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....!
Cox install contractors
I've had cox Internet before about 4 years ago, recently had it reinstalled. The coax line from the outisde box ran to front of the house the the coax jack going into the house to hookup into the modem. Since then I've changed where my computer is located and where I put the modem. Now I want the coax jack to run to the back of my house to a back room. Do that I don't have to run coax through the attic. I have a brick home. The original instal had no masonry drill bit to go through brick. Rescheduled another contractor and had a note put on the ticket that I have a brick home. That contractor didn't bring a masonry bit. He goes to buy one then tells me two hardware stores didn't have them. Third contractor showed up. Not only did they NOT have a masonry bit. But they didn't have drill. Who goes to a job without a drill when your job will most likely have you using a drill. Cox has a serious problem with their contractors.
Cox Increases Fiber-Powered Internet Speeds for Most Customers
I saw this post on the Cox website and was excited:https://newsroom.cox.com/Cox-Increases-Fiber-powered-Internet-Speeds I checked my service speed on cox.com and it looks like I was upgraded to 500Mbps (From 250Mbps). When I performed the speed test on my Cox Panoramic Wifi modem through the "Cox Wifi" app it said my plan speed was still 250Mbps. It looks like they are still having problems rolling out this service. I reset my modem multiple times speaking with a Cox representative and unplugged all cables from the modem to get it to restart. Still no luck. Is anyone else having issues getting the Service speed of 500Mbps to match the plan speed of 250Mbps in the Cox Wifi App? Whenever I perform a speedtest I am able to get 300Mbps of 250Mbps, but nowhere near the 500Mbps service speed. I even disconnected all devices in my household and still received between 299Mbps-300Mbps on all 8 of my tests through the Cox Wifi App.
Tech support "Live Agents" are just AI sales bots that offer 2 solutions, upgrade your service or an invasive costly tech visit. Is anyone else tired of this scam and about to switch to modern G5 and escape this old coax wire web of deception?
"Live Agents" are AI sales bots that sell services and dont provide solutionsInconsistent internet connection
My internet has been going in and out for the past week. So they sent a tech out (didn’t mention a fee) and he advised to get a letter from the apartment office to rewire my apartment. Should have told me before he came out. The tech did not fix the issue. My service keeps dropping. Every night there is an outage in my area. Cox doesn’t want to take to blame so they don’t have to pay or reimburse my service that have been spotty at best. Terrible customer service. The signal is bad cause cox needs to rewire all the apartments. Old wiring outdated connections. Fix issue. Terrible customer service to keep dealing with same issue. Fix the problem!!!
High-pitched sound from Cox Gateway
About a month ago, I switched to Cox as my internet service provider. The Cox technician installed a Technicolor CGM4140COM Panoramic Gateway here in the office next to my computer. From the start, the Gateway made a high-pitched humming or whirring sound when running. The sound was very distracting, and after a time when I was working here next to it, my right ear would feel discomfort or pressure. I called Cox to report the problem and was told I could go to the Solution Store and exchange the Gateway. I took it in and was given another CGM4140COM model. I hooked that one up, and it makes the same high-pitched sound as the original one. I now think the original one was not defective, but that all CGM4140COM Gateways make this sound. Have any of you experienced the same problem? If you have, do you have any tips or suggestions for how to remedy the problem? Thanks for your assistance.
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.
