Chatting with Optimum support. Am I crazier than I think?

[Punisher]

Trying to go from 1GB to 500 Mbps since I never get a speed above 500 anyway.

Here is what they are saying

The prices I just told you about $40.00 was for just Optimum 500mbps.
Upon checking I can see that you are on the fiber 1GIG plan which costs you $139.99 and with the credit of $64.99 your total recurring charges are $78.00 excluding taxes.
Upon making the changes to 500mbps, the charges are $139.99 and your credit for $64.99, your recurring charges would be $68.00 excluding taxes.

Am I nuts?

[Jeff V]

So a $10 difference -- if it's the same (if you still get 500 mbps on the 500 plan), then take the extra $10 per month. If your speed drops to 250 though, perhaps the extra $10 is worth it.

[Punisher]

reread the first line to see my confusion

[Jeff V]

reread the first line to see my confusion

Right, but the problem might not be your connection is somehow maxed at 500, but that whatever service they offer, through whatever QOS they have setup, you might still only get 50% of what you paid for. If the 500 service delivers 500 to you, then take the $10, if it sucks harder at 250, then you might consider keeping what you have.

[Punisher]

Right, but according to them, 500 is supposed to be $40/month, but somehow changing from my 1gb to their 500 charges me the same price as my current 1gb.

[Punisher]

To clarify.
I'm at 1gb for $139.99 amonth with a $64.99 credit bringing me to $78.00

they are saying that 500 costs $40/month

but when they put in the change it comes back as $139.99 and your credit for $64.99, for $68.00/month

So,
1. Both services have the same price when put into the computer with the same discounts but somehow the 500 is $10 cheaper / month total.

2. The more important one. How does 500 go from $40/month quote to $139.99/month when submitted?

I realize that my brain is currently very screwed up, but this seems like an issue even to me. But I'm also here to find out if it IS a me thing.

[Daehawk]

It appears they quoted him $40 for 500 mbps down but then when they were dropping him to 500 mbps down that somehow changed to $68 a month.

[Kraken]

I bought a 1 gig FIOS plan that came with some discounts. I don't need all that, but if I drop to 500MB I lose the bundled discounts, and the savings is $1.49. I hope we'll be moving within the next 6 months so all our services will get blown up anyway.

[LordMortis]

Trying to go from 1GB to 500 Mbps since I never get a speed above 500 anyway.

Here is what they are saying

The prices I just told you about $40.00 was for just Optimum 500mbps.
Upon checking I can see that you are on the fiber 1GIG plan which costs you $139.99 and with the credit of $64.99 your total recurring charges are $78.00 excluding taxes.
Upon making the changes to 500mbps, the charges are $139.99 and your credit for $64.99, your recurring charges would be $68.00 excluding taxes.

Am I nuts?

Nothing about that makes sense. Unless Optimum 500mbps is different than 500mbps then quote makes nos sense. $139.99 credit of $64.99 for both levels of service doesn't make sense. Same totals coming to $78 and $68 Doesn't make sense. To me it looks like a bunch of cutting and pasting gone horribly wrong with misinformation at every level.

[Octavious]

Optimum is just a very broken company, so I'm not surprised. The 1 gig fiber was cheaper that the 300 cable for me. Whatever... When it doesn't go down it's so fast, that it's bordering on insane. I downloaded Baldurs Gate 3 in like 15 minutes.

[Punisher]

Update.
Still doesn't make full sense to me but at least it's an explanation.

So, apparently they have 500 fiber and 500 non fiber.
The 40 quote is for non fiber and the 140 quote is for fiber.

Things that still dont make sense.
1. 1gb fiber and 500 fiber being the same price.

2. Not sire what the functional difference is between 500 fiber and 500 non fiber. I'd think that 500 is 500. This part cpuld be a me issue though

3. Why would you quote the 40 non fiber and then when i say yes, ring me up for fiber at 140?

I ended up leaving it alone for now. It was late, my brain was hurting and I was exhausted. I may reach out to support to confirm that 500 is always going to be my max speed. If so, i might as well drop to 500 non fiber.

[Octavious]

The only difference that you would notice between Fiber and Cable is upload speeds. Fiber uploads are wayyyyy faster. Unless you are hosting servers that's not going to matter at all.

[Punisher]

The only difference that you would notice between Fiber and Cable is upload speeds. Fiber uploads are wayyyyy faster. Unless you are hosting servers that's not going to matter at all.

Would ot make a big difference if i wanted to play multiplayer games since they have to upload data as well?

[Octavious]

Not really. The files being sent are so small that it's not going to make much if any difference.

[LordMortis]

2. Not sire what the functional difference is between 500 fiber and 500 non fiber. I'd think that 500 is 500. This part cpuld be a me issue though

Unless they play hanky panky, Fiber is usually more accurately the data bits volume moving, rather than an "up to" burstable speed shared with all your neighbors on cable and cable on cable with one pipe of ???. Fiber will be up and down to fill the whole bandwidth running in parity (cable is usually X down and some small fraction of X up meaning slower uploads and slower downloads that rely on high output uploads as part of the download response) and should have less latency (the packets actually travel faster, rather than just sending more or bigger packet to make data move faster). Put it all together that makes 500 megs of fiber "faster" than 500 megs of cable.

OtOH, cable can give you more bandwidth than your max in those bursts if modem allows it, the pipe allows it, and there is room in the pipe.

Not really. The files being sent are so small that it's not going to make much if any difference.

Again, latency could very well make MP games more responsive on Fiber than on Cable. I sometimes get latency in excess of 100ms on my cable. If I were getting that on Fiber and it was my end doing it, I would be livid.

[Octavious]

Eh I think my ping might be better now, but mine was so crazy low already that I don't think any normal human would notice a difference. I also don't play much if at all online anymore. PUBG made me realize I have an issue with not winning.

[gilraen]

I don't know about Optimum but the "live chat" for almost any major ISP is literally the worst route to go for actual support, due to a whole combination of reasons (outsourced to the lowest offshore bidder, encouraged to take multiple chats at once, not authorized to escalate legitimate issues, etc.). You'll be lucky if they don't make things worse.

[Punisher]

I don't know about Optimum but the "live chat" for almost any major ISP is literally the worst route to go for actual support, due to a whole combination of reasons (outsourced to the lowest offshore bidder, encouraged to take multiple chats at once, not authorized to escalate legitimate issues, etc.). You'll be lucky if they don't make things worse.

Unfortunately I need to use chat as much as possible in order to even begin to follow along in the now times. If I tried using voice for this, I would have gotten super frustrated super quick.
With chat, I not only have visual proof of what was said but I also can scroll back up and reread what was said. I had to do that several times, even for stuff that was just 1 or 2 responses ago.

[Blackhawk]

I don't know about Optimum but the "live chat" for almost any major ISP is literally the worst route to go for actual support, due to a whole combination of reasons (outsourced to the lowest offshore bidder, encouraged to take multiple chats at once, not authorized to escalate legitimate issues, etc.). You'll be lucky if they don't make things worse.

+1.

These companies are famous (and frequently under fire) for manipulating the numbers with hidden charges, secret pricing, and other tricks to keep you from knowing the real costs. And the chances are that the second you said 'cheaper plan' and they said 'One moment while I check', you were quietly transferred to a retention specialist who is focused on making any cheaper option seem like a bad deal so you'll want to pay the higher fee.