Optimum — Attraction in Nacogdoches

I upgrade to Suddenlink’s unlimited plan that promised “up to” 400 mbps. I happily upgraded, and guess what?! My internet speed gets slower from an average of 10-12 mbps to about 5 mbps. So I called customer service to explain. The rep agrees saying, “That is WAY too slow. Let’s get a technician to come out there and see what the problem is. Oh, and BY THE WAY, if the technician comes out and the problem ends up being on your end, you will incur a charge of $60...” “Ok,” so then I ask, “What constitutes the issue being ‘my fault?”’ (No response or real explanation) ”Fine, if the problem is on my end, I will be happy to pay it because the issue will be solved, and it is worth $60 to have the problem fixed. I don’t care whether it’s my fault or Suddenlink’s.If I can get like 1/4th of the speed they are saying I could get I would be perfectly happy. So the techs show up, and, although late, they are very nice and spend extra time to try and fix the problem. After 2 hours or work, they replace some wiring outside the home and do extensive troubleshooting. But to their frustration, the problem persists. While working, the techs call someone (who I presume to be their supervisor) to try to get some guidance. I caught the tail end of the conversation the tech was having, and he said, “yes, he has the connection, but his plan is the 400 mbps plan.” And then the call abruptly ended.... ? ....

So the tech tells me they couldn’t fix the problem, and a “maintenance team” had to be called in to fix the problem. He agreed there was nothing on my end that could have caused the connection issues. “When will they arrive? Do I need to be home?” “No,” said the tech, “The maintenance team will just show up outside the home, and they won’t need to come in your home.” So I wait a couple of days... Then, a couple of weeks... Then a month, and no “maintenance team” ever shows. My service remains slow... I call Suddenlink customer service back several times, and this is what happens on each phone call: Me: “Yes, I would like to see where this ‘maintenance team’ is?” Rep: “Well, on the customer service end, we cannot see where maintenance teams are scheduled. They just show when they can. Would you like for me to schedule a technician to come out?” Me: “... uhh... a technician has already been called out. You already said you can see that in the system. Are there any notes related to what happened on that technician visit?” Rep: “No. There’s no notes left by the technician on what happened on the visit to your house.” Me: “Well... here I am telling you that the issue is not resolved. Can you reach out to the particular technician that came to my house for more information on what happened?” Rep: “No, we do not have that contact information. Would you like for us to call a technician to come out? If the problem is on your end, you will be charged $60.” (EPIC FACEPALM) I have several such calls trying to get some sort of answer, but to no avail. Some customer service reps do not even know “maintenance teams” even exist. No one ever comes to fix my connection. No one ever calls me. I always have to be the one to call and try to get something done, only to get them to threaten to bring a “technician” out to charge me $60 if they so deem the connection issue to be “my fault.” So now comes the moment of truth for me to pay my bill, and.... YOU GUESSED IT!!! There is the big fat $60 “service call” charge on my bill.

I call customer service again, and I finally get them to submit a request to remove the $60 charge. I call Suddenlink back a few days later, and they said the request for the service charge to be dropped from my bill was REJECTED, but no reason is given...So the last customer service rep I spoke to “escalated” the situation to her supervisor, and I have been promised a phone call from said supervisor. someone actually called the next day, but after explaining the whole story again, she said it was a “valid” service call, and I should have read the written terms on their website. I have filed with the...

This review could easily have been 4-5 stars. Yeah, they charge a little too much for their service, but I'd never had an issue that I couldn't get resolved until recently, so I was happy to pay a little extra for the good service. That's why it's not a 1-star review. They're usually okay to deal with.

Back in September, my bank issued new debit cards with chips. My old card without the chip was being used to pay my Suddenlink bill via autopay. New card showed up and was activated. A few days later, my Suddenlink bill was paid from the chipless card. Okay, I thought, the old card will still work for bill payments until it expires. Apparently I was mistaken, because October's payment declined. I didn't find out about it until November's payment was due and it, too, had already declined. No notification of the original payment failure, no indication that it wasn't paid until I went to pay the November bill and couldn't pay online. So I call the customer service line, and they're able to take my payment over the phone - for an extra ten bucks. The phone agent told me I should be good to pay online after making this one over the phone. I wasn't. I still don't have the option to pay online, the only option that really makes sense for my schedule.

I'll take the hit for this. I should have checked with my bank to make sure the card would still work. But still, for five years, never a late payment. This one incident, and now I'm treated like some kind of deadbeat. I don't have time to go to the Suddenlink office every month and pay the bill during their business hours. I have to request time off a week in advance to go down there and wait for the one lady (two if I'm lucky) to get through everyone else waiting there, run my card, and take my payment. This isn't a lunch break trip.

So earlier today, I went in to make my payment, and the lady told me my account was "cash only", and she couldn't accept my card as payment. I asked why, and she said it was due to the bounced payments back in October and November. Why then, I asked, was my in-office card payment accepted last month? She couldn't answer.

So I drove home and spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone to customer service, ready to cancel the account if this couldn't be fixed. Long story and 5 different agents and 4 departments later, and they're asking what they can do to keep me. I told them all I want is to be able to pay my bill online again, because paying in person and with cash is a huge headache and will cause me to be late in the future. I'm apparently not worth enough as a customer to flip a switch and let me pay online again.

On top of that, I had switched Internet packages last year for better speed and no bandwidth cap. Looking at my services online, I found out that not only am I paying more per month than a different plan that has double the speed, they had reinstated my bandwidth cap, which was the primary reason for the switch I made last year. Again, no notification of this, because why tell me they're overcharging me, right?

Still, there really aren't any other viable options for Internet service in my area, so either I deal with them, pay ridiculous fees for AT&T Internet, or go without. Since the other two aren't viable options, here I am, railing against what is...

I just want to go ahead and apologize to Dexter Goei, Hakim Boubazine, and Charles F. Stewart after looking around the company i didn't realize that this behavior was just common practice. I was ignorant for not checking this before hand.

I've been having problems with the internet shutting down and rebooting for over a month. I've had 5 technicians come out and try to fix the problem, changing out wires and such. I've just got hung up on by support. This is depressing service.

Update: i've had my 6th technician come out here and recommend me to change out the modem. I am on my 3rd modem now that is made by a different brand than the other 2 and continue to have the same problems as before.

Update2: thank you for the response Andre. The 3rd Modem is working fairly well now. It is a Netgear CM500 if any one experienced similar problems as mine I recommend this modem. Even though i do get kicked off the internet alot.

Update3: 10/11 A week ago one of yalls technicians sent a false report charging me $60 for a modem setup when i was only having modem issues which led to my internet being cut off. Before that another tech never showed up but reported he did come and do a some sort of reboot according from customer service. Additionally to the manager i sent an email to the person that you posted over a month ago and haven't heard back. I understand yall have a geographic monopoly here but would it be possible to provide a service that works for more than 10 minutes?

Update4: 11/1 still having the same issues. The tech that i spoke with recommends maybe trying yalls modem to see if it works here since non of the brands i bought aren't compatible it seems. I'll try it out but i honestly wouldn't be surprised if yalls modem has the same issues as mine.

Update 5: 6/1 internet is ok for now but yall decided since i didn't have any issues now that yall were guna go ahead and make one for me by sending cable paper views and then charge me for them. It started back in January called yall to cut it out, yall didn't actually stop till April. I am sure yall have some solid people but who ever is running those phones aren't very trustworthy.

Akeem the paper view was taken care of even though my account was brought down to $0.32 when it originally had $8, i don't have a cable modem to watch these episodes and didn't get reimbursed. I have called about getting reimbursed but then we go back to that idea of how trustworthy those people are.

TLDR I honestly dislike this company with a passion. It takes more than a week for a response from their Facebook page, they created a problem which cost me (haven't been reimbursed), honesty issues with customer service not doing what they said they would do, alot of modem and internet issues.

To Juan as unfortunate as this situation is i am at the point where the company that you work for may keep the money they scammed me from since they desperately needed it. I just hope that incoming customers do not experience the same situation and recognize this a possibility when doing business. I am sure yall have some solid people just not...