Review by Klarth  - Location: Joplin,Jasper,MO
- Cost: $120 per month
Good "Tech Support sometimes helpful"
Bad "Overutilized, overpriced, frustratingly slow to change"
Overall "Know what you're getting in to beforehand..."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
What can be said about MediaCom that hasn't been said already? I've been a customer for nearly two years now after moving to Joplin, MO. Despite all the great help given on these boards by MediacomChad, I just can't get behind this company. The installation process was fine, but from the moment service started I was plagued by latency issues. Fortunately it was a signal issue that a technician was able to get corrected in a couple weeks time. From there things were still not as fast as my old cable ISP (Cox in Arkansas), but I could live with it, and it was a fair price given the first year promo pricing.
All that changed after the tragic tornado that hit the area on May 22. I had to call just to get a credit on my account for the 3 weeks that service was out, when you'd think they'd have taken care of that given the graveness of the disaster. After the three weeks and service was restored, I found that the speeds were much worse than before, to the point of being teeth-gnashingly slow at night. But, given the situation, there were much more important things to worry about and I was still in the one year pricing, so I let it go and just decided to be patient, despite things I enjoy like video-conferencing with family or occasional online gaming was no longer an option after 6pm, which is the only time I'm at home to use it anyway. Well now we're 9 months later, and nothing has improved. Calls to tech support have been futile. They once sent out a technician who blamed the speed problem on having two routers bridged together (spoiler alert: he was wrong). I try to be patient and understanding, but the price of service has now spiked up (around $100/month for TV/12mbps), and service outages are becoming more random and frequent. Occasionally I am given credits on my account when I call to complain, but not enough to make it even close to being worth the cost of this service.
I really want to give this company a chance, but even the employees who frequent these forums have to realize how frustrating it can be to come home after a long day just wanting to visit with relatives over Skype or watch a YouTube video, only to find that the cable is out and you have yet another letter in your mailbox begging you to switch to MediaCom's phone service. Oh, and the MediaCom apologist trolls that lurk around these forums. Those suck.
All that said, if you have the service and it works up to speeds advertised, it's worth the money. If you have a problem, you may be in for a world of hurt. They aren't an evil company--no more than other Internet providers, but they could be so much more if they invested a bit more money in infrastructure to make their customers a bit happier.
On the plus side, in the 30 minutes it took to write and proofread this review, my 10 minute YouTube video finally finished buffering.
Update 2/26/2012:
After missing a few "fix" dates, the Joplin area was switched over to new fiber and it looks like the situation is finally resolved as connection speeds are stable at all hours. I will keep updating this review as time passes. Building back trust from the users in this area will be a gradual process, but I'm hopeful that things will remain stable into the future.
Update 2/29/2012:
And like that, it's gone back to Mediacom's same old tricks of unusable connection speed at nights. Apparently they have another "fix" scheduled in another month, and who knows how many more times that will be missed (again).
Update 6/3/2013
After over a year, Mediacom's service has improved. There's still an occasional frustrating outage every so often where you can't even call to complain because they shut off their phone system, but a couple messages to their social media team will usually get you account credit for the downtime. We are now looking at moving out of these apartments to another part of town. The Joplin metro area is carved into two cable fiefdoms, one run by Mediacom and the other by CableOne. With today's news that CableOne is taking a less aggressive tone with caps (and impressive speeds unlike MC), they are going to be a huge factor in where we relocate to. Right now I'm paying $120 for TV/12mps Internet, and I'm locked into this price since I'm on their grandfathered data plan. I'd love to move to their 50mbps plan with an adequate cap of 1tb, but nope, not available here.
Never thought I'd see the day when the ISP that brought us 50mbps service with a 50gb cap and 50cents/gb overages would be the superior option, but there you go...
member for 8 years, 1296 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 124 days ago
Comments:
 | | Cedar Rapids, IA Embarrassingly Awful Customer Service. The absolute worst.  | |
|  | seanb
join:2012-02-02
Harvest, AL Reviews:
 ·Mediacom
| Re: Cedar Rapids, IA having worked tech support and gone from a job doing that straight to managing an enterprise (with the same knowledge i had at tech support, so you can imaging my frustration) i can say that no matter how bad you hate the job, its still YOUR JOB. if you cant at least feign an interest in the customer, at least dont be combative or argumentative. every time i called their tech support, they suggested it was a computer problem of mine. trust me, its not. at one point i even stuck a Fireberd analyzer from work on the line and told them what it was saying, but they didnt understand that anyway.
just avoid this place, seriously. | |
|
 MediacomChadMediacom Social Media Relations TeamPremium,VIP
join:2010-01-20
Gulf Breeze, FL
kudos:82 | Klarth I have been in touch with the area network engineers. They are working to move traffic over to an additional higher capacity fiber bunch to correct this issue. | |
| Klarth
join:2005-09-16
Joplin, MO Reviews:
·Mediacom
| Re Just as a followup and so that everyone knows, Chad has been supportive with all my problems and he's probably the sole reason I give any credit to MediaCom's tech support (Between here and their Twitter feed, there's really fast responses for most little problems). It's a stark contrast between what you find through these online resources and the fellows in India who you get on their 800 number. It's just too bad when I need to contact them it is because my Internet is out. But again, at the end of the day, it's still the fact that it's been nearly nine months with nigh-unusable service. I really do look forward to the day when not only can I amend my review, but the many others who post reviews (and some who unfortunately register here for the sole purpose of writing a negative MediaCom review) can have a better opinion of this company. | |
| | seanb
join:2012-02-02
Harvest, AL Reviews:
·Mediacom
| Re: Re I can ammend my review in adding $242 for a termination fee was worth it. Just dropped off my modem and finalized it.
Chad: find a job for a company where you can make a difference! I've seen your name here a few times. Take it to somewhere that's not a stark contrast to your apparent work ethic and bravado. | |
| | | Reviews:
·Mediacom
| Re: Re said by seanb:I can ammend my review in adding $242 for a termination fee was worth it. Just dropped off my modem and finalized it.
Chad: find a job for a company where you can make a difference! I've seen your name here a few times. Take it to somewhere that's not a stark contrast to your apparent work ethic and bravado.
Wow, no way would I pay any termination fee to a company that failed to provide the service they were already paid for. I would have told them to stick it. | |
|
| | review Mediacom is a company without a face. If you don't mind talking to a recorder, and making numerous trips to the office - ten miles away (for me) - with equipment that repeatedly does not work, then this is the company for you!
I will be moving to AT&T as soon as I can!! | |
| | MediacomChadMediacom Social Media Relations TeamPremium,VIP
join:2010-01-20
Gulf Breeze, FL
kudos:82 | Re: review Bub & SaMm2010,
I'd love to look into any problems you are having and work to get this resolved as soon as possible. This is not the type of service you should expect and would be happy to get this worked out for you and make sure your service is up to your expectations. If you want to send me a personal message on here with your telephone# or MAC address I can get back with you on this immediately.
--
MediacomChad
Mediacom Social Media Relations Team
»mediacomcable.com/CustomerSupport/ | |
|
SaMm2010Premium
join:2011-01-18
Edenton, NC Reviews:
·Mediacom
| comment This company is the worst of the worst, they will oversell the service and never fix it. It's been 1 year and a month and my internet is still slow during peak hours and weekends, I most times can't game online with my friends that have good internet, so all I can say is if you have mediacom as your internet provider better have a good supply of single player games you will need them. | |
| | Reviews:
·Mediacom
| Re: comment said by SaMm2010:This company is the worst of the worst, they will oversell the service and never fix it. It's been 1 year and a month and my internet is still slow during peak hours and weekends, I most times can't game online with my friends that have good internet, so all I can say is if you have mediacom as your internet provider better have a good supply of single player games you will need them.
I'm 3 years into oversold service. I SO wish there was another choice here and I never had to be a MC customer again. | |
|
| |
|
