When Rural Communcations first came to my town, I switched to them within the month, just to escape the Verizon's monopoly and perhaps a lower monthly bill. Oh man, was I wrong.
The first and more important problem was absolutely horrid service. Terrible - it was cheaper than Verizon but their phone service was/did:
1. Down once a week, for several hours
2. Poor quality, static-like.
3. Random disconnects, dropped calls
4. Mysterious charges on my phone bill for local calls that even the company could not explain
This problem extended to their Dial-up service, which was even WORSE.
1. Down more than once a week, up to even twenty-four hours
2. Horrible speed - less than 28kbps. Never got above that
3. Random disconnects
These problems were in addition to the phone line problems, so you can imagine.
The second problem was cancelling my service. I had a one year contract, I want out of, badly. When I was down to my last three months, I decided to pay the termination fee and get away this hellish cesspool. I paid the $50 per month fee and terminated my contract. I paid and switched back to Verizon for phone and internet service.
I thought the nightmare was over, but there was still another mile to go.
Three months later, I received a mysterious invoice from Rural Communications, stating:
1. I was 3 months overdue in my phone service, they expected payment
2. My contract had automatically renewed, I owed them a down payment for the year
I was furious. After nearly a month of fighting with them on the phone, several letters to their office, and more than a couple trips in person, I caved in and paid them the sum of $358 and told them I wanted away from their business once and for all. They agreed, took my money and said the contract was cancelled.
Still not quite over, I received an invoice a month later, claiming I owed them the $358 AND a month's worth of service PLUS late fees for not paying.insolence!
I was absolutely fed up, ready to bring a lawyer down with me to handle this situation. I spoke with them for nearly a month to straighten the situation out, and it still wasn't handled. I gathered a few people as witnesses, went down to their office, paid them over $400 and they said the problem was OVER.
Nevertheless, I got a bill from them next month, requesting a month's payment. At least they acknowledge I paid them for charges I wasn't responsible for. I went down to their office, AGAIN, with my witnesses. They finally gave up and dismissed the charge. I haven't received a bill from them again, but I can't wait for them to go under.
Finally, it's become recent public knowledge they are hosting porn sites. Wouldn't be such a big deal if they weren't given a $2M grant from the State to expand their business. Using State money to host porn. What a great company.
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