 Review by Maggs 
UPDATED: 13 days ago
member for 5.9 years, 1874 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Woodside,Queens,NY
 $130 per month (12 month contract)
 about 65 days
 "Stable Service"
 "Phone service drops out for 20 seconds randomly yet remains connected!"
 "Good Service after bankruptcy, but just watch your bill"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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10/2008: I had a problem with RCN, as noted by the newspapers with them charging for the 1st basic cable box which is free. I had to haggle with them for 2 months to fix it, but it was resolved after a complaint to NYC DOITT. Made my mother feel like a dope at the Woodside office, but you don't get good employees sometimes. Sludge happens!
4/20/2008: Haven't had any problems with RCN yet, except for the DNS, which is easily remedied by changing DNS servers, and the 20 second dropoff in phone conversations. The price has increased due to the cable programming being jacked up. With the introduction to all digital TV next year be prepared to pay another $7 a month for extra converters. Speeds on the internet service exceed spec most of the time. RCN forum support folk are awesome, they must really like their jobs. Inept construction crews decide to slice through RCN fiberoptic cable at times making internet service use a PITA at points, but that's very rare, but it happens. Con Ed sometimes decides the nodes don't need power in the summer, and they go offline during brownouts due to things outside RCN control.
All in all there's decent service, the 20 second dropoff in the phone at random times is something I still have to check out.
1/12/2006: RCN has GREATLY improved. The service has gotten immensely better since they have a new management team. You know what they say about fresh blood, it does all the good.
I had a couple of hiccups with the phone service lately, outages for a couple of hours but nothing really major. Cable modem service runs exceptionally well, and I haven't had ANY issues with my Motorola Surfboard 5100 modem, which I own, and save $5 a month with RCN.
Overall customer service, is very helpful, but you have to watch out to make sure they are doing things according to spec. Kudos to the cable modem team, for running a tight ship. I like the responsiveness of replies, and have helped the Cable modem team on occasion diagnose some issues in the area.
All and all, RCN is now worth the money, I only pay $115 for 2 TVs, Internet, and local phone.
1/10/03: I have had 7 techs out since I started service in Sept. They replaced the lines and everything. I even bought my own modem to use on the network. I was not able to get a solid cable light for 3 months in a row. At this point, it seems to be fixed. I had to end up going alll the way to the top of the RCN food chain to get my problems resolved. I just got a call recently from the operations manager of the RCN netowrk in Queens. They are monitoring my connection to make sure I don't have any downtime. I had constant downtime for 2 weeks a while back.
They blocked my node from accessing Newsgroups, and still charge me full price. I talked to RCN support and they said they would credit me 1 month of cable internet service for all the troubles I have had over the past 5 months, and that has not happened. So this company is full of broken promises and half truths. If you have a good connection with them, you are lucky. If not, like me your experience will be utter hell. I hope they don't raise the rates too much whe my year deal is up. If they do, I will complian about how horrible the service has been since the get go.
They send us advertisements offering new services, but we are already customers and not eligible for the promotion, so why waste the paper and send us the mailings.
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Doctor Ping Score 69.20
Doctor Ping Score 63.80
Doctor Ping Score 64.60
Doctor Ping Score 68.70
Doctor Ping Score 102.80
Doctor Ping Score 59.60
Doctor Ping Score 63.70
Doctor Ping Score 75.10
Doctor Ping Score 73.30
Doctor Ping Score 70.00
Ever since that point on Sept 26th, I have never has so many problem with RCN cable.
I have to admit their bundled package was cheap, 2 TVs with basic cable (no converter needed) saves $6 a month each, Local Phone with same # as before for $20 unlimited to the 5 boroughs on NYC, regional 5c a min, no Long Distance (since we use cards to call LD anyway)
Total for the whole package with a base of $75 comes out to $95 with the $20 the govt gets in taxes. All and all , I think this is a great deal.
My old bill was for $150 with all the mentioned stuff. I even save $5 a month by using my own cable modem which I bought on Ebay for $50, the same type as TW the RCA 245R.
Great Choice if you have it in your area, but only in the 2 way cable modem markets though.
5000/800 Down /Up speed
4 emails (con need to be called into the head office to setup)
10 Mb webspace per mailbox
Usage checked for mail and ftp
7/18/04
Routing issues are a constant pain. Sometimes it takes 3 mins or more to resolve the DNS. I have had 3 cable modems on this line since install about 10 months ago. I have had over 15 techs out to my house to fix various problems. Many of these issues have not bee resolved to this day. If I were you I would stick with TW, much more expensive, but hey you get what you pay for, but in the case of RCN, you DON"T get what you pay for.
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