Refusal to Help with Email

I use MS Outlook for Mac (latest version) to receive and send email. I was unable earlier today to send via my Cox email account. I could receive email, but not send. My account is set up as instructed by Cox and the problem just started early this afternoon.

I called tech support asking if there was a problem with the server. The representative refused to help, said it was an Outlook problem, and refused to transfer me to someone at a higher level that actual knows something. She continued to claim that it was an Outlook problem. She was only willing to sign me up for some technical program for a monthly fee.

Well, I can now send email and thus, it was an issue with the email server - not my system - as I told her. Something needs to change.