Shentel Avis 10

We had a landscape contractor cut our fiber optic cable twice within two weeks. The Shentel folks came out both times and happily repaired it very quickly. I’m so impressed by the level of service from Shentel. They are doing thing right!!

Shantel has been unable to update my EERO leased router FOR MONTHS. I've called into multiple times to inform their internet technical support agents of this problem. These EERO router updates are CRITICAL for the security of my home network. The response I'm receiving from Tech Support is asinine. Turn the router on and off.... is the status light flashing? Unplug the router power supply... this is supposed to be an automated update, not one that I need to babysit and force a "manual" router security update through the EERO app. The tech support agents CANNOT tell me why this is happening. Has the router been violated or is it malfunctioning? Very poor security safeguards. Dropping this joke of an ISP.

I've been a Shentel customer for around three years. While I was happy to pay the plant extension fee to build out to us (over $5,000) and happy to pay the monthly fee of $252/month for internet service (Gigabit, Unlimited Data), which was later lowered to $135, it was only acceptable if we had a good, stable internet connection. We both work from home and rely on the internet, having both a primary and a failover 5G connection that our routers automatically switch to when there are issues.

Unfortunately, Shentel is no longer our primary connection as we had to cancel their service within the last month. For about six months it has not been reliable. We constantly had to switch over to our secondary internet service due to momentary outages and frequent packet drops. Latency was also rather high from the Redwood CMTS. We have switched our primary provider to Starlink, and while we have slower speeds, the connection is not only more stable but has less latency than Shentel did.

The Shentel infrastructure in our area is a very dated system of hardline coax directly to the CMTS in our area, not HFC where there is fiber to the node as is typical with most cable providers, which I believe contributes to the problems. Additionally, Shentel has been focusing on deploying fiber in other areas in the local markets (as well as in other markets through GloFiber).

Additionally, their DOCSIS networks are not very secure, as they are not using BPI+, which means your traffic could be viewed by malicious users on the DOCSIS network, while I understand traffic should be SSL encrypted from the sites you are browsing this basic protection should still be inplace to provide layered protection. They are also not updating the firmware on the cable modems, which is another major security hole.

While it's understandable from a business point of view why they wouldn't want to invest in and properly maintain this old coax system as it's not only expensive to maintain but also harder to properly troubleshoot and diagnose RF problems (along with finding good RF techs) compared to modern GPON systems, it is what is in place today, and what they extended when I paid. There seems to be no plan in place to fix the plant or replace it with GPON or at least fiber to the node as a stop-gap.

I've never in my life experienced this many problems with a cable company. On top of that, I do not believe they have good tools in place to properly monitor the coax plant. They are using BBX, which is much more limited than what the bigger companies use. Tech support always just brushes you off, saying there are no problems. For example, Starlink has proactive monitoring and specifically informs you about any issues. Shentel doesn't even have basic status monitoring portals for customers. You must call, but typically you are just told to reboot your modem, and they see no issue.

When Shentel fixes their coax plant or, at this point, gets GPON to my address, I will return as a customer. My last request asking them to monitor the area, or even my connection specifically long-term in some manner before I would reconnect, was completely ignored. Until Shentel decides to fix their infrastructure, I will not consider returning as a customer. I believe they may be more interested in selling off their legacy markets at this time based on how they treat these markets.

I have waited many months before writing this review because it left me so angry and empty. They started out fine and progressively got worse. They kept adding people to the network until it got to the point where the only time I could use it was between two and four in the morning. I was paying for 5G and could not use it. I contacted them many times and they did send someone out each time and that person told me that my connection was good. I still could not get anything on my Internet and my security system could not work because I could not get my internet to work.They finally told me if I paid 15.99 additional they could possibly take care of the situation. No guarantees just a possibility. I had been paying for my services for a long time and not had service. I told him to disconnect me immediately and she called and set it up while I was standing in the office. I was two days in to the next months bill. I was told that I would not be charged for that month but guess what, the charge was there anyway. I warn anyone that is thinking about going with Shentel, DON’T DO IT!!!

I wouldn’t give Shentel one star. The service is terrible. Prices are high. If I had another option for internet in my area I would purchase another provider.

Great employees, good service and prices

I'm sorry I have to continue with the one-star reviews. I am a new customer and just got my first bill, which is impossible to pay without an account. A new account can not be made online. There is a registration page, but it does not work. I tried on multiple devices and got the same error. I'm not playing phone games. They can turn it off and keep it, I'll just use my phone internet.

Just a garbage company that provides terrible service and even worse tech support. I swear if I hear 'try unplugging your router' one more time... They want to lock you into contracts because they know they won't be able to keep up once 5G and another company steps up to the rural areas they serve.

They give everyone under their services high speed internet for months, literally proving that they can do it so easily that it isn't even an issue for them. Then what do they do? Realize they could be making more money off of people after getting them used to it, and just take that upgrade back.

Shentel is a company in rural Virginia that offers "high-speed internet" to its customers.
This couldn't be farther from the truth as they don't offer fiber-optic internet to everyone. Not only that, but they monopolize the whole area of Shenandoah County and charge outrageous prices for internet that consistently drops and even goes down. The customer service isn't much better considering they tell you to "unplug your router/modem for 30 seconds and re-plug back in" which never solves the issue of high ping or even drops. They will send a mechanic out to "fix" it but they just do the same thing and charge you for it.
If any other ISP company comes to this area, Shentel will lose 90% of it's customers.