Local Government TV

Saturday, September 15, 2018

RCN Internet Outage on East Coast



Those of us in the Lehigh Valley have been spared some of the serious flooding that’s come with Hurricane Florence. But we have a problem that’s a little less dramatic. An Internet outage.  RCN customers in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest have had no Internet service for most of the day. I have no idea whether it is related in some way to the storm.

Unlike most people, the only service I have is Internet service. When I called about the disruption, I learned that I have been paying $110 per month for service for the past few months and never knew it. I thought I was paying about $60. 

I gave the guy hell and he came up with a new plan he said would only be $60. But he also declined to send me a confirmatory email. Then I went and checked my account and learned I am being charged $81. 

I know other ISPs are cheaper, like SECTV.

What is your experience with Internet coverage? How much do you pay? What is the customer service like? Is the coverage consistent?

I am very unhappy with the way RCN responded to my protests concerning price, although it’s partly my fault for automatic payments I never review.

20 comments:

  1. I pay $80 a month for one gig from RCN. This is one of those “versus” questions (hospitals, cable companies, newspapers, etc.) where our choices are actually pretty good.

    See if they have an offer for one gig service that is less than what you’re paying now. And set a reminder for yourself for a year from now. The drop from your pole to your place works for Service Electric as well.

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  2. John I use about 5 gigs a month and am going to go shopping. SECTV seems like a good deal.

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  3. I had RCN internet put in when I first bought my house. Never had any problems with them. When I canceled Directv, RCN was right there with a great offer for three years for cable. A couple of months ago I also noticed (by chance) that my bill had jumped by 60 or 70 a month when I went to check a credit card statement. Low and behold they upgraded me (for free) from 25m to 50m. However; the modem I had was unable to to handle it. They went in and changed all of my billing codes to make the upgrade, but when it failed they didn't notify me or revert everything back. When I called they couldn't explain why someone did what they did. I ended up getting a new modem and the price lowered. The new modem wouldn't stay connected to the internet and I was forced to reboot it regularly. I finally got fed up and switched everything over to Service Electric. I have 25mb and full cable on four tvs for 130 a month (i got a cable card and bought and HDHomeRun Prime which allows me to stream to up to three tvs simultaneously.
    I'm very happy with Service Electric at this time. We will see what happens in a year or two, but for now all is good.

    Hank_Hill

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  4. Thanks, Hank, I think that's what they did to me. i was very unimpressed by the person in billing. Next week, i will be talking to them again. I want a credit for about four months bc they never informed me my price was going up. They sent me emails thanking me for my payment, but I had no idea it nearly doubled. I will say the service itself is good. But this company engages in deceptive business practices.

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  5. That person is going to rue the day you were provided such poor service.

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  6. Well, I must say, anyone who relies on auto payments should beware, you are just the kind of customer they love, they may change the price, but you will not get a refund.I only pay by check, I am old fashioned , and I dont make it easy for people to rip me off. I have taught my children, everyone wants your money and for as little effort as possible. If you dont keep constant vigilance, they will get you. at your age you should know better.

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  7. Have RCN and experienced no disruption today (Walnutport area). Service has been basically good this past year , but now it's time for the first price increase. What gets you is that those prices that sound so attractive don't include various fees and taxes, and they can go up during the year, so you end up paying double what you thought you were going to.

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  8. "Well, I must say, anyone who relies on auto payments should beware, you are just the kind of customer they love, they may change the price, but you will not get a refund.I only pay by check, I am old fashioned , and I dont make it easy for people to rip me off. I have taught my children, everyone wants your money and for as little effort as possible. If you dont keep constant vigilance, they will get you. at your age you should know better."

    Yes, I should. My prices had doubled for FIVE months and i never knew bc it was automatically deducted and I chucked the bills without opening. The billing office was pretty derisive about it, too.

    The RCN slacker I spoke to was arrogant and disrespectful, but I kind of liked him. So I will not be complaining about him. I am concerned about what I consider deceptive business practices, but part of this is my own fault.

    One change I will make is to go to paperless billing. I tend to NOT open up bills that are mailed to me, but notice I read every bill I get via email.

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  9. Just as a point of reference, I have RCN and pay $44.08 total per month for 50MB of bandwidth. I could get a higher data rate but since I live alone that is sufficient to stream 1 channel of HDTV.

    I used to have SECTV and didn't switch for the price, as RCN was only a bit lower, but SECTV tended to go out for a short period almost daily. I got very tired of having to reset my router. RCN has been much more dependable. I didn't suffer an outage yesterday. Weird.

    I'm not in love with RCN, the situation could reverse in the next year. And I think all cable company customer service reps go to the same Heinrich Himmler school of customer service.

    I live in Lower Mac.

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  10. Bernie use online banking where you initiate the payment rather than auto payment initiated by the company. It takes just seconds to pay all your bills, and you always know what the amount is since you initiate the payment.

    No surprises and it's typically a free service.

    The Banker

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  11. "online banking"
    I love it. Been using it for many years. Nothing ever gets lost in the mail. Nor can someone claim I sent it late. Auto-pay is something I never would do. Heard too many stories about some company screwing up decimal places. As such checks began bouncing all over the place (so too all the overdraft fees as a result)

    As far as cable goes. I have SECTV's internet, telephone and full TV lineup. The total bill after all taxes, fees and for 3 converters total $188.51.

    I looked at a whole bunch of scenarios to get this down lower. About the only way would be to un-bundle. First problem is each un-bundling combination would cost quite a bit more. If I chose internet only and use outside streaming and separate telephone packages it would end up costing me quite a bit more. BTW I use my own DVR for recording.

    Streaming-- forget about it. Of the dozen or so there's only a couple of programs on any one of them I'd be interested in. PLUS it would involve auto-pay. NO THANKS !!

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  12. I'm with RCN and almost got caught in that rate hike. They were going to double my bill because of their upgrading customers to Fios. Fuck Fios. Don't have it and don't want it. Let those who do, pay for the upgrade of service.
    I get paper billed and mark my calendar each year my "anniversary" with them approaches. I carefully read the last bills looking for notifications of a rate increase. Usually its when the "special" rate expires after one year.
    We play this game of me calling them and saying SECTV offers the existing rate I'm paying RCN. I will switch if they bill me higher I tell them. RCN Rep asks for a moment to review my history. "Well, we can offer you another year at your same rate, but then it will go up." OK, I say. Repeat this for the last 10 years. I pay $41/mo (plus tax) for Internet only (I get free TV through a digital antenna, or online using Kodi on my computer).
    The truth is I would switch to SECTV, but am reluctant to do so because of all my online accounts tied into my RCN email address. So, as long as they keep playing nice with me, I will stay with RCN.

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  13. Penteledata owns sectv, Ironton telephone, and Blue Ridge. Don't be so quick to praise them. My bill has gone up $30 in the past two years. They do it slowly in the dead of night so you don't notice. I like Bernie do not pay attention to my paper bill as I pay it online. Everybody does the rate hike and telling you they are doing you the favor, Lessons Learned!

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  14. 6:21
    I don't believe PenTeleData (PTD) owns Service Electric(SECTV) & Ironton Tele.

    Pencor is the parent of PenTeleData and Blue Ridge Cable.

    Service Electric & Ironton provide PTD Internet to their customers, they are not Internet Service Providers. RCN is not a local company, I believe they took over former Twin County territory at least a decade ago.

    PTD is probably the first local company in the region to provide internet and they've had high speed available since the mid 90s. Most households were still using AOL or similar dial-up through the early 00s.

    PTD internet for Blue Ridge Customers just got their bandwidth doubled with no rate increase and they've had gigabit service for at least several months now. I like that they're a local company and have yet to sell out to one of the evil empires like Comcast and the like.

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  15. We would always have to “fight or switch “ every so often. They would sneak in stuff on my bill and then never answer the phone . We now use Direct TV - ATT phone does not run out of time with this co-deal and bill is not bad at all ,and it’s clear and no interruptions during this storm to date. One short interruption that I know of in two years. The installer was great and my dish is consealed some what. I went to Mayor of Easton about cable issues last year and asked him to have his IT people look at the possibility of haveing cable companies post a bond for removal on cable in the city after the cable companies fail. The disconnect volume is alarming due to new technology and streaming . Dish internet is already here in some venues.,and new economic issues with technology coming that will change the market share shortly! Believe me I’m behind the curve ,and if I can see it ,then smart administrators should see it,early. Smart people I know are really streamlined with tech service , - they get more for less .they always do.

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  16. Based on years of experience with Service Electric and RCN, along with friends and relatives who’ve used Verizon, Comcast, etc., they all have similar performance histories and all use the same gimmicks - “can give you this special deal if you stay with us” - then KABOOM in a year, until you play hardball with them again. It’s like ATT wireless service - never make a deal at the local store, call the “800” number and ask for the Loyalty Team Dept.

    On a separate note, c’mon BOH - I get an e-mail every month telling me my RCN bill is ready and will be charged to my credit card (why not get the Rewards Points from your particular card). One click and you know exactly what the bill is each month. How do you not know what you’ve been charged month after month?

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  17. Because I was not opening my bills. I knew they were being paid by automatic payment. I explained that already. I also agree I should have been been more attentive. I will be now. I did not expect to see my bill nearly double for five months.

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  18. Bernie:

    I think you misunderstand a comment you replied to with:
    "John I use about 5 gigs a month and am going to go shopping. SECTV seems like a good deal."

    The 1 gig price is 1 gig of speed down. It's not how much you actually use per month (like cell phones).
    Down speeds and up speeds vary per package. So the 1 gig down may not get 1 gig up.

    Go to speedtest.net to see what you currently get down and up, speed wise. If you're comfy with what you have now, then that's what you compare for pricing.

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  19. "RCN Internet Outage on East Coast"

    Reading what every poster pays and to whom is interesting. It seems as though these companies feel safe putting there thumb on the scale when it's time to weigh services, as well as stepping on the download hose whenever they reach bandwidth limitation in a given area.

    I think it would be even more interesting to flesh out the reasons for the east coast outage phenomenon as put forth in the title of the post. News agencies seem to be as unaware of this outage as well as the 70 gas explosions in Massachusetts.

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