If there's one thing consistent about RCN's it's that they're consistently behind schedule. I scheduled an appointment at an apartment on Park Drive to install a modem, and when they were twenty minutes behind the 2 hour window, I called and they promised that no doubt, he would arrive soon, that he was just running a little behind schedule. 2 and a half hours later, the tech's still a no show. If I can't get a hold of them, it's Xfinity all the way from here on out. RCN be damned. read more

When we first had RCN installed, the installer (a) unplugged our central a/c unit, which we did not realize until paying an HVAC guy to "fix" it and (b) plugged us into the apartment below's internet, which we only realized after the occupant left RCN for Comcast. But how is the quality, now that you're hooked up to the internet you're paying for? Terrible. I'm definitely getting billed for 50 mbps download speed and I'm definitely only getting 1.5 mbps download speed. On a wired connection, at that. read more

After years with FIOS, I'm back to RCN. And the first six weeks proves what I thought would be true. 1) DIRECT CONTACT - Having a territory manager (in my case, Bill Hewitt.) that I can call or email is a far better model than the "bigs" in the cable/internet business. I don't need to wade thru a seemingly complex web site to figure out what I want, or don't want. I get near instantaneous response with someone who knows his business and talks to me. Quickly working things out is too mild a phrase - I love this. He is good at what he does, has been on the job for years, and seems to have good management support. RCN, KEEP THIS MODEL OF BUSINESS.... AND KEEP BILL H. HAPPY! 2) SERVICE - Having service people, both on the phone and coming to my front door, who know their business, who smile and respond to a humorous comment, and who explain and answer my questions at a level that I can understand is outstanding. I get the feeling that they're trying to solve my problem and the calls-taken-per-hour is not the first priority. And I know that management must be supporting, training, and demanding good service from the front-line folks. So hats off to management too. 3) PRICE - Did I mention that I had a few years of fiber-optic type service and that the costs kept creeping up to somewhat ridiculous prices. Now we all know we can call up and threaten to change and the cable company will make some concessions. But, even with losing a customer staring them in the face, the fiber-optic folks still were 30% higher than good old RCN. 4) TIVO - And sakes alive, do I like TIVO . Like any clicker and STB technology, it takes a while to get all the ins-and-outs and highways and byways. But it's far more intuitive than some of the other bigs. Great addition to the other RCN qualities. I'm glad RCN is in my community - keeps the market paying attention. And RCN seems bent on keeping me happy. read more

I was highly encouraged to get RCN because I wanted to stay away from Xfinity because they are a massive company... you know help out the little guy. Massive mistake. When I went to change my bundle package and re-re-re-confirmed with their customer service agent that this will not effect my pricing, she said "it should be $10 less a month." 2 months later, I receive a bill for 3x original price for less services. After explaining what happened, there was simply a "sorry but there's nothing we can do about it". Extremely disappointed with them. If you have other options, stay away from RCN. read more

Beware. They advertise '12 month pricing. No contract required'. However, since there is 'no contract required' the 12 month pricing is not true. For 5 months I was paying the same amount they told me I would be paying each month. Then, month 6 came around and my bill was an additional $5 and change more. When I called RCN to inquire what this extra charge was about they told me on my last bill there was a note that said fees would be adjusted the next month. This note was on the very last page of my statement. When I brought the '12 month pricing' up to the RCN agent on the phone he continued to deny this stating they do not have contracts. Lesson learned: don't believe RCN's advertising tactics. After I continued to stress this '12 month pricing' to the RCN agent he put me on a brief hold. When he came back he said he could add 'discounts' to my equipment to bring the price down to the original cost. This only occurred after much begging to the agent about the price I should be paying. It was a very stressful phone call. I am appreciative of the agent bringing my price back to the correct one, but it shouldn't have even happened in the first place. read more

We were promised a $50 Visa gift card if we signed up and referred a friend. I have been trying since February 2020 to get this gift card. I have called every two weeks and everyone promises me to have it sent. But it never has come. I can't wait for my two year contract to be over with. Frustrated. read more

I used to consider RCN a five star company, but in the last few months, I have had constant disconnects and my speed of 170mbps going to 0 - 3mbps. Resetting my computer or router would not fix the issue. It was all on RCN's end. I had games become unplayable where I had to quit and give up for the night, and I have had issues with working from home. They are just not the reliable good company they once were for whatever reason and I would shop around for a new provider. read more

RCN IS A JOKE AND SLIMMY As a loyal customer with RCN since Oct 2012 and allowing them to raise prices every year with no end in sight for basically the same package is ridicules. RCN is no different than other service providers and they don't know when they got it made. Last bill was raised again what they claim was yearly renew when the price agreed at Oct 2018 was $86.51 and Dec 2018 bill jumped to $95.60 stating I am at end of my first-year agreement. THAT's BOLONEY!!! RCN customer service will do the sing and dance routine just like other companies and stay how much they appreciate your loyalty (THAT FAKE), tell you how much they feel for you and give you comforting words (THAT FAKE and NOT SINCERE), tell you that is the best deal (THAT FAKE) when new comers can get packages as low as $39.99 and tell you how sorry they are that you are not happy with RCN and there is nothing they can do (THAT FAKE). Time to shove RCN over the cliff as loyalty don't mean crap to RCN If you had RCN for couple years, it's time to drop them as they are no longer competitive. Time to say GOODBYE RCN!!! read more

Oh, yeah, ComCast here I come Internet service is so-so. You wont get what you were promissed. In additional, if ComCast or Verizon value their customers who stayde for a long run, rcn DOES NOT. Other companys will give you some discounts for being long term customer (for example, Verizon decreased my bill in more than half for bieng with them over 4 years), but rcn will actualy throw extra $10 or more on the top of your mo bill. Like it was said above and below. I started in Jan 2014 with just $49.99, now it is Feb 2016 and my rcn bill is $69.99. So? by the year of 2019 I'll be paying $100. For the same service that ppl pay when they just get rcn. Really? My last month with rcn read more

There is a reason cable is on its way out. Thank RCN for keeping up the Blockbuster Video business model going strong. Thanks for your contribution to the community, RCN. You're the best! read more

I'm at my wits end with RCN. I agreed to a 2 year contract with them. Sales date, June 17, 2019. Install date, June 19, 2019. I ended my service with them on June 19, 2021. Now I get charged $600 for early termination fee???!! I don't know.. Maybe I'm in an alternate world where June 17, 2019 to June 19, 2021 isn't 2 years! Even when I'm done with RCN it seems they still want to aggravate me. According to the last bill I got, I should be receiving about $250 back, not owing them a dime. I've contacted the billing department 3 times in the last week. All the agents I spoke with must be really tired or just they don't want to be bothered because the whole time they yawn out loud while I'm trying to get my issue resolved. Very professional. When I ask to speak to a supervisor or a manager, they refuse to connect me. They tell me they need a reason to connect me?!! The reason is I've been charged an early termination fee when I haven't stopped my service early and you are not resolving my issue so put me on the phone with someone who will. 3 times, the agent told me I'd receive a call from RCN from a higher up to resolve my issue. 3 times I've received no such call. I have my contract which shows the dates and that it is a 2 year agreement. This seems so black and white that I have no idea why there is an issue. I'm completely baffled by this as well as aggravated by it. Is there really a reason to contact a lawyer for something that should be so simple? Or maybe contact a news outlet to air this needless headache I am getting from this company? I want answers and resolutions and I'm getting none from RCN. read more

I feel like there should be a different scale for cable companies, i.e., a 3-star "regular" company is a four-star cable company. The folks at RCN are quite pleasant and the phone reps almost always know what they're doing. They are also "real people," i.e., they'll happily chat with you while they are helping you. Pricing is, well, pricing. Cable pricing is never cheap. Theirs seems to be in line. We definitely have more problems that one would expect, but part of the problem could be that we live in an old house. Overall, I'd recommend them to a friend. read more

100% THE WORST internet service and customer service I have ever had in my life. Stay far away. If you miss your payment by one day they get up your ass about how you now owe two bill amounts at the same f**king time. I have to call every single month about this crap and I ran out of patience months ago. Every time I ask to speak to a supervisor none is there. A representative gave me a fake number for a supervisor. I stupidly hung up our call to make this one and then had to call back and wait on hold again. Who does that. When I called back again and asked to speak to a super they told me supers went home at 6 so ?????? Now the actual internet is god awful. I'm supposed to have two lines, a faster line for new devices and one line for older devices. The fast line is non existent 90% of the time which means every single device in the house is on one line and then the shit service gets even shittier. I am moving and there's no way in hell I'm keeping RCN so I called and cancelled my service for the end of this month. I go online to pay my bill and once again I had TWO FULL MONTHS of bills even though this is my last month of service and its prepay so I shouldn't even have one month. Everyone who works at this company has a gigantic stick up their a**hole. Would have cut service forever ago but since I knew I was moving I figured it would be more trouble to get new service installed in between. Should have done that and saved myself the pain and suffering that is this garbage dump of a company. read more

I'm here to tell you a story about RCN. I formerly lived in an area where Comcast was the only real ISP option, and I was thrilled to come to Boston to find a (somewhat sorta) local alternative to the big giant. RCN, the underdog. Turns out, RCN is just a plain dog. Now, it's important to note that on-paper, RCN isn't a bad deal. While they can't seem to hire a friendly individual to man any one of many phones and front desks, they've hired some very friendly salespeople that come to my neighborhood every September. And to be completely honest, every time they come, they wind up getting me more speed for less money. I'm up to 115mbps. It almost defies logic, but their corporate structure is messed up enough that I've probably been personally counted 3 times over as a new customer. Glad to be gettin' those totals up, RCN. If I'm not using the internet at peak times, I even tend to GET a fair share of those 115. Damn. But the thing is, the internet these days is like electricity - except RCN gets a lot more leeway than National Grid. Full disclosure: I'm an internet professional that runs all my business online. But even if I was not, the Internet is a necessity now. I get paid on the internet. I pay all of my bills online. I pay rent online, I shop online. My bank statements, my credit card statements, it's all online. I haven't even seen a paper check since I tried to steal them as a teenager. So, as you can probably guess, reliability trumps performance in this arena. As far as reliability, RCN is being outdone by your local 15-year-old weed dealer. I have experienced a comical number of outages in my 3 years with RCN - I'm writing this from a coffee shop as I experience my 10th outage. Now, I'm gonna be fair here - I'm not sure if that's fully RCN's fault. At my prior places of residence, I lived out in the country where no one messed with the grid just for funsies. In Boston, I've got Verizon+RCN+Comcast+some other idiots basically just messing with the cables all day every day just because that's what gets them off. I cower in fear when any sort of utility vehicle parks near my house, knowing that it's presence could upset the delicate ecosystem that allows my internet connection to live. So, given the fact that the equipment itself is in poor repair, I might have been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt - if any one of their representatives actually sounded like they gave one shred of one shit about the issues. Every time I call with an outage, I get told that a truck will show up in four days if I can be home between the hours of 9am and 5pm. Imagine that your power went out, and you called in and were told that by derailing your already derailed schedule, you could hopefully be back up in a few days? You'd be calling the regulatory commission because, you know, there are *regulators* for that! There are laws! Well, the reality is that the internet is becoming a necessity just like electricity, heat, and phone service...it's just that no one has told the cable companies this yet. My god man, could you maybe skim a few pennies off the fees I pay you to get another couple of technicians out on the road? You clearly don't train them, so you shouldn't have to pay them too much, right? I mean, I'd like same day service, but I'd settle for friendly next-day service. A luxury that we're paying for, just one that we can't afford. I don't think that this review is a useful piece at all. What are you deciding between, this and Comcast? It doesn't matter, really. In the long run, though, I hope that either (a) a cable company with manners and an elementary-level education rises from the ashes or (b) the many tiers of American government start treating these shitbags more like a utilities (note: said utilities are still incredibly lucrative businesses). Dare to dream? Sucks to suck. read more

Don't fall for the 3 year rate guarantee. It does not include taxes and fees, which, contrary to what you would think, are not just taxes and fees imposed by the government. Apparently, they can add a fee at will whenever they feel like charging more. I've been a customer for only 5 months and my bill has just gone up 10% due to the "broadcast TV surcharge." When I contacted RCN, they claimed that it was a "tax." However, this is their statement from their own literature on the subject: "This surcharge is not imposed by the government. This is separate from cable television franchise fees and taxes incurred by local, state, and federal governments.It is a measure taken by RCN to recover a portion of the dramatically increasing costs for local broadcast TV programming." (Source: https://www.rcn.com/images/pdfs/broadcast_tv_surcharge_faqs.pdf) What about that description makes this NOT a raise in their price? When I pointed out to customer service that a tax was something levied by the government, not a "measure taken" by a business to increase their revenue, they conceded that it was not a tax, but that they did not have to count it as a rate hike because it was on a separate line on the bill. In the wise words of Vivian in Pretty Woman, "that's just geography." In my opinion, this counts as a scam. Just because they place the amount on a separate line on the bill does not make it NOT a rate hike. This is NOT any kind of tax raise. Their 3 year price guarantee did not have a special clause saying "unless our costs increase." In fact, I SPECIFICALLY asked the rep, when I was signing up, what my total payment would be, including taxes and fees, and confirmed with her that that was my price for the year, and that for each additional year, I would have an increase of $5. This raise is outside of those guidelines, and therefore a violation of the agreement. In order to get people to sign up, they make promises of low and steady prices, and hope you fall for/don't notice the fact that they are adding charges in the "tax" line later when they find they can not make a large enough profit on the price that they have promised you. And to top it off, in the time I've been a customer, I've experienced 2 12+ hour outages (not during a snowstorm or something like that). I've also had a number of other bad experiences with their customer service, but this review is getting too long as it is. Bad service + dishonest and unethical business practices = 1 star rating for RCN. read more

SHAME ON YOU RCN FOR PROVIDING THE WORST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE EVER!!! RCN is unbelievable at how badly it provides customer service! When we were moving out of Chicago, we called RCN three times to provide us a return shipping label to ship the equipment back. RCN never provided the label and told us to return the equipment to Massachusetts which's where we were moving to. We returned the equipment to a RCN center as we were told to. We called RCN to let them know about the return and they promised us that they wouldn't charge us. Guess what? 2 weeks later, they charged us a whooping $660!!! When we called them, they explained that they couldn't find the equipment and the RCN center doesn't have any phone number that we or RCN could call to verify the return. We went to the RCN center to talk to the same woman that accepted our return. She blamed it all on us and dismissed us on the spot without wanting to help. We called RCN about 10 times regarding the issue, and they did nothing but to open one ticket after another that could never be tracked in a follow up call. Way to go RCN for treating your customers like dirt!!! Your business process is broken; your people are incompetent; and you scam your customers! No wonder you are one of the most hated companies in America. I can see your company go down in no time!!! SHAME ON YOU!!! read more

When my fiancé and I bought our first home last year we shopped around for different options for tv/internet and phone bundles. When we found out rcn was available in our area we were pleased to learn that their bundle had the most channels, at the lowest price and that the rate was locked in for 3 years with no contract as apposed to the other service companies we spoke with. At first I was told with tax my price would be 123 per month come to find out that was not true and with tax it was actually 145, but I stayed with them because it still was a better deal than other companies. Now it's 13 months later and my bill goes from 145 to 156 per month. Then one month later they raise it to 175 now when I see this I call asking what has happened thinking my price was locked in for another 2 years. I spoke with a women on the phone who informed me that she has no idea what I am talking about that who ever told me this was lying and that my price would continue to go up every year. I wanted to make sure this was true so I went back on to the website and saw "3 year price assurance!" Curious I continued to read and noticed a link stating "price in year 2-3" which they do not mention when you sign up over the phone. The difference is online it saying it only goes up 10 dollars, so why has my bill gone from $145.00 to $175.00 in only 13 months? After calling back to try and get some answers and help to stay with them as a loyal customer who has never missed a payment; the girl over the phone had no answer for me and I got the same "I am not sure what to tell you" answers. She was rude and cold and sternly warned me that I better be sure to deliver their equipment to them by the shut off date or will be charged she repeated this to me several times in a tone more threatening rather than a helpful hint. She also informed me that I could not cancel 2 days before the date my service was good until or I would be charged... Charged for canceling 2 days earlier than my billing statement which is already paid for ?! At a price I was told I was not supposed to be paying in the first place because of you so called "price assurance ?"... What happened to no contract ? Sounds like a contract to me ? Please be careful and make sure the price your getting and the promises they are making hold true because although it's nice that they don't have a contract they go back on their word and could care less if your unsatisfied and want to cancel service. read more

Extremely poor customer service. For the entire month of March, every evening between 8-11PM EST my connection becomes extremely poor. Pings to basic services like Google bounce between 50ms and 1000ms. Bandwidth drops erratically between 5mbps and 40mbps (paying for 110). Maintaining a stable connection to anything becomes impossible. After contacting customer service, they sent out a technician around noon. Of course, the issue wasn't occurring at that time, so nothing could be done. I called again, and they said they could only send a technician out at 6pm at the latest. He arrived, couldn't do anything. I escalated to Twitter, since sometimes companies are more responsive there. Despite my PC clearly being connected directly to the modem, every agent on Twitter insisted that it wasn't, despite me even showing them photos to the contrary. They would demand speed tests directly from the modem, which I would give, and then they would insist this was not directly through the modem. I am not using a Wireless network. I am not even going through a router anymore. Every rep I contact wants me to wait until the issue occurs to send a speed test. I do, then the rep the next day (who is different from the previous day) requests the same test. I am stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare from which there is no escape. The company refuses to even grant a partial refund due to this mess. read more

I've waited a few months to use RCN's service before writing this review. I was getting tired of the highway robbery prices that my old provider was charging. I researched everything I could about RCN before finally agreeing to the switch, and was initially turned off by the reviews on yelp. But, don't let the reviews fool you. If you look at them carefully, the reviews with 1-2 stars are typically poorly written, and are from people who are irate about something that's usually their own fault, or who haven't done any kind of due diligence to solve the simpler problems themselves. I know that's a generalization... but generally speaking, that's the trend I noticed. In contrast, some of the 4-5 star reviews, are very well thought out, well written, and show a logical argument being built behind why they're giving the rating they are. So hopefully this review falls into the latter category and can help RCN gain a better customer base. Having the service for 4 months now, I really have nothing but good things to say so far. Pros: 1.) Value for money - For $10 more than I was paying for 5 Mbps internet with my previous provider, I'm now getting 50 Mbps internet AND HDTV AND TIVO DVR. My old provider tried to match it, but couldn't event get within $30 of the price. This also included a promotional value for two TV networks (I can't remember... i think Max + Sho) for 6 months. Literally, there are too many channels for me to watch, so I couldn't be happier. 2.) Customer Service - Every time I've called customer service, has been a delight. I've only had good experience, with knowledgeable, and courteous, and often humorous reps. I highly suspect that all the people that complained about customer reps in the reviews below, probably did not start out the conversation like a reasonable human being. Also, for all the people that complained about "my price went up without them telling me", everything from the marketing materials, to the customer agreement to website, clearly explain that your price will go up $10 every year after the first year.... and that's STILL cheaper than my old ISP. 3.) Internet Speed - The tech who did the install ran some speed tests. We did it over WiFi so take it with a grain of salt, but we were able to hit 25-27 Mbps consistently. I'm sure as the load balancing and other such algorithms improve, the throughput is better with time, but nothing has ever been slow. Large files are consistently download at 10's of MB/s from internet or other sites. 4.) Install - The tech showed up early, was courteous, knowledgeable, wrapped up quickly and left after ensuring that everything was working, and that I was nodding my head agreeing that everything was working. 5.) Picture quality - It's by no means popping out of the screen, but on a small to mid-sized TV, it's perfectly acceptable signal quality, even on the HD channels. Cons: 1.) Limited channel selection - Even when signing up I noticed that the channel selection is missing some channels that MIGHT be of interest, but really, I'm only getting the TV service because it's $10 more than getting just internet from my last ISP, so this is not a huge issue for me, but if you're a TV enthusiast, I suggest strongly studying the channel line up. 2.) Limited intermittent TV interruption - This only happened once, but was resolved with one call. For some reason, a bunch of my HD channels were saying that they were not authorized. After working on the phone with a rep for about 10-15 minutes and following her instructions to power cycle the TIVO DVR, everything was reset. This only happened once and I haven't seen it happen since. So, in conclusion, if you're the kind of person that can solve simple problems yourself, know how to do your research, and are able to talk to customer service reps without believing that you are their god, I strongly recommend RCN's cable tv and internet offerings. I really hope that more people with positive experiences take the time to write a useful post, and rating to help restore this company's reputation. read more

Terrible experience with RCN... We live in a two family house. When the neighbors moved in, they cancelled our contract, thinking that we were moving moved out... After a good 2 to 3 hours on the phone, they gave us a new account price only if we took a bundle rather than Internet only. The old price was more expensive. they screw up and then pressure us into taking something we absolutely don't want. Stay away, they are terrible. Edit #1: You will have to bring the equipment back to them or they will charge you... even if some RCN guys is in the house. How is it possible to suck that much? read more

FWIW, I've had nothing but a good experience with RCN (Internet-only) so far. Signed up through a local rep (Bill Hewitt), who was fast, helpful and responsive. They had a problem starting my account because I have a freeze on my credit report, but a real person called me, I gave them a one-time code from the credit agency, and within a few seconds that was resolved. Despite that problem (which was really my fault; I'd forgotten the freeze), they still managed to get a tech out the next day as promised. He showed up on time, carefully inspected the existing cable, and after determining it was slightly corroded got up on his ladder and replaced the cable to the street pole. At my request he also removed a ton of old, unused cable/phone/TV crap from the side of my house, leaving me with one nicely-routed, neatly tied off, properly attached cable install. I asked if he could run the cable through an existing hole instead of drilling a new one -- no problem. Five minutes later I was getting 21 mbps on Speedtest while he waited to make sure it was working. Six months later, I still get consistently fast internet, I've rebooted the cable modem maybe once, my payment gets automatically deducted, and I've never needed to call customer service. If the first-line customer service sucks (and from the reviews here it seems it may), then probably the smart way to deal with RCN is to find a local rep and deal with them exclusively as I did. But it's a two-way street. If you want one of these guys/girls to give you their cell number and say "call anytime", you can't be a yahoo. If you can't tell the difference between an RCN service outage and your wireless router needing a reboot, or if you want to pay half your bill in Greek Drachma, or if you're the type who's surprised when you sign up for a rising-rate plan and a year later the rate rises, then quite frankly you deserve to deal with first-line support. Update 3/31/2014: Three years on, RCN internet is still great for me. I did have to call tech support because my internet went out -- they did some tests, sent out a tech the next day, and he stayed until he found the problem (after calling three different people in the office) and I was back up as expected. Recently I had to cancel my service because I moved to a non-RCN area, and they were great about it. I like to rant as much as the next guy, but as far as I'm concerned, RCN has done right by me. read more

I just switched to RCN from Comcast only 10 days ago. I am getting the same services while saving an amazing $56 per month!! That part is fantastic. I also expected with the lower price that the customer service might be lacking. However, in 10 days, I have had at least 5 issues starting from the time they were supposed to install cable to being charged for things I didn't order (but they did remove the charge) to not being allowed to pay online because I don't know the fictitious favorite food they somehow have in my profile. Is all the pain worth saving $672 each year?? You can decide for yourself, but I am going to stick it out a little longer... FYI: It has only been 10 days, but I have not had any issues with the actual internet and cable services (yet). read more

We switched to RCN and we are happy to pay less than what we paid Comcast and Verizon. The customer service has always been helpful and nice. Any problems that occur are always troubleshot quickly (no more problems than with C. & V.). We have had the TV, the Internet and the phone with them for over 2 years. read more

1) RCN raised my Internet service price by $10/month to $49.99, so I called to find a less expensive plan. The representative found one, for $29.99, but said that I would have to swap my 3-in-1 gateway for a separate modem and router. I brought my gateway to the RCN office, where the representative told me that I could not get the $29.99 plan. How could a RCN representative sell me a plan that I could not use? 2) So, I terminated my service. I received a receipt for the returned gateway. I also asked for a printout of my account. It had 0 balance, and I wanted to be sure that someone else at RCN didn't try to collect from me later. The RCN representative refused to provide me with a current printout of my account. How could RCN, at their payment center, not provide me with a current printout of my account? read more

I cancelled my account WELL in advance of the day I was moving out of my apartment, and of course they charged me as if I was still on the plan for another month. When I returned the equipment (modem, router), they sent me a bill for $120 instead of crediting me. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR AUTOMATIC PAYMENTS WITH THEM. You are basically signing up for credit card theft if you do so. read more

A lot of the reviews here on yelp are written without a solid understand of networking. First, the mid-level connection that I have with RCN is solid without any major fluctuations. It's averages at 13 ping (unbelievable for home connection) 36 down and 6 up. Those speeds are well near advertised MAX speeds. Max being the most important. Users here are also judging their speeds on http downloads - which is not even close to a benchmark because upload speeds are always throttled on hosting servers. $50 a month is a steal for this connection frankly and RCN seems to acknowledge this cheap bandwith by telling consumers that it will go up in price by $10 a year over the course of service. It's not cheap or misleading it's the way it has to be to keep fiber optic lines running. Also, if you're using wireless when your writing a review for an ISP then stop writing the review. Wireless speeds have 1000 different variables going on. You want a speed test plug yourself in. /nerdrant read more

Rcn sucks! Xfinity sucks to but at least the UI is bearable and availability of shows is good. I don't watch much TV which is why it took almost two months to see this but of the shows I enjoy walking dead is one as well as Westworld. Now I don't like watching shows late in Sunday so I save it for Monday. After not having access to next day on demand shows on HBO on rcn fine I'll use my HBO go pass on Apple TV. But I saved walking dead for today and not only is the hd not available on demand which is ridiculous when standard is available but now on my brand new 60 inch in subjected to spending 125 a month for damn tv that looks just downright terrible on this tv. Why isn't hd available next day while sd is? Why aren't premium channels available next day while the services themselves have it available. The UI on the service is really just awful. I can't find anything and can't set up recordings or manage them. I'm cancelling the service this week and signing up for Xfinity. Seriously I do not recommend this service at all. Xfinity is bad and you wonder how much worse can it get. Rcn is much much worse. Waste of money. I feel like a fool. read more

I originally chose RCN's $40 Internet/TV bundle, not realizing how few stations are included. Shame on me. I called to upgrade to their next tier, and was surprised to learn that the new customer pricing didn't apply. Fine. At that point I cancelled the service since price was the only thing they had going for them. A sales rep contacted me to ask if there was anything they could do to keep my business. We reached an agreement after some back-and-forth, or at least I thought we had until he tried to increase the price by $10/mo. I made it clear that that wasn't happening, and he finally agreed to the deal he had offered in the first place. This upgrade required a new service call to change out our converter box. They told the extremely nice technician that I needed a new modem as well. I didn't. This led to the poor guy spending more than an hour trying to set the thing up unnecessarily. So we've had their Signature TV & 25 Mbps Internet bundle since late August. TV service has been fine, and I've had no problems streaming video through my Roku. Internet/Web connectivity is a different issue altogether. Using RCN's speed test, the download speed does occasionally register near 25 Mbps, though a result between 7 and 15 is much more common. Sites like Gmail, or any site that uses Flash, take so long to load & refresh that they often become unusable. Sending an email with a PDF attachment under 1 MB is an exercise in futility. The wood-burning mobile broadband connection in my work laptop provides better access, even after resetting the modem, trying a wired connection, etc. I contacted them about this on September 5th, and again on the 10th. Rather than continue waiting, I called on the 17th to cancel service. Then all of a sudden they remembered I exist. Tech support called me, and then emailed me to ... tell me to call them for further assistance. Rather than continue the root canal that is dealing with their customer service department, I have switched back to Verizon. Their prices are reasonable provided the service actually works. For me that was not the case, and the savings just wasn't enough to offset the associated headaches. read more

My wife took the day off today to meet the rcn technician. When they showed up it only took a minute to determine it was disconnected at the pole the day before. They were supposed to disconnect the house down the street but can't read numbers apparently. Not even an attempt to apologize. Rude over the phone, still no patriots game or internet or phone service for 24 hrs. this company really is disconnected from its customers. We called Comcast and can't wait for our new service to be installed. I wish zero stars... read more

This is review is only for internet. Internet service is HORRIBLE. It rarely works, we have to restart our modem constantly. By constantly I mean at least once a week. If you go away for the weekend it is a guarantee your internet will not be working when you get home and will most likely have to call them and have them tell you they can't do anything about it. The price is cheap at first but it isn't worth the inconsistency in service. As much as I hate to say it, I will be going back to Comcast. read more

Well I just clicked 1 star but it does not deserve a quarter I do really got disappointed because their Internet and modems crash more than the amazing and other lies they sells gosh what a company if you are looking for not satisfaction on their service and waste all your money go for it I do personally DOESN'T recomend this company it sucks !!!!!!!! read more

RCN is probably the worst cable company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. After confirming an appointment for installation between 5 and 8 pm we waited the entire time to receive a call at 745 that the technician would arrive BY 830pm. When he arrived at 915 he looked around and said well I will have to come back tomorrow because I don't have the equipment to set anything up for you. So an entire night was wasted but he was coming back the next day at 730. When he arrived the next day I waited for him to complete his work which took nearly 3 hours. At the end we still had no internet access and no cable because apparently he couldn't figure out my modem so he said he would have his boss come that night. I call the number I was given and get no answer. I wait another hour and call back again this time her answers and he tells me that his solution is to bring another modem. I agree because I don't care at this point so he says he will call the original techincian who helped me and said he would call me back. After two hours of waiting and receiving no call, I called back and got no answer. I call the RCN technical support line the next after noon and am told that they had no knowledge of an appointment and that they would get a technician out to me as soon as possible and the same technician returns in about an hour. He tells me that his boss called him and said all we needed was a new modem so we were good and he did not need to return. He completes the set up and leaves since internet is working and the television service is going through set up steps. It turns out that now 95% of the channels we are supposed to have are not working. I proceed to use the online chat method which takes the so called technicians between 2 and 5 minutes between EVERY response. I am told to power cycle my box as if I am a moron and haven't thought that I should do that. His next step is to copy and paste a solution from their troubleshooting guide which again is readily accessible to me as well. Of course it does not work and he then says well I can't do anything else so we will have to send a technician out tomorrow. This is where I am at now if a technician even shows up tomorrow that will be 4 straight days a technician has been here and there service still isn't working. They are incompetent, unprofessional, and have the worst service. Don't let the deal prices fool you, you are saving maybe 10 dollars a month to have no service and constant headaches. I would recommend any other service besides RCN at least comcast has knowledgeable technicians who install services correctly even if they are slightly more expensive. read more

I have been an RCN customer for two years and the product (cable and internet) is pretty good. The technicians on the other hand are terrible!!!! I set up my initial appointment for installation of an additional box and was given the standard 3 hour window. Well, the 3 hour window passed and no technician. I called and set up a new appointment for a week later. I was leaving my house 15 minutes later when the technician rolled up. He gave me some excuse about a tough install and bad weather. I told him to get back in his truck and leave. The second appointment rolled around and 2 hours and 45 minutes into my window the technician called and said that his truck broke down and he couldn't make the install. I was livid and he told me that he would make an appointment with RCN for me for the following day between 8 and 11 AM. So, at 11:05 AM I called RCN because the technician never showed up. The customer service rep told me that she didn't know why the technician would tell me that he would set an appointment up for me for that day since they don't do service calls on Sundays. She told me that he set me up with an appointment for a few days later instead. I was fed up and quickly hung up on the rep. Be prepared to spend many hours waiting and getting stood up if you want to set up RCN services. read more

The office in Arlington has the worst customer service of any business I have been to in a long time. The blonde woman sitting at the front desk in the afternoon during the week completely ignores you when you approach her desk. She doesn't say hello or smile or even look at you when she speaks. Not only is she rude (she talks down to you) but she is constantly looks pissed off (I've been in there twice and she was the same both times). She does not apologize for mistakes caused by RCN nor does she say thank you or have a good day when you are finished conducting business. We are paying over $100 a month to RCN and I think we deserve better. I will be calling to complain. read more

Everything went smoothly with RCN until I tried to return their modem. I couldn't bring it to any of their facilities due to living in Boston and not having a car, and the mail in label they were supposed to send to my email address never showed up (not in my spam folder either). It to 3 WEEKS of attempted resends before they finally sent someone to pick it up (and yes, I did have pay for the extra days I had the modem). And when they finally sent someone, they gave me a 12 hour window during which I had to be home waiting for their technician! Absolutely ridiculous, and I will never be doing business with them again. read more

I switched to RCN and I regretted it big. 1. RCN promises you one price but when you actually get the first bill you may be badly surprised. The bill will be higher and I am not talking about the taxes. I never got any papers how much I will pay. Instead I trusted the sales guy. If you chose RCN, please have everything in written because the sales guy only cares about the sign-up commission. They will tell you all sort of lies to lure you in. 2. The internet stops working on all devices quite often. You have to go and restart the modem to get it back. That is very annoying especially when you are using an internet phone or playing an on-line game. 3. The promised internet speed is consistently lower than advertised. I paid for 110Mb/s but I only get around 30Mb/s during the day (it is faster at night when nobody uses internet). The package that includes 50Mb/s is $10 lower. I called and tried to downgrade my package to 50Mb/s. The funny part is that I have to pay even more if I chose to downgrade because the rate I got was a 'promotional' one. So, why did you sell me the package that you cannot deliver at the first place? The piece of advice for those who thinks to switch to RCN. Pick the cheapest package; otherwise, you will be wasting your money. Overall I cannot recommend RCN. RCN sale ethic is horrible. I hope that at some point there will be more alternatives, so the cable companies will not be able to abuse their monopoly. It would be great if the city of Boston and other cities decided to invest in fiber optics infrastructure. The cable companies make us fall further behind in communication infrastructure which is crucial in the 21st century. read more

I'm about 7 hours into being an RCN customer, so this is really just about the install. The tech that did the install showed up about 30 minutes into the given window- not sure you can expect anything much better than that The guy was super friendly and worked very efficiently. My house required a new hookup at the pole, and he did it without complaint and did a nice tidy job running the cable down the side of the house. Looks very neat and professional. He double checked the work of the electrician and redid a termination to curb any potential signal degradation and made sure everything was super speedy before heading out. So far everything is working well and the install was really painless and professional. Hopefully service remains speedy! read more

I feel like I should write a 1-star review and then write a 4-star update! I've been an RCN customer for about a year and a half now. The 1-star experience: The original installer that came in June last year seemed to be in a rush. He sped through the setup outside the house, connected the wiring inside the house, got my cable running, managed to get my modem up and connected and left. Minutes after he left, my modem failed to connect to (what they call) the Newton plant (I'd assume it is some kind of substation/router?!) I had to call them back. It's amusing that even before you get to talk to a customer rep, the automated message tells you how to "power cycle" your modem. I did this a couple of times and things started working. Over that summer things were fine... I had to power recycle almost every week during the winter months, and then this past summer, things were fine again. Last month I lost my internet connection again. Numerous "power cycles" would get the internet back again but at a tenth of the speed I pay for. I spent most of November without internet and then in early December I figured I'll just go back to Comcast - at least for the peace of mind aspect - even though their prices surreptitiously creep up every hour!!! -- All this should have led me to leave them a one star review months ago! -- The CSRep I talked to was patient, and understanding (maybe they've heard this issue before), she gave me an appointment for 2pm. On my way home from work, I got a call around 1:30pm from Michael that he was there. That was a first... a cable guy actually making it early for an appointment?! He worked on the cable that comes into the house while I was on my way home and later mentioned that the cable was loose, chewed up (squirrels?) and that the signal coming into the house was waay too weak. After he replaced the entire cable length, he checked for splitter in the house and in the basement, checked for signal levels, waited till I was back online - which I couldn't! He then switched my cable modem to a newer DOCSYS version, and then tried again. He then called RCN to check the "plant"... At the end of about an hour, I was online, with a working modem, that has not croaked in three weeks! My cable TV has a lot less digital noise now too. I'm happy... (being a sceptic... for now)! read more

Let me first say that I deal in customer service in the medical industry by day, and the restaurant industry by night, so there is no tone, verbal diatribe, complaint, or rant that I have not heard before. Generally speaking, I don't like to make a huge deal over issues that I think can be better addressed in a calm, rational matter. RCN has turned me into a bitter, hateful person. I have tried on so many occasions to reason with these people who repeatedly shut off our service for no reason, who verbally abuse my roommate and I on the phone, flat out lie, and "dont have any record of your call". We gladly returned our cable box as directed, and we have been fighting them for over a year because they stated that they have "no record of us ever returning it". This is the most disgraceful excuse for a company I have ever come in contact with. I feel like an old timer saying this, but it makes me sad that no one does business the honest, decent way anymore. I'd rather never watch another tv show in my life than deal with RCN. read more

I'm surprised to see all the negative reviews for RCN. The internet service was the fastest and most reliable of any provider we've used, including Comcast, Time Warner and AT&T U-Verse. In the seven months we lived in Brookline, which included this past winter, we never had an outage and the streaming quality was fantastic. And the price was reasonable, $55 for the 110 mbps plan, which included the router rental price. (We're paying that much for half the download speed in New York and the difference is noticeable.) It was also the easiest to set up. Local rep Bill Hewitt (william.hewitt@rcn.net, 617-590-6693) was able to get a technician out to set up the internet a day or two after I called him. Before our move, I inadvertently had the internet shut off a couple of days too early so I called Bill and he had us up and running again in less than an hour. Shutting off service was also easy. I called RCN (I probably could have just called Bill) and scheduled a shut off date and they emailed me a UPS packing slip to mail back the router and modem. I was disappointed that RCN wasn't available in our new neighborhood. But I'm checking the website regularly and will make the switch when it gets here. read more