2018 Optimum Internet Review

Have Optimum 100. Upload is typically 37, better than the nominal 34. Download speed is typically 116, sometimes occasionally better. Guess what? Many people have crappy routers and network cabling and wifi bottlenecks and are just too crabby to understand they need an upgrade. Don’t use the supplied router. It’s free and I can’t afford free.

The states speed assumes I use a fast laptop with Cat 6 good quality cableing or I am using an advanced AC-rated router and a good laptop that is also 802.11AC rated. Many stupid users don’t get reported speeds because they have three-year-old stuff and ASSUME it’s good enough. IT IS NOT GOOD ENOCH, NOT EVEN CLOSE!. And you cannot just plug in USB. The overhead is TOO HIGH. The universe of AC-related wireless adapters in laptops is eve now very limited, thus for many it has to be wired connections as a prerequisite for even talking about these speeds. You cannot get throughput with the older 10/100 wiring, you MUST use 10/100/1000 cat 6 end-to-end, and many just don’t have it and expect magic.

But if you use one of the newer top-of-the-line routers that ac AC rated AND your laptop is also rated that fast, you are OK. For others, you have to get a wireless ethernet bridge that is AC rated and wire that to your laptop’s 10/100/1000 net cable connection.

Anything less than that and you are the bottleneck, not Optimum. I think they don’t explain any of this very well, so they probably get low marks for that aspect of initial customer service; the installer should be able to steer you to someone who can explain why your equipment is the problem, and a service laptop plugged directly into the cable modem confirms the speed is there, but the bottleneck is your problem past that.

Called customer service: Lady #1 Teresa (very nice) , guarantees 3 separate times that retention will lower my bill to $125 because I have 2 friends that pay the same and i REALLY didn’t my the phone option, haven’t for 3 years but they kept telling me it was best value, says there’s a double play option that i can get into. Retention department #2 forgot to get name, tells me he cant lower my bill or take off the phone because i will actually pay more if i do that. That he cannot offer me or put me in the double play option ( I know he can) . Says businesses are businesses and they will be here long after I leave or cancel
(well that sounds like they care about mew a lot) The reason my friends bills are probably lower is because they signed up with a different promotion so even though I’ve been with you guys for longer you are going to charge me more because they just incentive them to get in the door. He understood where i was coming from but said he could do nothing for me when I know he can, these are the people you put in your front lines to keep customers. They are just
telling us we are nothing and it doesn’t matter if we leave, they don’t even try to sound like there thinking of ways to help us.

Any company I’ve worked for and deal with gives you a further discount for being more long term, not charge you more. Its nuts that instead of just honoring the rate they would rather lose me which i told him I’m canceling at the end of my promotion. Like they said the business will keep doing these deals to get more customers and i get that. But man it doesn’t seem like you guys care about us as customers at all once we are in the door. Very Dissatisfied customer. David Silva – Edison NJ

I had optimum installed last week what a mistake. they gave me a 3 hr. window from 1100am to 200pm .needless to say tech. never showed so I called twice to find out the problem but I had to wait till 4:25 before they called me back to tell me tech. would not be coming today. 5 1/2 hrs of my time wasted. I made an appoint. for the next morning and even though I requested to be the first cust. they put me with a 8:00 to11:00 window and did not show up till 12:00 noon wasting another 4 hrs plus 1 1/2hrs install bringing it to a total of 11 hrs of my time wasted waiting for optimum. I notified that I expected some sort of compensation for my wasted time an the least they could do is throw the modem in free for a year. After 2 days and 2 supervisors donna and julio called back and offered me $ 20.00 for my 11hr. wait. I told him that offer was an insult and that he could keep the $20,00. I also notified that in about 3 months I will be leaving since your treatment of customers and customer service is that of a third world country.

Hello. Optimum is working well for me. Just got my install today. They gave me a window from 11- 2pm. The service rep arrived at 12pm. He was courteous and fast. He even took off his shoes when I asked if they had shoe covers like Verizon offered. He went in and out my balcony veranda as well and put his shoes to go outside and off when he came inside. Did this 3 or 4 times (bless him).

I ordered optimum internet alone and I am pleased with the low price, reliability and fast internet. So far so good. I recommend them. Thank you for the review above because this helped me give optimum a try.

love optimum services but hate that they dont care for their existing customers. they think they can rule you as they are the only providers in your area. Initial promotion is great, but after 1 year their prices go way high and you not eligible for any new offers as now you are old customer. government should stop such monopoly market.

Beware- It took us one month (yes you read right) of sitting around on weekends waiting for a service technician to show up. They will push your appointments back, cancel, reschedule all while you sit around waiting like an idiot. We were without wifi for two months total. We weren’t around for several weeks during that period and called when we got back, but since we didn’t call and complain about not having service sooner, they “couldn’t verify that our service had been interrupted”. So, no refund.

Any time you have an issue, call and complain that second if you can so that they have a record. Not happy with Optimum AT ALL. Will be changing soon to a different provider.

Located in NJ

The only advice I can give you is DO NOT even try optimum. Long story but I had a really really bad experience from service to customer service and their attitude was the worst….. I just went to FIOS

I HAVE ALL TOP OF THE LINE EQUIPMENT. MY INTERNET IS EITHER SLOW, WAITING OR NON EXISTENT. I REBOOT EVERYTHING, AND STILL HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM. MY HOME PHONE GOES OUT WITH IT. CALL OPTIMUM USING MY CELL AND I AM ON HOLD FOREVER AND END UP HANGING UP. I DUMPED MY SILVER PACKAGE. JUST HAVE BASIC. I MOSTLY WATCH WHAT IS ON MY FIRESTICK. IAM IN THE PROCESS OF PORTING MY PHONE NUMBER TO GOOGLE VOICE. THEN I WILL GO TO FIOS JUST FOR INTERNET.

Are you serious? Optimum is IMPOSSIBLE. The User ID they gave me is not recognized when I try to create an account or Log in (on the off chance that they created one for me after instillation???) I can’t create a new one bcs that screen directs you to a dead end. I have found 2 potential local “service” phone numbers. The first is nothing more than a commercial that I sat on hold to hear!!! No prompts, no help! The other is constantly busy. Another phone # I tried recognizes my account phone number but reject my response that it is correct. Optimum promised us a credit for Netflix which we have not gotten and have no way to ask about.

The worst company ever! I would rate them less then one star.

Reliable service and good speed, but tacky business.
They increase the price after the first year and every few months there after. I started with $39.99/mo and they increased charge every year until $75.29/mo for just Internet access. Despite multiple attempts to reduce my bill they refused to give me some discount. However, they still offer $39.99 for new customers, but existing customers pay $70+. I finally cancelled it and switched to Verizon. When I called to cancel, they offer me $39 for the same service. I already got my contract, so I refused, they put me on hold and came back saying they still have to charge me until the end of the month. That’s another $40 extra. They pro-rate for new services, but not for cancel service. That just sneaky. I was thinking of returning after my VZ contract ends, but their business plan is sneaky and focuses on short term money making. If you plan to sign up their service, uses the same tactic to your advantage (use for first year) and switch. Another sneaky tactic is their wireless router you installed at home broadcasts their SSID, in addition of your Wifi SSID. Basically, you are helping power their hot-spot infrastructure. I think it’s a great idea, I just hate the fact that they don’t tell you. You can check this by scanning the Wifi network near your Wifi router, you will see optimumwifi SSID with full signal strength. Power off your router, and check the signal for that SSID again.

As of 1/18, the bill states Optimum 60 is $59.95 (this is a temporary price including a $5 promo discount, I have not been told when the price will be raised to $64.95) + $5.95 for the modem. If you buy a modem, even what Optimum recommends (Arris TM822G)… they will state it does not register “for some reason”.

oh more than happy to join this discussion
NO INTERNET, PHONE or anything available since this morning 10:15am 1/22/18
there was no storm, no rain, no snow, no ballistic missile, no nuclear attack no loss of power – except for optimum online being incompetent in their maintenance of services, equipment or anything else – these guys only take the money promise that they do what they are mandated by the FCC and DO NOT DELIVER ANYTHING

upload and download SILCH NADA ZIP NOTHING!

Worst customer service ever! My router is not working properly together with the representative we restored it to factory settings. I was told to take it to the store and they would replace it. I work so following their evening schedule went there three times to (Elizabeth store which supposedly is opened till 6:30 PM on Thursday) and they where closed before 5:30 PM. Finally I decided to call and have them shit it to me. This was on 1/23 we are now in March 7 and as of yesterday it’s still on back order. This bull because I’m betting that new customers are not being told “sorry we can’t give you a router because it’s on back order”. Horrible customer service and I have two accounts with them but not for long.

It used to be good… but now its worst… somehow they have maintained a monopoly in the TriState area… and sign u up with good deal… but then charge you at the back end with hidden fees, forward billing… They will charge you for multi room dvr when you have just one cable box… and when you speak to the CSR and the supervisor… They will doubt you and ask you to prove that you didnt use them… CSR sometimes hangs up the call … when you call again… you gotta explain everything again… Their Internet is decent… My recommendation.. Get their Internet 200 package… and Sign up Direct Now…. You get all major TV and add in HBO for 5$, combine that with NetFlix and Hulu… dont need anything else… Optimum folks are just greedy money hungry rodents…

I have the Altice One for a week…My Nest and appliances drop off line throughout the day, my voice control doesn’t work on any of my 3 tv’s(paired the remotes numerous times). had to reboot the main box multiple times. I have moved the box thinking maybe it was the location but nope that didn’t work. I opened a number of ports on the router per Nest and Optimum advise to allow the devices access nope that didn’t work. optimum ran test and no answers they did a reboot from their side still nothing, each time i spoke to a rep they said they are looking into and will call back, not one ever called back.. I told them 3 or 4 days maybe its the equipment and then after calling for 6 days in a row someone said maybe its your box “really” i said that days ago… then the manger(Alex) last night after i am willing to give them another chance told me to cancel the service. not once did i raise my voice or curse and that is his response. what am i supposed to say to that?

This is an absolutely remarkable review which makes me, as a long-suffering Optimum customer, question whether or not the author has had to install, troubleshoot, and pay for, Optimum services himself–or if he has merely read through the website.

There is a reason that cable providers routinely rank lowest on surveys of ‘most admired American businesses’, right down their with the airlines. Their customer care system is a joke of bad CRM and/or incapacity. I requested a callback tonight from their team. When I got the call, the guy I talked to then made me give him my name, my phone number, and my address.

Hilarious. Remember: THEY called me after I had logged in a request via a phone number that THEY assigned to me, and that THEIR system called me on. What possible ‘security purpose’ could telling them information that they already have possibly satisfy?! Their version of a ‘security question’ was also a joke: “How many cable boxes do you have in your unit?” as if 9/10 times the answer wasn’t going to be ‘2’.

The call didn’t go well. He said he was an account manager but couldn’t find the correct amount of my bill. He offered me a ‘less expensive’ option than even ‘new customers’ could possibly get. His offer worked out to $180/month give or take a few bucks. I said, well, that’s funny because new customers are getting even faster service for $90/month. Yes, he said, but that’s less fees. I said, “Are you telling me that the fees and taxes associated with that $90/month deal could make the total bill more than $180/month? That’s like 100% taxes and fees.”

He dug his heels in and said, yeah, that’s “absolutely” what he was sure of. I repeated this at least twice and he maintained that yes, the taxes and fees on a $90/month account could, themselves, be at least $90.

So I said, ok, well, just for giggles, let’s do a comparison. Can you pull up the exact numbers? Let’s run them as if I’m a new customer. Just punch it up there on the little screen, I said.

I can’t do that, he said.

Why not?

Well, it’s against policy for us to talk about taxes and fees. “Because taxes can change” and he wouldn’t want to give inaccurate information.

I said, that doesn’t sound right. Let’s put me on hold and talk to someone on your end who can at least ballpark that for us. Someone there knows.

Again, he said, I can’t do that because those numbers could be wrong.

No way. I said, “If I come to you as a customer, that system will generate a bill, and that bill is based on a schedule according to municipality, so that information is definitely out there…like in a binder somewhere….[or on the screen you’re looking at right now, but I didn’t say that.]”

This guy, identified as “Bradley” or operator “i-47”, was pretty thick-necked about all this. I was pretty polite with him–although by this point he didn’t deserve it–even when he talked over me and attempted to “educate” me on how his proposal was the best possible deal for an existing customer.

I had to give up after more than 25 minutes on the phone. He said that he’d push my complaint up through the escalation chain. We got into it again: ‘Who should I expect a call from?’ I cannot tell you that, he said. That’s personal information. It’s not personal information, I said, your supervisor is your supervisor, tell me who will be calling me. Can’t do that–again, he said, it was ‘personal information’. I made a crack about him being a secret agent (I admit by this time I wasn’t very polite–but I never called him names or used profanity or shouted at him). So if what he says is true–and he said a lot of things that were just mischaracterizations, at best–I should hear from a Secret Mystery Someone by the middle of next week.