how-to block ads
|
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."
| Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
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."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
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.
--------
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. | |
|
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! | |
| | |
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. | |
|
| | 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... | |
|
| | | 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 $$$$. | |
|
| |
| 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 :("
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
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 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. "
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
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. | |
|
| |
| 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"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
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?
member for 11.2 years, 3612 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 63 days ago
Comments:
| Review by hudiat - Location: Brook Park,Cuyahoga,OH
- Cost: $95 per month
Good "competitive pricing"
Bad "Terrible internet services, tech support is beyond a joke"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
Update: Months of crappy video service continue. Not an isolated incident, tons of people complain about it all the time on the forum. From all over, it is network wide. For weeks now you can't call support without waiting an hour+. They are updating their software apparently, but it has been weeks of terrible wait times and when you do get through the people don't know how to do anything in the new system yet. Finally do get a hold of someone and they say you are the only person in the area so it is isolated to you, not on our end. Maybe more people would be complaining if the wait to call wasn't so long. Bottom line, they continue to blind to the fact that over the past 18 months their quality of customer service has been slowly decreasing, and is now at the point of just being another cable company. I can get someone from comcast of Time Warner on the phone quicker. They used to be SO good at customer service, and recently growth and expansion has been more important to them as a company than maintaining the customer service levels they once had.
The generic solution is always send a tech out. The tech always says nothing wrong. Problems persist.
I thought they were getting better, then I start to have issues again, and generic support is useless. It is nice an employee posts in the forums, but a user shouldn't have to find a forum that happens to have helpful wow employee to get support, regular support should be able to help to.
My situation with WOW is exactly why the industry needs real competition.
Had ongoing internet issues for 6 months. Finally get them fixed, and 3 months later more random issues.
member for 1.9 years, 360 visits, last login: 3 days ago
updated 66 days ago
Comments:
| Review by Oosie65 - Location: Columbus,Franklin,OH
- Cost: $73 per month
Bad "Just plain awful and unreliable"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
WOW is absolutely not worth your time or money. In fact their services/products were getting worse even after they jacked up everyone's monthly bill to cover the "upgrades" WOW happily informed their clientele. The internet was still slow, the pixilation and picture freezing issues with the TV had not improved. The technicians either did not show up on the scheduled date or showed up 3 hours early while you are still at work. After several incoveniencing calls to repair my problems by "sending a signal" to my digital box over a period of 9 months from moving into my new residence, my home had to be rewired after installation for the second time but the pixilation and picture freezing of the cable service was not resolved. I also received a "new" digital box during this time period. I cancelled my service earlier this month to switch to another company - found out that WOW STILL deducted the full months payment out of my bank account when I should only have paid for a few days' service. After speaking to two "representatives" I was told a refund check will be mailed to me - they cannot deduct my account electronically. The gentleman proceeded to state it was my bank's fault for not informing me of the proposed deduction - I explained that banks do not receive a proposed AUTOPAY transmittal until the day of the deducted fee. This same rep could not tell me when my refund check would be cut and mailed out so who knows how soon I will get that. They are quick to deduct your bank account but I have to wait for a refund check??? Ridiculous and totally unacceptable. If a company has EDI authorization to deduct from individuals' bank accounts, they can electronically credit the account as well. They just choose not to do so. I also was unable to access my account online to remove the autopay option even though I called 3 times to have this issue resolved, to which was not. I also received an additional bill on TOP of this automated full month's payment for a partial month's services. Technically I was being charged for an additional month's service AFTER the disconnect date.
After a period of 4 years of continuing service which was getting worse over time, I finally decided to switch companies. Now I'm stuck with a full month's payment to WOW to which I should not have paid AND a two month's payment to the new cable company all in the same paycheck in which my mortgage, insurance and condo fees are also needed to be paid. What is also interesting - when I called to order WOW service to be disconnected - there were no questions asked as to why I decided to cancel my services with them. Could it be so many people are cancelling their services with WOW they gave up inquiring the reasons?
Customer service wait time during the week in the evenings on average was 20 minutes. I heard the spiel during my wait time that "it is best to call between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm". If you're at work and need to be near your TV and/or internet in the hopes your issues will be resolved, this is not possible. We have to work in order to pay the WOW bill. Do companies get this?
Did anyone else attempt to contact WOW during the "upgrading service" only to listen to the CEO's apology message about the service, and then the call was disconnected? I could not connect to an actual representative for weeks. I couldn't receive a credit for outages since I did "not call to report the issue". If no one would answer the phone, how could they have known of the outage issues?
Customer Service representatives for WOW are generally in the same category as Verizon Wireless. Although WOW reps are not as degrading and condescending as Verizon reps. Just clueless.
member for 105 days, 0 visits, last login: 105 days ago
updated 105 days ago
Comments:
| Review by Rodney.Armstrong - Location: Grove City,Franklin,OH
- Cost: $140 per month
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
WOW has the worst customer service of any cable and internet provider.
The cable and internet is less than average. Their billing is horrible!
They double billed me late last year without me knowing it. This week I
received a phone call from a debt collector stating I owed them $250! I
said "they are my provider and I am looking at the last bill which was
due a few weeks ago and I paid it on time and owe them nothing". They
said that isn't what their records show. I told them I would call WOW.
I called WOW and they said they have where we disconnected service in
February and a past due bill we never paid. I said, first I don't owe
you anything but, let's say I did... why wouldn't you cut off my service
until I paid if that is the case? She said they couldn't reach me. I
reminded them that we have service with them currently. I explained we
have had service with them for years. I reminded them that they sent out
noticed apologizing in January and February for incorrect invoicing.
After speaking to 3 people (escalating each time) they finally
determined that it would be good to reduce the $250 to $200 and call it
a deal. NOT! I have all my bills and will not pay them another cent. I
have now cancelled my service with WOW and will make it my mission to
make sure as many knows about this as possible. They have lost one
customer and a customer that will work really hard to ensure they lose
more or at least the opportunity at some for $200. It isn't the fact
that I can't pay it, because I waste more than that in a weekend of
eating out (family of 5) but it is just the principle of the matter.
In close, BEWARE of WOW! Don't go with them. Unfortunately I don't have
a good reference for any but I am going back to Time Warner. Even though
I will pay more and their customer service isn't much better, at least
they had accurate billing and if there was a problem, they would address
and admit it. Good luck WOW, you will need it!
(review was emailed from domain securitasinc.com)
lodged 145 days ago
Comments:
| | I beg to differ I called last night about my bill around 7pm. After choosing a few customer billing options, my wait was about 1 minute. They answered my question promptly. | |
| | | | Re: I beg to differ I just got my bill this morning and they are charging me $260 when I know for a fact that I only incurred about $130 in charges this month. WOW! has only been in my town for about a month and before then Knology was pretty good with not billing me like this. I called them about this problem and they don't seem to care. I will try to inform others in my town to try to stop using WOW! if they have this problem also and go to Charter instead. | |
|
| |
| Review by avonlakeoh - Location: Avon Lake,Lorain,OH
- Cost: $99 per month
Good "Quick install, good reception, good internet speed, good phone"
Bad "Terrible Service, Phone calls never answered, E-mails never answered"
Overall "We'll go back to Century Phone and DSL and Time Warner TV"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
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 200 days, 0 visits, last login: 200 days ago
updated 200 days ago
Comments:
| Review by hovisrobert - Location: Saint Clair Shores,Macomb,MI
- Cost: $177 per month
Good "it used to work ,they used to answer the phone"
Bad "no customer service only busy signal"
Overall "stay away do not buy this service but since they don't answer the phone you probably can't sign up anyway"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
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 276 days, 8 visits, last login: 249 days ago
updated 249 days ago
Comments:
| | 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? | |
| | | 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.  | |
|
| |
|
|
·
