Forum Discussion

Cdjnight's avatar
Cdjnight
New Contributor
3 years ago

Why can I detect an outage before Tech support can?

On multiple occasions I can be at work and see my network at home go down. I will text my neighbor and ask if his is down also, every time he confirms his is out also. I then start a chat with tech support and tell them we are both down and every single darn time they will "assure me they can see my modem and will try to restart it" Every single time i tell them to try and Ping my modem and they don't. They seem to gloss over the statement that we are both down and try to send a Tech out to my home, at my cost of course when the issue is up the road and essentially an outage for a complete area. After 20 or 30 minutes of arguing with them that they really can't see my modem, they eventually give up, close the chat and then 20 or 30 minutes after that happens an "outage" is posted for my area. 

Why won't tech support listen to the customer and raise some red flags beyond the typical "lets restart your modem" or "did you lose power recently or try unplugging it"

@Cox please give some us more savvy customers a red button to push to assist with early detection of area outages vs just a single customer.

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    3 years ago

    Correct and I do know this.  If the OP called to report not seeing a home modem from off the Cox network, as a rep, this wouldn't alarm me because I could see the home modem is online and OP is off the Cox network.

    However, since OP verified the outage with a Cox-subscribed neighbor, as a rep, I should poke around or inquire with NetOps.  I'm sure Cox is monitoring their networks and NetOps wouldn't immediately notify the Help Desk because they may be fully aware, assessing and troubleshooting.

    First, as a Help Desk, you don't set a quota for the number of calls about an outage.  This is insane.  People are paying you for a service but you'd deny their service until you received 3 more calls.  The first call is a heads up but OP had duplicated the outage with a neighbor.  Take some initiative, make inquiries outside the Help Desk and don't wait for other paying customers to complain.

    Second, as a rep, if I can see the modem is online, why would I recommend a service call?  Where would the tech go?  The OP is at work.

    You were obviously trained to be reactive and to procrastinate.  I was trained to be proactive and to treat people with a problem with some respect.  We different!

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    Honored Contributor III
    3 years ago

    You should notify Cox via email and not chat or phone.  Send the email to cox.help@cox.com with your full name and complete address.

  • Darkatt's avatar
    Darkatt
    Honored Contributor
    3 years ago

    Because until Tech support has received calls that people are having issues with their service, they won't know. Your call is what alerts them there is an issue, and a number of calls from a specific area is what allows them to call an outage. Until enough people have called in, they HAVE to treat the call as a a single person having an issue, and they will want to schedule a technician. 

    • Bruce's avatar
      Bruce
      Honored Contributor III
      3 years ago

      In other words, Cox doesn't monitor the operational status of their network.  Vendors do make software to do this for them.

      • Darkatt's avatar
        Darkatt
        Honored Contributor
        3 years ago

        In other words, the TECHNICIAN you call on the phone doesn't have the capability of monitoring the operational status of their network, and since they don't have that information in hand, until a number of people call in, THEY don't know there is a problem. The people who monitor the operational status cannot always see a smaller area of affect having problems. Instead of putting words in my mouth and providing snide remarks, why not provide something useful.