Forum Discussion

Mr__Smith's avatar
Mr__Smith
New Contributor
5 years ago

Another Victim of DATA Usage SCAM

Going to pay an extra $100 for data usage overage.  Woo hoo.

My usage has been the same over the last twelve months and occasionally (twice) have a $10-20 overage when kids are off.  Do I get credit when I don't use 1024 gb per month? no

Support option - change your wifi password or sign up for $30 or $50 extra per month for data.  Yes that sounds brilliant.

I did find out you can add a data overage for the camel hump month and then cancel versus having for the full year.

My only option - let them feel some pain.  Cancelled and returned my cable tv main box and extra box.

It a sad business practice when gouging for $$ is allowed.

21 Replies

  • Zurq's avatar
    Zurq
    Contributor II

    Im getting a credit for mine for the second time, it is ridiculous. I have to talk to cox almost every month cause they can't keep their stuff in line.

    • Zurq's avatar
      Zurq
      Contributor II

      I got the data usage error 

      it showed that i used 400gb when I was out on holiday and out with family for the second month in a row

      • KevinM2's avatar
        KevinM2
        Former Moderator
        Zurq, the Cox Data Usage Meter has been tested and certified for its accuracy by Cox and Netforecast, an independent third party. Netforecast has provided an independent report verifying the accuracy of the Cox Data Usage Meter.

        www.netforecast.com/.../NFR5125_Cox_Internet_Usage_Meter_2016_Accuracy_Audit_Report.pdf

        We provide a variety of tools, such as the Data Usage Meter and the Data Usage Calculator, to help manage data usage. Streaming video typically accounts for the highest data usage. Additionally, many apps or programs can continue to run in the background and use up data even if they're not in use. Please make sure all devices' operating systems are up-to-date with the latest software and are also free of any malware or viruses. Malware and viruses can also use up data without your knowledge. -Kevin M. Cox Support Forum Moderator
  • Happening to me too. Massive data use only on days no one is home. May be time for a class action.

  • Eric1967's avatar
    Eric1967
    New Contributor

    We are normally under 750gb per month and sometimes less.  We are now over 895GB  with 10 days left in the mont and an e-mail notice to upgraded our data plan.  They only let you look at the last 3 months of Data Usage,  I call BS on this and only let you see one month of data usage per day from the past...Something smells like a bad can of Tuna at COX. 

    I'm wonder about the people that just got brand new 4K TVs for Christmas etc.   

    Data Usage extortion

    "Thank you for being a valued Cox High Speed Internet customer.

    As of January 15, 2020 your household has used 85% of your data plan for the current period, which ends on January 25, 2020.  Your data plan includes  1024 GB  per usage period which includes your base data plan and any additional data plans you have purchased.

    If you exceed your data plan, we will automatically provide you additional blocks of 50 Gigabytes (GB) of data for $10 each, as needed. There will be no change to the speed or quality of your service if you exceed your data plan. "

  • HonestAbe's avatar
    HonestAbe
    New Contributor

    Same here. Last billing cycle (data) Dec 24 - Jan 23 (2019) my data spiked from a normal 300 GB per month to 895 GB. I have a TP-Link modem and router, this is the same set-up for the past few years. My router does not offer bandwidth usage logging. No new hardware has been added for at least the last 6 months. Just yesterday alone I used 100 GB.


    Devices: (3) Xbox One, (2) Google Mini, (1) Google Home Hub, (2) Chromecast, up to (4) phones depending on when my children are here, and (4) smart bulbs (TP-Link LB100). These are the same devices I have had for months. 

  • Brenmoco's avatar
    Brenmoco
    New Contributor

    I had this happen to me in January.  It's just my son in  I at home, and we work different schedules, so it's rare that we are both home at the same time.  The most I use it for is social network and gaming on my phone.  My son will stream YouTube a couple of hrs a night after he gets home from work.  But he works second shift, so not hours and hours.  We have one day that 300 gb was used.  In the January billing cycle it says we used over 1300 gb for the month.  We usually average 300-400.  All they would tell me is that their equipment is not wrong.

  • FrankieFrank's avatar
    FrankieFrank
    New Contributor II

    This happened to me on January 19th, I average around 20 to 35 GB daily but on that day 150 GB, there is no way.

    On a Sunday at that, we were barely home.

    I would have to stream 33   4K movies, ridiculous. 

  • cactusgirl's avatar
    cactusgirl
    New Contributor

    Just had the same thing happen to me.  We signed up for Cox on the 23rd and didn’t even plug in our router until the 29th and now today, the 10th, it’s saying that we’ve already used 85% of our data. We did download a few new games on our PlayStation 4, which according to Cox actually takes up a lot of your data usage, but between downloading video games and just streaming shows on Netflix and Hulu that should not have already used up almost a terabyte of data in less than 2 weeks.  This is my first time having Cox and I didn’t even know that limited Wi-Fi was a thing.  Our only option to not have to worry about overages was to get the unlimited plan so now we are paying $50 more a month so $130 for Wi-Fi; that’s very steep. 

  • Gothyk_2020's avatar
    Gothyk_2020
    New Contributor

    I have a router that logs my internet traffic and I can confirm at least for me that it's accurate. I have months I've used nearly 15 TB of traffic (yes I pay for unlimited data) and months that I use around 800 GB of data, and it seems to align with my Linux based router using vnstat.

    • Gothyk_2020's avatar
      Gothyk_2020
      New Contributor

      Services like Onedrive/Carbonite/Dropbox and the like can also cause large amounts of traffic.  This is because it may back your system up on a specific date of the month. This is just 1 example of what can happen in the background.  Windows updates, installing games on a console/steam etc all add up pretty quick.

  • beekay1234's avatar
    beekay1234
    New Contributor

    This happened to me too. I've had the same plan, Internet only, for years and have never gone over. I work from home downloading large files all day, as well as constantly stream music and TV most of the day. I rarely use more than 30GB a day and then for the past week I've seen upwards of 148 GB per day, with a low of 50. I scoured my network for something problematic but could not find anything. All of my devices showed 1-3GB usages per day and comes nowhere near what Cox reported I used. Ended up adding on unlimited data for this month and voila the next day I only used 15GB. MMMMK.

    • proudworld's avatar
      proudworld
      New Contributor III

      We are internet only as well.  I work out of the home as well.  Stream Music and usually have at least on TV on all day.  We've never exceed our limit since caps were introduced.  Last month, January, we had a week of uncharacteristically high usage...for us 50+ GB /day is very rare.  We did it 5x's that week.  Not sure we did 50GB+/day more than 5 times the entire year last year.

      That said, we had been using VUE for live TV.  VUE discontinued the end of last month.  We are using YouTube TV now.  This month our highest day has been 13GB.  We have not changed viewing habits.  We have a rather boring routine.  I'm not sure if it's Cox or the streamer. 

      Month to date Feb vs Jan...141 GB vs over 540 GB last month.  

      In any event, Cox has no real explanation when asked.