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Review by avonlakeoh See Profile

  • Location: Avon Lake, Lorain, OH, USA
  • Cost: $99 per month
Quick install, good reception, good internet speed, good phone
Terrible Service, Phone calls never answered, E-mails never answered
We'll go back to Century Phone and DSL and Time Warner TV
Pre Sales information:
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Order and Install went smooth as glass. WOWWAY was new to our area. It was competitive with Time Warner and Century phone and DSL.. We were given 6 months per year seasonal hold for $20+ per month. In the fall when we tried to place WOW on seasonal hold they never answered any phones. E-mails went unanswered and there was no way to notify WOW of desired seasonal hold on their web site. They continued to charge our VISA the full amount 4 months after we put the service on hold. We finally went to visa, presented them with the facts and they reversed the charges. To this day WOW has no idea what's going on. Finally talk to their service reps and you get a different story from each one. WOW is absolutely out of control. A company run by accountants - great at getting your money but extremely poor customer service. Avonlakeoh

member for 11 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 11 years ago


Review by hovisrobert See Profile

  • Location: Saint Clair Shores, Macomb, MI, USA
  • Cost: $177 per month
it used to work ,they used to answer the phone
no customer service only busy signal
stay away do not buy this service but since they don't answer the phone you probably can't sign up anyway
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I have had this service for over 3 or 4 years. We have triple play. The only thing that still works well is the phone. Internet download is below 1 megabit. TV reception is now poor. On their website it say customer service wait time is 10mins. you only get busy signal .If you call 10 or 20 times you might get through but you will be on hold for an hour or so. It took that much effort to have my Moms service removed ,but then was stiffed by service people who never showed up on time to pickup parts.Could not call to find out why because of above mentioned customer service problems. These problems have been going on for more than 2 months.
This was a good company
Its a shame but I recommend you look elsewhere for cable service

Update !!!!!
In response to all the complaints and bad service wowway has reacted by
RAISING OUR RATES BY $8
But they are really sorry

member for 11.2 years, 8 visits, last login: 11.1 years ago
updated 11.1 years ago


Ex wow custo
@wideopenwest.com

Ex wow custo

Anon

Wow sucks!

Did they really send a letter telling us how sorry they were about their poor service and then the very next paragraph said they were raising their rates?

How about a refund for all the bad service?
bartongrimm
join:2013-03-06
Franklin, MI

bartongrimm

Member

WOW are nothing but liars

They lied that their "billing upgrade" wasn't the cause of the crap service since 11/2013. Finally met someone who told me it was a company wide lie. They screwed the pooch on the upgrade and just don't care about their customers. Lies, lies and more lies. Corporate America is a piece of s**t. They have been to my house about twenty-five times, s**t still doesn't work. Run, do not walk, away fast, fast, fast. What a bunch of low-lifes.

Review by CSS7 See Profile

  • Location: Allen Park, Wayne, MI, USA
  • Cost: $70 per month
Failed customer service; Inaccurate billing
Leave this company
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In the two months we have been with WOW, they have failed to respond to email queries, are very difficult to reach via telephone, and billing has been grossly inaccurate. Through auto pay, double the amount due was deducted from our bill paying account resulting in bounced check fees for us. After more than 40 minutes on the phone, customer service rep Kirsten stated she could not provide a timely refund, but would submit a "research paper" to investigate the cause of the problem. Additionally, when I spoke with customer service manager, Nikko, she reiterated she could not provide a timely refund. I then requested some form of compensation. She agreed to provide $50 towards next month's bill. I asked that under the circumstances, why she did not offer compensation rather than me having to request it; her response was "I don't know how to respond to that". Currently I do not have a refund nor do I have any proof of compensation. Is WOW incorrectly taking money and drawing interest on it before providing a refund?

member for 11.1 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 11.1 years ago


Review by Hoohash See Profile

  • Location: Grosse Ile, Wayne, MI, USA
  • Cost: $150 per month (12 month contract)
Pre Sales information:
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I was happy with WOW for the first roughly year of service. However, I encountered an issue early on with my computer not printing to my wireless printer that was 1 month old and worked fine with my previous Comcast service. I was told by the tech my printer was bad and they attempted to charge me for the diagnosis. I then was able to reach someone at WOW tech support that says the encryption of the WOW service conflicts with some of the wireless printers.

Now, they keep apologizing for the terrible transation in the billing system. I just want to be able to watch TV and have more than one person on the internet at a time. Every night or every other night, the delay in the picture is so bad it's just a bunch of digitized cubes. Call WOW and the phone just rings busy all night. I give up. I won't go back to Comcast, but I won't deal this this. If only I could reach them to cancel my service. AT&T - here I come!

member for 11.2 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 11.2 years ago


Disappointed
@wideopenwest.com

Disappointed

Anon

Horrible service and cable!

Do not get this service we have had problems with our service for almost 3 months.....can't ever watch tv have had 5 service men out to keep changing boxes still no cable...I wouldn't put this service in my dogs house! Comcast here we come. Service may be a little more but at least I get to watch tv instead of paying and never having cable! so so so disappointed and so inconvenienced ...

Review by Tutch2012 See Profile

  • Location: Madison Heights, Oakland, MI, USA
  • Cost: $85 per month (12 month contract)
WOW was once an excellent provider, maybe theyll make a come back.
Everything from thier lies, to thier customer support
Please, from one human being to another, DO NOT PURCHASE!
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I signed up for this website just so i can share my personal experience and help others find a half decent cable company. I used to have comcast, they had wonderful internet and tv from personal experience. However i switched to WOW due to a rude encounter from customer support, but i was horribly let down when i found out that WOW was not any better. To reach WOW on average is a 10-60 Minute wait, (no joke! Check out www.wowway.com, they admit this fault!) and if you do ever manage to get a hold of them, their attitude can often be less than pleasant. I invested this poorly used hour of my life to get someone to come over to check put my internet as without warning, it stopped working. The worker had an awful attitude (and i attempt to be nice to people such as this, its not their fault its not working) from the moment he laid foot on my property. As to their television services, my TV will freeze without warning for anywhere from 5-10 minutes. This happens quite frequently along with a terrible delay in the picture. And finally with the internet, where to start. I have became a master in dealing with routers and modems because i (this is not a lie!) have to restart them on average 5-15 times a day. From a statistic standpoint they have fair connection speed, but from personal experience this is far from the truth. It can take upwards from 10 seconds to load a single page, i pay for 15MBPS but as i checked it yesterday i only have 1.111MBPS, however i would rather take that then ever deal with such rude employees ever again. I've heard that AT&T is worse so WOW isn't the epitome of terrible all around service, just very close to it.

member for 11.2 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 11.2 years ago

mykelhall
join:2012-08-05
Naperville, IL

mykelhall

Member

dont be sour...

I have had WOW! internet and cable TV since they came to Naperville some 10+ years ago now. The past couple months yes, have been bad for WOW! but please do not let these past couple months sour you on WOW! altogether. In the entire time I have had WOW!, these past couple months have been the only negative I have had with them. Yes every once in a while the TV picture cuts out for half a second and yes once in a while our internet drops and once every several months yes we cycle our router and modem ( well now TV gateway for Ultra TV). But I had to do that with Comcast too and no company has a 100% up-time...i guarantee it.

If you just have their standard cable .... try upgrading to their Ultra TV. I absolutely love it. I had Comcast for 3.5 years while at my apartment at school and yes I loved them. I wanted to switch to them when I moved back home. However my parents never did and I am now thankful for that, since our Ultra TV upgrade.

Every company goes through a time where sometimes stuff messes up. But like I said, yes the past 2-3 months have been HORRIBLE for WOW!, but don't let that persuade you to switch back to comcrap. (har har har) Try their Ultra TV if you have not already and then see what I am talking about...if you lived close i would let you come check it out.

misslady1980
@tmodns.net

misslady1980

Anon

terrible service/customer service has busy Sig for 2weeks!!!

Normally its ok. the last few weeks I can't even watch tv. The screen is frozen or completely choppy. Complete waste of money. I've had wow for ten or more years but I think its time for a change! sorry wow no stars!!!!

Review by smdoginlife See Profile

  • Location: Canton, Wayne, MI, USA
  • Cost: $152 per month
Great Reliability
Everything Else Lately
Customer Service is Nonexistent Right Now
Pre Sales information:
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I've been a fan of wow for over 4 years, since they were first installed. Originally, contacting sales was a pleasant experience and I got an install date within the week.

The installer who came out outright called me a liar when I said the sales rep promised they would fish a new outlet for me for free. I had to physically contact the sales department again to get them to talk to the installer and confirm this, and then when he went into the attic to fish the line down, he lied and told me he couldn't do it, that my -inside- walls were insulated (which is BS, I know my house, been in the attic many times and pulled up my insulation to look down). So installation was a bummer - I'd advise recording the phone call with the sales rep who makes you promises so you have something to play back for the installer.

Once installed, my internet and cable service has been stellar! I have no complaints at all about it. I can count on one hand how many times I've had tech support issues, and usually they are resolved in a timely fashion. I've loved my WOW internet and cable service way more than I loved my Comcast service.

HOWEVER, WOW has been "upgrading their support system" for well over a month, if not longer. I've been wanting to make a change in my plan, and 8 of 9 calls I make to their customer support number (1-866-496-9669) results in a busy signal. And anytime I do get through, I get a message telling me the wait time for a service representative is HUGE. I've tried waiting on hold for 20-40 minutes at a time (tried multiple times), and every time I simply end up hanging up out of frustration, never getting in contact with anyone.

It's been outrageous how long this has been going on. I'm totally upset and frustrated, and have emailed their support email only to get a message back that basically says they can't help me via email, that I need to call in. Seriously? This is completely unacceptable, but I can't get anyone on the line to complain about it. So here I am, putting this review out there so people can read it.

I'm about ready to cancel. But how can I cancel? I can't even get in contact with anyone to do so. I've thought about writing a letter to the FCC and the BBB about this, but I'm not sure it would do any good. I may end up having to send a registered letter to their service center. This has been the worst customer service experience IN MY LIFE, and I don't say that lightly.

If you go with WOW, you'd better pray that you have no plan-changes or issues that require contacting their service department.

(FYI the "total monthly cost" includes not just my internet service through them, but my cable and phone service as well)

Update: 12/21/2012 at 1am:

I was finally able to get through to a customer service rep a few minutes ago (after midnight of all times). I already had another service provider installed, and so I told the rep that I wanted to cancel. She asked why, and I told her that this was the first time in 2 months I was able to reach an actual person.

She alluded to some "hiring of extra support" for the end of the year. I have to wonder if they completely shut down a support site or two and moved locations elsewhere. Of course this is speculation, but she did have a strange almost "Yooper" accent - if not Northern Michigan, then Minnesotan, Alaskan, or maybe Canadian. Again, I'm not sure whether this is true or not, but her allusion was interesting, so it sounds like it was an issue of lack of support personnel at least in part.

Best of luck to anyone that sticks with WOW. I may be back if they ever get things sorted out. For now, I'll enjoy a cheap introductory rate with another provider.

Update #2 - Jan 4, 2013 @ 4:30pm: Just got a bill in the mail for billing period 12/29-1/28. Had to wait on hold for another 30 minutes today to get to a billing agent who told me "Oops. We will issue an 'incorrect bill' form which will take 7-10 days to process." I'm still due the $50 for the 1/3 partial month of Dec I didn't have service. I'm not sure when I'm going to get it at this point.

Another failure of WOW's customer service department. And I have a feeling I'm going to have to call again in a couple weeks to make sure the 'incorrect bill' report was filed and processed. Do yourself a favor and avoid this mess yourself.

member for 11.3 years, 3 visits, last login: 11.2 years ago
updated 11.2 years ago


Review by kpossible See Profile

  • Location: Westlake, Cuyahoga, OH, USA
  • Cost: $190 per month
  • Install: about 2 days
USED to be great.
No longer great.
Don't do it unless Time Warner is your ONLY other option.
Pre Sales information:
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UPDATE 12/12/2012: All of the good intentions in the world can't seem to correct my internet bandwidth issue. I am still getting 20's and 30's down - sometimes even in the teens. Keep in mind that my package is 50 down. My upload, at 5, is never an issue.

Also, the digital breakup issue with the video still exists every hour, on a daily basis. I was told that the pixelation issue was recently fixed. I was not for me.

One more chance...

UPDATE 11/24/2012: I may be on the road to a permanent solution to my (and other area user's) internet bandwidth issues! I have been assured of something specific, but am not at liberty to discuss it, as it has not been implemented yet. I am hopeful for the first time in... well, it's been months and months. It's been months of doggedly asserting that there indeed is a problem. *Fingers crossed*

If this works and everything goes back to how it originally was a long, long time ago, then the ratings will go up as well.

UPDATE 11/21/2012: My 50 mb down package renders me 15-25 mb down for solid blocks of time each and every evening (depending on the day of the week) from 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. I have been told that they are looking into this . A friend of mine in my immediate area has WOW's 15 mb down package and during the times that he has checked his bandwidth, he is getting that. So, does that mean it's good to get the lower bandwidth packages, but not the higher? I will update when I receive a response.

UPDATE 2012: Unreliability has become the cause of the day with WOW. Old equipment, pixelation and outages and extreme internet variability have replaced the WOW of old. I don't know what's going on, but more and more I feel trapped between the lesser of two (cable) evils. What's more is, they make the customer feel that the problem is all their own, not WOW's (except for this last epic fail with the picture for 24 hours, so far).

I used to be one of WOW's biggest proponents, a staunch supporter and defender. I recommended them to all I knew who were on the hunt for service. Now, I wouldn't dream of doing that.

Please, WOW, make dramatic service improvements, boost reliability and, for goodness sake, change your self-righteous attitude. I want to amend this review for the better in the near future!

2003:
I am, so far, impressed with Wide Open West. The speed has been reliable - I have their 3000/500 package. I rarely drop to any speed below those values. I was a somewhat satisfied Adelphia customer, until they halved the speeds. So, for $3.00 more, I am getting double the speed. I am told that I would not be able to actually see a difference in performance between 1500/256 and 3000/500, but I don't find that to be true. I can.

Installation was okay - there was a delay due to the accounts department at WOW, not the installer. The charge for complete installation was $4.95. I own my own modem. If I did not own, I believe that they would have charged me $2.50 per month for modem rental.

I am a couple of weeks into this service and will update as necessary.

member for 20.5 years, 206 visits, last login: 8.6 years ago
updated 11.2 years ago


jfhr
@dsl.clevoh.ameritech

jfhr

Anon

terrible service

I've had the service for 4 months and have had problems every time I use it. More often than not...it doesn't work. My compuservice dial up was much more reliable.

Review by Bill44130 See Profile

  • Location: North Royalton, Cuyahoga, OH, USA
  • Cost: $64 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Used to be Very Dependable, Great Value For Money
They did major system upgrade that wasn't ready
The upgrade issues going on for far to long.. stay away for now
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updated 12/6/2012:
WOW made a bone head decision to do a major system upgrade. Things are not working has planned. I lose channels for weeks at a time. My internet service just stops working, and then starts magically working again a few hours later. I was on hold for an hour and half and just gave up. Never able to reach any one. My service is degraded for the last 2 months, and there is no one to tell.

My message to WOW is if it does not work by now it is time to consider a roll back.

old=====================>recently had to call support for email issue. Issue was resolved the next morning.Dan who works for WOW and visits WOW forum here jumped right on my issue and had me sending emails again with the reset of my cable modem. I really appreciated Dan's help today.

My WOW service just works.

member for 20.4 years, 2259 visits, last login: 2.9 years ago
updated 11.3 years ago


Review by nporwal See Profile

  • Location: Schaumburg, Cook, IL, USA
  • Cost: $90 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Sales
Connection Drops. No Customer Service
Stay Away - they still have issues to work through
Pre Sales information:
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The installation was smooth, however, we've consistently had problems. The connection drops every few hours, and we have to restart our modem and/or router.

The sales rep and the bills dont match. There are charges on my bill that I do not understand, but the Customer Service is non-existent. I have called the number on their bill, and it is a 45+ minute wait, with no option to callback. I've sent them an email via the contact page, but no response (they said 24 hours). Its frustrating. I disliked Comcast, but at least it wasn't an endless hold. I'm planning on cancelling the service and revert back.

member for 11.3 years, 1 visits, last login: 11.3 years ago
lodged 11.3 years ago


Review by solarissparc See Profile

  • Location: Charlotte, Eaton, MI, USA
  • Cost: $45 per month
Available
Instability unreliable
WOW! This is pretty bad
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They own broadstripe. Terrible service I have decided to switch to dsl, because their support is always unavailable and never call back.

member for 11.5 years, 2 visits, last login: 11.5 years ago
updated 11.5 years ago