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Review by cmhuber 
UPDATED: 2 days ago
member for 8 years, 77 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 San Diego,San Diego,CA
 $69 per month (24 month contract)
 about 12 days
 "I just can't come up with any ... better than Prodigy at 2400bps maybe?"
 "Service ALWAYS intermittent in speed, slow, lost packets, HORRIBLE TECH SUPPORT and BILLING"
 "I hate them and would gladly pay to switch to Cox if TW did not have this monopoly."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Update: 11/17/09
Service continues to degrade in terms of reliability. EVERY day, volatile results. Last night was able to speedtest at 10.8/969, today 1.7/412. This is NOT a random result. Again, it happens like this every day.
PLEASE, stop the monopoly! If TWC is going to be given coverage contracts, then why the hell can't our representatives require at least a given level of quality and reliability or face competition from other cable providers?
I see TWCs ads on TV every day, they flood my mailbox with postcards ... all about bringing more money in when they cannot even get it right for those of us who have already been paying for years.
Is this Iran?
Update: 9/10/09
TWC just can't get it together. Calling them about the monthly outages is simply nerve racking and an excercise in total frustration. To this day, they continue to use the "It's your router sir" excuse. ARGHHHH, haven''t they been forced to at least get passed that as people and the net have matured? Oh wait, they are a monopoly and as long as their lobbyists continue to provide hookers to our Congressman and other representatives,they will always have complete control and power ... my bad.
TW just sucks.
I have been with the old @Home network, Cox, Comcast and Charter and NEVER had such crappy speeds. TW does NOT deliver the speed the promise and nobody in that company ever seems to know what is going on.
There are some bright points in Tier 3 support, but it took almost 5 months and 60 calls to get to that level. And even with them, service still not any better ... but at least they are working.
Oh, one more thing, to date have not received a single credit from billing despite numerous attempts. True Nazi biatches in that dept.
Followup comments:  oneillwls
join:2007-08-17
Santa Ana, CA
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| TWC Billing Credits I love that about TWC, isn't it charming how they say that they'll do something like give you a billing credit just to get you off the phone? Usually I have 2-3 CSRs lie to me about giving me a credit before I get one that will actually do it.
It is sad that I have gotten in the habit of calling the day after supposedly being given a credit to ask for it again because I assume that they did not do it at all.
My suggestion: do the same, keep calling and play stupid. If they say that they already see it on the account, then just say thank you, otherwise go through it again. Call them daily. | |
| CrazE
join:2009-09-03
Charlotte, NC | Monopoly? I think its funny how people think its a monopoly.........other companies can put service in if they want but they just need to spend the money to over build the other companies, they cant use the same lines! | |
| | cmhuber
join:2001-11-16
San Diego, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Monopoly? Nothing funny about it. Cox and Comcast cannot run lines in TWC areas. Not sure where you are getting your info, but TWC has a billion dollar lobbyist padding the pockets of local reps (and probably tossing in a few prostitues when possible) to make sure they continue to get rights to these areas. | |
| | | 
SD cablehog
@rr.com
| Re: Monopoly? You're Wrong, Cox and Comcast and go into TWC territories... Parts of San Diego you have a choice of Cable systems... Same as in North County. Maybe you should actually do you're homework before commenting on certain things.Either Cox or TWC. Just because the area you live in doesn't give you that choice,maybe you should move. | |
| | | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
·Time Warner Cable
·buckeye cable
| Re: Monopoly? very true.
CA also now has the State Cale Laws which allow anyone and any provider to build out a wired network and offer services. if the OP wants services, maybe they should look into building their own ISP or bring in someone that has the $$$$ to do it.
--
www.two-pugs.com www.2pugs.etsy.com | |
| | | | cmhuber
join:2001-11-16
San Diego, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| Homework is done. Just like everyone "should" have access to healthcare, it just isn't really the case now is it? I am aware of the contracts and agreements the companies are under, however come work for the city for a little while and find out how business actually gets done. Too bad Duke isn't out and about, he could really give you a crash course in it.
And no, not really interested in moving but thanks for the suggestion. | |
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Review by syneas
UPDATED: 14 days ago
member for 5 years, 2106 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Titusville,Brevard,FL
$64 per month
about 3 days
"it's ok, just ok. even more channels in HD!"
"give me more speed! Bad compression on HD channels"
"no other real choice for us."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Decent I guess. But I would try another ISP if I had a choice. oh, and there seems to be more compression on the HD channels since the DVR update. did i say, ugh!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of RoadRunner Cable |
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 Review by ds5v50
UPDATED: 17 days ago
member for 6.8 years, 1809 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Fremont,Sandusky,OH
$39 per month
about 7 days
"Faster then Dial Up"
"No competition to get Upgrades"
"I would take Fios if it was offered."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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I chose RoadRunner over DSL because it is faster and cheaper then some of the tiers DSL offers. Also it is the only other Broadband in the area.
15/768 At best I usually get the service I am promised. It could be better.
Followup comments: Sporkman
join:2008-11-13
Springfield, OH | i would as well cable /dsl is the only thing in my area  TW holds the area with an iron fist | |
| | 
AMDUSER
Premium
join:2003-05-28
Earth
clubs: | Re: i would as well As would I, but Verizon would have to overbuild Milwaukee,WI with FiOS. I would even dig the trench for them if it would get it to my house faster.(Yes, AT&T Uverse is available in some areas, but coverage is spotty.) | |
| | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH | Re: i would as well U-Shit won't ever be offered in Fremont. Not being enough and not enough ROI to even but in DSL. | |
| hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
·Time Warner Cable
·buckeye cable
| Call Buckeye Call Buckeye and pressure them into turning on and expanding that Fiber line that runs through fremont (former resident of Toledo).
They're already expanding their area into York Twp and Green Creek Township (20 West by RTE 19).
They're not really cheaper than TWC but they offer more as far as Internet Speeds and more channels. | |
| | | | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
·Time Warner Cable
·buckeye cable
| Re: Call Buckeye TWC does NOT give a damn regarding that damn agreement with the City. If they're kicked out nobody else is going to run the city's cable network. And the Mayor won't take on a Muni-project like he had the chance back before they came into Fremont.
TWC is set to go to the State and file there for their franchise agreement. Once that happens they won't do a damn thing the city wants or the people. They've already done it with Tiffin and Fostoria and several other cities that are near Fremont.
Nobody wants Fremont though. That's the problem IF TWC ended up walking out of Fremont with nobody to take over Fremont would be in deep shit. Fremont is actually glad that TWC bought Fremont Cablevision otherwise Fremont still would NOT have DSL or anything digital over cable. If you remember DSL was only available the day RoadRunner was being marketed for installs. It was magic that DSL was suddenly available.
Also as a side note about TWC--I'm not sure if you know it or not but MOST of the city has not been rebuilt by TWC. most of the lines that are still on the poles are back from the 80s when Fremont Cable last rebuilt the network. (I used to own the Internet cafe that was on East State Street across from DQ and my old Sales Rep from TWC told me that along with several contractors they used)
I have the email address to the Block Family (the owners of Buckeye Cable) and their phone numbers (cell, home, and office) along with other contacts within Buckeye. They sent all of us letters just before Christmas saying if we had any problems we were to contact them directly. I'm sure Mr. Block would like to hear from you. Especially with recently expanding into York TWP, and PB-burg. All thanks to the State's VSA. | |
| | | |
randomevo
@rr.com | Re: Call Buckeye "I have the email address to the Block Family"Ok, what are they? | |
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Review by toolman90
UPDATED: 32 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 47 visits, last login: 32 days ago
Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
$75 per month
"Rock Solid Connection, Never Have had an outage, 24 Hour Technical Support"
"Prices are higher than their competion"
"It is a very reliable service but need to come down in price"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I have had Road Runner for about three months now. I am subscribed to their Turbo Tier. I have had no issues since I have had it. It was a smooth install only took 30 minutes to get it up and running. Technician showed up within the Specified time frame.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of RoadRunner Cable |
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 Review by msingletary
UPDATED: 32 days ago
member for 6.7 years, 58 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Fullerton,Orange,CA
$116 per month
about 1 days
"Sometimes it is extremely fast."
"Very frequent huge slowdowns, inconsistent speed, poor customer service all around"
"If you can get service with another provider, do it."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Time Warner Cable seems to have a monopoly in Southern California, having recently bought out the competition of Comcast and Adelphia. This leaves consumers with little choice when it comes to a cable provider for both TV and internet, and essentially removes any possibility of competition. I'm convinced that this is the cause for the fairly poor service in the area.
When Time Warner Cable/RoadRunner works, it's great, but that's becoming uncommon in the recent months. The speeds are pretty good when I'm not experiencing poor connectivity, but they have substantially decreased from what they were a year ago. I used to get 15Mbps down and about 2Mbps up on a very regular basis and now it seems that I've been bumped down to 10Mbps/1Mbps again and the service has now become utterly unreliable.
On a nearly daily basis now, I see my speeds drop to incredibly low numbers. Web browsing is noticeably slower, and speed tests run on average around 3Mbps down on average to about 1Mbps down for hours on most nights.
Calling their technical support team is almost always a complete waste of time. There is, apparently, almost never an issue with the service on their end and it seems that they find it easier to just blame every configuration on the customer's end. Now that I've received the direct line to Tier 3 technical support, I get to skip the nonsense of plugging my computer in to the modem every time, but they are still completely unable to find or resolve any issues with the service.
The order and installation process was good. I was able to order the service that day at work and run down to the local office on my way home to get my self-install kit, which was great. I really like being able to install services on my own since it's much more convenient for me and generally results in things working "out of the box" more frequently than it does when a tech. comes out to my house.
RoadRunner's online offering (like bill pay, webmail, homepage, etc...) have become substantially more reliable and more pleasing to the eye over the recent year or so. Their services seem to be more useful and reliable and are much better than other ISPs that I've had in the past. Their new 'homepage' feature apparently removed the ability for customers to FTP files to free online space, which was disappointing. Web management was replaced with a Flash-based web editing kit that reminds me of iWeb, but with very little features. It's nice for the beginner, I guess.
It seems like the quality of service on Time Warner Cable/RoadRunner has degraded steadily and substantially from when they purchased Adelphia in my area. When we were on Adelphia, the service was consistently fantastic and I rarely experienced any issue with my connection. Also, when I called for support I was generally directed to a regionally-relevant and close call center or office, which was great. Nowadays you get directed to somewhere out of state for sales calls and out of the country for technical calls. It's extremely difficult to get any technical issues resolved due to the language barrier on many occasions, which further adds to my frustration when dealing with an issue.
I've recently downgraded my service from Turbo (10Mbps) to Standard (6Mbps) in an attempt to stop wasting my money. I generally don't even receive Standard speeds, so I figured I'd stop paying more for the same poor service. I saved about $10 a month and if I find that I can't consistently get at least close to the 6Mbps that Standard offers, I'm going to dump their service completely and switch to DSL, where I'm capped at 3Mbps unfortunately.
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Review by oldbrit
UPDATED: 39 days ago
member for 135 days, 32 visits, last login: 8 days ago
Dallas,Dallas,TX
$57 per month
about 3 days
"Friendly"
"8% upstream packet loss"
"If you have an alternative, don't use RoadRunner"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Further UPDATE Monday October 12th, 2009
Time-Warner North Texas President Moel contacted me quickly when I emailed him.
He put a competent and motivated technical manager on this issue. He communicated well with me and worked with me to monitor the line when the outages were in progress and get knowledgeable techs out here while the outage was actually in progress. They put appropriately valued filters on my line and I now have reliable service. -- It's been good for a week, but it will take another week or two of reliable service to prove that it is really fixed since I've had it go 10 days or so without a problem and then become unusable more than once over the last three months.
I am still getting timeouts on the first three hops, but the packet loss has been reduced to the point that it is 0% most of the time. When I am getting packet loss, it is around 1%, which is perfectly acceptable.
I'm still monitoring it and will update further.
The issue, as I see it, is that TWC is responsive to typical problems, but when it gets into more complex issues, it is difficult to get attention from someone competent with the required tools, and authority to resolve the issue.
In my mind, this means that if you subscribe to TWC and get a good reliable connection, that's great and is likely a better deal than AT&T 6Mbs download and 748K upload for $45.00 per month.
Lesson I learned is that if you have a problem with TWC and it isn't resolved quickly, don't argue with them for 3 months. Instead contact their Corporate Office of the President in NY or the TWC North Texas President immediately
TWC has a problem with the procedures for handling the more difficult issues. For example, it was only after I contacted the executives that I discovered they could open an intermittent ticket and monitor the situation over time.
So, my problem is not that the standard techs couldn't get the service going properly, it is that I kept going round and round with them because no one was willing to escalate the ticket to the proper level to get it resolved. You would think that after replacing the modem, and sending techs out multiple times, TWC would want to escalate it to a level that could fix it. Instead, they kept running the same maze to failure over and over.
This is a problem I've seen with other organizations as well. They have the resources to fix a problem, but they give the customer the run-around until the customer either gives up and lives with the problem, cancels the service, or raises Hell with top level executives.
I'll be interested to read future TWC reviews and see whether they do a better job at handling complex issues.
Liz
FURTHER UPDATE Monday October 5th, 2009
Contacted investor relations last week. Someone contacted me quickly. They came out, tinkered, and made a few adjustments.
Unfortunately, when my Internet service went out on Thursday afternoon for 9 hours, and I had continuing problems on Friday and throughout the weekend, my contact had gone for a long weekend and I couldn't get anyone to take interest in the problem while the service was actually out.
This has been the problem all along. The service is intermittent and it is impossible to contact anyone who has the skills, motivation, and authority to investigate while the service is down.
They keep working on it, but they won't get it fixed until they investigate while the service is actually down.
I'm beginning to think they don't want to investigate the problem while the service is down because then they'd actually have to fix it. As long as they can't find a problem when the service is up, they can pretend that it isn't their problem and I'm just a chronic complainer.
UPDATE:
Have been having problems with Road-Runner now for over 3 months.
It takes 1 to 2 hours to get escalated to the proper customer support level, explaining the problem over and over and over again because they don't have the account history in front of them. They repeatedly suggest things that have already been tried.
I've offered to work with them to find the problem, but they refuse. I've requested direct contact with someone when it goes out so that it doesn't take 2 hours on the phone and chat to get to the department authorized to handle this situation. They refused.
My Internet connection is consistently too slow to use 10-20 hours per week during the 8AM - 8PM time frame - Usually for 1 to 2 hours at a time.
Have had two outages in the last month that lasted more than 24 hours during which the modem can't even acquire an ip address.
I haven't had as many outages in the last two weeks - since I raised holy living Hell with them and they did something to the wiring in the building (I'm in a Turtle Creek highrise).
However, the upstream packet loss is consistently 8%. The signal-to-noise ratio on the line is marginal. So, even when the speed isn't degraded, it's still crap.
They replaced the modem, which did nothing because the modem wasn't the problem. The problem has to do with the way this building is wired. Occasionally, someone will connect something weird to their cable outlet in the wiring segment I'm on and everything goes to Hell. Time-Warned knows this. In the past, when this has happened, they come out and go through the wiring until they find the problem. I've lived here for over 20 years and have had them enter my unit in the past to make sure I wasn't the one causing the latest problem. It doesn't happen that often -- probably 2 or 3 times per year in a high-rise with a master contract for cable service for all 400 condos in the building.
I've had it with Time-Warner / Road-Runner and will be going to an AT&T dry ADSL as soon as I determine that there's not a better deal from someone else.
ORIGINAL POST:
Had Southwestern Bell, Speakeasy, and Quest at this same location. All were reliable and consistently performed up to specification. Switched to RR / Time Warner because of lower price for higher speed. (This is over a 15 year period and started with SWBell dual ISDN.)
I NEVER had an outage or problem with any of the above over the entire 15 year period. -- Well, one time my service went dead. I walked out into the hallway and saw the phone guy in the utility closet. I told him what had just happened. Oops, he had disconnected a wire that was mislabeled. He reconnected and labeled it correctly and I never had another problem.
RR has two packages: 7MBS and 10MBS. We have the faster 10MBS.
Install was fine. Motorola cable modem supplied by RR. Basically, the service has been good until about three weeks ago when I started having intermittent speed problems.
One minute the speed would be fine, next minute a light-weight html page won't load. the speed bounces between 28K and 52Mbs. When it slows down. this can last for hours. Resetting the modem, forcing a new ip-address, etc. have no effect.
Here's my conclusion:
Since the speed is sometimes 52Mbs and the service level is for 10Mbs, it seems to me that the wiring and modem must be OK, which leads me to think that when someone on my wiring segment turns something on (or uses it) the speed drops and when they turn it off (or stop using it, the speed is back to normal.
Following is how I came to that conclusion:
After detailed testing, I believe it to be a problem with another customer on the same wiring segment as us. (High-rise building, connections are strung together like Christmas tree lights and sometimes another user on your "string" or wiring segment can screw up your connection.)
When I contacted RR, I kept getting bounced back and forth until I got to a high-enough level support. Had to tell each person what was going on over again. They mostly didn't understand what I was talking about.
I told them about the issues in this building, but they didn't want to hear about it. Their response was to do a ring test. They decided the modem is bad, but told me that if it was a wiring problem, I would have to pay $50.00.
I've tried three routers with one computer (and no others) connected: the D-Link I normally use, a Linksys, and a Zyxel -- all wired, no wireless.
All of them exhibit the same intermittent speed problem. Direct connect to the modem with one computer improves the speed, even when using a router is slow - but the direct connection is still not up to the contracted speed.
Seems like that would indicate that the line is "fragile" -- that is, it appears to work OK under the best circumstances, but a little extra stress on it and it starts dropping packets (or it can absorb packet loss when the traffic is light.
Or, it could be a RR problem when handing DHCP off to a router.
Or, it could be a modem setting (but, unlikely since nothing has been changed and everything is on battery backup).
Or, it could be another user on the same wiring segment.
Or, it could be a bad modem.
I'm betting it isn't the wiring in my unit and I am betting it isn't a bad modem.
As I said, I think it is a wiring problem in the building, but not my unit. My logic is that no changes have been made in my unit, the cable tv on the same connection works fine, when the speed slows down, it lasts for at least an hour, sometimes 3 or 4 hours. Resetting the modem has no effect. The slowdowns tend to occur several times per day at about the same time. The problem started two weeks ago. Before that, there was no problem at all.
If it is a wiring problem, it would be something done by another RR customer on my wiring segment - for which I do not want to pay $50.00 to have repaired.
We'll see what happens when they replace the modem. They made an appointment for this morning, but they are "running late."
Followup comments:
Bill250
@rr.com | Never except when the phone guy caused it?? Not even once?? >I NEVER had an outage or problem with any of the above over the entire 15 year period.
You just lost credibility with 99% of the readers. | |
| | oldbrit
join:2009-07-08
Dallas, TX
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Never except when the phone guy caused it?? Not even once?? said by Bill250 :
>I NEVER had an outage or problem with any of the above over the entire 15 year period.
You just lost credibility with 99% of the readers.
Yes. The Internet went dead. I walked out into the hall and talked to the phone company guy in the service closet.
My service was out for less than 5 minutes.
NOW AN UPDATE:
Time-Warner replaced my modem. I downgraded my service.
I am still having periods that last up to several hours at a time when the Internet is connected, speed tests say the connection is normal, but when I do the Austin RR image download, it can't complete the download, and websites fail to complete downloading or take several minutes per page.
When the installer brought the new modem, he confirmed my claim that someone on my network segment -- most likely someone here in the highrise where I live is causing the problem.
I have been unsuccessful thus far getting Time-Warner to take any action to resolve the problem.
In the past - when someone had a cable tv problem - Time Warner has entered my apartment to look at my connection to make sure I wasn't causing the problem for my neighbor. Unfortunately, they don't put the same priority on Internet service and to this point have refused to investigate further.
I'm going to switch to an AT&T dry (no phone service needed) DSL. It's slightly less expensive than Time-Warner for similar speed. | |
| | Pr1c3rA
join:2009-10-07
Terre Haute, IN | Not true. I've had nothing but trouble with my service. Please don't speak or the 99% of us. | |
| | | oldbrit
join:2009-07-08
Dallas, TX
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Never except when the phone guy caused it?? Not even once?? Note that Bill250 is an anonymous poster...
I thought it pretty silly that he claimed my post was totally discredited because I said my SWBell / ATT DSL service was never out except for one time - for 5 minutes.
Perhaps, it's a TWC employee who's trying to get around the prohibition against employees posting reviews. | |
| | | | gia
join:2008-01-30
Mcallen, TX
·RoadRunner Cable
·Time Warner Cable
1 edit | Re: Never except when the phone guy caused it?? Not even once?? said by oldbrit :Perhaps, it's a TWC employee who's trying to get around the prohibition against employees posting reviews. According to the BBR rules TWC employees can respond to other people reviews but they are not allowed to make a review of their employer.
Anyway, I've seen TWC employees criticizing the very same company that feed their families so I doubt Mr Bill works for TWC.
I'll have to agree that TWC's biggest enemy is within in their employees. Most of the problems related to their cable system is the result of poor employee training and lack of loyalty.
For the majority of us (TWC customers) the service has been perfect.
Edit for spelling. | |
| | | gia
join:2008-01-30
Mcallen, TX
·RoadRunner Cable
·Time Warner Cable
| said by Pr1c3rA :Not true. I've had nothing but trouble with my service. Please don't speak or the 99% of us. I think you got it wrong +99.9% of users have no problems, please don't include us (happy TWC customers) in your .1%. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of RoadRunner Cable |
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 Review by CatLover53
UPDATED: 60 days ago
member for 6.5 years, 322 visits, last login: 19 days ago
Reynoldsburg,Franklin,OH
$30 per month
about 5 days
"Speeds are consistently slower than advertised by Insight Cable."
"Phone service is not dependable."
"Am keeping phone service just because of unlimited long distance for flat fee."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
I removed my previous review of Time Warner in Columbus, Ohio since I've lived in Reynoldsburg an East side suburb for 2 years now. The review of Time Warner was no longer pertinent to my current situation. The review below is of Insight Communications and their offerings and service.
Insight/Roadrunner – Reynoldsburg
In August, 2008 I moved from my house in Merion Village, Columbus 43207 to Century City which is a large apartment complex in Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068. The only cable ISP available in Century City apartment complex is Insight Communications or Dish Network satellite. Insight offers the same 3 services that Time Warner offers which are cable, TV and telephone. Insight uses Roadrunner carrier lines leased from Time Warner and the speeds both down and up are much slower than the advertised 7G down and 512K up.
Insight offers or sells their services at the apartment complex through one of their outside Sales Reps. The sales rep wasn't very responsive to my phone calls so I had to call him multiple times to get the service set up. I've had constant problems with their cable TV phone services. Their tech support reps via phone seem to be very uneducated about the technologies they're supposed to be supporting, can't troubleshoot on their own, they read everything from script, and their English is so bad that they're hard to understand.
I spent 2 hours on the phone with the web page tech support and still don't have my 8 page web site available for viewing.
Followup comments: wcnghj
join:2008-05-01 | Promo The pricing change was because your promo price ended. Call and threaten to cancel if they don't give you the promo pricing back. | |
|
CatLover53
Premium
join:2003-05-18
Reynoldsburg, OH
·RoadRunner Cable
| Sorry for delayed response Hey folks I apologize for taking YEARS to reply to your responses to my review of Time Warner's RoadRunner. I created that review during my first week of membership and the only thing I can say is that I was a newbie with no idea of the intricacies of BBR/DSL Reports. There's alot to learn when first joining this site and it doesn't all just jump into the head if you know what I mean.
First to W8ASA since he replied first I had DSL once when it first came out and compared to the speed of broadband cable it's at a snails pace. I could never be happy with that slow of speed. Yes I know that DSL speed is a function of distance from the CO since I was one of the SBC Project Managers who was responsible for installing some of the first commercial DSL lines then later residential. Afterwards I went on to helping install the big router/switch in the sky at the Chicago Ameritch/SBC/AT&T internet access point that's owned by the phone company. So I'm reasonably familiar with DSL or at least I was familiar with the technology as it was in 2001 which is when I was layed off. I understand that the technology has changed in leaps and bounds since then.
Currently I give private software lessons to users in their homes on their own computers. Many studies have been done that come to the conclusion that people learn best on their own machines in a familiar environment and at a 2 hour time limit. After 2 hours the mind starts to wander to what the wife and kids are doing, what's for dinner, do I need to pick up the dry cleaning on my way home, what's the condition of the lawn, does it need mowed when I get home before it rains, the list goes on ad infinitum.
I might not be totally up to date on what the industry is doing right now, especially considering the problems I have with Insight Communications which is the only cable company that serves Century City Apartments on Brice Rd. at Livingston Ave. in Reynoldsburg, along with Dish Network those are the only 2 options we have for Cable TV, Internet and VOIP Phone service. If you check our my Insight Communications review that I recently edited in my profile you'll read what my opinion on Insight Communications is. I've had problems with all 3 of their services since I moved into this apartment complex in July, 2008 and have a nice notebook log of all of the phone calls I've made on a almost daily basis to get them to help me.
Which leads me into the comment posted by wcnghj about the promotional price change ending. I was promised special pricing for a year but only got it for approximately 4-6 months.
Then twice this week I spent several hours per call on the phone to their web site support people trying to get my 8 page site previously on Time Warner Roadrunner moved over to 1 of 2 Insight Servers, and it's still not up or rather I should say that the public still can't see it and neither can I. The "off shore" support Rep. named Ray spoke such bad english that I could barely understand him and after asking him where he was located and being told their web site support was located "off shore", not in another country as I mentioned several of those but he kept saying no we're "off shore" so I assume they're on an oil rig out in the Pacific, Atlantic or Gulf somewhere.
Neither Ray nor his supervisor even knew what an FTP program was to upload my files. After the first call lasting 2 hours on Monday 9/14/09 I gave up for that night and didn't call back until last night. Last night a guy named Louis gave me the same answers though he did know what an FTP program was, but told me it would take him Supervisor 1-2 hours to get my 8 page site moved over and that the name of the site which is ohiomike would have a "squiggly little line in front of it in the URL". I can only assume he meant a Tilde though he didn't know the word. Again after several hours I gave up though he was able to get me the settings for CUTE FTP LE which is a free FTP program so that it appeared I was uploading my files but again they aren't visible.
If there was another cable choice in the Century City Apartment Complex even a company like WOW I'd switch. I'm staying with Insight though because I don't have any experience with satellite and Insight Communications does offer the phone with unlimited local and long distance service for a flat fee of $25.00 plus $2.50 for my unlisted number. That's a pretty good price since I do alot of long distance family and friend calling.
OK this is long enough, I hope that I've answered both posts to your satisfaction.
Sincerely, Mike now Cat Lover53 instead of Dragon Flyer
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***=^..^=*** Our animal buddy's give us love & attention, they deserve to receive it back from us in addition to protection especially from abuse! ***=^..^=*** | |
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Review by gadgetboyj
UPDATED: 73 days ago
member for 87 days, 74 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Staten Island,Richmond,NY
Contract price not specified.
about 13 days
"Internet Works"
"ALWAYS inconsistent speeds and barely ever get the maximum at the time people are normally awake"
"It works but I would have gotten FiOS if I could"
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I had considered and was going to get FiOS but the tech said they would have to run a dropwire from across the street so they'd have to meet with their contractors and call back but they never called back and cancelled the order.
A few weeks before this review the internet and phone was COMPLETELY gone for 5 hours for maintenance that no one was warned about.
Followup comments: etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
Dallas, TX
2 edits | Is this a review?This 14 day member review looks more like a lobotomy job than a review.
I've seen this 'drive by bad reviews' for years and I've always considered them telco advertising.
Which speed package did the 'reviewer' have? We don't know. Did he ordered digital phone and TV? We don't know, we don't know, we don't know.
All we know is that he wanted FIOS but the tech did not run a drop across the street. I also want FIOS but unfortunately my area is serviced by a looser company like AT&T and their crappy FTTN uverse.
I also considered and was going to get FiOS but the tech said they would have to run a dropwire from across two or three states so they'd have to meet with their contractors and call back but they never called back and cancelled the order.
Edit: Spelling errors. | |
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 Review by MachRider
UPDATED: 92 days ago
member for 3.8 years, 60 visits, last login: 52 days ago
Clayton,Johnston,NC
$100 per month
about 3 days
"Usually working/reliable, 4-5 outages in last 4 years"
"sluggish at times, 8-9 rr.com hops before hitting internet, cust svc pretty much sucks, billing practices cross the line"
"Best broadband available in Clayton NC says the guy that used to be a Sprint DSL tech, but moving to get away from them"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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We have been TWC/RoadRunner Premium/Turbo customers since signing on in 2005. We had Sprint DSL from 2001-2005 (I was a contract DSL tech for them from 2000-2004).
For the most part, the service has been pretty dependable at least at a baseline level of performance. I don't consider their burst/boost not being sustained when saying this, but there are times when service throughput is considerably lower than the turbo service we pay for. I won't attribute it to throttling because we have not been doing anything that they could reasonably throttle us for in the last few months.
All ISP's have a network of their own equipment your traffic has to traverse before it makes it to the internet, I understand that. But I do think that making your traffic go all the way to Atlanta and back to NC before it leaves their network to reach a server located in Charlotte is a bit too much. We noticed things like that when trying to figure out why we had lag spikes etc. trying to game on a server we were renting. 8-9 rr.com hops with each adding more and more latency to what we would see on the first NON-rr.com hop.
Customer service is pretty crummy in our experience. Once we were BILLED $25 when we were supposed to be credited $25 for service being out most of a week. (there was road construction on the road we live on and they kept cutting the cable). We tried 3 times calling custsvc to find someone that would listen to us and remove the $25 charge, and credit it to us. We finally gave up arguing.
Another time, our cable modem died. It was on a Saturday evening and their support folks said they could not get a tech out until Monday. We asked about buying our own modem (since they had a nice selection of them at Best Lie), whether they could just reprogram our service with the replacement modem's MAC address, and if we did that could they get us going that night. They said yes that was definitely do-able - just make sure when we call that we tell them we need a supervisor because they are the only ones that have access to the screens needed to reprogram our service for the new MAC address. So we went and bought one. I actually bought a Motorola model that we had had before issued by TWC to make sure it was something I knew would work. I spent a total of 5 hours on the phone across several phone calls trying to find ONE PERSON who could actually get our service working. They all said they had programmed our service with the new MAC address, but all attempts to access websites were redirected to a page that said "please contact TWC to activate your self-install service", pings and traceroutes would go no farther than their local gateway, and all DNS lookups sent to their DNS servers responded with the same redirect IP. Which tells me our end was fine but their aggregator/router wasn't letting us out.
When we finally got sent to the "Tier 2"/supervisor on 3rd or 4th call, somebody who supposedly has access to "the other screen" and "knows what they're doing", I very much felt like I was being led through a "Tier 2 Support" set of script-based troubleshooting questions. They were still blaming everything on my computer, but now had slightly more technical-sounding excuses for doing so. She still wasn't grasping the significance of the main symptoms I was experiencing, and basically insisted I had to run the IP stack shell commands on my (known perfectly-good working) windows XP "tech support call system" because I had something wrong with my registry network settings or spyware or something. All attempts to clue her in on the level of computer expertise she was dealing with on the other end of the phone failed. Rather than listen to what I was trying to tell her, she continued trying to impress me with her "expertise" such as knowing I had a Dell machine because the first few bytes of the MAC address on my NIC identify it as a Dell Broadcom. (woopty-doo! I can look at the modem's bridge table too... and in fact already had..). But if I didn't go through the steps to reset my IP stack she wasn't going to "help" anymore. I finally gave up and told her the problem was solved because I could tell we were never going to get where we needed to go with her. The next morning (Sunday) I called back and told them if they didn't get our mess working we would be disconnecting ALL of our service first thing Monday morning and I would use dialup if I had to. They found "the other screen" where the MAC address of our replacement modem had not yet been put into, and got us working in just a few minutes. They also got a tech out about an hour later, and they replaced our bought modem with another issue one. It took whoever he called about 2 minutes to switch MAC's in our profile. (you know, usually techs don't have to call the same "support" folks that customers have to deal with)
I am probably not the only person who frequents these forums who has any idea how frustrating it is to know more about computers, networking, etc. than the bozos you have to talk to on the other end of the phone, yet has to depend on them and play their little script games to get anything accomplished when something is wrong with their service.
Then there was the time a few months ago when we decided to get digital phone service re-instated. We had it for a while previously and still had the voice-enabled Motorola cable modem. We turned off the digital phone svc because we were trying to cut our expenses and couldn't rationalize paying for cellphones and digital phone. Anywho, we thought getting it turned back on would be relatively simple since we hadn't changed our wiring and still had the modem. We anticipated a tech dispatch but were expecting it to be fairly uneventful. We were told there would be no charge for the dispatch.
What happened instead was, they sent a contractor out who had such a thick accent we could hardly understand him. He insisted upon installing a "NID" next to the (inactive) Sprint NID so they could tie into the inside wiring. *ALL* of our inside telephone wiring is run to a punchboard on a 66 block inside the house, and since we no longer had Sprint phone service the one wiring run going out to the Sprint NID wasn't even relevant. (it was disconnected, in fact, since our dialtone was coming from the cable modem... also located inside the house....). He said policy required this TWC phone NID (it didn't the first time we got digital phone...). He did call his supv and ask, and got pretty much the same answer. I asked and was told there would be no charge to install this NID we didn't need. (Note, this is NOT the usual TWC NID, there was already one of those there).
I had to actually go hook the run going outside back up so he could get "backfeed" connection/continuity outside. He still had a lot of trouble understanding how to get done what he needed to outside.
The last time I went outside to check on his "work", he had taken a piece of WOOD and driven it into the ground as a stake to attach the NID to. My piece of wood. I assumed it was scrap, and he asked me if he could keep another piece he'd found laying by the deck. I said sure, why not. This was utterly ridiculous since there was an old (unused) metal TWC stake in the ground with an old unused cable line about 2 feet away. He could have used that metal stake, even if he had to pull it up and move it closer to the Sprint NID. However at this point I basically didn't care because I had already decided the minute he left it was going away.
What I didn't realize until a few days later was that the wood he used was actually the leveling/footing pieces of wood under the steps of our deck! Because the next time I used those steps they wobbled, and when I went to look why, I saw my leveling pieces under the base of the steps were gone. Pardon my french, but this pissed me off.
Then we got billed $10 for the NID installed that we didn't even need, and he used MY @#$@#$ WOOD to do his half-butted NID install!!
Then the whole consumption based billing debate/mess started. We were charged an extra $25 on one month's bill (about 2 months ago) and with their new "improved" billing detail all we saw was "broadband usage", or "broadband utilization".
We had already heard about Greenlight service in Wilson, NC at this point and were very close to making a final decision to actually try to move.
Honestly, this was the straw that broke the camel's back.
So my advice to anyone looking for broadband service is, if Roadrunner is the only game in town, or the only real "competition" for broadband in your area is Sprint/Embarq DSL, you might as well get Roadrunner. The service usually works pretty well. I just hope you never need to call tech support or customer service, because God help you when it isn't working.
We are moving to Wilson, NC and getting Greenlight (»www.greenlightnc.com) fiber optic service. We'll be starting off with 40 megabit symmetrical internet service, for roughly $185 a month with digital phone and 81 channels of TV included in the package, all of which run over the fiber optic. I am told that with Greenlight there is no degradation of your internet service performance when you are watching TV. We'll see. 
Cheers,
MachRider
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Review by KidPanama
UPDATED: 116 days ago
member for 6.5 years, 31 visits, last login: 102 days ago
Rego Park,Queens,NY
Contract price not specified.
"It's a convienient alternative to Verizon DSL and other private ISPs."
"Frequent service drops, slow speeds, and poor upload speeds."
"It's"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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First things first, I have lived in 4 of the 5 boroughs of NYC, meaning that I have dealt with Time Warner in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and now Queens. Based on my experiences of dealing with the company in the past, I can honestly say that customer service isn't their strong point. I have lived in the Rego Park area for just over a year, and like I had before, I opted for Time Warner's Triple Play package that includes Cable, Phone, and Road Runner internet services. The prices were a bit higher than what I paid for Cablevision's package in the Bronx, but you really have no choice if you live in an area that is only serviced by Time Warner's services.
As far as Road Runner is concerned, I think I speak for the vast majority of Road Runner users when I say that you will never achieve the advertised speeds of 10000 Kbps down/ 512Kbps up for Road Runner standard or 15000 Kbps/ 768 Kbps for Road Runner Turbo. To be fair, it's nearly impossible to achieve exact advertised speeds with any ISP, but the problem with Road Runner is that they overload their nodes frequently, meaning that they oversell their service and that you will average 25%-30% of the speed that you are paying for. This is an everyday occurrence, which is a serious issue. When using their service during peak times I average anywhere from 1500Kbps to 3500 Kbps, this is unacceptable. Time Warner now offers Boost which is supposed to boost your connection speeds when the extra bandwidth is available, meaning it only works late at night or early in the morning when people are either sleeping or working. This is a serious problem for me, as I use a wifi router to browse the net with my computer and play online on Xbox Live (usually not at the same time), and Road Runner's poor latency affects online gaming in a big way.
To remedy the aforementioned problems, I upgraded to Road Runner Turbo two weeks ago, and guess what? It makes absolutely no difference. Sure I can get good download speeds off peak (upload speeds are generally unaffected), but I could do the same with Road Runner standard. When I check my speeds during peak hours like between the hours of 5pm-10pm, I usually average between 2500-4000Kbps, which is FAR below the 15000Kbps that I pay for. This is a problem that Time Warner needs to remedy, but they're in no rush since they have effectively monopolized Manhattan, Queens, and half of Brooklyn. Hopefully the eventual competition of FiOS will help them get their act together, but I won't hold my breath. Time Warner is renowned for playing this game of placing blame on their customers, instead of admitting that their services have plenty of room for improvement, meaning that you're wasting your time by complaining to customer service. The fact of the matter, is that you don't get what you pay for, and it's an issue that should really be addressed and taken into consideration.
Next of my gripes, is the FREQUENT disconnects in service. As if the inconsistencies in download speeds weren't bad enough, Time Warner has the dubious honor of being the most unreliable ISP in the Tri-state area. No exaggeration, I usually experience 1-3 disconnects a day, and they range in duration anywhere from 1 minute to 10 minutes. What am I paying all this money for again (over $250 a month for the triple play package)? I usually refrain from comparing providers, but when Cablevision was my service provider in the Bronx from 2004-2008, the service was exceptional. They offered everything that Time Warner offers and them some, at better prices. When I used Cablevision's Optimum Online service, the speeds were always blazing fast with low latency and no disconnects. The same was true even during peak hours. Oh, and let's not forget that Optimum Online's standard service is 15000Kbps down/ 2000 Kbps up, which is much faster than even Road Runner Turbo that I have now. During peak hours, with Optimum Online, I used to average somewhere in the 10000Kbps range. In my 4 years as a Cablevision subscriber, I must have experienced a disconnect maybe 2 or 3 times, as opposed to the 2-3 disconnects daily that I have to endure on Road Runner.Unfortunately for all of us, Cablevision does not service Manhattan or Queens, so it is Time Warner or bust.
The bottom line is that Road Runner is good when it works, but the frequent disconnects and inconsistent speeds are a cause for concerns for people who play games online and download large files. If Time Warner is your provider, go for it, because there are no other options. As for me, I hear RCN is also available in my area, and once I find out if the internet connections are more reliable and consistent, I may consider switching. For now, I will stay with Time Warner and Road Runner while I patiently await the arrival of Verizon FiOS in Rego Park. I just thought that I would give everyone else a heads up.
As if things couldn't get worse, somehow they did, which is to be expected from a company like Time Warner. I have "upgraded" to their Turbo service a month ago, and not only did it make no difference in speed whatsoever, but the speeds have now been more inconsistent than ever. I know I am not alone, but that's not the point. My advice to everyone is to avoid Time Warner and their shoddy Road Runner service like the plague if you can. I will be calling RCN tomorrow to see if they can service my area, so that I can drop Time Warner like a bad habit. For reference, I pay for speeds of 15000Kbps down and 768 up from their Road Runner Turbo service, yet this is the type of speed I get from their service recently:
[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]»www.speedtest.net/result/5260125···G][/URL]
Skip it at all costs, or you're throwing money down the drain.
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