I got Astound internet because they took over my previous ISP. At the beginning their rate was low compare with other big telecom companies. The internet speed and reliability were reasonably good. Customer service was scarce. So I stuck with them. However, in the past 12 months, they increased the rate about 30% every six months. This forced me to cancel their cable internet, using my cell phone company over air internet gateway device service instead. (These days, the wireless networks speed are so fast, who needs a wired connection/cable?) I got faster download speed (though slower upload speed not important to me), better network reliability than cable in fact, and saved 60% on monthly fee. Also when I canceled the Astound service, I had to call and waited near one hour to talk to a customer service representative. I did not notice in their small prints, though I would not use their service for another 29 days, they would still charge me the high rate for that billing cycle month, even I canceled it. read more

Ever since Astound Broadband took.over from WOW the service went down ,while the price went up!! I have had nothing but trouble with Astound, the service they offer is not in line with the price they charge.!! So now they want to send a service tech out. The only catch is there's an $80 dollar charge they fail to mention. Unless you have there protection package your on the hook for services you've already paid for but don't receive!! I'd give them negative 4 stars if I could!! I'm looking for another service provider. But until then I'm stuck with Sub-standard service and high prices 70 a month JUST FOR INTERNET NOTHING ELSE!! If you have choose do not pick Astound they are the worst carrier I've ever had. DO NOT USE ASTOUND FOR ANYTHING IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE!! read more

About a month ago, my Eero stopped working and a technician was sent out. He swapped out the part and everything was fine... until a month later. The guy apparently never logged the change in equipment, which wasn't discovered until 10/6. The mistake caused Astound to shut my internet off that day. They first told me that it would be fixed in 24 hours, then they stopped being able to estimate when it would be back on. I've now been without internet for 4 full days, and they can't tell me when the clerical error will be fixed OR let me cancel service. So I'm trapped paying for a nonworking service indefinitely. read more

They are anything but Astounding. The prices are insanely high, yet the number of times we lose both internet and cable is equally insane. Now that I work from home, when the internet goes down, it is more than inconvenient, it actually affects how I can do my job. Astound, get your act together, for crying out loud. Your customer service stinks. Your ability to fix things stink. Your prices and rates stink. You stink. read more

This place has the worst customer service. They took over our internet/cable with no notification. We only knew of the takeover when everything stopped working. We called out old company and were sent to Rcn. Rcn said they knew there was a problem and no one would fix it for a week. We called again. There phone line was too busy to take calls. The day after they took over our service we received a bill from our old company. It said nothing about being bought out. It only informed us when out bill was due. We were able to get a new company to install, and get things running before RCN would even come out to get out service back online. They punished us for going to a new company by not releasing our old phone number. This is very hard on my 86 year old mother. Her memory is not as good as it once was. She had that number for 51 years. This company is awful read more

Called astound because I'm having a problem with my Wi-Fi. Spoke with what sounded like a young girl there about the appointment I had set up for today. She said she had no way of contacting the service people. I asked if she could transfer me to her supervisor and she hung up on me. So later in the day I get a call from astound about their service man coming 15 minutes late and I happen to ask if there is a way that they can get in touch with them and she said yes all they have to do is send an email. I don't appreciate being lied to. read more

I switched from Xfinity to Astound in March, opting for both internet and phone services. While the internet works well, the phone service has been a nightmare. I have four lines, but one of them had issues transferring because it was only three weeks old at the time. Since the phone was locked and wouldn't unlock until we owned it for a month, I understood that part wasn't anyone's fault. However, even after the month passed, Astound still had trouble transferring the phone. After three weeks of back-and-forth with Astound, Xfinity, and Apple, I finally got the phone unlocked. When I requested a new eSim for the phone, the Astound customer service agent mistakenly swapped another line on my account with an eSim, causing that phone to fall off the network. Despite speaking with six different agents over seven hours, the issue remains unresolved. I'm paying for four lines, but only two are working. It seems like no one at Astound cares. The line that was deactivated is my main source of income, as I use it to contact clients. Needless to say, I'll be switching back. The moral of this review is that I don't believe Astound is equipped to handle mobile service yet. If they can turn a phone off in a matter of minutes, one would think they could just as easily turn it back on. Currently, I'm waiting for a new SIM card to be mailed to me in 3-5 business days, and I'm not even certain this will resolve the issue. read more

Abysmal customer service and unreliable actual service. Recently my Tivo/cable remote and box stopped functioning correctly. I'm not sure which is the real issue, but I can't adjust volume, change channels, or even make selections either consistently or at all most of the time. I tried power cycling the box (MANY times), tried recalibrating/connecting the remote, and nothing works. So...the natural next step would be to reach out to customer service for technical support, right? Well, with this company, not so much... I called and was initially surprised that anyone was available because Astound seemed to think customer support was a Monday through Friday offering (which is moronic at best and utterly incompetent at worst). Whatever the case, I reached someone who offered no real assistance. The "technical support" rep I spoke with was incompetent, uninformed, unprofessional, and generally unhelpful. He talked at me instead of to me. He offered ONE basic "solution," which was for me to try to re-pair my remote with the box (which I had already done numerous times). I even went along with it and tried again with him on the phone thinking he'd offer technical input that I was unaware of but, did he? NO. It's like I was talking to some random person who had less technical acumen than me, which is not what I'd expect when seeking help for a supposedly premium service and experience. BOTTOM LINE: Astound is anything but astounding. Or reliable. Or professional. Or worth the annoyance. If you can choose a better, more reliable company for your internet and/or cable needs? I recommend that you do so. read more

This company is negligent, greedy, overworks their employees, and does not care about its customers. RCN was better than this. I've been a customer for 4 years and I've had it. Internet is great when it works, but if you ever have a problem good luck! The price is good if you get a killer sign on deal, otherwise it's overpriced. Technicians lost my equipment and Astound is forcing me to pay over $400 for it, saying that they will refund me "when" they find the equipment. More like "if"! It's been over 4 months and they haven't found it, how long am I supposed to wait? How am I going to get that money back? I've called dozens of people and no one has been able to actually help or do anything. Might have to take legal action because this is just ridiculous. read more

Astound/RCN is undoubtedly the single most garbage company I have ever encountered in my lifetime. They are unhelpful, rude, incompetent, and most importantly untruthful. I have been a customer for three years, have had my bills set to auto-pay, and would occasionally notice that the monthly price had increased. When this would occur, I would call in and they would offer some sort of small concession indicating that they had added "promotions" back to my account that seemingly only lasted a month before they would sneak the price upward yet again. After reviewing the total of these hidden increases, which clearly prey on the highest quality customers, Astound / RCN had swindled several hundred dollars from me. I have since called back several times to have this resolved, and have been promised a "call back" which predictably and inevitably never comes. I will happily now make it a priority and lifelong vendetta to dissuade anyone and everyone that I can from using this horrendous company. They only thing astound-ing about this organization of criminals, thieves, and fraudsters is that they are able to get away with it. Make no mistake about it, they have earned every negative review that you see here, and if I could rate their service with negative stars I would. read more

I can find only a very few times when I write a bad review with such disgust as I do with this review of RCN, now known as Astound Broadband) I think the name change must be because of the horrible reviews they have gotten under the name RCN. Astoundingly Bad = Astound Broadband. I had the worst broadband service with technicians coming out for 3 weeks straight. I got fed up and switched to XFINITY. The switch has proven to be the best decision for my broadband needs. I work from home and was tired of dropping out of business calls an embarrassingly number of times. With XFINITY I have had ZERO issues. If you know what is good for you I would steer clear of RCN / Astound Broadband. read more

My computer is old as F***ck , so I thought that my issues are related to that fact. I am visiting another country and everything works fast, glitch free, heaven . At home I get bounced 7/8 times an hour, things load painfully slow. I have to restart the modem at least once a day, it gets stuck, it is beyond annoying, and now I know that it has nothing to do with the age of my device, it is the service. If I wasn't afraid that Verizon would be worse, I would have switched first thing coming home. read more

Trash reliability. Constant outages, sometimes only 20 minutes, sometimes many hours. Impossible to work from home with confidence. Price is low, which is great, but you get what you pay for. In response to "jackie", the customer service is terrible and the issue is in the infrastructure provided by Astound. I have canceled my service. read more

In February, I contacted Astound to see if I could get my internet bill lowered. The customer service agent I spoke to online told me that my bill would go from $38 a month to $28 a month. I was incredibly pleased with the interaction and the solution that the customer service agent came up with. After I paid my bill in April, I noticed that it was still at $38 a month. Thinking it was a mistake, I contacted Astound to ask what had happened. The customer service agent this time told me that lowering my bill to $28 wasn't possible. I asked why I had been told it would be lowered in the first place and I was told that it was done in error. I expressed my frustration about the situation but was never offered a different discount or given an explanation as to why/how I was offered the $28 a month info in the first place. It's poor customer service to 1. Tell someone they will receive a discount without actually having the ability to give that discount. 2. Not reach out to me to inform me of the error. 3. Not do anything to attempt to fix the situation. I understood that the $28 was an error but the fact that they weren't willing to offer any other sort of other discount to try to fix the error is absurd. I went round and round in circles with customer service. I asked to speak to a manager but was never connected to one. I had to fight tooth and nail to get a one time discount of $5 off of my next bill which is pathetic, that's barely even trying to rectify their mistake. I haven't experienced anything like it really. Very disappointing. read more

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if I could give them 0 stars I would. We have used their company since before they were bought out by Astound. Now that we have been with them the past 2 years their rates have tripled. We called to talk to them about this and they acknowledged the increase but wouldn't lower it. We said that's fine we will be looking elsewhere. They then said ok and hung up, not 5 minutes later they shut our internet off!!! We never had a late payment and always paid our bill in full. Absolutely awful costumer service and a terrible company. Definitely look for a better company. read more

AVOID! Dishonest and misleading in their promo. I was told by different agents how the free 6-month will be spread out every time I called. They arbitrarily delay the free month from every other month, to second/5th/7/9/11/13, then second/5th/7/9/11/14. It wasn't written in any contract and the agent refused to put it in writing for me. Also the internet is not even stable. read more

Had good consistent wifi with wowway which got switched over to astound now I have inconsistent terrible internet where I get 0.05 mbps upload which makes it impossible to work read more

UPDATE: Our service was finally fixed and has been pretty stable for some time. While I will say the amount of time it took to resolve the issue was quite unacceptable, it has been improved and consistent for the past couple of months. read more

We've had Astound internet service for over 5 years, and once the pandemic hit their service has been horrible. It was so bad that they ended up crediting me for 3 months if service because the issue was on their end. This was after replacing my equipment and having several tech visits. We've tried to keep their service because the alternative of Comcast isn't much better, but we've had so many outages and inconsistent speeds and connection, we finally decided to end our service. We've had several techs and tech supervisors replace the lines, and they'd end up blaming our equipment. Replaced equipment and still had the same issue, turns out it was a splitter they had installed. They refused to credit us for the issue they blamed on our modem. We're having to power cycle our modem every other day and our service still sucks. Not to mentioned the prices has increased and they don't want to give us any discounts unless we're a new customer. The value was gone, the service was horrible, so we finally decided to cancel since I had a great offer to try Verizon Home Internet. When we called to request cancellation, they told us we'd be charged for the remaining 27.5 days of our billing cycle. We had to speak to several supervisors, one that was rude and was either lying or was terrible at communicating. Finally their supervisor stated there was nothing we could do, we couldn't even lower the speed to a cheaper one, we were stuck paying for horrible service we didn't want. Astound's Internet service after Astound took over has been aggravating and frustrating. We are relieved to cancel our services, but we also told them to note on our account that we would never use Astound again and we'd never recommend it to anyone. read more

The local service representative reached out to me and was able to resolve my issue. I would recommend finding your local office because the support line is useless. read more

Horrible customer service. They keep working in a $79.95 fee to replace a 7 year old modem that I am leasing and they acknowledge is a problem. They are direct that I don't have to pay the $79.95, but to confirm the appointment I have to accept the $79.95 fee. Shifty, but bush league. Time to change. read more

I wish there was a zero stars. The worst company to deal with. I just cancelled my internet service with them and now they are coming back and saying that I have phone equipment owed to them from services I cancelled long ago. I told them that I returned the phone equipment when I cancelled the service to a UPS Store. Of course they can't find it and now they are asking me for a tracking number from 2022. They never mentioned that they were missing the equipment until now. The service was cancelled in 2022 and now in 2024 they're saying they're missing the equipment. They should have asked about the missing equipment back in 2022 when the service was terminated. Who keeps a tracking number from two years ago? I have contacted them FIVE times, a combination of chats and phone calls about this and it still isn't resolved. What's frustrating the most is the total waste and disrespect of my time. Totally dissatisfied and disgusted ex-customer. read more

Be careful with Astound. I spent a month trying to get internet through them, but there was something wrong with the building. They scheduled a tech, then I switched to a remote install kit. The kit was never sent and the tech never showed up ( assuming some wires got crossed and the tach was supposed to come). After no internet for a month, I contested the bill. They stonewalled me, saying tech came (they never did) and after 30 minutes on the phone they conceded. Imagine my surprise when I start getting letters from a collection agency after no calls or notices about my bill. I went to Comcast after this, which is a move I very much did NOT want to make. I really can't believe that I have had no issues with Comcast this time around and Astound has filled me with the white-hot fury of a thousand suns. read more

They were great at the start and OK, by the end, but awful when I called and said I was moving. I was told to take the modem to any currency exchange, so I traveled to one by foot and bus when the heat index in Chicago was 101. I was told, "We don't take any equipment." I called Astound, got the name and address of another currency exchange much further from my home, traveled there and back by foot and bus and sweated into a receipt that said I retuned four items. Then I got an email saying they needed more from me and learned when I called that they planned to charge me $280, presumably because I supposedly had not turned in the things that I did turn in and had a receipt for. I asked where I could send a copy of the receipt and was told nowhere. I asked where I could write and was told nowhere. It's hard to believe that it's an accident that they make it very hard to turn the modems in and if you succeed, they lose the evidence this happened and refuse to accept any evidence from you. read more

Absolute garbage. Anti-customer policies. They made a "policy" change that is in effect, theft. If you're an internet only customer BEWARE. They "can't" cancel your services mid billing cycle, so if you're even a day off, you get charged for an entire month of service, regardless if you want, need, or use it. It's thinly veiled theft. They can start and stop your service with the flip of a switch, cancel you for non-payment and then charge you a $35 "restoration fee" to turn your services back on moments after they get your money, but somehow, cancelling service mid billing cycle is just not an option for them. It's lazy, it's anti-customer, its greed, it's theft. $169 for "service" because I cancelled 1 day into my new billing cycle. Oh and per their customer service chat rep - "There is no one to have this escalated to as this is our policy ". So in effect, "shut up and give us your money". read more

My sister sighed up for internet at what was advertised as $20 a month plus fees, all she had to do was to sigh up for auto pay. She did this and her bill has never said $20. When she inquire the chat person told her that because she used a credit card the discount was not the same. She needed to use her bank account, when she signed up the they could plainly see that she used a credit card plus when auto pay did not take effect she used the chat line to ask why, she explained to tyhe chat person and was told that it would take a few months for the auto pay to take effect. They could plainly see that she used a credit card, this company is a rip off RCN was a honest company but Astound took over and now they are scam artist. read more

They make it easy and convenient to set it up and get things running. The internet is reliable and not overpriced like the other big name internet providers. It was simple and honestly, I wish I could have them for many other places! If your area have RCN, I will recommended them over the others unless you want cable TV. read more

Since astound bought wow you can really tell they're only in it for the money I miss wow now astound is nothing but money grubbers now they're blocking channels that you would normally get free with coaxial so that they can sell you a box and make more money why don't you go back to California where you came from I can't wait to cancel my internet and once I cancel I never go back read more

Actually 0 stars. Keeps loading. The first person I talked to offered no solutions, just that we needed a technician and it would cost about $80 for a service call to look at their equipment that I installed. Second person was very helpful and spent almost 30 minutes trying to fix it, but it's still just spinning loading video. It's been about an hour this time. It's been 5-20 minutes every day for the last month. I doubt we'll get a credit for loss of service. Hope to cut ties with Astound tomorrow. read more

I switched from Comcast after years of annual haggling over contracts and price increases. I dreaded contract renewal. RCN service has been faster, more reliable, and cheaper. Could not be more satisfied. read more

Internet service has really declined during 2023. There are frequent outages, as well as network slowdowns causing scrolling when streaming. Of course the day the rate increases to nearly $90 (internet only, no equipment) the service goes down completely again. I'm shopping for new service. XFINITY was expensive but internet speeds were rock solid & I'm currently billed above XfInIty's regular rates. read more

Jackie looked into my account and found that Astound billed me $80 to send out a technician to fix the line that they cut inexplicably. Mind boggling. Jackie was able to waive that and gave me a $25 credit, which I feel is fair. I the squirrels do the same thing and get into the box for the third time and my internet is out for a week I'll definitely be moving on to Xfinity (cant believe Im saying that, comcast customer service is awful) read more

Astound - Chicago - Genius technician cut my line to give internet to my neighbor upstairs - Internet Service Providers Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

No one is incredibly happy with their ISP, but RCN Astound has really LOWERED the bar on internet provider service. I had decent service 75% of the time, and the rest of the time, it was so slow that I couldn't even work from home. Support has no tools or knowledge to diagnose the problems, they charge you for maintenance calls even when the problem is on their end. Twice they actually TURNED OFF MY SERVICE ON ME after I called to report an outage, when I never asked for my service to be disconnected. I have personally worked as support for an ISP, and I am shocked by how laughably terrible their service is. read more

The very worst service and customer service -connection drops all the time overpriced for what is offered customer service is worthless switched from comcast after 2 years of RCN -I am switching to a mobile supplier and streaming for much better value-I can go on about the amount of time I spend on the phone with CS-just not worth it read more

CHOOSE ANOTHER INTERNET PROVIDER! I've had RCN service on and off for the past 5 years while living in Chicago and I've never had one positive experience with them - everything is a scam. I've been living in my apartment for the past 1.5 years and I've been paying for internet up to 100 Mbps - the only thing consistent with RCN is the TERRIBLE service and lack of real expertise from customer support and their techs. I can barely stream youtube videos, netflix and even instagram stories lag at times. When I call their "customer service" and finally get through to their reps after spending +20 mins dealing with self-service robo filters the reps can barely suggest more than resetting a modem before reading scripted apologies / fake sympathies. When RCN does "troubleshoot" they tell you the internet will only work properly if you purchase/rent their routers (for a ridiculous upsell fee) and then charge you +50 for installations / appraisals. I've requested to have people out to check on the apartment wiring and never received any follow up for scheduling or to finish my open service issue. read more

Astound - Chicago - Internet Service Providers Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Recently was forced to use Astound as they bought out WOW! Never had internet or cable starting from the day of the switch. No plan, no forethought. A total unastoundung experience. Switched cable providers today or i would still have no cable right now! avoid! read more

Quite possibly the worst quality performing service. Astound used to be WOW, and changing the name did not change the horrible product. We got their wifi this week and intend to switch back to xfinity hopefully tomorrow!! read more

I switched from Comcast to RCN, who rebranded under the name Astound. Astound just installed me less than 2 weeks ago, but this is the 4th times my internet went down in those 2 weeks with Astound. Their customer support sucks, too. I contact their customer support to find out why my internet is down AGAIN, and he reboots my router without even asking me first. I had just rebooted my router and it was still coming back online, so when he rebooted the router without permission, he made me have to wait twice as long to get online. I regret the decision to switch to Astound Broadband. I used to have RCN in the late 90s and early 2000s, and they were good back then. Now they suck worst than Comcast. Im sick and tired of having to reboot their router to get online. I have never had a more unreliable internet connection, and thats saying a lot since my degree is in Network Security. I cant even stream a Phillies game with Astound internet because they give you such low upload speeds. Web pages often take 15-30 seconds to load with Astound, but would load within 1-3 seconds on Comcast internet. WORST INTERNET EVER!!!! BUYER BEWARE, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!! read more

After a month of vague, condescending replies to my initial complaint and subsequent questions, RCN's Executive Resolution Team admitted that "security alerts are not something to be taken lightly" and said they would push the firmware update to my router "in the next few days." It was another month before I finally received the update. read more

I returned my equipment late and they charged me $300. I paid it, and returned the equipment and was told my account would be credited. That was at the beginning of October and it's December and they still haven't credited my account for the $300+ I paid. I called again and another representative said that she saw the equipment was returned, but it was associated with an old account. She also said I should be credited. So they keep saying they're "creating a case file" which apparently means nothing and I feel like they're just stealing my money. read more