Optimum Not So Optimum

When I signed up for Optimum's Triple Play, I was not exactly encouraged by Bill who left me with the not so vague advice of "You're eventually gonna hate this company as much as I do." He then encouraged me to go with Verizon and Fios. As I was sick of them, and was using the "devil you don't know is better than the one you do know" theory, I went with Optimum. This week I've already had a few issues.

The first is that when the bill came, there was already an error. The first month, I paid for the month of May, and also the few days of April got billed as a "partial month." Ok, I paid it, but I was also annoyed that it came too quickly, and there wasn't much time to pay it. I called customer service, and was assured that it was because it was the first month, and I would have more time next month.

Well, I guess that was true- but not really. Last month I had 8 days from the time of when the bill arrived to when the payment is due. This month it's ten. By the time the bill arrives, it barely leaves me a few days to get the check in the mail and back to them. Trust me, the Dolans need the money a lot less than the rest of us.

Next, I had to deal with the partial month charge. After I explained what had happened, they took it off, but why was it there in the first place? My theory is that these companies overbill many folks, and they count on a few of them not paying attention and paying extra. Notice that the billing errors are always in their favor?

Finally, the cable companies are using the digital television transition to justify cutting the analog channels from their feed. I had the cable plugged directly into my Philips DVR (not from Cablevision, and for the discussion I told him it was just a "VCR" to not confuse the issue further), and my old 20" CRT so I could use the TV and the DVR at the same time. I had been deciding what to do with the STB. This week, I noticed that 10 channels got cut from the analog feed, with a message that says, "You need an iO Cable Box to view this channel." The channels cut are:

15 QVC
28 TLC
46 A&E
48 Sci Fi
51 E!
57 Animal Planet
58 TruTV
63 Travel Channel
65 C-Span
79 C-Span 2

This also means that my DVR can no longer record these channels. I expressed my dissatisfaction, and was told that this is part of the DTV transition. I'm also told that this is "making way for new services," but from where I'm sitting, I see a loss of 10 analog channels, and nothing in return so far. While they may add something down the road, so far they haven't, and likely won't for months to come.

One of the inherent advantages of cable over satellite and Fios is that there are analog unencrypted channels for older TV's. There are also situations where a STB just isn't practical, such as a wall mounted TV, or in the kitchen for a smaller set. If cable is going to cut the analog to nothing, I'm sure lots of folks are going to at least look at their other options.

While I'm not leaving yet, so far it's been less than impressive, and Bill, you just might turn out to be right. Maybe the best strategy is to just keep changing back and forth.

On the plus side, at least the Cablevision rep spoke English, and was reasonably courteous. While one may think it's a given, too often it's not as my recent experiences with Verizon show.