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wmcole's avatar
wmcole
New Contributor II
3 years ago

Cox Degrades Signals and Prohibits Cable Box Resets

As soon as Cox went from analog to digital the degradation of reception has steadily gotten worse while they continue to up prices by 8 - 12% per year - supposedly "upgrading" their "infrastructure".

SYMPTOMS:

  1. Black screen, no audio with a displayable info bar.  This went from occasional on one channel to this year multiple channels every night for hours at a time.
  2. MPEG macro-blocking with audio drop out.  Again initially once in a while, now multiple channels for hours at a time EVERY night.  Typically it is 5 sec of audio and video, followed by 30 seconds of macro blocking or picture freeze and no audio repeated for hours on end.
  3. Tune to a channel, get 20 - 30 seconds of black before they re-route you to a non-HD channel which takes another 10 seconds to display.
  4. The instantaneous freeze with no audio that can only be corrected by switching channels.
  5. The usual fix - going to your online account to reset your cable box - still appears in the account.  For the past several months they would not allow it after reporting the network was working fine.  You select to reset and it denies you saying there IS a network outage they will fix in 12 hours.  This past week they simply report "There was a problem and we could not reset your cable box. Try again later" but it NEVER works.  I believe they have actually disabled this capability of your account and just won't tell consumers they have done it.
  6. Charge you for services they deny you access to.  I am being charged for HBO Max, something that should come from my HBO subscription through COX but I can't access it unless I pony up an additional $29 a month for a DVR box.  My smart TV would support it through network / internet connection, but I would have to pay HBO directly for it because they say,unlike the old HBO Go I must get it through COX if I want to get it as part of my subscription.
  7. They regularly take the entire cable sometimes including internet service offline for hours at a time for "upgrades" which make no changes to the crappy signal quality, bogged down internet connections and glitchiness.

Yes, this "improved service" is why our cable bill doubled in 5 years.  COX - say it out loud - its all in the name!

4 Replies

  • bearone2's avatar
    bearone2
    Contributor III

    you can reset the cox cable box anytime thru the website on calling calling for remote reset.

    • wmcole's avatar
      wmcole
      New Contributor II

      No YOU CANNOT!  Cox either

      1. says "Cable outage in your area - estimated repair time, 12 hours." OR
      2. After 10 minutes of no reset posts to the web page "There was a problem. We were unable to reset your cable box". OR
      3. "You have reset your cable box too often please contact support" where they send you to a inoperative AI, "Oliver".

      Translation: We got your money so FU!  We know we haven't upgraded our infrastruction since 1980 and it is ovreloaded.  But HEY - we have a government monopoly for TV, Internet, and VOIP services in your area with no regulatory oversight so we are going to abuse the dickens out of your until you DIE!

      • bearone2's avatar
        bearone2
        Contributor III

        no, you can't reset if there's an outage!!

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    Honored Contributor III

    I would suspect a splitter going bad.  Do you have any coaxial splitters?

    I don't understand the HBO and DVR issue.  What do you want to do with HBO...stream it?