It's Optimum Or It's Not?... Guess What Mr. Dolan, IT'S NOT !
Written: Jun 08 '07 (Updated Aug 29 '09)
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Pros: NONE!
Cons: The list is so long, I don't know where to begin.
The Bottom Line: As soon as Verizon FiOS TV becomes available where you live, RUN, DON'T WALK! You'll never look back ........
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| dmz7's Full Review: Cablevision |
Granted, few people have anything good to say about cable companies in general, but this one takes the cake. Having had Time Warner before this, I only 'thought' I understood just what a rip-off can be when it comes to cable service. I wasn't in love with Time Warner either, but now that I've been a customer of both companies, I'll take them over Cablevision any day.
After installation, the 1st thing I noticed was intermittent and lengthy delays in the box's response to button presses on the remote. When I called them about this, they said that that's normal and could send a tech out to look at it, but if the tech found nothing wrong, I'd be charged $41.95 for the service call. WHAT NERVE!! With Time Warner, I NEVER had this problem using the same models of Scientific Atlanta boxes.
Until a couple of months ago, Cablevision was the only cable company in North America to not carry Discovery HD Theater, one of the finest stations on all of cable & satellite. They wound up doing so because I screamed and screamed at them like a stuck pig. Speaking of which, we all grew up watching Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, The Flinstones, and The Jetsons, right? They're now exclusively on a channel called Boomerang. Since Cablevision remains the only cable or satellite company in North America to not carry Boomerang, you and your family can't watch them. Their response: "We Have No Plans of adding Boomerang, Sorry For Any Inconvenience This May Cause You". What I tried to impress upon them was that 'Inconvenience' to me is about what I was getting for my $$$ versus anyone else and they have no excuse whatsoever for being the only cable or satellite provider in North America to not carry certain mainstream channels.
Cablevision charges more for EVERYTHING, except adult movies (woo hoo!). That must be why they've been known for having the highest cable rates in the nation. They're the only cable system in captivity that charges you $5 extra/month for each corresponding on-demand channel for every premium service you already subscribe to as part of a package ... HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etc. This is unheard of everywhere else throughout the cable TV industry. They're $1 more than any other cable company for PPV movies on demand. Their channel lineup has the fewest channels of any other cable provider I've seen and loaded up one wall and down the other with foreign non-English and religious channels (none of which I care less about) comprising about 1/4 of their total lineup. Their channel layouts are also all over the map defying any common sense logic. For example, HBO on Ch14, HBO2 on 96, all the rest of the HBO's on 301-309. Another astonishing difference is the remote Cablevision gives you with the DVR box. Cablevision gives you a remote that can only control your TV and cable box while Time Warner, Comcast, and Verizon all give you a universal multi-function remote that can also control your DVD and audio equipment.
Making online payments with them is another shady deal. Cablevision takes the money right out of your bank account or charges your credit card, and then it can take 1 to 6 days to update your Cablevision account balance as they process payments in 'batches'. Computerwise, this how companies did things up till the 90's. In some cases, this could mean your account going overdue giving them the opportunity to hit you with a late fee even though you've already paid. I know someone who got a collection call from them FIVE DAYS after executing an online payment on optimum.com. When making an online payment with Time Warner or Verizon however, your account balance is updated immediately.
As for HD, I'm yet able to successfully watch a Yankee game on YES without frequent signal cutouts. The next to the last episode of The Sopranos was also a wash out and I had to switch to the non-HD HBO channel. This problem is intermittent and on different HD channels at different times, typically during popular broadcasts indicating ** "THE BEST IN HD" ** as Cablevision touts it, can't handle the load.
Cablevision's a$$ is slowly getting kicked out of existence by Verizon with their FiOS TV. Why else would the Dolan family be looking to take the company private now? Speaking of whom, I can't tell you enough how happy I was when George Steinbrenner told them where to go when they wanted to buy the Yankees. At the local town hearing a couple of months ago to determine whether or not to award Verizon the franchise to provide TV service in my area, a contingent of Verizon execs presented their case ... followed by a slew of local Verizon employees and a barage of townspeople, ALL testifying how sick and tired they all were of Cablevision. Meanwhile, Cablevision's only representation at this meeting was a pack of lawyers that tried every which way to stop or slow down Verizon. What does all this tell you?
Cablevision has always done whatever it could to stymie competition, gouge the consumer, and squeeze cable channels/networks into paying them the least per subscriber. Those of us baseball fans in the NY area would remember back a few years ago when Cablevision subscribers were locked out of Yankee games and that Time Warner subscribers were locked out of Mets games the following year. In BOTH of those cases, the controversies were instigated and spearheaded by Cablevision, because they felt the consumer wasn't paying enough. Verizon FiOS doesn't yet carry MSNBC in the areas they compete with Cablevision because when Cablevision did their original contract with MSNBC way back when, they shrewdly hoodwinked MSNBC into giving them exclusivity in the areas they service. MSNBC has assured Verizon that when that contract term is up, Cablevision can take their exclusivity rights and "stick it where the sun don't shine". Verizon and the Connecticut Attorney General believe the agreement between Cablevision and MSNBC is illegal and are petitioning the FCC to invalidate it. I cannot help but agree with them 1000%. There's plenty more examples like this about Cablevision going back almost 30 years starting with the antics they used to pull with their SportsChannel, but I think you've got the gist. The never ending lies and misleading statements in their advertising like "The Most Advanced Fiber Optic Network" and "Optimum On-Line Is Up To 5X Faster Than Phone Company High Speed Internet" don't help their cause either. That advertised speed difference only applies to DSL, not FiOS as Cablevision would have you believe. And if their network was really was the 'most advanced', their fiber optic cable would be running 100% of the way from their systems to your house like Verizon. Fiber optic cable has virtually unlimited bandwidth and the ability to carry 10's of 1000's of channels simultaneously, so Verizon is prepared to offer all kinds of services in the coming years that you haven't even dreamed of yet. Any cable company ad that proclaims their network to be fiber optic (like the Time Warner commercial with the guy holding a cereal bowl in his hand talking to the guy from Verizon at his door) absolutely cannot compete with Verizon on picture quality and # of services they could offer unless they run fiber ONE HUNDRED PERCENT, not just in portions. There's a Time Warner install tech at my health club who've I've become friendly with who tells me that TW is loosing subscribers to Verizon at a rate that has his superiors very very concerned.
As of 2 days ago, I finally was able to drop Cablevision like a hot potato and got the Verizon FiOS TV service. The difference is like night and day! The improvement in the picture quality on BOTH HD and non-HD channels blow Cablevision off the map. In fact, an accurate comparison would be like the same bright waves of light that come out of the back of the Verizon trucks in the commercials coming out of my TV now every time I turn it on. Even the sound coming out of my Sony TV's stereo speakers is clearer and more vivid. Furthermore, the menus and guides on Verizon's setup are more intuitive, feature filled, and much easier to read and understand. I'm getting about 100 more channels including ALL 6 premium services (HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Starz, and Encore with ALL their corresponding on-demands and ALL west coast feeds versus only HBO, Cinemax, and Encore, and HBO On-Demand with Cablevision, and now 95, that's right, NINTY FIVE music channels ...... make that 94 music, 1 comedy ... ALL FOR ABOUT $20/ MONTH LESS! And it's nice to once again have a cable box that responds to the remote the instant I press a button. :-)
Just ask anyone you know whose made the switch.
"It's Optimum Or It's Not"...?
Guess what Mr. Dolan, IT'S DEFINITELY NOT ....
UPDATE - JUNE 15TH
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Now for the Cablevision disconnect/account close saga. My call to kindkly tell them what they could do with their service yielded a customer service rep telling a seemingly endless pack of lies in order to try and save me starting with "Verizon Uses Our Wire From The Pole To Your House", "We Have The Most Advanced Fiber Optic Network", "That Box Verizon Mounts To The Side of Your House Uses The Same Amount of Electricity as Your TV Set", and so on and so on. An appointment was made for them to pick up the boxes the next day between 11am and 2pm. True to Cablevision form, no one showed up. So at 2:00, I called again and had to wind up speaking to a supervisior who apologized for the inconvenience, gave me a $20 no show credit on the account, and made another appointment for the next morning between 8 and 11. Once again, no one showed up by 11, so I left. Called them again this morning, got a girl who kept telling me over and over and over again that box pickup appointments are all day affairs between 8am and 6pm and that they were here yesterday. After a long period of getting nowhere asking "When they were here yesterday?" and "All day is not what I was told twice previously", I just hung up as I obviously was talking to the same type of brick wall as when I first called to cancel. To illustrate even further just how screwed up this company is, they closed my online account prohibiting me from making a final payment despite the fact that I still have an outstanding balance. Now they don't want their money? Works for me!
NOV, 2008
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These SOB's are sending out letters to every household in the areas they compete with Verizon trying to warn people about electrical grounding issues with Verizon's equipment hooked up to your house. True again to Cablevision form, this is just another one of their SCAMS, or in reality, BS scare tactics. The facts are that the NY State wiring codes as previously written don't include fiber optic. Fiber optic cable transmits pulses of light NOT ELECTRICAL CURRENT as Cablevision's copper cabling does. Above all, Cablevision (of course) won't admit that that same state panel warned them that they found 15% of all Cablevision installations DID NOT MEET electrical grounding codes, thereby representing an infinitely bigger danger than Verizon installations ever could.
I took advantage of a recent Verizon promotion whereby you could get all 6 premuim services (HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Starz, and Encore) as a combined package deal for only $30 a month. And unlike DolanVison, you get ALL the west coast feeds in BOTH regular and HD plus all the corresponding on-demands INCLUDED. I now have 100 HD channels and Verizon is adding about a dozen more before the end of the year.
JUN, 2009
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Saw that Time Warner installer at my health club yesterday. He told me the subscribership jump to FiOS is now reaching CATACLYSMIC PROPRTIONS to the point where Time Warner is preparing for layoffs of field techs and supervisors for the 1st time in their history. Many Time Warner and Cablevision installers privately anticipate that there’s only about 2 years to go before they’re done and Verizon finishes taking over. Is it any wonder why Time Warner Corporate is trying feverishly behind the scenes to unload the cable television division?
Verizon is now aggressively looking to cut deals with landlords and condo/co-op boards to get into apartment buildings and town house complexes with what I understand are lucrative financial incentives, even if there’s an existing contract with a cable company.
It’s now 2 years since I made the switch, and so far Cablevision has come knocking on my door twice promising me the sun, the moon, and the stars if I come back while lying straight to my face that most people who go to Verizon FiOS wind up switching back. Do they really think people are that stupid? Guess so. Look at the ads they run on TV like the all new version of that stomach turning rap commercial with that guy in the sunglasses.
If there's one thing I've gotten used to in these last 2 years, it's the pleasure of being able to watch in the bedroom what I recorded on the DVR in the living room, something NO OTHER cable or satellite TV service provider offers. Better yet, I could be watching a recroded program in the living room, stop or pause it, then resume play in the bedroom right where I left off. Cool, huh?
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 115
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Epinions.com ID:
dmz7
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 2 members
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