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Review by Bill44130 
member for 9.6 years, 2163 visits, last login: 19 days ago
updated 161 days ago
 North Royalton,Cuyahoga,OH
 $64 per month about 3 days "Used to be Very Dependable, Great Value For Money" "They did major system upgrade that wasn't ready" "The upgrade issues going on for far to long.. stay away for now"
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updated 12/6/2012:
WOW made a bone head decision to do a major system upgrade. Things are not working has planned. I lose channels for weeks at a time. My internet service just stops working, and then starts magically working again a few hours later. I was on hold for an hour and half and just gave up. Never able to reach any one. My service is degraded for the last 2 months, and there is no one to tell.
My message to WOW is if it does not work by now it is time to consider a roll back.
old=====================>recently had to call support for email issue. Issue was resolved the next morning.Dan who works for WOW and visits WOW forum here jumped right on my issue and had me sending emails again with the reset of my cable modem. I really appreciated Dan's help today.
My WOW service just works.
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Review by adam1991
member for 337 days, 296 visits, last login: 7 days ago
updated 162 days ago
- Columbus,Franklin,OH
- $81 per month
- "Price with discounts"
- "How can I count the customer service ways"
- "The "little guy who cares" has grown up into big corp "screw 'em" mentality"
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Update 12/8/12: customer service went from best to worst. Busy signals when you call? Hour long wait times? And we have to call, because they've caused signal problems, channel lineup problems, broadband slowdowns that need attention, you name it. It's as if they fired everyone and don't want anyone to call.
All this because of a "billing system upgrade"? Really, WOW? You can't tell me that a simple "billing system upgrade" caused everything that happened all at once.
WOW took a nice company that cared about their customers, and burned that to the ground. Whatever happened in November, it's clear that WOW either (a) is incompetent all around, or (b) is being raped by the venture (vulture) capitalists that own it. It sure seems to be turning into just another Time Warner/Cox/Comcast "screw you, give us money and go away" company.
Whatever happened in November, no one at WOW is coming forth with anything more than a tepid corporate oatmeal-speak "apology". No real explanations, nothing.
For contrast, see my original review below:
- - -
I am blessed with two wired cablecos in my backyard, and even better that one of them is WOW. They've really raised the bar, going way back many years. It got to the point that even T-W had to compete on WOW's terms. I love it. The state of the art has advanced tremendously here.
WOW's people are always helpful and smiling, and the few techs I've seen are very knowledgeable. When I set up my own Windows Media Center whole house DVR, a tech came out to fix some wiring and bring another cableCARD--and he didn't even blink at my setup.
Aside from bad timeliness of communication, they really handled the digital transition very well. Who else would choose to keep the entire formerly analog "standard" lineup in the clear? The big guys would use the opportunity to lock it down and require that you rent their crappy boxes. Not WOW. Not only that, they made specific efforts to place the channels onto QAM frequencies that matched their old analog channel numbers--so those of us with older TVs could still recognize what channel it is.
They don't lock any non-premium content down as "copy once", either.
I have the 15/2 broadband setup, using my own Motorola SB6120. A couple of times they've had problems that required me to go get and switch out to their cable modem, but in the end it was an infrastructure problem on WOW's end--not a customer premises issue. If that's the biggest pain I have in dealing with them, I feel lucky.
WOW really seems to know what it's doing, and seems to be very customer focused. Not only that, they're cheaper than the competition. It seems with the big guys, the extra you pay is for all the fat at the top. I don't have money to spare for that.
Comments:
 | | how/when did you know? Curious as to how you got them to fix their infrastructure problems? And how/when did you know you could go back to your own modem? | |
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Review by nporwal
member for 175 days, 1 visits, last login: 167 days ago
lodged 175 days ago
- Schaumburg,Cook,IL
- $90 per month
- about 3 days
- "Sales"
- "Connection Drops. No Customer Service"
- "Stay Away - they still have issues to work through"
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The installation was smooth, however, we've consistently had problems. The connection drops every few hours, and we have to restart our modem and/or router.
The sales rep and the bills dont match. There are charges on my bill that I do not understand, but the Customer Service is non-existent. I have called the number on their bill, and it is a 45+ minute wait, with no option to callback. I've sent them an email via the contact page, but no response (they said 24 hours). Its frustrating. I disliked Comcast, but at least it wasn't an endless hold. I'm planning on cancelling the service and revert back.
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Review by slyphoxj
member for 10.9 years, 3414 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 181 days ago
- Brook Park,Cuyahoga,OH
- $110 per month
- about 7 days
- "Channel changing fast on HD boxes, smooth install, reliable internet"
- "Pixelation and freezing on the HD channels, many reporting much difficulty getting CS/TS on the phone"
- "Need to fix the video and call center issues"
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UPDATE (11/19/12): The "watchdog timer" issue with my cable modem's firmware appears to have been resolved... over 17 days uptime. Yay! Internet seems to be solid... I consistently score above 15/2 on speed test and pingtest.net rates my connection an "A".
But.......... still getting pixelation, freezing and, in the last couple days, outright outages on a number of the HD channels above 210 (no problems with the broadcast HD channels 200-208). On the verge of going back to Time Warner.
UPDATE (11/5/12): Still getting pixelation and freezing on some of the HD channels. Animal Planet HD was terrible on Saturday... picture paused every 2-3 seconds for a few minutes and sometimes froze (someone else posted in the WOW forum here that they experienced the same issue). My mom got a "Not Authorized" on the box in her room a little while ago while watching one of the cable news channels... I had to reboot the box to get out of that one. A firmware upgrade pushed down to my Scientific Atlanta DPC2100 caused a "watchdog timer" issue that caused my modem to reboot itself every couple days (looks like it's finally been resolved... been up over 3 days now... yaaay). And WOW changed their billing/admin system last week (right during the freakin' storm!)... some people are getting 40-70 minute wait times when calling in! Seriously considering jumping ship back to Time Warner at this point.
UPDATE: Getting occasional brief pixelation and sometimes audio dropouts for a couple seconds on some of the HD channels 210 and above (above the broadcast networks)... maybe signal level issues (haven't bothered yet to check before calling WOW).
Also I'm not getting the full upload since I was bumped from 15/1 to 15/2 (can't get any better than 1.8 Mbps upload). WOW_Dan on the WOW forum here on DSLR is aware of the issue and was able to reproduce it, so hopefully there will be a solution soon. But I'm not complaining... it was a free bump  .
But otherwise... everything's OK.
If WOW were to bring the 8/1 back and charge $10/month less than the 15/2, I'd consider going back to the 8/1 and maybe also change out the HD box on my basement HDTV for a SD box and knock another $7/month off the bill if WOW would let me do that.
--- Original review ---
After reviewing our account, Time Warner offered a deal back in March 2009 for ~$83/month (raised to ~$88/month last summer) for digital basic TV with Showtime + 1 HD DVR box w/HD service + the SD digital box already installed + Road Runner Standard (8000(or was it 7000?)/512, upgraded to 10000/1000 a couple months ago) + cable modem. We took it. It was a nice upgrade from just 1 SD box for ~$68/month + AT&T 6000/768 DSL (really about 5000/650) for ~$35/month.
I called Time Warner about a month or two ago and they told me that this promo was set to expire at the end of August of this year (2011) and that the bill would be going up. If I remember right, one offer was for ~$105/month + taxes. We decided to wait. My mom then called them again about 2-3 weeks ago and the best they could offer for the services we had was ~$145/month... ouch!
So.... we decided to give WOW a call and see what they could offer. Their offer was in the neighborhood of $100/month. My mom told 'em to come out and hook us up. We got the Digital Value + 1 HD DVR box + 1 HD box + Xpress 8/1 internet + QAM SD box for ~$98/month guaranteed until 1/1/2013. Only one week till the installation... cool! The salesperson my mom spoke with mailed a sheet with the channel lineup with the Digital Value channels highlighted and services and pricing info written on it (he did this before my mom actually ordered). After my mom actually ordered service, the sales rep. mailed a copy of the work order with the pertinent info (services ordered, prices, etc.)... got this a couple days later.
Installation was yesterday (9/1/2011). The WOW installer (a contractor) showed up in the middle of the 1-3pm install window, hooked everything up and got everything working OK and did a nice, clean job with the wiring and new drop installation outside... even looks nicer than what Time Warner did when they hooked us up when we moved into this house back in 9/2009.
I'm using my old Motorola SB4200 modem that I used with Adelphia before I switched to AT&T DSL back in early 2006. WOW only supports DOCSIS 1.0 for this modem... I was only getting about 2500-3700 down with the Xpress 8/1, so I decided to save $10/month and downgrade to Xcite 2/1. I called about 11-11:30 last night... got right through to a friendly rep who immediately pushed the new speeds down to my modem. She told me the total bill with taxes, etc. would be ~$88/month... almost exactly what the TW bill was. I might get a newer modem and go back to the Xpress 8/1 again... haven't made up my mind yet.
What I like so far:
- The HD-DVR boxs so far are problem free... channel changing is MUCH faster than it was on the TW boxes. The TW Scientific Atlanta silver HD DVR box (SA8300?) was a piece of crap... took forever to change channels and had other issues that forced me to reboot it too often. The first TW HD-DVR box we had had a dead HDMI port.
- The picture quality of the 20 or so remaining analog (NTSC) channels is superb, better than the QAM basic channels.
- The channel lineup is easier to navigate... 3 digit channel numbers for the HD channels versus 4 digit numbers for the HD channels on TW
What I don't like so far:
- HD picture quality seems like it isn't as good as TW's
- I tried to call the WOW CS number before the install date to give them the MAC address of my modem. I was prompted to enter my phone number, then asked to confirm or reschedule the appointment, then it hung up on me!
Bottom line: For about the same price (within a buck), I'm getting much lower speeds (2/1 versus 10/1) then I did with TW and fewer channels (but not missing any I really care about), but WOW's HD boxes work much better, even if they have fewer features than TW's HD boxes.
I'll update this review if anything changes.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I hooked up my Motorola SB4200 modem the night before the switchover from TW -> WOW. It synced up and I saw "DOCSIS 1.1 registration complete" in the modem's log. TW supports DOCSIS 1.1 for this old modem, why can't WOW?
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Review by hudiat
member for 1.6 years, 312 visits, last login: 151 days ago
updated 181 days ago
- Brook Park,Cuyahoga,OH
- $95 per month
- "competitive pricing"
- "Terrible internet services, tech support is beyond a joke"
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Update: Months of crappy video service continue. Not an isolated incident, tons of people complain about it all the time on the forum. From all over, it is network wide. For weeks now you can't call support without waiting an hour+. They are updating their software apparently, but it has been weeks of terrible wait times and when you do get through the people don't know how to do anything in the new system yet. Finally do get a hold of someone and they say you are the only person in the area so it is isolated to you, not on our end. Maybe more people would be complaining if the wait to call wasn't so long. Bottom line, they continue to blind to the fact that over the past 18 months their quality of customer service has been slowly decreasing, and is now at the point of just being another cable company. I can get someone from comcast of Time Warner on the phone quicker. They used to be SO good at customer service, and recently growth and expansion has been more important to them as a company than maintaining the customer service levels they once had.
The generic solution is always send a tech out. The tech always says nothing wrong. Problems persist.
I thought they were getting better, then I start to have issues again, and generic support is useless. It is nice an employee posts in the forums, but a user shouldn't have to find a forum that happens to have helpful wow employee to get support, regular support should be able to help to.
My situation with WOW is exactly why the industry needs real competition.
Had ongoing internet issues for 6 months. Finally get them fixed, and 3 months later more random issues.
Comments:
| | Average? This is a pretty negative review for average service. | |
| | | | Re: Average? Average doesnt mean equally positive and negative. It means on par with the competition. For me the competition is ATT and time warner, so I think it is in par with them. | |
| | | | | Re: Average? I was just curious. Before you updated the ratings, you gave a 26% lol. | |
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Review by JamfSlayer
member for 197 days, 34 visits, last login: 4 days ago
lodged 186 days ago
- Columbus,Franklin,OH
- $186 per month
- "UltraTV was great until about 7 days ago. It was nearly perfect."
- "They can't fix some simple routing issues with various content providers"
- "I think if they fix this, they will be back on top again."
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Since their last billing upgrade, the ISP has been unresponsive via phone. Thank goodness we have WOW_Dan on DSLREPORTS, and Libby from Naperville as well to answer any questions and get folks connected. It appears my latest complaints have sparked quite an interest from higher-ups, and the issue will probably be resolved in a timely manner. If this issue is fixed, they will be the top ISP in the nation.
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Review by ektek3
member for 200 days, 0 visits, last login: 200 days ago
lodged 200 days ago
- Evansville,Vanderburgh,IN
- $150 per month
- about 21 days
- "Great service all around. Excellent customer service"
- "None"
- "Great deal for the amount of product"
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After going round and round with AT&T DSL and Dish Network (neither one of them are very reliable), we finally decided to make a change and dropped AT&T "High Speed Internet" (and yes it is in quotes) and Dish TV Service and signed up with WoW! Internet and Cable. Our daughter has had WOW for quite a few years and has always been happy with it so we thought we would give them a try. We now have what they call their Ultra TV service, 30Mbs Internet Service, and Telephone. We are still paying the same price that it cost for Dish and AT&T High Speed Internet and Phone but we are getting much more than we had and a lot better package. So far so good!
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Review by McDuff
member for 347 days, 18 visits, last login: 226 days ago
updated 226 days ago
- Royal Oak,Oakland,MI
- $110 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 5 days
- "Great customer service, reliability and value!"
- "Can't really think of any"
- "I CONTINUE to recommend them!"
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My Other Reviews ·ooma
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In our area, we have a choice between Comcast, UVerse and WOW. Over the years, I have had numerous discussions with friends and neighbors about THEIR cable companies reliability and customer service issues, while WOW has seldom had an issue with me. Recently, an update was pushed and for some reason (perhaps user error), my cable was locked. Called customer service, they worked with me for a half hour, and they couldn't resolve it. They sent a technician out to resolve in 3 hours on that same day! I don't recall the last time I had an issue prior to this one, but given the great customer service, why would I choose a different provider?
I was tempted to change to UVerse when it first came to the area because of the features it offered, but I was very reluctant to leave WOW because of the value and service, so I didn't. Now with their new Ultra package, I have all the features I wanted and I couldn't be happier about my cable company!
----------Update-----------
Continued to be very pleased with WOW. Both my mother and mother in law have had some issues, primarily due to pushing wrong buttons on the TV or WOW remote (they're both older). WOW has been tremendously patient and helpful with both of them, even sending a tech out to make sure my mother-in-law knew how to use the system. Customer service is second to none!
Comments:
| | ... I don't keep rehashing an issue from 2 years ago. It was in issue from 6 months ago, and it's not like I keep remembering it, it is an ongoing issue, that has never been completely resolved. | |
| | Reviews:
 ·WOW Internet and..
·Google Voice
| Re: ... I am just trying to keep updates going so people know what to expect when an issue that is just routine run a new drop actually comes up. Any cable tech from any company can run a new drop, when it becomes more then that is when you can start comparing companies techs. | |
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| | WOW! sucks It seems like WOW the internet cable company is actually a dish network. Its raining outside, and the internet keeps dieing like every 5 minutes.
They have no problem disconnecting you when you are late on your bill, but when you do pay,the system sucks from the get-go.
I am really thinking had about switching back to a modem. At least I would get better service!!! | |
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Review by indigoblu3
member for 9.1 years, 16 visits, last login: 20 days ago
lodged 238 days ago
- Arlington Heights,Cook,IL
- Contract price not specified.
- "Good customer service, great value, service works as expected."
- "Customer equipment is dated (non-UltraTV customer) but functional."
- "Obviously better choice than Comcast."
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Sales/Install:
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* Friendly sales and support experiences so far.
* Installer was on-time, quick, and replaced original WOW drop with new high quality cable.
Internet:
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* Using 50/5 service with SB6121 and speed is fantastic:
* Latency to popular sites and networks is good ( Level 3 and XO bandwidth ).
* Bandwidth tests show 100% so far. Thank You!
* Modem has great signal and noise ratings and so far has no logging of time outs which I constantly saw at with Comcast. Perhaps WOW! has a better plant than Comcast?
* No caps. I switched from Comcast to WOW! because I dont want my internet provider over-monetizing their product for their heaviest users. Comcast's prospects on making $10 per 50GB is less than ideal. I do a fair amount of streaming and never want to worry about caps.
TV:
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*Works, picture is same as Comcast, and I get the channels I want for a better price.
* Im not using Ultra TV so the DVR equipment is dated. I am expecting to build my own DVR and WOW seems like a CableCard friendly provided so this should be a good experience.
Bottom Line:
Companies like WOW are our last hope at providing decently priced consumer grade telecommunications/entertainment services in my area (Arlington Heights, IL )
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 Review by Bill_MI
member for 12.3 years, 6777 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 246 days ago
- Royal Oak,Oakland,MI
- Contract price not specified.
- about 1 days
- "People, Service"
- "Behind in technology a bit"
- "Fine for me"
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After Comcast wouldn't fix their aging, glitching, infrastructure, I switched to WOW.
Install went fine but you might get a vintage 6-year-old modem to rent. I got a Scientific Atlanta DPX100. It worked but I'm probably not your typical customer - I like to log data from the modem. Yeah, it's the engineer in me.
The DPX100 modem didn't like my log taking. While this may not affect YOU, it interested Wow_Dan on the WOW forum and he suggested a modem change if I wanted. He arranged the service calls around my schedule and I eventually got a newer DPC2100 which works for logging just fine. Dan didn't have to do that but I'm glad he did.
Since I'm old school, I really like the atmosphere of WOW. It's not quite mom-n-pop but a lot closer than Comcast. At the time of this writing, WOW still has newsgroups (Giganews) and, I think, real ftp access to your WOW personal website.
WOW says they have no caps, which is ALL about PremiumCable-vs-InternetStreaming (Comcast-vs-NetFlix) anyway, which is rare these days.
WOW_Dan posted that WOW had a change of mind and will NOT encrypt:
»DTA's and encryption - A message from WOW!
I find this encouraging if I want quick basic channels with a QAM tuner. This prompted my switching, too.
Sure, there's no PowerBoost, DNSSEC/IPV6 happening... but I think I'll like this 8/1 service just fine.
But don't ask me about TV... except the little I use it I haven't seen the glitching like on Comcast but the family seems happy.
September 15, 2012 Update
We're now on the big package (TV, Internet and phone) since May. We had a 5-day power outage in July and I did miss a working phone (battery in modem lasted only a few hours). But not as bad as I thought.
An irritating note. I have no need for DOCSIS 3 and on my DOCSIS 2 service... WOW... does WOW change internet frequencies/channels a lot! 20+ times a day in what must be some kind of load balancing. I have some data: »WebStar vs. Arris
Well... every channel change is a 4-5 second loss of internet. Anything streaming gets a whack during this time. I'm a regular viewer of TWiT (»live.twit.com) and it buffers at every channel change. Arrrgh! It's not that big a deal, just frustrating when Comcast would change channels once a year instead of twice an hour. It should NOT happen.
On a positive note, I was impressed with the letter about an outage we had. This is more like the mom-n-pop atmosphere: »The Letter About The Outage
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