Cox: a pox in a box?
Written: Jul 21 '07
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Pros: only cable internet provider for the state
Cons: only cable internet provider for the state, very rude customer service reps
The Bottom Line: customer service reps are the RUDEST ive ever had to deal with, i would rather stick needles in my eyes than talk to any one of them
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| chinafrog's Full Review: Cox |
So after getting sick of dial up internet, I decided to go with high speed internet. My only choices for my area(which is the tiny state of RI) are DSL with verizon or cable with COX. As you can see, these are both very limiting choices. I had my land phone with verizon but was getting slammed every month with monstrous bills and saw a new special promoted by Cox which gave me the phone for $15/month for a year and cable internet for $10/month. This was just a great deal and I thought it would be crazy for me to turn it down. So I signed up for it right away. I have only had this service with Cox for about 2 months and I will give you my story here....
Installation
This was done about 5 days after I ordered the service. There seemed to be a problem in regards to my address.This took a while for the technicians to settle, let us say about 30 minutes but eventually they continued with the installation and everything went smoothly. I own a 3 family house. I live in one apartment and rent out the other 2 floors. For some reason, the address number does not correctly match with the apartment number listed in the cox directory. I will explain why this is such a big deal later....
Service, Phone:
I changed my number in order to reduce the number of telemarketing calls I was getting with my old number. This was painlessly done by the cox technicians who were very polite , nice and knowledgeable. So far, I haven't had too many calls from the telemarketers although 1-2 do get by on occasion. I have never had a problem with the phone service, no disconnected calls, no problems accessing 411. No complaints here. As far as I am concerned, their phone service is GREAT.
Service, Internet:
I got the slowest speed of cable internet that cox currently offers. However it is warp 10 compared to my previous dial up connection. I have never had a problem getting online and connecting to various websites. In fact, I have nothing but praise for the cox cable internet service provided to me.
The price I locked in for a year of $10 per month is going to increase to $25 per month after the year is up. That is only two dollars more than what I would have paid for dial up service, with much lousier service. Again, as far as the installation goes, the technicians had to drill a new cable unit into the wall which was quite a bit of work, especially since they had to work through my home's new vinyl siding. But they did a good job of hiding the wire and make it less obvious to the naked eye.
Customer Service: in a word RUDE
In the few months I have been with cox, I have received at least 7 bills,each with varying amounts with different charges. I really should only have 3 bills total but there at least 7.
When I set up my account, I was told by the woman on the phone who handling this that my modem and installation were free due to the promotion I was signing up for. However 2 months later, I was billed for those very items. I repeatedly told this to customer service representative who insisted that the charges would stay as is and told me that I was "lying" and no one ever "told me those would be free". I told her that if I was "lying", why would i be charged for these items 2 months after the service began, after I had received other monthly bills from Cox. Furthermore, I stated the promotion under which I signed that stated that those 2 items were free. She didn't have a response but nonetheless refused to take of these charges. This is about $40 worth of expenses that should have been "free" under the special "deal" i signed up for.
Now, in order to work something out the rep wanted to give me "credit" on my next bill, which would cover some of this bill's expenses. However, I asked her "why don't you just use the credit towards the current bill?" and she said that she would not do it. I said "what guarantee do I have that you will actually keep your word, since I was promised these items to be free and now I am being charged for them?' . She didn't offer me anything to guarantee this. Frankly, I am very mistrustful of cox and fear that they will engineer some other bogus charges, forget about my future "credit" and leave me footing the bill.
The address which I mentioned previously also is a big issue. Like I said, I live in a 3 family house of which I am the owner, renting out the other 2 apartments. When I signed up for services with cox, I told the CORRECT address with the CORRECT apartment number. This is CORRECT because this is the way it is listed when my taxes to the city. Since I am the property OWNER, i should know that. However, in cox's records, they have them reversed. But they wont admit it. So what they did was switch my address and apartment number, for their convenience.
I am getting bills from the 'old' address and 'new' address as well. I have spoken to at least 4 different customer representatives about this however I still get double bills for the same service. Not only that when I try to change the address to the correct apartment number and address, one representative insisted, quite adamantly, that I was "wrong" and gave "incorrect information" when I signed up with Cox. I was so flabbergasted by that statement because that made absolutely no sense and was totally ridiculous. When I pointed out the information from the city records regarding the address, they turned a deaf ear.
I have not received a SINGLE correct bill with the prices I was told when I signed up for the services. Every single has had an incorrect amount in some way,shape or form. It is very aggravating because I have to be so hypervigilant in making sure I don't get ripped off by these crazy people. Because that is what I feel Cox is trying to do to me: rip me off.
Briefly, I am satisfied with the installation, phone and internet services. I am VERY UNSATISFIED with the customer service representatives who are quite rude and unsavory characters to deal with. For that reason and for all the complicacies regarding the bill, I would LOVE to switch to a new internet provider. However, there ISN'T any. I am stuck for another year....
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 37.00
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Epinions.com ID:
chinafrog
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Reviews written: 164
Trusted by: 12 members
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