Cincinnati Bell review: selling a service and not providing it 40

Hi Boltices,
My name is Katie and I work for Cincinnati Bell. I'm sorry to hear about your experience and we're happy to help switch your email addresses. Please email your account # to cincinnati.bell@fuse.net

Thanks,

Katie
Cincinnati Bell

I was making the switch to Fioptics on Sat. Feb. 26th, the technician came out at noon to do the install, So started my problems. He was at the pole on the road for an hour, then came in the house to install the internet, cable and phone. after spending four hours in my house on sat eve. he said he was done, no information on how things worked, IE, remote control, Email, and channel setup. He was actually on his way out the door, and my wife said our phone was not working. He came back in, brought his tools back out, tested the phone line, said "Uh, it was working an hour ago" I said well it's not now! after another HOUR, he said I need to go down the street and check the main distribution box. He came back 15 min. later, said they would have a different crew repair it Monday morning. Well, this monday morning has come and gone, they say now it will be tommorrow. And my TV, the package I signed up for, $110mo. Well, I'm missing 11 channels I am supposed to have, after calling INDIA, they had me on the phone for 35min. just figuring out who, and where I was! This is final ! I'm sticking with INSIGHT! Anyone reading this, DO NOT GO TO CINCINNATI BELL. IT IS A RIP-OFF BIG TIME...

Terrible experience. The tech, who mentioned he had only been on the job for 2 weeks came to our home on April 14th to install the service at 9am. After messing around until nearly 5pm with no results he finally called for help after telling us that our phone line connection from the box to the house was bad and he would have to have someone else come dig it up and replace it. Two other techs arrived and proceeded to finally get the service operational after fixing the mistakes the original tech made...had nothing to do with the phone cable from the street box to our home. It was raining outside and during the time they were in and out of our home they did not bother to wipe their feet and tracked mud all through the living room carpet...I let it go and was just glad to have them out of our home since it had taken the entire day to get the service operational. They had to exchange one cable box due to the optical audio sound did not work. Also, I did notice that the tech installing our cable box to the TV ran through the setup really quickly and I caught that it was set to 720 instead of 1080. I asked him about this and he said to "not worry about it". Now wait a minute, we paid for 1080 signal and that was one of the selling points of this service. I got online and found the codes to get into the box setup and fixed it myself. Now...the next day all is well until mid afternoon when the TV starts freezing and skipping. Called support, which by the way is outsourced to some foreign country, and was told to reset the box which I had already done multiple times to no avail. They said they'd send a tech out...the guy came and tested everything and said he could find no problem. Came in and did a factory reset on the cable box and again, it defaults to 720. I left it alone this time. An hour later the same problem, freezing/skipping TV signal. We called once again, had a tech out the next day, could not find anything wrong. Keep in mind that we are using a brand new HDMI cable from the box to our HD TV which had no problems with our previous provider. Finally we got fed up and decided to terminate the service and return to our previous carrier. We could not get anyone to come get the equipment so we had to take our own time to drive it to the Cincinnati bell store to return it. Now they are attempting to charge us $15 for the 3 days we had the service that never did work...ridiculous...one of the worst experiences we have encountered in quite some time from any company.

They took away Soap Net Channel so bummed It was the first thing I asked when getting the Fioptics it was great till you took it away now I have to figure out what to watch they can take away The Cooking channel since they have The Food Network why have two of those channels just saying

I have had a hard time getting used to the guide but other than that, we got everything we were promised. After a couple of months we started having problems. The repair person came out and had to redo everything, he even had to get someone from another department out to put in a new connection from the pole. This took hours but once they were all finished, the service worked great (again) and we have not had any more trouble.

I have problems from day 1. The tv freezes and skip.The available times for service are while I work. The communication between departments is zero and if they note accounts no one reads the notes. I know I have spent at least ten hours of my life on hold. For example this evening my phone reads 1 hour and 2 mins. The services that were purchased are still not operating eg. viewing recorded programs in every room. Tonight 2 of the tvs do not work. I am on hold with the phone number provided on the non working tv. There have been four tecs to my home since June 22 and when I call in the recording recognizes that I have made multiple phone calls..I must admit tat last week A tec was scheduled to come to my home at 6:30...too bad he called while I was working and didn't let me know the appointment had been canceled. I called and got through and was assured the next evening a tec would be here. I had a message that he would be here around 3:30. Too bad I wasn't home from work yet. I thought this was a communication company. No one has called...Customer service is not a high point in the company... The product Fioptics needs a lot of work. My advice is stay with whatever company you have and far away from Fioptics. If yo want to hear the same BS over and over just call customer service. Apparently they are all told to say the same things and can't think outside the box. I have asked if they note the accounts... the next problem is that if the accounts are noted no one reads the notes. I have spoke to reps, tecs, supervisors and more. My tv still does not work and no one is listening! I got a bill for my first mo service and that was suppose to be free, I was told to contact the sales person.UGH...If you are reading this understand I just can't explain ALL the mishaps that have occurred. I have not had 1 week of good service.

I have had 5 techs trying to correct my start-up with fiops. Installed 7/23 ..5th tech yesterday 8/23 (Supv.).TV still freezes .

We have also had problems with Fioptics TV service. The TV skips and freezes all day long plus the voice is never with the lips. I've spoken to the customer service person about the voice problem. The had me unhook the Wifi box and then plug it in again...this worked for that time but it just happens again later. I have not called about the skipping and freezing.

I have spent the last hour reading reviews and complaints about fiops.I gota laugh thinking of switching from time warner.
Cincinnati Bell touts this new system as being just short of heaven sent NOT.Guess i'll keep gettin screwed by TW untill someone really comes up with a viable option

If it were not for the price, I would not have switched. It is very frustrating. Our tv also skips and it takes or ever to "load". When we had ours installed we experienced the same frustration. No help. Lost all our email addresses. The latest issue was our security system. It "blew up". We had Dial One security and were told by the 'tech" who came out that the system was not compatibl with our home phone via Cincinnati Bell Fioptics. Not sure if that is correct but nothing else had changed. Anyone else have that problem?

Cin Bell Fioptics has been nothing but problems. We have had it for about 6 months. It has been a nightmare, not only with customer/repair services but with the service itself. We have to reboot the signal atleast 3 times a day. It is so regular that I have trained my 6 year old how to do it. We are going back to Time Warner because I am tired of dealing with unplugging, rebooting, disconnecting, reconnecting just for my family to watch TV. We originally did the switch to save money but I would rather pay a little more and not have issues like we have had. I would never recommend the Fioptics product to anyone.

Had fioptics TV and Internet (FTTN) installed in May 2012. Had problems like everyone else from day one. Signal loss, screen freezes, audio not synced, and pixelated screen. Ran speed tests during outages and bandwidth dropped off to 2-4 mbps. I don't even want to talk about the poor customer service. Eventually had two techs come out to resolve issues which I already knew was a Fiotics network issue. Both times Fioptics tech could find nothing wrong in the house or at the curb. I knew CB Fioptics was wasting my time. I guess I thought they might figure it out that they had a network issue and resolve it. I was wrong in my assumption. I gave up and dropped the Fioptics TV and kept the 10mbps Internet. It's bad enough to pay for hundreds of channels I do't even watch. TWC and CB Fioptics made it easy for me to cut the cable cord. Over pricing, poor service, and no ala carte. I watch over the air HDTV, Netflix, and Walmart VUDU.

Im glad to have read some of the reviews here as I have been unable to get fioptics installed in my home after taking of work on 2 different days now. The first install appointment I was told I would have to do some of the wiring myself since my patio covered most of the rear of house and service is underground. I did the work and rescheduled. Today I took off work and waited for installer. I was told they would call before arriving and should be out around 8 AM. After making 2 calls to them and given excuses both times I called a third time and was told they would need to reschedule. 2 lost days of work so far would I want to schedule another. If that there idea of service maybe the bumped service install date was for the best.

I live in Harrison, Ohio. We have had Cincinnati Bell Fioptics in our house since they first installed in Harrison. The technician was great made sure everything worked and that we understood how to work the TV and made sure the cable was up and running. But since that time, we have had to call them once or twice a month to have them reboot our system. I called on January 18, after talking to a person I asked for a supervisor and was put on hold for 30 minutes, I hung up. I called again and asked for a supervisor and waited only 5 minutes. That person told me to unplug the cable box and the router give it a few seconds and have a nice day. That was all I got from the supervisor. It took me longer to hold, 5 minutes, than to talk to a supervisor. Now for the 3rd day in a row, I turn the TV on and get no signal. I had talked to a field representative and somehow he got it to work, but every time we turn off the TV we get no signal when we turn it on. I hate calling for assistance because they were rude. I guess I will call for a repair order today.

i called cincy bell on sun to request a new movie channel, it took 4 more calls back to ask why my request was not initialed, each time i called changes were made to my account, all of them wrong, and each time i was told my bill would be lowered d/t a great offer, but I NEVER GOT MY ORDER STRAIT on day 3 alll my cable channels were turned off and all i had was movie channels. this service makes me miss time warner cable and i never thought i would say that!

After receiving several sales calls from Bell promoting the "great price and services of Fioptics", I finally agreed to have it installed. I've had it for 3 days. My laptop won't connect to the internet at all. When I committed the apparently heinous act of unplugging the tv, it took over an hour to get it back up and running. Last night the wireless signal was gone completely and it took 12 hours to get it back. I've tried to call customer support twice. The first time I was on hold for 45 minutes before I gave up and the second time I gave up after 20.

I live in Cincinnati and Fioptics has been a disaster. I wish they had never came to my door offering this service. We had to wait over a month for them to install it because the installers were untrained and unqualified to do the proper set up. I should have known then this was not going to get better. It hasn't. The service has been installed it is awful. I can't even watch TV at all. My picture skips, there is lag, its pixilated, it freezes, the set top box won't connect to network, my remote doesn't put out a signal...on and..on. The support is the worse I have ever experienced. Hope you like talking to Asians because its all outsourced, they don't have a clue. Whatever you do, stay away from Fioptics, at least until they get a chance to get established and work out the bugs. Sorry!

We signed up for Fioptics a year ago. We were sold on the whole house DVR at a lot less price than Time Warner or DirectTV. After multiple calls because of screen freezing and and the whole house DVR not working a technician was sent out. Low and behold, fiber optics cable has not been run down our street, we are getting Fioptics through the old phone lines. We can't use whole home DVR or DVR and watch multiple shows at once. We were told they would be running the new fiber optic cable last fall. One year later, no fiber optic cable and I have made no less then 3 calls since the fall asking for a date when they would be run on our street, still no answer. Yes my service is discounted $10 per month but I am at a point to switching back to Direct or checking out Time Warner. I just want what I signed up for.

We have had cable tv, Internet and phone service through them. I have made so many calls to these people it's not funny. The signal constantly goes out, and we have had the techs come out about 7 times now in two years. They fix it for a while but then same old problems, screen freeze, etc. Actually my cable is not working right now. There is a 3+ hour wait time to talk to someone. Wish I would have never switched, this service is a joke, and they do not care that their service sucks.

We switched to Cinti Bell Fioptics a year ago because we were told that we could get a better rate than with Time Warner. Well, we got a better rate for about a year and then it went up higher than it was with TW. We often have trouble getting on certain things on the internet. Regarding e-mail, I used to be able to get into my zoomtown email and just check the box in front of each mail that I wanted to delete and I could delete all of them at once. Now the boxes to check are not there anymore so I have over 1100 e-mails that I have to delete by clicking on the one to delete, hitting delete and waiting for them to deleter ONE AT A TIME. Do you know how long this takes? FOREVER! Please help or I will have to go to another provider.

I'm so glad I cancelled B4 they ever came to my house. I ended up keeping Xfinity, and I love this new X1 Xfinity just came out with. It has an awesome user-interface..

Yesterday my service was connected & I received my email & temporary password. I'd signed in but did not get clearance to change my temporary password ID. Is there a way to do this? Betty J. Harris...

I have had issue but customer service isnt that bad no worse than any other. I hate and i mean HATE time warner i would rather cut my arm off then go back. Fioptics isnt that bad theese people are exaggerating because there mad. Its new and keeps getting better. Most of the customer reps i have talk to have been very nice, hold time are pretty bad. My tv freeze but no more than it did woth time warner. Internet is very fast, it does have peak time drop off cb gave me a ten mega bump for free to off set this and thanks again to paul for going the extra mile. Remember its human to band wagon and exaggerate for effect. And some is just plain old not taking responsibility to learn something new.

Everything that was said. Was watching the football game today and service went out and customer service line busy. Going on 2 hrs. now and still nothing. I have had this for 2 years and the worst service I have ever paid out of the !$$ for. The bad part is that I resigned up after I learned that the contract was only limited and they went up on my bill. I am switching and hopefully this will not go on my credit report.

For the cost the service should be superb!

They sold this to my 75 year old mother. They told her she could switch back at no charge to regular service if she did not like it. Needless to say, the service was subpar. She cancelled and was told she was stuck with the fioptics phone, which does not work when the electric goes out unless you have a battery backup. We were not told this until a few weeks after the install. They would happily install it for a large fee of course. This is ridiculous. She is disabled and they are taking advantage of her.

I bought a house back in April 2012. I had DirecTV for many years and and used Cincinnati Bell basic phone service and their broadband service, which. during my move I called Cincinnati Bell to transfer my phone and internet. They then offered to bundle my Phone, Internet and TV service and save me a great deal, also telling me if I switch they will pay up to $100 of any fees I on my bill from my DirecTV. Well I have been using the service for a year and half now and ever since I switched I have had lots of issues with poor internet service. the TV service is constantly rebooting and downloading. I constantly have to reboot the reciever/DVR after watching a recorded show. I have called them several times since i had the service. My so call bundle package is now costing me over $60 dollars more than it was before I bundle. I have never received the $100 rebate and when I called them abut it I got so many transfers to I gave up. Now I am left trying to find another service that will give me what I want and save me in bills as promise by cincinnati bell.

Signed up for TV/internet/phone in Nov 2013. Problems from the start. Now tv freezes, receiving "no signal" message and blue screen. It will work for several hours, then the no signal message starts again about every 30 seconds. Customer service is useless. Have called 3 times. 3rd time told them to fix it or take it out. I really hate TWC, so will be looking somewhere else for tv service

I switched from Time Warner to Cincinnati Bell this month. The internet was too slow, so I called back as the technician advised to repartition to 20 mb internet and 30 mb t.v. The technician told me this could be done from the central office and there was no need for anyone to come out. However, even after speaking with a supervisor, they told me someone would have to come out and check my wiring. I scheduled an appt for 8-12 today. They never showed. So after wasting one of my two weekend days, I called them to find out why they never showed, and they said they took care of it from the central office at 10:30 am today. No need for someone to come out. Exactly opposite what the supervisor on the phone told me this week. They wasted my time for nothing. No apologies. Just a bunch of excuses. Wow, the lady just told me they would credit $22 a month of internet service to my account. Thanks. T.V. in my room isn't working, says to contact service provider. I'm overwhelmed at this point by the good service from Cincinnati Bell. Almost as bad as Time Warner charging me for a wireless router I never had.

Same Stuff HERE! HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE... Can't watch Netflix, because it always quits in the middle of a movie. Same with HULU PLUS. The inernet drops all my devices ALL THE TIME! The frustration, isn't worth the price difference... I'm thinking of going back to Time Warner. You are screwed by both companies and WE PAY FOR IT!

I have had Fioptics since it became available. I had problems with the Digital TV from day one. Same issues as others have all ready stated. Sometimes I would my signal when Lightning storms went through the area. Had Techs out three times and it still didn't work. Techs replaced all cabling and connections inside the house to no avail. I ended up dropping the TV and just use the Fioptics internet. It stills has issues from time to time. The Fioptics is not FTTH in my neighbourhood. It's FTTN. Difference is fiber optics cable does not run to your house with FTTN. Cincinnati Bell used existing copper wires already buried. Problem is signal loss for various reasons. Wires degrade over time. The farther away from the FTTN connection you are the signal degrades. If you are located at the other end of the neighbourhood you will more than likely have issues.

New to Fioptics. Is it normal that everytime we turn the main TV off we loose internet?

Well, I'm browsing to see if others are having issues with gaming over Cinci Bell fioptics. Wow, some of you make us appear lucky. We switched from Time Warner in late April this year. The internet performance was never as promised. The prices are higher than quoted and not any different from Time Warner. We also repartitioned drive which they said could be done from central then said someone had to come out so we waited and they didn't show then called and were told they did it from Central. T.V.'s work most of the time. Just got off phone with their tech support in the Philippines. To sum it up, they promise 20mb speed, however xfer speed is totally different and they make no promises there. Son downloaded a game yesterday that took 14 hrs at a grand rate of 0.79mb/sec. Can't play xbox with friend who has Verizon because our internet is too slow. They say fioptics, but really fioptics was not run to the house and in asking they can't give any estimated time for when they will put a box on the house and run it from street to house. After reading comments here, I'm not sure it is at the street either. Could be a quarter mile away for all I know:) I feel I was sold a bill of goods and that they advertised falsely. In hearing their support folks talk though, they deliver 20mb and do the speed test to prove it. What is needed I'm learning is xfer speed for which they make no promises and with good reason since it can be really really low. They have misleading advertising at the very least. We are on the hunt for another provider that actually does provide the speed needed to not freeze or lag during games.

DVR service is unusable. After multiple complaints to Cincinnati Bell says that the issue of playback skipping and freezing is a known issueand engineers have been working 4 months with no resolution in site...

Cincinnati bell does not tell you that once you switch to FIOPTICS you can't switch back to a copper line. I went to cancel my service and keep my email until I could get switched. They told be once I cancel internet email is gone and minimum service at 10mb would be $50 month. So they get you DO NOT SWITCH TO FIOPTICS

Fioptics internet is good. TV service needs work. The DVR provided is nothing special, locks up, slow as snails on erasing recorded shows, and not user friendly by any stretch of the imagination. Using ON DEMAND is a joke as the video doesn't fill the screen. After 4 months - ready to drop TV service.

Does anyone know how to tell if I have Fioptics? All the cable inside the house is original from TWC and the cable from the yard to the house is orange, how can it be fioptics if these old lines exist?

Worst Service from people to equipment! we are not able to choose a different provider to location and it is been nothing but horrible reps, supervisors, if you can call them that! STAY AWAY from this company at all cost! I have been on hold only to be disconnected after 45 minutes of waiting!
Bella's Restaurant Loveland

A single word describes C Bell, SUCKS. Was promised my first mont free but that never happened. Called the salesman and he said he would forward the info to whomever would correct the mistake. Still no resolution of the problem. After a year another salesman called offering to continue the same introductory price. for another year. I told him I was still due a free month and asked if I was going to receive it. He put me on hold and after talking to his supervisor he offered me 49.99 which is short of the 135.00 plus That I am still due. In my opinion, after what has transpired with my account I can only conclude that C Bell sucks. I’m going back to dish. Oh yeah, during the Super Bowl I lost the game and had to reboot everything. In light of what has happened to me I suggest that anyone even remotely considering C Bell Fioptics turn around and run away as fast as you can. C Bell screwed me once, it won’t happen again.

Why can't I get my Fiber Optics bill by mail or e-mail? Why do I have to call and wait 15-20 minutes to get the amount of my bill each month? I'll bet Time Warner would see that I got a bill each month. I'm sure things at CINBELL must really be screwed up when you can't even give them your money!