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Review by joebob2000  - Location: Hilliard,Franklin,OH
- Cost: $86 per month (18 month contract)
- Install: about 30 days
Good "Low cost and easy to deal with"
Bad "Low quality equipment"
Overall "Good service if you don't mind the glitches"
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Coming from AT&T U-verse, WOW was a lot cheaper (same channel lineup/boxes and internet speed is about 50% the price) but immediately the "freshness" of the technology was apparent. The set top boxes are really sad (low def guide, slow interface, huge in size) but the channels tune well via Clear QAM on the TV so the set top box is only needed if you want to DVR or PPV (or if you want to punish yourself with using the guide). On the internet side, the install went OK after the tech "fiddled" with it for an hour (speed was OK so he called it a win), but within a few days the internet slowed to a crawl. We had to have a tech revisit and replace the cable modem (after about 2 weeks in use) and the "new" one worked great. Hopefully it lasts longer than the first.
The use of old, refurb boxes (and just plain old technology) is kind of frustrating, but given that the price is so low it is worth it (for now). If money were no object, U-Verse or Time Warner (both available in this area) would be a much better choice.
Fair warning: reviewer joined this month
lodged 2 days ago
Comments:
| Review by DJ - Location: Columbus,Muscogee,GA
- Cost: $84 per month
Good "Service stays on, albeit slow during peak times"
Bad "Terrible hold times for tech support, aka, tech support for former Knology customers"
Overall "I'll be moving soon to an area not serviced by WOW/Knology, won't look back."
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Below is what's copied from my last review of Knology, now WOW. For years I kept a highly positive review of Knology's services. This is the first negative review I've had to post. Tried to wait for them to work out the growing pains, but enough is enough.
Our phone stopped working Friday evening 9/20. We still have the old outside voice terminal, so troubleshooting is a snap... Just plug in a corded phone to the test jack tells me everything. No dial tone at the test jack. I tried calling tech support Sunday morning. After 35 minutes on hold on my company cell phone, I hung up. I tried again Sunday evening, same thing. I've got better things to do than sit around a phone praying for someone to pick up. I tried yet again Monday morning while at work, where I work outside and can keep the phone in my shirt pocket on speaker. It took 45 MINUTES for someone to pick up, which is absolutely ridiculous. In the past, when it was Knology, we never had to call support for phone issues because they monitored the terminals remotely for issues, and automatically dispatched a tech when something was detected. That's why I waited until Sunday to call, thinking they would've sent someone. We've had techs visit our home unexpectedly on Sundays to troubleshoot the terminal, so I figured they'd do the same. WRONG. Different company, different operations, I guess.
As far as the internet, prior to the announcement WOW was buying Knology, internet speeds were rock solid all hours, all days of the week. Not long after the announcement, speeds slowly started to decline. Now, peak times and weekends I never dare run a test. When I do, it's in the 3-5 Mbps range. I'm on the 15/2 plan. The speed, or lack thereof, is noticeable during any sustained download. I will not call in to tech support for this since the internet still works, just not as snappy as I remember it used to be.
Now for tech support. The few times I ever had to call Knology tech support, a rep was on the phone after the first ring, every single time. Now, as mentioned above, an undetermined amount of time, which means an exhaustive wait. I tried calling the "other" number for WOW, which is for the native WOW territories in the MW. Guess what, one ring and a rep was on the phone, on Sunday evening. When I gave her my information, she apologized and said she couldn't help me because I was in the newly acquired Knology territory, and gave me the 877-KNOLOGY number to call. That's the same number I tried calling already with the endless "We're changing the way you think about cable companies" loop. Nauseating.
Well, my family is set to be moving to a new town soon, in the pursuit of a bigger home with lower cost of living. We've found a great place in a small town about an hour away, which is serviced by another mid-sized cable company with DOCSIS 3.0. I've already checked for QoS in the area and it's a LOT better than what Columbus gets with WOW. Looking forward to the change.
member for 12.3 years, 5409 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 5 days ago
Comments:
| Review by cwcjr - Location: Huntsville,Madison,AL
- Cost: $173 per month
Good "Better than dial-up -except during prime time!"
Bad "Poor services, deceptive marketing, unreliable service, overpriced"
Overall "Avoid if you have other options."
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Update Sept 2013: Now they have added actual false/deceptive advertising to the mix. With the Speed channel going to FS1, they sometimes put or temporarily move programs to FS2 - in HSV market 194. I called when a football game ran long and the race was moved to FS2 - but I had a not authorized screen. Sales said it should be active with the Digital Preferred. So he transfers me to Cable Support, and I get told 'nope it only comes with the sports package add-on'. He tells me to go to the Website to see what comes with Digital Preferred - guess what - the Website says it is included in the Digital Preferred without the Sports Package. However, he will not activate it unless I pay for the Sports Package! Sales says its included, The website says its included, but the tech says you gotta pay for the sports package: False/Mis-leading/Deceptive advertising!
Prices keep going up as well as the wait time to get someone from Customer Service to answer the phone.
The service is getting worse, outages seem to occur at least once a week (last week 4 times over 2 days).
We keep getting Emergency Broadcast message for Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas that that have nothing to do with Huntsville.
A company in seeming disarray.
By the way, the internet speed is still horrible. Captured history charts (forwarded to Techs) show download speeds worse than upload speeds on weeknights between 8 and 11 pm. Been going on for many weeks.
Update Aug 2013: WOW data rates are WORSE than dialup between 8 pm and Midnight, even when paying for premium data rate upgrades. Nothing but excuses and no fixes for the last 90 days.
Update July 2013: WOW has taken over Knology and the service is TERRIBLE. They have oversold their capability in the area and the nightly data rates for download are 1/2 the upload rate!!!! Paying for the upgraded 15 Mb and getting 0.6 Mb (yes that is Mb not MB) download between 5 pm and midnight. It is now Way (WOW) overpriced and using their Email via a Client is a joke. It will lockup Outlook and financial institutions cannot reliably communicate with their investors that use a Knology Email address. Synacor and Cloudmark (their Email and spam filtering services) cannot seem to get it straight.
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I originally (2007) had the all in one (Phone,Internet, Cable) -premium w/ HD and all major movie channels. Had to cut back to delete ALL the premium movie channels to get it down to $137. At the time I contracted it, it came with the fasted speeds they offered for internet. They have now upgraded to have some more costly premium speeds available and multiple tier options in the bundles. Trying to figure out what options you have (pick and choose) is not possible from the information on the Internet. You MUST call in to get pricing on individual services.
The greatest frustration is the decrease in reliability as they expand. An example is this weekend, all Knology (hosted) domains' Email is down for over 24 hours. Sure does NOT make you want to run right out and sign-up for Electronic Delivery of your financial and investment notifications using a Knology hosted email account.
Since their last major reshuffling of the channels and upgrades, digital dropouts and artifacts in the middle of the TV screen are becoming the norm. Some shows are so broken up that you cannot watch them and it does not matter if it is live or recorded.
When you have an internet speed problem and call in, you get the impression that they are 'throttling' people until they complain. All the resetting, unplugging, and testing I had done before calling, then magically doing it once with them on the line and the problem seems to go away - for a while...
And the classic deception, your Knology IP address to the internet is NOT truly DHCP: it seems that it is reserved unto your address so that advertisers, doubleclick, Google, Intellus, etc., (Police and Homeland Defense) can always find YOU. As a test, I released the Knology internet link from the router, unplugged the router, unplugged the modem, Shutdown all the computers, went on the road, and came back two weeks later to the same IP address. Knology refreshes the connection ever three hours in a growing subdivision, so I guess the assignment is not DYNAMIC.
WOW Deceptive Marketing, bad service
WOW recently took over Knology. The service is very poor and declining.
1) Data rates between 8 pm and midnight are less than 1 mbit that is bit not byte! for Download. Even if you are paying for their 25 Mb Edge service. Folks that is WORSE than dial-up. Been fighting this problem for over 120 days.
2) Cloudmark filtering for Synacor, their Email handler, has a perpetual problem with Epsilon internet services. e.g, if your financial services company distributes documents to you via a knology email address - you don't get them!! They do not even make it to your spam filter to find out that anything was sent to you. Been over 8 months fighting that problem.
3) Paying for upgraded data rates is functionally just paying for a higher throttling speed-limit WHEN THERE IS NO TRAFFIC. They sell it to you as being like an HOV lane during peak demand times, but that is deceptive, see item 1).
4) Digital dropouts on the cable service are horrendous. Attempting to record shows has been a waste on many nights because the shows continually freeze. Yes, the service and equipment at the house has been checked! The techs (several) have confirmed that they oversold the area and have too many houses on a single server. They have been deceptful about it 'should be fixed in a couple weeks' for 4 months.
PS: The difference in cost between the knology and subsequent WOW reviews is that I DROPPED all premium movie channels. Otherwise the cost would have risen about $30 for the same services.....
member for 11.1 years, 68 visits, last login: 6 days ago
updated 6 days ago
Comments:
 | | Are you New to WOW How long have you had WOW? | |
| | cwcjr
join:2002-08-02
Huntsville, AL | Re: Are you New to WOW I have had WOW, formerly known as Knology, for many years at more than one location. Over 5 at the current. | |
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kellodl
join:2005-01-23
Huntsville, AL | Yuck I'm having the same problem although not that extreme. I went from 25Mbps EDGE package and i'm only getting around 15Mbps/8Mbps at anytime of day or night. Ever since WOW has taken over it has been a bad experience with internet speed. | |
| | cwcjr
join:2002-08-02
Huntsville, AL Reviews:
 ·WOW Internet and..
·Knology
3 edits | Re: Yuck Use a speedtest OTHER than the WOW one between 9 pm and 11 pm and see what you get. It is worst on the west side of county.
Noting that according to one of the techs that serviced next door they connected in a new subdivision on already overloaded equipment about the time WOW took over. The City Councils (both) need to be made aware of that and the utility license needs to be reviewed on that one! | |
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1 edit | Re: Yuck WOW will only take speed tests from their speed test site. Anything else they will not look at.
Also just an FYI- WOW is NOT a utility; especially when it comes to internet. | |
| | | | cwcjr
join:2002-08-02
Huntsville, AL | Re: Yuck To be able to supply cable in the city requires Council licensing and authorization to use easements.
(They have been 'pulled' before!  | |
| | | | | | | Re: Yuck it maybe true in that City but things can be changed at the state level. Although still, cable and Internet are not a utility. Also they are never "pulled" the companies are told to fix the issues or sell. It's easier to sell. | |
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| | kellodl
join:2005-01-23
Huntsville, AL | I normally use www.speedtest.net
I can try others. Is there anyone from WOW that actually checks dslreports? I call in to the WOW helpdesk and all they can tell me is that my cable modem had good signal and that they can send someone out if i'd like. I too checked my cable modem signals and all are well within recommended range. CWCJR, would you like to compare speed results? We could even arrange to get online at the same time and test speed at the same time. I live in NorthWest Huntsville near Oakwood Ave. I'm going to try and post a speedtest.net result when I get home from work today. | |
| | | | Reviews:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·MegaPath
| Re: Yuck WOWDan does, he used to provide support here but was promoted shortly afterwords. But WOW will only take the speedtest on their site as the bandwidth as written in their TOS/AUP is only on their network, after that, they don't and won't do anything. | |
| | | | | cwcjr
join:2002-08-02
Huntsville, AL | Re: Yuck Thanks, Kyle. I guess once false advertising and/or deceptive practices is proven with cable/internet companies it is off to the BBB then to the DA, then court or a class action... | |
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| | | kellodl
join:2005-01-23
Huntsville, AL | Looks like my speed is back to "normal" which is around 25Mb/6-8Mb, I will continue to test. | |
| | | | | cwcjr
join:2002-08-02
Huntsville, AL | Re: Yuck Great! I should be able to check the west side of the county by Friday. Maybe it only took 16 'next' weeks to get it fixed. but I am not holding my breath. | |
| | | | | | cwcjr
join:2002-08-02
Huntsville, AL Reviews:
·WOW Internet and..
·Knology
| Re: Yuck UPDATE: No, the speed on the west side is still terrible during prime time during the week. Download speeds worse than upload speeds. They added a 'hard' case of false/misleading/deceptive advertising - Sales and the website (on 9/28) say FS2 is included with Digital Preferred but Cable Tech support will only activate for additional $$$$. | |
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| Review by dpad22 - Location: Madison,Madison,AL
- Cost: $130 per month
Good "Hardly any outages"
Bad "Price going up every month, b.S. fake customer satisfaction, money grubbing management"
Overall "I would say avoid if it is your ONLY option, but most of the times the other options might even be worse :("
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I used to have Knology as an ISP. Honestly they were great. Great pricing and mostly very reliable service. Speeds were good, and most of the time we even got HIGHER than advertised speeds. Just think about that for a second. Modern day, actually receiving higher than advertised, and paid for, speeds. Excellent. Enter 2013: Knology has been bought out by WOW!, they claim they are all about customer service, etc. Literally everything about them has been progressively getting worse and worse. First the internet speeds went back down to exactly throttled as advertised, and okay , I told myself "I can deal with it, fine." Then the bill started going up something like $10-20/month for a few months, almost as if they try to test you to see how far they can get away with before you call them. My dad ended up calling them up and getting them to lower us back down but apparently they "no longer offered our same package" or some garbage excuse. The only thing we could do is lower our 15mbps internet to 3mbps internet and keep everything else the same. He agreed. Keep in mind in Kansas City, Google actually provides anyone within service area FREE 6mbps internet. So, we dealt with 5times+ slower internet than we were used to, and now just the other day I find out that the majority of my digital channels are now gone. This company is a joke. I see their commercials and cringe. The worst part is I am absolutely screwed because my only other option for an ISP is AT&T which is on par if not even worse than WOW! or some ridiculously crappy and overpriced, slow, and data capped, satellite internet. Next time I am looking to move, I am going to be paying extremely close attention to what tv and internet providers are in the area before I move, and will literally base my decision on whether or not I will move there on that.
You know a company is shady when their own website won't even have any prices listed, and all they have is "call us".
You have been warned.
member for 14 days, 0 visits, last login: 14 days ago
lodged 14 days ago
Comments:
| Review by an3951 - Location: Brook Park,Cuyahoga,OH
- Cost: $54 per month
- Install: about 1 days
Good "Fast Install, Fast Speed 15k/1k"
Bad "Works great as long as nothing serious goes wrong"
Overall "WOW Has there issues but they really do try to fix the problems."
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I have been a WOW customer for many years and for the most part there have been no major issues. In Mid February 2013 I began to experience large packet loss on weekdays beginning in the early evening lasting through midnight. Weekend interruptions can happen at any time of the day or night. This problem has been ongoing just under a month with no less than a dozen calls to WOW. As of this writing I have had five home visits. In the beginning they noticed that I had my own modem and immediately blamed it. I had two other modems, including a Motorola Surf modem that I installed but the packet loss continued. Finally I told them to put their modem in so we could end the blame game. Of course their modem has not corrected any of the ongoing problems.
03/30/13 - After a month and a half whatever was causing the problem it seems to have corrected itself. WOW finally agreed to have a service tech come out and hookup to my line and watch it during the evening hours but before that day the issue resolved itself. I am hoping I can go back to the many years of trouble free service and so far, so good.
member for 12.6 years, 2433 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 34 days ago
Comments:
| | Kirk You need to contact Kirk who is the VP of the Cleveland System. | |
| | | Similar Issue occurred for me... ... last December. Flakey daily internet service for 4-5 weeks. I rent their modem. I have phone service. Techs can check cable signal strength. If the is o.k. then most WoW techs are useless. In my decade of being with WoW, I found only one tech who was technically astute and customer service originated who actually diagnosed and fixed a problem. My problem eventually went away. I conjecture WoW network upgrades, load balance, etc. were taking place but no support personnel would even acknowledge that to be a possibility. | |
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| Review by jwhitaker148 - Location: Reynoldsburg,Franklin,OH
- Cost: $148 per month
- Install: about 3 days
Good "Reliable service, friendly customer support, great packages"
Bad "DVR storage size, UltraTV GUI is sometimes slow"
Overall "Overall good service, very reliable. "
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I got WOW when I first moved to Columbus, OH and kept them until the launch of the Big 10 Network. Since they weren't carrying it at that point, and I love Buckeyes football, I switched to Insight. Big mistake. I switched back to WOW later because of unreliable service. I had them for the last three years and was extremely happy. I actually wish they offered service here because I miss them dearly.
I had their UltraTV service set up for two rooms with 15/1 Internet, their higher digital tier, and HBO. In the time I had them I only had two service calls; one for the UltraTV upgrade, the other after a power outage damaged the system. Sometimes the GUI was slow and I wish the HDD in the media server had been larger but other than that I had zero complaints. Both the initial install and the second were a breeze, so was the upgrade to UltraTV. The installer was on time, clean, and very courteous each time; certainly more professional than the DISH installer I had here.
They even made disconnecting and equipment return when i moved away absolutely painless. I wish they would move into this area, Time Warner won't run cable where I am and WOW is better than they are anyway.
member for 50 days, 7 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 35 days ago
Comments:
| Review by anovelo - Location: Panama City Beach,Bay,FL
- Cost: $180 per month
Good "Honestly - NOTHING!!!!"
Bad "Everything. Price is ridiculous for what you get. There is zero info online or at the local office. Quality doesn't exist "
Overall "If you are moving to an area and you are told WOW! is a choice, ask if you can get anything else. "
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For starters, go online and try to figure out what the channel line is and how much the cost of the packages are. If you look in some states it may show some info (and if it does its confusing), but for the most part the website just says "call us for info". I went to the local office, and they said they had nothing in writing about the WOW offerings. The office could only print out what was on their screen, and that was no help at all....
Then you have the quality. I will pay top dollar if I feel like I'm getting quality, but thats not WOW!. The channel line up is limited and broken up in strange ways (again, they may have simple packages but I'm yet to find any documentation to know). The channels dont always come in. The cost of the motorola cable boxes is expensive (15 per box / month)....
The internet service is a joke, constantly losing packets. paying for the 12 MB package (which is 49.99) was told I could go to 15 MB for an extra $10 a month. Really.... As someone who used to have FIOS and UVerse , WOW! is half the service and speed for the same costs....
Honestly if you have a choice take anyone (including Comcast) over WOW! and if you are told WOW! is your only choice (if you are moving to an apartment building) then I would consider a different apartment.
member for 36 days, 0 visits, last login: 36 days ago
lodged 36 days ago
Comments:
| | dish or wow cable? I have been trying to decide on which cable provider to get to have cable. I have contacted dish and had technician come to apartment to install, but apt. Manager said I have to give them $250.00 deposit. And I contacted WOW on price of package but thsir prices are high and doesn't include any special offers like even HBO. I just want regular cable with channels like USA tnt lifetime and spike, but price for dish package iz cheaper. So any help or suggestions on which to decide? And as far as who's better between wow and dish? Also should I pay $250 for satellite and give to manager (which is refundable deposit) or just get WOW service and just pay more a month? Please help me.. TY. Hope to hear from someone. | |
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| Review by bkxwilliams - Location: Arlington Heights,Cook,IL
- Cost: $180 per month (24 month contract)
- Install: about 3 days
Good "Very pleased with quality of service"
Bad "limited free on-demand selections"
Overall "Significantly cheaper than Comcast for same stations"
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Dumped Comcast after 12 years when became too expensive and they refused to extend me any promotions. WOW was best price for nearly same stations. Purchased the Ultra Gateway because of ability to record 6 channels at a time. Have had no issues with service or picture quality. Got cable, internet and phone; for some reason they had to install the Gateway box in basement. The internet connection was a little weak; however I resolved that with a repeater. Customer service was great with ordering, installation 3 days later on time with no problems. Originally signed up for 2 mpbs internet speed and later changed with one phone call to 15 mpbs.
member for 46 days, 0 visits, last login: 46 days ago
lodged 45 days ago
Comments:
vincep5
join:2005-04-07
Harwood Heights, IL | same same situation with me. Comcast didnt want to extend my original promotion. They didnt even bother to offer me a discount or downgrade my cable package to save money. Their loss! | |
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| Review by vincep5 - Location: Mount Prospect,Cook,IL
- Cost: $125 per month (16 month contract)
- Install: about 21 days
Good "Ultra TV. User interface for cable is really nice. PRICE! !"
Bad "$20 to upgrade from 15mpbs to 30mpbs; VOD is a little lacking"
Overall "Tons cheaper than comcast for very similar service. Bigger DVR space and 2 dvr boxes included in the price!"
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I was with comcast for 3 years. I started on a small bundle..then kept upgrading all the way to a monthly bill of 210 a month! They couldnt help me lower my bill, so I switched to WOW.
I was pleasantly surprised that the price the sales person said on the phone was the real price of my monthly bill (125)! No hidden fee BS like comcast does for HD or DVR service. The price was guaranteed until Jan 2015. I dont know what happens after that date and how much $$ the price will increase if any????
I have the UltraTV and its been great. I would recommend getting it. The UI feels almost as good as TiVo and you get 2 boxes where you can watch recorded shows !
Comcast would charge a arm and a leg for that
member for 8.5 years, 63 visits, last login: 19 days ago
lodged 46 days ago
Comments:
| Review by slyphoxj - Location: Brook Park,Cuyahoga,OH
- Cost: $95 per month
- Install: about 7 days
Good "Channel changing fast on HD boxes, smooth install, reliable internet"
Bad "TV outages, had a few more internet issues than with Time Warner"
Overall "Hopefully won't have any more middle-of-day internet outages"
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UPDATE (8/3/13): Since my last update, my WOW bill has gone up to ~$111. I called in a couple weeks ago and, without any hassle, got a $15/month for 1 year discount (restored the previous $10 discount that expired in November plus an additional $5/month to offset the $5 increase in my bundle price) and a $20 one-time credit. But.... last Tuesday morning (7/30/13) the TV started acting up again, going in and out, then at around 11:30 AM, both the TV and internet went out for a few minutes.
UPDATE (11/19/12): The "watchdog timer" issue with my cable modem's firmware appears to have been resolved... over 17 days uptime. Yay! Internet seems to be solid... I consistently score above 15/2 on speed test and pingtest.net rates my connection an "A".
But.......... still getting pixelation, freezing and, in the last couple days, outright outages on a number of the HD channels above 210 (no problems with the broadcast HD channels 200-208). On the verge of going back to Time Warner.
UPDATE (11/5/12): Still getting pixelation and freezing on some of the HD channels. Animal Planet HD was terrible on Saturday... picture paused every 2-3 seconds for a few minutes and sometimes froze (someone else posted in the WOW forum here that they experienced the same issue). My mom got a "Not Authorized" on the box in her room a little while ago while watching one of the cable news channels... I had to reboot the box to get out of that one. A firmware upgrade pushed down to my Scientific Atlanta DPC2100 caused a "watchdog timer" issue that caused my modem to reboot itself every couple days (looks like it's finally been resolved... been up over 3 days now... yaaay). And WOW changed their billing/admin system last week (right during the freakin' storm!)... some people are getting 40-70 minute wait times when calling in! Seriously considering jumping ship back to Time Warner at this point.
UPDATE: Getting occasional brief pixelation and sometimes audio dropouts for a couple seconds on some of the HD channels 210 and above (above the broadcast networks)... maybe signal level issues (haven't bothered yet to check before calling WOW).
Also I'm not getting the full upload since I was bumped from 15/1 to 15/2 (can't get any better than 1.8 Mbps upload). WOW_Dan on the WOW forum here on DSLR is aware of the issue and was able to reproduce it, so hopefully there will be a solution soon. But I'm not complaining... it was a free bump  .
But otherwise... everything's OK.
If WOW were to bring the 8/1 back and charge $10/month less than the 15/2, I'd consider going back to the 8/1 and maybe also change out the HD box on my basement HDTV for a SD box and knock another $7/month off the bill if WOW would let me do that.
--- Original review ---
After reviewing our account, Time Warner offered a deal back in March 2009 for ~$83/month (raised to ~$88/month last summer) for digital basic TV with Showtime + 1 HD DVR box w/HD service + the SD digital box already installed + Road Runner Standard (8000(or was it 7000?)/512, upgraded to 10000/1000 a couple months ago) + cable modem. We took it. It was a nice upgrade from just 1 SD box for ~$68/month + AT&T 6000/768 DSL (really about 5000/650) for ~$35/month.
I called Time Warner about a month or two ago and they told me that this promo was set to expire at the end of August of this year (2011) and that the bill would be going up. If I remember right, one offer was for ~$105/month + taxes. We decided to wait. My mom then called them again about 2-3 weeks ago and the best they could offer for the services we had was ~$145/month... ouch!
So.... we decided to give WOW a call and see what they could offer. Their offer was in the neighborhood of $100/month. My mom told 'em to come out and hook us up. We got the Digital Value + 1 HD DVR box + 1 HD box + Xpress 8/1 internet + QAM SD box for ~$98/month guaranteed until 1/1/2013. Only one week till the installation... cool! The salesperson my mom spoke with mailed a sheet with the channel lineup with the Digital Value channels highlighted and services and pricing info written on it (he did this before my mom actually ordered). After my mom actually ordered service, the sales rep. mailed a copy of the work order with the pertinent info (services ordered, prices, etc.)... got this a couple days later.
Installation was yesterday (9/1/2011). The WOW installer (a contractor) showed up in the middle of the 1-3pm install window, hooked everything up and got everything working OK and did a nice, clean job with the wiring and new drop installation outside... even looks nicer than what Time Warner did when they hooked us up when we moved into this house back in 9/2009.
I'm using my old Motorola SB4200 modem that I used with Adelphia before I switched to AT&T DSL back in early 2006. WOW only supports DOCSIS 1.0 for this modem... I was only getting about 2500-3700 down with the Xpress 8/1, so I decided to save $10/month and downgrade to Xcite 2/1. I called about 11-11:30 last night... got right through to a friendly rep who immediately pushed the new speeds down to my modem. She told me the total bill with taxes, etc. would be ~$88/month... almost exactly what the TW bill was. I might get a newer modem and go back to the Xpress 8/1 again... haven't made up my mind yet.
What I like so far:
- The HD-DVR boxs so far are problem free... channel changing is MUCH faster than it was on the TW boxes. The TW Scientific Atlanta silver HD DVR box (SA8300?) was a piece of crap... took forever to change channels and had other issues that forced me to reboot it too often. The first TW HD-DVR box we had had a dead HDMI port.
- The picture quality of the 20 or so remaining analog (NTSC) channels is superb, better than the QAM basic channels.
- The channel lineup is easier to navigate... 3 digit channel numbers for the HD channels versus 4 digit numbers for the HD channels on TW
What I don't like so far:
- HD picture quality seems like it isn't as good as TW's
- I tried to call the WOW CS number before the install date to give them the MAC address of my modem. I was prompted to enter my phone number, then asked to confirm or reschedule the appointment, then it hung up on me!
Bottom line: For about the same price (within a buck), I'm getting much lower speeds (2/1 versus 10/1) then I did with TW and fewer channels (but not missing any I really care about), but WOW's HD boxes work much better, even if they have fewer features than TW's HD boxes.
I'll update this review if anything changes.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I hooked up my Motorola SB4200 modem the night before the switchover from TW -> WOW. It synced up and I saw "DOCSIS 1.1 registration complete" in the modem's log. TW supports DOCSIS 1.1 for this old modem, why can't WOW?
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updated 63 days ago
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