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Review by majortom64 
member for 8.7 years, 158 visits, last login: 364 days ago
lodged 7.1 years ago
 Skokie,Cook,IL
 $165 per month "None." "Unreliable service, incompetent and unresponsive technical support." "After many years with RCN, I am returning to AT&T."
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When RCN first began offering service in my area, I signed up for internet service with them. Their service was fast and (mostly) reliable. When they began to offer voice service in my area, I transfered all 4 of my phone lines to them. For quite sometime things were great. Then, last year I began to have problems with my internet service. For weeks at a time, it would not work at all, or I would get sub-dialup speeds. After complaining repeatedly, they finally fixed my service and I was happy for a period.
Las September, during the height of my IP networking problems with them, I received a call that they would be switching my up until then reliable and trouble free voice service from traditional landline service to their new VoIP service. They told me they would not be able to guarantee E911, but that my service would not use my internet bandwidth. I told them that given my experience with their less than stellar internet service, I was concerned with entrusting it with my critical voice services. They assured me that it was a separate network from their stand IP service and that they would provide 5 nines voice service (99.999% uptime, the former AT&T service guarantee).
Sure enough, as soon as this transition happened, my service problems began. The technician connected only 2 of my 4 lines, and those that he did connect, he connected to the wrong inside wiring (so the numbers were not ringing on their properly labeled phone lines. It took them 4 days to resolve this problem, even though I knew it was simply a provisioning issue and told them that repeatedly. They could not resolve it until they sent a technician out to my house who performed the same test I had already performed and told them it was a provisioning issue which was resolved 10 minutes later (and could have been resolved 4 days earlier had not their technician and technical support been so incompetent).
Since then, my phone lines have been up and down, with me losing service often for 1 - 2 days at a time. Each time I would call and before anyone would be dispatched, my lines would begin to work again.
For the last two days, I have had a situation where all four of my phone lines would drop calls after about 30-45 seconds. I called (from my cell phone - scary, but it is much more reliable than their service) and was told that in spite of having 4 non-functional lines, they would not be able to get a technician out to look at my problem for 3 days. I said that this was completely unacceptable. This was lifeline service. I have two elderly parents that live there (one turns 80 next week), and they needed to be able to call for emergency medical service (the primary reason for having real phone service). Even after speaking to a supervisor, I was told that their was nothing they would do to correct this situation.
I told this supervisor, that if my service was not fixed by tomorrow, I would be returning to AT&T (my local phone company). His response was: "they [AT&T] will not be able to install new service before we can fix your lines." I explained that I did not care care because at least once I had service installed, it would actually work.
Oh well, as a long term, very high revenue customer, one would expect that they would want to keep my business. Every few days, I get a door tag or a direct mail piece from RCN trying to get me to switch (odd given how long I have been a customer that they cannot even scrub their lists to drop their current customers from these mailings).
It seems they spend more energy on trying to win new customers than on trying to retain current customers.
/carmi
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member for 43.4 years, visits, last login: 43.4 years ago
lodged 7.1 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
- Contract price not specified.
- "NOTHING SPECIAL"
- "Do not trust their nbilling department"
- "AVOID"
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Their billing department has overbilled me two consecutive months.
Can't contact anyone to correct it. Had to empty my bank account. Avoid
RCN. Avoid RCN. They are a corporate predator.
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Review by thumper73
member for 7.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 7.1 years ago
lodged 7.1 years ago
- West Roxbury,Suffolk,MA
- $158 per month
- (6 month contract)
- "None"
- "All aspects of Customer Service"
- "Stay away"
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Install went ok, Installer was short and not forth comming to questions. Asked about adding another cable box, and the reply was I needed to call CS and he would need anouther trip out, he did not carry extra boxes in the truck. Called CS and was informed that I would beed to pay another $35 to have a tech come out to the house to hook the box up. Asked about driving to the local office to pick one up and was told I could, but why drive to the store when they could come to the house for $35 more. 
IMHO - RCN S*CKS !!!!!!
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Review by AJ023
member for 11.4 years, 742 visits, last login: 7.3 years ago
updated 7.3 years ago
- Forest Hills,Queens,NY
- $62 per month
- (6 month contract)
 about 7 days- "Price + Speed"
- "Packet loss, horrible routing, customer service not willing to take care of customer."
- "Avoid RCN and use another provider depending on who is available."
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I signed up for RCN because of the promo for Digital Cable with HBO + Cablemodem which came to 56.44 a month after tax + minus the $5 a month rental fee I owned my own modem already.
RCN was quick to sell me on their service claiming there would be no issues and no packet loss.
Well, since I have had the cable modem, I have had packet loss and bad routing. I called up RCN and they outright lied to me saying that everything was normal. I spoke to several techs and they refuse to do anything and will not take care of the customer or fix my issues.
My problem is a technical issue dealing with the Return path of the cableline as shown in docsis ping and shown in the flap test.
Company should have sent out a tech to resolve the issue rather then sending me an email saying there was nothing wrong or telling me issue was resolved when it wasnt. RCN is bankrupt for a reason and it has to do with customer support and by using third rate equipment even though they have fiber to 900 feet of the premises. Fiber to 900 feet means squat if the 900 feet + is bad and if internet routing is bad. I would rather a slightly slower speed and faster ping times and better routing and so Im making the move.
This is a long saga and it appears as though RCN would rather quote me misleading information and attack me on forums and tell me I have an invalid MAC address which is a stock MAC for a PCX 2200 than fix my problem. Avoid at all cost.
Also please look at these figures given by a tech who wishes to remain anonymous:
Interface Prim Online Timing Rec QoS CPE IP address MAC address
Sid State Offset Power
Cable5/0/U3 2342 online 2329 0.50 8 1 xx.xx.xxx.xxx xxxx.xxxx.xxxx
Queueing 1000 MAC-layer station maintenance intervals, timeout is 25 msec:
.!!!.!aa.!!!!...a.!a!!a.!aa!!!...a.a.!aa!aa!.a.!!!a!!!.!.!.!!!a!.!!!!!.aa!!..!!!
.!!!!!!!aa!!a.!a!a!!!.!aa.!!.!.aa!!!!!!!.!aa!!!!!a.a.!!.!!.!!!!!.!!!!.!a!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.!!!!!.!!!.!!!!!!!!!!!!!.!!!!.a.!!!!!!!!!!!.!!!.!!!..!a!!!!.!.!!
!!a!!!!!!!!!!!a!!.!.!!!a!!!!!!!!!!!!!.!.!!!!!.!.!.aaa!!.!a.!.a!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
!!!!a!.!!!!.!.!!!!!.!!!!!!!..!!!.aaa!!.aa!.!.a.a.!.!..!.!a!!!!a.a.a.a!!!!!!.!!.!
!!aaa!!!.!!!..!!!.!!!!!!!!.!..!!.!!!..!!!!..!!!!!!!!!..!!!!!!.!!!.!aa!!!!!!..!.!
!.!a.a!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.!.a!!.!!!.!.!aa!!!.aa!a!!.!!!!.a!..!.!!!!!!!.!!..!!aa!
!!aaaa!!.!!.!!!!!aa.!!!!!!!!!!!!!a!!!!..!!.!!aa!..!!!!a!!!aa!!!!aa.!a!!a...!!!!!
!.!a.a!!!!a!!.!!!!!.!.a!!!!!aaa!.!!!.!!!!!!.!!...!.aa!!!!!!!!!!a..!a!!aa!!!!.!!a
!!!aa!aa!!a.!.!.!.!!a.a!!!.!!!a.!!!!.!.!!!.!!!!!!aaa..!.aa!!a.a.!.!!!!!!!.!a!!a.
!!!.!!!!!.aa!!!.!a!!.!.!!.!..!a!!!!.!!a!!..a!!!a..a..!!!!!!!a..!!!.!!!!!!!!aa!..
a!.aaa!a.!a!!!!!!...!.....!!!!.!!!.!!!!!!!.!!a!!!.!..!aa.a.!a!!.!!!!a!a!..a!!!!!
aaa...!..!!!!..!.!!!.!!!!.!!aaa!a!aa!!!a
Success rate is 79 percent (790/1000)
To top off everything else, RCN is now throttling bittorrent and claimed nothing was wrong, now they say they are throttling but they arent and I dont have a clue as to what they are doing.
I am also having issues to various websites which are timing out and the like as well.
Time to leave RCN and move elsewhere. I suggest everyone else do that.
I look forward to writing a Verizon FIOS review as soon as the service is available here and I am awaiting word from my co-op board as they will enter into negotiations with Verizon so they can install the service in my building.
I also do not like the fact that RCN has known shills on Broadband Reports who will post false information. All RCN cares about doing is bullying rather than using intellectual knowledge on how to run a high class cable plant like a Cox, Optimum Online, Time Warner, and the other highly rated cable providers. FIOS is a different breed altogether which I believe is superior.
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Review by mikem132
member for 8.4 years, 133 visits, last login: 1 year ago
lodged 8.3 years ago
- Bethlehem,Northampton,PA
- $86 per month
- "Average Cable Service, Fast downloads"
- "one way cable, poor cust svc"
- "Not happy with RCN"
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I have had the only available broadband service in my area, 1 way cable (telco return) for 2 years. The upload is horrendous (9KB average). Downloads are good. The connection drops periodically and requires a re-dial of the phone. This can happen several times a day. I have always believed it is most likely when RCN is renewing IP addresses.
RCN as a company has floundered and tech support suffered. Nobody there will answer a question on how or when they plan to upgrade their system to something from this century. Last night I was told by a technician that there is no more expansion of the newer "2 way" cable system in Pennsylvaia due to their financial situation. If I had an alternative, I would leap at it. RCN is expensive and pathetic. Unfortunately, after 3 weeks of screwing around, Verizon figured out they can't get DSL to my house either. Some problem with a remote terminal in my area not being compatible with the CO equipment for my line. Somebody should buy RCN here and turn it into a real cable company.
Regarding cable TV---RCN has poor reception on some channels now at my home because they have tweaked the cable modem strength to keep a connection. This means anything under 7 on my box comes in loaded with snow. They are going to try to fix this in a couple weeks, but last time they did (about a year ago) my cable modem became unstable again.
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Review by Skibnny
member for 8.4 years, 0 visits, last login: 8.4 years ago
lodged 8.4 years ago
- Arlington,Middlesex,MA
- $40 per month
- "Can't think of any right now"
- "Worst customer service and technical support I have ever received"
- "Spend the extra cash and go with a more reliable service"
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I just called Comcast to switch my ISP over to them after dealing with the worst customer service from RCN. I switched over to RCN back in September because of a promotion they were having with bundled services. Since switching over to RCN my internet service has been gettin progressively slower to the point of it taking 5 minutes to download a page. I had a technician in my house for 2 hours testing my modem and equipment and finally determined it was the outside line which of course he cannot repair. He told me that the line would be repaired over night and that my service would be up to speed the next day. It was not. That was 2 weeks ago. In those 2 weeks I have talked to RCN technical support no less than 5 times. Each time, I spoke with a person with even less technical skills than the previous person. it is obvious these people work from a script and aside from setting up service calls and having you recycle your modem, they are useless. No one could confirm if anyone had worked on the outside line and would only tell me that they could start a new work order and I could give up another half day to have another technician come in and test my equipment. This was after repeatedly explaining to them that this had been done and I was trying to get to the next step. I asked on 2 occasions to speak with a manager or supervisor when it became apparent that the technical support person could not help me but was told this was not an option. I then tried over the last few days to contact RCN customer service since technical support could not help me. Again, I kept getting shuffled back to the tech services line where I would be put on hold for up to 20 minutes to once again go through the same routine again. The last "customer service" person I spoke to told me that she could only handle billing questions, technical support could handle technical questions. When I asked to speak with a Customer Service Manager, I was told that they were all busy and I would have to hold for a minimum of 20 minutes. When I asked to have the manager return my call I was told that was not possible. Basically I was told "no one can help you". Unbelievable. So Comcast you have my business now.
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Review by landmann
member for 9.3 years, 23 visits, last login: 7.3 years ago
lodged 8.4 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
- $115 per month
- "Maybe the price?"
- "Horrendously SLOW speeds, Worst tech support, Overselling the line, packet loss, bad routers..."
- "Spend your money and get DSL or TimeWarner RR instead..."
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MISERABLE, HORRENDOUS, SHOCKINGLY LOW DOWNLOAD SPEEDS!!!
FYI - no router, no firewall, no nothing...
Just cable->3Com Sharkfin->Computer.
I am officially signed up for Mach5 - getting nothing close to Mach1.
I originally signed up with RCN 4 years ago when they build their new digital system and brought it into our apartment building. Over the years (especially in the last 2 1/2y), my speed PLUMMETTED! I've been calling every now and then and they keep on saying that they'd fix the problems. In the last months, my speed has approximated (I kid you not) DIALUP speeds!!!
I called 2 days ago - "Kevin" said - "oh, we have the wrong MAC address for you! It's completely and totally wrong" in our system. He said he'd submit an action memo to put in the correct MAC and everything would be ok within 24 hours. Oh, of course I've done the whole power cycle thing many (probably HUNDREDS) times now - I'm quite a pro at that. (Please note - that he actually seemed like a "nice" guy - whether or not he actually helped - that's another issue.)
Well, 48hours later, I called YET again. This time, I spoke to "Joann" (12/31/2004) 12:52pm). She told me to do the power cycle. I did. She said, hmm... must be a problem on your end. I asked "What could it be???" She asked about a firewall - no, router - no, wireless - no, you didn't upgrade to WinXP SP2 - I did... Well, I don't know then - you are pulling an IP address. I told her I was even with the WRONG MAC address. Then she said to test my speed with broadbandreports.com. I told her that's EXACTLY what I did and that's why I was calling! My results were 603/597 (to be quite honest, this is the highest I've ever achieved). When I take MY computer to another person's apartment with TimeWarner - download speeds are FLYING - easily over 4Mbps!
She said, well, there's nothing that I can do - "you should post to broadbandreports and ask for help!" EXCUSE ME?! I pay RCN not Broadband Reports. (With all due respect to the people here at Broadband Reports!) She said - we have techs monitoring the forums and they often reply quickly and help people out... well - I am doing that, but I also insisted to speak to a manager - she put me on hold and said - "you can't talk to a manager - but I (Joann) did speak to a lead tech and we can send someone out to you and check the speed and signal." They even "threatened" to charge me if it's a problem on my end! Um, if it were, wouldn't their tech support have tried to make me do everything already?!!!
I've even done the McAfee Speedtest that I've seen people on the RCN forums advocate - 200kbps. I even tried that RCN speedtest.zip file (»nyr-ftp1.nyr.ny.cable.rcn.net/speedtest/) - I couldn't wait for it to finish - after 5 MBs, it was only doing 36KBps...There's no way I can wait for a 281MB file...
Here's my DocsDiag info (you'll notice this is after a recent powercycle! See the system up time):
DocsDiag v030720 Copyright 2001-3 Robin Walker rdhw@cam.ac.uk
MCNS external 2-way Cable Modem 3CR29220 HW_REV: 2.00; VENDOR: 3Com; SW_VER: 01.17
System up time = 0 days 01h 33m 05.80s
Ethernet single-collision errs.1 = 325
Ethernet multiple-collision errs.1 = 259
Ethernet deferred xmits.1 = 44
Downstream channel ID = 2
Downstream channel frequency = 735012500 Hz
Downstream received signal power = 0.0 dBmV (or not supported)
Upstream channel ID = 2
Upstream channel frequency = 24816000 Hz
QoS max upstream bandwidth = 800000 bps
QoS max downstream bandwidth = 5200000 bps
SigQu: Signal to Noise Ratio = 33.4 dB
Cable modem status = Registration complete
Upstream transmit signal power = 48.1 dBmV
Date and Time = 2004-12-31,18:25:33.0
Configuration filename = default.cm
-traffic
Channel Freq Max Usage Users Min Ave Max
MHz kbps kbps ms ms ms
Dnstr 0 734.98? 42884 5332 268 10 39 451
Dnstr 1 735.02? 42884 2601 158 10 39 350
Dnstr 2 734.97? 42884 17500 574 20 42 761
Dnstr 3 735.01? 42884 2987 226 10 39 380
Upstr 1 24.8 10240 1157 310 20 40 380
Upstr 2 24.8 10240 2038 322 20 44 761
Upstr 3 24.8 10240 4867 359 10 40 451
Upstr 4 24.8 10240 377 235 10 37 170
Channel Freq Max Usage Users Min Ave Max
MHz kbps kbps ms ms ms
Dnstr 0 734.98? 42884 4194 279 20 40 170
Dnstr 1 735.02? 42884 1977 169 10 34 60
Dnstr 2 734.97? 42884 15513 595 20 38 491
Dnstr 3 735.01? 42884 3016 231 20 37 190
Upstr 1 24.8 10240 1828 322 20 36 141
Upstr 2 24.8 10240 2243 337 10 37 170
Upstr 3 24.8 10240 4954 369 20 41 491
Upstr 4 24.8 10240 358 246 20 36 160
Channel Freq Max Usage Users Min Ave Max
MHz kbps kbps ms ms ms
Dnstr 0 734.98? 42884 3095 264 10 33 411
Dnstr 1 734.99? 42884 1925 152 10 32 81
Dnstr 2 734.97? 42884 16328 552 10 34 260
Dnstr 3 735.01? 42884 3205 220 10 33 220
Upstr 1 24.8 10240 1395 299 10 33 260
Upstr 2 24.8 10240 2786 317 10 34 140
Upstr 3 24.8 10240 2458 338 10 33 411
Upstr 4 24.8 10240 553 234 10 32 220
Note: timings include one hop on your up/downstream
and at least one on target up/downstream.
Please, can someone PLEASE, PLEASE help me - because nobody at RCN is able to???
Thank you
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Review by bitmechanic
member for 8.6 years, 0 visits, last login: 8.6 years ago
lodged 8.6 years ago
- Chicago,Cook,IL
- $49 per month
- "Physical link reliability"
- "Port blocking, ICMP blocking, IP address allocation"
- "You can do better elsewhere"
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When first obtaining service a couple of years ago, things we good. You could run anything and even had 4 addresses via DHCP. First came a price increase and the filtering of port 25. Then came more filtering, this time ICMP. Then came change in address allocation, only one, with extra dynamic addresses costing $5 each and static addresses costing $25 each. Ordered 2 extra addresess, for a total of 3. However, only two ever worked at one time. Working with tech support was a nightmare. Long hold times, no call backs and ultimately no solution. Moving to SpeakEasy for my needs.
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Review by theDJchad
member for 8.9 years, 120 visits, last login: 5.9 years ago
updated 8.9 years ago
- Chicago,Cook,IL
- $95 per month
- (month by month)
- about 3 days
- "The tech was on time, and he was nice and helpful."
- "Hold times are horrible, Call center reps are rude and not knowledgeable."
- "Just hope you don't have to call to get help..."
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I was only moving to another apartment within my building, when I first called to transfer my service I was actually surprised it went smoothly since all the other times had been nightmares. The tech got here on time and installed the modem and cable boxes that I had brought down from my old apartment, but the phone wasn't connected... so he tried to call and figure out why... which as it turns out SBC wasn't able to release my old line... So I spoke to a RCN rep and she promised the phone who be transfered by the following Monday... No biggie. I went to check my email, and for so whatever reason my Outlook couldn't connect. So when I called RCN to find out why my email was not working, the tech said he had no record of my email on their servers, even though I have had RCN internet for the past 2 years. So after 30 mintues of being back and forth on hold he finally told me I could have the username I had previously, and with no explaination or apology for losing my email username... After confirming I was able to connect to the server, I hung up. 2 days later, I had the same problem, so when I called back to RCN, I was told that my username was again not in there database, he went onto explain that I never called in 2 days prior and still could not explain why I had the same email username for 2 years and then once I moved I lost it all... So after asking for a supervisior, to explain all this to me... is when he started to kinda run around about how the other guy I spoke with must have deleted and he has taken care of it all for me. When I agian asked for the supervisior, it took nearly 10-15 of being on hold before he was able to get on the phone, which did no good what so ever because he was about as useless as everyone else. Ugh, finally that issue was resovled, but I still have not gotten phone service up and running yet, and it is going on almost a month for that. Also you now how have to pay a $50 collataral fee to cover the cost of the modem and cable boxes. Because they are afraid we are going to take the boxes from the 1980's? I can understand paying a fee for people who are late on their bill all the time or getting their service disconnected constantly, but for a person who has 2 years for excellent payment history... it is just ridiculous! And don't upgrade to their digital, because they charge you a fee to come out and tell you that your service is now operational. Perhaps when they get out of bankruptcy they spend some money on trainging and get their reps some help with customer service skills.
... Well as the saying goes, things can only get worse. my phone has never been transfered, no one is really sure why it is unable to be transfered from SBC. Now I am having modem issues and the first available time someone can come to my house is almost 7 days from now... and if they find anything wrong with equipment, wiring, or I am not home at their specific time frame (5pm - 8pm) I will be charged a $50 fee. I am so glad that I am a valued customer. I am still not certain why they changed all my equipment when I moved 10 floors down. As far as I knew it all worked great in my old apartment, but now I can barely turn on the equipment without some major issue. WHAT IS THE DEAL~
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Review by hepcat1
member for 8.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 8.9 years ago
lodged 8.9 years ago
- Chicago,Cook,IL
- $42 per month
- "Least expensive option in my area"
- "Frequent connection loss, VERY slow downloads most of the time"
- "They've gone from great to garbage in the last 6 months...AVOID"
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I got RCN when I first moved to the Rogers Park area of Chicago because it was the least expensive ISP for cable modem at that time. For the first 4 years, they were absolutely outstanding. Service, support, customer relations...all A+.
However, starting about 6 months ago, they've gone from king of the hill to utter crap. My outtages are like clockwork, my speeds WILDLY vary (although they weigh heavily in on the GODAWFUL SLOW side), and support (since it's been moved OUT of chicago for chicago customers) is completely unable to help other than sending out techs (which are ALWAYS going to take at least a week to two weeks....ALWAYS!).
I would HIGHLY recommend rethinking your choices if you decide to go with RCN at this point. They've gone WAY downhill and just can't be considered a reliable provider.
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