Consolidated Communications

Recently moved to katy and looked at different providers. Decided to go with consolidated com b/c it was 1 of 2 cable providers that could service my area (excluding satellite). I signed up for the internet & cable on a promotion for <$90. Here's the reasons it's bad: 1) customer services They don't tell you upfront but they charge a trip fee of $90/hr for any service. In my case my Internet wasn't working properly and need to be changed to another room. Trip charge. I wanted an additional cable box inanother room. Trip charge. I want to be able to change boxes between rooms. Trip charge. Basically they told me its anytime I need something done in the house. Never had that with any other provider. 2) cable service is a downgrade from anything out there. Not very user friendly. DVR is horrible. Limited onDemand. The feed sometimes is horrible causing the cable channels to have a green hue. I would call to check it out, but afraid they would charge a trip charge. Way to run a company with customers afraid to contact for any type of service since it will require a charge. I don't know of any other cable provider that does this. 3)non responsive sales/customer service. Good luck trying to reach them or getting a response from them. The sales person a week after I signed up couldn't even return a call. Her name is desirae. The customer is never right with them from my experience. I wouldn't recommend. It may be cheaper in the front end, but it'll cost you. more

If you live in a Consolidated Communications only area in Katy, be prepared, no other internet is available and the phone service is expensive, I pay $90.00 per month for phone and internet. DOUBLE what I payed with SWBell in Houston. I,'ve tried to switch to AT&T Uverse and Clear, but Consolidated has a monopoly and they know it! HEY CITY OF KATY, DO something! more

We have lived in the City limits of Katy since 1984. For years this was our ONLY choice for phone service. We have call waiting w/ an unlisted phone number because we were constantly getting calls from telemarketers and drunks who wanted to be released from jail and were making their 1 phone call at 3am!!! I resent the fact that the same services in Houston through Southwestern Bell are much cheaper.We pay approx $50 a month for extended Houston area so we can call downtown Houston, the airports, etc w/ no long distance service! (we use COSTCO, Sams Club or 99 Cent Store calling cards OR our cell phones for long distance).The cheapest service available is no long distance and calls can basically be made from downtown Katy to approx Hwy 6 area and cost approx $30 per month! (No Senior discounts available either). The City of Katy does NOT allow cell phone towers within the City limits. Therefore cell phone coverage is sporadic. We have SPRINT which does not work well within our house (works great 1/4 block closer to Ave D) and drops coverage near the Golf Course on Ave D and Frantz Rd and near Katy Junior High/Brookshire Brothers area. My Dad, 82 yr old senior has moved to Heritage Meadows and has great SPRINT cell phone coverage so he has chosen to use our home computers and does not use a land line phone because of the cost even for Senior Citizens. Bill paying with Consolidated Communications can be difficult as they keep changing office locations and where you can drop off payments. My spouse found it extremely difficult and time consuming to set up the automatic bill pay online service which was not easily accessible. He gave up on this 5 times with a few explitives as it was not straight forward like other web based automatic payment setup. He said he was always missing 1 piece of info needed to complete it. Currently, Consolidated Communications have an office on Ave A near Fifth Street, downtown Katy east of Katy Elementary but I have noticed a sign on the new strip shopping center next to WalMart at Katy Mills Mall (SW of Katy Fort Bend Road) that says Consolidated Communications. It will be about 5 businesses west of WalMart when the strip Center is completed in a few months. There will be 2 fast food restaurants, a PAYLESS Shoe Store, etc there also. more

Consolidated Communications is really our only option for a "land line" and we have to have a land line for our security system and for me to do dial in and do work from home. I wish there were other options. We have a basic phone line with no call waiting or any other frills, and it kills me that we spend basically $30/month for this. I also hate that they must publish/sell our number to every telemarketer in the world. Those are pretty much the only calls that we get on this line! more