The best thing about my RCN experience was the day that I returned their equipment.
I moved into a condo and found out that RCN had a monopoly on the building; they were the only cable/internet provider available to service our community.
I don't know why they would set themselves up for failure like that..
My experience with RCN was disastrous from the beginning. The installation went well, but not long after the technician left, I started having issues with the equipment. After several months, many calls to RCN, exceedingly long wait times (even before covid), lots of late night troubleshooting, a couple of bill credits, another technician visit, and some equipment swaps.... I was still having the same issues. Internet that was slow and would often go out without warning (so much fun when you're working from home and on a tight deadline!). Cable boxes that selectively interacted with their corresponding remotes. Only being able to use the voice remote function if you have a certain DVR capacity. Oh, and the pricing. So much more expensive than their competitors, but for far less programming. I had one step above the basic package (I'm a nerd, so I pretty much watch only the educational channels), not to mention the spotty internet, and was paying almost $200 a month... in a 1- bedroom condo, five devices at most. Before I moved into the condo and found out about the monopoly, I had negotiated a package with another major internet provider that was going to give me 500 to 600 more channels and faster internet, for much less than RCN's introductory rate. Boy, was I pissed when I found out that I couldn't take advantage of that!
Couple all this with the fact it seemed like every 2-3 months, the price of my bill went up. It was impossible to keep up with the cost increases. Meanwhile, the service never got any better.
Also, paying the bill was such a hassle. They tack on extra fees if you use one payment method versus another and sometimes their payment methods were unreliable. I was on business travel and tried to pay my bill using the app (I wouldn't dare enroll in auto pay with this company!). The app was down and they tried to charge me the additional service fee for paying by phone. I ended up disputing charge with the customer service agent and she finally agreed to waive the payment fee all together since the app was down. That was the entire reason I was calling. Why take me through the hassle?!
My experiences with the call agents have been the most exciting part of this ordeal. If you call RCN three times you're going to hear five different things. I had one call center agent tell me flat out that if I decided to discontinue my cable service and go internet only, that they were going to 'jack my internet rates sky high' because "we know you're streaming TV programming... You've got to get it from somewhere". She also told me that the my bill had gone up because RCN "uses other companies' cable infrastructure and the price of using that infrastructure is going up, so we're passing that cost on to the customer". I spoke to another call center agent a few months after that, when my bill increased yet again, and he said "that's not the case at all; I didn't know why the call center agent would say that". I don't know who to believe anymore, but all I know is that this is no longer my problem.
I'm convinced that the only people that have RCN services are the people that are forced to. There is no way, with all the other options out there, that someone in their right mind would seriously consider doing any kind of business with this company. read more
