Optimum — Local services in New Bern

TLDR; Optimum has to be the most negligent, inconsiderate, and worst ISP I have ever dealt with. They do not care about their customers and support will lie and push other products on you. If you don't accept they will be rude and neglegent to your issues.

The only pro I can give them is when my internet works it works decent. I pay for 1Gig. Now I understand with it not being fiber, how many devices are connected etc. I won't obtain those speeds, but I do get an average of 500-700, WHEN IT WORKS.

For over a month now I have been dealing with constant service interuptions. Literally over a dozen times a day and I truly wish I was exagerating that number. Outage time ranges from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Our service has had random disruptions frequently over the 2 and a half years we have had them, but never this bad. I have been on the phone, in chats, and even in stores trying to resolve this issue. My wife and I work from home and it has severally hindered our work lives. It tooks over 6 different attempts to get support before them being willing to send out a technician. Everytime I spoke to support they would run a test and the internet would be "Operating smoothly" which after waiting for 20 minutes on hold or for a rep in chat makes sense as its random and does not last long. The technician came out inspected and replaced all connections and wires. He also recommended a new Gateway as ours had lights on that were not suppose to be on. The tech also stated he is not sure why support would be saying our service was fine when it clearly wasnt. He also said their modem/router combo was terrible as a router and recommended a mesh system. With his advice in consideration we decided to buy a nice mesh system to hopefully alleviate some of my wife and I's issues while working by placing nodes in each of our offices.

After replacing every readily available hardware we are still unable to stay connected and now when we speak to support they claim it must be an unreported outage. After going to the store to replace the modem I was 1 of 4 other individuals in there experiencing the same issues. I was instructed at the store to time it right and get support to test it while having issues. During all 4 of my attempts to "Time it right" I was offered their mobile services and only 1 of the reps was considerate of my initial denial. The rest continued to be pushy and when they finally accepted no offered almost no assistance to my issue and would just disconnect.

If I could swap ISPs I would, but sadly the only other options I have are satelite and they dont offer well enough speeds for our jobs or a fiber company, BUT my landlord will not let us run a fiber line through the property.

If you made it all the way through my story my advice would be to try a different ISP if available and stay away from Optimum. If you cannot then I am sorry for your struggles and I am there with you

Now... que the generic scripted BS response that someone from Optimum will write...

This company is the worst. They need to get out of the ISP business as they have no clue on what they are doing. I continue to have video issues but have gotten to the point that I WILL NOT have them out to check as they have screwed up my service by replacing a HDV DVR box with an HDV box with no DVR capability. I have been experiencing a "clipping" issue on channel 102 News Max for over 4 months. They refuse to accept that this is on their end and I had schedule to have a tech out to my house one more time, but then cancelled the next day. I was then called by the customer service line to verify my call for the next day and informed the person that I had cancelled the call. She informed me that she would cancel the call and behold, the tech still showed up. So, this is a warning to anyone considering to use this company, DO NOT. They have no idea what they are doing and can’t even cancel a service call when told two times. Just to add icing to the cake, the tech that came out was provided the wrong cable box as it did not have DVR capabilities. This would have been the second time that these clowns would have done this to me, but thankfully, I have caught on to their circus act and have to avoid any service calls at all since they have been 100% on screwing up either my service and billing. The last time in fact they tried to charge me for a service call stating that I was not at home, yet I spoke to the tech when he arrived informing him that there is nothing wrong and all is good and not to come out. Way to go Sudden CRAP or Optimum LESS. I could fill two or more pages on how they continue to screw my account up but I won’t waste your time. Just make sure you look somewhere else before you are in the same position I am. As soon as another company comes to offer service, you can bet I am GONE! You guys really know how to F things up all...

I recently moved back to my hometown after living in Virginia for a few years. I must say, I am not impressed with this provider. I had Xfinity and paid about $250 +/- a month (after initially receiving a two-year discount...bill was around $185), had the best internet (unlimited for a reasonable price no more than $100 monthly) and a wide variety of channels, along with good phone phone service as well. I actually didn't mind paying that much because the service was of great quality and rarely had issues. Optimum internet is not great in our home and it doesn't work well throughout the whole house either. Also, the bill is now over $300 a month and increased from being about $250 back in May, which is ridiculous! When I checked to see if maybe we could get a TV package lower than the Value TV option, the channel offerings under the lower Core package are awful. You would only get local news, and a few other stations like Home Shopping Network, a bunch of music stations and then a whole bunch of on demand channels which, unless I'm mistaken, probably cost extra to enjoy. In other words, to have a cheaper plan you get basically nothing! I hope that another competitor is allowed to come to our area soon. Maybe then Optimum will improve what services they offer and the amount they charge. As soon, as something else decent and not overpriced is availalble, we will be terminating everything with this provider...I hope that comes quickly. The only advice I have for Optimum...