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absurdDATAcap's avatar
absurdDATAcap
New Contributor
11 years ago

Absurd Data cap idea on "cable service"

So for few month I have notice I keep getting warning from COX that my internet data cap reach and I was over, OK...called CS and all I got was there are data caps on internet services packages...Rep asked me if I stream movies a lot, well simple answer be yes, and he tells me that where my majority of my data usage goes and if I get cable I won't use as much on movie streaming.

So what I understand that data cap was introduce to upsell their own long time customers to earn extra $. That is pathetic and come on its CABLE service where we suppose to get more without worrying about going over like cellphones. I'm paying premier package and 300gb cap? come on. That's not even possible to use through the month and don't tell me few eat up all the bandwidth in your network.

Data cap is understandable but not accepted from customers and I'm not the only one in cox complaining about it and don't tell me I need to switch to $100 package which only caps it at 400gb. 

What you guys need to do is increase the cap limit to packages that are 70 and up. I'm paying 70 for bread crumbs  data cap....ITS A JOKE.

3 Replies

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  • I agree that their "Data" usage meter is not accurate!   There were four days in which I supposedly exceeded 25 GBs.  Only streamed movies on one of those days.  One of the days was a Tuesday and I had worked all day!   I changed my router (got a brand new one), changed my password and tracked my usage so I know that two movie downloads and some X-Box playing by  my sons does not exceed 32 GBs on a Tuesday night!

  • Does anyone know when this data usage was even established? I've been streaming and uploading to youtube for the past 5 years with cox and have never had problems. But this month my upload speed dropped below 1mb upload so I've been talking to customer service all night. They said I exceeded my data usage, and I was never even aware they had a cap on it. I asked if it was a new thing, and they said no but didn't give me a date. I don't see any place that I can see past data usage to see if I have really increased, or gone over. I am quite furious over this whole thing, having a cap pretty much shuts down my way of making money.

  • KipK's avatar
    KipK
    Valued Contributor II

    JFTFreeloader said:
    Does anyone know when this data usage was even established?

    2001. Though we first started publicly enforcing the limits on major offenders in 2003, and first launched a customer-facing bandwidth meter in 2011.

    JFTFreeloader said:
    I've been streaming and uploading to youtube for the past 5 years with cox and have never had problems.

    I don't doubt it. Less than 5% of users ever exceed the usage limits on their tier.

    JFTFreeloader said:
    I am quite furious over this whole thing, having a cap pretty much shuts down my way of making money.

    If your work depends on your internet connection to this degree, then you should look into a business connection.  

    JFTFreeloader said:
    I don't see any place that I can see past data usage to see if I have really increased, or gone over.

    We have a whole new section of our site dedicated to learning about data usage. The data usage meter itself lets you see daily usage for the current or previous cycle, and monthly usage for the last year.

    JFTFreeloader said:
    But this month my upload speed dropped below 1mb upload so I've been talking to customer service all night. They said I exceeded my data usage, and I was never even aware they had a cap on it.

    Then someone wasn't paying attention, because that has nothing to do with the usage limits. We don't throttle users beyond limiting them to the speed tier they're subscribed to. When I pull up your modem, you have terrible upstream signal-to-noise. THAT'S why you've got low upload speed. If you've done the basic connection troubleshooting, then a service call will be in order


    Geronimo1964 said:
    I agree that their "Data" usage meter is not accurate!   There were four days in which I supposedly exceeded 25 GBs.  Only streamed movies on one of those days.  One of the days was a Tuesday and I had worked all day!   I changed my router (got a brand new one), changed my password and tracked my usage so I know that two movie downloads and some X-Box playing by  my sons does not exceed 32 GBs on a Tuesday night!

    If you have log data for this that is synced up to the days on the data usage meter, then our Tier 2 technicians can put in a ticket to have your modem checked in the system to determine if there's anything causing an inaccurate measurement. You'll just need to call technical support for your location to start that process.


    absurdDATAcap said:
    So for few month I have notice I keep getting warning from COX that my internet data cap reach and I was over

    So have I, on occasion. 

    absurdDATAcap said:
    So what I understand that data cap was introduce to upsell their own long time customers to earn extra $.

    No, that's really not what it's for. Usage limits were introduced to manage bandwidth, which is not an unlimited resource. 

    absurdDATAcap said:
    don't tell me few eat up all the bandwidth in your network.

    As I said up above, less than 5% of users exceed the usage limit for their tier in any given month. We work with users to find a service tier that is a better fit or to find whatever is causing their excessive bandwidth usage. We don't throttle for exceeding usage limits, we don't charge for overages, and very rarely do we ever have to terminate serious offenders.

    Now, since we've addressed some account-specific issues and this is not a forum for debating policy, I'm going to have to close this thread.