Recent Discussions
COX Rated WORST - No surprise there.
Consumer Reports released the results of their survey of telecommunication services. No surprise that COX is in the WORST category no matter whether you look at the "Phne TV Internet Bundles", "Internet Providers", "TV Services" categories. In the "Value" category COX is always the lowest score, and in "Customer Service", the second lowest score possible. Where "reliability" was a rating factor, COX scored the median or "average" value. Same with "speed". Why can a company with record (and increasing) profits sustain such growth with mediocre to poor services? UNREGULATED GOVERNMENT GRANTED MONOPOLIES! As in CA where COX hip-pocket politicians in the state legislature approved a carve up of the state into monopoly zones for telecom services among COX, COMCAST and XFINITY. This allowed COX for the longest time to keep its hip-pocket county commisioners from issuing construction permits to Verizon (local landline phone provider) to update their copper line to fiber which caused Verizon to abandon their services in my area to Frontier, a Chinese company that, because of Chinese law, has to make all communications on its networks available to Chinese military and industrial "intelligence" services without any type of legal review or check and balance. Why the Chinese interest in this area? It is fairly dense with high-tech companies with leading edge tech in medical, aerospace, military and civilian telecom, power generation and distribution technologies, the very areas Chinese spying has been penetrating and stealing for decades. FINALLY (probably due to anti-American Trumpists in the telecom regulating agencies from Fed to state level) Frontier was able to break the COX stranglehold on the permitting process and has just started to upgrade the local copper network to fiber, and in limited neighborhoods, offer high-speed internet via fiber. COX current response in an advertising campaign specifically calling out Frontier on speed based on their historical DSL service in order to be sure no one notices that they are transitioning to Fiber. In addition COX falsely claims a 99%+ up-time/reliability that I have not experienced EVER in Cox internet service, and in their TV service since the early 2000's. To bleed as much money out of existing customers before they discover there may be a more reliable and cost-effective option, COX has increased its customer abuse tactics. For example, charging for streaming services that are only available with a DVR-enable Cox receiver, while they KNOW you are only provisioned with (and charged for) non-DVR capable receiver (and stating when, called on the fact that their Web site says YOUR receiver IS capable of receiving the streaming service - i.e. HBOMax - that you need to upgrade to the DVR capable box at an addition $10 - 15 per month in order to use the service you are being billed for!). Another example: Initially signed up for the lowest internet speed package (at the time 100 mbps) when Verizon disabled my DSL by wiring in a new office complex between my home office and the switch so that the wire run to my house put me outside the DSL capable distance for their copper network. Subsequently I got (and saved) emails from COX telling me how I was getting a "free speed upgrade" to my existing internet service. Of course, these never appeared - at least not according to Ookla Speed Test. What did appear over time was a doubling then tripling of the "Ping" time over my DSL service which I believe is COX's interception of internet/website requests for purposes of privacy violating profiling and corporate throttling "for fun and profit" from data miners and corporations that want "priority" access to COX users. Then to rub salt into thw wounds, COX eliminated the 100 and 150 Mbps tiers, automatically "upgraded" those users to 250 mbps with an overall 40%+ fee increase, BUT NEVER UPGRADED THE ACTUAL SPEED OF THE CONNECTION!!! When contacted, they tried to tell my wife (take advantage of an ignorant woman, they thought - except she shares the same software engineering creds as I have) that in order to get these new speeds we would have to upgrade our equipment to COX "panoramic" (mesh) WiFi, which is total BS especially for a home with one computer wired to the router, and one light-use tablet connected to the internet VERY SPORADICALLY throughout any given day. (No social media accounts, little to no looking at videos, mostly email, some shopping, and some info research for non-digital hobbies.) When challenged, the excuse became, "well your modem is too old - you need to upgrade it". I've been using my own Netgear DOCSIS 3.0 modem since the beginning with COX, and the only problem is their frequent outages that sometimes the own up to as "maintenance" and other times as "outage in your area" always with the same predicted fix time of 6:00 am the next day. Despite knowing this was total BS on COX's part, I went to their web site and found a modem they claimed was DOCSIS 3.1 and compatible with their service. I purchased the modem from BestBuy, but when following the modem manufacturer's instructions for COX activation via COX web site, it failed (waited on activation to complete for several hours and gave up). I then called COX tech support number listed for Internet service activation, provided the tech with the MAC etc. and while waiting for the activation which he could not do, he tried to set up a "service call" by a tech with a replacement modem since the one I had could not be activated (despite all status indicators being normal). I told him that the modem was purchased from BestBuy and then he told me "UNLESS THE MODEM IS SUPPLIED BY COX IT WILL NOT WORK WITH COX INTERNET SERVICE". So, once again COX web site falsely advertises available services for specific hardware models! AND THEY GET AWAY WITH IT BECAUSE THEY ARE AN UNREGULATED MONOPOLY TELECOM PROVIDER!! AND THE KNOWINGLY CONTINUE TO MAKE FALSE CLAIMS AND "SERVICE ADJUSTMENTS" SOLELY TO INCREASE PROFITS WITHOUT IMPROVEMENTS TO QUALITY, QUANTITY OF SERVICE OR "CUSTOMER CARE". That's why, when talking to anyone about my telecom services I say, "COX - say it out loud - that's what you have to deal with - a bunch of....!
ISP 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.
Ping Spikes each minute
Hi, I have been trying to resolve this issue for a while now. I have had 2 technicians come out now, spoken with 4 customer representatives online and gone up to the Cox store once on top of signing up for the Cox complete care and still the issue is not resolved. I am on ethernet and have tested my pc after kicking all other devices off of the network this has not worked. I was initially suspicious that it could be a node congestion problem but I am unsure. I have run pingplotter and see that every minute or so there are very higher spikes upwards of 500ms sometimes. Recently I was disqualified from an online tournament from this issue. Which is extremely frustrating especially because I am at a loss with this. The first technician ran some test ran some tests off of his gameboy color and told me he was 99% sure that it was the PW3 Cox router/modem I had that was less than 1.5 years old, he didn't have a spare so I was advised to go up to cox to replace it. Once I tested the new PW6 I had the same problem so another technician was sent out. To which he advised this would have to go higher as it above them. I reached out to customer support to inquire and they offered to escalate the issue. Today and went to check the status of this only to discover that there was no evidence of this every being recorded. I have tried to take action on this as best as I could and am happy to hear some advise or suggestions on the matter. Unfortunately I have spend alot of time and money now dealing with Cox and have not gotten anywhere.Federal Assistance program approved and I still don't know what Cox is doing with my account
I'm approved for lifeline and truconnet and other types of assistance because I'm disabled I spoke the Cox and they don't say nothing I got everything from the federal government confirmation numbers and whatever else that show was that I'm approved and every time I try to talk to pop you'll find out when you see your bill go down and it's been monthsAll that speed means nothing when you can't use the internet.
Coxinternet is down more than it's up in my area (San Juan Capistrano). Cox does not have the bandwidth to handle all the residents in this area. I'm paying for 1 Gig, but I can't watch a 30-minute TV show (Youtube TV) without it pausing for 10 minutes (every 20 minutes). We have huge packet loss when gaming. Internet goes on/off while we are working. It's worse after 9pm. Speed Tests - LOL! All that speed means nothing when you can't use the internet. Can we please get an estimated date when Cox will expand their network at (Del Obispo / Windjammer)? I'm new to the area. Are we hostage or do we have any other choices, beside Cox? I would like a solution plus a partial refund/discount for constant disruptive service. I better post before my internet goes off again.
Weekly (if not more) service outages in AZ
I've always hated cox, but now forced to use it in our new residential area. Why is there always a service outage at least once a week that causes our internet to go down? Without fail, there's an outage for a few hours 1-2 times a week. If it's a planned outage, why not do it in the middle of the night when most people are sleeping, and not during the day when we have work?Why am I paying for a service that gives me no service 1-2 days/week?You're Not Crazy It's Happening To Everyone
I can't read one more. I can't read one more post that says, "my modem drops dozens of times a day, and comes back up minutes later, sometimes it's unusable for HOURS, I've rebooted, and reset, and refreshed, and I've replaced ALL of my equipment, I've called Cox dozens of times, techs have visited my house over and over, and it's STILL HAPPENING, EVERY DAY." It's not a user-end issue, and I can't believe that with ALL OF THESE IDENTICAL REPORTS (and you can add mine - identical), that Cox is just plum mystified (and always, EXTREMELY RETICENT TO ISSUE ANY KIND OF CREDIT FOR THEIR BREACH OF CONTRACT). It's too much. That's enough. The Federal Communications Commission is there to protect consumers from this fraud and abuse, and by God, I'll be calling on them to do so. Investigative journalists live to expose greed and corruption, and the lack of antitrust measures governing utilities like Cox is fertilizer for the kind of stink Cox gives you for hundreds of dollars a month. So anyway, does anyone have any suggestions, he asked rhetorically. (incidentally, the sheer VOLUME of tags, crowd-sourced, shows where the stakeholders are:)Going on 7 days of Internet Outage
We've been without internet now for 7 days because of an outage and Cox will not provide any indication whatsoever on when service will be restored. Everyday, same message on the page and text:" Our technicians continue to work to resolve the problem in your neighborhood. Currently there is no estimated time for when service will be restored." SEVEN DAYS! We are on a stay at home order from the Governor, so all my work and my children's classes are online. This is the worst experience ever! I've been working of the hot spot on my cell phone just to be able to work and now we've exhausted our data plan and have to pay and extra $300 this month in extra data charges from our wireless carrier. I've called support, done the interactive chat, called technical support, billing and anyone else that will answer or respond and nobody can give me an answer on when we will get our Internet service restored. Beyond frustrating. Does anyone here have a management contact at Cox that can escalate this to resolution? this is completely unacceptable.
Unstable Internet and Packet Loss (8 Months)
I have been dealing with this issue for coming up on 8 months now. I called back in January about massive packet loss. The rep I spoke to basically said that it could be the modem. I did not believe this to be an issue but decided to look up the modem I had at the time and found out that it had a Puma 6 chipset which can cause issues with online games and other issues, so I decided I might as well replace it anyway. Went out the next day and spent a little over $200 on a new modem. Called and got it updated to my account and still experiencing the same issues. At this time I then start experiencing issues with internet outages and unstable internet connections. Mostly my upload will not be consistent and will eventually just zero out and lose connection but running a speed test will show that I am still getting about 30mbs up. This mostly happened at night until early morning until around 9AM then go back to being mostly fine throughout the day. I call again and they suggest sending a service tech out. The tech comes and tests my hardware and finds no problems but suggested replacing the line in the wall and that could be the issue. Issues is still not resolved. Call again and they send another service tech out and again is not able to replicate issues since they come after the issue clears up. They suggest replacing the line that runs from the house to the box in the front yard. Ok. They replace this and still the issue is happening. I consult with a friend that now lives in Germany that does live streaming for a living and told me that he dealt with this exact same issue before he moved and told me that it is a problem with the node and I will need to keep calling and harassing Cox until they come out and fix it because getting them to escalate anything is a pain. At this time I notice that there have been multiple Cox trucks out in my area by my house just down the street over the months and have had 2 internet outages completely that Cox was aware of. I have had other techs out at least 1 per month at this point. I call Cox again and tell them that I am still experiencing the same issues but now the issue is starting to get worse because it is happening earlier in the day. They tell me again that they need to send another service tech out. I tell them that they have already sent multiple to the house and they never find anything or do anything that makes any difference and want to get this escalated and taken care of and that they need to come look at the node. The rep informs me that the only way that they can get this escalated to someone that can come look at the node is to have 3 service techs out within the same month and that the service tech needs to be the one to escalate it to that point. They schedule the tech to come out again and he says that he does see the packet loss and was working with someone in "engineering"? (I believe that was the department he said) and that he would get this escalated and that they should be reaching out to me within 24-48 hours. 2 Days go by and I have not heard anything from Cox. I call them to get the details on if they have come out and was told that they have come out but wasn't told what they had done. I let a few days go by and still experiencing issues. The internet is worse than ever. My connection is not stable at all. My upload will fluctuate constantly and will eventually 0 out and just give up. Packet loss is worse that ever upwards of 50-60 percent. I call Cox again and ask to speak to a manager. She tries to get me to tell her what is going on but I do not want to have to repeat myself to her then the manager. I then have to tell her what is going on and that I need to get this issue resolved. She sounds like she is consulting with someone on her end since she is pausing a lot and then tells me that she will get the issue escalated with her supervisor's help. 2 more days go by and I don't hear anything from Cox. I call Cox again and demand to speak to a manager. I get to a manager and explain everything that I have been going through. I tell her that I called and was told that my issue was getting escalated and that there should be a ticket for it. The manager tells me that they opened the wrong type of ticket and that the escalation had been cancelled. I do not have her name but this manager was very nice and professional and actually sounded like she knew what she was talking about. She got my issue escalated and scheduled them to come look at the node FINALLY and the tech was out the next day. I even saw the tech and know where the node is now. A week goes by and within this week it seems that everything has been resolved. Some packet loss here and there but Its nothing terrible like it was. Upload was solid as well and no issues. Then all the sudden everything starts coming back. Upload is completely unreliable and unstable. Again the upload will completely zero out and just give up and packet loss is back. The issues I am experiencing are happening all the time now. The packet loss is constantly happening and the upload is never stable. I work from home and upload very large files and do streaming on the side. The files I upload will time out and eventually fail and streaming is constantly dropping frames and will eventually disconnect from Twitch. I call again and inform them that the issue is happening again. I have to explain everything to a rep and am told that they will get my issue escalated. I ask to speak to manager/supervisor. They transfer me over and the supervisor tells me that the previous rep is now getting it escalated and should be here on Monday 7/29/2019 and that I will not have to be home for this. Today is 7/29/2019 and at 6:30PM I have not noticed any Cox truck down my street and they did not leave a thing on my door letting me know that service was done. I call Cox for an update and speak to a rep that informs me that a ticket was open but can not inform me when they will be out and was scheduled for today. I hang up because that is not an acceptable answer. I call again and ask to a supervisor/manager. (I know at this point that Cox's Tier 1 reps are almost worthless and cannot get the information you need for anything you follow up with) The supervisor explains to me that they opened a ticket that will go no where because they are not able to escalate tickets to that department. The rep I spoke with is Brittany 6773. She informed me that to get this properly escalated that she needs to send a service tech out. I tell her I do not want any service techs to come to my house anymore because they do nothing and they typically say they do not see an issue. She informs me that she will re-open the ticket I had before when they came and looked at the node and will follow up with me tomorrow. I am now waiting for this to see if it eventually goes through. My experience with Cox has been completely miserable. It has been 8 months and I am still dealing with the same issues and nothing has been resolved. They have only credited me $100 dollars which doesn't even cover a full month and all I have is internet service. I pay $86 per month and another $50 a month for their unlimited data plan. Which Cox should not be limiting data in the first place. I have been lied to 2 times and have been told that an issue was escalated and will be taken care of to find out that the ticket was escalated to the wrong department. I have had MULTIPLE techs come to my house to do basically nothing because anything they do does not effect the issue in anyway. I have called and had to explain my situation so many times to these reps and supervisors which always try to up sale to a higher plan or a business account which even if I did it is still going through the same node and will still be experiencing the same issues.I have also been told that they can not credit me anything until the work gets done and the issue is resolved which I know they are not going to credit me the last 8 months of the same issue. I am completely at a loss at this point and do not know what else to do to get Cox to fix this issue with the packet loss and unstable connection. I am extremely frustrated and thinking at this point of just switching to Century Link and seeing if their lower speed connection will at least be stable enough for me to use my internet... I have lost so much time and I am sure have cost COX quite a bit of money to have all these techs sent out and take up the time speaking to reps on the phone but they do not seem to care about their customers. I have to deal with someone different every time I call them and explain my situation to them every time. COX has not helped me with my issues with their service and at this point do not believe they will.
Internet service interrupted
Every single day for the past week or so there has been services interpretations/issues. So is this on purpose to get me to update my internet package? Or is it normal for daily iintruptions without outages in my area? Paying when i can only use half of a noticeably slowing down internet service is deeply troubling and disappointing.