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proctorm's avatar
proctorm
New Contributor II
5 years ago

Congestion and slowness during Community Peak, Cox blames modem, tries to rent new one.

Before everyone had Stay-At-Home orders for Lakewood Ohio, I was working remotely and paying for 150 down bandwidth. That was my typical experience too, that bandwidth matched what I paid for it.

Increasingly over the past days and weeks, my bandwidth has been decreasing. Multiple conversations with Cox technicians have resulted in a recommended change of modem. This doesn't make sense, because the congestion is happening during peak hours and not at off peak. For example at 11PM and 4AM I don't have challenges. I'm somewhat knowledgeable about networking and have QOS priorities set in my house. I observe and limit devices that connect to my home network. I've been very careful and attentive to narrow down this problem.

This is a network congestion problem starting outside of my house and largely dependent on time of day. Yet, I'm asked to upgrade my modem because it is 'unhealthy'. My modem is on the approved list for DOCSIS 3.0 and appropriate for my service bandwidth. The modem works fine in off peak hours, and my demands on it are not changing  (in fact my demands might increase because I use more bandwidth and devices at night for work).

I repeatedly asked if there are bandwidth guarantees I could pay for and the technician ignored those questions. I don't know why, since my other questions were answered.

I decreased my service to starter plan 10 down 1 up because that's what I'm averaging during the day, the technician said there was no price difference between the 10 down and 30 down plans, both are 49.99 in my area. So I'm considering cancelling and just tethering off my phone since it provides better bandwidth.

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  • hzla's avatar
    hzla
    New Contributor II
    5 years ago

    You should be aware that Cox tech support is actually also a sales department who have sales goals that they must meet. Therefore, their first response to any problem is going to be that it is your equipment that is at fault and you should buy an upgrade whether you need it or not. 

    If you don't believe me, just take a look at the tons of testimonials from Cox tech support employees about how they didn't expect to have to make sales on the job, or about the unrealistic sales goals. There's even employees saying they got in trouble for being too helpful/technical because it set unreasonable standards for other employees. 

    https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Cox-Communications-Technical-Support-Representative-Reviews-EI_IE4063.0,18_KO19,51.htm

    • elliwigy's avatar
      elliwigy
      New Contributor III
      5 years ago

      Trust me I know.. I am a QA rep for a worldwide company that works with many clients in call centers.. been there 10 years lol.. we dont have cox as  a client to my knowledgebut if you ask me theres some really good reps out there.. the problem is they are rare! 

      They either usually have literally no idea wat theyre doing or what ur saying or how to help, try to push a different agenda such as upselling and completely ignore the issue or best one, they truely do not care at all and the whole time theyre either rude, zoned out or just try to get you off the phone without actually doing anything except waste ur time.

      ** when you comeacross that one rep thats amazing and resolves everything in no time and you know it will probably be the last time u talk t9 them cuzthey dont have direct numbers lol

  • elliwigy's avatar
    elliwigy
    New Contributor III
    5 years ago

    I mean there is a pandemic going on and a lot of people were forced to stay home and many are working from home so more users in peak hours means slower speeds than what youre used to as you stated. Reading your post I don't know what you want Cox to do. Sounds like youre already on a cheap plan and I doubt Cox can kick people off the network so you can have better bandwidth so seems youre in a pickle.

    I personally pay for Gigablast and even when its "slow" its unoticeable with near 30 devices connected at different times. Maybe you should consider upgrading your plan, 10 or even 30 is really not a lot and thats not taking into consideration you will rarely "max out" at that speed all the time.

    • proctorm's avatar
      proctorm
      New Contributor II
      5 years ago

      I'm on the 150 plan, I'm getting about 10 down during peak hours. I have 1-2 devices, both wired.

      • elliwigy's avatar
        elliwigy
        New Contributor III
        5 years ago

        Yea, thats as bad as centurylink dsl lol. I am lucky, I got gigablast and even my sprint phones have 5g in my area so even mobile network I can pull over 500