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My internet connection has been unreliable since … well, the first time I called them about it was in March. It’s part of the reason I’ve played a whole lot less online poker. Nothing like checkraising the pot with bottom set, and then getting disconnected. (This happened a few weeks ago, but lucky for me the other two players in the pot folded while I was gone.)
The problem is not entirely their fault. For most of the time since the first time they looked at it, I’ve been too busy or lazy to press them on it to get it fixed. It disconnects several times a night, but comes back with a simple cable modem power cycle, or just waiting a few minutes. Unlike playing the best solitaire app ever on my phone, it stays out long enough to time me out of a poker hand, or end a Gears of War online co-op game. It sucks.
I decided that after Thanksgiving, I would deal with this and really get it fixed. I’m calling them every time it goes out. Now I’m going to post about it every time it goes out. I even gave it a nice new blog category. I was supposed to have a tech come out last week. The only times they had were in the middle of the day during the week, so they said they’d call me before the appointment so I could drive home from work. Then someone called to reschedule, and misunderstood me, apparently, and just canceled the appointment.
I called Wednesday about that, and was told someone would call me Thursday to set up a new appointment. No call ever came. I called Friday, and got an appointment set up for Sunday between 2-4 PM. Again, they would call first, as they always do. (I once missed an appointment because I was in the bathroom when they called and it took me 30 minutes to get in touch with someone again through their damn phone menu system, and by then it was too late.) I was home well before 2. I was playing Guitar Hero 2 , but would hear my phone if it rang. Also would have heard my doorbell. Around 3:30 I decided to go wait outside instead. On my door, I found a “sorry we missed you” door tag from Cox. No doorbell, no phone call. I doubt he knocked, I probably would have heard that too. The time written on it was 2:30. I was home the whole time.
So I called back, and the guy on the phone couldn’t get in touch with dispatch to get the guy back out to me. Rescheduled again. Except he couldn’t schedule the appointment, so he said he’d have to call me back today. And he did, of course, when I was in the shower. That’s not his fault, and he went ahead and scheduled me for Wednesday between 8-10am. Hopefully, I’ll actually be able to have someone look at my wiring to tell me everything’s fine then.
The sad part about all of this is that the technician who comes out won’t be able to do anything. There’s nothing wrong with my house wiring, cable modem, or the tower I’m directly connected to. The problem lies somewhere between my house and where the signal comes from. When I had a tech out in March, he said other people on my block were having the same issue. The guy I spoke to on the phone last night said he referred it to Maintenance, who apparently never did anything about it. So, the tech who comes out Wednesday not only won’t be able to do anything, but likely won’t see any problem. Only if it happens to go out while he’s here…
I won’t call them with outages again until after Wednesday. I will be posting here every time I see it go out. On the plus side, it means I’ll be posting several times a day, now. 🙂
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Good luck. Hope you hold those bastards accountable.
I was facing the same problem here in california and I flashed my bios and everything was fine. I run into alot of that kind of problem in my line of work and 70-80% of the time flashing the bios fixes it.
I’m fairly sure it’s not the modem. It’s been replaced with a different model, and it’s not only happening to me. As of now, though, it actually hasn’t gone out in over a week. I’m sure saying this publicly online will fix that quick.
Beware of Cox’ bait and switch tactics. Here how it goes..
They have 4 Internet plans: Economy($17), Value($27), Preferred ($42),
and Premier ($57). When you call them, the sales people will offer you
the most expensive plan right away and it’s up to the customer to find
out about the cheaper plans. If you happen to get any of the cheaper
plans, they will put a very low bandwidth cap on you (1GB per month
for Value) and if you exceed that cap, they will disconnect you
without notice. When you call them to inquire about the disconnection,
they will tell you to upgrade to a more expensive plan. Most people
will just believe Cox bandwidth claims because they don’t understand
it and they will upgrade.
Cox really have just one plan, the expensive plan. If you’re not on it
yet, Cox will make you. Cox is all about getting every penny from
their customers.
Do Cox call low-bandwidth Internet users that are paying premium to
tell them they should subscribe to a cheaper plan? Of course not.
That’s money to their pocket. Stay away from Cox.
Cox sucks!
Cox is the worst service! Can’t wait to get them be replaced by U-Verse & Fios. This last month I switched back to DSL for internet DirecTV for HD & Life is Golden! Not only am I saving money but my bandwidth is consistent (doesn’t throttle/dwindle at peak hours) and I have the more HD channels than COX will ever be able to offer!
uuuuuuuuuuugh! im so mad at cox right now…… so i decided to goodle cox sucks and this came up!
i am going to just start complaining everyday…..or just switch back to dial up hhahah….anything is better than COX! they suckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.
I am having the SAME day as you!!!!
I travel a lot. How come their email system is so difficult to work with remotely? Refuses to interface with outlook/outlook express — and using their WebMail system is a NIGHTMARE. Slow, continuously shuts you down for inactivity, impossible name directory system w. no “search” feature. And this trip, it was constantly freezing up. Hotmail.com is better — and, I suspect, just about as secure, at least where Uncle is concerned; I have no doubt my “friend in the digital age” is telling my secrets. Alas, what’s the choice? Satellite? Verizon (God help us all!)?? I have Frontier too, maybe I’ll test them out for comparison.
I had to drop me speed because of the economy and financial times. I moved down to the Value because I needed to save money. The lady didn’t seem to grasp that concept too well. Then I told them that eventually I needed to find a more reliable gaming internet service as in NE Kansas the best upload speed they produce is 3MB. Everyone is always talking about download speed, but in a back and forth you send info I send info, upload is really important especially in PS3 & XBOX360 games. All in all, find either Fiber Optic or a dedicated line internet as I haven’t been happy with COX internet!!!!
My internet and phone don’t work during the day hours. So do you think they will give me credit, like 50% off. I told them to call my kid at home, and they said no, they are not available to dial out….
Then I asked for the supervisor, and then she asked me for my phone number, I said it is the one on the account….
So, I guess I have to call EVERY DAY!!!
They suck!
Had this ongoing problem for 2 years now and in the meantime i have replaced The cable Modem twice, Re ran all the cables in my house to cat6 quadshield,Got a new gaming router and opened all ports i need for gaming, also port forwarded to xbox specs, And yet i still have problems with online gaming. The last tech that was here was showing me crazy spikes on my ingress reading and he says he has never seen these before so iam happy we may find a solution. The tech before him said we had a bad post in our pedestal we share the drop with 3 other neighbors so the Maintenance crew was scheduled to repair the pedestal i told them to call never did i called back and they said they handled it not true never happened. Well got a call from the technician who was last here saying he took the test wrong HA HA HA doubt it they are not getting away until they resolve this and in my case no other provided is in my area. I HATE COX THEY SUCK IN ALL ASPECTS SERVICE,CUSTOMER SERVICE EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!
I have had so many problems with Cox. My TV gets pixilated every few moments, sound blacks out, many stations say “check back later.” My Internet is awful, drops the connections, slow. I’ve called and they told me to get a new modem and router which I did, bought the best I could find and no change to the quality and consistency. I hate Cox!