Recently in Cox Communications - Cable

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Progress Report as to COX COMMUNICATIONS SUCKS, reported here earlier this week:

Rather than suffer through any more of the protracted, time-consuming, non-resolving telephone calls to Cox, I went into a local Cox Store and complained. They gave me a new and replacement cable modem without charge (pending return of my existing, failed modem) and scheduled a service call for today, now completed.

I installed the new, replacement modem myself after returning home from the Store Wednesday afternoon and my cable access speeds were immediately improved to the point of being more responsive than anticipated (so no complaints there).

The service call guy today tested the existing (new) modem in place and found it functioning very well (which it has been and is) and advised me that due to the area I am in at present, that regardless of how much Cox increases the service in this area, the use increases accordingly so the recurring "slow downs" in access speeds is due to too many in this service area using the service simultaneously and for extended periods of recurring time.

Like building more roads, I said to the cable guy, if you build more roads or more lanes on existing roads, all that does is produce more cars on more roads and he said, that was about the size of things in my current service area with the cable internet access, adding that they continue to "divide nodes" but when they do, the demand divides and multiplies accordingly -- citing a few neighbors who were intense and frequent downloaders and responsible all by themselves for a great deal of the slowdowns in this one two-block radius.

However, the fall-off of access speeds I was experiencing earlier in the week and throughout the past month (if not many past months since it appears I've been living with the slow speeds in some foolish attempt to "live with it") were beyond an issue of competition for bandwidth in my service area, but literally no speed at all, since resolved (at least at this time and I hope this continues) by replacing the modem.

However, this does not resolve the billing issues I've experienced over the years (see previous entries). At least now I am receiving the service I anticipate, for which I am paying. And that gives Cox -- for now -- a Happiness Test result of "B."

I am still considering purchasing a SDSL from Covad, which would not provide me with the same access speeds I receive from Cox (when I receive them) but would provide consistency of speeds. Covad also offers several rotating "free equipment (DSL modem and router) and free installation" which makes their SDSL service more appealing.

Thus, that decision is pending; and while I can again use the internet via my Cox cable access -- when it functions well, it's superior -- the ongoing issues otherwise (previous posts here) add-up to ongoing unresolved, significant issues.

Here's the "fastest" speed test result I've had this month. Note that the download speed still hovers somewhere around non-existent, while the upload speed remains far below industrystandards for cable modem internet access. In fact, I am not able to even use the internet for much of anything except as a timer to roast a turkey. Writing these entries (today, yesterday, weeks earlier) takes on the massive challenges, since to even get a function to respond after waitng a long time for a page to display is an exercise in being ripped off by a cable conglommerate.

View FULLSCREEN popup image file of above (same screen capture with my notes applied), and, view FULLSCREEN popup image file of screen capture without my added notes).

How a local franchise authority can allow an organization such as this a service monopoly with which to then not provide the services they are advertising and then charging for, is beyond me, but this is crime.

Especially when Cox remains silent as to complaints from customers such as myself, or when it does respond ("Customer Service" representatives), there is no one available to address or even understand their performance failures such as this, or, worse, they'll attempt to deny that the problem even exists, or that the customer's "equipment" or infrastructure is shaky -- consequently, they then charge more for service visits that are often unnecessary and they charge more for "insurance" that customers usually do not need when living in most contemporary buildings in the U.S..

Obviously, Cox is selling "business" class cable services at the expense of disservicing residential accounts (I can only speak to the areas in which I am at present but I've read many complaints from other Cox residential customers nationwide who conclude as I do after experiencing these same dreadful performance issues in their cable internet access from Cox) .

On a community level, additionally, what bothers me is that they can behave as this and aren't being required to both knock it off and refund alll that money to trusting residential customers who have paid for cable access and are instead provided with service that is less functional than dial-up service.

To consider a compounding nefariousness, thwarting residential internet access is an effective means by which political interests can discourage (if not discredit) competitors. my current local government and Cox Communications are Democratic Party affiliates or otherwise associated.

"Finance is a gun.
Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger."

Disregard the forced gleefulness you may view on broadcasts or read elsewhere from Cox Communications (which includes their internet cable access) as to their glitzy "services."

The reality is that they hold franchises in locales that then enables Cox exclusive use of those areas; that is, their cable services are offered exclusively in those areas that issue them these franchises. If you are a customer in one of those franchise areas, you have no options for cable service (television and cable internet) other than Cox.

Even if there are other cable services nearby, if you as a client reside or operate a business in one of those franchise areas that Cox monopolizes accordingly, your options for cable services (internet access and television) are limited to Cox Communications. DSL broadband and wireless are available for internet access but any cable services are limited to Cox (same applies to any company that has this similar franchise agreement anywhere else).

Combine that exclusion of competition for consumers in franchise areas with the inevitable callousness that results by the monopoly provider and you get what you get at present from Cox Communications in my current service area: the current creeping cable internet access speeds make dial-up look blazin' fast by comparison.

Here's the status of my "cable internet access" function from this morning, as has been same for the past week. At this rate a tin can on a string strung from a nearby corner would be as "fast" as this:

View Larger Image

Cox will and does ridicule customers who confront them as to irregularities in what they advertise versus what they provide (or in any other difference of opinion, consumer versus Cox). They don't respond to letters written to their "customer service," or, if they do, they'll insist the customer makes no sense in light of their superior privilege and then offer no further follow-up to the non-remedied problem.

That means, they persist in their errors and bad -- perhaps corrupt -- or nonexistent service because, apparently, they conclude they can. No higher authority to make them modify otherwise. Customer is exploited accordingly.

When watching cable channels as provided by Cox, one is exposed to countless daily commercials by Cox for Cox: how grand their service is, how lauded they are, what a great place it is to work (yet they appear to continually need employees so that raises a question right there, along with the fact that I have rarely met anyone who actually works there who is happy in their work, aside from those they depict in their self-advertising and promotions).

No "Customer Satisfaction" or "Customer Happy" organization has ever contacted ME, however, to ask for my experiences and opinions after paying Cox around $150.00 a month for their cable services. I don't receive "customer service" -- but I do receive ongoing inaccurate invoices and no responses when I ask for service regarding this ongoing issue (I've been billed inaccurately by Cox for many years now, such as I've noticed, and to Cox it appears to be an issue of control and superiority that they refuse me accurate billing, rather than an issue of ethics otherwise. In ohter words, they're an unreliable organization financially. They allege to be providing services they do not (internet access speeds are not nearly what they claim they are nor are they consiistent nor relaible, nor does Cox allow customers to report outtages such that any credits might be provided for loss of service; "customer service" won't record any outtages even when you try to report them and billing won't credit, so they say, for outtages unless you report them and thus, Cox continues to manipulate charges for services not provided).

I've had cable service before -- both television and cable internet -- and the former good experience was from Roadrunner (but in another area of the country): it was technically competitive -- reliable/worked fine/no failures beyond the occasional, no snailed-paced "broadband" -- online assistance, reasonable prices, about all one would expect and want from a cable provider.

However, I had one very bad experience in the past that Cox is close to replicating, at least as to ongoing stresses for customers merely trying to maintain cable service, and that was a few decades ago (prior to internet access being available for residential use) in Southern California.

As now, I resided then in a franchise area wherein consumers were limited to the one authorized cable company for service. The bad experience then was similar to now, in essence and behavior: I was charged ongoing (as in, over the course of the two years of service) excess charges for false allegations made by the cable company against me as a consumer, and I paid the charges inorder to maintain service.

It went like this: I'd pay the bill, the check would clear the bank, the cable company would disconnect my service and then charge me reconnect fees to do so. My payments were received by them and deposited prior to their disconnect of my service, yet they would persist in disconnecting the service and then charge me "late fees" for the bill AND reconnect fees to reconnect the service afterward. I devoted many hours off work to stand in lines and pay invoices in person, take copies of cancelled payment checks with me, did everything possible to evidence my payments made but the organization did then what Cox does now: regard my efforts to correct the inaccurate charges with disdain, rolled eyes, impatience, stony silence, never a refund or otherwise corrected invoice, more importantly, never a cessation to their overcharging me.

I eventually moved away from THAT franchise area where I'd been stuck with THAT cable company and later read that they'd been fined many millions of dollars by the U.S. Justice Department for their fraud upon consumers -- they'd targeted consumers just like me who they assumed they could take advantage of, who, primarily, they felt could be easily discredited (and thus, any complaints made would not be believed -- in other words, customers who that criminal enterprise concluded were "easy marks").

So at this point, I've had Cox service for over seven years going and the same problems exist here as in this past horror story, with the exception of not being disconnected by Cox but certainly having been overcharged for -- at it's most extreme -- duplicate services and Cox's refusal to correct their inaccuracies in invoices, then Cox adding "late fees" to anything a consumer protests even though it is inaccurate.

It started when I first moved to this present day area and connected and then was charged a huge connection fee even though Cox solicited my business on offers of "free installation." The amount of time and effort it takes consumers to confront their errors eventually becomes too great for most of us on any routine basis and eventually, if you want cable service, you relent and pay whatever you are billed because Cox is not willing to correct their errors.

They maintain their dubious billing because they refuse to modify it and customers are worn down over time by refusals, even threats ("do you want us to disconnect you? Is that what you want?" I've been asked many times by Cox when I've confronted inaccurate charges -- but they never modify the inaccurate charges nor have any explanations as to failing internet speed or whatever else you contact them about).

In the case of Cox, specifically, they overbill, I complained (specifically, even in letters), cited overbilling, Cox ignores the complaints, adds "late fees" to already paid monthly fees -- including the additional duplicate month's charges (one month's service billed twice, then "late fees" added to the "unpaid" duplicate month's invoice), multiplied monthly (pay your bill, receive their preprinted bill prior to your next billing date [already paid but the next bill says it's not paid so they ding you for "late fees" you don't owe and that continues on month after month after month after...]), and worse, payments mailed on or about the fifth or sixth of the month are then cleared by Cox on the "28th" or "20th" of the month which means they're billing me/consumers for the delayed time Cox is taking to shuffle around payments before accrediting them to the accounts -- which, presto, makes one's payment "late" even when it's paid early).

The Cox cable services are very, very expensive. Combine the ever-frequently appearing Cox self-advertising on the consumers' overstuffed dollars (Cox advertising for itself on your expensively paid services -- almost all the cable channels carried by Cox other than subscriber channels carry ever-frequent advertising by Cox for Cox and other self-justifying messages to viewers by Cox), crawling internet connections and the invoice "irregularities," and it all adds up to an inequitable (if not corrupt) experience for the consumer.

But I blame local governments who tolerate these exclusive franchises to cable providers as much as I do the snarly, irresponsible cable companies such as Cox who never seem to resist "tweaking" the charges against the consumer.

The franchise authorities in local governments enable the crookery, the crookery exploits the locales and the customer is used as are citizens by local governmetns as scapegoats -- who pay for the exploitation, over and over and over again. Wouldn't it be nice to just watch a movie when wanted, listen to some news without thirty-eight of the sixty minutes on every hour being used to advertise products (including five-on-the-hour spots to promote the local cable company) and receive credible invoices? Wouldn't it be nice?