December 30, 2008 | In: Uncategorized
Cablevision Changes Their Promotion After the Product is Sold
All those who live in the New York area have probably heard of the Optimum Rewards card. For those who don’t know, the Optimum Rewards card is a benefit for the customers of Optimum’s (Cablevision) three media products: home phone service (VOIP), cable internet, and cable television. Cablevision also owns Clearview Cinemas and the Optimum Rewards Card gives every cardholder two free movie tickets on Tuesdays to any Clearview theater. It’s a nice benefit of having all three services.
Today I went from being a happy (relatively) Cablevision customer to an unhappy customer. I was told that an email was sent out to all Clearview Cinemas that Optimum cards are not to be accepted today. Reason being…too many people are using them. I know that during holidays that the theaters don’t accept the Card but today is not a holiday. Cablevision is realizing that their customers are actually taking advantage of their promotion that got people to sign up for their service and they’ve decided to yank that promotion without any warning.
I might get some comments that I’m overreacting but I’m not. This isn’t about a free movie. I don’t care about paying the $12 to see Benjamin Button. I do care about companies who think they can create a promotion to sell their product and then yank it away after the product is sold. I would be less upset if Cablevision had come out with a calendar of dates where the card is not acceptable but I don’t think they plan that far in advance. I believe it’s a last-minute decision based on complaints from their theaters about all the free movie-goers.
I urge you all to send this post to your friends who live in NY and/or use Cablevision. It’s important they know how they’re being screwed from time to time. It’s important that Cablevision knows that we know.
UPDATE: Cablevision called me.
11 Responses to Cablevision Changes Their Promotion After the Product is Sold
Derrick
December 30th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I’m not from the New York area, but I say that you’re TOTALLY not over reacting. I would also be upset if I signed up for a special promotion just to have it taken away as soon as I went to use it.
Yvette
December 30th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I completely agree!
Kate
December 30th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I wish we could all switch to Fios.
Bill
December 30th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Fios? No one is better than Verizon and screwing you over, I hate cablevision with a passion but I guess they are the best out of 2 evil choices
Ely Rosenstock
December 30th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I actually like Cablevision’s service. I just don’t like the way they dealt with this promotion that brings in lots of customers. Someone at Cablevision needs to get on the ball and communicate what is going on with their Optimum Rewards Card.
Cablevision Calls Me About My Complaint « Crastinate
December 31st, 2008 at 10:50 am
[...] my complaint email and are escalating my complaint to the Vice President of Cablevision. I had written yesterday about my disappointment with Cablevision’s recent promotion tactics. It seems that my [...]
Joseph Glass
December 31st, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Ely -
They did this last year too. I tried taking Debbie to a movie last year around X-mas and they said that the card was not valid that day, but at least offered the 50% off deal – woopy!
K
January 1st, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I have an issue as well. Yes it was an inconvenience and a disappointment, but you are correct to do this without notice is not good business practice. Since Optimum knows the e-mail addresses of their customers they could have sent out an e-mail as well. They chose not to. They chose to fill their seats. What I am most upset about are the teens who went expecting a free movie only to be turned away if they didn’t have enough money to pay. So after their parents delivered them to the door, expecting they would be in the movies they walked around malls, streets and highways unsupervised. Parents are angry. Cablevision is not a good corporate citizen to have created this situation. Many kids were in trouble with their parents for their choice to take advantage of the situation and not call, other parents could not be reached not expecting a problem while they thought their kids were sitting in a movie with their phones turned off.
Jon
January 6th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Be thankful that you’re not using Time Warner. I was pushed so far by them that I actually issued a complaint to the Consumer Commision in NYC. Cablevision is far superior (though not great) to them.
Chris
December 31st, 2009 at 7:40 am
You all better also watch your bills, my bill just jumped from $170. to $215 with out notice. When I called to complain I was told the $170 was a promotion, no one ever told me it was a promotion and they refuse to make any adjustments, and I have requested the optimum rewards countless times and all they do is yes me to death. At this point I am definately looking for a company who isn’t so ‘shady.
Andrew
March 10th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
I don’t think you’re overreacting one bit. On one hand I can see it from a business perspective if it went something like this; you create this promotion, project how much it will cost you and then when the numbers start pouring in the actual loss is much more dramatic then anticipated, then yes, something would have to be done to mitigate the loss. But if that is the case (and of course I don’t know that it is) it seems to me that it would be much better to amend the promotion in some way, so that the people who had it would still be benefiting and not feel cheated. That seems like the responsible course of action to me, simply putting the promotion on a chopping block does not.
Hearing this kind of thing does make me appreciate DISH Network even more though. I’ve been an employee of DISH for some time now and have seen for myself the continuous efforts to improve the customer experience. Last year in the ACSI survey DISH was ranked highest in overall customer satisfaction among all cable and satellite TV providers and I’m proud to have had a small part in that.