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Review by FrostShadow See Profile

  • Location: undisclosed location
  • Cost: $145 per month
BH doesn't reward loyalty - it penalizes it by steady price increases
Advice: Bounce around different companies to receive the promo pricing continuously

I have been a BH customer since the year 2000, first with just internet, then being talked into the digital phone addition, and a year later signing up for a 99/mo. promo (triple play) from WalMart to try out their cable TV as well. That went alright pricewise for the first year (problems with features working was a nightmare, though!!!) A year later, it went to $140 a month, 160 total bill!!! I called to cancel, but they talked me down to paying 119 a month, sayings it's the lowest they can go at that time. Two months later, I find that to be a lie, because the front page of the BH website stated everyone (new, not loyal!) gets my package for 109 a month! I complained about that, and they changed me to the same pricing of 109 as all their "new friends." Now I just got another increase of 10 dollars, called up, and they tell me that they planned on increasing the price every year for 4 years! I couldn't believe it, they never told me that or I never would have stayed with them. Because, they say, they already lowered me to 119 last year (from 160, highest price possible!), they would not do it again. I really did complain to them that I feel loyalty should be REWARDED in this day and age, not penalized! My car insurance company rewards me in various ways for each year I STAY with them. Other establishments REWARD loyalty. I asked what do they do to reward loyal customers? Know what they said?? "We give bundle pricings." I said "You give that to EVERYONE!" They stammered on that. I asked what else? They said "We only increase over a four year period, not all at once. I said "you're kidding? Increasing less than you want to is a REWARD to ME?" By now, the supervisor ran out of lame excuses and couldn't tell me WHY I SHOULD STAY when I had mail from every other provider in my area bombarding my mailbox every day enticing me to switch. It has now become more economical for me to SWITCH to any other provider and take their promo pricing for awhile, then call BH in another couple of years to switch back (if I'm really not thrilled by the other provider) just to get the 'NEW FRIENDS' pricing. I really refuse to pay one dollar more now than anyone else that is getting the same exact service and package that I do. And heaven help the sucker that stays with them for 4 years and continues to pay the standard pricing of 160 (with tax, etc.) for the rest of the "BH lives." Why stay with BH and be INCREASED when you can bounce around between companies and get the first 1-2 year deals, plus LOADS of cash back and rewards??? I have read all the details of the other deals and they can't be beat - I get more bang for the buck if I switch even for 1-2 years and go back to BH. All because they wanted 10 lousy bucks a month more from someone like me who doesn't care so much about the price as they do the PRINCIPLE of it? As we speak, I'm looking for an unlimited cell phone plan so I can drop the internet (unreliable) phone PRONTO, then shop around these pamphlets and the internet for a new cable and internet service(s). I'm glad I have the next two weeks off so I can do this without much inconvenience.

member for 13.2 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 13.2 years ago


Review by adusman See Profile

  • Location: Livonia, Wayne, MI, USA
  • Cost: $120 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 45 days
Internet for web browsing/Netflix is adequate.
Packet Loss by the Boatload!
Stick with ATT Uverse if you're in the Livonia area.
Pre Sales information:
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DL/UL speeds are not bad. Testing at about 5.2Mb/s down and 1.5Mb/s up. Web browsing is no problem. I can even watch HD movies with streaming Netflix on my XBox 360. But the major complaint is PACKET LOSS! When performing a line/ping test, I'm coming in at 54-57% packet loss. Considering I game online often, this has been a major disappointment. We will be switching back to ATT U-Verse once our current term is up. The speeds may have been a bit slower, but at least my ping was excellent. Good luck using real time internet applications with this terrible service.

member for 15.3 years, 6 visits, last login: 13.3 years ago
lodged 13.3 years ago


mix
join:2002-03-19
Romeo, MI

mix

Member

Packet Loss...

You shouldn't be getting any packet loss. You need to call tech support and report your problem and get it resolved.
BHNtechXpert
The One & Only
Premium Member
join:2006-02-16
Saint Petersburg, FL

BHNtechXpert

Premium Member

Ping test where?

Where are you testing to determine this? Please tell me it isn't speedtest.net (worthless). Post examples of your packet loss and anything else that may help me see exactly what you are experiencing.

Review by Bacail See Profile

  • Location: Deland, Volusia, FL, USA
  • Cost: $149 per month
Good Cable/Blazing fast internet for decent prices
Dealing with Tech support can be a pain
Worth the money if you can hammer through tech support on occasion
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House had a DirectTV dish already installed, but i can't stand the net through that. Cable was no brainer. Internet is blazing fast, good Cable TV. Dealing with Tech support can be a pain if you already know what the issue is. They insist on going through 2-3 tech before they actually start checking main lines. Takes a few days to get 'em moving, but they usually get the job then pretty quickly after that.

member for 13.4 years, 665 visits, last login: 6.8 years ago
lodged 13.4 years ago

ITVescogni
join:2010-11-05
Orlando, FL

ITVescogni

Member

Bright House Lighting Service

Blazing fast and very reliable.

Review by demonr6 See Profile

  • Location: Windermere, Orange, FL, USA
  • Cost: $54 per month
I have internet..
I have no other choices..
Too expensive for what I get.
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I really dislike Bright House on all levels. Their tech is mostly unhelpful. Their reliability is spotty. My connection drops all the time. When the service is down, magically I am the only one and it always requires a tech to come out to my house which is usually days later and inconvenient when I have to wait through a four hour window. The poor guy usually gets here late most likely from other wild goose chase calls like mine where he checks the line, nothing is wrong and he ends up calling in to have them figure it out which they should have done in the first place. This past week they did something overnight and fried my new Motorola Surfboard modem but they swear nothing was done on their end. They are never at fault.

member for 15 years, 29 visits, last login: 7.6 years ago
lodged 13.5 years ago

Chris Berry
join:2008-10-22
Orlando, FL

Chris Berry

Member

Services

demonr6, I work for Bright House Networks and would like to resolve these issues. Send me a PM or email me at Chris.Berry@mybrighthouse.com. Thanks - Chris

Review by LonghornXP See Profile

  • Location: Largo, Pinellas, FL, USA
  • Cost: $110 per month
Service itself is stable.
Prices and customer service.
Service is overpriced and customer service could improve.
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I've waited several months before writing this to avoid an emotional review. My ordeal started out when trying to get a cablecard and tuning adapter installed. Simply put it took multiple visits to get done even with the special help of a BHN employee. While I value the hard work of this employee I'm finding it hard to swallow how much better it should have been and that it shouldn't have required an employee friend to help. My next issue was when I got a notice that my promo was ending. This flier stated my bill would only be going up 3 bucks a month. The problem was that my bill went up almost 30 bucks a month. I have cable service included in my rent and before the increase my combo plus was 53.00 per month. This was going to increase to 67.00/month. I still have yet to get a decent response as to how that is only a 3.00 per month increase. I guess my math is really bad.

I also noticed that my premiums went up 3 bucks a month and a few other charges went up as well. Like anything they kept saying this was promo pricing but quite honestly when my bill was going to reach over 200 bucks a month (not counting 50 bucks included in rent which makes the bill 250+ per month) this isn't promo pricing. Yes I know I get everything (Lightning, 3 HD DVRs, all premiums, triple play etc) but that still seems excessive in price compared to most other offerings.

Simply put I called to get a better price and this company wouldn't budge at all. During that call I got rid of all the premium channels. I saved myself 49 bucks almost with tax savings. I upgraded my Netflix subscription so I could get more movies at a time. I called about two weeks later to see about a better promo for the triple play based on the fact I never use the phone that much. Well again they refused to budge. I told them I was going to switch to a VoIP provider and they still didn't care. Well I switched to phone power and after getting that setup I ported my BHN number.

At this point I called several days after the port was completed and asked about a double play. After being quoted a specific price several times it ended up they backed out of it. Well not much I can do so I spoke with a supervisor and explained that I wanted to make sure that what I'm quoted is what I get. Well I'm given a quote and asked about 5 times that this is done and I'm not going to get another call where BHN changed their mind and was assured that everything was done. Well 30 minutes later I got a call from the supervisor stating he made a mistake and the deal would be 30 bucks more per month than quoted. I pretty much gave up and accepted it after they agreed to give me a free months service (120 dollar credit) for the mistake. Because I was still mad I decided to bring back my third HD DVR to save 20 bucks a month as I just kept the HD DVR to use along with my Tivo HD Premier.

I just have never had good experiences with BHN for whatever reason but I won't deny that the service itself is rock solid and good. Its just everything else beyond that sucks quite honestly. I also hate the fact that they always act as if they are doing me the favor. Also I don't like the fact that everybody I know that has access to Knology and/or FIOS gets better pricing. I feel like they are ripping me off and they know I cannot do anything about it.

This is also exactly why I'm planning within the next year to buy a home with FIOS. In fact I'm moving back where I was living almost 10 years ago that now has FIOS. I enjoy TV and internet so much that part of buying a house is finding a place where you can be happy and enjoy what life has to offer. I've decided that I cannot fully enjoy life when I don't have choices in service providers. So when I do move I'm sorry to say but BHN will no longer be welcomed in my bright fiber optic blinding home. BHN you have had a billion chances to stop this choice but every time you have failed to even attempt to show you truly care about your customers or at least this customer. I will no longer be trapped with you as my only provider for triple play services.

member for 18.5 years, 1307 visits, last login: 13 years ago
lodged 13.5 years ago


Review by cmcasey79 See Profile

  • Location: Farmington, Oakland, MI, USA
  • Cost: $128 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Connection in Michigan is pretty solid.
Needed business class for Static IP. Account changes are a ngithmare
Connection usually good, Customer service needs work!
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I've had this service at my apartment for about 4 years now. I ordered Business Class internet/Cable TV so that I could get a Static IP address and run a web server and stuff. The connection has in general been pretty solid, except for minor outages here and there. The cost is pretty high though. They marketed the business internet as basically $20 more and normal, however, they wont do any bundles with a business class account, so when its all said and done, i'm really paying about $50 more than what a normal residential account would pay.

Cable TV, in general, is very reliable. Unfortunately I can't say the same for their Motorola DVR boxes. Brighthouse never seems to update firmware at all (comcast has much newer firmware on their identical cable boxes, with numerous bug fixes). Complaining to brighthouse gets nowhere. They say things like the box being unresponsive for over a minute, or recording things it shouldn't are just normal.

I no longer need the Static IP, so I've been trying to get my account switched back to a normal residential one to save that money. Getting that done has become a nightmare. Apparently there is only ONE person in the entire company that can do it, and, surprise, she's on vacation.

At this point, i'm pretty fed up, but hopefully will get everything resolved soon. If I could get satellite in my apartment, i would definitely switch to that for TV, but I dont face the right direction for a dish.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------

Update 9/18/2010

For the past few months, I have been switched to residential service to save money, and get the faster turbo internet speeds.

New newer generation DR box they have now (DCX3400) has been pretty good. Much better than the previous box I had. They have added quite a few HD channels to their lineup too, which is very good to see.

Tech support, however, has been terrible lately. Any time BHN has an internet issue, it is next to impossible to actually reach a tech support agent. Their local support phone numbers are either busy, or they pick up, but are just dead air. The 866 number seems to work when it's very late at night, but during the daytime, it will be busy as well. That's not good for business at all.

Luckily, the internet has still been fairly reliable. Not as reliable as the first few years I had it though. There seem to be a lot more little intermittent problems now. Unfortunate.

member for 23.3 years, 10503 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 13.5 years ago


Review by videoeditman See Profile

  • Location: Orlando, Orange, FL, USA
  • Cost: $45 per month
Fast enough
Horrible customer service and on-time appts
I'm looking elsewhere
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I've been a customer for about 10 years. I fired their cable to go with Directv about 8 years ago because the service was unreliable and the customer service even worse. I kept cable internet (Road Runner) though. I'm now done with them too. They can rarely resolve the many connection issues I've had. It's inconsistent at best. I know about modems and routers enough to know what's up. Basically, the connection is poor and I've had it taken directly from the pole out front to my modem (or BH's modem) and it's still bad. Their phone support is usually from another country and understanding them can be hard. On the plus side, the service is fast... when it works. My ping responses (and speed tests) have been GREAT when working.

I'm now shopping around. I hope I can find reliable cable or fast DSL service in Orlando.

Should getting what you pay a lot for be this hard?

member for 13.5 years, 2 visits, last login: 13.5 years ago
updated 13.5 years ago

Chris Berry
join:2008-10-22
Orlando, FL

Chris Berry

Member

Service

Hello. I work for Bright House Networks and would like to help resolve the internet issues. Please send me a PM. Thanks - Chris

Review by mbmas01 See Profile

  • Location: Lakeland, Polk, FL, USA
  • Cost: $141 per month
Installation and Customer Service
Performance on videos and responsiveness
Pre Sales information:
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Setup and installation was fine, as was moving service from one house to another. BUT....

For the past few months, speed has been spotty at best. Youtube and hulu have become painful to watch. Even wikipedia sometimes requires a reload to get the page to start..

Running a Youtube speed test shows speeds dropping to below 400K. Even worse, 0Kbps for minutes and minutes. Only way to watch a Youtube video is to immediately pause and wait until it's at least half-loaded before viewing.

Hulu takes about 1.5x the length of the show due to buffering running out.

Had the "Turbo" service up until this month when I cancelled it. I've had the techs out here before, and all they can say is "must be something in the network." Of course, running the Brighthouse bandwidth test (on their site) shows great downloads, but they don't translate into real-world performance. Service is worst after work and on weekends, seems best (surprise!) when everyone's at school or at work...



member for 13.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 13.6 years ago


Review by TEKNOFLUXX See Profile

  • Location: Orlando, Orange, FL, USA
  • Cost: $96 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
When everything works, the connections are great, the latency is good, and the TV services are nice...
Gone through 3 modems now, been up and down CONSTANTLY for weeks, pricey compared to say Uverse.
Slim pickins... I would gladly go to an alternative if it existed!
Pre Sales information:
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Brighthouse has been a mixed bag. The technical support people are fairly inept (granted, there's been one or two "bright" people at Bright house I've spoken to), and consider diagnostics "pinging the modem". Great people. I already can do that. The service is prone to disconnects in the middle of the night, which happens to be my prime work hours. When I had a total outage, that had been going on since some time (which resulted in one of the modem swaps) the soonest a tech could be scheduled was two days later, with 2 weeks of spotty or unusable service in front of it. I was given a 2-day "service credit" ($2.66....) and was ignored that it had been off and on for a while.

Long story short, for what I'm paying, as well as some of the TV issues unrelated to the ISP, and compared to Comcast and Charter, Brighthouse has been a lousy experience. I'm only with them currently because the other services aren't at my house yet.

member for 13.6 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 13.6 years ago

FileZ
join:2009-07-08
Oviedo, FL

FileZ

Member

Switch To U-Verse

As soon as AT&T U-Verse comes to your area, get it. You won't be sorry.
Chris Berry
join:2008-10-22
Orlando, FL

Chris Berry

Member

Service

Please send me a PM, I would like to help and get this resolved. Thanks!

Review by ryryonline See Profile

  • Location: Orlando, Orange, FL, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
High speeds
The customer service and issue tracking is horrible!
If FIOS or U-Verse were in my area, I would switch in a heartbeat regardless of cost.

I've had four techs come to my house in the past three weeks trying to figure out dropped Internet signal. Each time I call, I have to re-explain everything that has happened. It seems as if they don't use issue tracking software. And each person on the phone says, "I pinged your modem and it's online." I know that. Listen to my issue and don't say that I'm wrong. You're the company that sent four techs and can't resolve it.

I've even made suggestions such as, "Please check the distribution amp or the mainline into the neighborhood." They disregard them saying, "It's probably your router." Funny thing is, the same thing happens when I bypass the router.

Brighthouse, please hire someone that knows how your system works. I check daily for FIOS and U-Verse. The moment it's available, I will be the first in my neighborhood to have that service.

member for 13.6 years, 36 visits, last login: 6.7 years ago
lodged 13.6 years ago

Chris Berry
join:2008-10-22
Orlando, FL

Chris Berry

Member

Bright House Networks Service

I work for Bright House Networks and would like to get this issue resolved. Please send me a PM. Thanks - Chris
rockfish8
join:2009-11-08
Sun City Center, FL

rockfish8

Member

Brighthouse sales

I had awitched from Brighthouse to Verizon Fios about a year ago and was severel;t disappointed by,what definitely was a bad choice.I was phoned by a Brighthouse rep who was named Robin and she could not have been nicer,nor more professional.Everyone loves to rip people at the drop of a hat,but the letters of praise are far and few between.I was given a great deal which actually was transparent and was executed perfectly.I am now back with Brighthouse and could not be happier.Thanks Robin for a job well done and your courtesy.