Mediacom Cable, Princeton, KY They don't show up, they don't return calls, you'll be on hold for hours - oh, and your cable won't work Princeton, Kentucky

The trouble truly started when we were forced to acquire a settop box to be able to receive digital cable.  We got no notice from Mediacom - we simply turned on the television one day to discover it had stopped working.  (This was months before the national rollout that received lots of press on television and newspapers.)  We had to drive 25 miles to our nearest Mediacom office to get the box, only to find when we got it home - surprise - that it didn't work.  We made a couple more trips to get one that would function. 

Fast forward a few months.  Our reception is terrible.  Channels are pixelated so you can't see what's happening on the screen, the programs intermittently start and stall out, and some of the channels are missing entirely.  We can't get local television stations - a real problem, because we live in a very flood- and tornado-prone area and we desperately need to watch local channels when there's a severe weather emergency.  We've already had two service visits that were supposed to have fixed the problem, but it's still there.

We've had several occasions where Mediacom simply hasn't shown up for service appointments.  Right now I'm on hold with Mediacom to find out where our technician is - he was scheduled to have arrived several hours ago.  I've called three times. The first time I was put on hold for twenty-five minutes (my phone has a timer so I can see how long calls have taken place), then hung up on.  The second customer service agent was so rude that I asked to speak to a supervisor - again, a lengthy hold and a hang-up.  On the third try, I'm still on hold after twenty minutes - our technician can't be located, nobody can tell us where he is or why he hasn't arrived.  Update - the service agent broke in on the line to tell us there was no explanation as to why our appointment wasn't kept. They wanted to reschedule it for several days from now, which is not acceptable.

Needless to say, I'm expected to pay my bill on time and without question as to why I'm not receiving promised services.

If you have any choice whatsoever, DO NOT choose Mediacom as your service provider under any circumstances.  Unless you like an utter lack of communication, disrespect, disregard for your time, etc.  As another poster mentioned, this is what happens now that we live in an age of corporate monopolies.  I'll be filing reports with the Kentucky Office of Consumer Affairs, the BBB and the FCC as well.