RCN Stinks

RCN is one of the relatively small companies offering consumers cable, Internet and phone service in several parts of the US, namely: Boston, Chicago, Washington, DC metro area, New York City, and Eastern Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Allentown). I have been a customer of this company for many years, ever since it acquired a local service provider in the DC area that I used. I am fed up with RCN and strongly urge others to either avoid it or drop it.

Why have I come to this conclusion? As it has happened several times a year, a few days ago RCN did not provide my cable and Internet service for two days. I made more than ten phone calls to RCN and at no time were they able to give me any information about when my service would resume. These days most of us are incredibly dependent on the Internet and email access. So being without service for two days was a lot worse than an inconvenience. I earn some money by working on the Internet and do online banking also, as well as use email all the time. And it also angered me that I missed at least five new TV shows that I had been looking forward to.

If I had phone service also with RCN, then I would have lost that as well.

This is a company that keeps touting its wonderful and reliable service in advertisements and on its website. This is what they say and promise: "RCN delivers a better customer experience. You'll receive helpful answers to your questions, plus advanced technology and world-class services. We think it's what you deserve. Quality customer service from people who care. If you've forgotten what it feels like to be satisfied with your entertainment provider, now is the time for you to "Come Home to RCN."

They lie. They do not provide excellent service.

One of the greatest sources of aggravation is that all of its technical support comes from people located in the Philippines. More than half the time you cannot easily understand them or they cannot understand you. Even worse, is that they are obviously reading from scripts on a screen and do not provide excellent and useful remedies for technical problems. Clearly, RCN has went through bankruptcy in 2004 and was recently acquired by some financial company has, like so many other awful American companies, outsourced the technical support function overseas to cut costs.

Of course, all the sales people are Americans, because the company does not want any language problems interfering with selling you more services.

RCN is clearly one of the smallest broadband service providers in the nation with something over 400,000 residential customers, considering that there is roughly 100 million households buying cable and Internet services. In other words, RCN is miniscule compared to companies like Comcast and Verizon. All this means that RCN and its financial disadvantages will continue to pose both lousy service and uncertainty for consumers. A recent filing with the government showed a loss of some 3,000 customers. I intend to add to that.

These days you want to ask companies that want your business whether or not their technical support staff on the phone will be in another country. That was one of my first questions when I spoke to sales person at Verizon as I gathered information on switching from RCN to them.