Optimum Rewards - Optimum Online - Customer Stories

These are unedited emails I received from people who visited my site and wrote to me.


I just moved from north bergen to south amboy. Cablevision told me silver package was about 125.00 give or take a few dollars. Well when I got the bill their was charge on their for 83.00. When I called and finally after 30 minutes of transfers from one person to the next. To figure out what the charge was,it was from a bill from my old address where I lived 15 years ago. After telling the guy you mean to tell me after being a customer in north bergen and union city for over 20 years (mind you never disconnected). If they can do anything for me on a bill thats over 15 years old they told me no to pay or get disconnected.So I told him if I would I didnt move I would have never been billed for this he said well now you are so pay it or get disconnected. Talk about not caring for a customer. Wow my jaw was on the floor. I will be welcoming fios with open arems when they get to south amboy.



Hi, I read your post online I am going through this also.I don't like what they are doing.I wonder about Verizon though do they offer triple play? WILL THEY KEEP the price you sign up with? These companies are scams especially optimum I remember when you got HBO at no extra cost.Now? everything is extra.



I feel the same way you do. Before I signed up with the Cablevision monopoly, I saw the same thing that you did; that the $99 is only good for one year. I searched and searched yet I could not find what the cost would be ANYWHERE after the year was up. I called Cablevision and was told by them that they had no idea what the costs would be in year! When I asked them how much it currently they told me they could not say because everyone signs up at different times for different packages and promotions, and that after one year we would get the standard rate at that time. I was furious and actually called the Board of Utilities, which governs cable, about this and I was told that as long as they state the current cost of the service (which they did) it did not matter that they did not reveal the amount that the account would be charged after one year.



Don't get all excited about FIOS coming to your area. I have had both Optimum and Verizon..in NY and NJ. At least when I got my Optimum bill. the Triple Play price of $29.99 x 3 , plus tax and 3 TV set boxes and a fax line/spare phone , came out to about $125 a month. My Verizon Triple Freedom, that was offered at $94.99 exact same service. comes out to about $190 A MONTH !! And trust me, FIOS is only locked in for a year, as is Optimum and Time Warner and Comcast. FIOS phone nails you for Wire plans, maintenance, FCC, ICC, you name it..Vonage is right, VERIZON nickels and dimes you to death, my first FIOS bill was 12 pages long. My Optimum bill is about a page and a half. FIOS also terminated their Internet security package with Norton/Symantec and urges you to pay to upgrade to their package at $5.99/month. Optimum includes Computer Associates Suite at n charge. Hell, Verizon even charges you for *69 on your phone, while Optimum gives you 13 features included.. Just type in Verizon Sucks, see how many hits you get. or Verizon Triple Freedom is a rip off.
The FIOS TV part of the Triple Freedom is very good. The picture is fantastic. But the Triple Freedom package is not all that good, as I mentioned below. I know a few people who got the FIOS TV and Internet, but use Vonnage or similar program for phone. Verizon just lowered the price on Triple Freedom by $20, I guess they were losing customers.



I happened upon your website about how horrible Cablevision is by accident - but we have always had Cablevision for television and the computer - but decided to add "voice" a while ago. It worked for a few months alright but now for the past 5 months my phone service is terrible - there is definitely a problem with connections - Call after call, technicans coming out again and again and the problem is still there - when it happens (and it does frequently and always in the evening) I cannot make calls and if I receive a call I sound like I am broken up and nobody can understand me!!! Isn't that great when you consider that we are people in our 70"s - my husband has heart problems and if I wanted to make a "911" call - would it go through? Would they be able to hear me? If it is not resolved I will definitely have to go back to Verizon for phone but would really love to switch everything over to Verizon but maybe they advertise a special and it will go way up after the first year also!!!! We poor consumers are always being taken advantage of.


That's not only bad but potentially dangerous. Cablevision sends out some disclaimer letter explaining that the 911 is different from traditional 911 service. I would call and ask them about it. Verizon may also raise the prices after a year, but you should go with quality - what kind of a bargain is it if the phone doesn't work right? They may need to boost your signal somehow to get it to work. Good luck! Thanks for writing!



I am a computer guy and had to take a while to find that they block port 80 by default and 25 though its ok as per wikipedia, trying to find if they will open for me if not will let you know and can add a page on your site. Thanks - I spent weeks trying to figure out why im gettting this issue.
15$ charge for boost to open port 80 -this they dont tell you!



Hey, I found your website and was glad to hear that I'm not alone in dealing with the frustrations of the triple play pricing expiring and FIOS not yet being available. On one site I actually saw a number that was a marketing company selling triple play packages and someone mentioned having more luck dealing with them than Cablevision directly. Apparently, They couldn't care less if you cancel, but the outside company that was marketing Triple Play packages was able to help. Unfortunately, when I went back, I couldn't find this number. Have you heard of anything like this? Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks!

I also hate Cablevision. There is another problem with their rewards program, and that is you get no movie benefits unless you live in or can get to New York without cost of travel because they have no theaters in Connecticut that honor their program!

Hello, While I agree with you 100% because it happened to me too, there is little recourse. The Verizon FIOS offer of $94.99 changes aftera year too. So we the consumer cannot catch a break anywhere. And, as has been stated the billing information that Verizon puts out is so confusing (because it adds state & local taxes) that you have to call and then argue with some operator that cannot fix the issue, so what's the use. It's unfortunate but we are caught by the short hairs and stuck with paying these extortion fees, for now, until something better comes out (I hope). Good luck to us all! "seize the computer opportunity"

I was a client of Optimum online / Cablevision for more than an year. Every time I went online to watch vidoes on youtube of streaming television they would stop my connection and turn it back on after 15-30 minutes. I called them many times and they kept saying that my router was causing the issue. I borrowed my neighbor's router and the same thing continued... every time I used more bandwidth than they wanted they would cut my service. I told them that I bought a new router and the answer was... "Your new router doesn't work". I wonder how it works at my neighbor's place??? I finally stopped the service and moved to Time Warner. I haven't had any problems using the same router with them. The Cablevision representative told me all I had to do is return their modem... so far so good. So I put the modem in a package, sent it to them and paid additional for online tracking. The package got to them on the next day - this is 3 days after I stopped my service. On the 10th day I received a bill for $65.03 because I "failed to return their modem". I called them and the answer was... "Well, we must have missed administering the modem." Great!!! Over an year with this crappy service and now I have to pay them again!!! OPTIMUM ONLINE / CABLEVISION IS A SCAM!!!! BEWARE!!!! Please publish my letter on your website! Thank you in advance! Daryl, New York

I have had many many run ins with Cablevision.. Not only is their product medicore, their pricing is ridiculous, but their customer service is horrible! the latest was changing my last name when I got married-three phone calls and two mailings later and they want me to dig into the back of my entertainment until to capture the serial numbers of all the cableboxes, remotes and cable modems in my house and then return that--as if I am trying to steal their equipment! I have been doing some research online and I can't seem to find ANY place else to go for internet as Fios isn't in my area yet and DSL sucks. Have you found any other provider?

I have had the basic family plan with Cablevision for years, with my internet through Verizon DSL as well as land phone with Verizon. Since so many channels have been taken away unless you have a box and with friends all switching over to Triple Play, I called Cablevision to get some info. Their ads all state the 3 services for just under $90, plus an additional $9.95 if you add DVR. I was told that the $90 was a promotional just for new customers and since I was an existing customer, it would cost me an additional $10, bringing it to $109.80 with DVR. My response was that I was being penalized after being a customer for so many years and that their advertising was deceptive. Nowhere does it state that the $90 is just for new customers. However, that was the price, take it or leave it. I was told the price with DVR would increase from $109.80 to $145.25 after one year, plus, of course, $6.75 per month for each box. Figuring out exactly what I pay now for all 3 plus the quarterly bill from AT&T for long-distance, plus the box I would have to get anyway, I might save a few cents. However, after reading all the disparaging comments on your website, I am rethinking any change. I may just stay with what I have, pay the additional charge to get a box on one TV so that I can get all those channels they took away for which you now need a box. Yet several friends who went with Fios didn't like it, said the picture wasn't great and you're also locked in with a contract, which is one plus for Optimum, which doesn't have a contract. Any way you look at it, they have you over a barrel. The representative I spoke to was not consumer friendly, had a take it or leave it attitude.

I totally agree with you about Cablevion, I am in the same boat. Verizon has come to our neighborhood and they are pushing hard to get us to switch. Verizon come to my door and offered me a visa card with 150.00 on it. I have 2 DVR's so I was going to get the multi room DVR, but it only records 2 programs and you have to all watch the same channel. Isn't the idea of having more than 1 TV is so you can watch different shows? I sat down and figured out that trial price with taxes and fee's was more than the raised price of cablevision. So I am at the mercy of cablevision until something better comes along. I am mad that Cablevision advertised that if had cable you would be safe when the big switch took place, but what those people don't know is just before they switched cable took channels away from basic so they became premium. I didn't have boxes on all my TVs and we lost about 15 channels. That sucks, I am already a customer.Why punish me, I didn't leave Cablevision or use an antenna.

I live in New Jerset have also complained to FTC, BBB, BTU but without any success. There are other problems/limitations to Cablevision service. My computer died eff. 12/08 and another not purchased until 6/09, they refuse to give me credit for the months I could not use the service even tho they continue to charge me for it as if it were a separate service. Cablevision has become the monolopoly that AT&T was. FYI even if FIOS does become available unless you get certain plans, they charge outrageous fees. Verizon is no better than Cablevision, but people will not take the time to complain.

I did the triple play when it first came out, then noticed my bills increase about 40-50% due to the 1 year expiration. Then I canceled my cable service but kept the phone and internet (paid $85 per month) then i lost my job, stayed with phone and internet but was inundated with calls from their telemarketers about adding TV and doing the triple play package for $100 a month. I started working again and signed up again for my job since I work in advertising and was working with TV sales vendors. Then I get my bill, the TV is $39.99 instead of $29.99 plus the additional cable box/remote and DVR ect, so instead of being $110 a month I'm paying $120 a month. I called them and was told that their promotion was set up that way and the only way to get the whole package for 29.95 each was to get them all at the same time, but since i already had the other two the promotion was only for $39.99 for the cable. Sorry saw your site and thought I could vent.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to write! Keep your emails coming!