Optimum
Reviews and Complaints

I open my account with cablevision on Feb 4, 2012. Now prior to that date, when I spoke to cablevision rep, and set this account up, i was asked did I have an account with a prior company, as I would be receiving a discount. I told them yes, but that my account was more than a year old, I also told them that I had a old cablevision account. The rep informed me that since I had an old cablevision account that i didn't need the old bill, and I would still be receiving the discount. I gave the Optimum rep my Social Security Number and he pulled up my old Cablevision account, and verified the information with me. I thought everything was fine. Now, it hasn't even been tow months and they have take this discount away and my bill just jump by $50.00 dollars, without any, any prior notification. I call Cablevision and was told by reps and manager that their reps did the right thing, so I ask them why did I lose the discount, I am being told because they want the old verizion bill. Each and every month Cablevision come up with something new. I have only had this account since Februray 4, 2012, and I already had to complain about my bill 2 time before. The last time I paid my bill, I spoke with a Cablevision rep and was told my bill each month should be $121.29, now they are sending me a bill for $170.38. This bill jumped by $49.09. I am really tired of Cablevision changing my bill each and every month. I am tired of Cablevision changing their term on this account and not giving me any notification. I am mostly tired of opening my bill and expecting to pay one thing to find out that Cablevision has thrown another charge on me. I am tired of being Nickled and Dimed at every turn. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP.

I cant say how many times i have had to call and complain about the horrible cable service and internet service. I thought things would change when we went to optimum from bresnan...WRONG! The channels still cut out constantly, the internet was supposed to be so much faster, which its not, possibly even SLOWER! We have the triple package (cable, internet, phone) and we pay WELL over $200 a month for horrible service. SO if you thinking about signing up with optimum, do yourself a favor and DONT do it!

I have been with Optimum or Cablevision since September 2010. I have had issues with their service but nothing that rose to outrageous like the call I got last night on Thursday, 2/16 at around 9PM. The woman called and said that a previous tenant in the same building owed them monies from two or more years ago and that their were adding this to my account. Sure enough today I went online and Cablevision added $400 to my account. Unbelievable but true.

I am a disabled senior citizen on a fixed social security income! I was forced to get cablevision when the powers that be decided to do away with free TV! The rates keep going up and now the service is going down! When I called to find out why my rate went up, I was informed that there was another increase.

Who is authorizing these constant increases? I was also informed that the Game Show Network, GSN channel 76 will no longer be included in my package and that I would have to pay an additional $6.95 to receive this channel! Prices go up and service goes down! I can no longer afford these increases and think something should be done about it! I have not received an increase in social security in two years, despite the increase in the cost of living, yet Cablevision is allowed to raise their prices at will! There are no discounts for seniors or disabled and this is outrageous! When it comes to my having to make a choice of paying rent or watching TV, I will have to do without TV! This is so unfair! I can no longer afford to pay these exorbitant rates and I'm sure I speak for other disabled seniors as well. Why are they allowed to do this? Don't we have any rights? With all the money they spend on commercials which show constantly on TV, why don't they have some sort of package for seniors that will not break them? At this stage of my life, TV is my one relaxation.

Why would they want to take that away from me? The FCC should put a ceiling on contracts for disabled seniors on fixed incomes, so that we can enjoy watching TV. Unfortunately, not everyone is rich, but some consideration should be given to the poor! Please do something about this as it really hurts!

I recently left Verizon for Cablevision. Since there was a contract with Verizon, Cablevision said they would reimburse me for breaking the contract to the tune of $300 (normally they reimburse only $200). It's been four weeks since I sent my final bill (10/7/11) and I've had to fax it two additional times and call many times with no satisfactory response. Finally a representative said it will be six weeks from 10/25/11 and that they are processing it. She gave me no reasonable explanation why it took two and a half weeks for the sales department to receive the final bill. I feel like I've been receiving the runaround. She also said If I don't receive reimbursment by 12/9/11 to call back. It does not give me a good feeling. Seems like I was baited and lied to.

In early October, 2011 Optimum cable TV service began to dilute the premiun movies channels with scores of older movies from the 70's and 80's. Approximately one (1) week after (Oct 10) Optimum deleted all references to the year any given movie was released. The movie release year was always listed after the title of every movie listed in the Channel Guide. Customers are not stupid and see through this transparrent guise to hide the dilution of the previous level of recent movies provided by Optimum. Once my initial promotion price is over I will discontinue the Goild Package. The year a movie was released is the primary factor to selecting a movie to watch. Optimum's removal of movie release dates shows how arrogant and abusive they will be now that they have the monopoly provided by DTV.

I requested a change service to include my internet, and cable. The sales person finally convinced me to get my local calling plan through them. While setting up my system and using my old phone number, it asked me about long distance, when it prompted me I said no. It would not let me set up and I was told by a cable one person that I HAD to choose that I wanted long distance before it would let me set up. Needless to say I talked to someone there and they assured me that it was just a formality and I did not have long distance on my phone. I kept getting long distance charges on my bill, every month I call and talk to someone who assures me that these charges will be taken off my bill. I just found out that one of the number that I have been calling from my home is considered long distance even though I do not have to dial the usual area code or the number 1 to indicate it is long distance. I tried to talk to someone there at cable one and she told me that I was a liar and I had been knowingly making these calls. She was rude and argumentative. I have tried to contact the home office and talk to someone there, but to no avail, they do not talk to little people at the corporate level. What can you do when someone that can do something will not talk to you because it is not of interest to them. They are a mega corporation and I know they really do not care about us little people, they forgot we are the ones that made them what they are.

I canceled my service with Cablevision on May 8, 2009. I was billed for Service until June 25, 2009. Therefore I am left with an outstanding bill that was sent to a collection agency jeopardizing my credit. I called Cablevision several times, they would do nothing to rectify the situation. They stated that the only service that was disconnected on May 8 was my telephone. This is not true.

Optimum offered me back in March of 2010 a deal that if I subscribed to the "Silver Package" which included Showtime, Encore, and Starz I would receive a $50 rebate after 6 months. Well after the six months passed I call Optimum to enquire about my rebate and was told there was no record of it on file and I was s*it out of luck.

Now again I have been duped by them. They offered me "Gold Package" which inclues HBO, Cinamax, and the Movie Channel for an additional $20 a month. Well I received my bill the other day and instead of it going up an additional $20 it more then doubled. Last months bill was $114 and this month is a whopping $280. I guess we'll eat less this month to keep the cable company in business. When I called to correct the problem I was again told there was no record of any promotion.

So the bottom line is that whatever customer service tells you on the phone is subject to what they actually write down.
They cannot be trusted and hopefully someday will be sued for their unfair business practices.

This afternoon I called Cablevision to order a new Internet service. I received "a one-time installation fee of $19.95" on top of "a promotional/introductory rate of $29.95/month. The rep asked for my credit/debit card and I gave it to her. This evening, I found out from three of my friends in the same neighborhood (same zip code as well) that they were not charged with any installation fee and were told to hand a $29.95 check to the technician when the service gets installed at a later time. Two of my friends ordered the service less than a month prior and another friend ordered it after me. None of them were charged anything above $19.95. I call Customer Service, afraid I had been scammed or something. The reply I received was that "every customer is in a different situation" and I am receiving "a brand new service. The rep refused to take off the charge. Sigh. Why was I the only one ripped off?

I'm sure most people with Optimum Cable have experienced the cutoff of service to customers
over the last month in order to force people to have boxes installed for each tv in the house.
The misleading message suggests that the box is free. Read it carefully folks--only the postage is
free. At some point down the line you will be charged a rental fee for each box as well as for each
remote needed to work the box. This information is not disseminated unless you ask, which I did.
People are picking up the boxes and installing them thinking the free lunch is open ended. It's
not. Five satellite dishes have popped up on my block in the last week. It's the dishonesty and
misleading information that is causing people to switch.

Cablevision has been charging me hidden fees, I signed up with them about a month ago and got the 'Optimum Triple Play', they gave me a temporary phone number because they were porting my old phone number from Verizon to them, so a week later after I signed up with them they finished the installation and transfered my old number to the new service. They told me I wouldn't be charged for the temporary phone number but when my bill arrived I was charged for both numbers my old one and the temporary phone number. They charged me $29.95 + $19.32 partial month fee for both numbers. When the installation was complete I immediately called in and asked them to remove the temporary phone number which they claimed they did. Then when my bill arrived, they told me the temporary phone number was still there and I'm still gonna be charged for it. They asked me if I wanted them to remove it and I said wait a minute I thought weeks ago and they said no it's still on your line, you are paying for two lines. They asked if I wanted them to remove it and give me a refund and I said yes. So, I paid my bill and they excluded the additional charge for that temporary number which was $49.27 with the partial fee. Then when my next bill arrived it was there again. And what's this 'partial fee' that they consistently keep charging me for? I think they have a bad billing system because they keep charging me an additional $19.32 for OOL and OV, this was the second time they charged me for it.

I am absolutely repulsed by Optimum. Like everyone else I was with Bresnan. I needed to add a phone line to my service so they had to switch me Optimum. The friendly sales associate explained that I would need to change the channel package that I currently had since Optimum did not have the same packages. No big deal, right? I signed up for a new channel lineup that was even a few dollars cheaper than my current package and added phone service. This was all going ONLY cost me $13.00 more a month on my monthly bill. The sales associate assured me that there were no hidden fees, install fees for the phone line or anything of the sort. The sale associate quoted that the new addition to the service would bring my monthly bill to about $130.00 total with taxes and fees. I naturally agreed. A few days later the service guy shows up and it takes him 3 ½ HOURS to install the new service because he was on hold with Optimum waiting for customer service to help him! I felt terrible for him but he finally finished. The new service has been fine however I have noticed a significant difference in the speed of my DSL. This is all just the beginning. I had trouble with Bresnan triple billing me on my auto-pay each month. It took 3 weeks to work it out and get a credit back to my account. I cancelled the auto pay and went back to paying manually each month since they obviously had too much trouble taking only one payment from me. A few weeks after the last billing issue is when I needed a home phone line and switched to Optimum. I received my first bill and it was $370.51. I was shocked. I called Optimum of course and was fed a line of crap about having to pay Bresnan AND Optimum partial monthly payments for switching my service AND they tacked back on that $215.00 credit that I had been given! I spent HOURS on the phone with “customer service” trying to explain the issue to the sales associate. She just kept breaking down all the charges. No literally she just kept repeating all the charges and then had the nerve to say “I’m sorry you don’t understand.” I attempted to speak to a manager but the sales associate just kept repeating herself about the bill again and that she would mail me a breakdown. HAHAH! #1 – the sales associates need to CAUTION people about the “charges” they are going to see on their bill that are completely bogus and be prepared to pay both Bresnan AND Optimum for at least one month and the Optimum bills another month in advance so you will need to pay that as well. I have been a long standing Bresnan customer and I am disgusted at the level of service they are now “providing”.

Cablevision has been charging me hidden fees, I signed up with them about a month ago and got the 'Optimum Triple Play', they gave me a temporary phone number because they were porting my old phone number from Verizon to them, so a week later after I signed up with them they finished the installation and transfered my old number to the new service. They told me I wouldn't be charged for the temporary phone number but when my bill arrived I was charged for both numbers my old one and the temporary phone number. They charged me $29.95 + $19.32 partial month fee for both numbers. When the installation was complete I immediately called in and asked them to remove the temporary phone number which they claimed they did. Then when my bill arrived, they told me the temporary phone number was still there and I'm still gonna be charged for it. They asked me if I wanted them to remove it and I said wait a minute I thought weeks ago and they said no it's still on your line, you are paying for two lines. They asked if I wanted them to remove it and give me a refund and I said yes. So, I paid my bill and they excluded the additional charge for that temporary number which was $49.27 with the partial fee. Then when my next bill arrived it was there again. And what's this 'partial fee' that they consistently keep charging me for? I think they have a bad billing system because they keep charging me an additional $19.32 for OOL and OV, this was the second time they charged me for it.

1) I was told on the telephone when signing up for their "triple play" that I would not need to purchase any additional equipment. When the technicians arrived I was informed that my wireless router, which we discussed on the phone and was assured was compatible, was not compatible and would need to purchase an Optimum router for $100. Calls to Customer Service Department were a waste of time.

2) Optimum forgot to contact my telephone provider to tell them I was switching to Optimum and to discontinue service and dispatch my land line phone number to them. I now have to take another half day off from work next week so the Optimum techs can come out again to install the digital telephone, which they had assured me they would do today.

3) Following installation of digital internet (which they managed to accomplish), high-def, digital TV no longer works. Optimum refused to send the techs back out to fix the problem - told me I had to wait a week and half to fix the TV when they come out to fix the telephone.

I repeatedly asked to speak to a supervisor and was repeatedly denied. This is the worst customer service from any business I have ever experienced - so much wasted time and rude reps.

I've had Cablevision service for a few years now, and subscribe to internet, tv, and phone. In the mean term, I've had horrible customer experience and service, and would switch in a snap if someone else provided similar services where I live.

I switched from a basic plan to a comprehensive plan, and went through all levels of pain.
1. The supposedly automatic billing service overcharged me on multiple counts, and double billed me for the month of transition. In addition, I kept being billed for 2 cable boxes, though I have a single TV. I'd expect an automated billing management system to take care of this properly, and not require me the customer to peruse the bill to find discrepancies. I'm sure this has affected lots of other customers who didn't pore over their bill thoroughly.
2. I called Cablevision and had to spend and argue with the service person for over half an hour, trying to convince her to even look into the discrepancy. She kept repeating the same boilerplate speech about how they prorate as opposed to looking at the actual numbers which were available to her. After half an hour of going through this same speech, she finally agreed to look into the account.

Argh! Wish there was something else I could do to report this horrendous service.

I have been with Optimum or Cablevision since September 2010. I have had issues with their service but nothing that rose to outrageous like the call I got last night on Thursday, 2/16 at around 9PM. The woman called and said that a previous tenant in the same building owed them monies from two or more years ago and that their were adding this to my account. Sure enough today I went online and Cablevision added $400 to my account. Unbelieveable but true. This company is not consumer friendly and takes the attitude the customer is never right. Buyer beware of Cablevision!

I pay $114/mon the cable and it included the gameshow channel GSN...many of us feel this was a FAMILY channel not a SPORTS channel. This month Cable and/or GSN owners have decided to remove from the regular cable package and put it with the sports channels which costs extra and my family is NOT into sports.
Shame on all for removing the "family" game channel we watched...we will all be looking for a new cable company. The newlywed game, catch 21, family feud, are not sports!