WOW: wow? or no wow?
March 24, 2015 12:37 PM   Subscribe

Friendly people from WOW Cable/Internet/Phone are blowing up my mailbox and doorbell with cheap offers to switch over from Comcast. Is this a terrible idea?

I have no great love for Comcast, but their internet is fast. That's all we use them for anyway. But that is costing me $76.95 a month. WOW says they can give me internet and 75 channels of cable for $65. Is it awful and slow or something? What is the catch?

WOW says their service is 4 Mb/s. Comcast doesn't specify what I am getting on their site. It's "Xfinity."

I am in the Chicagoland area, if it matters.
posted by DirtyOldTown to Technology (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
We just did the opposite; our $70 WOW business internet (outside Cleveland) was crazy slow so we are now sending our $70 to Time Warner for much faster Internet instead. WOW was totally fine other than that we weren't getting the speeds we expected; their customer support is pretty good.

Do a speed test to figure out what you're getting now, if you haven't; that will give you a benchmark. Also be aware that 4Mbps is not a guarantee, it's a "may be as fast as". There are many factors that have nothing to do with the provider that can throttle your speed.

All in all, if you're happy with what you have, $10/mo savings doesn't seem worth it to me.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 12:58 PM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


My parents have WOW in the Cleveland area, and my experience with their service has been absolutely abysmal. I'm not a huge fan of Comcast, but would unhesitatingly recommend them before WOW. I stayed with my parents for a week over the summer last year, and when I ran a speed test on their internet, they were getting less than 1mbps downstream. After calling and complaining, it's gotten up to about 2mbps, which...I guess is ok, if you never do anything but check your email and read Metafilter? Watching anything on streaming at their house is utterly impossible.

It's not something that I'd recommend, and certainly not to save ten bucks a month--which, in my experience with WOW, is only a promo rate, and is about half of their "standard" rate. Don't do it.
posted by MeghanC at 12:59 PM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Speed test is here.
Xfinity is just the name Comcast uses for a number of it services because it knows most people have a bad reaction to just the word Comcast. It won't specify on the site your speed because it can range from a pokey 3 Mbps all the way up to 150 Mbps*, although its uncommon for the average household to have more than 20 or 30 (with fancy cable) Mbps. If all you are interested in is internet WOW has 30 Mbps for 30$ plus fees and taxed, and it appears you can bring your own modem (saves cash) and they don't throttle or otherwise mess with your connection which is a sign that they aren't giant bastards like At&T & Comcast.

I would suggest taking a look at RCN, which has been around Chicago for a while and generally has pretty decent deals.

*Theoretically. Cable internet speeds usually fall short of advertised rates, especially around the times of day you'll actually want to use it. It's not a deal breaker.
posted by zenon at 1:03 PM on March 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


I'm in Chicago and I'm pretty sure the $75 Comcast tier is in the 12-15mbs speed range. You should do a speed test to find out.

I also have Comcast and have the $50 tier plan, which is between 5-7mbs. It's fast enough for my purposes, but I don't do a ton of HD streaming, just regular old basic D. Just to put it in perspective.

Since I don't give 2 craps about cable, $65 for 4mpbs wouldn't be a switch I'd make.

Use this as a bargaining tool to call Comcast and get your rates lowered. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

If RCN is available where you are, look into them. I've only heard great things. Sadly, I'm in an RCN nozone. :(
posted by phunniemee at 1:03 PM on March 24, 2015


We have WOW in Detroit and have no complaints. Cable and internet. No contracts, good support, fast speeds.
posted by dpx.mfx at 1:29 PM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


With Comcast, you are paying for a specific speed -- it's not just "Xfinity." After I selected my package, I did have a hell of a time figuring out which speed I was paying for, though. For instance, the "performance starter" level is 6mbps and costs $30 to start. The "performance" speed is 50 mbps and costs $40 a month as a new customer. After a promotion ended, that shot up to like $80, which is why I was trying to figure out what speed I was paying for. If you are paying $77, you are almost surely paying more than you need to. If you threaten to quit or say you can't afford it, they will give you the same promotion they give new customers.

All of this is to say, 4 mbps is very slow. If you have 50 mbps with Comcast right now and are an active internet user, you will probably not want to go down to 4 mbps. You should first figure out what speed you have with Comcast, and see if they will give you a deal. You can also try speedtest.net and see how fast your internet is. For what it's worth, my Comcast internet clocks in at about 10 mbps faster than their advertised service.
posted by AppleTurnover at 1:37 PM on March 24, 2015


I'm in Central Ohio but LOVE having WOW and sticking it to the Time Warner man (no Comcast here). Great service here, but that doesn't really help you. Ditto to all the advice about testing your speeds, 4mb down is not very fast these days, especially for that price.
posted by PaulaSchultz at 1:43 PM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


You can call Comcast and say "I'm thinking of switching to WOW (or Direct TV or whatever) -- why should I stay with you?" The more specific you get with their offer, the better.

It's far more expensive for them to recruit a new Comcast client than it is for them to come down on the price on your current package. I did this for my cable package (which was ridiculously expensive) and mentioned what the local cable company was offering. Not only did Comcast lower our monthly bill for the next three years, they threw in all sorts of pay cable stations that we never got before.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 2:29 PM on March 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Also in Chicagoland and consistently blasted with WOW stuff. When we moved into our house a few years ago, my husband had major issues trying to schedule an appointment and get some basic info. We got frustrated and ended up with Comcast.
posted by Fig at 4:17 PM on March 24, 2015


Like PaulaSchultz, I'm in Central Ohio, and we've had good experiences with WOW. We pay 35 dollars a month for internet only (it's expected to go up to 50 after two years). I personally don't pay attention to the speed (why's everything gotta be so darn fast anyway?), but my partner does a lot of online gaming, for which speed is a definite factor. He's never complained about it, and I've never noticed any lag when I've watched him play. We don't have any problems with Netflix either.

Looking at the other comments here, it seems that where you live probably has a big impact. WOW has a lot of support here in Columbus, so they probably have a good infrastructure. I often see WOW trucks around my area doing maintenance on their lines. They've had a strong presence almost the entire time I've lived here (14 years). Customer service has always been good here, and no problems setting up the appointment to get it hooked up. Maybe whoever manages the Columbus area is just more on top of things than whoever manages Chicago. Or maybe the local laws make it easier for smaller cable companies to do business.
posted by sam_harms at 4:34 PM on March 24, 2015


They all fix the prices, and you have to deal with your provider to get the best deals. You have to deal with them constantly.
posted by Oyéah at 5:27 PM on March 24, 2015


We have WOW in Detroit area. Went to them when our town finally allowed some competition, and saved almost $100/mo for the 1st yr. Now that the 1st yr is up, prices are creeping up & got a letter last month saying we need to rent adapters for all sets @ $5/ea. Time to price the competition again. I hate this game of calling & changing just to not get ripped off.
posted by RichardHenryYarbo at 7:31 AM on March 25, 2015


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