Optimum boasts: “#1 in customer satisfaction.”
In neighborhoods all around Westport, customers beg to differ.
Social media was filled this week with complaints about the long-time cable provider.
Randi Nazem came directly to “06880.” Describing the situation off North Avenue, she writes:
We have WiFi sometimes, but it drops intermittently throughout the day. On Tuesday, for example, we had it all morning. Around 1 it dropped, and didn’t come back up until after 6 p.m.
This past weekend it dropped every few hours, for 10 to 15 minute intervals. It’s bizarre, and very frustrating.
This has been going on for 10 days. I’ve had Optimum on the phone 10 times. I’ve spoken to managers and the supervisor. They came to check and said everything ‘looks’ fine, yet my home (and many others) have no or only intermittent service.
Meanwhile, my $300 bill is due this week. I have to pay it, right?
Randi’s husband works from home. Without WiFi, that’s impossible, she says.
Randi reached out to “06880” because nothing else has helped. They need senior-level attention.
I received another email, this one from a woman in the Old Hill area. She said:
We have not had regular/consistent internet for the past 10 days. It sounds like this is pervasive in Old Hill, from an informal neighborhood poll — often out for more than an hour at a time).
I missed an important job interview due to the outage, and then had to reschedule and do it at the library.
My husband and I both work remotely full time, and have 2 children under 2. I monitor my newborn’s breathing through internet while she sleeps.
Our alarm system doesn’t work without internet, and we receive very little cell reception here so we need Wifi to make calls.
Optimum has a monopoly. They are content to do nothing and provide nothing to customers that have no choice.
This is fundamentally impactful to all of our lives. This affects the entire Old Hill neighborhood. The town needs to intervene with Optimum. This puts safety as well as ability to work at risk.
Randi sent screenshots of social media posts from other areas in Westport.
A plea — from 2020. (Photo/Aurea de Souza)
A second Old Hill neighbor reported: “Optimum gave us a new modem, and fixed most of it. Still some issues connecting our devices to Wi-Fi though.”
A woman on Imperial Avenue added: “I’ve had this issue for the last 2-3 weeks. We have all the best equipment on every floor of our house, yet we have full-on blackout periods every single day for hours. I’m losing my mind.”
Another person said: “We’ve had similar issues with daily outages this week. Optmum is the worst company I’ve ever dealt with, and our only option for high speed internet. I can’t wait for the day when there is another reliable, and likely cheaper, option.”
Some commenters suggest it may be an issue related to line work Optimum is doing. Others discussed the pros and cons of the Eero Mesh wifi system.
Bottom line: Optimum has some very unsatisfied customers, all over town.
They’re looking for answers.
Or at least for someone in a position of authority to care.
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