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All reviews of RCN CABLE (cable)


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Six Month Rating

Reviews:
351 reviews (182 good) (81 bad)
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Review by Squ See Profile
member for 5.5 years, 38 visits, last login: 273 days ago
lodged 1.7 years ago

  • Chicago,Cook,IL
  • $100 per month
  • "Package pricing"
  • "You get what you pay for. Service quality is bad, customer service doesn't exist."
  • "If you can go with someone else, do it."
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

I've had RCN for several years now, and when I first subscribed, both Internet and TV were great! As the company expanded however, both service quality and level of customer support has dropped dramatically. Constant disconnects, freezing TV, long waits on hold for tech support, cable bill going up each month, etc.

As of 8/13/2011, I've been without stable Internet service for two weeks, even though a tech has been out to the house (and said everything is perfect) and I've been on the phone with them 5-6 times as well as posted on these forums (»[Connectivity] [Chicago] Intermittent Disconnects).. I've stated that I'm planning on leaving for one of their competitors the following weekend if the problem is not fixed, and they sounded like they couldn't care less on the phone. According to my neighbors (DePaul / Lincoln Park area) who have RCN, they too are experiencing the same issue, so it's not just my business they don't care about, it's everyone's..

The only other cable Internet provider in the area is Comcast, I guess they just got their self a new customer.

On the other hand, If you love a good headache, RCN is for you!

Comments:

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Review by misterd See Profile
member for 2.1 years, 11 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
updated 1.8 years ago

  • Chicago,Cook,IL
  • $39 per month
  • about 3 days
  • "Reasonable price for the advertised speed, no cap"
  • "Intermittent connectivity problem here and there. Can't rely on RCN for important work."
  • "Prepare yourself for random intermittent outage. Be aware that RCN loves to charge you $50 fee if you aren't on top of the game."
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)

== Update #3 7/20/11 ==
- There was a planned outage last week. It was scheduled ~midnight-6am. (I had to call RCN to hear a pre-recorded message, however.)

- It looks like they were upgrading their capacity in my building/area. Peak hour congestion problem seems to have been alleviated.

- There was a brief 5-10 minute midday outage on 7/19/11. This confirms my belief that if your work relies on internet connection (trader sysadmin. etc), it's either stay away from RCN or ALWAYS have backup connection ready when RCN goes down.

- Since I started using RCN Cable Internet, there have been at least 5-7 outages. I've been with AT&T in this building for at least 3 years, and there were just 1 or 2 outages, intermittent or planned. But AT&T is way slower and comes with usage cap, however.

- Bottom line : Peak hour slowdown problem seems to have been mitigated. Expect random outages with RCN. Since RCN doesn't throttle/cap your service, I believe RCN gives you good value for money comparing to other games in town. --- If your internet connectivity is important (i.e. it shouldn't go down during critical time), make sure you have a backup connection or stay away from RCN.

- *** BE CAREFUL *** I called RCN tech support on 7/19/11 with regarding to midday outage and was informed that they were aware of the problem and it was being looked at by RCN. I thanked the support guy and hung up. Apparently, he scheduled a tech visit for me on 7/21/11 during that conversation. I received a confirmation email + phone call from RCN next day and said that if I'm not home by the scheduled time, I will be charged ~$50.

- Not sure if it's intentional, but it seems like RCN loves to stick up $50 fee to customers. If you read my original review, tech support wouldn't admit that there was a problem on their side and insist that they send down a tech guy, but I will be charged $50 if there's nothing wrong on my end. -- Now they just signed me up for a random tech visit without informing me. -- Sound very much like a scam to me.

== Update #2 6/2/11 ==
Just as I thought things were getting better, I have been seeing intermittent connection drop since this morning.

Router still up, cable modem still up and stable, but it's just as if someone yanked the cable from their edge router.

== Update #1 5/5/11 ==
OK. It has been a month since I last reviewed.

Here's my conclusion :
- In my area, RCN has more subscribers than they can reasonably handle during peak hours. They are aware of the problem. New equipment that will supposedly alleviate the problem has been ordered, but no ETA was given.

- Worst download speed during peak hours was around 700kbps (on a 10mbps connection) and latency spiked up to 300+ ms with random packet loss.

- When network is not congested, I can easily maxed out the connection. Low latency, no packet loss.

- Physical connection (modem, coax, etc) is good. No problem at all. Had a fall for the "we'll send tech out, but if there's something wrong, you'll pay" trick, I would probably have to pay $$$ since there's nothing wrong but their oversubscribed capacity.

I almost ditched RCN. But since I was able to get an honest answer about its network, and know that at least they are trying to fix the problem, I'll give it a try for a few more months and ditch AT&T in the meantime.

If you need reliable connection (in terms of speed & latency) all the time, RCN in Chicago is probably not your best bet. During peak hours when there's a high latency & random packet loss, I have to switch to Verizon LTE just to get my work done smoothly.

Otherwise, I believe you can appreciate the fact that RCN is just about the only company left in the market that doesn't cap the connection. While RCN customer service at the 1-800 number is abysmal, there are some good RCN folks here on DSL Reports that can help and/or give honest answer.

== Original Review 4/4/11 ==
I decided to give RCN a chance (again) after AT&T announced their plan to put a cap on their DSL line this May. RCN rep informed me that their cable connectivity does not have usage cap, and does not throttle the speed.

Service was installed a couple of days later. The cable guy was courteous & polite. Since he didn't have to hook it up to a router, it took him less than 10 minutes to install everything.

Speed test on the first day, from both RCN speedtest site and SpeedTest.net, shows acceptable speed between 8-10 mbps (I paid for 10 mbps connectivity). Netflix HD streaming was super fast comparing to AT&T "6mbps" DSL which can only achieve ~4mbps. Basically, everything was great the first day.

However, from 2nd day on, 8-10 mbps is never to be seen again. The connection was so slow to the point that video quality was downgraded to a very bad resolution. Speed test (both RCN and SpeedTest.net) shows about 1-4 mbps download average.

I even tested the speed with the ISP that has direct peering with RCN in Chicago, and the speed was still abysmal. After 2-3am, you might see 8mbps once in a while. But that's when the entire condo building went to sleep and nobody's hogging the RCN superfast "fiber optic" connection.

Since 2nd day, I monitor my throughput primarily through m0n0wall interface, which is more reliable and give you better picture than SpeedTest.net or RCN's speed test. Yes, I did reset my router & modem several times. That includes powering it off and wait for 5 minutes.

Yes, I did connect my laptop directly to the modem and still get the abysmal speed.

No, I'm not using bittorrent. I only have a few VPN sessions to a corporate network for work, if you're looking for something that's out of ordinary.

So, basically RCN in 2011 is still the same RCN in 2008. Overselling service like crazy. I paid for 10mbps connection, and as I'm typing this review, my downloads are chugging along at 1.3mbps.

There's a reason this company went through bankruptcy protection.

Too bad there are only two choices in this building. AT&T and RCN.

Comments:
patt2k

join:2009-01-16

docsis 3.0

does RCN have docsis 3.0? getting Docsis 3.0 Modem usually helps a lot. I am on Time Warner (Road Runner) and it helped a lot people it's worth a try!
misterd

join:2011-04-03

Re: docsis 3.0

They do. But since I'm on 10mbps connection, they provided me DOCSIS 2 modem. Not sure if they're willing to give me DOCSIS 3 for this line.

GeoFCH

@rcn.com

Speed

Have you tried posting your encoded mac to the RCN forum? Or have there been anyone from RCN out to take a look?
misterd

join:2011-04-03
Reviews:
·RCN CABLE

Re: Speed

No, I haven't posted my encoded mac on the forum yet. Will do that soon.

--

As for having someone come out to take a look, I refused that option. The lady I talked to told me that if they found something wrong with my connection, I'll be charged $49. That's nonsense.

Now that everyone else in the building had gone to work, my modem speed is now back to normal and consistently maxed out at 10mbps. During the past weekend, my average speed was just 1-2 mbps.

I'm still very much convinced that they oversold their capacity in this building, and it's just a waste of time sending someone over here instead of upgrading their network.
misterd

join:2011-04-03
Reviews:
·RCN CABLE

4/4/11 update

Maxed out the connection entire day. Only to have the speed bogged down to 2-3mbps after 7pm when all the neighbors are back home.

RCN surely do oversubscribe their uplink capacity
JST

join:2011-05-20

Tried RCN for a couple months earier this year and gave up

Speed was excelent, but connection was not reliable (intermittent issues). Elimininated all complicating factors (modems, routers) and this was our conclusion
misterd

join:2011-04-03
Reviews:
·RCN CABLE

1 edit

Re: Tried RCN for a couple months earier this year and gave up

JST : Good that you have other option(s) to fall back to. Sorry to hear that you had to do the dance routine for tech supports. They would have saved lots of people from agony and suffering had they admit that it's from their network.

Speed-wise, there has been some improvement. But now my connectivity is now unreliable. It's as if someone is yaking out ethernet cable and connect it back every now and then just to annoy you.

Your IP is still there, cable connectivity is still there, it's just that you can't even reach RCN router.

It looks like things never change with RCN. This problem happened with me when I used them 3-4 years ago. Good job keeping your level of service consistent RCN!

Since loading up DSLReports.com to write this note, packet loss to 207.229.191.130 is about 15%.

P.S. I had to switch to Verizon LTE just to edit this post. The connection dropped as I was trying to edit it.
OlSaintNick

join:2011-07-31
Dekalb, IL

..?

That speed sounds disgusting.. Are you sure there aren't more options in your area? Is WOW in your area?

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Review by Raz3000 See Profile
member for 7 years, 304 visits, last login: 1.5 years ago
updated 1.9 years ago

  • Chicago,Cook,IL
  • $70 per month
  • about 5 days
  • "Excellent, reliable service in Chicago (20/2)"
  • "None so far"
  • "After three months of service, I could not be more satisfied"
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)

I jumped to RCN after 10 years of DSL, branded first as MSN then SBC Yahoo! then AT&T. I was always pleased with the rock solid reliability of my DSL service, and afraid to jump to cable. The need for high speeds forced my hand and I could not be more pleased!

RCN is an amazing provider, and should be your FIRST CHOICE in Chicago if you are fortunate enough to be served by them.

I have 20/2 service as well as unlimited phone, and I save 30% off the phone/internet bundle from AT&T!

Comments:

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Review by gvd See Profile
member for 2.3 years, 25 visits, last login: 301 days ago
lodged 1.9 years ago

  • Skokie,Cook,IL
  • $42 per month
  • about 45 days
  • "Once I got them to address the problem, no problems whatsoever."
  • "It took a month and a half to get them to fix the REAL problem."
  • "If it works, it's great! ...if."
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

My Other Reviews

·VOIPo
This review is for RCN cable internet service only.

Used to be an AT&T DSL customer, but with the new caps there's NO WAY I'm giving them a single dime. Since comcast has a similar cap, decided to go with RCN.

At first, RCN was a complete nightmare. I have VOIP service *not* through RCN, and they were constantly dropping packets. I still had my AT&T DSL line, and would switch between them to demonstrate the problem... AT&T DSL -- voip worked flawlessly. RCN DSL -- voip sort-of worked, but call quality was terrible and lots of breakups on OUTBOUND (my voice) side only.

It took a total of 45 days from first install and seven technician visits before RCN was able to resolve the problem. They replaced the aerial drop to the alley, replaced the modem, replaced the modem again, replaced the splitter, etc.etc.etc.

None of it helped. Turned out the root cause of the problem was the neighborhood switch. The techs mumbled something about switching from a motorola neighborhood switch (wrong term but I can't think of the correct one) to cisco gear.

So I kept my AT&T DSL line for over a month, because I need VOIP service to work. Once RCN changed the neighborhood equipment, all problems have magically VANISHED!

(...that's a good thing!)

It's been smooth sailing since that point. Once early saturday morning (4AM) I couldn't get an IP address, and around 6 or so I was able to again. (No, rebooting the modem didn't help.) RCN india tech support was absolutely clueless, but considering the times involved it sure looked like planned downtime / maintenance. RCN india decided to schedule a tech visit. Duh.

10 meg down, 800kbps up. Originally they gave me some no-name cable modem, but they replaced it with a motorola when I was having problems.

So I'd say plan on having two connections until the RCN problems get worked out. Once they do it's smooth sailing, but it was a rough go until that time.

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Review by driv22 See Profile
member for 2.4 years, 48 visits, last login: 5 days ago
lodged 2.1 years ago

  • 60642
  • $155 per month
  • (12 month contract)
  • about 3 days
  • "Quality of digital programming"
  • "Service interruptions"
  • "Good value for the services, would hope that the service disconnections would lessen, but still a good product."
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

Service is great when it works. Seems like when the weather is bad, I lose my Cable TV. Isn't that the reason to go away from Directv/Dish? Have not had any complaints about the Internet. Speeds are what was promised and that has only gone out once in 6 months. The hardware provided is top notch and like the features/options that RCN provides.

Comments:






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Review by Keith Baker See Profile
member for 2.2 years, 2 visits, last login: 68 days ago
lodged 2.2 years ago

  • Somerville,Middlesex,MA
  • $90 per month
  • about 10 days
  • "Very reliable once its setup correctly"
  • "Customer service is very nice, but bad for getting things done. Not particularly good about giving you $/feature matrix"
  • "Suck slightly less than most other providers I've used."
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

For 4 years I had 20mbps, Premier, Phone and a Static IP (not at this price). I wanted BYOM and I had my own TIVO.

1) RCN can't do BYOM and Phone yet they still charge you a modem rental - LAME

2) At the time RCN had some home networking deal (IE they provide the linksys) - it was in the package deal... in that case they DID provide two modems. However I wanted a static IP on MY equiptment which meant the linksys was not usable so I sent that back. They wouldn't do BYOM at this point, they'd only put the connection on the phone adapter (note, it was the linksys before this) - WTF guys?

At some point I noticed that HBO and Showtime were a line item on my bill. I called up and VERY specifically asked 'can I remove that without effecting my contract'. They removed it and then said 'by the way there is an ETF'... I said wait a minute, never mind, put it back. They were unable to do so. Once they hit that keystroke to put it in it was like there was no going back. They couldn't get me back in the contract, get the term length right etc. It took writing the better business bureau to get a very very nice RCN rep to call and straighten everything out. She got me back in the plan but couldn't reset the contract length, she did however note the end date in some notes and said to write her if there was every a problem with this.

Cable card install was pretty good although they only had single stream cards at the time which means I got charged for two cards (one m stream costs the same as two s cards - they should waive that if they are with the same host id).

At some point I had some cable card issues where they kept bringing up the diagnostics screen. Some reading at tivo's site told me that the cards were not paired correctly which only effects encrypted channels. I think the had just not bothered to encrypt before and now that they had turn it on some fluke of they initial setup wasn't right and my pairing was broken. It took a long time to convince the rep this was the issue and when I did it took almost a week to get it fixed because they couldn't change some field in their database for some unknown reason. They finally decided they needed a truck roll to fix it (WTF, its a database issue you idiots?). I posted on their facebook wall and someone in their social media group must have alerted the right people who fixed it without any truck roll.

-----------------------------------------------Recent Changes-----------------------------------------

We weren't using the phone line nearly enough to make it worth while and the bill seemed way too high. Plus they now have m cards. If I drop the phone I could go to BYOM and save even more.

Calling them up to figure out what your options are REALLY SUCKS. I kept getting agents that would tell me 'but your bundle is so great, you are 'SAVING' so much money'. By saving they really meant 'getting such a big number of dollars off the stupidly high price you'd be paying otherwise'... I tried to explain that paying less each month is my idea of saving money... they didn't get it.

I finally figured that I wanted to port the number to a VoIP provider that is purely minute based so I can still have the line but not pay except when I use it. I called RCN and even though my contract time has expired I would still loose the bundle deal when my phone ported away. However I was unable to pre-pick what packages I wanted and have it noted as 'what to change to when this ports'... and if I did the change to early the port might fail and I might loose the number. I had to call the day the port completed. Fortunately my new VoIP provider had a fantastic email system to let me know the port progress (RCN never called when the account changed).

I dropped down to the following (saving $50/month):

Premier Cable (on my own TiVO - mcard now)

10Mbps Internet (on my BYOM)

Static IP

(Phone is now on voip.ms)

The process... ugh. I got voip.ms up no problem, no human interaction, awesome! However RCN was much more work.

1) I bought a new Motorola Surfboard 6xxx series modem because I didn't want to be out of date in a few years. Turns out this did not work on RCN. It looked like their config was missing a parameter the modem needed. I swapped that out with a customer on Comcast who owned and older SB 51xx modem and we are both now happy. Besides all of the swapping around this was ok. Comcast modem change over was much easier though. Just plug it in, launch a browser and type in some account details - RCN you have to talk with people (who far too often screw up)

2) I tried to get them to swap the scards for an mcard (its an extra $1.50/month, but its the fact that they do it that pisses me off - they are in the same host, its the same thing, and all they end up doing is buying extra cards) - ugh. So the real problem was that they wouldn't just send me the cards in the mail or pick them up. They wanted to do a truck roll and the normal 4 hour window junk. I decided to wait until August when the FCCs 'you must allow CC self installs rule' to go into effect. However when I was returning my modem I asked for the hell of it and they told me I could walk in and swap them out - which is exactly what I was told I couldn't do over the phone. I traded them out and now I'm back to the pairing problem but I don't have HBO anymore so its just the annoying popup if I happen to click to that channel.

Suggestions when dealing with RCN (probably any cable company):

* Record ALL phone calls (in some states this is illegal without consent, aks for consent)

* Call between 9am and 8pm M-F to get local support people, they are much more capable than the Indian help desk.

* Tivo's website has good troubleshooting tips, you can get them to do the right thing sometimes.

* don't always believe the first person you talk to

I Wish:

* They would discount existing s card customers in one device - fixing this cost them and myself much more than it saved either of us in the end.

* They had an online support portal that you could put in all of your own equipment details - there is NO rocket science here. They can provision how many hosts & tuners, cable modems, phone ports you get and you could type in the id codes (though you should be able to add/remove things with a confirmation of cost changes). Thats really all of the info you need (and they still screw it up!)

* I want a web interface that I can set which services I get. Give me a list of channels, internet options and phone options. Let me click checkboxes next to what I want and tell me the lowest total cost for those things and show me what 'extras' I get in that price. If you want to show me two or three other deals within that range, please do... Don't make it a 50 questions game over the phone.

Comments:

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Review by ckmscott See Profile
member for 6.5 years, 64 visits, last login: 238 days ago
updated 2.2 years ago

  • Chicago,Cook,IL
  • $69 per month
  • (12 month contract)
  • about 12 days
  • "Tech support improving, reliability back to normal"
  • "Price"
  • "Has had problems but getting better"
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

I have been on RCN for almost ten years. I have the 10Mbps/1Mbps service. After a ton of problems a year ago, the service was dependable, but since mid-December I've had some problems. Lately, RCN has improved their tech support with more knowledgeable people and quicker turnaround time on service calls. A recent performance problem was fixed promptly and professionally. I am now happy with the service again.

Comments:
misterd

join:2011-04-03
Reviews:
·RCN CABLE

Ugh same problem here.

Just installed RCN last week in a wake of AT&T DSL cap announcement.

Speed test was great for just the first day (maxed out at 10mbps). Download speed is average 1-2 mbps. Yea, I might be lucky to see 7-8mbps at 2-3 in the morning.

Upload speed continue to max out at 700-800kbps.

These clowns seriously oversold their "fiber optic" capacity. I called the tech support and she tried to put a blame on my "firewall", "router", and my computer. Eventually she said she need to send someone in to take a look and if there's any problem on my end, there will be $49 charge on my account.

WHAT? It used to work great on the first day, and now 3 days later you're saying that there might be something wrong with my wiring? *sigh*.

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Review by scott523 See Profile
member for 7.4 years, 1481 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 2.3 years ago

  • Upper Darby,Delaware,PA
  • $88 per month
  • "Installation & connectivity (uncapped), connection."
  • "Prices, negotiations, downtime, cancellation."
  • "After at least 3 years, it was no longer worth staying with RCN."
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

This is a closing review of the service I had with RCN as I have switched to Verizon last week.

My services with RCN was Phone and Internet. Phone was unlimited long distance with several features and Internet speed was 10Mbps/800Kbps. At the time of installation, my speed was at 5Mbps.

Installation as far as I know were very easy for my services. A phone box will be in the basement, and it's best to have your own cable modem to avoid fees. At the time of installation, no software was needed to be installed compared to Verizon.

Throughout the years with RCN, the price for this bundle started around less than $70 (tax included) with promotion. It is now $88 (tax included). Since I was a "valued customer", it was set to go up "only" (as RCN had wrote me) $8 (instead of $21) next month. So bottom line, the prices are steep and negotiations are necessary for discounts. This is the reason why I switched to Verizon. Verizon was offering 15Mbps/5Mbps and long distance phone for $65 before tax, then $10 more after promotion plus no contract, there's no chance RCN can match that even their services are uncapped.

Connection reliability is pretty good. As usual, the speed won't be satisfactory during peak times but often acceptable. There will be unannounced overnight maintenance a few times a year, and other known technical issues will be announced over the phone prior to getting in touch with tech support. Tech support is 24/7 so you may encounter people from India.

Billing was accurate and understandable compared to a few years ago.

In conclusion, the slow improvement in services and prices was the result of my departure from RCN. Frequent negotiations with an ISP is something I don't want to put up with. It's not like I'm buying a car. It's the ISP's job to offer services at a reasonable price, not me.

Update1: I'm in the process of canceling service with RCN and thus far, my experience isn't great as I gave them nearly two weeks prior to my February billing cycle to disconnect my services and with January paid in full, I shouldn't be charged for anything really. Instead, they sent me a bill of $60 (for internet as phone was ported). Billing support informed me to disregard the bill as another bill (that's free of charges) should arrive next week. I'm wary that I might be in for a long fight for my $60.

Comments:

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Review by mjdanko7 See Profile
member for 12.7 years, 155 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
lodged 2.3 years ago

  • Bethlehem,Northampton,PA
  • $84 per month
  • (12 month contract)
  • about 9 days
  • "Speed, reliability,tech support"
  • "billing/sales coordination"
  • "keep records"
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)

I switched from SECTV due to promo rate expiring and no longer needing a landline. SECTV had a "who cares, just switch" attitude towards customer retention.

I had a 5mb/tv bundle installed for $54.99 per month with no install fees. Contract installer showed when promised(4 hr. window), took less than a hour. I have been extremely happy with the reliability only 1 short cable outage over the past year. All speed tests show slightly above contract speed.

However the billing/sales coordination needs serious help. 6 months into the contract (may) I was offered a speed upgrade $10 for 10mb plus extend current contract for 1 year. Nov. I receive a letter bill is going up $20 per month call CS "no problem just ignore it, your promo rate is in the computer" Of course Jan bill has the increase. call CS "we have no record of extended promo rate" 45 minutes later I have what they promised. Why make your customers fight for what you offer?



Comments:

dlconkey

join:2003-01-19
Chicago, IL

I can relate....

I've never been under contract and live in a high-rise (Chicago - Edgewater, lakefront) with a bulk extended basic cable. Intrestingly, my association simply bundled in the price but then started itemizing showing RCN's charge. I think either early RCN's price after the acquisition of now defunct 21st Century; the main reason RCN went through tough growing pains here and we were the last city AFAIK to get MACH 10, was much lower. The best at the time was "MACH 7.5". sorta... Anyway, what originally was around $7/mo, is now $25 or so just for cable. But admittedly, the programming has probably quadrupled after the digital switchover. The DCT-700 sucks, comcr, er, Comcast uses the same box. No decent audio and composite video. Good incentive to upgrade to HD I guess.

Long story short, I was paying $45 for MACH 10, on top of cable which is much higher people pay in the East. And that's a "negotiated price". Then my bill suddenly was $60 just for data. I said NFW and RCN instantly switched me back down, but was "promotional" and good for a year. No contract ever, but 12 months later, back up to $60. Again I said NFW and this time the "code" was no longer in the system. But the CSR put some effort into it and was able to throw two discounts in there. "Preferred customer" and something like "Promo discount" bringing the total down to $47. Still high, but I grabbed it. I figure as competition heats up, and if RCN can hold on, either I'll negotiate the price down each time, or maybe they'll upgrade me to MACH 20 as they introduce faster tiers, for the same price.

So yeah, keep records, read the bills!

To RCN's credit, I can pull a 10Mbps+ for the first time ever. u/l has always been reliably 750kbps or so.

Regards,

-=Dave=-
--
Dave, Chicago - Edgewater, @ the lakefront

{aka. Sneighke on the grid (Sneigke in some cases -- my license plate name }

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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain verizon.net)
lodged 2.3 years ago

  • Bath,Northampton,PA
  • Contract price not specified.
Services:
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I've had troubles with pixelating on my tv. for quite a while.  Have had problems getting a tech out to check lines.  I know it isn't my converter boxes because three neighbors are having the same problem.  Maybe if you upgraded your lines in our area we wouldn't be having this problem.  I spend over $130.00 a month for service that is so bad that we can't watch a show without major pixeling.  Maybe if a letter was sent to the FCC, PA. Utilites commission and our township office we might get this resolved.  If not,I just hope another cable company

(Service Electric) will be in our area soon.

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