82 year old mother charged for modem after turning it in a year ago
My 82-year-old mother had a "Mystery Charge" on her bill a month ago. She called Cox Billing Support, which is quite a time commitment, and was told by Kyle he was removing the charge from her account, gave her a confirmation number, and told her the next bill would show that all she owed Cox was her monthly charge. Next bill comes, and it says she has a past due on the "Mystery Charge". So today, we call Cox together. Now the charge is for a modem we turned in a year ago when we switched her to Panoramic Wi-Fi. We explained that we did not have the Cisco telephone modem as we turned it in when she began renting the Panaromic Wi-fi. After trying to get the gal to understand that the Panaramic Wi-Fi served as a telephone modem, she told me "you have the Cisco modem, I can see that it's on now." It wasn't , it isn't. Checked every cox plug in in the house. Not suprisingly, we did not have two modems connect to the cox service. I was explaining this and was disconnected. Called back. I asked the new Customer Service rep if she could see a Cisco modem live on the system from my Mom's residence. No. So I explained that we had a confirmation number saying this charge was being removed from the system. Suggested they pull up the recording of the conversation because they had "no record" of the credit. No can do. So now she said we needed to return the modem. I again stated that the modem was returned to the local store when we picked-up the Panoramic modem. Do you have the 1 inch x 1 inch receipt a year later? No. Who keeps these tiny scraps of paper. I asked if Cox showed my mom still having the modem, why they didn't contact us before now. No answer. I explained there was no reason for us to keep the modem. They have no value. But, I was told that without the 1 inch x 1 inch receipt there was nothing they could do for a 15-year-plus customer. So I asked when my Mom asked for her phone service to be switched from a land line to digital service, because she didn't. Cox forced her to switch to digital. Knowing she hadn't request the switch, I asked if I could get a copy of my mom's request that they install a modem. Said they couldn't. So I asked for a copy of what she signed saying she had received the modem. Said they couldn't. So I said then what proof do you have that she ever had the modem. And then I said, you know what, I'm going to trust you and believe that at one point this modem was in the house. Why can't you believe me when I assure you that the modem was returned? The modem has no value to my mother. I don't even think Cox still uses this modem. Neverthless, my mother has spent days looking for it despite the fact that I confirmed with her that she did indeed return it - I was with her. Thank you Cox for hassaling my elderly mother and sending her to bed with tears on multiple occasions.Thank you for charging my mother $122 for a modem that sells for $20. Thank you for charging a customer for outdated hardware that you will not use. Thank you for holding your customer responsible for bad record keeping. Thank you for neglecting to add equipment check-out and returns on your monthly bills so that customers have some way of knowing your service team neglected to enter the return or that record did not transfer to your master data system. Thank you for expecting your customers to hold on to 1" x 1" receipts to the end of time. Thank you.Paying for 300 Meg... Not getting close to that. Five technicians in one month
Cox customer here in Virginia Beach for 35+ years inthe same house and I am now considering jumping ship to Verizon. Recommend you get a bag of popcorn before you read the below: It is a heck of a story: I recently upgraded from Premier service to Ultimate (300 Megs) about 2 months ago. My modem has/is a telephone modem as well. I installed the gigablast modem with no issues. My house wiring was udated about 4 years ago. Under previous Cisco modem, I constantly got 180 Megs download and was relatively happy with it. I upgraded to gigablast modem but speeds never increased about 200 megs download -- even though the promise was for 300+ Megs. I called tech support and they said my signals were weak across all 32 DOCSIS channels. They sent out a technician. The first technician (a subcontractor to Cox) came out to house and told me I needed to go to Best Buy and purchase a second modem for internet and use gigablast for telephone. I knew that was a crock since the help desk told me my signals were extremely weak across the 32 channels. This technician actually handed me a splitter with cables to "help" me install the recommended second modem. Sigh. He never tested any lines for signal loss and claimed that since his box could "see service" that everything was great. I called Tech support again... they said they were "stunned" at Technician #1's lack of technical acumen and would kick it up to the next level of support. We scheduled another visit of technicians they promised would be Cox folks and NOT a subcontractor. I took ANOTHER day of work off so the second team of technicians came out and told me the line from the street was causing weak signals, therefore they put in a work order to bury a new cable to the house distribution panel. They checked the pole and said the signal was great there, but not at the house so I thought we were going to find success. (This team was also a subcontractor team.) Sigh. After marking of the yard, the subcontractor That finally happened last week and -- believe it or not -- my speeds actually WENT DOWN with newly installed line from 200 Meg to about 180 Megs download. Sigh. I called back to Cox and explained how this escapade was panning out. They said they could clearly see "unacceptable signals levels within the modem and would have to send out another technician. Sigh. Indeed, I asked what differentiated this next guy from the previous guys and the phone guy said he would escalate it and get the "pros from Dover out." Sigh. A Third technician visit in less than 3 weeks happened yesterday and -- after three hours of wasting time -- installed an amplifier which only made speed go down even more. I asked... "doesn't an amp in this case just magnifiy errors if you dont find out where the signal is being lost?" (Silence). Of course , this technician didn't bring his device that helps him map where the cables are running within the home so he did it "the old fashioned way" which made me just roll my eyes at incompetence. Sigh When this third appointment in one month was over with, I gotspeeds that were even SLOWER than before my "Upgrade" to 300 Meg. Sigh I called back to Cox (have them now on speed dial) and explained about how the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. They said they would "Escalate" the issue and get more experienced techs out to my house this weekend. Sigh. The phone technician looked at my modem and said the signals were still unacceptable -- even with our amplifier and that we would have to get ANOTHER tech to the house... but he would escalate the issue to make sure the right guy came out. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? So that's where I am now. Slower speeds than I started with.... an amplifier, taken how many days off of work to just get worse and worse speeds? Sadly that is what they told me the previous two visits. This will be Cox's last opportunity to retain a 35+ year loyal customer. Interestingly enough, I pay for the "whole home wiring" plan. No one has looked at splitters, signal strength loss within the house, etc. The tech support guys on the phone say they can clearly see the signal strengths are "unacceptable" but the technicians always ignore that inconvenient fact. The last one claimed my computer was the cause (hardwired) although it is a gaming rig that is fully capable. I also asked the guy on the phone, "How come you expect me to continue to pay OVER $300 a month for a system that does not work as advertised or as you promised it would? (crickets chirping here). Sigh. What do I have to do to save Cox from itself? Who can I speak to in the leadership chain that could possibly have a clue on how to fix this? My next door neighbor has Cox internet and gets 300+ meg download so I know the system is capable. Does anyone have the number for a competent supervisor for Cox internet tech support that would care about a long-time customer? Should I just cut my losses and go to the competition and get symmetric 1 GIG speeds and say goodbye to Cox after nearly FOUR DECADES?
