Sorry for a long post. I am just devastated that there is only one high speed provider where I live (COX), and the signal is so intermittent I cant do my software development from home. They have sent out 20 technicians, I have changed my modem 6 times, but I still get T4 timeouts on a daily basis and the "office of the general manager" just called me and said they are giving up on me, and that they dont guarantee service in any way (even though they say this in their marketing materials). Some people we talked to on the "tier 2" department said such quality of experience is completely normal for cable Internet, he had those problems himself. But other COX staff says differently, they say it is supposed to work.
I am now contemplating moving to a place where there are other Internet companies than COX, or getting satellite Internet, but that would mean my wife would not have enough bandwidth to enjoy her Youtube hobby.
Here is my story:
I moved to central Las Vegas 2 years ago. Soon after I learned that for some mysterious reason there is only one high speed Internet operator in my area, namely COX. Why is that, that is my first question. Sure, I could also get CenturyLink but they only offer 3 Mbit/s down and 0.75 Mbit/s up. Why is this? I heard about LV.NET, but they dont offer service in my neighborhood.
In any other city of the similar size there are typically 10-20 high speed Internet operators to choose from. How did COX get to become the ONLY cable operator? It is not like they offer a competitive pricing, $39 for 30 Mbit/s down and 3 Mbit/s up is a joke. I paid $21 for 100/100 Mbit/s when I lived in Sweden ten years ago. Never any problem and people never had to call the technical support, so there hardly was any. Internet is something that just works. Even when I lived in India there was no problems.
So I got COX for the (by an international comparison) outrageous $39 price, and that was not the end of it. They wanted me to RENT the modem for an additional $9, but I said I will buy my own and mind their compatibility list. Then they asked if I wanted to pay $10 extra to enable wifi. What kind of question is that? I have worked in technical support so I know very well how to enable wifi. I didnt understand why they had to send out a technician since I got my own modem and everything. I told them I could do the configuration myself but they insisted on sending out a technician.
So then after I got connected (2 years ago) I had problems from day one. Initially I assumed it was on my side so after having checked EVERYTHING else I bought a second modem. When not even replacing the modem did not help, I started contacting technical support.
My infrastructure
I live in an HOA and there are no cables inside my home - I put the modem directly where the COX cable enters the unit.
The nature of the problem
It is important to note that it is not the speed I am complaining about, it is the stability of the connection. However during the times then the intermittent problems appear, speed tests give a slow result.
Sometimes it works reliably, sometimes it doesn’t. It can be three weeks until we notice a problem, and sometimes we notice it five times in a day (obviously we are not online 24/7, so it must be happening much more often).
When the problem is present, one or more of the following may be true: web pages do not load, parts of web pages (such as images) will not load, speed tests show a lower speed or do not respond at all, and package loss tests show up to 60% packet loss.
I have measured the packet loss to 59% using the Ookla packet loss test, until they canceled that free service.
The impact
Most of the times the unreliability is just annoying, but sometimes it affects my ability to do my job, since I work from home.
Establishing the problem
Because the problem is intermittent, when the problem is present I have used the following methodology to prove it (I am a technical troubleshooter by profession):
1. To rule out the possibility that it might be the web site that is having problems, I have tried with other web pages.
2. To rule out the radio link between the device and the wifi antenna, I have made sure to connect the device over hardwire.
3. To rule out the possibility of any unknown issues with the device in question, I have used my other computers to establish that the same problem will occur on them too.
Only when all of these conditions are true have I mentioned the problem to COX. So when they blame our computer, it just shows they have not listened.
How COX attacks the problem
They send out technicians (we have had about 10 different technicians out, staying hour after hour here. This appears to be an odd methodology considering just one visit should be enough to verify whether the cables are in good condition and to rule out any problem with the equipment we use.
Every time I report a problem they say a technician needs to come out but they don’t actually adjust any setting, they just click around in the “control panel” and do not seem to know what they are doing. They are good at talking though. And sometimes they even want to bill us retroactively, even though we have never asked for a tech to come out. Only after complaining have they taken the charge off.
Here is a list of excuses that COX have used to avoid responsibility for their broken product:
1. -We don’t support wifi.
Ok, which is why every time the problems occur, I have connected a computer over cabled Internet, to establish it is not a wifi problem, before I have reported the problem to COX.
2. -Your computer is slow.
Yes, which is why every time the problem occurs, I have connected my other computer, to establish it is not a computer problem, before I have reported the problem to COX. Besides, I am sure an Intel Core i7 should be sufficient to load a simple web page over a 30 Mbit/s connection!
3. -You have many devices connected to Internet.
Sure, so what? Does COX have a limit on how many simultaneous connections? When I ask that, they say no. So how is the number of devices relevant? A printer, for example, uses less than 0.01 Mbit/s when it is not printing (and even then, it uses wifi, not Internet), so theoretically I would be able to have thousands without it making a difference. Besides, they have seen the problem occurring even when there is just one computer connected.
4. -Sure but wifi can get saturated if you have too many devices.
Again, that would not cause problem when I establish that the problem exist by hardwiring the computer to the modem.
5. -You are the only one that has our cheapest Internet product, it is you and the grannies.
That is not a strong argument because even their slowest product should work. I don’t need it to be faster than 30 Mbit/s.
6. -Your modem is bad.
-My modem is on the official COX list of compatible modems. And I have tried 6 (six) modems during these 2 years of troubleshooting. How likely is it that all of these 6 modems have been bad?
-Yes but even if it is on the COX compatibility list, it could still be bad.
7. “You have Windows 7, that may not be supported by Microsoft anymore”.
Yes it is. Besides, if it was the case that Windows 7 is not officially supported by COX, should they not tell the customer that before they sign up?
8. “See, we were able to circumvent the problem by using another modem for 30 minutes, which is provisioned for a faster speed. Therefore you must buy faster speed, it would circumvent the problem!”
Saying that just shows that they have not understood that the problem is intermittent (the problem may work for weeks until it shows itself next time).
9. “I checked your Internet for 1.5 hours and there was no problem then”
Saying that just shows that they have not understood that the problem is intermittent (the problem may work for weeks until it shows itself next time).
10. “Your TV is on all the time, which is consuming 2.6 Mbit/s of your bandwidth, that is why you are having the errors”
Why is that relevant? With the service I am paying for, people are supposed to be able to use unlimited traffic.
11. -“One representative from COX, which is a “tier 2” specialist (specialist on escalated problems), said there is a problem, another representative from COX says it is not. And you only go with the one that is in line with your narrative!”
This line was spoken by technician named Andre. See how they even contradict each other within the company!
12. -You should trust me because I am a specialist.
-What is your training?
-I am not going to dignify that with an answer.
If the tech says he is an expert, is it not relevant to ask him to elaborate?
13. –The next time you get the problem, start your other computer and do a speed test.
- I did that and it shows it is slow during that time.
- Oh ok. But next time, run our own speed test on COX.com, then we can see the result.
- Ok, I did that now, and your speed test says error.
- Yeah, it does not work.
So that did not lead to anything either...
14. –Buy our more expensive speed, a $400 modem, get that to work with an external router, and call us back. And we are going to charge you $70 for every time you will need help from now on.
Why would that be necessary? I worked in technical support myself, and we used to call that a “schmoo”; an easy way to get a customer to recommend a solution they know they would not do, in order for them to never call back again. For example saying the customer needs to delete everything on his computer.
15. - It is normal for the modem to get T4 errors if it is freshly started.
Yeah, but I get T4 errors even when it is not freshly started.
And now finally, the last one (spoken by Jacob of COX tier 2 technical support):
16. - We dont see you getting any T4s in our logs.
- Then how come none of the techs have asked to see them in my modem?
- Oh, we dont touch the customers equipment.
Really? Then how come the tech asked to sit by my personal computer, closing lots of unfinished business emails and web pages I was working on? Besides, I could have showed them the log file so they would not have to touch it!
17. - Your T4s are not incrementing
Oh so now you see them. Well, if they are not incrementing, then do they keep appearing in my modem log file almost on a daily basis.
18. -I have COX Internet too in my apartment building, and that does not always work either. Nothing is perfect.
This last one is really interesting to me. If the troubles we are reporting are normal for COX, and reliability is not guaranteed, then why did they send out these 15 technicians to begin with? Why did they not simply say that COX (unlike all other Internet service providers I have ever had) is supposed to be unreliable, then they would have saved us over 100 hours of having techs here doing nothing.
So as you see they keep changing their narrative. Sometimes they deny there is a problem at all, sometimes they say it is caused by our equipment, sometimes they say there was a problem but that they have resolved it, sometimes they say it is supposed to be this unreliable. What is this, if not bullshit? Any DOCSIS expert that can advise? Are DOCSIS networks normally this intermittent or is COX Las Vegas simply incompetent? Amazing how nobody goes postal over this.
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