at his job and knew what he was doing, but the people that created the work order had screwed it up. A day or so after the tech left my old non HD digital box stopped working (couldn't receive premium channels). Also I began to receive hum bars on my HD set up, and it only happens on whatever input I have the cable running into. I called them again. The guy on the phone tried to communicate to the non HD box but it wouldn't respond. We set up an appointment for the following Monday (it was a Sunday I made the call, so the appointment was 8 days into the future). While at work on Wednesday (3 days after the call) I get a call from a Mediacom tech who's on his way to my house. Would I be home? I told him our appointment was the next Monday. He told me he had been told today, but he'd see what he could do. I never heard back from him and customer service says the appt. was cancelled because I cancelled it. Also, our broadband speed ranges from 11 Mb all the way down to less than 1 Mb every day. I don't know how normal this is but it never happened before we moved. Now the topping on the cake of frustration: I just received TWO bills from Mediacom. One for the old house which they failed to disconnect, and one for the new house. I just got off the phone with them AGAIN, they assure me that the bill to my old house "won't go through" as it's a mistake, our new bill will replace it. They've also set up another tech appointment for tomorrow afternoon. I hate to post such a negative review but I'm just so FRUSTRATED. I can't switch because they're the only cable game in town.
UPDATE: 7-31 Well the bill they said wouldn't go through was deducted from my bank account on the 28th. I cannot articulate my disgust. I called, of course. They said they were sorry that we got told wrong information, and I quote the CSR I spoke to: "Most of these people they hire to answer the phones are idiots." She also said there was nothing they could do about the payment being deducted, I would have to contact my bank and process a stop payment. I did, and it cost me an extra $27. To be fair they had me forward them the paperwork and are supposed to issue a $27 credit on next month's bill. A tech did eventually come out with a new digital box. It worked for a week and stopped, so I'm still not getting my premium channels and I'm basically paying the digital box fee for nothing. I still have purple scrolling hum bars and audio feedback on my HD setup. We have yet another tech appointment next week. I'm tired of calling them, tired of dealing with them. Buying my house was easier than getting mediacom's service switched to the new address. I'm so fed up with these people.
UPDATE: 8/12/09
As of Friday the 7th my HDTV isn't receiving HD or premium channels. I called, they no longer have the # of the cable card in my HD Tivo in their system. It won't work without that. I don't know where it went as the card has worked for a year, but the number is gone now and they can't hit the card without it. They have to send yet another tech. I refused to take another day off of work so I have to wait until Saturday the 15th (8 days) to get someone over because they won't come at 5 p.m. Is this ever going to stop? I'm ready to eat the cost of my Tivo just to switch to Embarq and a satellite dish, but my gf loooves that Tivo so I guess I'm stuck. I demanded a credit for the unavailable channels and they said o.k. so I guess that's something.
Update 2: 8/12/09
Someone on here suggested I pull the card out and tell them the number. I offered to do that but the lady on the phone said that would be a violation of the contract or something. Only authorized techs can touch their cards. Anyway I had an idea at work: for some reason they issued a new account when I moved. Shouldn't the card # be on the old account as the Tivo worked at my old address? I called again and after some digging they found the number on my old account, switched accounts, and activated it. So now we have HDTV again! Problem is, that number on the card is listed as a HD digital box in their system according to the CSR. We still have to have a tech come over Saturday to verify that it is, in fact, a cable card and we are not ripping them off or something. Sigh. Oh well, at least we have our HD and premium channels again.
Update 3:10/21/2009
Got a $500 bill for unreturned equipment a month or so ago. It was the Cable Card listed in their system as a digital box. Got it straightened out with a visit to the local office. Everything's been fine for awhile now. Speeds drop big time weekday evenings, and I never get close to 10 mbps that I pay for (it's normally around 6), but I've seen worse. The service has only gone completely out once, and that was due to someone not calling before they dug, so I can't fault Mediacom for that. Took about 12 hours to fix. So everything is finally going okay, I just hope nothing else goes wrong because I still have nightmares about the customer service.
Followup comments:  
cameronsfx
join:2009-01-08
Pensacola, FL | Consumer Tip Never allow automatic payments unless with a CC.
MediaCom is here and everybody says they really suck. | |
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bionicRod
join:2009-07-06
Jefferson City, MO
 ·Mediacom
| Re: Consumer Tip Actually when I called my bank they said if it was a credit/debit card they couldn't have put a stop payment on it. I would have had to dispute it and give up even more of my time. And Mediacom does suck terribly. We had another appointment with them Wednesday, they were two hours late (2 p.m., appt was supposed to be from 8 to noon) and then they went to our old house (where we moved from). Finally they showed up after a phone call. They couldn't get the purple lines off the tv, but we eventually figured out that if we use HDMI cables instead of components it doesn't happen, so that's okay. They also got my other non-hd box working; the tech that installed it never had them 'hit it'. Frustrating, but hopefully we won't ever have to call them again.  | |
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bionicRod
join:2009-07-06
Jefferson City, MO
·Mediacom
| Re: Consumer Tip Thanks for the tip, but I'm still glad I didn't use a credit card. I would've had to challenge it, which could have taken a while and screwed my finances in the meantime. This is the same as a check, they just issued a stop payment, no muss no fuss. Same day service. | |
| MediacomJoel
join:2009-10-03 | Let me help you! Gentlemen, I'm available if you need assistance! | |
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bionicRod
join:2009-07-06
Jefferson City, MO | Re: Let me help you! Thanks Joel, but after a couple of months things are going smoothly. If I ever have a similar experience I'll be sure to look you up! | |
| | | MediacomJoel
join:2009-10-03
| Re: Let me help you! said by bionicRod :Thanks Joel, but after a couple of months things are going smoothly. If I ever have a similar experience I'll be sure to look you up! I'll be here and ready to help sir! | |
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