Review by openbox9 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 4.9 years, 1643 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Navarre,Santa Rosa,FL
 $117 per month
 about 4 days
 "12 Month intro pricing"
 "Poor customer support"
 "Satellite and DSL might be better deal"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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****UPDATE****
Well, it's been a year and a half since I first obtained service from Mediacom. Since the initial service was set up, I've added Mediacom's phone service which eventually entitled me to their VIP service. Overall, the service has improved, but it still has a ways to go.
I've had a few problems with my digital TV, specifically, repeated outages of my VOD. After three truck rolls and replacement of my STB, the TV service has been stable. I still think the service is overpriced given the mediocre quality of the analog channels. I'm not the big TV watcher in my family and my wife seems content (especially with the Sinclair issue resolved) so I won't worry too much. Although, I would seriously like to see Mediacom add HD channels to their pathetic offering. Also, migrating sports channels to a sports tier so that my cost are lowered would be awesome (I don't care about watching sports).
Phone service has been decent since I've had the service. I liken the voice quality to that of a cell phone, not great, but bearable. I've only had a couple of intermittent outages that we easily solved by rebooting the MTA. I would never pay the full price of $49.99/mth for the service if I wasn't receiving the bundled discount. For $29.99/mth, the service is ok. Still overpriced, and I would jump in a heartbeat at the chance to pay less for an option of packaged minutes of long distance.
On to the HSI. This is the service I've had the most problems with in regards to Mediacom. I got off to a really rough start, but things have slowly improved. I applaud Mediacom for upping service offerings and hope that they continue to do so, as long as their network can handle the load. Since I qualify for the VIP service, I have the 15/1 HSI package. Periodic speed tests show ~11 Mbps down and ~900 Kbps up, so I definitely can't complain. I would love to see more upload capacity, but beggars can't be choosers.
Finally, just a comment about Mediacom's customer service. Quite simply, Mediacom's phone support is the worst I have ever experienced with a US company. I easily receive better, timelier, and more accurate responses from these forums than I ever have from calling Mediacom's customer support. The only reason I even attempt to call is if I know I need a truck roll. Even then, long hold times and semi-knowledgeable people on the other end of the phone, make for a painful experience.
Bottom line, if my monthly rate stays the same and my services continue to improve as they have over the last several months, I will most likely remain a Mediacom customer. On the other hand, if may rate goes up in a few months because of expiration of an ongoing promo price (I originally thought it was for 12 mths, but I still have part of the promo) or my service quality stagnates or declines, I will probably shop around for alternatives.
****END UPDATE****
Scheduling service "installation" was fairly straightforward and occurred on the day I requested. I only have to minor complaints about the installation. One, Mediacom only wires three new connections in your house without having to pay extra money for other connections. No big deal, I can do the others myself. Secondly, Mediacom (along with every other service provider in this country so it seems) gave a installation window of 4 hours and arrived towards the end of that window. Frustrating to to off work for half a day.
"Installation" aside, the quality and reliability of my service in the three weeks that I've had service has been utterly horrible. I'm lucky to have a synced modem half of the time. I've placed nine calls to tech support in three weeks and have had three techs in my house troubleshooting my line. Each time, nothing has been found wrong because my line mysteriously works when I'm on the phone or working with a tech at my house.
The only thing tech support can tell me is that my modem looks good (modem is same modem that was rock-solid for a year on Cox's network in Omaha, NE) and that Mediacom is doing "massive" updates in my town, but yet most of the other modems in my neighborhood are online. Which of course puzzles the technicians and they don't know what's happening.
I have the fourth technician scheduled to rewire the outside of my house this Friday because they honestly don't know what the problem is. I have a feeling that they're grasping for straws. We'll see what happens after that.
So far, I've only complained about my internet connection. My digital TV is just as suspect, the only difference is, I don't care about the TV. That's my wife's realm.
So, I will give Mediacom until Friday to fix the problem. If not, I'm off to DSL and Dish Networks.
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