Cablevision Service Restored, Twitterati Not Happy

A number of Wiltonians have emailed Patch to say that they have been having issues with their Cablevision/Optimum Online email service since Thursday.

They emailed, of course, from other personal accounts and through alternative connections.

Cablevision customers are reporting e-mail outages from as far away as Long Island, expressing their frustration over what has been described by one customer as a "blackout of information." Cablevision, meanwhile, told a number of customers that it was nothing more than a "slowdown."

Tom Siebert, a customer from Weehawken, NJ, said he felt Cablevision was keeping their customers in the dark about widespread e-mail outages, which began Thursday morning.

"The lack of e-mail is maddening of course," said Siebert. "But Cablevision's customer service has been horrible."

Jeff Berry, a Cablevision customer from Long Island, reported that he had been without e-mail service since Thursday as well.

Cablevision's Director of Media Relations Sarah Chaikin, issued a statement via e-mail on Friday morning addressing the outages. 

"Cablevision is experiencing technical issues that have resulted in email delays and email access issues for some customers," said the e-mail.  "We have located the problem and expect to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.  We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers, and we will update this announcement as more information becomes available."

It is still unclear exactly how widespread outages are.

Felicia Ruditz Slavin, Wilton's previous Area Nine Cable Council representative, said that customers should direct their complaints to the current representative, Carole Young-Kleinfeld. The council can be reached at ancc@westportct.net and also has a website here.

"It is strictly an advisory committee to the Department of Utilities so it can't force a fix," Slavin wrote on a Facebook message to Patch. "But it is a conduit to Cablevision that can sometimes help move the mountain."

UPDATE - 1:45 p.m.

Reports from customers and the Twitterati say that service has been restored. Still no release or communication from Cablevision on the matter.

UPDATE #2 - 2:30 p.m.

Just kidding!

A number of customers are still reporting outages, including one of Patch's reporters. A sample of tweets about Cablevision provides some perspective:

bcwilliamsbooks    Now over 24 hours without email, no word from #optonline. Hello #cablevision PR: first rule of corporate communications is COMMUNICATE!

CLRana9017    i'm so mad about this. Thanks, Cablevision, for knocking out during the Wonder Girls. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.

SunshineGoddard    @sherkro are you serious? #cablevision is re-sending you every email ever? or is that just how long the service "slowdown" feels?

DaneLopes    @ShiraOvide huge communication & PR failure for Cablevision. Slow to acknowledge problem & then minimized # impacted. No way 2 reach them

SunshineGoddard    I love how #cablevision puts out BS patronizing statement about "technical issues" only after the media starts paying attention. Um, thanks?

bcwilliamsbooks    #cablevision: Imagine you have been sitting in a hot stinky airplane for 24 hours with no food or water, and the pilot won't tell you why.

And now in Spanish!

alin_pikis    Mi cablevisión no se ve. Que técnico tan chafa nos mandaron.

UPDATE #3 - 3:20 p.m.

After more than 24 hours of angst, Cablevision customers should see their Optimum Online e-mail services restored.

Sarah Chaikin, a spokeswoman for Cablevision said Friday afternoon, "The email disruption has been resolved.  The issue was caused by a digital mail storage device malfunction.  We believe that this was an extremely rare, one-time problem after more than a decade of uninterrupted email service and that no customer email was lost. We apologize to our customers and thank them for their patience."

The Cablevision statement shied away from putting an estimate on the amount of customers affected, saying, "The interruption impacted a minority of customers throughout the Cablevision service area; it was not geographically confined, nor were all customers affected."

According to the cable company, no e-mails will be lost.