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YouTubeWOW cable has recently added service in the area that I live. I have been a Time Warner customer for many years. WOW is offering service that compares to TW at about $60.00 less a month. Sounds like either one is way over charging, or the other is starting out very low. Thoughts about switching from TW to WOW...$60.00 a month adds up!
Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion
WOW vs Time Warner
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tolemac5050
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Posted 11 months ago # -
JimL2
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I used WOW's internet about a year, and found their services to be comparable to TWC. I only stopped using them once they began collecting info about their customers in a manner that made me uncomfortable. They've also been guilty of using their DNS servers to return ads rather than "URL not found"s, and some other questionable behavior in terms of tampering with data. I imagine they're "forced" to do this in order to match prices with the 500 lb gorilla that is TWC, but it's still icky.
Posted 11 months ago # -
groundrules
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customer service has come up in several of these discussions when comparing cable, internet and phone companies. But here's my general question (sounds snarky but i'm serious): if you have to use customer service at all, aren't they doing something wrong? I mean, I'd prefer never to have a reason to get on the phone with any of them. Just bring me my data reliably, send me a steady bill reliably, and we're all good...
Posted 11 months ago # -
mazzyD
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groundrules wrote >>
customer service has come up in several of these discussions when comparing cable, internet and phone companies. But here's my general question (sounds snarky but i'm serious): if you have to use customer service at all, aren't they doing something wrong? I mean, I'd prefer never to have a reason to get on the phone with any of them. Just bring me my data reliably, send me a steady bill reliably, and we're all good...Exactly. I had to deal with TW customer service way too many times during the few years I was with them. I lost service for an extended period at least four times, had trouble getting them out for service calls when the service went out, and they accidentially deleted my whole account (email addresses and all) not once, but twice.
With WOW, I've only had to deal with customer service once. The internet connection had gotten slow and would cut out intermittently. The tech came out with no hassle, replaced the old modem, and then reran all the coax from the pole to the house and replaced the line that was on the exterior of the house.
Posted 11 months ago # -
CalebR
Lincoln Village
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I like WOW. On Demand they have free shows on most channels and some even on HD. I only had to call WOW after they required new boxes for TV's without a box, and that was just to active it. I really like WOW.. and I didn't peak to a computer LOL.
Posted 11 months ago # -
tolemac5050
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Thanks for the input all...the yearly savings is $708.00. That is alot of $$$!!!
Posted 11 months ago # -
bob.os
Columbus *not* Cbus
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For the geeks: WOW! recently started to shut off their analog cable signal, which used standard channels to tune in stations sent over the coax. Any standard TV, digital or analog could receive these ~90 stations.
WOW! is unique among cable providers in the US in that the digital signals that replaced the analog are unencrypted, so if you have a TV with a digital tuner, you can plug the coax into the back of your TV and get all of their basic cable range, along with local HDTV channels without the hassle of a set-top-box.
I'm sticking with them because this allows me to use my MythtTV DVR to still record any of those channels. I just had to buy a digital tuner card and I'm good to go. My TV works just as it did before. I just had to rescan for channels. No STB.
Simply put, WOW! treats me less like a thief than any other cable provider.
That said, I had their HD STB/DVR last summer and found it to be less functional than most of the VCRs that I've owned. It also had a truly awful interface and went away as soon as the World Cup was over.
I have one of their mid-tier internet packages and it has been plenty solid for everything we've thrown at it, ESPN3 and Netflix streaming included. (BTW, WOW! also provides ESPN3 to their subscribers).
Posted 11 months ago # -
GCrites80s
5xNW
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They still had analog pay-per-views for years after everybody else went digital only. Reminds me of when you had to go to Vets Memorial to watch stuff like Wrestlemania, boxing and NASCAR on closed-circuit TV.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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bman
New Albany
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I swapped from Insight to ATT UVerse, great decision. I had Verizon FiOS in Fort Wayne which is a step up from U Verse but when you compare all that you get with AT&T down here vs the local competition if you have access to U Verse I would switch.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Coy
Discovery District
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I dropped TWC a couple of weeks ago when they decided to up my bill by 10% and not tell me they were going to do it. They tried to talk me into staying and offered to drop the price again, but I don't trust folks that work like that, so I took my cash elsewhere....
That was on a Sunday.
From Monday to Thursday an automated call center for TWC called me approx 25 times.
I work third shift, so this woke me up repeatedly, only to have the line go dead, or no one at the call center pick up.I called TWC and had them put me on their do not call list.
Then they woke me up the next day... twice...
The last person I talked to got an earful, and I haven't heard back.Posted 11 months ago # -
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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bman wrote >>
I swapped from Insight to ATT UVerse, great decision. I had Verizon FiOS in Fort Wayne which is a step up from U Verse but when you compare all that you get with AT&T down here vs the local competition if you have access to U Verse I would switch.When two AT&T salesdroids showed up at my door (for the 3rd time) I politely asked them to leave.
When one of them wanted to argue with me about not letting him finish his pitch I very FIRMLY asked them to leave.
About 30 minutes later I noticed someone had moved some canine feces onto my welcome mat. I'm on a very low volume road, nobody else was here in the intervening 30 minutes. I did not see them do it, but it's pretty obvious.
FUCK AT&T. Seriously, fuck their sleezy ass tactics. They will never get my business.
Posted 11 months ago # -
reelfreak
Waaaay NE Side
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I've never had Time Warner, well, unless Qube counts. I've been a WOW customer since they came to the Columbus area and love their service. They've recently beefed up their HD offerings and it is rumored that their DVR is getting a long overdue upgrade this Fall. They were trying to push Digital Terminal Adapters on customers for use on any TV that didn't have a converter box. They backed down when customers complained and pointed out there was no reason for these devices if you had a TV with digital tuner. If you have old analog sets, WOW will provide two adapters for free until 2013; they're $1.99 a month after that. Service is very reliable in my area and the price is very affordable. Insight has been offering some ridiculously low pricing, but I've heard some bad things about their Internet service. AT&T is way more than I am willing to pay for cable and Internet.
Posted 11 months ago # -
bastardsuperstar
ゴジラ
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does wow have g4tv?
Posted 11 months ago # -
bob.os
Columbus *not* Cbus
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Rockmastermike wrote >>
bob.os wrote >>
WOW! is unique among cable providers in the US in that the digital signals that replaced the analog are unencrypted,this is very interesting. thanks for the info. They did not used to do that.
Yep, and as reelfreak pointed out, they made the change in reaction to customer feedback. Here's the entry on their customer service blog. They also have technical employees publicly participating in forums like those at DSLreports.com
I'd be more enthused about ATT UVerse if their technology was open in any way, but it isn't.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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bob.os wrote >>
Rockmastermike wrote >>
bob.os wrote >>
WOW! is unique among cable providers in the US in that the digital signals that replaced the analog are unencrypted,this is very interesting. thanks for the info. They did not used to do that.
Yep, and as reelfreak pointed out, they made the change in reaction to customer feedback. Here's the entry on their customer service blog. They also have technical employees publicly participating in forums like those at DSLreports.com
I'd be more enthused about ATT UVerse if their technology was open in any way, but it isn't.their tech seems to mostly just be video streams over IP. Nothing that special there. I do that at home from my home-brew video-on-demand system. I think your MYTH package can do that too. I'm told that the compression is lower than a lot of cable providers (*cough* comcast *cough*), but I guess you can do that when you're using your customer's bandwidth to send the video stream and not RF like cable systems do. Of course the advantage to them is that they have total control over what can decode those streams. As you say they've created a totally closed system.
and because I hate them so much I'm going to punctuate my statements with the following:
Posted 11 months ago #
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