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Review by apls918 
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
updated 2 days ago
 Cleveland,Cuyahoga,OH
 $112 per month "Easy to contact support, they are expanding service offerings." "Support has gone downhill recently. Reliability is below average." "Probably better than any competition in your area. Nothing special."
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They are worlds better than AT&T. However, I wish I could get FIOS. Past time warner experience was similar to WOW!. TW had worse support, but was more reliable.
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Review by hudiat
member for 121 days, 71 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 12 days ago
- Brook Park,Cuyahoga,OH
- $90 per month
- " Used to stand out as being one of the best. TV service is good, this review is for internet."
- "Unreliable connection. Tech support is basically useless unless you get supervisor."
- "Seems like every day something else happnes that makes me come back and lower my score."
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They are trying to become more up to date and modern with faster internet, digital transition, whole home DVR, and in the process also came up to date in service and reliability. WOW used to stand out as one of the best, great services, great support, etc... Nocompany w they are just another average cable company. Subpar support that seems to be the norm for ISP's. Good service offerings, but not the reliability to back it up.
Note: this is just for internet. If I could review seperately I would give a good review for TV service.
Comments:
 | | Average? This is a pretty negative review for average service. | |
| | | | Re: Average? Average doesnt mean equally positive and negative. It means on par with the competition. For me the competition is ATT and time warner, so I think it is in par with them. | |
| | | | | Re: Average? I was just curious. Before you updated the ratings, you gave a 26% lol. | |
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Review by ik9
member for 19 days, 3 visits, last login: 12 days ago
updated 13 days ago
- Northville,Wayne,MI
- $75 per month
 about 3 days- "Value is outstanding"
- "Limited choice"
- "Amazing alternative to Comcast in Michigan"
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I needed to downgrade my services from Comcast to only include cable TV and internet service. The best rate Comcast could provide was $104 per month. I have too many trees for satellite TV and it doesn't make sense not to bundle cable and internet for the discount. I checked around my area only to find one legitimate choice: Wide Open West (WOW). They are a privately owned company based in Colorado. Definitely the "little guy" compared to Comcast. They were able to offer me Digital Basic Cable (250 channels), 15/1M High Speed Internet cable modem ($5/mo), 2 DTA's,(no charge) 1 cableCARD (for my TiVo unit at no charge) for $75 per month. The woman who took my order (Vicki) was very helpful and was able to offer me discounts where she could. All of this was no contract too.
Installation went smoothly and the tech had to run a new line off the pole. He also installed a dedicated HSI line in addition to the cable. Total install time with 3 TV's was about 2 hours. The cable modem I am renting is the older Scientific Atlanta DOCSIS 2.0 model. The cableCARD is a Cisco Systems
Everything is up and running smoothly. The basic cable package also includes local channels in high definition. Even though I am a new WOW customer, I would recommend it to my Midwest friends. Their value compared to Comcast is superior. The only downside is they don't have a lot of different package choices. For example, if you wanted a faster upload speed on the15/1M HSI, it isn't available unless you jump up the download speed to 30M, which, of course, increases the price too.
If you are in the Midwest and searching for a cable TV alternative to Comcast, check out WOW!
01/28/2012: I replaced the WOW issued Scientific Atlanta cable modem with my own Motorola Surfboard SBV5222. It not only saves me $5/month but has also improved the internet connection.
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Review by Ambrnels
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 17 days ago
- Warren,Macomb,MI
- Contract price not specified.
- "Nothing"
- "I have to give WOW! a whopping zero stars."
- "This experience has left me with the feeling and knowledge that WOW! is nothing but a bunch of thieves!!"
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I have to give WOW! a whopping zero stars. My home caught fire and burned
down on October 31st. I called WOW! a couple of days later and was assured
that I would not have to pay for the equipment that was lost in the fire.
Today I was shocked to receive a $2800 bill. When I called and explained
the situation I was told Thats too bad.I was then informed that they
would not even waive the bill for the month after the fire, when I was
unable to use WOW! I lost everything, including my 2 dogs, and I feel
completely screwed over by WOW! Additionally, the equipment I am expected
to pay an exorbitant amount for was out of date and about to be replaced
with newer, energy efficient equipment. I am outraged that WOW! went back
on their word and how I have been treated in this situation. This
experience has left me with the feeling and knowledge that WOW! is nothing
but a bunch of thieves!!
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Comments:
NWOhio
join:2011-10-25
Toledo, OH | CSRs can NOT tell you that you will NOT have to pay for equipment. At that point you should have disconnected your services. Also with that you're insurance will pay for the equipment. And you agree up front that any unreturned equipment has fees and know what those are up front.
Sorry for your loss but that's how it works. | |
| | | That's a cable company for ya WOW could have at least only made you pay what their old crap is ACTUALLY worth.
I guess WOW really isn't better than the other cableco's...  | |
| | | | Re: That's a cable company for ya You signed when your services were installed and you like most others never read anything you sign. But when it turns out to not be in your favor you bash the company when in reality you should bash yourself for being an idiot.
So lets say that I rent some tools from you and before I get them back to you my garage burns down. Your logic would be to say oh thats ok you dont owe me anything since your garage burned down, have a good day!! LOL thats comical, hopefully you can see where wow is coming from, its just simple logic but I do see you live in warrentucky so that might say something about you already. | |
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Review by JTLENTERPRIS
member for 87 days, 1 visits, last login: 19 days ago
lodged 19 days ago
- Chicago Heights,Cook,IL
- $112 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 15 days
- "BETTER THAN COMCAST"
- "NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THE ARE DOING"
- "THEY SUCK"
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MY NET IS DOWN MORE THAN UP. THE SPEED IS GOOD WHEN IT WORKS. I HAVE WINDOWS 7 ULT, 64 BIT. I HAVE NO PROBLEMS WHEN THE NET IS UP, BUT IT IS ALWAYS DOW IN THE MORNING. AND MID AFTERNOON. THEY DON'T SEE A PROBLEM.
MY DIGITAL CABLE SUCKS TOO, THE PICTURE FLICKERS, VERY SHITTY, THEY DON'T SEE A PROBLEM THERE. THEY BOOSTED MY SIGNAL TWICE, NOTHING, SUCKS, I LEFT COMCAST FOR THIS CRAP. I AM GOING TO DTV, HAD THEM IN THE OLD HOUSE, NEVER HAD A PROBLEM, EVER.
Comments:
| | What Modem? I had all kinds of problems, similar to yours, with my internet service until they gave me a different modem. | |
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 63 days ago
- Naperville,Dupage,IL
- $60 per month
- "Responsive customer service and tech support"
- "Unreliable connection, bad jitter"
- "Super-expensive basic cable combined with unusable Internet service for VOIP"
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I work from home and use VOIP heavily. I have discovered there are two kinds of Internet connections: those that deliver packets reliably, quickly, and consistently and those that don't. For VOIP, you obviously need the first kind. WOW is the second kind.
The problem with WOW starts with it's pre-sales information. I was looking for an affordable Basic Cable + Internet package. I searched and searched their site and apparently, the cheapest "Basic Cable" service is $57.75 a month! Then, to bundle it with 2 Mbps Internet costs just $2.25 a month more. This makes NO sense. It is misleading and frustrating for a new customer to find basic cable is so expensive (about 250% over the competition) and then find Internet service thrown in as basically a nominal fee. Come clean about your business model and charge a fair price for your services instead of leaving savvy customers to wonder what the heck is going on with your ridiculous pricing model!
So I went with it anyway: Basic Cable + 2Mbps Internet. The Basic Cable package was fine, I guess. I'd have given up lots of channels to truly have "basic" cable for a third the price. But anyway, I was mainly concerned about the Internet. The connection sucked. It was speedy enough (performed right around 2Mbps) but jitter was terrible and in the month I had service with them there was one unplanned 3-4 hour outage and two midnight planned outages. The Jitter was very easy to see -- using a hard-wired desktop PC if I pinged the WOW router, I would get roundtrip times of about 20-40ms which is fine. But then, once a minute or so, there'd be a packet that would take 500ms up to over a second. This destroys VOIP conversations. You will miss words other people are saying or they will miss yours when Jitter occurs.
I called Tech Support and to their credit they respond quickly and they knew what Jitter was. But, they wanted to get into a lengthy troubleshooting session. No way. I don't have time to help your engineers figure out why their network has this problem. No, it is not my equipment. No, it is not a problem with WiFi (I always tested with hard-line.) It is a problem with WOW's routers or the modem they gave me. I absolutely dreaded the thought of going through lengthy troubleshooting sessions, scheduled technician visits, new hardware, more troubleshooting, and on and on. I need a reliable connection on day 1. I guess it was my mistake thinking I could try out a consumer service like WOW and expect good, reliable, service.
And yes, a 2Mbps connection is more than adequate for VOIP. I just got a call from a WOW rep asking me why I left and he said "oh yeah, 2Mbps is not enough for Skype." That is simply not true. I should have mentioned to him that when my connection went down, I would fall back on using my 3G mobile broadband, which is barely 2Mbps down and less than 100Kbps up. The ping times are slower (100-150ms) but you know what? There's no jitter on 3G and VOIP actually works fine.
Overall, I just found WOW to be very expensive, with poor pricing packages to chose from and poor service quality. I give them props for their responsive customer support and tech support but I would have rather had them say we will have a technician diagnose the problems with jitter in your area and get back to you. Stay away if you are a VOIP user.
I cancelled my WOW account and signed up for business class services from the competitor. So far that service has been outstanding. Stay away from WOW if you are a serious VOIP user.
Comments:
mogamer
join:2011-04-20
Royal Oak, MI | VOIP on 2mbs? Why would you bother to use a VOIP service with a 2mbs connection? Of course you're going to have problems. The rep was right about needing higher speeds. I noticed you didn't mention the speed you're getting with your current isp. I bet it's at least 6 mbs, and probably faster. And of course going to a business account, you're paying a lot more if you have a tv package with as many channels that WOW Basic offers.
I have WOW's 15/1 internet with Advanced Phone package and don't have any problems with anything (including Skype or communications during gaming). You need to buy the right product for what you intend to be doing. | |
| | | | Re: VOIP on 2mbs? If what you say is true, then why does VOIP work fine for me on a 3G connection that is 1-2 Mbps down and 100-200 Kbps up with longer ping times (but NO jitter.) | |
| | Jaws_
join:2005-08-06
Prospect Heights, IL | @ mogamer
You do realize that VOIP, by its very nature, utilizes downstream and upstream speeds equally, don't you? There's no difference between 2Mbps/1Mbps, 6/1, 8/1, 15/1, as all are limited by the upstream speed for VOIP.
Skype's minimum and recommended download and upload speeds:
Calling - 30kbps/30kbps --- 100kbps/100kbps
Video calling / screen sharing - 128bkps/128kbps --- 300kbps/300kbps
»support.skype.com/en/faq/FA1417/···ge=false | |
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Reviews:
 ·Time Warner Cable
·WOW Internet and..
 ·AT&T Midwest
| Give WOW a chance to troubleshoot Why didn't you give them a chance to troubleshoot the issue? Maybe it's just an issue local to your neighborhood or town. Maybe your cable modem is acting up?
Give WOW_Dan here on DSLR a holler... he might be able to help. He helped resolve very quickly a download speed issue I was having a couple months ago. | |
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Review by goldeneye211
member for 65 days, 0 visits, last login: 57 days ago
updated 65 days ago
- Rochester,Oakland,MI
- $124 per month
- about 10 days
- "Competitive pricing, value for the service"
- "Easily the worst customer service organization I've ever worked with"
- "Not recommended"
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Fair warning: The review I write below is slanted heavily because of recent experiences. I have only been with WOW for a few months.
Options Considered: Was a Comcast subscriber and when the special program expired the monthly cost went through the roof. Shopped WOW and UVerse. Chose Wow because I had been a prior customer several years ago and was happy.
Speed Package: Digital TV Signature, WOW! Xpress Internet & Advanced Phone
Order & Install Process: The order process was a breeze. I actually had a sales person come to the house because I had done some investigation online. He had a very easy to understand package sheet and clearly explained the pricing. The istall process was a nightmare. The frustrating part was the low-end cable adapter they provide. I had one TV that wouldn;t stay in sync with the device. I had to have the Tech out twice to resolve it and finally I said to use a box with RGB connections and that worked. Unfortunately the customer service rep told me they would just charge me for the cable adapter because it didn't work with my TV but when the bill came guess what? They charged me the higher price for the digital adapter. My calls to customer service resulted in not standing behind what the original service rep told me and they are charging me the higher price.
Upgrade Experience: My experience working with this organization was very poor. Most recently I wanted to upgrade my service and their performance has been so poor that finally I told them to cancel the upgrade. This was after I scheduled 4 service calls only one of which they were able to come out to the house with no equipment to execute the upgrade becasue the work order was so screwed up that the technician could do nothing. One of the services I requested was a new phone with a number port. I had to convey my account number and pin three times before they could even get the request for the port ot submit. each time this resulted in further pushing out the scheduled appointment. I'm sure they have a policy of only providing techs with equipment that has a work order to help with inventory control and loss prevention but this is not very customer centric. The techs that were at my house were able to fix the work order issue but since they had no equipment they had to leave after doing nothing.
Brand Model of Equipment: Cisco 8642HDC
General Comments: WOW is behind the other providers in service capabilities, mainly no whole house DVR system. The user interface is slow and visually unattractive. They also do not have remote management of the DVR. I think being a late adopter allows them to provide more competitive pricing but they lose that advantage with me because of their very poor customer service. I am cancelling my service as soon as UVerse is installed.
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Review by Couch Potato
member for 7.4 years, 2169 visits, last login: 5 days ago
updated 97 days ago
- Evansville,Vanderburgh,IN
- $116 per month
- about 14 days
- "Starz and Encore included in the Digital Basic package"
- "What Bad?"
- "Great deal, can't beat the price"
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I always hated this company. I apparently was a fanboy of their competition in my area, which I had service with for about 9 years. One day, I decided my cable and internet bill was too high and I started checking into other options. I grumbled as I typed in www.wowway.com and proceeded to the packages for my area. I went through the current channel line up and was not impressed. The website made me put in my address and because of this a salesman started coming to the house. One day he came by when I was home and I decided to hear his pitch. He told me what they offer now, which I already knew, and what they're going to be offering. He showed me a pamphlet of their current channel line up and what's coming in the next 2 months (this was in July), which he let me keep. I was impressed. I still grumbled about their internet speeds and he assured me that they are going to have better speeds by the end of 2011, but they're still working on the pricing and tiers. He then gave me a price. I have their highest internet, 15 down and 2 up, their Digital Basic package, 1 digital box, 1 dta (mini box for old TV), I own my own DOCSIS 3 modem so no modem rental charges, and a multi stream cable card. I have a Ceton InfinTV 4 tuner in my computer, which allows me to watch HD, premiums, and is my multi-room DVR (through the use of XBOX 360s). He quoted me a price of $98.49/month + tax for 1 year and then an increase of $5/month and this was guaranteed until January 2013. The only promotion here is the $5 off per month for a year. He even put the quote in writing. I was sold, but I made him wait a week, while I thought it over, before I told him I was signing up. He wanted to have the service installed in less than a week from when I told him I was on board, but I wanted to wait until after July 27th, so I wouldn't go without Comedy Central HD. After all, it's Futurama season, so I made him wait 2 weeks before the install, which was free by the way. I've had the service now for 5 days and I'm very happy. I max out my capped speeds on speed tests all day long, even during peak usage and I even think the HD picture is better than my previous provider. The sales rep even called during the install to make sure the installer was there on time (he showed up early) and after the install to make sure I had a pleasant experience. I've never been treated so well. I almost forgot; there is NO CONTRACT, there was NO money up front, and I have a 60 day MONEY BACK guarantee. Who does that in this day and age? I'm happy. I would like to give kudos to my salesman, Shawn. I was a hard sell. He did as I asked and didn't bother me for 1 whole week while I thought it over. He even showed me something I didn't know; WOW has really high ratings with Consumer Reports or JD Power, I don't remember which one.
UPDATE 11/06/2011: WOW has faster internet tiers now. I have had 30/3 for about a month now and it's been pretty solid. I'm happy
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Review by Dickk606
member for 9.2 years, 991 visits, last login: 6 days ago
updated 102 days ago
- Columbus,Franklin,OH
- Contract price not specified.
- "ok at times"
- "slow at times"
- "like it ,but why the down load and up load differ?"
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WOW is great service is good when needed
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Review by gcw
member for 111 days, 3 visits, last login: 108 days ago
lodged 111 days ago
- Schaumburg,Cook,IL
- $49 per month
- about 6 days
- "Mostly-reliable service (when the techs don't screw things up)"
- "Completely inept support. Tier 3 doesn't know jack about networking"
- "Use them if you're opposed to Comcast and/or AT&T otherwise save yourself the headaches and avoid them"
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I've had WOW service for about a year now. They don't offer the fastest speeds but that's okay for what I do. Their 250GB monthly cap is inane but hey at least they let you know it's there upfront (unlike some ISPs).
After a year of service I can state that their technical support is perhaps the least well informed bunch of "technical" personnel on the planet. On the one hand I commend them for keeping their call-center staffed 24/7 and keeping the jobs on-shore here in the US (where their business is). That said, to call their support staff even poorly trained would be an exaggeration.
In my case I'd been first told to configure my device with a "static" IP address that turned out to be dynamic. Then I was assigned another IP address that was improperly configured on their side. When I called in to let them know, specifically, that it was a routing issue they wasted more than 6 hours of my time having me walk through senseless 'trouble-shooting' steps until they had given up. When I pointed out to them that the default gateways were different for the working IPs we'd tested and the one non-working IP that was routing improperly they finally realized that I knew what I was talking about and told me that they would escalate the issue to the 'networking team'. 6 hours of my life wasted because their tier 3 support team doesn't know anything about basic networking.
==Proprietary==
A few things I was told by their techs that let you know how clueless they are:
me: So you want me to take out my manual IP config and set my router to get a configuration from your side with DHCP?
Wow Tier-3: No DHCP is used for DYNAMIC configurations on your LAN. When you get an IP from us you'll pull it from our servers and we give you the static one.
me: ok so if it's not DHCP then is it BootP that you use to configure the static IPs?
Wow Tier-3: that's proprietary
me: What's proprietary????
Wow Tier-3: The technology we use to have you pull your IP from us. We can't disclose it.
==Web Site==
Me: Well I'm not able to establish a route to host
Wow Tier-3: Well is there a website for that host?
Me: What do you mean? If you're asking whether there is a web server running on that host; no there is not. If you're asking whether there is a web server running anywhere on that network, I'm sure there is.. but I don't know where.
Wow Tier-3: Well if you can't get to their in IE how do you know their site is even up?
Me: Because I can get to that host from another IP address
Wow Tier-3: So then you're not having a problem getting there....
Me: No, I _am_ having a problem getting there from the IP you assigned me. But I can get there from another host on the internet so I know the host is up.
Wow Tier-3: What's the website? I'll see if I can get there
Me: There is no website. It's just a host out on the internet that I'm trying to get to
Wow Tier-3: Well maybe their firewall is preventing you from getting to their website.
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