Omegaware Labs

Its a Deal in Which You Dont Even Get What You Pay

For A bit of backstory so that buyers can be forewarned:

I am in show business. My degrees are in film and television.

I have a firm grasp of broadcasting and both cable and streaming pricing. Like everyone else, I find the discrepancies in pricing between all companies outrageous.

A little more than two years ago, after cable rates kept skyrocketing out-of-hand, my brother-in-law told me about a streaming service which seemed too good to be true in that it supplied practically every channel known to man for a pittance. He was quite happy using it but the thing concerned me enough that I checked with my entertainment attorney. My attorneys take was that streaming entered a gray area but, in this case, licensed and premium paid channels seemed as though they were being pirated.

As a viewer, it didnt impact me but the supplier was poised for possible legal action by very big companies.

I thought it over and took the service to give it a try. The company changed hands and names three times. Maybe legal action was bearing down.

The first company was fine. With the second company, the transmission got shoddy and constantly caused problems which, since there was a complaint posting board for subscribers, aggravated a great many people.

It came to light that the service was apparently being run out of a basement by a retiree. When he had his fill, he at least sent out a mass e-mail that the service was changing hands yet again but service would continue until each persons contract expired.

The service continued and remarkably without the usual transmission problems but also without a word from the new company about how things would renew. I expected service to stop all of a sudden at any time.

Just about the date that my service would end, I received an e-mail from an Omegaware Labs with a single line telling me a certain amount was due. No other explanation.

Since my annual medical exam was six months away and this was not the lab I used for blood work, I was obviously perplexed. I did an online search of Omegaware Labs which turned up not terribly good reviews for a dietary supplement outfit called Omega Labs. I had had no dealings with them or their products and almost relegated the e-mail to the trash as spam. Curiosity got to me and I e-mailed the sender asking what this was about.

Streaming service was the terse explanation. Obviously, communication was not their strong suit. Common sense also seemed out-the-window because why would your service not have streaming in the title and why would you want to share the name of an actual laboratory which had gotten bad reviews? I paid the amount knowing I could stop the payment on my credit card.

Bingo, onscreen, the expiration date of my service updated.

Three months later, the channels disappeared. For the first time, I had to use their customer support form. The web site was questionable. It was bland with practically no information other than No refunds!

posted on it. The link to the knowledge base was blank. Under my name, my e-mail, streaming app, and device were listed but other than that the site had all the earmarks of something that was purchased to be customized but it had received no customization. The support link seemed to work and it said that a response would be forthcoming via my e-mail.

I told them my channels had disappeared. No reply via e-mail but a little more than a day later, the channels were back.

Five months later, the service began to get wonky. Sound would disappear on only one channel. Another channel would go black.

I contacted Omega. I still didnt get the promised e-mail notification but when I went back to the web site two days later, a reply was there dated in the wee hours of the morning. They didnt answer direct questions and the writing was shoddily typed and nonsensical as though either English was a second language or the writer was illiterate. Basically, it told me I was using the old app but if I wanted to upgrade, download their new app and here was how to do it.

Fine. I tried. The online image of the new app was garish in greens and purples and the downloaded app refused to recognize my name and password (supplied by them). I contacted again.

Two days later, a reply dated in the wee hours. Its your router. You have to remove the firewall from your router; ask your cable company or the routers manufacturer or Google how to do that. All three told me they strongly advised against doing any such thing.

My cable company also further checked my router and found the strength to be quite strong and consistent. My desktop computers, my laptop, my landline phone, my tablet, the Roku in the guest bedroom all worked perfectly. My router had no problems and I wasnt about to fool around with it.

By that time, the old app had gotten the channels back and streaming worked fine for a month.

Then, in the midst of watching the news at eleven oclock in the morning, after having had the streaming service on for three hours, the channels disappeared. I filled out the support form once more.

Four days later, still no response. I tried again giving a few more details of the problem. No response. On the fifth day, I logged in and the previous support requests had been deleted.

It was beginning to have all the earmarks that the company had gone out of business and failed to remove the web site (something which often happens; how many dead people still have Facebook accounts?) I must stress that in all my communications I was overly polite and not at all angry or accusatory. I tried one last time. A day later, I got a reply in the same broken badly typed English that it was on my end. It must be my router or TV.

Their end was working fine. But in the same garbled English, they then said that they were working to re-install the channels and it would take a few days. Do NOT contact us again. Really, that was what they told me, do NOT contact us again.

So highly professional and exactly how was their end working fine if they were telling me they were basically rebuilding the system? They couldnt notify customers of that via a blanket e-mail? Apparently, they are so high tech that they cant figure out e-mail. Before telling me to take a hike, Omega gave one last suggestion to try on my end.

Of course, it was questionable.

I have a certain amount of computer savvy. I had already cleared everything I could safely clear in my streaming device. Now Omega wanted me to do something else to it so check Google about how to do it. Once again, Google told me they strongly advised against doing any such thing.

The reason the online experts gave made complete sense. This was beginning to get like having to put a supercharged engine in a Volkswagen beetle in order to drive around the block.

Frustrated, I checked with a television engineer and with a computer engineer both of whom I have worked with professionally.

The verdict: I was entirely correct that devices on my end dont automatically change themselves if I havent so much as touched them or altered how the transmission was received. It was happening at the point of origin whether Omegaware Labs wants to admit it or not.

Im wondering if, one, they were bombarded with complaints so they didnt know how to handle things and, two, whether they are off-shore which accounts for their lack of reading and writing proper English.

Ive switched to a reputable streaming service and, guess what, I get all the channels with sound and no breaking up.

Buyer beware.