Internet Has Been Out for Days, Yet Cox Tells Me I'm the Problem
I'd like to find out if anyone else has had an experience with Cox as terrible as my recent experience in Oklahoma City, OK: My home internet has been out for 3 or 4 days now. It started when our modem suddenly stopped getting any signal from Cox. The modem has power and has shown zero issues up to this point. I thought maybe it was that particular coaxial connection, so I tried hooking the modem up in other rooms around the house that that have a connection available. Same issue: modem powers on, but no connection to Cox. I then got on the Cox website to verify that my modems MAC and Serial Numbers were correct, as well as to try and reset my modem from my online account settings. Still no improvement. So, I decided tochat with a Cox support agent. The FIRST agent I talked to looked into all kinds of things and ended up telling me that I needed a new modem (which, of course they immediately started trying to sell me one of theirs). I said no thanks, went to the store, and bought a new modem. The new modem is the exact same brand and model (Netgear CM500) as the previous modem I'd been using for years with Cox, so I know for a fact it is compatible. I get home, I hookup the new modem, but still no connection to Cox. I try to activate the modem according to both the manufacturers instructions and the instructions on the Cox website, but I can't finish it myself because, of course, Cox can't establish a connection to the modem! So, I decide tochat with a Cox support agent AGAIN. The SECOND agent has me provide the MAC and Serial Number of the new modem so that they can activate it on my account for me. I provide them all of this information, and they tell me that they have activated the modem on their end, but that they still can't establish a connection to the new modem. Then, all of a sudden, the chat session ends before I can get anything else from them. Big help that was, Cox! Once again, I reach out to a Cox support agent. I tell the THIRD agent everything that's happened up to this point, about the sudden disconnection on my old modem, going out and buying a new modem, going through the headache of getting the new modem activated, and getting disconnected from the previous agent. This agent wants all the MAC and Serial Number information again so they can make sure the modem is activated. I provide all the information to them, they tell me the modem is activated "on their end", and that I need to reset the modem (unplug it, wait 10 seconds, plug back in). Then they tell me to "wait a while", I'm assuming so that Cox can try to connect to the modem. After about 10 or 15 minutes of waiting, and still no connection, this agent tells me that it's a problem with my modem. UM, EXCUSE ME? You mean, this brand new modem that the FIRST agent told me to go buy for absolutely no reason? Not likely. At this point I told the third agent that I'd like a technician to come out to my house and check the Cox lines outside because the only remaining possibility is that there's an issue with their equipment. The third agent then told me that they can't send a technician to my house because they're not allowed to touch equipment that's not provided by Cox (in reference to the modem). I tell them that's fine, because I'm not asking them to touch my modem, I want them to check up on their own equipment! The agent then goes back to insisting that the issue is with my brand new equipment. Well, of course it is, because Cox is just infallible, right?! At this point, I'm ready to drop Cox all together. I've never had such a poor customer service experience in my life. I worked in customer service for a number of years, and it never once occurred to me to tell a customer "it's not us, it's you" if I hadn't already exhausted every possibility on our end first. It's a shame too, because this is really the first issue I've ever had with Cox. At this point, the hot spot on my T-Mobile phone isproviding a more reliable connection for my home than Cox seems able to. In the meantime, I've talked with co-workers who live in nearby cities who've told me that their Cox service has been out for the exact same amount of time, with the exact same symptoms (modem suddenly receives no signal), who've been told the exact same thing by customer service agents (go buy a new modem), then been treated the exact same way after the recommendation doesn't work ("it's not us, it's you"). Is anyone else starting to see a pattern here?
Returned Payment fee due to Cox Error, twice
Back in January, (due to the holidays) I had to set up a post dated payment to prevent my services from being cut off. I did so, I MANUALLY entered my card information, double checked and set up the payment. The day the payment was charged, for some reason it was declined and returned.The first thing I did was call my bank, checked for blocks and funds and EVERYTHING WITH MY BANK WAS IN ORDER. When I saw I was charged another fee for this I called and spoke to a supervisor and was then informed AFTER he verified my which card I used, that they had a different card on file (only on their end because it did not appear on my end) I haven't had this card in years and did not even have saved anywhere on my account. I have called and chatted several times, with supervisors and regular employees, I have been hung up on twice over this, I was a assured a supervisor would call me back ASAP and still nothing. I was informed my case was passed on several times to someone who can help me. Not once have I gotten a call back or update on my case. (Above and beyond with their customer service apparently). When I finally called back, I was told it was denied again and I do not find this is not a fair practice. What is comes down to is Cox charging ME a fee for THEIR mistake (twice!) and getting away with it by giving me the run around. I have been a customer of Cox since 2007 (not 2010 like they told me!) I have spent thousands of dollars as a customer for the past 12 years, and this forum is my last attempt at giving Cox the chance to do right by a long time customer otherwise we part ways here.Your support agents via Live Chat service are lying to me.
I opened a chat this afternoon with a support agent to ask about a problem with a particular Wi-Fi hotspot that I've been using for the last year or so. The agent told me that the hot spot was undergoing maintenance. I informed the agent that the problems have been ongoing for about 2 weeks then the agent told me it was only reported yesterday. So I asked the agent why the hotspot with still visible and why I could see a signal coming from it if it was undergoing maintenance, wouldn't a hotspot that's undergoing maintenance be offline? No I was told that you could still connect to it so that brought me back to my original problem: why can't I connect to this hotspot that I've been using regularly for a year and I'm in the same exact spot and nothing has changed other than the fact that this hotspot is got a very weak signal coming from it? I was assured that technicians are working on it but there would be no estimated time that it would be fixed. So being skeptical with that answer I opened a chat with another agent. This time I started by asking if there were any known problems with Wi-Fi hotspots in the zip code where I'm at. This agent took some time and then came back with an address that was different from the address where I am. A completely different hotspot. So I then asked the agent if that was all the problem hot spots within that zip code and ask if there were any more. Well at that point the agent had cut off the conversation. I believe that the agent knew that he was caught in a lie. I see a pattern where support agents give answers based on the information that I give them and tailor their responses to avoid admitting things that make Cox look bad or that are embarrassing for Cox. And this pattern isn't anything new. I've experienced it several times in the past and it's been for the same exact issue, although not the same location but the same issue. So a few hours later I opened up a chat with a third agent. This agent told me that there were NO reports of a problem with the hot spot that I had mentioned to the first. So let's review here: agent #1 and agent #2 both told me that the hotspot was undergoing maintenance and agent #1 also told me that a customer reported a problem with it yesterday. The third agent told me that there were no reports of problems with the hotspot. Then when I mentioned that the versions of the situation that I was receiving we're not matching up between different agents the third agent attempted to do some damage control by some type of vague answer that made it sound like some agents have some information and other agents have their information and that they don't all necessarily draw from the same information. Can you see why I am extremely unhappy with the abysmal service that I'm getting? Why would anyone continue to do business with a company that's clearly training their people to lie to customers? I'm trying to think of one good reason why I should not close my account todayISP drops, No downstream, No Internet…. why, oh why dear COX do you lie?
How are we supposed to trust you when… - Multiple Cox Representatives, over the phone and via chat, fail to complete account verification - Chat support does not understand the issue as described - Technical support apparently doesn’t know to use their tools and resources - Technical support misdiagnoses the issue, blames the customer, and doesn’t know to look for outages - COX outage information is not accurately reported and does not reflect on outage website - Smart Help self-service troubleshooting also does not report outage information, including from inner notes - Representatives do not know how to check inner notes - Technical support only solutions are 1) Reboot, the problem is on the customer end 2) Replace the modem 3) Charge extra for in person Technician 4) Charge extra to speak with Advanced Technical Support - Technical Support Supervisors argue with the customer in a way that implies the customer is a liar, even with issue being on Cox end - Retention department solution conflicts witheveryone else, including Technical Support Supervisors ISSUE DETAILS: Home ISP went down around 7pm PST last night, in middle of remote work shift. Spent about 6 hours troubleshooting. Couldn’t wait for tech to come last night so purchased new modem. New modem had SAME issue, with no downstream or ISP connection. Reverted setup back to OG and went to bed. Woke up today and everything magically worked. Home network logs show ISP WAN service resumed around 3:30am PST today. Technical support kept saying the issue was with my router and my modem was old (they are still selling same model on shelves btw, it's great! TY Netgear!), even when I had NO router connected, was NOT using Wi-Fi, and was directly ethernet modem connection. All cable connections, including splitter in attic, are solid with no lose or bad anything. No amount of rebooting, restarting, or resetting would fix. Logs indicated packet loss on ISP end and issue was with 2 separate modems (1 was brand new). Oddly during this, both modems did initially connect for 5-10 mins after 1 st reboot and then stopped working. Multiple agents wanted to charge me for having a technician come to home or charge to speak with “advanced support”. Called today to find out what the issue was, what changed, or what triggered the solution so could prevent a next time. Tech agent didn’t understand issue and wanted to troubleshoot an issue I wasn’t having any longer, which was nonsensical. The agent also wanted to charge me for advanced support or to send technician out, which again was nonsensical when I was no longer having an issue. The agent’s supervisor did not listen to issue and kept saying it was an issue with my router or modem. I spoke with retention, who advised me there WAS an outage last night that ended this morning. Those outage details were apparently missed by every other chat and over the phone agents? Really, really ODD. Makes me wonder if retention was blowing smoke or if their Technical Support and Chat groups are really that inadequate. From my experiences, I sadly believe the latter. Work also checks on outages and saw nada. Can’t prove to employer that COX had another outage! At least retention did help with future tech support needs with the Cox Cares support thingy. I appreciate COX not charging me for doing their jobs and supporting their own services...mostly. EFFORTS LOSS: ½ work shift, 6 hours total time last night, 2 hours today, and $300-ish on new modem which needs returning. EFFORTS GAIN: Learned most folks don’t need to pay for the unlimited plans if you keep your data under 1280 gigs a month. Check your data use history and save yourself $50 bucks a month off plan bloat! RESULT: 12/2-12/3 ISP drops – it was them not us! PS. Make sure if you talk to anyone at COX they verify your account. Lots of agents like to skip that step, give account info out, and make changes without it.