Metrocast Put It To Me!

[Rich]

I didn't want to take over this thread with VOIP discussion... but I'll add some more info now that I'm on a better keyboard.

Ooma is similar to Vonage, but has a much 'better' (cheaper) pricing structure.

Their hardware works the same (or maybe better if you ask other users that have switched), if you want the ultimate in phone service, place the Ooma box between your router and your cable modem, (so that the Ooma box is the the closest device to the internet) and then all your home PC's etc, after the Ooma box. Of course, this is not required, but if you want landline like phone service, it's the best thing to do.

Their pricing is quite interesting, you can choose their 'free' service and then have unlimited calling in the USA. By 'free' they mean that they will only charge you the local, state and federal fees and surcharges (such as 911 fee). In NH these fees seem to be about $3.75 per month.

If you want their advanced features, you can pay $9.95 per month (plus the other taxes and fees that we can't get away from). Their advanced features include things like custom 'black lists' to block people from calling you, as well as a community black list, which can block known telemarketers, etc. They can also forward your calls to your cell phone if your internet service is ever down, or even have a second or third (or more) phone numbers so the kids can have their own number if you want to keep your kids calls separate from yours. If you pay for the advanced features, they will port your current home phone number for free. There are also additional advanced voice mail features, etc. Check their website for the list of all the advanced features.

I thought that I could live without the advanced features, so for now I'm paying only the $3.75 per month for unlimited USA calling (they also have a addon for calling other countries if you call outside the USA a lot).

This is a far cry from the (approx) $50 a month I was paying for my FairPoint landline service (which was not unlimited USA).

It will take me only about 4 months for this box to pay for itself, even if I never use it.

One think I love, is that I have FairPoint FAST (fiber optic, similar to Verizon's FIOS), and having a home generator, and using a UPS battery on my computers, when the power goes out (even when it was out for almost 2 weeks), I always had internet access, while my neighbors with comcast cable long had lost their cable TV and phone service I had full internet access. So combine this Ooma along with the Internet TV devices (like the WD TV Live, etc.), I'm not left to reading books by candle light if the power is out for extended periods of time.

I did consider Vonage (and some others), and I'm sure they are also very good, but it's hard to beat the pricing models of the Ooma system. Check them out: www.ooma.com (Unfortunately I don't get any referal fee or kickback, I guess they do everything they can to keep their prices down.

I guess the long and short of these postings are to encourage others to get away from the hardware landline prices. These hardware 'internet phone' (VOIP) boxes work well (I hear good things about Vonage and Ooma), but stay away from the 'bargain' sounding 'magicJack' and other similar units.

[webmaster]

The Ooma has been discussed many times on this forum. Do a search on "Ooma".

I have been using Ooma for over 5 years. It works perfectly and has saved us at least $4000 in monthly charges. I get charged absolutely nothing for the service. No taxes or fees. That is because I was one of the first users and at the time they promised it was completely free for life. That has now changed but they are still obligated to our original agreement.

Ooma has been desperately trying to get me to upgrade so I would be subject to the new agreement which includes monthly taxes and fees. They keep offering me deep discounts on their new equipment to get me to upgrade. I want to keep my tax and fee free service as long as possible so I'm not making any changes. Someday the old Ooma box will fail and I'll be forced into their newer agreement but until then I'm enjoying 100% free phone service.

Even with the small fees I would highly recommend Ooma. It works perfectly for me. As someone else mentioned, one of the best things about it is that you plug it into a wall jack and all the phones in the house work normally. The online voice mail is also very handy.

[Macer]

I have had OOMA for a year and love it. Bring the box up there when we go, same phone number and works awesome. I have the premiere service and the options are fantastic. No more telemarketers when using the blacklist. Quality is as good or better than AT&T. Well worth the investment.

[magicrobotmonkey]

I have a local # through Google Voice setup to ring both my wife and my cell phones. We give it out as our home number. As long as we remember to tell each other when one of us is expecting a call, it generally works out pretty well and it's completely free.

[laketrout]

I 2nd the Ooma phone service its great. I hook it up to my router. As for metrocast its a joke. High priced for and "SLIM PICKENS" when you go just basic. I found that with my new HDTV set I don't need the DTA converter I get all the basic channels plus HD channels I get WENH channel 11 but I get 5 channels without the Metrocast converter and only 1 with the converter. Go figure.. I have Comcast at a house in Southern NH - much, much better.. better pricing, selections etc..

[BroadHopper]

I have the QAM tuner in my HDTV. I would occasionally check the Metrocast lineup on line and when there is a revision, on the day of the revision I will do a channel setup to pick up all existing channels. Normally the 'analog' numbers (1-77) are in their respective channels. It is the digital channels that you must match to the corresponding 'analog' channels.

For instance Channel 9 is analog, 9-1 is 9-HS, 9-5 is SD (digital). You will see 9-2 which is METV and so on. I keep a spreadsheet and change it whenever they revise it. Early on the website use to have the QAM lineup but not anymore, they want you to rent a box. I refuse.

Comcast recently won a court ruling to encrypt QAM channels, forcing customers like me to rent a box. I have experience this yet on Metrocast and I expect them to do so soon.

Cable companies been bleeding subscribers for years, and there are articles describing them as dinosaurs, they will soon be extinct. You would thing it would be good business practice to appeal to customers. Instead they are turning them off, one step at a time.

[HellRaZoR004]

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

I have the QAM tuner in my HDTV. I would occasionally check the Metrocast lineup on line and when there is a revision, on the day of the revision I will do a channel setup to pick up all existing channels. Normally the 'analog' numbers (1-77) are in their respective channels. It is the digital channels that you must match to the corresponding 'analog' channels.

For instance Channel 9 is analog, 9-1 is 9-HS, 9-5 is SD (digital). You will see 9-2 which is METV and so on. I keep a spreadsheet and change it whenever they revise it. Early on the website use to have the QAM lineup but not anymore, they want you to rent a box. I refuse.

Comcast recently won a court ruling to encrypt QAM channels, forcing customers like me to rent a box. I have experience this yet on Metrocast and I expect them to do so soon.

Cable companies been bleeding subscribers for years, and there are articles describing them as dinosaurs, they will soon be extinct. You would thing it would be good business practice to appeal to customers. Instead they are turning them off, one step at a time.

I use to get the local channels just by plugging in the Comcast line from the street to the back of my digital equipped TV. This changed a couple months ago and can no longer do it. They keep calling me to get me to sign back up - I refuse.

[First Mate]

For anyone who uses their TV tuner, I found out today that Metrocast has posted a link for QAM channel listings on their website.

Go to metrocast.com, choose "TV Lineup" at the top, enter the zip code, then under "More Listings" select "Belmont Digital QAM". There's a link to a printable PDF as well. I can retire my scribbled cheat sheet!

At least I can find the Sox now...NESN is at 36.33.

[Rusty]

Here it is: http://www.metrocast.com/channel_lineup.cfm Then click on Belmont-Digital QAM

[Happy Gourmand]

We have seasonal service scheduled to be reactivated on 5/15. I called today to get it turned back on early as we will be starting our weekends in Meredith this weekend.
A very sweet sounding young lady informed me that there would be an additional charge of $40 to start me service early.....I don't think so.
I will be looking into the Verizon box that uses my cell coverage for internet. anybody with any experience with this?
Add me to the list of people who think that Metrocast sucks!

[pcmc]

TPG, I looked into a device the Verizon store displays on their counter. I was told by the lady behind the counter that the 'jetpac' (if I remember correctly) wasn't for watching TV with, because the data would be used up to quickly. If that's what your referring too.

[Crusty]

Originally Posted by The Phantom Gourmand

We have seasonal service scheduled to be reactivated on 5/15. I called today to get it turned back on early as we will be starting our weekends in Meredith this weekend.
A very sweet sounding young lady informed me that there would be an additional charge of $40 to start me service early.....

Are you sure that this is an "early reconnect fee"? From the general pricing I am familiar with it sounds like they are just charging for the additional 1/2 month service.

[Sunbeam lodge]

Originally Posted by The Phantom Gourmand

We have seasonal service scheduled to be reactivated on 5/15. I called today to get it turned back on early as we will be starting our weekends in Meredith this weekend.
A very sweet sounding young lady informed me that there would be an additional charge of $40 to start me service early.....I don't think so.
I will be looking into the Verizon box that uses my cell coverage for internet. anybody with any experience with this?
Add me to the list of people who think that Metrocast sucks!

I have been a loyal customer for 24 years. I go on the seasonal plan for the winter. Once or twice a season I like to return to check out the house. This year I went home to check house and needed the computer for a few days.
Metrocast wanted $140 for the month even though I only needed it for the two days. I complained but I paid as, i had no alternative. Now I just want my service turned on for the summer. They insist I pay another $40 to turn system back on. I called and complained , they say it is policy. I said it may be policy but there has to be someone in that company that can use common sense or logic when it comes to providing customer service. I explained many customers go away for winter and they should allow at least one visit and hookup to accommodate loyal long term customers a few day's stay. They used to turn system on and off for a few days as they did it right from office. Now no consideration of even consider customer complaints because they have a monopoly. Is there another company I can switch to and stop, after 24 years, of paying them. What is the matter with businesses in this country that cannot understand they are willing to give up loyal customers without any consideration of their stupid policy's. Absolutely no logic.

[upthesaukee]

I worked for a large office supply retail store, and I can't tell you the number of times we had our corporate office call and tell us to satisfy the customer, no matter what; all the result of a letter / email to the President.

Worst case scenario was someone trying to return an HP scanner, and they had no receipt. Usually this would not be a problem, but the scanner was not a model we carried, the UPC was not in our computer file, and the matching box they had was a box with a Walmart sticker on this. Even though we pointed this out to the customer, they were not satisfied and emailed the company. About 2-3 hours after our first dealings with the customer, we had a call from the President's office telling us to satisfy the customer. We simply picked a SKU that was for a model that was similar to the Walmart model. Called the customer, and they came down and reamed us out for making a big deal out of it.

Soooooooooooooooo, the squeaky wheel can get the grease. Contact the office of the President of Metrocast, tell them how unhappy you are, and see what happens.

Not taking sides here. Just in the Corporate world, sometimes this is all it takes. How hard is it to turn the service on effective May 1 rather than May 15 and start billing monthly???

[tis]

I don't think it will work with the cable companies, up. They are so miserable, they don't care.

[BobbyA]

WHAT a joke!!!!! Here it is Bruins semi-finals with expanded service and on May 1st.NO GAME!!!!!!! BACK TO A DISH.SCREW METROCAST!!!!!!!!!

[jeffk]

Don't most utilities (electric, phone, ...) charge a start/stop fee of some kind? Why would the cable people be any different?

And as to the $140 for a few days of service, they sell their service on a monthly basis. That's a reasonable business model for what they do. Dropping in for a couple days use is harder for them to track and I'm sure they don't want to get into figuring out who is using the system just for the weekend. In most areas, monthly service charges are a very reasonable model. People live there full time. In an area where a lot of people are here only occasionally they might like to pay per use but that is not the normal model.

Don't get me wrong, I think the cable company charges outrageous monthly prices but it's part of the entertainment industry and we always pay absurd prices for our entertainment. However, these policies, although they don't meet your specific needs, are not unreasonable.

[wickedtravelah]

I noticed that Metrocast will charge you upfront for the remainder of the billing cycle and then possibly the next month when you are in a new billing month.

When you stop the service for the season, you will receive a credit the next month for the remainder of time not used.

I was 2 days into a new billing cycle and they charged my account $160 for the entire month. We turned the service off on the 3rd day and when the next months bill came in we had a credit of $145 or so.....

[Happy Gourmand]

Originally Posted by jeffk

Don't most utilities (electric, phone, ...) charge a start/stop fee of some kind? Why would the cable people be any different?

And as to the $140 for a few days of service, they sell their service on a monthly basis. That's a reasonable business model for what they do. Dropping in for a couple days use is harder for them to track and I'm sure they don't want to get into figuring out who is using the system just for the weekend. In most areas, monthly service charges are a very reasonable model. People live there full time. In an area where a lot of people are here only occasionally they might like to pay per use but that is not the normal model.

Don't get me wrong, I think the cable company charges outrageous monthly prices but it's part of the entertainment industry and we always pay absurd prices for our entertainment. However, these policies, although they don't meet your specific needs, are not unreasonable.

I will have to wait till 5/15 when the service os scheduled to be turned back on with NO ADDITIONAL FEE. There is a $40 FEE if I want to turn it on before that. This $40 is not a partial month usage fee, it is an additional fee.

[windsail]

My experience here in Jersey has been if you complain enough they don't cut the bill but will give you free premium channels for 6 months. It might help to keep calling

Originally Posted by tis

I don't think it will work with the cable companies, up. They are so miserable, they don't care.

[beaner]

We've had Expanded Basic cable TV service with Metrocast for many years. (No phone, internet or converter box). This past January they hit us with an effective rate increase of 14.9%; the previous year it was 10.1%. After reviewing our bills for the past 12 months, I discovered that the cost of Expanded Basic cable TV is now greater than the cost of electricity for our household (by @ $130 this year)! Granted, we have oil heat/hot water and no kids living at home. Even so, this realization was eye-opening, to say the least. I called Metrocast and was told that they will only refund about 1/3 of the actual per diem cost for early cancellation, or we'd downgrade to basic cable today. Instead, I calendared a reminder to call them back on the last day of our billing period.

[BroadHopper]

No internet! Seems like the cable was cut with a weed wacker! Instead of burying the cable between the house and the junction box they just lay it on the ground and let the grass and bark mulch hide it! A call was place to Metrocast yesterday and I am still waiting!

This is definitely a no brainer. You would think burying the cable would make sense.

[wifi]

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

No internet! Seems like the cable was cut with a weed wacker! Instead of burying the cable between the house and the junction box they just lay it on the ground and let the grass and bark mulch hide it! A call was place to Metrocast yesterday and I am still waiting!

This is definitely a no brainer. You would think burying the cable would make sense.

Lazy installer? Company policy? They do it to your neighbors too ? If all else fails, it might be easier to just put a small trench yourself and bury the sucker...

Sometimes its better to just take things into your own hands

[Sunbeam lodge]

Originally Posted by upthesaukee

I worked for a large office supply retail store, and I can't tell you the number of times we had our corporate office call and tell us to satisfy the customer, no matter what; all the result of a letter / email to the President.

Worst case scenario was someone trying to return an HP scanner, and they had no receipt. Usually this would not be a problem, but the scanner was not a model we carried, the UPC was not in our computer file, and the matching box they had was a box with a Walmart sticker on this. Even though we pointed this out to the customer, they were not satisfied and emailed the company. About 2-3 hours after our first dealings with the customer, we had a call from the President's office telling us to satisfy the customer. We simply picked a SKU that was for a model that was similar to the Walmart model. Called the customer, and they came down and reamed us out for making a big deal out of it.

Soooooooooooooooo, the squeaky wheel can get the grease. Contact the office of the President of Metrocast, tell them how unhappy you are, and see what happens.

I wish I knew how to send them the large amount of complaints from this website. you would think there are metrocast employees that read this forum

[patman]

Originally Posted by Sunbeam lodge

I wish I knew how to send them the large amount of complaints from this website. you would think there are metrocast employees that read this forum

Email is good, but make sure you put it in writing also:

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/...9&postcount=23

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Sunbeam lodge

I have been a loyal customer for 24 years. I go on the seasonal plan for the winter. Once or twice a season I like to return to check out the house. This year I went home to check house and needed the computer for a few days.
Metrocast wanted $140 for the month even though I only needed it for the two days. I complained but I paid as, i had no alternative. Now I just want my service turned on for the summer. They insist I pay another $40 to turn system back on. I called and complained , they say it is policy. I said it may be policy but there has to be someone in that company that can use common sense or logic when it comes to providing customer service. I explained many customers go away for winter and they should allow at least one visit and hookup to accommodate loyal long term customers a few day's stay. They used to turn system on and off for a few days as they did it right from office. Now no consideration of even consider customer complaints because they have a monopoly. Is there another company I can switch to and stop, after 24 years, of paying them. What is the matter with businesses in this country that cannot understand they are willing to give up loyal customers without any consideration of their stupid policy's. Absolutely no logic.

They know you are mad, but they also know you won't switch.

[dt5150]

metrocast policy is not set at the local level, it comes down from it's parent company, harron communications in pa.

the squeaky wheel does indeed get the grease.. usually. the customer svc rep you get on the phone most likely doesn't have any or much authority to waive fees etc. you may get better results by asking to speak with the their supervisor. or if need be, run it up the chain to the regional general manager.

they do indeed read the emails sent to the customer service address so by all means email them.

[Flylady]

I had the same issue last year. Lesson learned. I schedule my service to begin May 1st this year rather than the traditional 15th. Just in case I do arrive early. either way its going to cost but I would rather get the service than pay them an extra fee.