I typically don't give bad reviews but I've got to say RCN dropped the ball BADLY with my recent move. Let's start out with the fact that it took 5 HOURS for the service technician to hook up my internet and phone at my new condo. Why? Because the guy forgot to bring the equipment with him! He forgot: - the TiVo box - the 5-G wireless modem - the digital cable boxes By the time he arrived, left to go back and get the equipment, and then drove back and spent time install ingrained, 5 hours had elapsed. RIDICULOUS! Plus, when he did come back with the equipment, he gave me a USED TiVo box and modem and two remotes ...one of which doesn't go with the digital converter. Tips for consumers: when you book your appointment over the phone for an installation, write down EVERY piece of equipment to be installed. Tell them you want NEW equipment only and nothing refurbished Then...on the day of the install, wait for the call from your tech to advise he/she is on the way. Right then and there, verify each piece of equipment and DON'T let them off the phone until they do this. In my case, I called a supervisor at RCN and demanded new tech come to my place the next day to swap out the crappy, used sh... the original tech installed. Photo of new modem attached. RCN you guys really need to get your act together. Five freaking hours to put in a modem and TiVo? Really?!!! read more

Astound - Chicago - 5-G Modem for wireless (new) - Internet Service Providers Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Horrible experience with a customer service. They took over the company from wow cable, increase 20 dollars just like that. When called six months ago twice they reduced our bill line got disconnected by them after they processed the bill reduced and they never called back so it's ... Just a slimy way to say yes we reduced your bill will disconnect the line so nothing change. We are on auto pay so now I called again they said their pay discount is different than from 6 months ago. Really. They would reduce my bill 12 dollars down. I said thank you I'm looking for a different company. Susnjar family IL read more

I wish I could give less than one star. I moved in 5 weeks ago and still have no internet set up in my apartment. When I've contacted customer support they say there is nothing they can do and techs keep being scheduled and not showing up. Absolutely avoid services through this company at all costs! read more

We have been paying for on demand since it was WoW. 2 years. We finally called because none of our channels are getting signal with message click ok for HD. Plays music. He says yep it's true you paid and won't get money back. Lawsuit anyone? He said they were going to notify customers later this year to upgrade equipment. read more

They installed the Eero extender in my studio apartment without my consent, and then charged me $10 a month for it, saying the only way I could get the fees waived was to go to their office and return the equipment I was told by the technician he "had to install". Then, I had signed up for paperless billing over the phone, and the representative must have input my email incorrectly or my account was hacked because the email on my account did not belong to me. However, because I had already switched to paperless billing, I was not aware that autopay wasn't on because I wasn't getting bills. Because I wasn't getting bills, I couldn't access my account because I did not have the pin number, but they could still send me notices of termination of service that didn't include my pin number on them for some reason...? I ended up having to go to the office to show them my ID and return the equipment, pay $50 in late fees, and pay $10 for the Eero that I never agreed to have installed. I feel like I was scammed, and am looking into other service providers. read more

Charged unnecessary fees and customer service was not helpful. Actual internet was fine but they additional charges at the end left me with a bad taste in my mouth. read more

this company will continue to charge you even after you've canceled the service. So unprofessional stay far away from this company.

7/26/2024 After many years with WOW cable now ASTOUND cable. I cancelled my cable service because of the excess price for basic cable (approximately 75 channels - mostly local channels). The cost was almost $260.00. I didn't have Internet with Astound but an advertisement came to my home stating that Internet up to 300 Mbps was $20.00 per month put when I inquired about that price, I didn't qualify. I didn't qualify because I had an account already. I told them I was canceling cable but I wanted to have Internet with Astound. I cancelled cable BUT I was going to purchase Internet service. Be aware of brochures that offer discounts if you switch services -- there are many loopholes. read more

The worst internet company I ever have I've been waiting for more than 8 months to bury the cable underground absolutely not recommended at all. Call customer service every time I call they open a new case and nothing has been resolved. read more

Their referral program doesn't work. I referred two friends since April 2024. Their reps kept promising that I'll be contacted within 48 hours. They never contacted. My issue is never resolved. I've never got their referral bonus. read more

Buffering was one big problem. Especially on the weekends. The price kept going up. The customer service isn't the best and not helpful.

Scammers.....DO NOT fall for it.... Promises not kept: 1. Gigabit internet speed - Poor and inconsistent speeds. After multiple complaints, they sent out a technician who just told me that my modem (my own which is capable of up to 2GBPS) is not compatible with their service. (I had given the sales guy the model and the only thing he checked was if it is DDOS3.1 which it was). I was asked to change the modem. I spent $400 to buy a new multi-GIG modem which did not change anything. After spending hours with tech support on the phone just to get it activated (because they just dont know what they are doing) there was no change in the speed. They sent another technician and basically said that there is nothing they can do about it and thats the best I can get. and end of it all, I was charged $55 for a technician visit. (which is almost the same monthly charge for the service at $60 for not getting my issue fixed and me having to spend $400 for nothing) 2. Reimburse the early termination fee of my previous contract - The sales guy gave me a visiting card with the phone and email address of a person to call (it is a gmail email address not even RCN) to get the contract termination reimbursed. After a week of calling, voice messages and emails with no response, I did hear back and was told that the lady lost her phone which is why she couldnt get back. I sent the final bill from the previous service provider and then no response from then on. Cannot reach the sales agent because, he wouldn't answer the phone. Cannot reach the customer care, because the call just drops after 15-20 minutes of hold music. Got a hold of someone who just disconnected the call. Cannot reach the person for reimbursement. Cannot even reach anyone to cancel the service. Worst service ever. read more

This is the WORST internet service EVER! Of course it's cheap therefore you get what you pay for. I've had nothing but so called outages per their reps. I had a driver come out and supposedly went on the pole to change out the connections. He promised me that I'll never have issues but YEAH RIGHT! I work from home so this is affecting my productivity and they have the nerves to credit you daily which is only a few cents. I'm LIVID! read more

RCN gave me a cheap refurbished modem when I first signed up for their service as part of a bulk deal of my condo association. After a few months the modem degraded to the point that I was getting dozens of internet service disruption everyday, each lasting 5 to 10 minutes. I finally had enough and contacted RCN and asked them to fix the service. I had to reshuffle my day so that I could stay at home for the service appointment. After first sending out a tech who was clueless about what was going on, the second supervisor tech came and replaced the defective modem with another cheap one (probably refurbished as well). The problem was solved for now, but they had the audacity to send me a bill for the service visit, which resulted from the cheap modem they gave me. I was already VERY unhappy about weeks of terrible internet service I received before the bill, and now I am furious. When the contract of our condo with RCN expires in about one year, I will do everything I can to make sure that we find another better internet service provider. I hope RCN find it to be worth it to piss off their customers so badly for a few extra bucks. If you want an ISP that would give you cheap device and then charge you extra for the problems caused by such cheap devices, RCN is your guy. Otherwise please don't bother. read more

Some company's outstanding customer service makes you want to take the time and review. Called Astound this morning around 9.30 because we've been having a glitchy internet connection for sometime. Got connected to a representative within 4 minutes, and was scheduled for a technician to come out the next day before the call reached 10 minute mark. It doesn't end here, received a follow-up call within 5 minutes and was told that there's a tech available to come out in the next 2 hours. Bravo! The tech arrived on time, solved our issue and left. Thanks for amazing customer service that other service providers fail to do. Also, your prices and internet speed is great. read more

I was an RCN customer for about 28 years, back to the days when they were 21st Century in Chicago. We recently bought a new home about 2 miles away, and unfortunately RCN did not service this location. So I called RCN to cancel services. Unfortunately, they canceled my email services a day early, and a LOT of valuable information was lost. Also, I was never informed by the agent that I could continue my email services for $3 per month. Finally, they also screwed up the porting of my telephone number that we had had for those 28 years. Way to go RCN! You really f***ed this up. read more

About as bad as it gets. CSR rep hung up on me, they lie, and charged me $103.00/month after being with them for 9 years. This company is the biggest pile of crap in the city of Chicago. Well done, schmucks! Where do you hire your CSR reps? Cook County Jail? read more

False advertising, incompetent staff, unexplained price hikes, do not trust this company! Go with literally any other service!

My experience with RCN, in terms of internet service, pretty good so far. Haven't experience any unstable connectivity or lags, even tho my modem is not the right fit for the speed I got. Connection is stable so far. I got the 1 gig speed but couldn't find a modem router combo that supports it and even with the 250 mb it's pretty fast and honestly can't really think of a situation where I need 1000 gig, since im not a stand up comedian who's going on a road show. *ba dum tssssss lol Customer service wise, it's either super good, or SUPER BAD. I've spoken to good reps who is humorous, and helpful. Works fast and make sure everything is good before they hang up the phone. Or even today when I called my rep looked through all deals and suggested that it won't be worth it if I downgrade to 250mbps since I won't be saving much money which I really appreciate. She even gave me the calculations and run down of the bill. The bad times: When I first called to try to set up it took me 5 hours to get connected to anyone. The lady was rude, keeps cutting me off. I've had one experience speaking with a supervisor who seems really out of the loop and called summer the least busy time of the year. and said that RCN only hire Americans--because reps from other country don't speak english well--so they are a bit short staffed. I mean I get where he's coming from but there are some native english speakers who can't differentiate "than" from "then". So perhaps just a better hiring process would help get the right people and not text supports who try to insult me by calling me ma'am. Or tech supports who sounds tipsy on the phone and hangs up on the issues they don't know how to handle such as updating a mac address for modem. Anyway, overall, if you experienced 1 bad rep, I suggest call again. because usually the next one is going to be really good lol almost like a petty system. So far, they are a little better than the x company for me, price wise, stability wise, speed wise. I would recommend it. You might encounter some initial struggles but once your internet is set up, you should be good to go. I've only had it for a week but that's my experience so far. Hope it stays stable. read more

On 10/10/2024 I ended my account with RCN by phone and was told RCN policy is they no longer due pro-rated bills. I informed the customer service agent that the new billing cycle started on 10/1/2024 and I'm ending my service on 10/10/24 but you expect me to pay for services I'm not using until 10/292024. On 10/11/2024 I got an email from one of the account specialists who offered to lower my bill in an attempt to get me to stay with them. I informed her they should have done that in August when I first reached out about the price of my bill and not wait until someone leaves. I then asked her about the bill and she stated I would get a new bill once the modem was returned to RCN. The modem was returned on 10/16/24 and a few days later I tried reaching out to Deanna (the person who emailed me) but my email was ignored twice. I got tired of waiting for a new bill and paid $32.66 which is what I got after using a pro-rated calculator. A couple days later I got a bill from RCN for $78 due the end of Nov., so I called RCN. I asked what this was for, and I was told it was the remaining balance of my bill. I then informed the agent it was no way I would ever pay that: I'm not giving rcn $78 for a service I didn't use no matter what the terms are. She tried telling me the bill is actually for the previous month of service but that does not reflect the days of service on the bill and besides I've now been told 3 different things. RCN ignored communication from the BBB and the NJ division of consumer affairs but decided they should respond to the FTC. Last week someone from rcn called me acting like he was in a scene from Goodfellas, and I told him they can send this bill to every collection agency in the US and rcn will never see a dime of that $78. T-Mobile is a flat $50 per month and no hidden fees or price changes without notice. read more

If you have any other choice , do yourself a huge favor and dont use RCN. Unless you like 30 - 45 minute hold times and completely incompetent service people from the operators to the installers. you know how the survey says from 0 to 10 how likely are you to refer a friend to RCN? I wish there was a score lower than 0. Ive been on hold over 30 for three times this week and still do not have my problem resolved. read more

We have had Astound for about five months now and so far so good. Switched from Xfinity and cut our internet bill in half. No outages, no throttle issues, it just runs and runs. We were initially concerned due to all the negative comments but our experience with Astound has been very positive. read more

Had poor service for 4 days. They charged an activation fee and taxes for a month and refuse to give me any money back over $60 wasted

worst internet company ever. they said it was going to be 64 dls with fees and everything and now they want to charge 189 a king plus 9 dls fees so 199 a month. don't know how to PM YOU if you can send me one I'll reply to you read more

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

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

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

Horrible!! Service has been out for seven hours on a mild, warm day with no storms. Is it really 2024? This is the fourth time in three months their service is messed up in Chicago. At least it's free in the building, lol... read more

To owner...As mentioned wrote each time received & no change. Does each person have to leave negative to get off list? Just threw out 2 today without requesting removal as it is an exercise in futility. They refuse to stop large shiny colored card junk mail that can't be recycled TWICE a week! Ask every single time, just changed to occupant. Why would anyone leave Comcast Xfinity & cheap deals, super fast service for this poorly run company. Joined petition to Attny General to help stop unwanted, sometimes no address, blanket junk mail without a firm default opt out. Sometimes as many as 15 pcs a day from various unwanted places with no connection or past request. Few say opt out or cancel but ignore or change to occupant. 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

Horrible service.5 techs came to my unit & fmdud not I now how to connect Fiber.Internet constantly goes out.Erro has magnet In it.Go within 6 inches cardio nurse called me would damage my pacemaker.Stupid techs not know.Use compast.No PC now, TV & Alexa internet broke lost in 2 weeks. 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

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

Stay away. I cancelled service because they doubled my rate with no prior notice. I asked for a fed ex return label. I was bombarded with "don't go" letters and no fed ex label. After 3 phone calls and no label, I saw the email with the label come up on my phone. Before I could print the label, it was immediately deleted and replaced by another "don't go" letter. I finally got someone from Astound to send the label while I waited on the phone and downloaded it immediately before it could be deleted again. Unbelievable. read more

If possible do not use this Company,,, It's not the people and service technicians, It's the Company itself.... Non Functional.... Every day there is a problem, yes, every day.... Hesitations, one or all services shut down. Live in a building where all have to use them and they even supposedly upgraded the entire system,,, Actually worse now... RCN before was Awesome compared to this company... Drops phone calls, drops internet, shuts down the TV.... Ongoing problems... Re Booting all the time.... So Frustrating.....Just not acceptable.... RH, Chicago read more

Please do yourself a favor & STAY AWAY from this joke of a company. Absolute horrible wifi service! Constantly shuts down. Every single time you call customer service, it's the same exact script; "there's an outage in the area". Bright sunny day, no storms, no wind, yet there's always "an outage in the area". I truly cannot believe these people are still in business. And what's worse, is every time they send a tech out, there's no consistency with what they say or do. Every single tech does something different, it's like they have not been trained at all. So much more I can say, but I think you get the gist of it. Please save yourself the aggravation & time lost and stay far away from Astound broadband. read more

If I could give them a zero, I would. I had great service when I lived in Andersonville, but since moving to Rogers Park, the service is 'Astound'- ingly BAD. I have had a technician out to my apartment 5 TIMES. Each time, they said it was a different thing. The internet would work for a while - sometimes hours, sometimes days - but it would always go out again. My landlord who lives in the building had them out 7 TIMES and told them the problem was at the pole, but they couldn't seem to fix it. They charged me the $79.95 fee the third time, and credited me when I called to contest it. They charged me again the fourth time - after the tech literally told me the problem was at the pole and not something in my control. They refused to credit me this last time. So now they are saying that they 'can't' credit it. So if you want to pay $80 for them to come out and fix or not fix something not in your control - have at it. They suck so bad. I though Concast was the devil, but Astound/RCN whatever you are calling yourselves - you have replaced Concast in Hell. They also raise my rates a ridiculous amount. I wish there were other options. I hate them with a fiery passion. 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

wack Azz service, How Tf it's still a outage on the internet... Do ya damn job and fix this shit. itz been damn near a week .. i better get free service next month.. its people that work at home , and take online classes . And then you cant even speak to a representative , not a good look for Rcn read more