Edited by: JV Staff
Much has been written about the horrendous service that a number of cable television carriers provide, however, it has come to the attention of the Jewish Voice, that a number of RCN subscribers, both here in New York City and beyond, are completely justified in their outrage over the deplorable service they have been receiving, or not receiving.
On the Better Business Bureau’s website, which allows customers to rate businesses on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, and 1 being the worst, RCN’s customer review-based rating is 1. The Better Business Bureau features hundreds of complaints that have been filed against the company in just the last three years alone. The majority of these complaints allege that the company engages in unfair billing practices, routinely overcharges customers and somehow manages to sneak hidden fees into their bills. Customers were never made aware of these hidden charges and rate hikes when dealing with customer service representatives that, according to many complaints, are highly ineffective and in some cases, quite rude.
The reviews aren’t any better on the website consumeraffairs.com, another forum where consumers can post their gripes and issues they have with businesses. Consumer Affairs also offers contributors the opportunity to review a business on a similar 1 to 5 scale. RCN’s rating of 1 at Consumer Affairs matches its rating at the Better Business Bureau. Many of the reviews that RCN customers have left about their cable/internet provider on the Consumer Affairs website have been posted recently, during the COVID-19 crisis.
On August 10th, Sri of Brighton, Mass wrote of RCN on the Consumer Affairs web site:
“I used Verizon, Xfinity before I switched to RCN given their whole “no contract” pricing. At first, the setup was fine. But once I started adding my devices on, I noticed some of them wouldn’t work. It started with smart devices and then my PlayStation would keep getting disconnected every few minutes. As an online gamer, you can imagine my frustration! Despite calling tech support 3 times, this was not resolved until I noticed my speed getting throttled (even though I have a gigabit plan) Once I had played for about 15 min. That was just the tip of the iceberg. Customer service lines take an hour or more to connect, they charge for house calls even though the issue is from their network or their modem, the advertised speed is not even close to what you get in reality. I would rather pay another $20 to switch to Verizon at this point.”
On August 8th, Joseph of Coopersburg, PA wrote of RCN:
“For the past few days we have had internet, TV, phone interruptions. It has impacted my wireless router service and my Nest Cameras. TV picture freezes and pixelates, internet service goes down multiple times a day. Every evening at approx 1800 to 1900 to TV picture freezes, the household computers go down, and no phone service. Lasts for a couple of hours. On August 7, the entire system went down for a few hours. I pay a large amount of money for good service, apparently I am wasting my good money. Plus I wait in the queue for up to 90 minutes. I am not a happy customer. Plus my neighbors suffer from the same RCN problems. I have had my TV repairman out and he checked my router and TV and they are in good working order.”
On August 7th, Mauro of Boston, MA wrote of RCN:
“Been spending hours trying to get channels I am paying for, endless amounts of wait time and incompetence.. The calls are recorded… someone should listen, can’t believe people put up with this, frustrating to say the least… The last operator after putting me on hold endless time advised me I have to call back because the system is frozen?”
On May 12th, another RCN customer said:
“I signed a contract on Mar 26, 2020 for 1gbps internet access at a price of $50.62/mo for two years. I realized today (May 12th) that this has not taken effect on my April or May billing statements, for which I am paying over $60/ month for a quarter (250mbps) of the speed. The contract was counter signed on the same day (Mar, 26th) by a RCN representative. I reached out to RCN’s billing department to resolve the issue. They asked for a copy of the contract, which I forwarded to them.they then told me that they do not have contracts and will not honor this. Further, they said they do not have a legal department for me to speak to when I pushed back, saying they and I have a copy of the contract. They advised that I reach out to the salesperson, from whom I have not yet received a response.”
On May 9th, another RCN customer said:
I signed up for service with the promise that after 90 days of service and 3 months of consecutive payments (Jan16). Fast-forward 128 days later and I still have yet to receive my gift card. I’ve contacted numerous customer service representatives over the past few weeks only to receive the same response that it’s being processed. I recently reached out to customer service (Emy) about potentially cancelling my service due to your bait and switch tactics, only to have her unlawfully cancel my service, which will likely have implications on receiving my gift card. She’s provided the worst customer service and after my conversation with her, I believe cancelling my service to be more imminent. Now more than ever Americans are experiencing financial hardship. You all using bait and switch tactics to gain new customers is awful. You should really feel horrible about yourself!”
[…] Jewish Voice headlined “Consumer Complaints About RCN Cable Continue to Skyrocket at BBB,” citing the high number of customer complaints that have flowed into the consumer […]