Call records were displayed in the All tab for a few hours on 01/14/2025, then disappeared again and haven't been seen since. For call records to be available after a month-long outage and then be removed again would have required someone at Cox to have done something to cause it.
Has anyone who experienced the Call History outage on 12/13/2024 had the issue fixed?
Missed incoming calls create a call record to (256) 724-7534 in Call History. With a limited amount of test data, it’s difficult to confirm this only occurs for incoming calls sent to voice mail. However, it appears to happen for calls received from callers flagged with a Voice Tools Spam Blocker “Spam Risk” that is set to “Send to Voicemail” and other missed calls not “blocked” by Spam Blocker or phone code *60 (call blocker). The outgoing call record to the voice mail phone number seems to be created to indicate the caller declined to leave a voice mail. The absence of a voice mail message would achieve the same result without the clutter created by the additional call records in Call History.
Suggestions for Call History
Hi, CurtB. Thank you for your update. I must apologize, this issue is still ongoing and although it is being worked on, I do not yet have an estimated time of repair. Thank you so much for your continued patience.
It's been nearly two months. How hard is it to STOP creating a call record for one known phone number? Spaghetti-code it if you have to. Just stop doing it.
Happy two-month anniversary, Call History Outage. It's been two months today and missed calls and incoming calls flagged in Spam Blocker for "Send to Voicemail" still create outgoing call records to the voice mail phone number. Another thing... the last call record in my Missed tab was a week ago. When my phone rings and I don't answer, shouldn't it create a call record in Missed? The guy who occasionally worked on this must have heard some call records were appearing in Call History and thought "Meh, close enough".
Hello. I apologize that you've been left feeling this way. This is an issue that is still actively being addressed. I'm sorry we don't have any updates about it, but please know our engineers are working as quickly as they can to correct this so you can use the feature as intended. We appreciate your patience and continued attention to it as well.
If there's really someone still working on this, how can it possibly be this difficult to stop creating call records to voice mail in Call History when an incoming call is received? If the caller leaves a voice mail, it's recorded in Call History with the caller's phone number, not the voice mail number. Voice mail will never initiate a call. The only time it's appropriate to create any kind of call record for that number is when an individual checks their own voice mail messages. Even then, it's unnecessary. There's never a time when an outgoing call record to the voice mail phone number is appropriate when receiving an incoming call.
I am curious, you seem to put a lot of effort troubleshooting Cox's telephone system. Why? What makes it worth it? I can't even remember the last time I actually called a friend or family member, never mind from a land line. Is it the principle of the matter? What keeps you from using something else like google voice or Ooma?
Extra, inaccurate call records are clutter. I want Cox to fix Call History because I use it. That's my choice. It's not just for calls to a friend or family member. I care more about incoming calls. But I could ask you a similar question. You seem to put a lot of effort into troubleshooting other people's stuff that you don't even use. Why? What makes it worth it to you? That was rhetorical.
This is the first of several emails sent to Cox last night for which no reply has been received.
I was later able to download Call History, but the following error occurred.
Call History began working again later (as is). I asked if these errors occurred because someone was working on it during that time, but no reply has been received.
I apologize that you haven't yet received a reply to the email. We are monitoring your ticket, CurtB, and have included the error you've shared. I apologize for the delay as well. Thank you for sharing these errors as we await an update and will follow-up with you once we get anything.
I received the following voicemail from Cox this morning.
"Hi, this is Cox Communications. Following up on a ticket that was escalated for you. In order to further investigate the issue, we do need permission to do a password reset. You can give us a call back on 1-888-438-6673 so that we can re-escalate the ticket. Thank you and have a wonderful day."
I decline to provide my password to anyone. If their software engineer needs a customer's password to fix an application issue, then Cox needs a new software engineer.
Hello. I can certainly understand your concern with password security and at no time will we request you to provide us with your password. We simply reset the password to a temporary one that we use while working to resolve the issue. Once the work is done, you can change the temporary one to whatever password you desire.
I'm not okay with that. Are you not going to fix my account unless I say okay to you hijacking it? Do you need to reset the password for every customer account that was affected? Why don't you use test accounts in a test environment like other companies do? Any half-way decent data base administrator could create a test database with test accounts and test data,
If the engineer is a Cox employee, shouldn't they have Cox telephone? If so, why don't they just use their own account? This is a system wide issue, right? My guess is it isn't an engineer but some form of triage support that is working the ticket. I am surprised Cox doesn't have the ability to sign in as someone's account without a username/password. I know you could with Cox Business support.
Note: The following is an on-topic discussion of Cox related matters. It doesn’t break any forum rules. It’s too long, but MS Edge users can select everything, launch ‘read aloud selection’ and sit back. (3:55 listen)
Me: Here are emails from Cox when I notified them of the following voicemail I received earlier in the day.
"Hi, this is Cox Communications. Following up on a ticket that was escalated for you. In order to further investigate the issue, we do need permission to do a password reset. You can give us a call back on x-xxx-xxx-xxxx so that we can re-escalate the ticket. Thank you and have a wonderful day."
Cox: Thank you for providing that information. After reviewing the ticket, it looks like the engineers are requesting the password information. What I can do is note to the team that you've declined the request and have them move forward if possible.
Me to Cox: (fact finding)
Cox: You can set it back to whatever you currently use once the engineers finish your ticket, we do not know exactly how long that would be but the password would need to stay the same during this process. We would reach out to you once the ticket is completed. You can set it to something generic for now for testing purposes and either provide it to us here and we can update the ticket for you or you can also call back on the number that was provided in order to do so by phone.
Me: Notice the open-ended time frame? Me to Cox: No, I'm not comfortable with that.
Cox: We truly apologize that you do not feel comfortable with our process. In order to move forward, we would need the ability to log in. If you change your mind and would like to move forward, please let us know. In the meantime, is there anything else that we can assist you with?
Me: I told then I wouldn't change my mind.
Cox: As ********, ******** and ******* have said, we will need for you to allow us to have access to move forward with this process and to work towards a resolution to this concern. I am truly sorry for any inconvenience that this process may have caused.
Me: This “move forward” thing has become a common theme. I’m ticked, being candid about what I’m thinking and a bit rude but not crude or abusive. I think I called Cox a third-rate cable company.
Cox: I am truly sorry to hear this and we do want to get this issue resolved for you. Please let us know if you change your mind. We value your tenure with our family and are always here to assist you.
Me: "Change your mind" is another common theme. I’ve previously made a point several times to tell Cox I won’t be changing my mind about allowing Cox or a third-party to have open-ended access ”as me” to all of my Cox information. (It’s not just Call History). I sent a three-word email “FIX CALL HISTORY”. I wanted to make sure they still understood the end objective. Cox’s application has had issues for 2 1/2 months.
Cox: That is exactly what we want to do for you. In order to do so, we need to move forward with this process and require your permission to do so. Please let us know if you change your mind. We will be here to assist you.
Me: They managed to get both move forward and change your mind in this one.
Cox, you have my permission to fix Call History. You just don’t have permission to hijack my Cox account to do it. I won’t okay you or your vendor having open-ended access to all my account information. I'm never going to change my mind. Because of this, you're refusing to fix issues I’m still having with your broken website after two and a half months.
Avoid Cox.
I just spoke with Cox Tier 2. The voicemail message Cox left may not have even been about the on-going Call History issue. (When I emailed Cox Monday night, moderators who replied provided no helpful information about it at all). The Tier 2 individual with whom I spoke was not aware why someone wanted to reset my password. The individual indicated it came from someone above them. Tier 3? I was told a call from someone in that other group could be expected sometime in the next three days.
Avoid Cox.
I have heard of Tier 2.5, but never 3. Have you tried reaching out to Colleen specifically? She seems more technical/capable then the other moderators here. I noticed she posted here. I doubt anyone above Tier 2 is going to actually talk to a customer. Have you considered a FCC complaint or reaching to corporate via something like LinkedIn? Squeaky wheel and all that.
Thanks, but while the Call History issue is annoying, I'm not filing an FCC complaint because of that.
Today is the three-month anniversary of the 12/13/2024 widespread Call History outage and there are still issues remaining to be fixed. Cox has said multiple times that these issues are being worked on. They either lied to us about that or the person who was working on it is totally incompetent. It's probably both.
Hello. I understand how these ongoing matters can be upsetting and disruptive. We're always working to improving our services and being transparent. If you'd like to discuss further, please email us your “full” name, “complete” address, and a copy of your post to Cox.Help@cox.com for further assistance. Thank you!
A moderator actually asked me to send them yet another email about this issue. Cox can access their email archive to read email from me about it. I filtered my own archived emails and counted them. There are a lot. My most recent email clearly documented remaining issues.
JulianN How many emails are necessary for Cox to do what you've already said you would do? That was a rhetorical question because I know moderators ask customers to email them to divert attention away from this public forum. Another email would just generate a polite reply and maybe a statement that Cox is aware of the issues, and they're being worked on. Nothing would be done.
Today is the four-month anniversary of these on-going 12/13/2024 issues.
Hey Curt. Although I am not a certified Cox Professional. I am a residental customer. What I would suggest doing is potentially trying to if you haven’t already. Login to the voice tools application from your phone or tablet. If everything shows up there. Then the issue may be related to either the WiFi or the device you’re using to access the voice tools application. Hope this helps
regards
Zach
Thanks, but that's not it. The device is a desktop PC with an ethernet connection to the modem.
The main issue is not missing data. It's the redundant, outgoing call record that's created for the (256) 724-7534 voice mail phone number, in addition to the incoming call record for the caller. This happens every time a missed call or a Spam Risk setting sends a call to voice mail, regardless of whether the caller actually leaves a voice mail message. If the caller does leave a message, the voice mail call record is also (correctly) created in the All and Voice Mail tabs. (Erroneous outgoing call records for calls I didn't make are creating clutter in my Call History because of an internal process). This should be an easy fix. Don't create Call History outgoing call records to the voice mail phone number unless the phone owner specifically calls that number.
Missed call information is inconsistent. A couple of missed calls appeared in the All tab with a red font and were listed in the Missed tab. Most are not.
These issues haven't changed for months. When Cox last replied, they were still saying it's being worked on, but it's obvious that nothing is being done to fix this.
