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Review by beachintech 
UPDATED: 2 days ago
member for 1.8 years, 349 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Ocean View,Sussex,DE
 Business customer
 $450 per month (60 month contract)
 about 30 days
 "Only high speed option in the area. They have worked with my business to increase our capacity and run other specialty services."
 "Reliability has been an issue for the last 5 years."
 "For this area, they are the only high speed option. I just wish their reliability were better."
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Having looked at DSL, T1, T3, Fiber, and other sources, Cable came to be the only cost effective solution for a 50 PC and 6 Console Game Center. Mediacom has worked with us over the years to provide a better and more reliable service to the best of their ability. I do not blame my local techs for mediacoms poor service. I blame their superiors for not giving them the tools to do their job more effectively. We currently run 2 RCA modems that we were forced to upgrade to from Motorola Surfboards. They have faired well, but I miss my motorolas. We have a 10/1 service now, which started as a 3/1 5 years ago. We had a bit of a delay from ordering to installation because of it being a new business buildout in an uncommon area. In the end, everything worked out however.
Followup comments:  pabster
join:2001-12-09
Waterloo, IA | Please specify your contract cost... May want to specify your contract price to give folks an idea of the difference in cost between residential and business services. | |
| beachintech
There's sand in my tool bag
Premium
join:2008-01-06
USA
clubs: | Service Cost I had entered it, but it seems when I checked it was for a business it removed the price. It should be fixed now.
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Tech at the Beach. | |
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Review by stvnbshp
Posted: 3 days ago
member for 21 days, 11 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Jefferson City,Cole,MO
$49 per month
"Fast when it works"
"Getting a repair man to fix the problem...good luck"
"Mediacom Cable Internet theoretically is great...Realistically not so good!"
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November 17, 2009
So the first few months were not too bad. Only an outage every once in awhile and usually when a storm was in the area. When I would call tech support I would always get a message that there was an outage in the area so I would hang up without speaking to a tech and a couple hours later the service would return. I believe only 1 time did I ever talk to a tech support person. Until.....
Fast forward to 3 weeks ago. On Thursday we had strong winds and rain in the area. Came home on Thursday night and expected to have no internet. Internet was slow and intermittent but I figured it was just the storms. Friday night no internet at all for several hours and when it would come up would last about 3 minutes and be as low as 76 kbps. The service is supposed to be up to 8 mbps. Saturday morning still very intermittent and slow. Saturday afternoon I called tech support because it was totally out and got the message again that there was an outage in my area but I decided to talk to a tech who proceeded to tell me that there was no outage in my area. The tech tried several things and suddenly it was working again so I hung up and about 2 minutes later it died again. I called tech support again because I happened to have another modem (a previous tech had told me it could be modem problems with intermittent issues) and wanted to try it. The tech could not get the internet to work at all to even try the modem so he scheduled a repair tech to come to my location in 2 weeks. Approximately 15 minutes after hanging up the internet was working again so I called back to have the modem switched out and just as the tech changed the MAC address in their system the internet died again. After waiting about 10 minutes the tech explained the steps to go through if the internet came back on again to finalize the equipment swap. The internet did come back on within the next 30 minutes so I did the equipment swap however it would not provision the new modem. So I called tech support again and was told that my signal was so low that the modem would probably not ever provision itself that I would be out of service until a repair tech could arrive sometime within the next 2 weeks. Miraculously on Monday evening it started working again but the speed was very slow, unstable and would die frequently. Two weeks later the tech misses his appointment on the day he was to arrive so I had to meet him the next day at which time he checks the cabling in my house, changes the ends on all the cables and decides to check the "tap" on the equipment on the pole. There he finds the problem. The "tap" is broken and is hanging by a single wire (as he explained it to me) and will have to be repaired by the maintenance department. I've now been waiting for the maintenance department to fix the problem for almost a week and have had no indication as to when it will be repaired. Meanwhile I'm paying for 8 mbps service and sometimes getting 1.5 mbps or less, sometimes more and even sometimes no service at all. I will probably have to cancel this service and switch to DSL because I believe in getting what I pay for. After all of the problems over the last month and still no end in sight, I'm not really sure it is worth it.
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 Review by stev32k
UPDATED: 10 days ago
member for 9.5 years, 4715 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Mobile,Mobile,AL
$30 per month
"I have connection most of the time"
"I have not had any real compliants about the internet in the past year or so"
"Their intro service is now 10 down and 1.5 up that's pretty good compaired to what they used to have."
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1/18/03 - The service continues to be extremely reliable. There have been about two or three outages of less than 1 hour each in the past several months(I haven't kept records). The speeds are also very stable I get 1440 - 1450 down and 119 - 125 up on every speed test regardless of time of day. The only time I've had to call tech support was to report an outage, and the wait times have been about 2 - 5 minutes each time.
I've had Mediacom HSI since they first started offering it in 1997 or 1998? Since Mediacom took over after the bankruptcy of @home the service reliability has improved a great deal. I'm not fond of the speed caps of 1,500 down/ 128 up, but I can live with that so long as the service remains reliable. Having said that I believe their service is on the edge of being overpriced. I now pay $87/month for cable plus internet and that is my absolute limit. If they have one more price increase I'm switching to DSL and buying a dish.
The few dealings I've had with customer service in the past year have been good experiences. The wait times were short - generally less than 5 minutes, and the people were pleasant. I haven't had the need to contact tech. support in the last couple of years so I can't comment on that area.
All this seems to be contradictory to the experience of others in different parts of the country. I'm not sure what to make of this situation. It seems that Mediacom knows how to operate a network or the service here would not be so good. The problems in other parts of the country have been going on for long enough that they should be fixed by now if it was purely a hardware/node loading problem. The fact that they have not been fixed makes me think Mediacom has a financial problem.
9/6/03
Just re-read my review above and find no reason to make any changes. Service is still very reliable but still somewhat overpriced in my opinion. The one notable feature is how steady the speeds are -- any time of the day or night, on or off peak - the speed test variations are very small. I can count on 1420 to 1445 down and 105 to 120 up every time. There have been a few outages this year, but most were storm related and did not last very long (a few hours).
8/27/2007
The service has deteriorated and the price has gone up. They advertised that the speeds were going up to 8,000 down, 512 up. I consistently 1,500 down, 230 up. I've asked three times to have someone check the line - twice no one showed up and they didn't even call to let me know they were not coming.
Service went out and it was four days before I could get any one to make repairs.
Overall if I had a choice I would switch ISPs in a heartbeat.
11/9/2009
Their service has improved a lot over the past year or two. I rarely loose the connection and when I do it's usually weather related. I now pay $29.95/mo for 10Mb down and 1.5 Mb up. That was unheard of a year or so ago.
Their cable TV service is another matter. It is the overpriced pits. I bought a new 58" plasma HD TV and almost cannot watch HD channels because of the constant pixelation and screen freezing. They force you to pay for dozens and dozens of channels whether you want them or not just to get the few you do want. Their cable TV repair service is also the pits. They cannot get a service man out to fix a problem in less than five days so you are stuck with piss poor TV for at least five days.
The service is so bad that I just downgraded my service to the lowest possible cost which is Broadcast basic. I refuse to pay for HD TV when I can't watch it.
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 Review by rfnut
UPDATED: 11 days ago
member for 7.5 years, 3433 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Fisher,Champaign,IL
$50 per month
about 2 days
"fast install time"
"No cable- No internet- No phone. What to do?"
"Very good service."
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Installation was quick and painless (despite it not working on my pc). I had the installer set it up with his laptop and it was fine so I sent him on his way. I figured it out in about an hour. (reinstalled all network drivers) and it was up and running.
After replacing nics and figure out networking and ICS, the service has only failed me one time Since install. It was my error (replaced nic) and I was able to quickly reregister. Only issue I have is with cable/internet combined. What do I do if I cant watch tv OR play on the computer when the cable goes out.
While speed does slow down at peak times, it is acceptable and I consider it to be part of the service. I had same issues with dial up. Try to get on a dial up at 8-10 pm. [update] Still the same. Speed tests are still showing 1.4M average DL. During peak it may drop to 1.2M. I aint complaining. Seems like broadband to me.
Still going ok same speeds no issues out of line with a normal ISP.
2003-9-23. Seems the speed has increased over the last couple of weeks. Also stability has stedily gotten better. Very little latency issues in the evenings. Overall I am very satisfied with the service
2004-3-1. New speeds rock. Regular speed test always around 2600 down and over and over 200 up. Love it! Had some issues during the transition but they where quickly resolved.
2005-1-24. No new news.all is good.
2005-6-2. New speeds are wonderful. Hope the DNS issue is resolved soon though.
2005-8-2 Went with their phone plan yesterday. Installer was quite professional. Replaced modem with an arris mta. Phone works well even while massive download, which seems to have also improved. Speed tests are still the same. He replaced all splitters which probably helped. We will see with time.
Cant say if the DNS issues was resolved. I do not remember if I stil have manual entries or not.
2006-4-5. No news is good news.
2007-1-20. Nothing much new. Faster speeds. Phone is more reliable than this time last year.
2007 -8-12. Still chugging along. No bad news. Speeds got better. Phone is more reliable than a year ago.
2008-4-1 No Aprils Fools jokes here. All is still good. Actually I would have to say it got better. I do not remember the last issue, knock on wood.
2009-5-6 Nothing new to see here. It just plain works.
2009-11-7. Still works.
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Review by wizard8917
Posted: 11 days ago
member for 21 days, 31 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Bagdad,Santa Rosa,FL
$230 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"none"
"unsatisfactory CS, shotty isp at best, feels like a jip."
"The connection is okay, if they weren't my only real option, I'd switch."
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none
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Review by bradleym
UPDATED: 16 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 2739 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Dunfermline,Fulton,IL
$76 per month
about 600 days
"Generally Fast and Reliable Internet. They actually have service here."
"Terrible TV offerings, Terrible Support and Service. Expensive."
"Fast connection out here in the sticks. Just pray you don't have to call support."
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Update 11/4/2009: I just canceled my Mediacom internet service. The recent price increase of the required $26/month 'antenna basic' television package was the straw that broke the camel's back. The service was fast but ultimately I had to choose a $35 6Mbit package over a $75 12Mbit package.
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Review by bringga
UPDATED: 23 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 695 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Brookings,Brookings,SD
Contract price not specified.
"none"
"slow speeds, If you don't live in an apartment go with the Fiber Optic internet that the City has to offer."
"crap"
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10/28/2009
Mediacom has been very helpful now for some reason to fix the speed and ping issues I have been having (unlike in the past). On 10/29 there is suppose to be a node split in my area to fix the issues. I hope this will finally fix the issues I have been having. If it goes to hell again in the near future I can only hope that the local phone company can figure out how to run dedicated fiber to apartment buildings. If/when they do figure it out I will drop Mediacom in a second.
9/23/2009
Asked for a status on my trouble ticket and they said that it had been closed and they will open another. Sent them a reply this morning and asked them how can you close a ticket when it has never been resolved. Also asked them what was on the ticket stating the reason to close it. No reply from them yet.
Here is my speeds from tonight.
Last Result:
Download Speed: 258 kbps (32.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 453 kbps (56.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
9/22/2009 Still Crap.
Minimum = 81ms, Maximum = 833ms, Average = 341ms
50 K download in the evening times. Pretty sad.
Last Result:
Download Speed: 312 kbps (39 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 460 kbps (57.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
1 year later.......10/20/2008
Last Result:
Download Speed: 4703 kbps (587.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 375 kbps (46.9 KB/sec transfer rate
Pinging yahoo.com [206.190.60.37] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 206.190.60.37: bytes=32 time=538ms TTL=49
Reply from 206.190.60.37: bytes=32 time=170ms TTL=49
Reply from 206.190.60.37: bytes=32 time=81ms TTL=49
Reply from 206.190.60.37: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=49
Ping statistics for 206.190.60.37:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 70ms, Maximum = 538ms, Average = 214ms
Great during the summer when the college kids are gone, crap when college is in session. Been like this every single year I have had mediacom.
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Review by Wikkedfin
UPDATED: 29 days ago
member for 1 year, 187 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Des Moines,Polk,IA
$75 per month
about 2 days
"Great Speed, Low Ping(Great for gaming), even works when the power goes out!"
"There are kinks that need to be fixed (The TV and Phone Services Stink!)"
"Mediacom is good for internet, TV and Phone services is NOT that great"
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I signed up for Mediacom MAX Online 20/2 Mbps, It was installed two days later on a Saturday. Mediacom waved the $60 install fee ( for screwing a cable into another cable on the house, what a joke ).
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 Review by bionicRod
UPDATED: 31 days ago
member for 137 days, 26 visits, last login: 5 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"
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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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Review by Ephyu
UPDATED: 31 days ago
member for 3.3 years, 64 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Valdosta,Lowndes,GA
$120 per month
about 3 days
"Fast, when it works, friendly, responsive phone support."
"Horrible stability, all non-phone support unresponsive and not helpful."
"If they didn't have a local monopoly, I'd have switched."
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I'd heard a few good things about Mediacom, and the initial price ($80/mo. for HSI, phone, and basic cable?!) drew me in. The install was fine, aside from the tech apparently used an incorrect splitter.
Been with them for about 3 years now, and I can say it ain't worth it any more. I just don't have another option within my budget. The prices have jumped (not only from loss of the initial price) to $120 a month in charges, and I've been informed that this will soon be reaching $150-160 a month. At that point, I might as well get a satellite package--I'm sure it'll be more reliable than what I get with Mediacom cable.
As far as the reliability goes, I get good speed about 90% of the time (~7750kbps, out of the stated 8mbps connection). The rest of the time, they are experiencing "network issues" and my speed will drop to below 1000kbps, or I'll be fully disconnected. The full disconnects happen every few minutes to a few hours, and last for only a few seconds on most occasions, though full outages, where everything (often including TV) drops for up to 6 hours, are at least a monthly occurrence, often weekly.
Phone support is almost always (I've only had two exceptions out of over a hundred calls) friendly and helpful, and seem to be willing to go further and further to assist you. It's also one of the few companies where you can call and always get a live person that speaks English as their native language (they don't outsource anything, as far as I can tell). However, the buck stops there, as all the local employees, with the exception of one tech, have been incredibly unhelpful. When I'm told I'll be called within 48 hours about an issue (which has been quite a few times), there is no attempt made to contact me. Most techs they send out will blame an issue on me, until I had them replace my modem and all wiring, including running a wire straight out my back door from the ONE splitter, to the tap. Now all the techs are just stumped or tell me nothing is wrong, even when I was having connection issues while giving them turn-by-turn directions to my apartment on their cell phone (which I don't think is the customer's job).
The call center for this company is the only thing professional about it, everyone else seems like a bunch of amateurs that are in way over their head, at least in Valdosta.
UPDATE: Just got the automated message about updating my review. It's all pretty much the same, the price just went up some more, and my service is still unreliable.
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