Optimum — Local services in Town of North Hempstead

No stars are not possible. Optimum treats customers very poorly - especially if you have traditional copper cable. Calling customer service will force you through an automated troubleshooting routine before allowing you to speak to a third-world script kiddie with a heavy Indian accent who won't have much luck either. Only then can you be escalated to a second-level support person in the US who has a slightly better chance of getting the problem solved. But they may not have correct information either...

When my original Scientific Atlanta DVR was deprecated, the only alternatives were Cloud DVR or a third-party device using a CableCard. Cloud DVR is a poor option for basic use. It has long latency between a button press and play/pause/rewind functions and only buffers the channel you are watching from the point you press pause and stare at a blue screen while it counts down 15 minutes remaining until it resumes playing by itself. You may also find that your favorite saved recordings become corrupted and will no longer play.

My alternative was to buy a TiVo for Cable system. Optimum provided me with a CableCard for $2.50 a month and I had all channels except On Demand. The TiVo was perfect for about five months when Optimum announced that they were deactivating all CableCards on their system and on November 3rd (2024) they sent a kill code down the wire and fried my card. Fortunately there are several cable companies that still support CableCards and I was lucky enough to sell my slightly used TiVo for pennies on the dollar. To add insult to injury, after killing my card they continued to bill me for it and I have not had any success in getting it removed for six consecutive months now.

After the last call to customer service to remove the defunct card from my account (again!) I was informed that they now have Samsung hardware DVRs available at the Optimum store nearest me. They couldn't give me a phone number to call but said they have them in stock and I could just bring my basic Samsung converter box in and they would upgrade me.

After driving out to the Optimum Store and waiting in line behind a bunch of other unhappy customers, I showed my box to the representative and asked for the new DVR. He assured me that Optimum doesn't have a hardware DVR (at all) and hasn't made any announcements as such (the representative at the next window found this all funny and tried unsuccessfully to suppress a chuckle). I told the rep about the inability to take the dead CableCard off my account and he then after a few minutes of working at his terminal proudly exclaimed (as have many before him) that the card is now gone.

We'll see if next month's bill still has a CableCard charge. I'm not holding my breath...

P.S. -the Customer Retention people at Optimum will not be of much real help either. If you tell them you are considering FIOS they might offer a promotional discount that will expire in six months but make sure you don't lose access to your paid services...

I am on the phone at least monthly with Optimum about billing issues or service issues. Most recently a service call to fix an OUTSIDE issue and I was blindly charged a service fee. Upon calling they said they would refund to $80 service fee but my bill was still $10 more this month (TAXES). Another call to get the additional $10 in taxes refunded. I changed the Auto billing on line to reflect the change as per the rep and they still deducted the the incorrect amount without my authorization. Called 2 more times verified my debit card info, was told it would be refunded...... (2 days, then 5-7 day, today 7-10 days), today, 11 days later nothing. Now spoke to another rep who said, " They might have been too afraid to tell you they cant refund but it would be applied as a credit to your next bill". Told me that only over payments could be refunded. Listen to the recorded calls. Technically this was an overpayment. What kind of customer service is this? Optimum customer service is outsourced to the Middle East (found in small talk with them) and you are unable to understand them, will not transfer to a supervisor and as soon as you ask to speak to the retention department someone who speaks well gets on and attempts to solve your issues. Supervisor returned call, I'm sorry nothing we can do but credit the account. Transfer to Retention explain again...sorry nothing we can do, t/f to her supervisor only to be told nothing we can do. Again wasting my time. Disconnected. I'd rather sit in the dark than have Optimum for a provider. Told them to...

DO NOT TRUST the salespeople in the Roslyn store. Horrible, sleazy, dishonest.

Came in for an additional cable box and they upsold me 4 apple tv boxes.

Didn't bother to tell me how difficult it was to set up.

I gave up after two hours, brought back the very next day and they refused to take the open box back, even though I couldn't set it up.

I left and called optimum and they couldn't understand why they wouldn't take it back. They said the store people were lying.

Optimum sent me a FedEx return label and gave me a full refund as well as credits for my troubles, to make things right. The.

While I was at the store, I noticed that the store people tried to upsell everyone who walked in. Even an 80 year old women who came to pay her bill, they tried to switch her to optimum phone service to save $5 a month. The women kept telling them she was happy with AT&T but they kept pressing her to switch. They were relentless. Women finally left angry and frustrated.

The Roslyn store people are deceitful, dishonest and try to sell you what you don't want or need.

It obvious they work on a large commission structure and are instructed to pressure and upsell everyone.

Walk in to pay your bill, walk out with something you don't need.

Horrible store, sleazy sales people, a very bad look for optimum as a company.

I'll never go back, I'll switch to Verizon before ever going there again.

Don't trust them. Sleazy and deceitful.

Optimum did there best to make it right but next time I switch to Verizon. I don't like dealing with...