ISP Review remarks - dslreports.com

RCN trifecta... crappy TV, Internet and phone

I know exactly how you feel! Over the past year, I have had RCN installers out repeatedly to change cable boxes. Yet they keep breaking. Two consecutive installers made statements that flatly contradicted each other. One time, I walked out with the installer to his truck and watched him fish out another used box from those littering the floor of his truck. RCN appears to yank broken boxes out of one frustrated user's home only to stick them in another frustrated user's home. But that was just a warmup for my real troubles. My cable modem went down for more than two days after they ripped out the RCN system in our building and replaced it with a digital system. (How can a company about to declare bankruptcy spend so lavishly on a new digital system?) I spent all of those two days tearing my hair out to get my system back online. RCN told me I would have to stop hardcoding my IP address and install DHCP client software. I configured DHCP on my Linux machine, but my connection still didn't work. They kept insisting their system reported I had one IP address, but my computer was telling me their system had issued a completely different IP address. I isolated that problem for them. (I made repeated efforts to get help from the guy in charge of the installation, but he didn't return multiple phone messages and didn't respond when I spoke to a sales person downstairs... the lobby was full of people selling RCN service even though the stuff I was already paying for was still not working!... who wrote down my information and said he would pass it to his boss.) They finally fixed that problem based on the info I provided (and admitted they had screwed up) and said the system would issue me a new IP address and thereafter issue me the same IP address every time I logged on. But my connection still didn't work. I figured out that rebooting my (RedHat Linux) machine did not release the IP address originally issued by RCN's DHCP server. I had to manually release it. I take most of the blame for this final problem, but it wouldn't have happened if: 1) RCN hadn't changed my "static" IP address; or 2) their DHCP server had issued me the correct IP address to begin with. But things get worse! My wife switched our phone service over to RCN after their salesperson insisted it would be a seemless transition. We've had no dial tone for two days now. RCN yesterday scheduled a tech to visit today between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm. They even called my cell phone at 5:15 am to remind me and warn me I would be charged $50 if they couldn't get access. I stayed home all day and no one showed up! My wife then called (on her cell phone) for help, spoke briefly with someone who put her on hold for 50 minutes before she gave up. I then called, and the person with whom I spoke was unable to determine (after some effort) why no one had shown up. She issued an "Action Memo" to the dispatcher with escalated priority and told me someone would call soon. I told her I didn't want to skip my workout, and she insisted someone would call me soon. It's now 10:15 pm. No wonder RCN's going bankrupt. They deserve to die a slow, painful death.

permalink · 2004-03-10 23:18:57 · Print ·

No surprise there..

Re: No surprise there..

RCN trifecta... crappy TV, Internet and phone


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