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How can I get Cox to pay attention to a problem beyond a simple Tier 1 problem? (Been trying for four years)
Several years ago I called Cox support about slow up/downloads. . By "low" I mean that for my 18 GB/s service I almost never get about 500MB/s, and often see 10KB or less.
A technician came out and agreed my rates were low, because the usage in the area had expanded and the company had not added capacity. He said that everyone in the neighborhood has low rates, and that he would put in a higher level request. Many months later, after no change, I called support again and another technician gave the same diagnosis. He also looked over my modem set up and said it was correct; that the problem was definitely on their side. After another six months the (alleged) higher level request had produced no change.
I wrote a letter to Cox Technical support explaining the situation, explaining what happened with the technician visits, and included charts from traffic management software showing the low rates. No response.
A few months later I sent a second letter with added charts for the intervening period. No response.
After a few months I sent a registered letter requiring signature on receipt. I got the signed receipt card back from USPS, but no response from Cox.
After a few more months I sent another registered letter saying that if they didn’t do something I would have to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. No response.
I called the BBB, including in my complaint all the information I had previously sent Cox. Somebody at Cox responded with a pure boiler plate Tier 1, here’s how to schedule a technician, etc. They obviously had not bothered to read the complaint before responding. , No response. After several inquiries from BBB she told them I could call her personally to schedule a technician.
I called her several times and got voicemail. I passed this on to BBB, and she told them she had sent already sent a technician out who found no problem and that someone at the house had “admitted” that a router was in use. I did not know about this technician’s visit and still have no confirmation it ever took place. She persuaded BBB to close the complaint showing me as satisfied since they had not found a problem. I explained to the BBB what had actually happened and they agreed to re re-open the complaint. I then left six voicemails for this woman.
On the seventh call a guy answered and said the lady had been transferred and he would be happy to work my problem. Since then I have left him nine voicemails with no response.
I have the feeling that I have gotten caught in some backwash corner of the Cox organization, and that their senior management would not be happy if they heard this story. Unfortunately I have no idea who to call. Any suggestions are welcome?
Health_Edge
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"Several years ago I called Cox support about slow up/downloads. . By "low" I mean that for my 18 GB/s service I almost never get about 500MB/s, and often see 10KB or less."
What? I don't know of ANY service that offers 18GB/s. Thats the kind of bandwidth you see on the fiber lines they run between oceans. What tier do you have? Maybe you mean 18Mbps and 500Kbps?
" I passed this on to BBB, and she told them she had sent already sent a technician out who found no problem and that someone at the house had “admitted” that a router was in use"
I hoped you gave it a proof read and included more precise data then above because I am confused. Do you have a router? Were you running the speed tests through it or direct to the modem? What kind of modem do you have? Can you please post some speed test from your Internet Tools when connected direct to the modem. Also signal levels from your modem wouldn't hurt. 192.168.100.1
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0uid
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I'd love to see 18GB/s, heck I'd even take 500MB/s. The service I've got is around 3.3 MB/sec (since there are 8 (b)its in a (B)yte, I've got 25 Mb/sec).
All wishful thinking aside for crazy fast speeds aside. I really hope that the unacceptable rate of 10KB/sec gets fixed up. I've never heard of anyone getting a high speed connection slower than dial-up...well unless the networking gear/computer in the home is messed up.
The majority of the speed problems that I've had in the past were totally on me. I had an old linksys WIFI router that was totally bogged down by the crazy ARP requests that I USED to get from the cable modem. Another odd problem..again with older router gear was that my wife's windows box ended up with some malware that tried to connect to a non-existent machine and the "no route to host" message wasn't being handled correctly...again an old linksys wifi router. Since then I replaced that router and my cable modem...so much better. We've got a pretty decent load, a few hardwired connections, and a dozen or more wireless connections.
For the most part I'm happy with the internet service that Cox offers, especially considering the price to performance ratio. We have found much more cost competitive options for phone and TV elsewhere. A few months back we went to a VoIP solution, this month we'll change cable service providers and between the two changes save enough money to put in a extra house payment!
The only reason I'm on this forum is that my latency has tripled. Figured I would look on the forums first before I dig into it at home.
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waltere
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Wow! Health Edge, thanks for pointing out the error; I thought I had recovered from New Year's Eve but apparently not. You are correct, roughly I just multiplied every thing by about 1K. Unfortnately that applies to my rates as well, so the correct statement would be that "I often see 10 B/s or less."
I didn't mean to be confusing (other than a three-orders of magnituded error, that is.) It wasn't my intent to explaining the problem in enough detail to get technical responses; I was just seeking suggestions on how to get a resonse from Cox. (Looks like I got one from TiffanyR.)
To answer the questions you raised, I do have a router but the problem occurs with different computers with the router both in and out of line. At present I'm using a Linksys BUFCMU10 modem. However, in the time I have been working this problem I have changed modems once and routers twice, using both Linksys and Netgear. Below is a traffic chart that is not uncommon.
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Health_Edge
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I think one of your photo's didn't show. Itraffic seems to be a bandwidth monitor, not so much a bandwidth tester. Another words, it just detects what ever bandwidth your using. Were you running a bandwidth using program at the time? Have you tried sites like http://www.speedtest.net/ or http://myspeed.visualware.com/ ?
Also, just to be clear, what tier do you have? Preferred?
Last, what are your signal levels? You can find them at 192.168.100.1
This is a good place to post issues if you feel your not getting the full technical attention. I can't promise I can fix your problem, but Im pretty sure I will be able to atleast tell you what the problem is.
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waltere
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Ouid, as explained to Health I seem to have muliplied my numbers by three orders of magnitude. I'm not sure whether to blame New Years Eve or age. However, the complaint is still valid.
In earlier years I, like you, found the problem was always on my side. In this case I have discovered and fixed a number of actual or possible problems such as you describe. The problem has survived all of them, including having Cox come in and check my hook up and in-house equipment.
Frankly, at this point it doesn't matter what the problem is. Somebody should be willing to talk to me without three and a half years of writing registered letters and filing BBB complaints. It's OK with me if they point out that I forgot to plug in my router -- I just don't like being ignored. I have thought often about just changing my ISP, but I always come back to "Dadgummit, somebody ought to hold these people accountable,"
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waltere
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I had Premier and since it was underperforming so badly I switched to Preferred -- only change was I paid less. Below is a capture of of 192.168.100.1
Any wisdom you can add will be welcome. One of the great things about the Information Age is that (as in previous ages) there is always somebody else who has had your problem -- but now through forums (forae?) like this one you can find out who they are and how they fixed it.
I confess at present my issue is more keeping Cox honest. I wrote my original post after saying into my phone "Hi, Mr [Cos employee's name] This is the ninth voicemail I have left you since July, and I'm just still hoping we can get together to work my problem." My son asked me why in the world I would have to leave that many voicemails and I'm afraid that while explaining I worked myself into something of a froth.
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waltere
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TiffanyR, please forgive my skepticism but Cox.help is one of the resources I have tried before, and the response has always been to send me to the back of the lline with instructions to clear my cache, reboot, reset my modem and all the other first time stuff, followed by possibly scheduling a technician even though three have already been out here.
None the less, being an incurable optimist and in the belief good will springs eteranlly in all of our hearts, I will send an email to cox.help marked for your attention. If I get the usual response then I will kick the dog (not really) have a good cry and then find somebody wlse to hear me whine and moan.
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Health_Edge
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Would be happy to. The only reason I post here is to help people. I started on http://www.dslreports.com/forum/coxhsi and there was a link pointing here, and since then I have just been hanging out and helping. Its my hobby.
With that said, I'm not sure what the main problem is in your case. Like more harder to salve situations, its probably a mixture of several things. For one, I don't think the DOCSIS 2.0 modem helps. Its probably not directly causing the problem (since you have tried different modems) but even at it's best, I would be surprised to see above 23Mbps down and 3-4Mbps up. Also, if congestion is a issue, getting a DOCSIS 3.0 modem is a easy way around the problem. To see if congestion is a issue, try out this test. Here is a example of my results.
Detail for Test #152842
Summary
This report refers to a connection test carried out by IP address 68.228.152.xx on 03 Jan 2014 18:31:17 GMT-05:00.
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waltere
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Health, I appreciate your efforts to help. Guys like you are the unsung heroes of the modern age, analogous to the wilderness experts who used to guide greenhorn settlers across the mountains, rives and plains. Your works allows peole who want to exert a little effort and barinpower to solve problems that would otherwise defeat them. I'm trying to thinnk of a computer-based analogy to the donner party, and nothing's coming up, but I'm sure you have alleviated catastrohe for many people whom you will never meet.
Below is what I got on the test:
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Health_Edge
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"Download TCP forced idle: 60%"
That part is interesting. I also have a high TCP forced idle, because in my case, my DPQ3212 was connecting on 8 downstream channels, giving a total capable bandwidth of 90-110Mbps easy. A file on my modem restricts that speed to my service rate. I have Preferred at 32Mbps. Im not sure how the math is done, but the TCP forced idle is the mechanism used to apply this restriction. I wonder if this same TCP parimeter is restricting your one channel of bandwidth. Excuse the quick and dirty math
24 X 0.6 = 14.4
24 - 14.4 = 9.6
9.6 / 7665 = 30% congestion in your area
7665 X 0.3 = 2299.5 ~ 2230
7665 - 2230 = 5435 Kbps
So congestion and the DOCSIS 2.0 might account for most the problem, but I think something else is going on too. Maybe the router is taking a small bit, and maybe a small bit is the old modem and a slight signal issue. My best guess is its all of these together. A easy work around would be a new D3 modem. Do you currently lease? Or maybe Cox could send you one as a christmas present?
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