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ron1973's avatar
ron1973
New Contributor II
12 years ago

For Those Complaining About Random, Daily Disconnects....

If you want to "kick it up a notch," in the words of Emeril...file a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).  When I did this last time (had a problem about a year ago with Cox ...that time it was a speed issue and issues with a random, frequent lag spike that came into my connection at regular intervals) they had a "higher up" contact me and actually ended up giving me a refund AND fix the problem.  

This is the only way they will pay attention because it affects their "reputation," and unlike you or me, mere peons on their system, this is something that affects them directly.  

Doing this complaint is more effective than posting on here, because this obviously goes nowhere with the Cox higher-ups.  In fact, they might even delete this posting...I will also post on dslreports.com, just in case.

The steps are simple:

Go to www.bbb.org, input your zip code, and select File a Complaint.  Input your information...be as clear, concise and thorough as you can.  Hit them hard.  Then, submit your complaint!  Wait a day or two and watch Cox actually RESPOND to your complaint.  However, until you are ABSOLUTELY SURE the complaint is resolved, do NOT close the complaint.  The Cox rep that contacts you will push for you to do this so it shows Cox "quickly resolved" the issue and gets them off the hook.  If you attempt to contact that Cox rep again that established a rapport with you during this formal complaint process and you have closed the official complaint, that rep will NOT respond to you.  I know, because I have had this happen to me this time around when I foolishly closed an initial complaint I made on this now. 

So, I made a second complaint, and it won't go away until this is resolved.  

Every day, every single day I lose connection between 11 AM and 4-5 PM.  This happens CONSTANTLY.  At night, it is silky-smooth.  No major loss connections, nothing.  I am suffering through an outage NOW, in fact.  I am calling a customer service number (Cox complaint blocker) here and they are indicating there is a "service outage" in the area.  This happens DAILY.  

I plead with you, who are suffering a lack of response from Cox on this issue...contact the BBB.  Make your complaint formal with an outside agency such as them.   Cox WILL respond.  They WILL realize then that you take this seriously enough to "kick it up a notch," and won't settle for their efforts to ignore you.

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  • The way it is up and down today it is like the rolling blackouts we use to have when there wasn't enough electrical power to meet the demand.

    I suspect Cox is over subscribed and the bandwidth demand is too high to deliver full service to everyone. There must be someplace to complain about this lousy service.

  • ron1973's avatar
    ron1973
    New Contributor II

    There is:

    www.bbb.org

    Again, that is:

    www.bbb.org

    You are on your own otherwise, the Cox reps' job is to firewall your complaint from bypassing them.  If they can't do that, they grudgingly push you up to a Service Tech (usually an outside contractor), who's job then becomes, in his turn, to firewall your complaint from going further up the chain of command.

    At no point through this process are the Cox reps working to escalate your problem.  Their goal is to minimize, deflect and avoid the problem.  That's what they are paid for.  Anything else, like looking into a problem, tracking it down and fixing it costs money and time.  Avoiding and denying the issue exists is free.

  • Jlm1228's avatar
    Jlm1228
    New Contributor

    I agree with you that this forum and the Customer Support Firewall will not make it up the Cox food chain. However, I do think that the more we talk about this issue the more buzz is created, and at some point, the message will leak out as more and more Cox customers join the chorus.

    I would like to think that the BBB could help in a situation like this but the truth is that the BBB looks at these complaints as isolated incidences, and that is certainly the way Cox will spin it.

    I believe there is a larger systemic problem with the cable system. Cox has been adding more and more digital services to the network. I just added the new Cisco whole house set top boxes here at my house. These new boxes operate on new separate VLANS over the cable plant. Add the legacy analog TV carriers, digital phone service, legacy digital cable TV, and docsis 3.0 multiple bonded channel cable modems, there are allot of upstream and downstream signals contributing to intermods and noise (including other foreign noise and interference sources) on your neighborhood cable plant.

    I believe all of this can be managed but it will take a big effort on the part Cox network engineering. Not much evidence of this so far given the lack proactive responses we've seen.

    I have asked Cox tech support to answer a simple question to which they have refused to answer. ARE OTHER SUBSCRIBERS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD SHOWING UP IN THE CMTS FLAP LIST? This would be very telling because if they are seeing multiple upstream hits at the head end, it pretty much eliminates all of the individual modem and house wiring assumptions in their typical trouble shooting aproach.

    I need my internet service to be reliable more than I need the extra upstream bandwidth that Cox cable offers over ADSL. That said, I have ordered and will receive CenturyLink 12/0.9 Mbs service next week. I will cancel Cox (after 7 years of service) if CenturyLink proves to be reliable.

    This is a big hassle for me but I don't have confidence that Cox can clean house and turn things around anytime soon, with or without the assistance of the BBB.

     

  • ron1973's avatar
    ron1973
    New Contributor II

    The BBB complaint process DOES collate all complaints nationwide.  Thats one of the reasons it is so effective!  Furthermore, initiating the complaint process costs you nothing but some time.  The BBB people handle all the headaches in dealing with Cox.  You simply have to respond to Cox through the BBB once the complaint reaches that point.

    It is fast, effective and free...and recorded by the BBB.  This is effective on a variety of levels and it DOES show that there is a chorus of Cox customers complaining.  As I said, it affects' Coxs' rating, and that is important to them, not our moaning on a website.

    Please go into further detail about the CMTS flap list?  I would like more information so that I might be able to bring it up with my Cox handler, should it be relevant at all here in my case.

    Finally, I am glad you have CenturyLink to go to...here, we have no alternative cable company.  Cox bought our politicians and paid for a monopoly in the area and we have no viable alternative outside of AT&T "Uverse."  

  • Jlm1228's avatar
    Jlm1228
    New Contributor

    Here is a very informative document from Cisco: "Cable Modems Dropping Offline in a 2-way Cable Network" 

    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk86/tk89/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094bb1.shtml

    One of the linked reference documents from the above:

    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/cable/cmts/feature/guide/ufg_flap.html

    From this document - Flap List Troubleshooting for the Cisco CMTS: "...The flap list tracks "flapping" cable modems, which are cable modems that have intermittent connectivity problems. A flapping cable modem can indicate either a problem with that particular cable modem, or it could indicate an RF noise problem with the upstream or downstream portion of the cable plant."

  • ron1973's avatar
    ron1973
    New Contributor II

    Follow up regarding complaint to the Better Business Bureau:

    IT WORKS PEOPLE!  THEY LISTEN AND WORK WITH YOU WHEN THE HAMMER OF THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU IS DROPPED ON THEM, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE ALL STICK TOGETHER AND COMPLAIN IN UNISON.  STOP WHISPERING INTO THE WIND

    By the way, the Cox rep initially said the following:

    "We sent a Field supervisor to check the lock box on Wednesday, July 11, 2012.  The supervisor found the box to be locked with everything in order.  I contacted the consumer this morning, and he advised that all is still well with his internet service.  The consumer will hang on to my contact information, in case he experiences further problems."

    This is true because a Cox rep came there prior and closed the box and locked it IN MY PRESENCE.  Prior to that, overnight in the rain, the box was as I indicate in these pictures attached:

     

     

    Consumer's Original Complaint :

    This is the second major go-around with the Cox Communications monopoly in the New Orleans area.  I have been consistently (for the last two weeks) been getting disconnected from my internet connection at various points during the day.  Speaking with the Cox phone blockers (Representatives) gets me into the Service Technician-Cox Representative Loop where my complaint cannot be escalated to the point where someone (a line technician) can actually look at the load on the node here and actively monitor the quality of the lines.  In addition to the disconnects, at various points during the day (which I am logging religiously), my actual upload and download speeds (as well as my ping) are not even managing to reach half of the "up to" advertised 25 Mbps that I pay full price for.The unfortunate matter is Cox knows it has a virtual monopoly on the NO market, and there are few alternatives, and the one major alternative (Uverse) is inferior even to their shoddy product.  For the last few weeks as well, I have noticed that the ooutside main cable box to the building is ripped open with the wires exposed.  There are wires cut inside.  When calling the Representative, I am told that the earliest someone can come look at the jumbled mass of cables and cut lines is "tomorrow."  This is unacceptable, especially when the bill for my services are $65.00 a month, every month, and these bills come on time and are expected to be PAID on time.

    Product_Or_Service: Cox Premiere

     

     

    Consumer's Desired Resolution:

    DesiredSettlementID: Other (requires explanation)I want their actual speeds and latency to match (or even come close within reason) to their ADVERTISED speeds.  I want my connection to stop dropping out on average once or twice a day.  I want them to secure their wiring from THIEVES who steal cable and, as a consequence, adversely affect quality of service for everyone else stuck on Cox cable's overloaded node (which they said they fixed last time, but as is evident, they have NOT).Cox preys on people's ignorance.

     

    BBB Processing

     

    07/10/2012                web      BBB         Case Received by BBB

    07/10/2012                lg           BBB         Case Reviewed by BBB

    07/10/2012                Otto      EMAIL     Send Acknowledgement to Consumer

    07/10/2012                Otto      EMAIL     Notify Business of Dispute

    07/16/2012                WEB      BBB         RECEIVE BUSINESS RESPONSE : We received this complaint and I contacted the consumer on Wednesday, July 11, 2012.  The consumer advised that stability and speed improved after he swapped his modem for a new Docsis 3.0 modem on Tuesday, July 10, 2012.  We agreed that he would monitor the service thru the weekend and that I would contact him on Monday, July 16, 2012 to confirm that all is still well.  We also agreed that I would send someone to check the lock box that the consumer reported as being tampered with.

                                    We sent a Field supervisor to check the lock box on Wednesday, July 11, 2012.  The supervisor found the box to be locked with everything in order.  I contacted the consumer this morning, and he advised that all is still well with his internet service.  The consumer will hang on to my contact information, in case he experiences further problems.

                                    Thank you,

                                    ****** *****

                                    Cox Louisiana Customer Relations

    07/16/2012                lg           EMAIL     Forward Business response to Consumer

    07/16/2012                WEB      BBB         DISPUTE RESOLVED- WITH LETTER : (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

                                    The lock box was fixed by the first technician...the wires were replaced and the box locked in my presence.  The internet speed has been stable and sufficient as of late.

    07/16/2012                lg           EMAIL     Inform Business - Case Closed RESOLVED

    07/16/2012                Otto      BBB         Case Closed RESOLVED

    08/06/2012                lg           BBB         ReOpen the Complaint

    08/06/2012                lg           BBB         CONSUMER REBUTTAL TO BUSINESS RESPONSE : I am getting random, frequent disconnects from the internet still during the middle part of the day--every day--from around 10 AM until about 4-5 PM.  This happens daily, regularly and intermittently.  I am speaking with a *****  *******who apparently represents Cox's contractors that service their residential connections.The unfortunate thing is that through no fault of his own, ****** isn't available for days during the week.  I have left a couple messages with Cox's representative, **** *****, and have not received a response contrary to what he indicated on the phone should I call and have "further issues."  Maybe he is on an extended vacation, I do not know, but the seriousness of this issue should possibly move further up the chain from him.According to the posts on Cox's own support forums and dslreports.com, this is likely a problem with Cox's end.  They either have faulty lines or they simply have too many customers on a node "competing" for signal and handshaking between Cox's plant and the customers' modem.  I am not sure what it is, I am not in possession of any of the tools required to check into Cox's issues.As for myself, I have removed the router from the issue, bought a new modem, made sure Cox forced the latest firmware on new modem, replaced ethernet cable between modem and computer, replaced main coaxial cable from wall outlet to cable, called a tech to "check the line," and found nothing, kept regular logs of the modems activity, checked through pingtest the network card, re-seated the network card, watched as the modem dropped signal even while the computer was completely off--everything I can think of.For me, this has been an ongoing problem for two months.  The interesting thing is that during the night, the connection is flawless...constantly up, I don't remember a force disconnect during this time.  This consistently happens DAILY, even when the computer isn't on and I check the modem logs and notice the "System Up Time" being a few minutes or couple hours at best.Cox cannot continue to rely on their subcontractors to fix this problem.  Cox cannot continue to ignore their customers' issues because it is happening in multiple markets, to customers with different modem configurations, and most during the daytime as well.  This is NOT a coincidence and there needs to be a SERIOUS effort on the part of Cox to finally address this issue and not hope that the technical ignorance of their customers protects them from providing a consistent, stable service.Relevant websites:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk86/tk89/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094bb1.shtmlhttp://forums.cox.com/forum_home/internet_forum/f/5/t/477.aspx?pi256=2http://forums.cox.com/forum_home/internet_forum/f/5/t/573.aspxhttp://forums.cox.com/forum_home/internet_forum/f/5/t/568.aspxhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/r27385664-Unstable-connection-drop-constantly-every-Noon-in-SDThis is ridiculous.  We customers are charged full price, every month (on time and without error, unlike the service) and can expect to have a reasonably stable connection.  It is understandable that connectivity issues will happen from time to time--I am not saying otherwise.  But this is DAILY, CONSISTENTLY AND RANDOMLY happening.  I cannot switch to another service, as Cox is the monopoly in town.  They bought our politicians and have a stranglehold on the cable market here.  AT&T Uverse is in worse shape than Cox, so I will not even try to go there.  This is the ONLY game in town for all practical purposes.

    08/06/2012                lg           EMAIL     Forward Consumer Rebuttal to Business

    08/07/2012                WEB      BBB         RECEIVED BUSINESS' ADDITIONAL RESPONSE : I contacted the consumer in regards to this issue, today.  I advised that the Field supervisor he spoke to has placed an order to have the post wire running from our lock box to his living room replaced.  The consumer is aware that our contractor will call him within the next 72 hours to schedule an appointment.  I will continue to monitor the situation and will follow-up with the consumer, once the work order is completed.

                                    Thank you,

                                    ****** *****

                                    Cox Louisiana Customer Relations

    08/07/2012                lg           EMAIL     Send Business' Rebuttal Response to Consumer

    08/07/2012                WEB      BBB         CONSUMER SUBSEQUENT RESPONSE : (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

                                    When this issue is resolved I will be satisfied and promptly close this complaint.  As I indicated to the Cox rep above, this complaint is an ongoing occurance around the country, as I described on dslreports.com (under Cox HSI subforum) and under Coxs' own support forums (under Internet subforum). 

                                    Also, I want to add that the Cox rep above stated that even once I closed the previous complaint (prematurely, as it turns out), I had merely to "call anytime," with any further concerns--the understanding being that they would address these concerns and inform me of their results on an ongoing basis.  I left messages, and I called a few times just to see if anyone would answer.  I got no response.  Though, to the Cox rep's credit above, he did say they pursued my complaint and "found nothing."  It would have been nice though, to inform me of this obvious contrary information so that I might explain to him that there "IS" something going seriously wrong still.

                                    In the interest of resolving this issue and in wanting to continue to work with Cox (for lack of an alternative, competing company in the area), I am taking off of work (and losing pay) for them to drop a line into the apartment.

                                    That said, I want to stipulate again that this problem is occuring during the daylight hours (from around 11 AM until 4-5 PM) every day.  In the evening, at least through now, the connection has been virtually spotless.  Furthermore, this problem began occuring about 2 months ago, and it was sudden.  I do not think it is a problem with a line in the wall, but I want to help them rule that out.

                                    At this point, I hope that you of the Better Business Bureau will continue to keep this complaint open and live.  If the problem is resolved, I will be HAPPY to do what it takes to close it promptly and give credit where due.  

                                    Thank you again, BBB, for your great help in giving a voice to the little guy against these monstrous, anonymous monolithic monopolies.

  • Jlm1228's avatar
    Jlm1228
    New Contributor

    Here is an interesting thread which I believe is the root cause of my modem flapping  :

    http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r27172880-T3-Errors-and-Modem-Resetting-Intermittently

    In a system where everyone operates on a "party line" (you younger folks should google this term), there are many sources of noise and interference. If Cox waits for customer complaints to monitor their system performance, these kinds of problems  will continue to reoccur over and over again.

    I am testing my local DSL provider (CenturyLink) to see if they are more reliable. I believe that the DSL solution will be a more stable solution since I will no longer be on a "party line" where any one in my neighborhood can trash my upstream channel.

    Sorry to those of you with cable as your only choice!

  • Jlm1228's avatar
    Jlm1228
    New Contributor

    I have been running CenturyLink 12 Mbps adsl here for several days without any interruptions! I called in to Cox to disconnect my $53/month Cox Internet service starting today. They asked me why I switched to dsl and I explained it to them. They told me that they pay attention to the reasons why customers cancel service so maybe someone above the customer service firewall will start to look. I told them to pay attention to this forum if they want to gain some insight, so keep posting. As for me, happy on CenturyLink now.

  • I used to do Escalations for Pacific Bell Internet, which became SBC Internet (as they were eating every baby bell back then) and of course, now it is monopoly AGAIN (with nobody complaining this time) AT&T.  This meant you either complained to managment or through the tech support system -- not 1st tier, or 2nd tier but the senior tier or as I was Operations Management (still in Call Center) and they brought it to me to resolve.  So I was never told if something was posted in our forums or not...the paper always came to me as 'resolve this quickly please' ... I have been having surge or spikes too, it seems to happen when other folks would be coming home from work and probably logging in thus using bandwidth.  It sounds like a long squeeze or screech sound and then goes away but (and it's usually any video like Netflix or Hulu online or any of the networks online MTV, CMTV, CW, etc.

    I hadn't thought about calling bbb, and sales/tech have managed to keep me from churning but this has to stop; it could be they're throttling -- they do do it if you exceed your data usage limit for the tier you are paying for.  It's in the terms of service for the 'internet'.

    Anyway, it is why I came here to see what is going on.  I tested it in Dallas from speedguide also and it is only showing 9MB download,  6 upload using a cox ks node but if you run the speed test here on the internet tools page wow it shows 25MB up, 10 down....

    « SpeedGuide.net Speed Test Results »
    9750 kbps down (~9.75 Mbps, 1190 KB/s)↓
    6628 kbps up (~6.63 Mbps, 809 KB/s)↑
    10240 KB downloaded in 8.604 seconds
    3072 KB uploaded in 3.797 seconds
    Tested on: 2012.08.14 13:22 EDT
    Tested from: 123facts.com
    Test Link: http://www.speedguide.net/speedtest/results.php?test=3728564
    Provider: ks.ok.cox.net
    Location: Mc Connell A F B, KS, US

    http://www.speedguide.net/speedtest/results_img.php?test=3728564

    GeekSquad shows 9.48 down and 8 up....

  • ron1973's avatar
    ron1973
    New Contributor II

    UPDATE On Cox Internet Connection Drop-Out:

    After eight solid days of ongoing, uninterrupted connectivity to the service, my service has AGAIN begun dropping out during the daylight hours.

    The only good thing is that this is happening earlier and seems (from the limited logs I can see) to be happening less often during the day. However, for the last two days at least this has been going on, with regularity.

    I have been in contact with the local Cox Rep, and they are scheduled to do a new "line drop" from the tap to my living room, and they are doing this to rule out any problems with my line. However, the rep said he is doubtful this will resolve the issue; they are doing it mainly to insure integrity of the line and to rule it out as being the culprit.

    As indicated on this forum, I believe there is something feeding back into the line during the day, or possible heat issues (we have our lines above grount)...I don't know, ultimately...thats' Cox's job and hopefully they fix it soon.

    At this point hope is all I have left...they've just about beaten me, even with the BBB on 'em.