Forum Discussion

A_Cox_Customer's avatar
A_Cox_Customer
Contributor
4 years ago

Packet loss due to upstream channels dropping

I've been getting outages due to the upstream dropping out on my internet connection for more than 6 months now. Downloads, watching streams, podcasts, hearing and seeing people on voice/video call...
bad connection
complaints
Connection Drops
connection issues
connectivity
packet loss
upstream issues
  • A_Cox_Customer's avatar
    A_Cox_Customer
    4 years ago

    Update 11/23/2021

    I've been monitoring for a few hours a day over the past 3 days and am seeing zero or near zero packet loss.

    The rep and field escalation tech assigned to my FCC complaint have been on top of things looking at tickets and making sure they're truly resolved afterward and starting a new ticket if there was still noise or other issues with my internet connection.

    Just at the most recent visit from a field tech I've been informed that several repairs had been made all the way out to the node. Since I'm at the end after a few amplifiers every bit of noise introduced up the chain was degrading the signal that finally reached my modem.

    Among the fixes I was told:

    • A number of taps were fried and replaced
    • A previous customer who switched to satellite was somehow introducing noise to the line with their old cable connection and it was fixed
    • A crack in the line leading to a small apartment complex up the street was repaired
    • Some additional tuning was done

    So really a large part of neighborhood got a connection tune-up out of it.

    Unfortunately after several calls and visits without a fix over several months I resorted to filing a complaint with the FCC and with a few days suddenly I started getting follow up calls and a team dedicated to fixing my issues. It still took over a month to fix, but I was informed about fixes along the way and I didn't have to start at the beginning each time a ticket was closed and the packet loss continued.

    It would have been nice if Cox tech support followed up, looked at previous tickets and checked their work like this in the first place.

palmer_aamodt's avatar
palmer_aamodt
New Contributor

Hello, 

My name is Palmer and I’ve been experiencing these SAME exact issues on and off for the last year, whilst paying 200 per month in Gigablast services. I’ve had 2 technicians come out, 1 of which I was charged for. The 2 techs that came out had little to no IT experience and were not even Cox employees (3rd party contractors). While the “IT” tech was out he ran several tests and even noticed the high ping and low speeds and basically said sorry, nothing he could do about it. He chalked up the problem to being the nodes and too much network congestion. When I tried to escalate the issue I was offered a 3rd technician to come out but when asked if I could have a cox employee (preferably a supervisor) come out I was told there’s no guarantee. What makes things even more frustrating is when you call they go through the same “troubleshooting” steps followed by their $10 additional charge for IT support… 

At this point I’m convinced they don’t care. As a company who has no real competition there is no incentive to do right by their customers. I honestly feel like it’s time to start a class action lawsuit. They simply don’t deliver on what they advertise.

Based on all of the related topics I’ve seen I think there is adequate support to take legal action.

- Palmer

(Glendale, AZ)

CrystalS's avatar
CrystalS
Former Moderator
4 years ago
Hello @Palmer Aamodt,

I apologize that you are having to endure ongoing internet issues. Please allow me to explain and assist you. When you have had multiple technicians come out and the issue is not resolved, we have to schedule a third technician to escalate the matter.

The subscription-based IT support you mentioned is offered to our customers who may endure service appointment fees which are $75. The service is called Cox Complete Care and it is $10 a month and covers service appointment fees. This can and has saved customers loads of money by the customer paying $10 a month instead of $75 per appointment.

This appears as if you may need someone to look into your account. We would definitely be able to assist you with this. Please reach us on Twitter at @CoxHelp, visit us on Facebook, or email us at cox.help@cox.com. Provide us the name on the account with the complete service address with a link to this thread so we can get started.

Crystal S.
Cox Support Forum Moderator