I installed RCN back in 2000, before the internet bubble burst and when all the VC funded DSL providers were trying to win the day. I made the right decision. Great cable, telephone and internet. I had a few problems through 2005, but they were always solved by quick on site presence or a call to reset my set top box. I even had a 2 man crew spend 2 days diagnosing and to some extent fixing a birds nest of in house wire problems and I never got a bill. The only problems 2005 or later are storm related outages. Telephone supports POTS, but I suspect they have an IP based back end. Probably too much SS7 stuff is buried in their network for today's era, but it does work well. Call quality is superior to independent VOiP providers. (I know as I am running a VOiP company at the moment) Picture quality is very good, but not blue ray stellar and consistent. CSR helped me cut my bill several years ago, when Comcast came to town. I dropped all the junk I never watched on tv and lowered my IP speed down to 20 mg since my kids were at college or gone and no longer downloading movies. RCN filed for bankruptcy by 05 or so and so flushed out all the debt they incurred to lay fiber in my town. Poor chumps those bondholders. In the Chapter 11 process ABRY became the owner and they are a first class owner with other cable gems in their portfolio. Beats the douche bags at Verizon or Comcast any day. I can say little about customer service as I have had no need to make a call in the last several years. The system just works. Get it! read more

Update: 12/14/13 Jessica K from customer service contacted me about my Yelp review. We played phone tag for about a week and to her credit she persevered and eventually we connected. She tried to do right by me and her efforts were much appreciated. While she couldn't fulfill the promise that was made to me by the salesperson she did the best she could. Thank you Jessica. read more

RCN's customer service is incomparable. Their representatives, whether online or on the phone, are always friendly, polite and helpful. I've been with RCN for almost a year now, and have never had a bad experience communicating with them. Their internet stability is not the best, but the plans are cheaper than most major providers and their customer service makes up for it. read more

I love RCN. I have had them for a few years with no problems. I recently moved and was reminded how nice their customer service representatives are. They are real people who treat me like a real person, too. They also always have appointments available. Every time I have needed someone to come to my home, they offer appointments before I am even free. It is a nice switch from other companies that make one wait weeks. read more

I've been an RCN customer for 8 years--So let's just say, I've given you plenty of chances. I encourage you to look over my customer service record over the past eight years. I would be surprised if I haven't contacted you under 100 times for connection issues over the past eight years. There is always a problem, whether it's On Demand not working (which, by the way, hasn't worked for us for two days currently), a TiVo problem, or an Internet Connection problem. Bottom line? After being patient with you for years, I am BEYOND fed up with your bad behavior (I.e., bad service). I can't WAIT to move on. Thanks for a miserable almost-decade. read more

Awful customer service, awful business tactics. I signed up in 2014 and since then they have lowered their pricing but refuse to offer anyone but NEW customers the pricing which seems like a shitty way to thank loyal long-term customers. Insane late fees and are absolutely resilient to offering any human compassion. I put in my new card number wrong, I'm late less than 24 hours, I have not been late in the whole 2 years aside from that and never will be late again, I think that would warrant a one-time forgiveness. But instead I get brick-walled and robbed. Like I ain't even got wifi, why ya'll tryna work me like this? When I contacted customer service about changin my rate etc they seemed to only take it as an opportunity to tell me why I'm wrong instead of tryin to actually help me. I did get some help via the chat but that's another complaint of mine is the website is weak as well. I should be able to navigate to other pages on your site without it interrupting the chat assistance session in progress. Also during the initial installation I never got any info packet or nothing, I had to request it since I had no access to my online account and no idea what my account number was. Like ya'll that is super basic shit right there in terms of customer service. If ya'll gonna rob me the least you can do it train your employees or hire ones who do their job. The internet is fine. I mean I'm plugged into ethernet, so it's hard to fuck that up. read more

I had a few issues with RCN during my days with them, but now that my only options for cable in Boston are Comcast and DIrecTV, I miss it. It was affordable, there was no contract and they fixed problems when asked. As far as cable companies go, they were better than Comcast. read more

I get one of these shoppers in the mail. They offer new customers a great price, low and behold my bill for almost double the amount. I call and say I want this price, and get a NO. What, No. I yell, they hang up, I call again, they tell me OK, I will give it to you but do not tell anyone. I promise. read more

Terrible Service & Customer Support. I scheduled twice and they did not show up. 3rd time we scheduled between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM and they showed up at 2:15 PM. The service man extremely Rude person. I asked him to please take your shoes off he said he will not and he left. I will never ever get them again. read more

RCN is THE WORST. Our internet cuts out completely for weeks at a time. We haven't had cable TV or internet for over a week. When we call them to come fix it they tell us that if the internet suddenly starts working before they get there they will charge us for the service so if your internet is cutting in and out you basically can't even ask them to come or else you might be charged. I've had better service with Comcast and that's saying a ton. We're pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place when living in the Boston area. I'm so frustrated that I created a yelp account just to write this post read more

If there is zero, I would give zero. Our Internet was down for a day and we knew that the main line is down in Newton. But we still called the custom service. For the whole night, the customer service is closed. The next morning, a shitty woman picked up the phone, without telling us how to check, just said you guys were using a personal router, so it's definitely your router's problem, if we send somebody to check, it will be 50 bucks. How ridiculous is this!!!!! read more

Just switched to RCN. So far, I am loving the internet service. It's cheap, and fast! I don't use phone or cable, but their internet service is great. read more

I am giving Retarded Cable Nincompoops (I know, not fair to the retarded, right? they have much better work ethic and are far more logical) a star because they are cheap. However, stuff always breaks they get EVERYTHING wrong the first two times. They always come outside there specified time window for service calls, by hours with no warning. I can feel my blood pressure rising just writing this. They make oodles of billing mistakes in there favor of course. By some miracle my DVR box records all the crap I will never watch but my Top Gear and Formula 1 races don't replay 50% of the time. If you have the time and patients to get a manager on the phone you can get a free month of cable from time to time provided you document all there many fuck-ups and botched fuck-up corrections or refuck-ups as I have come to call them. read more

So I recently switched back to RCN and I gotta say it's a LOT better than it used to be. 1) The bundles are less complicated. I have my own TiVO and they didn't require me to bundle their own box which was welcome (I recently switched to TiVO with an antenna so I'm internet only now). 2) Their internet service has seen TREMENDOUS improvement. A few years ago, RCN was having serious packet loss issues as well as really big dips in speeds during peak usage. They've come a LONG way since then. I now get fantastic speeds 24/7 with their latest upgrades, always the 155mbit they advertise now. I also don't get any packet loss and everything is quite fast. Overall, great to see RCN improve their product. Bottom line - if you had RCN a few years ago, I'd recommend giving them another shot. I am glad I did, it's been nice getting away from comcast. read more

Horrible service, unfair contracts, just horrible horrible horrible. A manifestation of everything wrong in service and business today.

Just as an update.....now I have a comparison. Verizon FIOS. Although their customer service leaves bit to be desired as well....their service is FAR superior, and MUCH more reliable. Just another nail in RCNs rather offensive coffin. read more

If you work from home, and/or rely on fast, reliable internet, do NOT use RCN. We have had a series of mystery outages, and on the rare occasions when we are able to connect to customer service, they insist that it all looks fine on their end. Um, if everything was fine, why would I sit on hold for 30 minutes? Oh, and don't think that by upgrading to a faster connection that things will get better: not only were there still outages, and the connection for videos still sucked, but we ended up making multiple trips out to Arlington because their incompetent staffer could not stop picking at her nails and watching TV long enough to be sure she actually gave us the right modem for the upgrade. The final nail in the coffin was this morning when I saw that our bill jumped $40 per month...but I couldn't actually log into the website (which is horrible, BTW) in order to see why. As soon as I can get someone to pick up the phone on their end, I am dumping RCN and moving to Comcast - whatever cost savings you think you are getting on the front end are not worth your sanity. read more

After a 7-year wait, my condo complex was finally wired up to allow RCN service (as opposed to being stuck with only Comcast as an internet option). After a few small hiccups, I'm up and runnings with RCN phone and internet access. I can't speak to Cable TV, but the internet access is almost 4x faster than Comcast's connection that I had before, plus a ton more phone features. All of that and I'm still saving $20/month over Comcast's bundle that I had. Some other highlights are NO CONTRACT, and they are up front what the monthly costs will be over next 3 years. Even at that 3-year mark, I'll still be paying less than I was for Comcast's service. I was able to get in touch with real people either via phone or their handy online chat service for every issue that I had initially. I got the feeling from everyone that I spoke with that they actually cared about their customers. This is in stark contrast to Comcast's line of *saying* that they care about the customer, but Comcast's actions made me think otherwise. Even the sales guy that I dealt with was great. He was not pushy at all. I actually had no idea that our building was wired for RCN. For the first time in my life, I actually appreciated a salesman at my door. I really wasn't interested in Cable TV and he didn't push it (even though they seemed to have some great options). In case you are interested and want a no BS, no pressure explanation of what RCN offers I would highly recommend that you contact Bill Hewitt (william.hewitt@rcn.net, 617-590-6693). I'll update if I have any additional issues with service. read more

We used RCN for our service at Avalon in Lexington and thought it was decent for the money. However, it's been two months since we moved and discontinued service and we STILL haven't received our check for the credit on our bill. We called twice and they said the check is the mail, but we never received it. Maybe the post office is at fault, or maybe they are committing fraud. I am going to write a letter to the BBB and request a forensic audit to track the check because something is not right. read more

Went to turn in my equipment and the woman at the counter in Arlington (closest site) was so rude as she watched television and literally filed her nails it was remarkable. My friend was with me and I had to keep nudging her to keep quiet as she was about to let the counter woman have it... DO NOT USE them. read more

It's tough for any utility business to get high marks from customers. Reliable, reasonably-priced service is the expectation. It's easy to fall short of that, but near impossible to exceed it. Having had both RCN and Comcast over the past several years, I give RCN a lot of credit and was pleased that I had the option to choose them when I moved into a new place. Their offerings are consistently priced below Comcast and they don't sneak in major hidden fees. They also let you speak with a person instead of forcing you to wait for online chats. RCN actually competes to earn your business while Comcast behaves like the monoply they are for most people. read more

BACKGROUND: 1) This is a rating of RCN with comments about the competition 2) Long time Directv and Verizon DSL subscriber switching to cable to get better internet performance and lower cost. 3) First signed up for Comcast because I had a prejudice that RCN was a marginal company. Shocked by how bad Comcast turned out to be during setup and switched to RCN. 4) Not a big on-demand user; no interaction with RCN customer service yet 5) Technically knowledgeable; have wiring closet with multiple internet and video feeds RCN PRO: 1) Installer (Thurmond) was completely comfortable with my set-up (the one Comcast walked out on) and got the job done in short order without a hitch. 2) Bill Hewitt, from RCN, who had responded to another thread is for real, responded right away to my email, and was well-versed in technical stuff 3) Uses non-proprietary TIVO DVR which has ready-to-go fully supported eSata external drive expansion, easily add 1.5T of storage 4) Much more of a can-do vibe from RCN 5) Much cheaper than Comcast 6) Ran speedtest.net and am getting 21.3 Mbps, actually above the rated 20Mbps 7) No contract necessary 8) Contrary to other reports here they were very clear about the annual increase in payments and what "assurance" meant 9) No glitches whatsoever in first 6 months RCN CON: 1) On-Demand reputed by others to be lousy. (though you can record your brains out with the DVR expansion drive thus lessening the need for on-demand 2) Yes, the support line goes to Mumbai but that works fine for me Directv PROS: 1) Got most of the bugs out of their systems over the years. Forum criticisms from several years ago are no longer relevant Directv CONS: 1) Years of suffering through Rube Goldberg systems and malfunctions 2) Frustrating absolute firewall between the customer and the technical people who know the answers 3) The response to all complaints: a free month of Starz 4) Install is tricky, satellite dish is ugly and messy 5) Contract required Comcast PRO: 1) On-Demand is reputed to be good Comcast CONS: 1) Shocking highway robber pricing 2) Installer had a total meltdown at my house when he saw my wiring closet. He walked out! 3) You pay for full-time staffing at Best Buys 4) Employees were not knowledgeable about technical issues like eSata 5) DVR comes with ridiculously small hard drive and no official support of eSata expansion drives. 6) Web site and some pamphlets are inaccurate and confusing. read more

RCN is better than Comcast. Cheaper, less obnoxious. Is RCN great? Maybe not. But the alternative is worse. Beware annual price increases. Watch your bill for details. read more

I'm posting this review because I've been dealing with Verizon and it has made me realize how much I miss RCN. I had RCN for a long time and never had any complaints at all. They were wonderful! I moved and now I live in a town that RCN doesn't serve and I am left dealing with either Verizon or Comcast. Verizon is awful so I am with Comcast now. Comcast has been pretty good, but I had a bad experience with them a long time ago so I am not convinced yet. I miss RCN so much!!! read more

Once upon a time, this company was great. They had amazing customer service and they gave the impression that they cared. Fast forward a few years to 2011. They have become AWFUL. The customer service is unhelpful and unsympathetic. On top of that, when you call with a problem, they give advice that isn't correct. read more

The whole three months we had RCN felt like we were being scammed. We were told we would get a free months service, turns out that it was a lie and instead they are saying we owe them money even though all three months were paid in full. Quickly ending our services with them. I would highly recommend paying a little bit more money and going with a more reputable service. read more

My order is (copy from their order confirmation) : 155 Mbps Internet, Signature TV, Phone $109.99/mo Signature TV 155 Mbps Internet Whole Home Bundle - 4 Tuner HD-DVR + 1 Additional Room/TV Additional Room/TV 3 in 1 Gateway Nationwide Calling But i only get 1 4 Tuner HD DVR and 1 Mini , am i supposed to get two mini? one from whole home bundle and one from additional Room below whole home bundle? talked to their CS and other represntives, they insisted they are right. Am I reading the order wrong? Enlish is not my native language, so maybe someone can help me if my understanding is right or wrong? read more

DISHONEST. Turns out they charge $10/mo EXTRA for a modem, essential equipment for making internet work in your home. When questioned, supervisor said 1) you could buy your own (Yes, and with a landline phone, a company could leave off the cost for the cord needed, then charge you extra -- or tell you to go buy it yourself. Really?) and 2) said it was "stated" online they charge. (Yes, in one of those very-small font agreements we are all accustomed to from tech companies and don't/can't read, it does say RCN "might" charge for a modem.) If you DON'T buy their modem, they then refuse to help you on internet issues, claiming you bought your own modem and it's on you. So many low reviews; time to move on. read more

Note: I only have RCN internet-50mbps I am on the fence about RCN. Starting out was ungodly terrible!! I had to have a tech come out to my residence to fix the wiring in the building. The technician was very nice but it should not have happened in the first place. Also, I tried using my own router.... Big mistake. Apparently the system only takes a certain router and I bought the wrong one twice so I just gave up and rented theirs for like $10 a month. 6 months later I am ok with the service. It gets slower around peak times. Though I put up with it cuz they are like 20% cheaper than comcast. I guess it's the give and take you get with a discount provider. And do not believe a word the sales associates tell you, they will say anything just to make the sale cuz they are based on commissions. I can't believe I am saying this but if you don't mind the extra $10-20 a month go with comcast ( I've had many a bad experiences with comcast too) read more

I had the choice between RCN and Comcast for my IT needs at home (somerville, MA) and picked RCN. I only took the internet services. I signed up on the phone, the person was polite and efficient, gave good pieces of advice, it went smooth and quick. The technician came to the house and installed the modem shortly after, that worked just fine immediately. I bought a wireless router and plugged it on, that's all it took for setup. A few weeks down the road, a sales person offered a special deal for top bandwidth, which I opted for. 10 months after subscribing, we are moving out, the person on the phone was courteous, I'm only paying $25 of early termination (which is not much and was clear to me from the beginning). I'll move out on July 12th, I will drop off the modem and cable to the Arlington location located closeby. All together: no issues, pleasant to deal with, good review, will use RCN again and I recommend. read more

I was supposed to have a technician come to my home since my cable has been out for 3 days. My window was 5-9 p.m. There was someone pulled over on the way home and it was raining, so there was a lot of traffic. At 4:50 p.m., I called RCN to tell them that I would be home at 5:15 p.m. Considering the fact that a past technician showed up minutes before my window ended, I was shocked to hear that the technician was already at my house. She said that he could not wait until 5:15 p.m. but then changed her mind. I pulled into my driveway at exactly 5:15 p.m. to see the technician driving away. When I called again, they said that they couldn't get anyone back here. I explained the situation to customer service, and I told them that I am a relatively new customer after being with Comcast for YEARS. When I told her I would be switching back to Comcast after all of this, she barely paused and said that she was sorry to be losing me as a customer. She definitely didn't seem to care. I'll be telling my neighbors who were thinking about switching to RCN to think again. I guess I'm going back to Comcast after all. In the 15+ years I was with Comcast, I never received poor customer service like this. For the record, every time I called customer service for my internet going down (which happened A LOT), they were always pleasant and able to fix it. read more

I've been using RCN since, jeez, I don't know how long, when they first moved into Boston. Aside from when they opened up my Fenway apartment to a massive mouse infestation, they've been pretty good. I've moved around and finally ended up back in RCN country and have had them for the last 7 years. There was a point where they were kinda crappy, an outage here and there, and some longish hold times, but all these one star reviews surprise me. I am in Watertown, and the service has been really solid for the past 4-5 years. Unfortunately, the cost keeps rising and rising, which is the reason I didn't give them 5 stars, but the alternative (Comcast) terrifies me. I love my TiVo Premiere, my Internet service is always reliable. Maybe the service varies from town to town, but I have nothing bad to say. Just cut an old customer a break, and give me a discount. read more

RCN's customer service is epicly inept. How many times do I need to call and request my pin # be mailed to me before I can access my online account. Seriously, I've had their service for 5 years and they insist I need this number they mailed me when I opened the account, and they won't mail it to me. Of course, I could drive to the office and get it but why would I waste my own time and gas??? read more

My boyfriend and I were left with RCN after my former roommate decided to switch it from Comcast. Since September, we have experienced nothing but issues with the payment options. The website would often fail, not allowing members to login. My boyfriend contacted them each time this happened so he could make a payment. Things were fine despite the inconvenience, or so we thought, until we tried to watch a movie and was notified to contact RCN. After an hour plus of being on the phone with them--I think we have resolved the issue. Luckily, the customer service rep was fairly nice and patient despite the obvious tension and frustration coming from both sides. I researched this problem with RCN about making payments and having them "decline" on their end, and it seemed to be a commonality. We're not the only ones struggling with this! If it's evident by history of phone calls, and login attempts, shouldn't that prove to them that something is clearly not working! Why should anyone be responsible for late fees when they make it absolutely difficult to communicate with bank payments? After going back and forth over an hour and failing to be placed with a manager, the original customer service rep finally had the late fees credited for future bills (after repeating all of the information OVER AND OVER again he NOW FINALLY saw our issues made sense). Now we're stuck with a large bill, so clearly taking out an unexpected large sum hurts a bit. ALSO--something else that has proven to be a problem with other customers is having a "past due amount" when the billing cycle hasn't even happened yet...WHAT?! If this happens to anyone else, please let them know you are not alone with their incompetent payment service. We told the rep that after research, we saw this happened quite a bit with RCN customers. They need to get new software or employees--something isn't adding up for them. read more

Worst worst. Absolute worst. If you'd like the slowest internet connection ever with terrible customer service. Get RCN.

Finally cancelled my service. I can smile a little wider thinking about the fact I will never deal with the despicably trained folks that are unfortunately stuck working for such a terrible and underhanded company. I cancelled mid-month and RCN tried to tell me that I was going to be billed until the day the equipment was returned. I pushed back against this and when I did this, they threatened to put a $600+ hold on my credit card. I asked to be escalated and I had a back and forth with the manager when they continued to threaten me, but I held my ground and stated my plan to appeal this with the Mass Dept of Public Utilities. They finally backed off after I stated for the third time that they could bill me if they believe they will not face any backlash from the department of public utilities. I still have not received the credit for the half month of service I cancelled after I had paid for the month already. If you are reading this page feeling stuck without a paddle in your dealings with these people, please remember the following excerpt from your bill and don't be afraid to remind them of this right you have: "If for any reason you believe your bill is wrong, you may call or writ e a Company representative and explain the amount you believe t o be in error and the reason you believe there has been an error. If, when you receive the decision of the Company representative, you still consider the bill wrong or are not satisfied, you have the right to appeal to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities by calling or writing the Department to request a hearing. Call or write: CONSUMER DIVISION DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND CABLE 1000 Washington Street , Suite 820 Boston, Massachusetts 02118-6500 Telephone (617) 305-3531 or (800) 392-6066 read more

Due to the fact that the internet service was extremely slow and never reached anywhere near the "guaranteed" speed (which they only guarantee up to 60%), and during installation the worker switched the plugs for the two pieces of equipment, so one worked but was very hot to the touch, and the other one was very temperamental. So I finally made the call to cancel around mid-February, and they put a credit on my account for the entire bill (only 2 months anyway) so I didn't owe them any money, and all I had to do was drop off the merchandise. I was given a receipt and an updated copy of my bill, which read $0.00. Two weeks ago I received a call from collections asking for payment for RCN. I immediately called RCN and explained the situation to them, and the associate said he updated my account and I had no balance due. He apologized for affecting my credit. Still, not worth more than 1 star. read more

Thank goodness for RCN!! After so much drama and hassle dealing with Comcast Xfinity we switched to RCN and couldn't be happier!!!!! The customer service is great and we called late at night for a price quote and instal inquiry and they were so helpful and had someone there the NEXT morning! The guy they sent was sweet as could be and made me feel so comfortable and gave me a tutorial about the TiVo service. Overall I think it's so refreshing to have a provider who cares. read more

Prices are good.BUT for a little more you can get better service. As soon as I move,I'm switching vane companies. The channel selection is poor and the channels lag. WiFi is poor as well. read more

I've been using RCN for over a year now, until I recently had enough with this company and cancelled my services. I had the 500 mbps + digital TV plan (which was about $50/month for the first 12 months including equipment and free install) and I thought this was a pretty good deal, until my first bill came and I was hit with all kinds of hidden and shady fees. First off, the installation guy was not very professional at all, he was talking to himself and cursing out loud as he was trying to figure out the installation, not something you would want your kids to hear in the house. Secondly, the Internet has terrible connection in other rooms, it stops working after a week or two and requires a restart and the cable TV service is just so very bad. Thirdly, there are absolutely NO good channels that I can watch and they only give you the super unpopular/foreign channels that nobody ever watches and I am paying $20 a month for that???? I never turned on cable TV for the whole year. I had to use another service like DirectTV WHILE still paying for the incredibly ridiculous cable fees ($10 broadcast TV surcharge fee? What is that even??!?! Probably just another shady hidden fee from the many others). By the way, I couldn't just drop the cable services from my plan because that would break the bundle "deal" and I would be paying $100 bucks a month instead of the current price, which is absolutely ridiculous. So there I was, forced to pay for the useless and crappy cable service along with the internet. The shady hidden fees totalled to another additional $20 per month; not very transparent pricing there anymore is it? Regardless of what plan you choose, you WILL be slapped with large hidden fees and if you dare to modify their PERFECTLY crafted plans, you'll just end up getting charged the "regular" price which is 1x-2x more than your original price. Seriously people, just stay away from RCN and find a better internet service provider. There are better ones out there, like Starry (really wanted to try their service but my building didn't have Starry yet), look at their google/yelp reviews they look pretty good and legit. read more