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Review by stvnbshp 
Posted: 3 days ago
member for 21 days, 11 visits, last login: a few hours 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!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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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 bringga
UPDATED: 24 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"
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings below consensus)
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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 bionicRod
UPDATED: 31 days ago
member for 138 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"
| Pre Sales information:
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(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. | |
| |
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! | |
| |
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: 32 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."
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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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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Review by Caffeinated
Posted: 94 days ago
member for 95 days, 1 visits, last login: 94 days ago
Madison,Madison,AL
$100 per month
"They have a 20Mbps package."
"From about 5pm til midnight, my speed drops to 1-3Mbps"
"Would not recommend"
| Pre Sales information:
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I have filed many complaints regarding my speed issue. I was told by one tech that came out to inspect my line and modem (the 5th one because I keep compaining that my speed dropped to 1Mbps) that they only promise "up to 20Mbps". So, realistically I guess with just 1Mbps, they are fulfilling their end of the contract. There is no SLA unless you pay for a business line, and then they only garuntee up to 7Mbps.
My only other option, besides DSL, is with Knology. I wont get a 20Mbps deal, but if they can keep me at decent speeds during high traffic hours, I'll be happy.
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Review by dreamtheater
UPDATED: 95 days ago
member for 4 years, 208 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Apache Junction,Pinal,AZ
$78 per month
about 1 days
"UPGRADED TO BROADBAND MAX."
"Techs are STILL outcasts from the State Prison."
"UPGRADE TO BROADBAND MAX!"
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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UPDATED 02-05-2009:
UPGRADED TO BROADBAND MAX (20,000/1500)
FOLLOW UP, AUGUST 18, 2009:
LOSS OF CONNECTIVITY IN PAST 2 WEEKS UNACCEPTABLE, AND TECHS DO NOT COME TO PHONE, A STUPID MESSAGE IS ALL WE GET. SPEED DROPPED 3 TIMES IN PAST 6 WEEKS TO NEAR DIAL-UP SPEED, TECH SAID I HAD 2 IP ADDRESSES!!! MORONS!
AS OF TODAY, SPEEDS NEAR 19 DOWN AND 1500 UP FOR A FEW DAYS.
NEXT: continued from previous post.
Since I do not use a router- they made the speed change WITHOUT a technician. Speeds in local area ALWAYS 20Mb or above, and uploads are consistent 1400Kbps. Did several benchmarks, including using IE7 to download Movies simultaneously, and successfully maintained over 500Kbps on 4 downloads!
The increase in price- small change, because I can stream High Def movies. The phone techs are STILL dreadfully stupid. A power outage in the Cable system takes them forever to locate, after running me through rookie resets of the modem.
However- loss of Internet has occurred only twice. The following is from previous review. I do recommend using this site's free tool to tweak your PC if you have XP- the results can be staggering.
Considered Qwest bundle- speeds too low. I ordered 5000/256 for 1 year at $39.95. My Modem became unusable as they upgraded. I bought a compatible
modem. I also DO NOT NEED WIRELESS to connect to X-Box and PS3! I simply
run my long Ethernet cord, plug it in, reset the modem- and boom!!!
The techs are scary.
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Review by Fulci
UPDATED: 112 days ago
member for 2.8 years, 556 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Excelsior Springs,Clay,MO
$130 per month
"Dependable internet service, phone service has vastly improved"
"Cost, channel selection, quality of video, etc."
"If you live in a lowly populated area without many options, you could do a WHOLE lot worse."
| Pre Sales information:
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I've had Mediacom for roughly four years I would say. The initial install went really smoothly aside from a minor hiccup in which the install crew had been told I had an already installed Ethernet card, which I in fact didn't. However, they gladly installed one and it was really no trouble. The men who came to do the install were very knowledgeable and very friendly. I was up and running within a couple hours at what then was 1.5/128 speeds.
Since then my connection has been pretty stable and rarely has connection problems been an issue. I usually get pretty close to the advertised speeds. I can only recall two or three time during in all the years I've had them that I've had intermittent service for a lengthy period of time and typically it was resolved in a timely manner.
Over time Mediacom has increased the speeds from 1.5/128 to 3/256 to 5/256 and then just recently 8/512 for their standard service. However, I've noticed that the 512 upstream has been bumped back down to 256 for whatever reason. That is not to pleasing as I was pretty ecstatic about the upstream increase as it had been a long time coming in my opinion. An upstream of 256 just doesn't cut it in this day and age and for someone like me who runs a website and constantly needs to upload files through FTP, it becomes a bigger hassle than it really should be. Although 512 isn't a blazing fast upload, it's still a noticeable difference and I am going to be pretty disappointed if this doesn't come back.
I am aware that there is a Max service that offers 15/1 speeds, however I am not completely all right with having to pay an outrageous installation fee for wireless which I already have set up myself and for them to do nothing but switch out a modem and push me a config file. That just seems like a waste of money.
Overall, my time with Mediacom has been an all right one. I feel they are a slight step behind other cable providers when it comes to speeds, however for living in a small rural area...I could do a whole lot worse than them.
UPDATE 04/11/08:
The upload speed has long since been pushed back up to 512 for basic service. It's been rock solid ever since in upstream. However there has been a degradation on the downstream side of things. During evening it's rare to exceed 3 Mbit when I am supposed to receiving near 8 Mbit speeds and there has been off and on drops in the connection over the past few months to go with it. So I've knocked them down a notch in the connection reliability and services rating.
A couple months ago we were set to receive installation for their telephone service, however the installer never showed. We had scheduled it two weeks prior to the install date over the telephone with a sales representative. I never called back to see what happened, however I assume they never even filed a work order or processed anything since they never called about it. Their loss. I didn't feel like dealing with the headache to get someone else out here and have to take the whole day off again to wait on them. So again, I've knocked them down in the Install Co-ordination category.
Basically as of this moment, Mediacom is pretty much a below average ISP that charges incredibly too much for the "services" they "provide".
UPDATE 02/18/09:
Since the last update we have gotten our phone service through Mediacom. It took a second try and this time a crew actually showed up to do it. In retrospect I wish they hadn't because the phone service has been less than impressive and here in Excelsior Springs at least it seems to be a consistent issue. I don't know how many times I've had to reboot the modem to just get the phone back online or worse yet that the phone service has gone offline completely for hours on end. The last outage was less than a week ago and the service, both internet and phone, were down for roughly 12 hours. That's ridiculous. We tried calling through our cell phones but any number we tried gave us a busy signal. Stay away from phone service if you're in this area because you're likely to see it go down every one to two weeks and typically for an extended period of time.
As for the internet service, when it's up...which aside from the massive outage last week, it's usually pretty decent. I don't notice any slow downs and downloads go pretty fast.
I have to keep the ratings the same because they haven't done anything improve my view the company and their quality of service. Getting through to customer service is still a hassle, too much money for sub-par performance, and the phone service is nearly unacceptable.
08/01/09:
It looks as if Mediacom got their act together a bit concerning their phone service issues here in the area. After more than a fair share of headaches, the past 3 or 4 months have been rock solid. I actually can't remember the last time it was down other than when the majority of the problems were occurring at the beginning of the year.
Basic internet service subscribers recently saw a speed boost on the upload end of things. They've raised the previous cap of 512 to 768, which is nice but as always Mediacom is more than a step behind most major cable providers when providing high end speeds. However, being a provider that serves mostly rural areas, you really can't complain too much about that. The transition from the previous upload speed to the new one has been smooth with no drops in speed unlike the last time they upgraded and temporarily had to roll back the speeds. So maybe they learned their lesson in that case too.
I've bumped the "connection reliability" up a notch for the time being. Everything else remains the same, including the "services" category as the channel selection for cable television is incredibly weak.
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 Review by jomama
UPDATED: 127 days ago
member for 7 years, 788 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Iowa City,Johnson,IA
$62 per month
"additional nodes have alleviated a lot of jammed up router blades at the headend"
"no discount for owning modem, leased data only modems not state of the art"
"High employee turnover plus apathetic management means mediocre service."
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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Been online with Iowa City's cable modem service since it's inception. (1999)
TCI launched service shortly before selling out to AT&T.
Then along comes Mediacom. The nicest thing I can say about this company is that they did a good job of choosing which markets to get into based on lack of competition. Qwest isn't posing a formidle challenge with their slow expansion of DSL service area and aren't winning any customer service awards either so unless you are fortunate enough to live in a community with a robust telecommunications co-op, Mediacom is probably your only choice. If you aren't technically savvy enough to fully understand how your computer is connected to the internet and have to depend on Mediacom's customer service for info, good luck. If the long phone hold time doesn't burn you up, the heavy handed "upgrades" to things like DNS servers that don't go as planned will.
Yes the service is more consistent than the @Home days, although I suspect I miss an outage or two simpIy because I don't live online and don't use Mediacom for video service anymore due to nonstop price hikes, mediocre picture quality, channel selection and lack of a complete HDTV package (including the local affilitates) (which come in great and FREE with a properly installed antenna and HD tuner)UPDATE May 2007 Hey you get all the local HD channels now only a year or more after they were on the air and after the KGAN debacle that I believe all you video subscribers are now paying for congratulations.
New Motorola modem finally got me the speeds I was paying for. Only way I found that out is by reading this board. Don't count on Mediacom giving you any kind of heads up that changes made by them by render your equipment obsolete.
Biggest beef is that if you don't order video service with your data service you pay an extra $10 premium. Most companies work it the other way around, discounting prices as you order more services, not adding on to the base price if you order less. I'll be curious to see what happens as telephony service is launched, putting more traffic on the return path and sapping what little competent brain power Mediacom employs from the data side of the business. Wonder if they will use the customer as their status monitoring device for telephone the way they do for cable and data? Might be a bit difficult to call in and report an outage on that dead cable line Mediacom doesn't see fit to monitor with any of the SNMP interfaces available on the equipment in it's headends or in-field power supplies. There are plenty of power supplies in Iowa City and the surrounding counties with no battery backup, so take your own chances with phone service.
2007 update: phone service has been up for a while now and I still maintain that you are taking your own chances with cable telephoney. My neighbors gambling on the big signup discount are not without their dropped calls, and complete lack of service after any power outage longer than 15 minutes. Issues I have never had with Qwest.
Battery backups are only as good as the scheduled maintenance they recieve and when you can't get anybody to stay on staff for more than a year to get any type of competence preventative maintenance is the first thing to let slide.
In conclusion, Mediacom will do the absolute least to give you the bare minimum, in my biased opinion.
Up UP date July 2009: still no competition outside of the city limits so Mediacom continues to get my money for internet access. Speeds have been consistent but suffer during peak times like right after school from 5-8pm. from what I see from the local office any techs worth a hoot run out of that place as soon as a better offer comes along so be prepared to be at the whims of the contractor of the month. Mediacom is happy to be in markets where there is little competition and won't be changing their modus operendi as long as Rocco and his seester run the show.
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 Review by BrotherCool
Posted: 172 days ago
member for 172 days, 7 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Duenweg,Jasper,MO
$120 per month
"Good, Speedy Internet..."
"...Everything else. Complete disreguard for offering HD in my service area."
"Do monopoly laws apply when you have only one cable provider choice?"
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings well below consensus)
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Their HSI is the only good thing about this company.
CSRs are idiots, CSR managers are just as clueless, and I know more than the tech they send out.
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Review by mlk18
UPDATED: 184 days ago
member for 184 days, 3 visits, last login: 170 days ago
Brookings,Brookings,SD
$40 per month (month by month)
"When it worked bandwidth was okay"
"Constant outages and issues"
"There are better options available for less money"
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(ratings below consensus)
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When Mediacom was the only game in town I was willing to put up with a lot of crap. For example it took 3 attempts and over 30 days from the initial installation until I had semi-reliable service. Once internet was operational my cable television service went out. Another service call and my television was repaired but internet began to drop again. The service tech told me "off the record" to just unplug my modem, drag the coax wire across a metal object and to screw it back in to the cable modem. He then added "this happens a lot because they use really cheap cable and it's not properly grounded". I repeat, the Mediacom service technician said this to me. Eventually I was able to have fair broadband service and fair television service at the same time.
Then after a year or so my entire community began to suffer from an unexplained and unannounced outage 2-3 times a month. These outages would last anywhere from 12 hours to 2-3 days. All the customer service reps would tell you was that they were working on it. Soon the outages stopped and the bandwidth slowed to a crawl. We finally had reliability but Mediacom accomplished this by dropping speeds from 500-1000 kbps to 150-200 kbps. The CSR's would advise they everything was operating normally and it must be my computer. I began a campaign of taking screen captures of settings, speed tests, etc. on multiple computer at my house, friend's houses, etc. After sending 25 pages of documentation to them they responded by telling me that no one else was having these issues so it must be my computer. Except everyone I knew was complaining. I asked every I knew to contact everyone they knew and to complain by email to the head of Mediacom for our area. He was bombarded by complaints and suddenly, without admission of fault, our bandwidth improved. Victory! Except my service started dropping constantly once again.
Bye bye Mediacom and hello Swiftel! The local phone company completed a 3 year project and brought fiber optic internet to town and into my life. I am 9 months in with my new ISP and don't have a single complaint. My bandwidth has never slowed, my connection has never been lost and my download speeds are phenomenal. If I had to give Mediacom and overall grade it would be a "D-".
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