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Review by trix2 See Profile

  • Location: Columbus, Franklin, OH, USA
  • Cost: $60 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
  • No Cap
Fast clean easy install, fast speeds
$50 install fee, only promotional pricing for 12 months. Online sign up does not give option for bring your own modem.
If available, would be a great choice.
Pre Sales information:
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In Ohio, no Google fiber. $70 bucks wont get you a gigabit. I am getting 110 for $60, which is not too bad.

member for 11.8 years, 107 visits, last login: 6.5 years ago
lodged 8.4 years ago







Review by brydry See Profile

  • Location: Clearwater, Pinellas, FL, USA
  • Cost: $29 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
  • No Cap
Cheap, excellent value compared to BrightHouse
none yet
glad I switched
Pre Sales information:
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Dropped 3-way bundle with BrightHouse after they quoted me $60/mo for 15/1 internet only service change. W.O.W. was only other option for high speed internet. At least I had a choice. They hooked me up fast with the 15/2 service for one year at just under $29/tax. In September my speed was upgraded to 30/5 for the same price. Recently received a letter from wow promising the second year at $30/m plus taxes.

member for 19.3 years, 5158 visits, last login: 5 days ago
lodged 8.4 years ago


MatthewW
join:2014-08-27
Beloit, OH

MatthewW

Member

WOW thats amazing

Is FIOS an option there in Clearwater? But I'm jealous of you for getting good speeds for a great price. Do they have caps?
curdahee
join:2013-12-04

curdahee

Member

Re: WOW thats amazing

WOW has no caps.

Review by jtl See Profile

  • Location: Arlington Heights, Cook, IL, USA
  • Cost: $60 per month
  • Install: about 15 days
Reliable and Fast Service, Good Customer Service
No Notable Problems
True Competition for Comcast... Glad I Switched!
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I switched to WideOpenWest in May of 2008 after nearly 10 years with Comcast and its predecessor companies.

There were two motivators for my switch: the first was the fact that my promotional pricing for Comcast's bundled services (telephone, cable TV, internet) was about to expire; the second was the fact that I'd heard nothing but good things about WOW's services.

In my area-- Arlington Heights, Illinois-- there is pretty serious competition for bundled services between Comcast, WOW, and AT&T (their telephone-DSL-Dish offering), and as a side-effect we're constantly bombarded with discounted offers for these services. WOW had a bundled services offering with prices that are guaranteed through January of 2010, so I decided to go for it.

The ordering process was actually a pleasure. The salesperson was very helpful and friendly, and answered every question I had. I went into the call with the requirement of 6 Mbit Internet, telephone, and basic digital cable TV. These services were not part of an existing package, but the salesperson was able to work a deal for me when I bought all three. Of course, she tried to upsell me on premium TV services, but when I declined she didn't push any further. (I like it when a salesperson takes "no" for an answer.)

After I agreed to the services and an installation date, I asked the salesperson when I should call Comcast to cancel. She suggested I wait until after the WOW service was installed, because Comcast has been known to disconnect services before the actual scheduled cancellation date. I heard this with a bit of skepticism, knowing that if I called to cancel I'd be routed to a Comcast Retention Specialist and WOW could lose the deal, but since I'd already made the decision to switch I figured there was no harm in waiting until WOW was installed.

The installation date came and the technician showed up at the expected time. He knew to go to the pole to switch the connection to the house (something the Comcast engineer neglected to do when they installed their services here-- check my Comcast review), and plugged in the cable/telephony modem (the same Arris model Comcast used) and the digital cable TV box. The data and telephone connections followed, and within 30 minutes I had all services in place and programmed. Perfect.

There was no software to install on my computer, which Comcast seems to insist upon. All I had to do was set up my WOW account online and I was up and running.

As I write this (June 2008) I've had the service for about a month, and I've only had one outage, when a thunderstorm came through and knocked out the cable. I called WOW customer service (using my cellphone, since I had no services in my house) and a telephone rep told me there was an outage in my area. My only complaint about this call was that, for some reason, the Customer Service person was very difficult to hear through background noise on her end. The service was reinstated about an hour later.

I will provide further updates as my experience with WOW progresses. So far, I am a very happy new customer.

---
Update, June 2009:

I've had WOW for a little over a year, and I'm still very pleased with their service.

There have been a few glitches over this time period, but nothing major. The data, cable, and voice services have all been rock-solid. When I've had a problem, I've been able to reach a real human being on their customer service line within 3-5 minutes.

The only serious issue I had was in the fall of 2008 when Sprint (WOW's backbone provider) and Cogent had a dispute and stopped communicating with each other. I was unable to reach several sites on the internet (including the University of Illinois), and when I contacted WOW they claimed to know nothing about any connectivity issues. After a little research I learned that several people had the same issue, and when I called WOW back a different customer service rep said he know about it and they were working on a resolution. Service was back in a couple days, but it was annoying.

In all, I'm still very happy with WOW and I plan on sticking with them for the time being.

---
Update, August 2011:

Still a pretty happy customer here. The service remains solid, which is important because we've come to rely on our broadband connection more than ever-- we dropped TV service in late 2009 (blog entry here: »www.jtl.us/wp/?p=516) so we get our TV through an antenna or via internet-connected devices.

The storms in July 2011 knocked the power out for a week, and once it came back WOW's service seemed a little flaky-- slowness, dropping connections randomly, the cable modem rebooting on its own-- so a tech came out and replaced the modem and did some tweaking on the cables. The service was pretty solid until late August, when we started to see slowness and strange DNS errors. A WOW technician here in the BBR forums acknowledged there was a problem, but I switched to OpenDNS just to remove that piece of the puzzle.

Meanwhile, AT&T U-Verse has come to our neighborhood and solicits us every day to try their service. I'm sticking with WOW.

---
Update, October 2015:

I meant to update this sooner, so my apologies (for what it's worth ). TLDR: I am still a very happy customer.

Just in the past week, I upgraded to WOW's latest internet speed offering of 110 Mbit down/10 Mbit up for a promo price of $60/month. So far I have yet to break the 100 Mbit mark on speed tests, but I'm pleased with what I am seeing in practice.

The service continues to be rock-solid, with only 2 or 3 outages since my last update: one was due to a cable cut by a construction crew, one was due to a Comcast contractor cutting the drop to my house (seriously!) and the third was a network outage that lasted a couple hours while WOW replaced some switching equipment.

In late 2012 I bought a Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 modem to avoid the equipment rental charges, so I am paying for just the internet service. We still get our TV over-the-air and have no interest in cable television or landline service.

AT&T is still going door-to-door in my neighborhood, and I still have no interest in switching.

The past 7 years with WOW have been great, and I'll continue to stick with them.

member for 22.1 years, 497 visits, last login: 5 days ago
updated 8.4 years ago


Review by wessbie See Profile

  • Location: Knoxville, Knox, TN, USA
  • Cost: $185 per month
Reasonable Internet Speeds (when up)
Expensive, Internet down frequently
Avoid, if you have another option

I have been with Knology for probably10 years or more - through the Wow change... Approx two years ago, my phone service stopped working - because they switched to VOIP and failed to tell me or to install the proper equipment. After the service tech came out and installed the new cable modem - they had to change my plan - because VOIP wasn't allowed on my old plan... They added a whole bunch of discounts to keep my pricing similar - which have now all run out... I am paying $185 / mo - and I do NOT even have HD cable (yup - Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2200 - which takes many minutes to even load the program guide)! And since my "upgrade" - I lose internet connectivity frequently if in use.. ie, if I work from home, skype with someone, or stream a movie - it loses the carrier signal - and I have to wait 2-3 minutes for the cable modem to reconnect. Today, I've only been reading online reviews and have been down 3 times. (The cable modem is by Arris). If I didn't have such an awful experience with Comcast before I switched - I would've dumped Wow already... The total unreliability nowhere near justifies the pricing... I called to swap my plan - and they've got it priced such that I'll still be in at about $100 just to keep the Internet alone- unless I go to the slowest offering they have at $60. Arrgh.

2015-July update:

I had enough with WOW, and opted to discontinue my service. I had no problem with any equipment returns, and was prorated the remainder of the balance back. I will try to consume less than 5 GB per month and tether to my cell phone.

20151006 update:

For the most part, my tethering to cell phone was good - but I did want more than 5GB... I saw that WOW is offering a no contract Internet package now - and since my house is still wired for WOW - I thought I would give it a try.

Here is the interesting bit... They considered me a new customer. Instead of reactivating my old account, they created a new account. I opted for the cheapest / slowest 30 Mpbs option... In Knoxville, the pricing is $29 for internet, $7 modem rental, and $50 one time installation fee. I just ran speed test, and indeed obtained 30Mbps down, 5Mbps up.... I have not had enout uptime yet to know if the system will be as unstable as before..

So... When I was an existing customer at the end of May and wanted to drop the bundle and only retain internet - they offered me the same crappy 15Mbps for $60/month... I dropped their service completely, came back on as a customer 3 months later - and have 30Mbps for $37/month. So just as the VOIP fiasco some years back, they seem to have a problem with existing customers... Anyway - at the moment - I am very happy...!

member for 8.8 years, 16 visits, last login: 5.8 years ago
updated 8.4 years ago


Ceponatia
@spcsdns.net

Ceponatia

Anon

Wow ultra TV... Ultra what? Not good. Lol.

We switched to WOW ultra from their standard service a couple of weeks ago and it has been a frustrating experience. I am currently writing this review from my cellphone because our internet goes out for at least an hour every day and nothing fixes it until it decides to start working again on its own. So I apologize for any typos.

The tech who installed the new service was talking about how their TV is getting more and more expensive because the networks aren't making money anymore and soon everything will be internet only. Well for WOWs sake I hope that isn't true because their internet service is garbage and they have the most inept tech support staff I've ever dealt with.

LITERALLY (and I'm using that word correctly in this instance) 5 minutes after the tech left the internet shut off and we spent an hour on the phone with tech support to no avail. Finally we said "just come out tomorrow and give us our old service back". Magically ten minutes after we hung up the phone the Internet was back on. Lol.

Since then the Internet goes out every day at random times for up to two hours. This used to happen a lot with the old service but restarting the modem usually fixed it. Now it no longer fixes the outages and we have to simply wait. Again, tech support is totally useless even when we unplug our own wireless router and try to use the built in wifi on their modem.

I miss living on the west coast and dealing with COX. They may be expensive but their equipment always worked.

Review by NickatNight See Profile

  • Location: North Olmsted, Cuyahoga, OH, USA
  • Cost: $127 per month
  • No Cap
Used to be a great company, with lower cost.
Price keeps going up, now experiencing regular outages.
Have been with them since 2008. Now looking elsewhere.
Connection Reliability:
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Services:
Value for money:

WOW used to be a great company. We've had the "triple play" (Internet, phone, and cable) with them since 2008. Prices used to be guaranteed for a year or more with no contract, the services were solid, and the customer service was polite and helpful. About once a year the price would go up, and I would call them to work out a new deal - annoying but not unbearable.

A year or two ago the price hikes became more frequent, and over time, the service has become less reliable. We've now had 3-4 Internet and phone outages in the past week and a half. Whenever I check downdetector.com, it shows outages across their entire network. When I call, WOW's computer voice tells me there is an outage in my area. I've talked to customer service and there is no further explanation, no info on when service will be available again, and no place to check status.

In addition, their customer service has gotten worse and become almost belligerent. It is time to look elsewhere.

member for 17 years, 73 visits, last login: 1.5 years ago
lodged 8.4 years ago


Review by chitown7777 See Profile

  • Location: Naperville, Du Page, IL, USA
  • Cost: $190 per month
Nothing
Overpriced, spotty internet, bad service
They are terrible.
Pre Sales information:
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A bit of history: we switched to W.O.W. from Comcast a few years back because of the attractive pricing. For what we were paying nearly $200 to Comcast for (phone/TV/internet), W.O.W. could provide for around $135. Not an contract or promotional rate...that was just the normal price. And we were told that while a price increase could happen periodically, it would always be minor. Initially, this was correct. After a year or so our price inched up a few bucks. No big deal. Great service, too.

Then, the big increases started coming...a one month jump from the $150s to $175 just in time for the holidays in 2014 which started me on a path to dumping them, culminating in the latest notice (August 2015) that our bill is due to increase by another $15 or so. Our new monthly bill? $190. Right about where Comcast's was when we quit. To make matters worse, the equipment we have (well, had until the other day) was far less advanced than our old Comcast stuff. Note that we didn't have UltraTV...we had that for a couple of weeks but found the equipment wonky, especially the fact that it imposed a very low quality router on our home internet that couldn't be disabled. UltraTV is a neat service only if your home internet needs are very light. But if you opt out of UltraTV, they stick you with a DVR that looks like it came from Russian military surplus, and takes forever to respond to menu inputs.

And oh yes, the internet! Yeah. 15Mbps. And it perpetually dropped at random times. Something they fixed twice, yet began happening yet again. So 15Mbps internet that was perpetually flaky, a mid-tier channel selection, a painfully outdated DVR box, and phone for about $195/month. A total joke, though it was great when it was $135.

To top it all off, their phone support has become a farce. Just offshored know-nothings reading from a one-pager, just like the big-name providers they used to try to avoid being like.

Now I'm back with the evil empire. Internet is 75Mbps (we actually get 90Mbps). The connection is rock solid. We have a whole house DVR that doesn't impose a crappy router on our internet service. We have menus that look like they weren't designed in 1995. Effectively, we have the equivalent of UltraTV without paying a premium for it or getting saddled with the bizarre equipment.

I don't know why anyone would deal with W.O.W. at this point. Same price for significantly worse service than their peers. What's the point anymore? There isn't one. It's sad what has happened to them. They've lost their sole market advantage: price.

member for 11.7 years, 12 visits, last login: 8.5 years ago
updated 8.5 years ago


Review by sollord See Profile

  • Location: Fraser, Macomb, MI, USA
  • Cost: $177 per month
  • No Cap
Works well good speeds
Gateway for UltraTV sometimes needs to be power cycled
Pre Sales information:
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UltraTV works with minor issues related to the UltraTV gateway needing to be power cycled randomly once a month or so. I've had it for two year I know the install was smooth and issue free.

member for 15.4 years, 34 visits, last login: 3.3 years ago
lodged 8.5 years ago


hate company
@knology.net

hate company

Anon

WOW is a terrible service provider

Used to have knology and loved it, now we have WOW and i find myself saying, "WOW this is a joke."

ESt
@charter.com

ESt

Anon

terrible

Absolutely terrible. I tried very hard to remain loyal to Wow despite the problems we have had since it changed from Knology. Transferring our service when we moved was a disaster. Initial service transfer started with the technician leaving our gates open and letting our new puppy out to roam the streets and neighborhood. Internet service was spotty, and our phone didn't work at all. We called again, we were given a 10am -12 pm window. Normally, I would commend early arrival, however; not at 8:00 am on a Saturday that requires me to answer the door in my pajamas. The technician came out with pants below his butt and his underwear hanging out in front of my 7 year old daughter. Then, he tells me that he didn't bring any equipment necessary to fix a phone line, and they double booked by appointment with another - so he'd have to leave and schedule it for another day. Immediately after he left,our internet went out completely. We called again, we were given a new service appointment for between 4-6 pm. at 6:30 when no one had shown up, we left for a prior commitment. At 7:30 the technician called to say he was on his way - but we were no longer home and could not get back that evening. Called again to schedule and we were told it would be ANOTHER week before they could send anyone out. We have had no phone or internet service since moving to our new home, CHARTER was kind enough to come out within hours of us calling and install our internet service, we decided to just do away with the home phone all together. I called Wow to cancel service and was put on hold repeatedly for ridiculous amounts of time. Finally, I was told that I would have to take the modem back to Wow - who's nearest office is over 30 minutes away, and is only open during business hours (my husband and I both WORK during business hours), after much debate - Wow finally offered to send a technician out to pick up the modem.... in a week.... DURING BUSINESS HOURS. What part of WE WORK do you not get? I asked them to send me a box so I could mail it, and they refused. They said "We don't have the ability to do that". Really? all those boxes that the modems initially come in just disappear, huh? Your office does not keep postage on hand and/or does not have the ability to print postage or purchase it....? If this is how you reward your customers for trying to remain loyal to your service - despite the diminishing quality - you can keep it. I have terminated my service and will not be going back. I will send you the modem COD postage due, and I am not paying for the service we have not received since we moved, and you owe me a refund, as you bill for the month in advance.






Review by tonybedone5 See Profile

  • Location: Chicago, Cook, IL, USA
  • Cost: $145 per month
  • Install: about 500 days

I like that there's no 2 yr. contract, this is my second time back to wow. However, before I was strongly encouraged to upgrade to the Ultra system, there was a feature that allowed folk to transfer dvr/vcr videos to your dvd system. This ultra sucks!!!! Wow needs to bring back the option of transferring beloved videos. Plus they took away stars and encore but you can pay more them. I PAY MORE NOW THAN BEFORE THE UPGRADE!!!!!Tell me is there an alternative to cable. And don't say Direct, Comcast all suck big time. VERY DISSATISFIED CUSTOMER.

member for 8.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 8.6 years ago

Tony0945
join:2015-03-26
Streamwood, IL

Tony0945

Member

Alternate to UltraTV

The alternate is putting an antenna on your roof and getting everything else by streaming. I tested Amazon Prime by watching Tora! Tora! Tora!, a very long film, via Amazon Firestick. It was perfect, even though I only had 20MB speed and a lot of problems with my cable modem.

Review by Liam2 See Profile

  • Location: Knoxville, Knox, TN, USA
  • Cost: $136 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
Fast setup. Money back guarantee (Update, well not really money back)
Everything else. Spotty internet service. Phone service was terrible. TV menu and Video On Demand Menu is terrible.
WOW? More like WOW this sucks.
Pre Sales information:
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Update July 24th, 2015
After stating I would not be charged for anything, WOW billed me for the install that never worked. So really there is no guarantee. New slogan for WOW internet. "WOW! making Comcast look good."

Original post:

Had internet, cable tv, and phone package setup for about 2 weeks. Internet lasted a whole day before going down multiple times and my phones would show an incoming call notification for a second and never ring so I am not sure if there was an actual call or something else.

The biggest problem was the tv package. I was not given the channels I was promised and trying to navigate the Menu for the TV box was a nightmare. To get any Video On Demand you had to go to a Free Channel menu, then find the network the show you want is on, that is if they even had it, and then find your show.

This is where it got really annoying. If you found the show, which was buried deep in sub-menus, they would usually only have 1 or 2 episodes. Usually it wasn't even the newest episode or the complete season. For example, if there were 17 episodes of a show they would have number 12 or 13 and that is all.

If you have another choice of a provider, I would go with someone else. I did.

member for 13 years, 13 visits, last login: 8.2 years ago
updated 8.6 years ago


sister fran
@comcast.net

sister fran

Anon

They must try to be this bad.

The service, both of the cable and the people who should have been providing it, was so awful I l terminated our relationship on 23 April 15. The right choice. On 19 June 15 I arrived home after a long working day to find a bill from them for May/June service. What service?!? Incompetence beyond any others'. After wasting a good 45 minutes of my time Carl, "service" supervisor, told me he had removed all charges in a tone of voice that inferred I should thank him. When I protested and told him WOW owed me a very large apology Carl told me I would hear from management Monday. Still waiting. Liars and horrible service.

Review by handk See Profile

  • Location: Lawrence, Douglas, KS, USA
  • Cost: $55 per month
  • Install: about 4 days
  • No Cap
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Basic package, we are currently testing the service. We have the same ISP on 2 locations, one is Canopy and the other is fiber. The Canopy service is very unreliable and spotty, slow and with frequent time-outs. Customer Service is no longer what it used to be when the company was called Sunflower, when they were first bought out by Knology and next by WOW of the three companies WOW is the least customer oriented. Technical expertise of Agents is minimal. I was not told that I the used modem that was installed was rented for $7.00 per month, I went on line and purchased an identical model WBM760A for $30!

member for 13.5 years, 254 visits, last login: 3.7 years ago
lodged 8.7 years ago


unhappy67
@wideopenwest.com

unhappy67

Anon

service

they need to revisit their customer service - since they have moved over seas its horrible I don't want to waste my time going on and on about just their customer service. I will be finding another cable provider i'm sorry to say ...I've tried to stay loyal (customer since 1999) but the last three years they have seriously gone downhill.
handk
join:2010-09-07
Lawrence, KS

handk

Member

WOW service

The service continues to be marginal! If you have alternatives do not use this provider.