Cox wants to charge 60$ to move modem from one room to another!
Hello All,
So I have been out of work for a few weeks due to the pandemic while work worked to transfer employees to work at home. Work desktop requires a wired connection. I live in a two story town house. Currently the modem/router is installed in the living room near the front door. My room which will also double as my work office is upstairs on the opposite side of the home.
I currently have a coax with no splitters or anything hooked straight to the cox cable tv box. There is another coax that goes into the neighboring room which is also originally for a cable tv box although nothing is connected to it currently.
I contacted tech support via chat and asked what I needed to do (and explained the situation) to move the modem/router into my bedroom upstairs so I can connect directly via ethernet cable to my work desktop and he responds by telling me I need to pay 60$ to have a technician come out and relocate the modem who could then make up to 3 lines active.
Of course I think this is bogus seeing as how when I initially got service I wasn't told that it would cost extra or I would have had them make other lines active in the house in case I wanted to move it around. Second, the tech didn't do a very good job as he gave us the wrong equipment than what I should have had among other things. Third, if my other lines upstairs are already "active", then I would be paying Cox 60$ just to have a tech come out and literally move the modem?
It was only after I started asking additional questions did the rep even suggest anything. I was basically answering my own questions and the tech rep agreeing with me. Apparently the only way to test if the line is active is to move the modem/router to the desired location and connecting the coax and see if it works. I don't have a problem doing this to test it out. If the line is not active however, I feel it is rediculous to pay Cox 60$ to do something that I feel should already be "active" and due to the circumstances would never have been an issue if it wasn't for a global pandemic and being forced to work from home unexpectedly when I was out of work for ~3 weeks and have more important things to spend the limited money I have on such as hygiene and food.
To top it all off the rep didn't bother once to empathize or try to convey his understanding during this difficult time at all during the conversation. He basically told me if the lines not active I have to pay 60$ either way which I heard him the first time.
It is obviously cheaper to purchase a long ethernet cord and simply run it across the house to the upstairs room than it is to pay Cox to come out and activate a line that is already there. I feel this is a scam by Cox to get more money out of customers wherever they can such as moving a modem to another room. I feel we are paying for service at an address/home then all the coax lines in the home should be "active" and be able to provide internet to the modem. Any way they can squeeze a buck out of a customer it seems they will do it.
Currently I am using a Powerline but the building I live in is old and there is a lot of interference in between causing the Powerline to have a week signal/connection resulting in high pings and slow data (I pay for gigablast and have the latest Docsis 3.1 Panoramic modem/router.)
I have looked into MoCA adapters but they appear unless set up right less secure as well as they cost a lot more money. Running coax from the active line to upstairs also doesn't seem feasible since my understanding is that the longer the cable is the weaker it will get and I don't want a weak signal when I pay for the highest data plan I can get in my area that Cox has to offer. A long ethernet cable could work but I wanted to use this as a last resort option to avoid having a trip hazard running throughout the house or having to nail it to the wall out of the way.
It seems my only option to move the modem/router if my tests deem the line in the room is not active is to pay Cox 60$ to come out and "activate" the line upstairs. Not only will it be difficult to pay Cox when theres other more pressing items you need to spend money on, not sure how comfortable I would be to let some random tech inside the home during a pandemic for something so small that I feel I shouldn't have to pay for to begin with. To top it all off, this was an unexpected issue that only occurred because of a pandemic that is out of any of our hands that none of us could have predicted.
I suppose Cox is making big money off of all these companies making the move to WAH then charging customers for every little thing. Don't think Cox is doing you a favor by extending your payment date as we are all still going to owe Cox after all is said and done and all the meanwhile charging customers for every little thing. It is like they intentionally leave bits and pieces of information out during installation so they can catch you later and charge for it.
To add, I have been a paying customer for years with Cox and upgraded to the Gigablast plan as soon as it became available in my area and pay near 200$/mo for internet and a few channels on the Flex TV plan which I only added to have a "discount" which doesn't seem to even exist. I started out paying around 150$/mo and recently the discounts expired so I called and they supposedly got me set up with the same services/features for the same price but somehow now my bill averages 200$. They also forced me to add teh 500gb additional data add-on. I say forced because one month I somehow went over my data after years and years and was charged multiple 10$ fees. I didn't even get any overage alerts until after the cycle was over which proceeded for a few days into the new cycle. Like how can someone call to add more data if this never happened and the overage alerts come after the cycle ends? I was then basically told only way to receive a credit would be to add the 500gb add-on then they would credit me the difference in the overages (i.e. overages charges minus 30$ which is cost for the add-on). Sad thing is, now that there is a pandemic they are crediting the 500gb package off and giving to customers free but only for March and April. So I was suckered into the add-on because of 1 month or else would have been stuck paying overages when I wasn't even aware I was over until after the cycle. If Cox can't send overage alerts on time then don't bother sending them at all in my opinion! Reps also shouldn't give customers an ultimatum that in the end will force them to add-on additional features/cost to get some assistance on the current bill as this is very unethical and borderline criminal.
Don't call or go into the chat either and expect to get some clear understanding from the rep you are speaking with. They will try to go over everything with you and skate around your actual question which you will have to repeat multiple times at which you only hope that they will give you a legit answer. Sometimes I will have to speak with multiple reps to get one that understands what I am even talking about and even longer to get someone that is actually helpful. Chat also needs to stop using copy/paste/scripted responses that sound very fake/generic and ultimately just frustrate people further. This is almost worse than a rep not saying anything at all in response when a consumer expresses dissatisfaction about something.
It is pretty sad because Cox in general provides good internet/TV and I haven't had any issues with the service itself over the years but everything else is always such a headache.
