New Contributor II
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13 Messages
Potential Class Action - Phoenix/North Phoenix Arizona Internet Instability
I'm just curious, if anyone has been having a terrible time with gaming/video streaming with their internet in the North Phoenix area.
I'm pretty confident this is an infrastructure issue in my neighborhood specifically, but i'm genuinely curious if others have been having similar experiences.
Here's my story.
I lived in Tempe AZ, and in North Phoenix in my last two homes. Both had FTTH (Fiber to the home).
My most recent location, was Tempe.
While I had FTTH Gigablast, I had no issues what so ever.
I recently purchased a home in North Phoenix near 19th Ave and Union Hills and this is the disaster i've experienced.
When I moved, I transferred my service. I was told that my service would be exactly the same, and that I would have no issues. I was also told my plan wouldn't change at all. During this process, no one mentioned that on Docsis 3.1, upload speeds would be capped to 35mbps. Not only that, but I lost my unlimited bandwidth that I was grandfathered into because I "changed hardware", and moved from FTTH, to Docsis 3.1. Because of that, my bill was $10 more, I lost out on unlimited bandwidth, AND, my upload was capped. I argued that, because of that, my plan is infact changing, and this is no longer the gigablast I had. I spoke with many technicians, many people in sales, and many people in retention. All told me "Well, it's the same gigablast service, so your plan isn't changing."
Since then, i've had constant issues. It's been consistent packet loss all throughout the day. It's completely intermittent, however, it's often. It's literally all throughout the day. It ranges from 1%-15%. Hard ping spikes, latency variations, etc. This has been happening non stop since January.
I've had probably 4-5 technicians come out, as well as multiple lvl2 (or lvl3) techs come out that drive the bucket trucks.
So far, i've tried buying multiple cable modems, i've tried multiple routers, i've tried using Cox's "Panoramic Wifi" combo modem/router. I've updated all my cabling to new Cat 6 cabling. Nothing worked, same issue. I've had the line that runs to the junction, to my home, replaced. ga
I've had multiple higher level technicians explain there was an issue with the upload node. I see bucket trucks out here in my neighborhood often. The last technician I spoke with explained that they've fixed the issue. However, I JUST spoke to the retention department who explain so far this month we've had 7 outage incidents that she can pull up. This retention expert also game be "Elite Gamer" for free, JUST to try and to test with. As the last tech who told me i'm basically screwed until FTTH told me I should try that. I told him "If my internet was working correctly, you wouldn't need to try to upsell me something I know for a FACT wouldn't make a difference". Well, I tried the "Elite Gamer" thing today, and immediately started experiencing the same issues, and Elite Gamer shows within that yes..infact i'm experiencing problems.
The most recent technician that I had come out (who I think was lvl2 and he came out with a guy in a bucket truck), told me that, unfortunately Cox wont do anything about it unless you're seeing constant 20% packet loss, or until they start running FTTH in my neighborhood. Mind you, my neighborhood is down the street from one of the previous neighborhoods I lived in with FTTH. Cox not doing anything until there's 20% packet loss is crazy to me, as at that point you basically don't have a functioning service. And ontop of that, there are NO resources, no one i've been able to contact, about plans for FTTH in my neighborhood. I can't even get information about if any other issues have been reported in my neighborhood, or if the technicians have plans on replacing the failing infrastructure. Apparently, only the technicians with the bucket trucks have that information. And the last one I spoke with basically said "Yea we fixed it, so now there's nothing we can do until there's FTTH in your area"
At this point, I don't know what to do. I'm paying for an incredibly shotty service that no one within Cox seems to care to fix. Is there any representitive who can help me here with resources to contact to speak about bringing FTTH to our area, what that process looks like, if it goes through city counsil, or is it purely Cox's decision with timelines, etc. Or, any local legal experts that have skin in this game specifically dealing with ISP's and poor service? Any other local north Phoenix residents experiencing this same issue?
This has to be the WORST experience i've had with any ISP ever, and i've had FiOS and Century Link.
Allan
Moderator
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2.3K Messages
4 years ago
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brittrice09
New Contributor II
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13 Messages
4 years ago
I'm getting WORSE results using Elite Gamer. More spikes, than if I was just using "regular internet" (whatever that means). And also, in the Elite Gamer UI, it shows 0 loss, but it shows AMPLE loss on the "regular internet", which I still feel very clearly. Even though it says "while boosting" or whatever, 0% loss. I'm running trace routes, all showing loss and constant spikes/jitter.
Moral of the story? Elite Gamer wont fix bad infrastucture. Which, of course I already knew that.
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brittrice09
New Contributor II
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13 Messages
4 years ago
Bumping this.
Since posting this, i've worked with the social media team to once again get a technician out. The social media team asked for ping tests and trace routes using multiple programs (WinMTRs and PingPlotter). I did that, showing them loss/latency spikes as well as failed jumps generally 1st/2nd. I also showed them a bunch of pictures using the Cox "Elite Gamer" software, showing spikes, loss, and completely unstable latency.
They sent one technician, who explained they don't really see anything at all, supposedly the line from the box to my home was ok, and from the box on my home to the room it's leading to is ok. The modem is also apparently ok. He explained though, JUST INCASE, he's going to have a higher level engineer come to "certify" the nodes (or something along those lines). The next technician came out and immediately starting checking things. Once finished, he explained that he was able to see packet loss on the downstream node as well as failed transmits (I think that's what he called them). And also, explained there was also some instability on the upstream node, but the night crew was going to have to take care of that. He explained he "made some changes" to the downstream node, and I should see a noticeable difference.
My internet was working beautifully for about 6 hours. Then, the problems came back that same night, same issue. Checking through "Elite Gamer" while trying to play something, I saw constant spikes, unstable latency, and random loss. This was while being "activated" in Elite Gamer, or not. It doesn't matter.
TLDR; Internet, of course, is still not fixed.
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AlisoCanyon
New Contributor II
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3 Messages
4 years ago
The only way you can get COX attention is to file an FCC complaint, but you should keep a time and date log of every issue and your contact with COX. Our neighborhood filed about four different complaints and a special service rep was assigned within a couple of day. The problem in our neighborhood for over 12 months and still not fixed nor committed to be fixed by COX is an overly conjected node. The only fix is for for cox to invest and install the necessary infrastructure to split the node.
We continue to have numerous outages and congestion, buffering, poor performance and excessively less than the advertised download speeds.
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brittrice09
New Contributor II
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13 Messages
4 years ago
So the technician that came out, wasn't able to find or see anything as usual. He installed a "Mocha filter" on my line and advised that it could help, however, it didn't. I even played some games in the early AM to show him, and he agreed that there was an issue. He advised to reach out to the business department to see if I can get fiber installed through a business line. I did that, but they explained that Cox is unable to do that as I live in a residential area and that what the tech told me was totally wrong. So, as usual, the third-party technician wasn't able to get anything done, lied to me about the business line (doesn't know the product), and attempted to try to blame my hardware, which I responded with, no, because i've already bought another modem to try, and used Cox's modem to try, and while using both i've had the same problem. I was referred to the business sales rep that I spoke with to contact the residential sales line and to explain to them my problem.
I'm unsure why it needs to take 7 days for someone to contact me. The tier-2 tech was unable to give me the information of the department that is apparently going to call me, unsure if this person was being honest or if anything is going to happen in regards to me getting a call, or even IF I get a call, if Cox will do anything to actually resolve this issue. The tech that came out to my house yesterday explained how other techs love to say they did something because it counts as credits for their work to show the job finished, so a lot of times they just lie to get a completed job. He also kept scanning my line saying he's showing no loss (while only running, i'm assuming, a ping test to a cox preferred server or address for around 30 seconds or less. Not too sure how this will show anything with an unstable connection that has intermittent issues).
My issue is ongoing, the internet was extremely bad last night and the night before. I'm now tracking all instances of problematic internet as I prepare to file FCC complaints with neighbors and continue to look into a potential lawsuit, as my service is incredibly unstable and Cox is seemingly unable to, or unwilling to, get this issue resolved.
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NWH
New Contributor
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4 Messages
4 years ago
We live in North Phoenix near Bell and Cave Creek Roads and for over two weeks now have had constant dropped internet, in addition to slow and incomplete loading pages on our computers when we are connected. Cox keeps telling us our signal is fine and nothing is wrong. This is the first time we have had ongoing internet outages for this long, and it doesn't seem that Cox is doing anything about it. Just keeps saying our signal is fine. We are so frustrated!
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brittrice09
New Contributor II
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13 Messages
4 years ago
Update:
Internet is still not fixed. Still working with Cox over e-mail. I've also been collecting screenshots daily of packet loss and hard spikes. Reached out recently to get an update of the ticket number I was given, and was told there were no updates, but to check back for updates, so i'm doing so today. It's been about a full week since last dealing with them.
@adminITGUY59
nwh
Thanks for your input. You both sound very close to me, and it sounds like you're having similar issues. Have there been any updates in your cases? I'm gearing up and gathering data to submit an FCC complaint, and would love to reach out to both of you directly if possible through here to collect information so I can send to them, IF you'd like to be involved of course.
I'm beyond frustrated with paying as much as I do for a service that is completely unstable.
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brittrice09
New Contributor II
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13 Messages
4 years ago
Update:
It's been over a week and still no update on the ticket that I have open with Cox. Filed an FCC complaint against Cox, and now the FCC is facilitating conversation between me and the Cox.
Internet still not fixed.
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