Quotes $45 online, then the $10 discount silently got changed to $5 on checkout with another $16 in taxes and fees added on monthly. Ill go to Xfinity and overpay to at least have an honest quote. read more

It would be a shock to go a day when my service has not gone out and I need to restart my modem. The audacity of this company to charge money for a service that goes out on a daily basis is truly "astounding." If you are looking for an internet provider, I highly recommend going everywhere else but Astound. read more

Astoundly poor service. Had to call a technician because wifi and cable went out, it was apparently installed incorrectly. The technician stated in his report that it was due to outside (this after telling me that it was installed incorrectly) now Astound wants to charge me $79.95 for the maintenance call that would not have been necessary if they had set it up correctly in the first place. I think I will switch wifi / tv on principle read more

Internet issues consistently! When you call customer service you will never get your problem solved. When you ask for a supervisor they are never available. The only suggestion they make is to send a tech out(scam) so they can charge you $80 read more

I used to love RCN. They have (mostly) great people working for them who are kind and usually want to legitimately help you. The installation was scheduled quickly and efficiently, and the guy who came to install everything was kind, friendly, and good at his job. This review is about their supervisors and their marketing practices. RCN sent me a mailer. It is a great deal and I have been waiting for them to arrive in my neighborhood so I could get back with them. On Friday 1/22/21, I received their mail offer. It had a website URL and a phone number, either could be used to get their offer. I called them on Sunday 1/24/21. The rep I spoke with was very nice and helpful, though she could not find the codes needed to apply to my account for this offer that THEY. SENT. ME. 74 minutes later, my account was set up and the installation was scheduled for the next day. The installation went great and their Internet quality is superb. When I got the first bill, it was $70 higher than the correct price. The deal had not been put in place. Yes...the deal that THEY. SENT. ME. I have made numerous calls and, on 3 (three) separate occasions, I was told that a supervisor would call me back to get this taken care of. I have yet to receive a call back. The bill is due in 4 days and I REALLY do not want to cancel them and go back to Comcast who is terrible but I'm not sure what choice I'll have. Maybe I'll write a follow up to this. Believe me, I WANT to give them 5 stars but lately they are doing their best Comcast impression. read more

One thing that is ASTOUNDING about this company is how they are in business at all. They recently purchased WOW Cable and since the official transfer of ownership we have had ZERO internet in our business. Every time I call, I get zero answers or what I get is false information. I have been placed on hold for over 30 minutes at a time. When I reach out to them via Facebook Messenger I get no information from them as well. Instead I get apologies for the inconvenience. I understand that outages happen but when I first discovered I didn't have internet in my office, I have been told more than three different things regarding what is happening and none of them have been true. I have been told that I have service. I have been asked to reset my modem which did nothing. I have been told there is any outage. I have been told that my modem is online twice now, yet I have ZERO internet. I am writing this from my office with internet powered by my wifi hot spot on my phone as I wait on still. My hold time is at over 30 minutes. I have no idea if anyone is going to actually pic up the phone. I have to listen to their on hold message however about how their service is going to ASTOUND me. This is clearly not going to happen. I have been forced to send my staff home for the second day in a row and can't really conduct business for the second day in a a row. Based on this company having less than 2 stars, their service is not ASTOUNDING. read more

After almost three months, seven lengthy phone conversations with customer service, trying to cancel this HORRIBLE service I finally threw in the towel and paid for a modem which they have in their Chicago office (I have a FedEx receipt), but have yet of admit it. They were about to send this $130 charge to a collection agency. They are simply the worst company I have ever dealt with. So to anyone reading this, simply walk away. DO NOT SIGN UP for this service. You will be sorry!! There are far better choices. read more

After terminating my service they sent me a $400 bill for missing equipment which I had already returned via mail. I provided my fedex confirmation and tracking number but they closed all cases I opened and told me the bill was my responsibility. Based on other reviews it looks like they do this frequently hoping you'll become too frustrated trying to fight the fraudulent charges read more

Worse than Comcast. The service itself had random outages, and they choked my internet speed if I uploaded too much in one day. The customer service is awful. The staff was uneducated on what they were selling (falsely expressing speeds of service in megabytes when it was actually megabits), and weren't even aware of the competitor I was switching to when I canceled (Google Fiber Webpass). The most frustrating thing while dealing with this ISP is that they only allow you to cancel by phone, and they do not send a confirmation email or show any notice on their site that the service was canceled. You just have to trust the word of the untrained associate that the service was really canceled. Of course it wasn't, and a month later I was billed again and had to call again to have the additional bill canceled. The associate kept me on the phone for 27 minutes to fix the mistake, and after trying to give feedback on how it would be nice to get an email confirmation they condescendingly said, "There's nothing I can do about that, but sorry for the confusion." I'm not sure what they thought I was confused about as I was the one calling to point out a glitch in their system, but I will never forgive YOUR confusion, RCN. read more

terrible service provider with even worse customer service. their equipment usually doesn't even work and they want $80 just to ship me a replacement cable box when the original provided to me never worked once. Absolute joke of a company read more

I noticed they raised my bill after I switched to a new plan not even six months ago. This is the kind of crap Comcast would pull. Trying to call them for an explanation and all I get a busy signal. It's just mediocre. If you can't get version FiOS or ATT fiber, I recommend that over this chump change of a service. read more

no phone for a week. Cannot talk to a human at there costumer service. I really miss.WoW. I do not see my self staying with this company read more

If you're an internet provider that can't provide internet, why do you exist? Astound Broadband really dropped the ball and screwed the pooch on their WOW transition on Chicagoland. 3 days now without internet service. I hate you. read more

I used to recommend RCN to friends and family as an excellent cable/internet provider, but since their acquisition and rebranding to Astound their customer service has plummeted. I have had a downed/low-hanging cable line across our home for over a month. I first contacted Astound requesting the cable to be fixed five weeks ago; I have followed up three more times since then (via chat and call center). Depending on the customer service representative, I have been told the line would be fixed within 24 hours, within 24-48 hours, or within 7-10 days. Nobody has ever come out to fix the line and I have never received any follow up. Given that Astound does not seem to prioritize compromised cable lines and cannot offer any resolution to my issue, even after multiple follow-up requests, I will no longer recommend them as a service provider. read more

Zero don't use them ! They should be shut down! Scammers! Raised 2 times in a year.Called than lowered for a year. Next bill higher.They said I wasn't approved.So many lies! read more

I've had them before when they were WOW. Now that its Astound by RCN the service and customer service has gone down A LOT. I've been having issues with the internet reliability. Every time I contact customer support they talk over me, take a long time to check a simple task and overall provide bad customer service. Nothing like their pledge listed on their website "When we say we're here for you, we mean it." NO THEY DONT. Over all based on the experience I would NOT recommend Astound read more

Update 9/28 They closed my case saying that there's was no evidence. But they received the pictures but still didn't put that I returned it. This is literally a scam. Months later and I'm still on the hook for your problems. read more

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The customer service is worse than Comcast, which is really saying something. They are dishonest and their customer service is rude. I suggest recording your calls with this company to hold them accountable. read more

Would not recommend. Yes it is cheap but the customer service is horrible. I called to cancel and was told I did NOT need to return the equipment then 2 days prior to moving out they contacted me telling me I had to return the equipment but they did not have a technician available to uninstall the equipment. They said they would waive the fee since they couldn't get someone out in time. I just received a bill that I owe $90 for the equipment that they told me to leave in the unit. I called and was told the fee would be removed since they can not get to the equipment. Now I just called again and was told they NEED to get the equipment otherwise I am still being charged the fee. I sold the condo so I do not have access to it to let them in to return it, and they requested the buyer's contact information + realtor information to try and get it before I could have the fee waived. Total pain in the ass, DO NOT RECOMMEND. NOTE: It was NOT rented equipment, the company installed/drilled it into the wall. I used my own modem. The response from customer service is inaccurate. read more

Let me show you my internet speed test screen shot. We got RCN two years ago because when we moved in, it was the only internet service provider available in our building. We got the most expensive plan since we use a lot of devices and we wanted fast and stable internet connection. It has been a nightmare since then because they constantly breakdown. Not stable, not fast, and their customer service is not helpful when there are problems, which happens a lot. We paid a lot for this terrible experience. But we have no other option so we had to put up with it. Recently, thank god, at&t started to open business in our building. We switched to it immediately, with the same amount of monthly fee we used to pay with RCN, our internet speed just increased for so much! We haven't cancel our RCN yet, because we failed to get ahold of their customer service last time we tried calling. So now we have both providers at home. I did a speed test this morning, at&t download speed was like 300 mbps. RCN: 2 mbps! And we pay more than 50 dollars every month for that. read more

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

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The worst internet service provider so far I have ever experienced. I should have checked reviews here before signing up. If you want to have internet issues every other, please sign up. Just tell me how a reset signal is going to fix internet when you have internet down? It is like flipping light switch when you know there is no power. Absolutely the worse and then they don't even give you credit for down time. I would not recommend them to even my enemies. read more

What a terrible organization. Turned off my service when moving from current apartment instead of waiting for the three weeks as I requested since I was not moving right away. And a terrible time getting it back on read more

I've been with this company for a few years now...the only reason I don't switch is because Xfinity is the only other option in my area, and everyone that has it always has connection issues. The connection with Astound/RCN is generally good...that's about the only good thing. I basically have to contact them monthly because the bill is ALWAYS more expensive than what they quoted me. I live in a 400 square foot apartment and have the most basic service. It is supposed to cost me $53.89 (which is still more than the initial quite but I have learned to deal with it). My statement for March 2022 said $143.83. My statement for April 2022 said $78.21. Every month, I call them or chat online with them, and they almost immediately take off whatever charge it is and give me some answer about how they forgot to apply my promotion or something. Every time I talk to them I ask "Will this be something I have to call in about every month?" They always say no, and yet I ALWAYS have to call the next month. It feels like they do this on purpose hoping that people won't notice, or won't call in to get it fixed. Since I have limited WiFi options, I have to deal with it. Just know that if you sign up with this company, they'll try to take advantage of you and it will be a part time job to call them and adjust your bill. read more

It's a month to month the payments don't look uniform I pay on time each month I don't have a TV bundle package only Internet read more

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I set up service fir Tues 10/17 betwn 12 and 2pm. They did not show. I called at 2:50pm and was told they'd escalate my issue. Then I called at 4:15 and was told they'd escalate it again and I'd get a call in 30 mnts. Several calls later and 8pm. No call back or service guy. At 8:15pm tgey said tomorrow btwn 2 and 4pm. I asked what about my escalation? Now I'm supposed to lose another day. VERY, VERY, VERY Disappointed with them. I'd discontinue service but I live in a high rise so I don't have that option. read more

Astound has some of the worst customer service I have every experienced. No one cares about the customer. All I get is incompetence, rudeness and arrogance. I feel like the people I talk to are actually trying to be bad at customer service. read more

I have contacted Astound numerous times to have service provided to my house and they tell me that it is not available for my house. My entire neighborhood has the service, and my house is the only one not listed for the surrounding 4 blocks. The cable box is in my back yard, my next door neighbor and the person behind me has service, but somehow i cannot get service. They claim to have done a virtual survey, but I find that hard to believe since mine is the only house in the entire subdivision not listed and the cable box that provides service to the neighboring houses is in my back yard. Very poor and disappointing service. read more

Astound cable sent us new updateequipment to self install for internet cable. We started the process and a message popped up on the screen stating something went wrong and to contact Astound. We did. They then told us the new equipment they sent us isn't compatible with their system. So, lets send our customers new equipment to replace the old that doesn't work!! That's a great start. O.K. made an appointment for 2 weeks later for a tech to come in, (earliest we could get in) Put me on hold for 15 minutes then said "Oh that date doesn't work, so let's go with 2 weeks later). Called later to confirm our appointment, said it's the 10th of Oct. not the 4th. Then switched it back to the 4th from 8 am to 8 pm. Home today, the 4th, and thought, o.k. I'll call to confirm we are on. Guess what, no record of today. Agent said we have you down for Dec. 15th. Why would ANYONE make a cable appt for 3 months later. Went back online to chat with a rep and now the date is Nov. Xfinity is coming in 2 days to install cable. Bye bye Astound.... oh and they were going to have the gall to charge us for the visit. read more

sis. I work from home and I have had to work on a hotspot three days in a row. Customer service passes you from one person to another with no resolution to the issue. If you ask them to do something you will have to follow up to make sure it's done. Our rep Mark Williams asked us to send over some information so he could help us out. After not hearing from him I followed up with him. He had explained it was not his problem and he passed it to another department. Turns out nobody in the company was doing anything to resolve this issue. We have had two techs come out to try to resolve the issue. The first tech came and did nothing. The second tech found there was an issue with the hardware in the building and told us that it should be fixed within 48ish hours. A week later I found that nobody came here to fix anything and I had to call to bring a tech here. There are no other options for me so I am stuck with this company for the end of the year. I caution you to never put yourself in a position where you need to use this company for your internet, ESPECIALLY if you work from home. read more

I'm astounded! I'm astounded just how terrible a company can be! My parents are in their 90's and live in a 55+ manufactured home community in Elgin, IL. They had to pay over $200 a month for cable and internet for antiquated equipment and service because Astound refused to separate the two products. They could have had internet through Verizon for just $25 a month and just pay Astound for cable but no...they have to rip off all the elderly people living in the community! And now when my parents are moving into assisted living and turning off their service, Astound is demanding that they return their antiquated boxes, not to a local office, but to a currency exchange 50 miles away on the north side of Chicago or they'll have to pay a huge fee! And this is even when my parents just received notice that Astound is finally replacing their antiquated equipment! Do not use this company! They just keeping raising their rates, even for seniors! read more

STAY AWAY FROM RCN. They lure in you in with low prices then raise your rates constantly. My rate has gone up twice since February because they keep telling me "my promotion expired". This is a scam and the worst most dishonest company I have ever dealt with. I am cancelling my subscription and will NEVER deal with RCN again,plus waiting on the line now for 25 minutes for representative. HORRIBLE read more

Absolutely awful internet provider. I had xfinity at my old apartment and I experienced frequent outages with that. I thought it couldn't get any worse. Then RCN came along. The first three weeks of having the internet installed, the internet went out every few minutes. Literally. It took FOUR technicians on separate days to come and claim they fixed the issue when it was never fixed. Chat service is useless so when your internet goes out they will likely just tell you that you need a technician to come out to troubleshoot. That technician probably has no clue what they are doing. Luckily our building is switching to Xfinity soon because this is truly awful service. read more

RCN is horrible. RCN could be the worst internet and cable service in the City of Chicago. There are several reasons why you should not elect to purchase RCN service, they include RCN's high pricing, their terrible customer service and their general non-responsiveness. Let's start with customer service. To said it nicely, their customer service is horrible. Their representatives are not informed about pricing, services offered or their equipment. When you are able to get thru to a representative (if you do), they do not have an understanding of the packages offered and attempt to upsell you. Next, let's discuss pricing. RCN's pricing (which you receive after you have become a loyal customer) is very high. For cable and internet with HBO my monthly bill is $266. This is riddiculous. Don't be fooled by the introductory offers. RCN charges you for equipment that if you purchased it from them costs a fraction of the price that they charge on a monthly basis. RCN, then increases the monthly charge on your 'renting' of the equipment. If you keep their service for more than one year, you have likely paid 2X or more what the actual equipment costs. I have used RCN for a number of years and they do not seem to value their customers. If you read all of the bad reviews you will see that you could do better with another cable company. read more

They purchased WOW and gave nice warning emails and to me, it seemed like things would improve, as WOW could be a bit sketchy (website and billing). Once the day came when the transition happened for me (early May) I lost my internet. I had to set up Twitter to get them to communciate. I wasn't alone and it is and has been a disaster for RCN and thousands of it midwest customers. I finally, after being told by several "customer service" people to unplug my modem and wait 60 secs..I connected my laptop to the modem via ethernet and "wala" it worked...well I need wireless to run my house and tv's...so I went and purchase a new $220 NetGear router. It made the connection and I cancelled my appointment for May 21 for serviceman... Now my picture watching sports and general TV is terrible...grainy, out of focus and then back in when the movement stops...I have an LG OLED CX tv and even recalibrated. It's not my equipment...it's RCN! I Twittered them to see what they say...more to come. read more

The quality of the service is terrible it takes multiple visits to fix even the most minor problem. On several occasions the technicians have said "this is the best it can get". They are late to get to appointments and the last time they made the problems worse saying you have to get a special box and they don't have any right now. Save yourself don't buy this companies representation that their customers are happy. read more

Run away from this business as fast as you can. My medical office has been without internet or phone service for 6 days and it is impossible to reach anybody at Astound. Today I finally talked to a human and SHE was having technical difficulties and could only tell me to call back. Of course, calling back just got busy signals or being put on hold indefinitely. For a technical business, they are beset with technical problems and can't even manage their own phones. They brag about 24/7 service - service to who or for what is what I am trying to figure out because it sure hasn't been there for my business. Astound is ASTOUNDINGLY bad. read more

I've learned not to complain about their shoddy internet service, which is all I pay for anyway. I'm paying for their 1000mbps deal for 39.99 and I'm paying extra for a shoddy router that I plan on returning once I get to buying myself a new one. Despite the fact that I'm paying that much money for that much power, I'm probably better off either Changing my plan to something cheaper or finding an isp with REAL professionals and hopefully with customer service representatives that DON'T INTERRUPT YOU MID SENTENCE. My internet is most definitely NOT 1000mbps any and all speed testers I found determined that much. So yeah, plenty of internet throttling and rude CS. That's about it for me. Long story short I'm paying my hard earned money for a false advertisement and I'm planning on switching. Also their customer service representatives are rude in the sense that they will interrupt you even when you are giving them information. read more

This is by far the worst broadband experience I have ever had. TV signal constantly stops working, internet is unreliable. I even paid extra to have Eero installed for an extra MRC which did nothing. I was finally told by a customer service rep they know this service is awful and I'll just have to live with it. AND if you request a tech visit and faulty equipment or service issues are found due to the providers fault they still charge you $75 for the visit. Avoid this service at all costs. read more

I'd heard good things about RCN and I absolutely hate Xfinity, so I was happy to switch when I moved into the RCN service area. The price and speed are good, but the customer experience has been remarkably bad literally every step of the way. I hope they'll improve these things since they're all simple fixes. 1) When you're signing up for their internet, there's no self install option. Having someone install it costs like $70 but NOTHING about this cost showed up anywhere until after I had already placed the order. That's misleading for customers and seems like the type of thing that would violate FTC laws. 2) I was asked to pay a $50 deposit before they could do an install. It said I had to call a customer service number to make the payment, so I did, but the person on the phone couldn't take payment over the phone. She sent a payment link which didn't work. I called again and got a nice lady who waived that fee, but I was pulling my hair out just trying to make this stupid payment. 3) After the internet was installed, I got another automated email with my first bill. I tried to use the payment link but it didn't work--for me to create an account, it wanted a PIN from my bill statement which did not exist. I talked to customer service who said they would email me my PIN. Never received anything. Had to talk to customer service again and they said there was nothing they could do. These are all just simple things that someone at the company should be quality checking for. It shouldn't be so difficult for customers to create accounts and give you money! read more

Service is great. Only use the internet cause I stream Netflix and Hulu. Based on market research, it's much cheaper than Comcast and Dish. Billing and customer service is comparable to competitors. Bill pay is simple and you can set up automatic bill pay. read more