Cable Montana is now Optimum West, Cablevision’s marketing name for the cable systems it acquired from Bresnan Communications.

Earlier today, customers in Billings, Laurel, Park City and Columbus were able to start using upgraded cable, phone, and broadband equipment on the updated cable system.  More than 2,200 Montanans were introduced to the Optimum name in a mailing sent to neighborhoods where service has been upgraded.  But all of the new equipment that comes with the service has created considerable confusion for long-standing Bresnan customers who have been using older Bresnan equipment for years.

The changes have been overwhelming for those used to Bresnan’s modest level of service for more than a decade.  Cablevision, best known for its Optimum service in suburban New York City, Connecticut, and New Jersey, has brought an enormous increase in programming, and improvements in broadband service, for many customers.

“All existing customers in Laurel, Park City and Columbus will be upgraded to Optimum TV by July 20, which will deliver many more channels, including access to more than 100 channels of free HD (high definition), thousands of titles of video on demand and other benefits like faster high-speed Internet and a better phone service with lower prices and more features than are available from any other provider,” says a Cablevision spokesperson.

When it works properly.

The Laurel Outlook reports some customers frustrated with the changeover have found themselves at local cable stores trying to sort out all the problems:

One Laurel customer installed his modem, but was not receiving service. A visit to the Laurel office did not provide answers to his satisfaction, so he drove to the Billings office on Monad Road, where he received two telephone numbers to call for tech support. He called one of the numbers, followed a menu, and was able to troubleshoot with a technician to get his Internet up and running.

A second customer installed her set-top box but was not receiving Optimum TV channels. She called the 1-800 number provided in the mailing packet, but technicians were unable to walk her through the necessary steps to receive service. Frustrated, she drove to the Laurel walk-in center on West First Street and made an appointment for a technician to come to her home. She discovered that not only must she program her television with the new Optimum channel numbers, she must also program the TV-top box with the correct numbers. After doing so, she was able to receive the new channels.

Many customers are likely going to need to reprogram their televisions more than once.  When the upgrades are complete, Cablevision says it plans to unify channel lineups across the area.

A repair shortcut made by Time Warner Cable in Cleveland got some unwelcome media attention last week, when the company was caught repairing one customers’ cable and broadband service with a hastily-spliced replacement line strung across the ground from a neighbor’s house — a “repair” that left both Bainbridge customers with pixelated pictures and disrupted broadband service.

“We’ve called them 10 times, at least,” Dr. Roger Classen told consumer troubleshooters at WEWS-TV. “Nothing has happened, they say we need a new line.”

The Classen’s neighbors were surprised to find Time Warner Cable had spliced their cable line and ran at least 50 feet of cable across the ground to the neighbor’s house, leaving a tripping hazard and a hassle whenever either homeowner mows the lawn.

After one phone call from the Cleveland television station, two Time Warner Cable crews appeared almost immediately to properly bury the offending cable and restore service for both customers.  It’s another example of high profile media getting results for customers who cannot get satisfaction themselves.

WEWS-TV recommends that customers running into a brick wall with Time Warner Cable demand to speak to a supervisor, write down the names of everyone you speak with, visit a local cable office to raise your complaint, or file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WEWS Cleveland Dealing with your cable 7-14-11.mp4[/flv]

A Cleveland television station called out Time Warner Cable for some shoddy repair work that left bad service and a cable strung across the ground across two yards.  The station says these kinds of complaints are among the most common the newsroom receives from Cleveland-area customers.  (2 minutes)

With FairPoint Communications, customers often have to take the good with the bad.  The formerly bankrupt telephone company providing service in northern New England announced last week it had met its obligation to provide at least 90 percent of Vermont residents with a broadband option — typically 1-3Mbps DSL — and has trumpeted results showing 83 percent of Maine and 85 percent of New Hampshire is now served by FairPoint DSL, an improvement over former owner Verizon Communications, which routinely ignored rural areas in all three states.

But while winning the option to buy DSL service, thousands of customers found service lacking last week when a power cable in the Manchester Millyard area brought down both broadband and voicemail service across all three states.

In such circumstances, FairPoint’s backup generators are supposed to maintain service, but not in this case.

“I’m on dialup and went down for 10 (hours),” Wolfgang Milbrandt of Mason wrote in an e-mail to the Nashua Telegraph. “So why does FairPoint have so many eggs in the Manchester basket and is the backup power system that feeble?”

In Milford, Tom Schmidt lost his DSL broadband for about five hours last Monday, with it returning “around 6-ish.”

Company officials admitted they didn’t switch to the generator after the power failed, and customers noticed as voicemail and DSL service began to fail.  Service problems were ongoing even after power was restored after about 90 minutes, with some FairPoint customers reporting problems through the early part of last week.

FairPoint plans to press forward with DSL broadband expansion and has also prioritized build-out of its Ethernet-Over-Fiber service for cell phone towers, delivering fiber-fast connections to more than 800 tower sites to support 4G wireless broadband from major wireless carriers.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WGME Portland FairPoint customers lose service 7-11-11.flv[/flv]
WGME-TV in Portland, Maine covers FairPoint’s substantial broadband outage last week. (1 minute)

Cox alienates their customers.

Six of the 19 ‘Most Hated Companies in America’ are big cable, satellite and phone companies.  The list, published this month by The Atlantic magazine, call out the perpetrators of bad customer service, high prices, and in the case of Time Warner Cable (#3) — Internet Overcharging.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index rates companies based on thousands of surveys. In the latest index, the most-hated companies include large banks, airlines, power and telecom companies.  Especially called out this year was Time Warner Cable, celebrating a decade of public relations blunders ranging from gouging experiments on Internet service pricing, showing pornography on children’s channels, high rates, and downright lousy service in some areas.  And with CEO Glenn Britt entertaining a return to Internet rate gouging, the company’s 59/100 score still has plenty of room to fall.

#3 — Time Warner Cable (59/100) — All of the above, plus sexually harassing a North Carolina customer.

#4 — Comcast (59/100) –Dreadful customer service and poor communications left consumers with dozens of channels gone missing, outrageous rate hikes, their phone service implicated in a Florida woman’s death, and who could forget the technician that set a customer’s house on fire. This one actually lost two score points since last year.

#5 — Charter Communications (59/100) — The usual rate increases were bad enough, but Charter also told their customers they were on the hook for cable boxes lost in fires that were not their fault, was held accountable for faulty billing practices, went bankrupt, introduced its own Internet Overcharging scheme, and worst of all — their infamous PR disaster telling tornado victims in Alabama to go and find their lost cable boxes scattered somewhere in the neighborhood.  The representative on the line will wait.

#14 — AT&T (66/100) — Limited coverage and the introduction of usage pricing for data pl    …   oh sorry, AT&T dropped the call.  All reasons why AT&T wins the ‘you suck’ award among mobile providers this year.

#17 — Cox Cable (67/100) — The home of the $480 early termination fee, Cox alienates customers like few others.  They even use spacemen to harass their customers.  Bemusingly, Cox is considered a customer service success compared with our other bad boys.

#18 — Dish Network (67/100) — Trending downwards, Dish is still giving their customers a bath in bad billing and worse customer service.  They are lovers of big ad splashes with a terrifying excess of fine print which ruins the deal, if you read it.

More than 35,000 Netflix subscribers flooded the company’s blog and Facebook page with negative comments less than 24 hours after the company announced major pricing changes for its DVD-by-mail and streaming services.

News that Netflix would unbundle discounts for customers who enjoy online streaming and still need to rent an occasional DVD-by-mail went over like a lead balloon for the overwhelming majority, who hit the 5,000 comment limit on Netflix’s own blog by 5:30pm Tuesday, and continue to pound the company’s Facebook page by the tens of thousands this morning.

One of the most “liked” comments came from longtime Netflix customer Scotty Fagaly:

“The only way that this is terrific for the customer is if you plan to offer your entire collection available for streaming,” Fagaly lamented. “Otherwise, this is just yet another way to choke more change out of your customers.”

Only about 20 percent of Netflix’s library is available for streaming at any time, with some titles and studios coming and going.  Several television series are available online, but certain episodes are often missing from the streaming library, requiring customers to rent the DVD to see everything.

Are these discs made of gold now?

The biggest negative response came from the loss of the popular $9.99 plan, which allowed unlimited streaming and an unlimited number of DVD’s — sent one at a time — to customers.  With the unbundling of discounts, that same plan now costs $15.99 — a 60% increase.

Netflix officials have yet to respond to the firestorm of criticism, in part laid at the feet of Jessie Becker, who tried to make lemonade out of the price increase most customers describe as a lemon.

“It’s insulting that Netflix think we’re stupid enough to believe this change is either ‘exciting’ or ‘good news,'” one hostile commenter noted.  “Stop couching this as anything other than what it is — a price hike.”

“So far you have 32,446 people on your Facebook page planning to or already have canceled, and 6,857 on this blog [over an] announcement yesterday. If nothing else there might be an award in it for you guys for most Internet hits for pissing off customers in the shortest amount of time,” said Christine Perry.  “I can go to Redbox and rent a new release for a dollar, watch it and return it the same day and get a new one. Why would I pay $7.99 to wait 3 days to get a DVD, and the another 3 days after I watch it for you to get it back, and then another 3 days to get another one?”

Daniel Indiviglio, a former investment banker who works today as an associate editor at The Atlantic, called Netflix’s price changes “boneheaded,” particularly for investors if it backfires:

“How much could Netflix lose? Let’s do a quick analysis. According to one estimate, about 80% of Netflix subscribers currently have by-mail service that includes free streaming. Of that portion, let’s say half cancel streaming but keep by-mail service. Remember, many people don’t use streaming at all. In particular, if you don’t have an Internet-ready device connected to your television with a Netflix widget, then streaming is far less attractive. Through Netflix’s new pricing, by-mail only service will be about 20% cheaper than the current rate that includes free streaming.

[…] “Netflix has been a darling of investors for some time now. In just the past year, its stock price has increased by an amazing 144%. But Wall Street might begin to question its strategy. The company has said that streaming is the future. It’s right. But the future isn’t here yet. If its streaming subscriber base suddenly plummets by 50% or even by a smaller margin like 30%, then investors might worry about whether consumers are really ready to embrace the service on which Netflix has been investing a huge portion of its revenue. And if its profits dive as a result of the rate hike, then investors will be even more concerned with Netflix’s vision.

“So what should Netflix have done? It should have increased its rates slightly, maybe by a dollar or two, and broke out streaming and by-mail service. For example, the company could have increased the cost of its basic plan from $9.99 to $11.98 for streaming plus by-mail service. If you wanted the two a la carte, it could have charged $4.99 for streaming and $6.99 for one DVD-by-mail. Although customers wouldn’t love the rate increase, they’d be better able to stomach it. It would also give Netflix the ability to up its fees in future years gradually, to hit the target that it believes is appropriate. But putting the hike in place immediately may do the company more harm than good.”

Your Alternatives

Bankrupt Blockbuster wasted no time taking advantage, pelting many of their former rental members with e-mail reminding them they can rent Blockbuster DVD’s by mail without a monthly subscription.  Unfortunately, it’s not cheap.  A seven day rental of a single disc will cost $4.99.  Subscription plans offer a better value for frequent renters.  Blockbuster also benefits from not being perceived these days as a “bad boy” by Hollywood studios, who have been penalizing Netflix with longer rental embargo windows.  Many new releases reach Blockbuster a month before showing up in Redbox or on Netflix’s roster.  Customers can also swap out up for five DVD’s a month at BlockBuster retail outlets, and video game rentals are also available.

Prices:

• One DVD out at a time: $12 per month
• Two DVDs out at a time: $17 per month
• Three DVDs out at a time: $20 per month

Hulu Plus has not been a runaway success for its owners, charging $8 a month to paying customers who win the right to watch additional content, but with the same commercial load the free alternative service provides.  People don’t think of Hulu for movies because the service is heavily focused on television series, but Hulu Plus does deliver a small selection.  Amazon Instant Video is another alternative, for those paying Amazon.com $79 a year for the privilege of getting their orders shipped to arrive in 48 hours for no additional shipping charges.  Amazon added unlimited access to their Instant Video streaming library at no additional charge for Amazon Prime members.  Just about anyone signing up with a new account at Amazon can get a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, with the movie service.  But you will make due with watching around 6,000 titles, many of which are obscure or a distant memory.

Many of Netflix’s upset customers report they are headed for the Movie Tardis — the 27,000+ giant red boxes erected in front of grocery and drug stores.  Redbox pitches $1 movie rentals, but you need to return them by 9pm the following day.  Blu-ray movies cost 50 cents more.  Redbox carries a healthy selection of current titles, and you only interact with a machine, so you won’t deal with the eye-rolling you might get renting at area video stores.  This option works best if you are within a very short distance from the nearest kiosk.  Otherwise, you may find returning discs a hassle.

[flv width=”360″ height=”290″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WNAC Providence Netflix raising prices 60pct 7-13-11.mp4[/flv]

Netflix is raising prices and subscribers are not happy, shares WNAC-TV in Providence.  Their advice? “Stick to Redbox.”  (1 minute)