Cincinnati Bell

It’s been years sense I last had CBI, and I was thinking of calling today to get internet to save some money over time warner; however, after reading these reviews, I’ll pass. CBI was horrible years ago when we had it, and it appears nothings changed.

We made the mistake of installing FIOPTICS over four months ago. We have had nothing but issues. Our first issue was the cable and internet went and when you would call the service line they want to spend all this time having you unplug things and plug them back in which never works. When a technician finally arrived (that took a week) then he explained that the reason we were having so much trouble was the FIOPTIC lines were too far away from our home for the signal to reach and that was causing our picture to freeze or the cable to go out completely. A week later CBI was on our street laying FIOPTIC lines. The service did improve for a month or so. Then we began having problems again with the television freezing or the internet going out. I work from home so the internet operating is my biggest concern. They wanted me to wait a week for a technician to come to my home and fix the issue. This is the customer support I get for $ 220 a month. I had to work from my neighbor’s Time Warner internet while I waited for CBI to show up. After arguing with CBI and demanding to speak with a supervisor, they finally agreed to rush a technician out to solve my problem (2 days later). A side note, their technicians they send to your home are knowledgeable, very professional and courteous. They are much more helpful than the phone technician from the Philippians that I struggle to understand and who can only have me unplug things or do a reset from their location.
Then 4 weeks ago our television froze on one picture and we couldn’t get it off the screen. Even after unplugging boxes it remained frozen. After waiting 8 days, they sent a technician to replace our DVR box. When the technician tested everything it worked beautifully. Then that evening we turned on the television and it came up that we needed an access code to get our cable channels. Once again, we called technical support and after one hour and 10 minutes on the phone (with a technical support person and then an engineer) they still couldn’t get our television to work. Once again, they are sending a technician IN 10 DAYS! So once again, we are paying $ 220 a month for no service. But wait, they offered us a whole $ 30 credit for all our troubles. So now I am only paying $ 190 for 10 days of NO CABLE SERVICE. This current issue has been going on for more than 4 weeks. The problem I see with Fioptics is that they sell the heck out of the service, but don’t have the man power to send technicians to the homes to fix their more than inadequate system.
We spent more than $ 4000 to have this beautiful theater system in our home only to have poor cable and internet service. Although, the land line never fails to get the calls through from the solicitors and politicians that I have attempted to block. (note sarcasm) That complaint is for another post.
I am struggling with taking time from work and waiting to have CBI come in and remove all of their systems and have Time Warner install their service. Before Fioptics we had Time Warner and while they tend to be a bit more expensive than Cincinnati Bell Fioptics, we never had as many technical issues with Time Warner. The few times we needed a technician with Time Warner they never had a problem getting one to us within 24 hours. Unlike CBI’s 8 to 10 day wait for a technician to come to your home as they continue to bill you for the full service that you are not receiving.
I believe I have answered my own question with this rant. Time Warner what’s your number?

Can I give them a negative? It took them 1.5 weeks to literally flip a switch to turn on our internet.

Do not install this system. The sound stutters, screens periodically freeze up. DVR recordings do not play much of the time. (I had the DVR replaced once during the first 2 months after the Cinti Bell installer said he could not fix it, and said he had never seen one so messed up.) Yesterday we needed to reboot the DVR four times to watch recorded programs. Using fast forward frequently seems to cause the DVR to go to a black screen. One can only hope the program you are watching will continue when the system comes back up after reboot.(Sometimes it does not.)
I filed a complaint with the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau requesting Cinti Bell suspend taking new customers until they have resolved these problems, and their advertising of the system was fraudulent. (It cannot perform as advertised.) BBB said that since I was not asking for my money back, there was no basis for recording my complaint in the Cincinnati Bell file! No one checking with BBB will see any of these complaints. I guess they only pick on little guys.

Cincinnati Bell is an all around horrible experience. The cable service constantly skips and freezes, the wifi signal dropped and trying to talk to someone was impossible. When we called to complain about the service freezing, we were told they were aware this was an issue but had no resolution for us. Sadly, Cincinnati Bell has outsourced and when you call into customer service, they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about and will constantly repeat back what they think you are calling for but has nothing to do with why you are calling. When the technician installed the service, he drilled a hole in the side of our house, leading into our bedroom, (without our permission) and left a mess of cables and service boxes in the middle of the room. The needed hook ups were only a few feet away but it would have required that he moved a small night stand and I guess he didn’t want to do that. I lost count of how many times I had to call to cancel my service and get a corrected bill. They then had the nerve to call me and do a post service survey, I found it funny that the reasons they list in their survey for cancellation reasons is everything people are complaining about on here. They know they have a problem but are unwilling to change it. We switched to Time Warner, are paying more per month but it is completely worth it. I love that I can walk into a TWC location and speak to someone in person and have any issues immediately dealt with.

Impossible to cancel.
Don’t use unless you have no choice

Cincinnati Bell is terrible, before I even get service they were going to show up late to install things, missed their FOUR HOUR window, then decided not to show up at all. Now I have to miss two days of work because they are incompetent.
If I could get any other service provider in my building, I would. I would pay double for the privilege of not giving money to this awful company.

Don’t even try this company. Trust me. I called them to cancel my cable service and they played a game called «hold-​transfer-​hold-​transfer-​no answer» with me. My 45 minutes was totally wasted. I believe they’ve made cancellation so hard on purpose in order to keep business.

Horrible service. The cable freezes constantly, we have returned the set top box, still have same issues, now they tell us they have no record of return even though they gave us new box… now they tell me I’m going to be billed for the extra box when I leave. I’m leaving them now, twc made me an offer and bell refused to even cone close. And btw, I pay $ 160 now for cable and 20 mps internet. They didn’t even offer me the bundle deals on their website. I’m done with them. They are deceitful and borderline criminal. STAN FAR FAR AWAY FROM THEM.

Terrible Customer Service. Technician that installed service made up excuse that he forgot to bring up equipment and then sat in his truck for nearly an hour. Then he said he forgot another cable and sat in his truck for another hour. Took 3 hours to install cable and Internet when the service technician was only up in my apartment for 30 – 45 min, while he sat in his truck for over 2 hours. Terrible company, terrible service, lazy technicians. Don’t deal with these bloodsuckers.

We switched to Cincinnati Bell Fioptics 10 months ago after only being a Time Warner customer for one month.
The only complaint we have with Cincinnati Bell is the outside cable not being buried after it was installed 10 months ago.
The cable has been cut/​disconnected twice due to ongoing construction in the neighborhood. Each time a tech came out to repair it and we had service again.
A total of eight times Cincinnati Bell has been contacted to bury the cable, and three of those requests came from their own technicians.
Whatever the problem is with cable/​phone companies and third party contractors working together to get a cable buried, please do a better job. Cincinnati Bell needs to provide fair pay for the contractors and the contractors need to provide better service for the customers of Cincinnati Bell. I really don’t get it. It’s a simple business strategy.
It’s been 10 months of requests to get this cable buried, we’ve been patient, but it’s running out.

I recently moved to Oakley and signed up for a TV/​internet bundle. At first they wouldn’t give us any service because the previous owner of our house had an unpaid bill. After a week of calling them multiple times per day, they finally let us sign up for service. No complaints about the internet connection, but the cable is terrible. It locks up every time I try to access the DVR and I have to manually reset the box. Also, the guy who did the installation was very snarky and didn’t even try to hide the cable that runs along the outside of the house, it looks very sloppy. I’m canceling my account and going back to Dish Network!

Shameful company… Outsourced everything to Asia and refuses to behave cordial & professionally. As bad as TWC is the Phillipines Bell is much worse… Spend money with patriots, not greedy traitors.

Beware!!! I made an online payment back in Sept. and when I did, I was automatically set up for «e-​billing,» which means paperless statements/​invoices. I had no idea, until now, January! There were two late fees tacked on and my old promotional rate had expired from $ 29.99 mo to the new $ 53.00 starting back in November! I was really shocked, so called and was on the phone FOR OVER ONE HOUR with the offshore customer service representatives who are very hard to understand on the phone, got disconnected twice and nobody bothered to call me back either time! I thought i was about to have this resolved, but now I have to wait and see if updates are made to my account before I pay it. Regardless of that, if you pay your bill on line, beware of the consequences! ~ Also, my internet goes out randomly about once per month and I have to reboot everything!

This review is for FiOptics.
Let me start by saying that I work for a large telecommunications company (NOT CinBell). However this is not a biased review, as my company’s service is not yet available in this area.
I bring this up because I provide tech support for TV, Internet, and VOIP over the phone. Not only that, but I’m a Supervisor. When you get a tech support agent who’s just not quite cutting it for you, and you ask for a Supervisor, that’s me.
So I know what I’m doing, I know how these kinds of services work, and how to troubleshoot them when they don’t. I work with agents on a daily basis, from Epic Gods of tech support, to the mediocre, to the bad, and everything in between. When I say that CinBell FiOptics has the MOST INCOMPETENT tech support, you can take that as personal and professional experience.
Trying to get any kind of assistance past 5pm is an exercise in futility, if you can get a human at all. If you do get an agent, the «support» you get is beyond worthless (and ALWAYS overseas, which I have no problem with, unless the agent has no clue what they’re doing). Not ONCE in MULTIPLE calls have I ever received any troubleshooting beyond «did you reboot your modem? Did that fix it?» Really?!
So I’ve been having intermittent problems with my connection dropping multiple times per day since last week. My modem looks connected, acts connected, but there is no actual connection via Ethernet or Wi-​Fi. Reboots don’t fix it, but it comes back on in its own sweet time. Or it doesn’t. This is a problem, as I work from home. Even if a reboot did fix it, I certainly can’t reboot my modem multiple times a day. I’m constantly taking tech support calls and when my connection drops, not only does my computer drop, but my work-​phone does too.
I had to wait several days for a tech to come out, missing work because of it (and I’ve had several tech no-​shows). Tech finally came yesterday and all he did was swap out my modem. I asked if maybe he should check all the connections, including the outside lines. He said, «nah, yer modem’s going bad, I’ve seen this before». First Red Flag. I said, are you sure, it’s less than a year old? «Yeah, that’s about all the time these things last». Second Red Flag. I reiterated how important it is (to not get fired) that my internet is stable. I can’t keep waiting for tech visits if replacing the modem doesn’t work. He replied, «if it does it again, give us a call». Third Red Flag.
Today, (the very next day) guess what happened? The EXACT same problem. So I call them back.
«Oh we can’t get a tech to you until 6÷30».
Excuse me? The tech that was here yesterday didn’t do his job thoroughly and I have the exact same issue he swore was due to the modem going bad. I have to have my internet to keep my job. I need it fixed now since it wasn’t fixed yesterday.
«Oh, we can’t get a tech to you until 7÷1».
Wait, what?! You just said ⁶⁄₃₀ and THAT was unacceptable. Let me speak to your supervisor please.
So I got a supe who hemmed and hawed with me for 30 mins before I started getting angry, then she finally accepted responsibility and attempted to get a tech back to me tonight. She stated regardless whether or not she hears from them, she’ll call me back in 10 – 30 mins. I’m well aware of this ploy and requested to hold with her instead. She refused.
One hour later, still no call. So I call back and they hem and haw stating they «see no notes» «see no records of that occurring», etc. By this time I’m beyond livid. I ask for a supe and supposedly get the previous supervisor’s supervisor, «Van».
This supposed «boss» was more incompetent than the supe I had, and asked for her back, which he refused. So I asked for HIS boss and stated I understood if that would take 24 – 48 hours, as it does with my company, that would be fine. Instead, he refused to escalate to his boss after repeated requests. I was about to lose my mind, so I hung up.
He calls me back an hour later to tell me, «Well we were going to get a tech to you tonight, but you didn’t answer your phone, so he’s been sent to someone else and he was the last tech left.»
At this point, and I’m not proud of this, but I lost my $#!7. I told him that my phone had literally been in my hand the entire time (as I was using it to find another ISP) and that I received NO calls, except this one, which I obviously answered. He basically said it was their word against mine, and they weren’t going to send a tech to me tonight. However I MIGHT get one tomorrow.
I hung up and started over. I explained all I’d gone through especially with «Van» (who basically called me a liar), and that I wanted to speak with a supervisor, but ANYBODY but «Van». I stated he was so bad that if you transfer me and if he answers again, I will cancel my service. He was THAT bad. Anyone but him. So I was transferred… to «Van».
So day after tomorrow, Time Warner is coming out to install my new service.

Cincinnati Bell is one of the most frustrating companies I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with.
When I signed up for Fioptics, they installed a big white fiber modem (called an ONT) on my basement wall, and then attached a wireless router to it.
Now, I’m in technology, and have *much* better equipment than their flakey wireless modem, so I removed it and my service became dramatically more stable and faster. Great!
Then I noticed a $ 5 monthly equipment fee for their wireless router. I contacted them to let them know I’m not using their wireless router, so let me return it and remove the fee.
That’s where it gets strange. They say there’s no way to have Fioptics without that wireless router. I asked for clarification, thinking the support guy was referring to the ONT (the fiber equivalent of a cable modem). He clarified, saying «No, it’s for the wireless modem which is required to use Fioptics».
I said «I don’t use your wireless modem, I use my own network equipment.»
«No, you don’t.»
«Yes, I do.»
«No, you don’t.»
«Yes, I do.»
«No, you don’t.»
«Yes, I do. I can send you a photo if you’d like. Or a video.»
After going round and round, me explaining how my router is connected directly to the ONT, and that his router is unplugged and not being used, and him reconfirming over and over that «I must be using Cincinnati Bell wireless router to use the service,» he finally threw up his virtual hands and typed:
«Is there anything else I can help you with today?»
So I’m paying $ 5/​month for the POS wifi router — that they insist I’m using — that is unplugged, powered off, and gathering dust on a shelf.
Organizationally, there’s no way Cincinnati Bell don’t know that their customers can plug any network device (from a single computer to a router) into their ONT and have it functional perfectly.
So Cincinnati Bell is either not properly training their support reps, or they’ve decided that truth be damned, and they’re okay with scooping customers like me for $ 60 a year by outright lying.

Never again. no matter how good the deal sounds. was getting .2mb/​sec instead of the 5mb/​sec they advertise. that’s POINT 2 meaning 4% of advertised service! that’s when it was working which it didn’t a good deal of the time. Finally I got a tech to admit it was due to CONGESTION. which is the term they use when they have oversold a line and there is no way to get enough data to you unless everyone in your neighborhood is logged off.
I feel they are worse than muggers in the street as they steal from countless customers every day.

Cincinnati Bell is trying to extort me with a fraudulent «contract.» They first promised fiber optic when I signed up only to later say that they could only provide «Zoomtown» internet which clocked in at ~100k download, I was told I couldn’t get out of a 2 year contract. I waited the 2 years then switched to Time Warner, but Cincy Bell is again saying that I had a contract that «autorenewed» and are trying to bill me greater than $ 1,000 to cancel. When asked for the contract, it’s actually been fraudulent the entire time having been signed by a «Lee Smith» who as far as I know never existed.
I’m incensed as I’ve had to suffer through their awful service under threat of large fines and then to find out that they forged the documents in the first place!

And the saga continues by finding out that their only-​available-​during-​business-​hours call center is off-​shore. Who outsources phone support but doesn’t bother to have it ²⁴⁄₇?
Oh, and the CSR just told me that it wasn’t actually an unreturned modem that they charged me for, but that it was an «ADSL equipment agreement» that I needed to return. I confirmed with her that I was being asked to return an «agreement» and she stated that this was the case. I told her that I didn’t understand and that I didn’t know how to return an «agreement». She explained that it was a piece of paper I signed when the service was initiated. I inquired, «So you’re asking me to return a piece of paper?» and her succinct response was, «Yes».
There you go, ladies and gentlemen. A day in the life of a former Cincinnati Bell customer. Engage in business with this company at your own risk. (And be sure to return your «ADSL equipment agreement» when it’s all said and done.)

Cincinnati Bell is the local telephone service company that offers home phone service, cell phone service, and internet service. I recently enlisted them to give me internet at my apartment and I’m not too pleased with the service so far.
I got a deal with them that includes a home phone line and fast speed internet which they call «Zoomtown». I think you have to get the phone line to have internet. These days I hardly need a phone at home because of my cell phone. The phone and internet bundle that I got includes a phone line where you can receive calls for free from anyone and you pay about 3 cents a minute for outgoing calls. With the internet it’s only about $ 30 a month.
I ordered the internet and the installation is a four or five day process. First a technician came and installed the home phone and turned out some stuff outside on the telephone poles or boxes or something. Then a few days later the wireless router and other equipment was scheduled to arrive. Only, it didn’t arrive. After calling them it appeared they had lost the order and it reported that it had been shipped some strange date a few months in the past. Now this isn’t going to be the first time their data gets screwed up in this review.
The first person told me that they had to figure out what was going on. It wasn’t until 2 calls later that someone else FINALLY just told me that all I had to do was go to a Cincinnati Bell store and pick up the router. Seriously? Why couldn’t they have just told me that from the beginning.
So I got the router (late) and set up the internet and it appeared to work for several days. Then one day it decided to stop working. I called technical support who told us that they had another name (Alex Holiday) connected to our account. They’ve got some seriously screwed up data. So I were transferred to accounts and billing who told us that the names on the account were correct and that technical supports data was wrong and that it doesn’t even matter at all what name they have on the account that they are still supposed to help us. Several hours later I’ve been transferred back to technical support (keep in mind they put you at the back of the phone waiting line each time you are transferred so you have to wait a year before anyone answers) and they said they had to get a senior engineer to figure it out and that they’d call us back.
So I never got a call back. The internet started working again and has been off and on since but for the most part works. When I first installed it I made the connection secure through the zoomtown set up. After it went down the connection automatically became unsecured. Since I can’t re-​install the software, I had no idea how to make it secure. E-​mailed technical support and they walked me through it.
Phew… I really hope my internet continues to work or else I may be forced to go with Time Warner. It’s such a disappointment as I’ve always had Zoomtown growing up and I’ve NEVER had such a bad experience with them before.