ALL Cox Channels Have DISAPPEARED!!
Turn on the cable box and all you see is COX and five blocks through which a blue block keeps cycling, then an "Info" banner that says the signal is "temporarily unavailable - watch another channel" except ALL the channels say the same thing. Try to reset the cable box and of course COX says, "Outage in you area. We will fix it as soon as we can". But its going into the second day. Off course, being an unregulated government sanctioned monopoly, NO CREDIT FOR DAYS OF LOST SERVICE will be offered AND NO RUSH TO FIX IT WILL BE MADE. Twice in the last two months we were told of a planned outage to upgrade the system so we would have oh, so much better service (even though it is still worse, more unreliable, more intermittent than in the days of analog service in the 80's and 90's). Once by email, it would happen on July 6, they said. WRONG! On July 8, they email to say the wonderful update was done, and oh how lucky we are to NOW have such great reliable service. WRONG - NEVER HAPPENED! Then by door hanger on July 27. WRONG - NEVER HAPPENED! So is this >24 hour outage supposed to be the 6-hour outage that never happened? I doubt it! IT IS JUST A CONTINUED ABUSE OF CUSTOMERS SUBJECTED TO A GOVERNMENT GRANTED TV AND INTERNET MONOPOLY IN AN AREA WHERE THERE IS NO OTA CAPABILITY, AND COX HAS "CONVINCED" LOCAL OFFICIALS TO DENY PERMITS FOR COMPETITORS WHO WANTED TO RUN FIBRE-OPTIC FOR COMPETING SERVICES. "COX" - say it out loud - its all in the name.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: 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. 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. 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. The instantaneous freeze with no audio that can only be corrected by switching channels. 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. 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. 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!
TV Listings Removed from the Web
Why did COX (say it out loud - the name says it all) replace their local TV listings page with a page for sales of streaming products? Why did COX decide it was a good idea to downgrade part of the service I pay ever escalating fees for (even more money every year for fewer channels, poorer quality signals, frequent loss of all services and diffferent channel blocks) by REMOVING LOCAL TV LISTINGS FROM THE WEB. EVERY link to what used to show listings of scheduled shows for all the locally available channels - essentially putting the "Guide" online - have been re-routed to a sales pitch for various streaming upgrades and apps and services. I DON'T WANT STREAMING SERVICE! I WANT TO KNOW IF / WHEN CERTAIN SHOWS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON MY CABLE (OTT) SERVICE! Do they really want me to discontinue Cable TV service for streaming only? If I do it *** SURE won't be with COX (say it out loud - the name says it all).
Time to Switch to FIOS
After 30-plus years as a COX customer, we have no more patience left for COX. We have Contour Premier, Internet, Phone, and Homelife Security. For the last year, the TV service has been spotty at best. We go through periods of time where the TV blinks on/off all day, gives us a message that "We are experiencing trouble, and channels can't be changed for weeks at a time. We call for service and the box is reset. Nothing improves. A service call is placed and someone who knows less than I do comes to the house to check the trouble. No problem can be found yet the TV doesn't work well. The TV isn't the problem because it happens on all of them at the same time. Someone else comes to the house to check. The answer is always the same: You have a weak signal coming to your house. Usually they do something to the box in my next door neighbor's yard. Last summer, the technician told us he traced the problem to a box a half a block down the street. He couldn't fix it because the owner of that house wasn't home and there was a lock on the gate and there were dogs in the yard. So much for the utility company right-of-way. he finally gets access a few days later and fixes the problem. Now, we have the same problem again. It has been going on for weeks now. My husband is housebound a watches a great deal of TV. So, he is totally ticked off. He has spent hours on the phone with technical support. Every time they reset the box it works ok for a few hours and then the problem reappears. I think he talked to 4 people on Friday. After resetting the box numerous times, a service call was scheduled for Wednesday. He asked for a supervisor who ended up being incredibly rude about the whole situation. My husband asked for his name and ID number. Then, he asked for that person's supervisor. The supervisor refused to connect him with his supervisor. He told him someone would call back. So far, no call back. The Homelife Security is a joke. The alarm goes off by itself and we get a call. The problem is the alarm doesn't go off in the house. One time my husband was at a doctor's office and I was at work when it happened and my next door neighbor called me to come home immediately because the police were getting ready to knock my front door in. The police were still there. I opened the door for them so they could see it was a false alarm. Fortunately, the police didn't charge me for the call. We have had the phone for 2 years, and it has never worked. For $300.00 a month, my service should be better. AND--customer service should be polite.
Cox Mini Box Cisco DTA250 pixelation and tiling and running hot Cox send out refurbs that don't work
Have had our Cisco mini box replaced a few times but Cox keeps sending out refurbs that don't work. The most recent one is a DTA250-COX-K9 from 2016. We get pixelation and tiling and it runs hot. The AC adapter/ power cord runs 88-90 degrees when idle and the mini box runs 90-92 degrees when idle. When running the adapter/ power cord is 92 or so degrees and the box runs 98-100 degrees or more. All other AC adapters/ power cords run at 78-80 degrees at idle and while running. Other devices run about 68-70 degrees around the ambient temperature when idle and around 75-85 degrees when running. No other devices runs as hot as the Cox mini box. The other deices area a Roku Ultra, Nvidia Shield Pro, and audio receiver. Cox mini box has plenty of room to breathe and is on an elevated and vented metal platform. Measured using a Fluke 62 Max + a very accurate IR temp gun.COX VERY OWN TV COMMERCIAL ADVERTISMENT CONSISTENTLY VIOLATING FCC CALM ACT
Why are the Cox commercials consistently so much louder than the other commercials? We have done all the troubleshooting one could do. Here is what i know. They have been doing this for years. It currently on the commercials they air and advertise to sell there very own services. So as a business owner if we could turn up the volume if we paid for commercials that were aired on cox cable, contour, or digital tv then this would be a slam dunk!! NOPE! IT IS ILLEGAL AND NOT FAIR. WHEN BABIES ARE SLEEPING YOU KEEP THE VOLUME DOWN BY THE PEOPLE WE PAY OUR TV BILL TO. WE OPERATE 7 HOMES WITH THIS CABLE PROVIDER. I will be filing a complaint with the FCC regarding the CALM Act. Please join me if you have experienced the same issue?