Customer Service lied and to did the tech

Since you have landline service, Cox must freely loan you a telephone modem.

Good point! I missed that. I am curious if the old "modem" was actually a phone/internet gateway in bridge mode. 

jsuncha The modem you want to trade your gateway for is the TM3402. You might want to double check your router is working before you trade it in though.

It reads like the OP previously had the Panoramic.

The original modem I received in 2011. We have NetGear router that we purchased a long time ago and that still works. The technician took our modem and replaced it with a combo router modem. My husband and I are older, we are not gamers; we just like to read the news on our desk top and a play solitaire. We use wifi for our Roku TV and our lap top. My son (who doesn't live in this state) is going to send me a link to a NETGEAR modem for us to purchase and install so we can take Cox back there equipment. I feel like I'm in a state of panic. I do not know anything about Panoramic. I wasn't aware of it's existence, nothing. I do not know why it increased by $50 or why the customer service person told my husband they will do us a favor and take $25 off it. 

The router still works. It was just offline. I was able to login into the router on our computer. My son was walking me through the process over the phone. 

What did you mean with "fall through the cracks"?

For Internet service, you had two things:  an Internet modem and a router.

The tech took the previous modem and replaced it with a modem/router combo.

You still have the operational Netgear router.

Ensure your son had verified if his choice of Internet modem is compatible on the Cox network. 

Give your son this link. It shows what modems are compatible, which is most. However it's probably easier to swap the gateway for a TM3402 at a Cox store if you are keeping phone service. If you have 500Mbps or above speed, make sure the modem is DOCSIS 3.1.

Wow!! That's what my son said! He said if I buy a modem, it has to be at least a DOCSIS 3.1. You are AWESOME!

As for getting your old modem back, I suggest emailing Cox at cox.help@cox.com with your account info and a link to this thread. Perhaps they can research what technician was out at your house and see if he can return the modem. Maybe it's still in their truck?

The old modem must have been a combo Internet and telephone modem and is why the tech took it.  The tech should have replaced their combo Internet and telephone modem with the TM3402.  HOWEVER, the tech forced a rental fee by replacing the 2-in-1 device with a 3-in-1 device (Panoramic).

Will do. Again thank you so much! <3

I tried to cancel the telephone service. They said that we can not, they said we had to have and there is no way to cancel it. We stream Roku and have WIFI for our laptop. 

Did the rep provide any other reason besides you "had to have" it?  Without a valid reason, you can definitely cancel telephone service especially without cable-TV service.

What Internet plan do you have?  Is Cox tying your forced telephone service to an Internet plan?  Reduce your plan.  Based on how you described your Internet habits, you and your husband do not need much bandwidth.

I pulled up our "Data Usage Meter". 

Data plan" 1280 GB

Service: Internet Essential Classic

---------------------------------------------------------

My bill run down:

Internet $55.99

Telephone $10.98 (with anonymous call rejection $.99) - whatever that is.

Taxes, Fees & Surcharges $6.34

Oh, forgot to answer your first question. No, they did not give a reason. 

This price would be your previous bill...before the Panoramic.

$56 is a good price.  I think the "lock in" is you have a "grandfathered" Internet price.  You probably had 100 Mbps at one time, Cox eliminated this plan, upgraded you to 150 Mpbs and "grandfathered" your price to your original 100 Mbps plan.

However, a few years later, Cox restored the 100 Mbps plan.  You still have the 150 plan.

If you cancel your telephone service, Cox would bust this grandfathered price and increase your cost to whatever the 150 Mbps plan costs per month.

If your today's bill is still $56, I'd keep the phone service.  However, I would investigate why adding a Panoramic router to your account increased your cost $50?  This is the current mystery.

If adding the Panoramic busted your grandfathered price, the $50 increase is probably the full price of the 150 Mbps plan and the rental fee for the Panoramic.

If the tech suspected the OP's personal router...without even testing it, mind you, so it was a guess...why didn't the tech give the OP a choice:  either buy a new router or rent one from Cox?

Since the tech had replaced everything, the OP wouldn't have known what had fixed the problem.  It could have been the modem, router or just a network reset to have fixed it.

You do know there is nothing wrong with the OP's router, right?  At 10 months, the OP could have actually kept the $150.  With your thinking, however, at 20 months, the OP would have spent $300+ and still not own a personal router.

At 24 months he barely would have paid for the router I went with. (RAX120) It sounded from original post, that OP router had failed. Tech was WRONG in taking customer equipment though, and it should be returned to the OP. 

...barely would have paid to not only own, but to own a much better router.

It appears the tech took a combo DOCSIS-eMTA, so it was Cox equipment for tech to take.

if he took an emta, he should have replaced it with an emta, not a pano modem. Tech did wrong. 

I am still curious exactly what device the technician took. So far, it has been stated it's a "small black box" that had ethernet and phone coming out of it. Was it a DPQ3212? Or a Arris TG1682 in bridge mode?