stever80
join:2003-05-07
Bayside, NY
| Opinion of RCN in NYC
Hello All
Just wanted to get a feeling of RCN in NYC from ppl that have it.
How good is it?
How good is the customer support?
How is the triple play package to those that have it?
Does RCN use TimeWarners infrastructure? If so, does it take longer to fix an issue with RCN?
Any and all comments welcome.
Thank you |
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nycityny
join:2005-08-09
New York, NY
 ·RCN CABLE
 ·VoicePulse
·ViaTalk
| I've had RCN cable TV for around 11 years and RCN's broadband for about 8 years.
The cable TV has worked well for me. I don't have an HD television so I don't have an issue with the number of HD channels they offer. I use "real" TIVO so have not dealt with RCN's DVR service. I am grandfathered into an old package they don't offer anymore so I get a great price for basic, the digital tier and all the premium movie channels. This setup has been very reliable for me.
The broadband Internet has also been very reliable and fast. There are occasional outages - maybe 2 per year on average. That's very acceptable. I have their 10mbps/800kbps speed package and it is great.
Where RCN is miserable is their customer service. Any time I have made a change to my services (add channels, change Internet speed, change phone service I used to have with them, etc.), they fowl up. They usually bill an amount different than what I was told and then take months of prodding to get it fixed (or deny that anyone ever offered me the price I say I was quoted, in essence calling me a liar). When I upgraded from 7mbps to 10mbps they forgot to actually up my speed - they changed the billing system just fine but neglected to provision me at the correct speed.
I could go on and on with stories of being told one thing and then having another actually occur. The problem is that their customer service "800" number gets you a representative at a phone bank in another state. The folks try to be helpful but are completely unfamiliar with local NYC issues. And what someone in Arizona tells you on the phone has no bearing on what the NYC technician brings to your door.
The complaints aside, when I make no changes to the service it just keeps on humming without much thinking about it. |
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Chala
join:2008-05-09
| reply to nycityny
Re: Opinion of RCN in NYC
said by nycityny  :When I upgraded from 7mbps to 10mbps they forgot to actually up my speed - they changed the billing system just fine but neglected to provision me at the correct speed. How did you know they failed up your speed. What reference/site did you use, and how did you get them to agree and honor it? |
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nycityny
join:2005-08-09
New York, NY
·RCN CABLE
·VoicePulse
·ViaTalk
| said by Chala :How did you know they failed up your speed. What reference/site did you use, and how did you get them to agree and honor it? This happened several years ago so I don't remember exactly which speed test I used but I did use an online test to determine at what speed I was running. These days the speed test I use is »ny.speedtest.rcn.net/.
I had requested the upgrade as part of a promotion where RCN would waive the $10 monthly fee for one year. It was one month into the year when I finally phoned RCN to complain about the slow speed. The telephone technician looked at something on her end and acknowledged to me that I had not been properly provisioned at the higher speed. She made the change.
I asked the woman whether my one year promotion could be extended by a month since I had not received the higher speed for an entire month. She said that she could not do that but that she would credit my account for $10. I accepted that but told her that I was dubious that the $10 credit would actually be applied because of my prior experience with RCN's billing. The woman told me that she would definitely take care of it and knew how to do it since she used to be in the billing department.
Sure enough, my bill came the next month and there was no $10 credit. This is so typical of RCN. I had to call up again in order to finally get the credit applied. |
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Chala
join:2008-05-09
| said by nycityny :said by Chala :How did you know they failed up your speed. What reference/site did you use, and how did you get them to agree and honor it? This happened several years ago so I don't remember exactly which speed test I used but I did use an online test to determine at what speed I was running. These days the speed test I use is » ny.speedtest.rcn.net/. I had requested the upgrade as part of a promotion where RCN would waive the $10 monthly fee for one year. It was one month into the year when I finally phoned RCN to complain about the slow speed. The telephone technician looked at something on her end and acknowledged to me that I had not been properly provisioned at the higher speed. She made the change. I asked the woman whether my one year promotion could be extended by a month since I had not received the higher speed for an entire month. She said that she could not do that but that she would credit my account for $10. I accepted that but told her that I was dubious that the $10 credit would actually be applied because of my prior experience with RCN's billing. The woman told me that she would definitely take care of it and knew how to do it since she used to be in the billing department. Sure enough, my bill came the next month and there was no $10 credit. This is so typical of RCN. I had to call up again in order to finally get the credit applied. Ok thanks nyc, so could you tell me why you prefer RCN then a faster verizon fios, or a cable tv network with more channels like Time Warner. For example, i just switched from Time Warner, i had RR,CATV, three stations off the bat i miss are Howard Stern On Demand channel. Sleuth, and NY1. But the picture on RCN appears to be crisper, and the 20/2 high speed package i got from RCN seems to be faster then RR's 10/512kbs even though i don't get RCN's touted speed. |
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nycityny
join:2005-08-09
New York, NY
·RCN CABLE
·VoicePulse
·ViaTalk
| said by Chala :Ok thanks nyc, so could you tell me why you prefer RCN then a faster verizon fios, or a cable tv network with more channels like Time Warner. For example, i just switched from Time Warner, i had RR,CATV, three stations off the bat i miss are Howard Stern On Demand channel. Sleuth, and NY1. But the picture on RCN appears to be crisper, and the 20/2 high speed package i got from RCN seems to be faster then RR's 10/512kbs even though i don't get RCN's touted speed. Reasons I am with RCN:
1) FIOS is not available in my area.
2) Time Warner requires a cable box to receive reception on all channels (at least they did the last time I checked). I have several TIVO machines that record directly from the coax on channels 2-99 with RCN which I could not do with Time Warner.
3) My apartment has a contract rate of about $32 for basic cable with RCN.
4) I am grandfathered into a package that charges me an additional $84 (on top of the $32 contract rate for basic cable) for: digital tier, all premium movie channels, 10mpbs broadband Internet. Time Warner cannot beat this.
5) I use VOIP phone service and therefore do not have any relationship with Verizon, the POTS company in my area. Cable Internet service allows me to do this. If I went with DSL I'd also have to have a Verizon phone line - naked DSL is not available in my building.
6) Everything works. When I turn on the TV I have a picture and when I turn on the computer I have Internet. |
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Chala
join:2008-05-09
| said by nycityny :said by Chala :Ok thanks nyc, so could you tell me why you prefer RCN then a faster verizon fios, or a cable tv network with more channels like Time Warner. For example, i just switched from Time Warner, i had RR,CATV, three stations off the bat i miss are Howard Stern On Demand channel. Sleuth, and NY1. But the picture on RCN appears to be crisper, and the 20/2 high speed package i got from RCN seems to be faster then RR's 10/512kbs even though i don't get RCN's touted speed. Reasons I am with RCN: 1) FIOS is not available in my area. 2) Time Warner requires a cable box to receive reception on all channels (at least they did the last time I checked). I have several TIVO machines that record directly from the coax on channels 2-99 with RCN which I could not do with Time Warner. 3) My apartment has a contract rate of about $32 for basic cable with RCN. 4) I am grandfathered into a package that charges me an additional $84 (on top of the $32 contract rate for basic cable) for: digital tier, all premium movie channels, 10mpbs broadband Internet. Time Warner cannot beat this. 5) I use VOIP phone service and therefore do not have any relationship with Verizon, the POTS company in my area. Cable Internet service allows me to do this. If I went with DSL I'd also have to have a Verizon phone line - naked DSL is not available in my building. 6) Everything works. When I turn on the TV I have a picture and when I turn on the computer I have Internet. Thats interesting, i am gonna call verizon, to see if they have it my area. So you never had TW service? I am wondering, how many others on this forum have. |
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stever80
join:2003-05-07
Bayside, NY | reply to stever80
So if you were to go with TWC or RCN, which would you choose irrespective of price? |
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propsny
join:2006-01-13
New York, NY
| reply to stever80
I've had both, TWC previously, RCN currently.
Firstly, I concur with nycityny's assessment of their disreputable billing & customer service practices. After my horrible experience spending months fixing billing issues switching from hdbox to a cablecard during my initial install, I will never make a change to my account again, other then cancel.
To compare the two, irrespective of price, TWC provided me more reliable TV broadcast and seems to have more HD content now. My RCN TV connection cuts in and out every so often for random channels, and I used to have issues with certain channels that took months to resolve. However, I find RCNs internet service to be very reliable and I get 10mbps package speeds as advertised.
My apt building only offers RCN. If it offered FIOS or TWC, I would happily be using either of those instead. |
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