Any experience with Spectrum for internet?

[Just Dropped In]

Been waiting for high-speed internet for decades. "Spectrum" has now installed fiber lines in my rural area. The problem is, I've read so many horror stories from Spectrum customers, I'm hesitant to sign up for their service. Do any of you folks have dealings with them with your internet, TV or phone service?

 

[pburchett]

Do not let them auto draft from you bank or auto payment from your credit card. Price will continue to increase every few months despite your contract and services will continue to decline. Other than those few things they are ok'ish.

 

[skyactiv]

I did eons ago under Timer Warner and never had an issue with them. You will find upset customers with every cable and broadband provider. If you have new fiber in your area you're lucky. The caveat is people in residential neighborhoods often get 2 choices which makes for more competition. kinda. Like when you call to end service they all of the sudden offer a better price for X(X). Customer loyalty means nothing to them.

 

[Pew]

If they're the only ones in town, you'll have no choice.

Spectrum is one of those companies that you hope you'll never have to call for help. On the plus side, in my experience fiber has been more reliable than cable so you may not have to.

 

[AandPDan]

I'm on Spectrum and have been for about 6 years. During that period I've only lost internet 2 or 3 times. Once was during an extended power failure in the region and the others (very brief) were due to a storm and accident..

My speeds are above what I expected, slightly over-provisioned both up and downstream.

 

[MNgopher]

Been with Spectrum 20 years now at our current location. Expensive, but in my case they are delivering what they sold to me and advertised. Service at my address has been reliable and consistent, and when I've had issues, its been resolved in a day or two, usually with the modem being replaced. Other than price, not much to complain about. The competition came with fiber in the last year, but all in their pricing is not significantly different with the only real benefit being better upload speeds, so we stayed with spectrum.

 

[spackard]

I give Spectrum 5 stars. (I don’t think I’ve ever given 5 stars to an ISP before.)

 

[SC Maintenance]

I have had the as my only realistic option since Time Warner became spectrum. Works fine. Not cheap but what is.

I only get internet. No phone no cable.

 

[Rand]

I've had spectrum and their predecessor time-warner for 35 years.

They experience varies highly regionally and even locally.

They have never been worse with their billing
but they have never had better internet service than now

Next month switching to new fiber provider.
spectrum should have synchronous cable fall 2026 here.

 

[Cujet]

I had Spectrum in my office. Was generally good. A few outages here and there. Price was reasonable, paid with CC every month.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

I had Spectrum but it's not Fiber here. Just cable. Uploads are really slow which our kids complained about for gaming. We also had to reset our modem fairly often for some reason. Got rid of it and went with Frontier

 

[earlyre]

here's the Rub.... Spectrum does Fiber to the pole, from the pole to your house is still "cable" they offer gig speeds, but asymmetrical U/D and Charge an arm and a leg for it, with prices continually rising for no other reason than they can..

where I live, they're the only real game "in town" ( quotes because we live a couple miles out in the country)
we're currently paying around $100/mo for their base tier internet, which used to be 100 down, 11 up, but about 6 months ago, they upgraded it to 400 down, 11up...

the next town over, ( 8-10 mi away) has real Fiber to the house, from Brightspeed.
Bright Speed offers Symmetrical Fiber, up to 2 Gbps, and for approx the Price we currently pay Spectrum, we could have Symmetrical Gigabit service... if only Brightspeed offered it over here...

 

[eljefino]

In the 80s and 90s cable TV companies had "rate cards" where you could check with a regulator and get a price for a town/ region.

Now, they make you give an address or get an account so you can see the non-promotional price for your particular address.

That's fishy!

I'm on Spectrum and it works well enough. I had 20/2 service for a couple of decades since they basically forgot about me. They sent me two solicitations per month to get video service (not interested) but never bothered telling me my internet could speed up. Called them to ask what's up, now I have 300/10 for a little more money.

The best thing to happen to cable internet would be getting "real" fiber as competition. They'll know it's in your neighborhood and offer you a retention deal. If you don't have them, you don't get the deal.

 

[Hall]

Where we live, they are the only real option, but that said, I have zero complaints. Our service has been rock-solid and I'm hard-pressed to remember when we've had a direct outage (if there's a power outage, there's no internet, so not their fault). I think 9 out of 10 times when people have issues, the issue is inside their home, i.e. an obsolete router that can't keep up with a) the speed Spectrum provides and b) more and more and more internet-connected devices or it's a malware-infested computer or old desktop that's at fault.

That said, Alta Fiber is coming to our area soon and we'll probably switch if for no other reason than a lower price. Their speeds are symmetrical but I don't care that much about that. Average home users do not need 600 Mb/s upload speeds. I just want competition and then I can switch back and forth every few years and get "new customer" offers.

 

[Hall]

The problem is, I've read so many horror stories from....

Name absolutely anything. A car brand, food, plumbing service, etc and I'll find negative reviews about it.

 

[JohnnyG]

Don't jump to conclusions. Fiber Optic cable is just recently hitting a lot of neighborhoods. In fact mine was installed by Wire3 and I expect Spectrum to buy them out pretty soon.
Go for a trial run and see how it performs for you. Don't expect miracles, it won't make old equipment new again.
Look for WiFi6 on your phone or tablet, and you'll be doing OK.

The good thing about Spectrum is that they don't normally require a contract, so you can quit anytime.
The second thing is that most of those bad reviews you refer to are likely about coax internet by Spectrum, now that is outdated tech.

Fiber is the way to go.

 

[Just Dropped In]

Thanks for the many comments everyone! My new neighbors have signed up, but they're on vacation. Will ask them how their service is going when they get back. I've been getting internet through US Cellular (4G/ 5G) for a number of years. Their speeds are mediocre with phone/tower technology.

 

[GI_GRIFF]

Been waiting for high-speed internet for decades. "Spectrum" has now installed fiber lines in my rural area. The problem is, I've read so many horror stories from Spectrum customers, I'm hesitant to sign up for their service. Do any of you folks have dealings with them with your internet, TV or phone service?

I have used them for years now. They are one of the top 3 largest providers in the nation. They are also rated in the top 3 in the nation for worst service. They lure you in with a great start-up price, then go up and up and up. Also, if you hire them, make sure you have them send you a monthly bill in the US mail (USPS) and send them a check. Don't get caught up in their online bill paying crap. I still use them for my TV service. They suck, they are smooth talking slick salespeople. Just keep all this in mind, and you will be fine.

 

[spk2000]

I did not have their fiber optic service but their regular cable internet performed average but prices jumped quite often then when ATT brought fiber into our neighborhood they suddenly want to give you a special deal half price to retain your business but of course it's a 12 month special they plan on you forgetting about it in 12 months and autopay just keeping it going. Customer service is quite poor but almost every ISP is bad and ranked up there with cell phone, used car sales and lawyers. A few are good but most are not.

 

[Pew]

Thanks for the many comments everyone! My new neighbors have signed up, but they're on vacation. Will ask them how their service is going when they get back. I've been getting internet through US Cellular (4G/ 5G) for a number of years. Their speeds are mediocre with phone/tower technology.

I'm assuming they trenched it in too, instead of hanging the cable off a pole.