the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewod NJ, concerns have been raised over poor Optimum phone and internet ‘service’ with frequent outages in the area from North Monroe to Heights Road . Many neighbors have the same issues, and nothing is being done. This appears to be limited to a particular ”node”. We are not sure how many subscribers are on each ‘node” whether its 100 or 1000 .
While many including this blog have become very dependent on the internet to function , the real issue is if you can not call 911, Police, Fire Department or an ambulance .Most people have a cell phones, but many older residents do not so if someone falls on the floor, and is incapacitated bad service could delay help and perhaps lead to a tragedy.
If you are in the area calling the Optimum ,Retention Department when they open up at 9am. 877-936-4778 might help.
Glen ‘av and n’monroe has been like that for a long time . Why ?
This has been an ongoing problem with intermittent service disruptions for the past 3 weeks. The Internet and phone stop working, but the television cable works. I try to call using my cell phone and the automated message states something about high call volume so they can’t answer my call. And usually says something about “an outage in your area”. It seems like they try to prevent customers from reporting service issues by reducing the number of customer reps to answer the calls, so if you eventually call and get through they can say ” we don’t have a history of problems at your account”
The service is good when it works, but it is now unreliable… Are any other areas. Of town having this problem . .? Any better with fios? Neither of these services “guarantee” a dial tone since they require electric power or a backup battery . Verizon no longer offers the copper in this neighborhood. What about old folks without a cell phone who need to call 911
Years Ago I could usually get a human on the phone a lot faster to address any concerns. And there were rarely any outages. Now it’s a regular thing in my neighborhood and there seems to be no progress to fix it. I’d expect an occasional “blip” in services but not at the current level . maybe filing a report with the state that regulates these monopolies will get them to fix the unreliable service
https://www.state.nj.us/bpu/assistance/complaints/inquiry.html
And yet a week does not go by that we don’t receive a direct mail piece or email from Optimum touting their phone, internet and tv packages/Altice. Saw two trucks on N Monre and Mrningside are yesterday. Verizon/FIOS has deterioraated over the last couple years as well (all services).
Not a week goes by that we do not receive a direct mail piece and/or email from Optimum touting their; Internet, TV/Altice and Phone packages. THere sere two Opttimum trucks in the are yesterday . One on N Monroe towrds Fiarmont and anohter on Morningside on the one way to Pakwood Deli/Midland Park. Offers are tempting however comments on their service are reason not to switch. Verizon/Fios ( al service have been deteriorating over last couple years with cell the worse and Internet now following (degraded/fluctuating speeds and no its not my router). Only postive is that the TV and Internet. as poor as it is, has not gone down for any extened period of time. The key is high speed , dependable inernet and then cut the cable cord. Carrier doesn’t matter.
I lost phone and Internet 3 times today. Twice for a few minute then the third time for almost an hour.
If you experience a service disruption you must call them to report it… Even if it’s after the fact or they will never beleive that there is a problem wit the area they will just thinki you have a. Bad modem