Cox: Hung Like a Toddler But Delivers the Goods
Written: Jul 07 '09
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Pros: Customer Service, Quality, Price, Billing
Cons: One bad customer service experience, but that's to be expected.
The Bottom Line: Cox Cable gave us phone, internet, and cable for $79 a month. What's not to like?
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| toiletoctopus's Full Review: Cox |
After years of dealing with Comcast, I was hesitant to go back to getting cable television. When I had a bachelor pad several years ago, and after canceling their service and returning their boxes, they sent me a letter stating that I had not given them back their property. It took me over a year to prove my innocence, due to their clerical error, and a battle ensued once they decided to attempt getting a collection agency to work on their behalf. It got real nasty, and after going to their office as bright red as my t-shirt, they realized their mistake and didn't offer any kind of apology. I still hate their guts to this today, and I hope that they will be knocked out of business, by all of the competition that is finally allowed to operate paid television programming services.
When I moved into my new house a couple of years ago, I decided to purchase Cox internet and phone service, because it was substantially cheaper than what Verizon and other companies were able to offer. They also had everything in my house that day, which earned them instant respect, and the technician was knowledgeable and friendly. There were some issues with our phone lines, and he fixed them, and was kind enough to make sure that we understood how the internet worked, and that the phone services with the account were easy enough to figure out. I actually wrote him a commendation letter, which is a rare occurence, and what surprised me was recently I did again for another employee of Cox Cable.
Since my satisfaction was high with the phone and internet service, I decided to inquire about any deals they could offer me. The wait for a representative was two minutes, which is acceptable, although I could have dealt without the elevator music. The employee was professional, but said that they would have to transfer me to their "Customer Retention" Department, to see if I could get a deal on cable with my other services. On this occurence, I wasn't too thrilled, as the person on the other line didn't seem interested in keeping me as a customer, and wouldn't come close to matching what Verizon was offering with their bundled service.
Finally, I remembered what a friend told me. He said call them late at night, because they would probably have someone who wasn't so uptight about offering deals, and his advice paid off. I was instantly on the phone line with one of the Retention Employees, who did a fantastic job in beating Verizon. Since I'm too cheap to get digital cable, or all of the premium channels, he gave me a deal for $79.99 a month, that included basic expanded cable, internet, and telephone service. That was cheaper with the addons from Ol' Mother Bell, and they would install that day! He was professional, and very helpful, so once again I fired off another letter of commendation for his efforts in keeping a customer. He was kind enough to add on two extra televisions at no extra charge, and the technician showed up at 1:30 for a 1 p.m. appointment. (I can deal with a half hour with no issues, but Comcast would show up four hours later!)
The basic expanded cable service gives us 102 channels, and I couldn't be more pleased. We don't have premium ones like HBO or Cinemax, but we do have basic news channels like CNN and Fox News, along with my beloved History Channel and TLC and Discovery. Now I can watch a whole bunch of baseball games on ESPN, and see the minor league Washington Nats on MASN. You can also catch the O's on that channel, along with other sports programming, which is a major advantage over just having the regular old networks to pick from. My wife has been delighted with AMC, but not so much about my constant watching of "Jacka*s" on MTV.
Due to not having digital cable, which would cost considerably more, we don't get a lot of HD broadcasts. I can live with that on our budget, and the picture quality is decent enough. There's no fuzz or static, and the clear images are perfect for catching a movie or watching a miniseries. You can fly through channels with no blurryness, and the sound quality is above average. It has really enhanced our television experience, and I was thrilled by the technicians work on keeping the wires from being an eyesore around our house.
With the exception of that one rather negative experience, I've been very pleased with their customer service. There aren't a lot of long waits for your call to be answered, and pulling up your information is a quick procedure each time. You choose a pin number, and then just verify your address and phone number. For the record, I did not choose 1234. There have been no outages yet either, which is a great thing, because at the rental cabin we were at summer that always occured during a thunderstorm with the dish television we were watching. It has been my experience with Cox Cable at work, that even if there is a slight issue, they usually get the channels back up in a matter of minutes.
Sure, I don't have the fancy add-ons, but I'm very pleased with the quality of the broadcasts and dealing with their representatives. The bills sent are easy to read and understand, and I have them all on the same one. This allows me to organize bills easier, and instead of mailing in a payment, I do everything online with them. For the price its a fantastic value, as I get all of these channels for $20 with my other services. Usually its even more just to get basic cable, which gives you the networks and a few stupid community networks. We look forward to doing business with Cox, and while the name is funny enough, their service is fantastic.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 79.99 mo
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