Consumer

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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.
Khasanti 5 years ago Place Internet
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Bait and Switch
I have a rental property in Mesa, Arizona. My renters wanted a cable package included, so I gave in and contacted Cox. Initially I asked for a package rate advertised as 89.99, basic cable/internet (For lack of a better word as they will say, there is no "Basic" cable Mr. Campbell). Whatever, so on the day of installation I called to check on everything. I found out my "Basic" cable was only local channels, nothing "Cable" about it. (They got me on a play of words). I asked then to update to "Cable," from what I had initially asked for. The lady was insistent I had to deal with her, not the installer, whom by the way was explained by my father overseeing the installation as "All over the place, like he was on drugs, and in an extreme hurry." I had purchased an independent modem as I was not wanting to pay for the "Modem" they wanted to charge me for. I added the "Phone" package, it was cheaper with the phone, as opposed to without the phone, didn't need it, but whatever. I asked what my total bill would be when the lady informed me $127.30, inclusive of taxes for the first year, and the second year would be $147.30. This was a two year agreement, cancellation would be pro-rated each month. Sorry, the internet was 100 mb speeds, and 140 channels for cable, with two tv's connected. I have chatted with cox at least 4 times over this mess, and still nothing! They credited a one time credit, but why if they were "Right?" I was not "Told" about some panoramic box I needed to "Work the phone!" That is a bunch of BS, getting me in, right! I would have cancelled right away if I was in Arizona, trust me, but my renters needed internet for their business purposes, and I was tired of dealing with finding a provider. I can say, I will be cancelling services when I move there in June! I own my own handyman business, and I will be sharing this story on my feeds, and in person! I cannot get my chat logs to paste, its good for them I cannot! DO NOT SUBSCRIBE WITH COX COMMUNICATIONS! They tell you one thing, and then do another. AND, if the conversations are recorded, why can they not find the conversation I am referencing? BS!
bradcampbell65 6 years ago Place Internet
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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.
meeeee 6 years ago Place Internet
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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?
chuck_m1 7 years ago Place Internet
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