Cox unable to document how or where data is consumed
Last week our area experienced unusually cold temps, which effected both TV and internet, resulting in red font “Service Interrupted” on mine and others’ Cox account page. For most of one day in particular our internet was pretty much kaput. Despite this, according to Cox’ Data Usage Meter, we managed to go through bandwidth at the same rate as if there were no interruption of service.
I had posted here: I didn't have a beef about data usage...until now (http://forums.cox.com/forum_home/internet_forum/f/5/t/19839.aspx)--the reply received led me to believe that some action would be taken:
We can certainly look into any account related concerns for you. Please send us an email with your account information and a link to this post to cox.help@cox.com so we can research and discuss the account.
I should have known better.
I thought a call to Cox might get some answers, so today I made the call. We rent a ox gateway and, AFAIK, are unable to employ 3rd party software to better monitor usage. I eventually got to a Tier 2 tech who informed me that Cox has no way of determining where or how data is used, as they farm that job out to another company. This Tier 2 tech claimed the were also unaware of if or how data monitoring can be achieved with a rented device. In true boilerplate fashion, they went on to remind me that streaming in SD used 3GB per hour, and 8GB/hr in HD (both of which are in direct contradiction to Cox’ own Data Calculator Tool http://www.cox.com/myconnection/learn/data-usage/data-usage-calculator.cox). I was also informed that despite changing the TV input on a Cox remote to move from a connected streaming device back to TV, data is still consumed by that device unless logged off of said device.
I have no choice other than to accept their reason provided for not being able to inform me where my disputed data vanished to. It makes me cringe to realize the effect misinformation like this can have on less tech-savvy customers.