I went to the COX website to look for a price quote on high-speed internet service. (I am moving into a new home and just returned from military assignment overseas) I initially became interested in them because they offered up to 2GBPS speeds, which is DOUBLE that of any major internet service supplier in my area.

In order to obtain a price quote from the website, you are required to supply your personal phone number, email, and residential address and ONLY THEN will they contact you about a price quote. If you don't wish to provide that information, they ask you to call their phone number.

While on the phone with the representative, they won't provide a price quote until they've asked you a whole bunch of questions about your usage data... and they try to get quite personal about that specific usage (such as WHICH streaming apps or games - as opposed to TYPES like MMORPG).

Anywho, after a bit of prodding she finally tells be the 2G isn't available in my area and that 1G is sufficient for my needs, then proceeds to upsell for a home security system and cable TV. I calmly explain that we don't watch Cable TV and then she tries to go on about a whole bunch of reasons why I would want to have cable. I explain again that I don't want this service and she became further pushy about it until I finally said "its never gonna happen, we don't watch TV in my house as I have already mentioned - the kids just Youtube and we are happy with our streaming services - just give me the price quote for the internet by itself".

For 1GBPS the price is $99/month. The entire bundle (3 items) is $169. At this point I say thank you, but my cellular service company is offering a better rate (bundled services and discounts so its only $60/mo for 1G), I appreciate your time, have a great day. She then inquires about my service provider so I finally tell her who... then she tries to talk a whole lot of great things about COX and says I will have the absolutely highest speeds without interruption. So I asked her how she could make this claim and if she was trying to tell me my cellular service provider is incapable of providing this for me - she says "well, they're a cellular service provider so the service will be spotty--- I say, well, that's the thing - I have a cellular plan, but the price quote is for adding a home internet plan added so it won't be on cellular data.

Again, I calmly tell her thank you, have a great day and then she becomes incredibly argumentative and asking why I called her in the first place. I explained, you may not be aware - but on your website I am unable to obtain a price quote without providing a whole bunch of personal information (which also allows them to sell your information when you click the terms of agreement to accept a price quote for them to contact you). This is why I am calling from a public phone. Thank you for your time, I appreciate you answering all my questions. Have a great day. Goodbye.

Clearly this company provides a commission to their employees for upselling customers. This is a rather unfortunate practice because it hurts the customer, the employee, and the company itself. There must also be some kind of penalty or employee income model where they are paid or held to a quota on a certain sales volume per number of calls cause this lady tried to keep me on the phone for a damn long time after it should have been crystal clear I wasn't going to sign up for any services with her. IT could be she's a fairly new employee and didn't know how predatory her company is... after all I DID have to explain to her how her company's website worked and why I called.

This company sucks……………………………………………………………………………………………………. WIFI NEVER WORKS…………………………………………………………….

To Whom It May Concern:

Recently, I attempted to pay my Cox cable bill by phone. The payment was approved and I was given a confirmation number. However, a few days later I was informed by email that the payment was unsuccessful. I knew that my account at MemberOne had sufficient funds but I called MemberOne and they told me that there was no withdrawal by Cox and I had sufficient funds in my account to cover the bill. This was peculiar because I was given a confirmation code by Cox

I then called Cox and they told me that I gave them the wrong account number. I assured them I did not and if I did the payment would not have been approved. This fact is verified because I was given a confirmation code. I called Cox again and after speaking with three customer service representatives that all insisted I was in error and that their system could not make adjustments or corrections. Next, I called MemberOne again and told them of the situation and MemberOne informed me that they would submit this issue to their Investigation Department. The next day I called MemberOne and their Rep told me that Cox admitted that the error was on their part.

Nonetheless, I was fined $50.00 and my checking account was restricted for 90 days. I called back Cox and after extended discussion I had the fine reduced to $30.00. I called a few days later and the entire $50.00 fine was revoked, I.e., I did not have to pay the fine. The adjustment would show up on my next statement.

However, I was still not satisfied as Cox confirmed to MemberOne that I was not in error. I called again and was told that when I was attempting to pay my bill I was not speaking to a human being but to some software program. I then realized that at the time of my initial phone call I had to cough, and repeated my bank account number and that is what might have caused the issue. I informed Cox of these facts but Cox still refused to offer a full remedy to this problem.

Later, I went to the Cox retail store at Valley View in Roanoke, VA and attempted to pay my bill with a check. However, I was informed that the restriction on my checking account was still in effect. After a brief discussion I went to my bank, cashed a check for cash, went back to Cox and tried to pay my bill.

Still, more problems ensued.

A machine in the Cox office accepts cash. But the machine would not accept an"OLD" 20-dollar bill. Then I asked the customer service representative, "Do I have to go to the bank again?" He spoke with his supervisor and fortunately they were able to come up with a more acceptable 20-dollar bill. I can only imagine how many customers are going to be inconvenienced by this machine.

Moreover, this account is for my mother, Helen J. Leonard, which I've paying her cable, phone, and internet without incident for several years. She is 93-years-old, can no longer drive, and has had both knees replaced. I am 68-years-old and have had open-heart surgery twice. Furthermore, we have been with Cox for over a decade and have not had problems until this recent episode. I have never missed a payment nor been late with a payment. If I was not here to take care of this for my mother, what would she be able to do? She, like me, would be punished and harassed with unwarranted anxiety and distress due to no fault of our own.

The simple reality is if a customer coughs or is interrupted for any reason they run the risk of being fined $50.00 and their checking account restricted for 90 days. As of this writing, our account is still under restriction. In addition, Cox insisted that the technology could not make adjustments to rectify their blatant and harmful errors. Excessive effort will follow wasting time, gas, and days of phone calls.

None of this was necessary. This incident cost two of your loyal customers undue angst, anxiety, distrust and dissatisfaction. It is time Cox reexamine their procedures and technology, pay greater attention to their poor quality control, crass customer service, and dubious policies.

Oh how I love the choice of ISPs in Wichita, Kansas. It's basically like choosing between a dog turd (AT&T) and a polished dog turd (Cox Communications). Let's start with the bandwidth. As is so typical of bad ISPs, they only advertise the download speed prominently, because their upload bandwidth is atrocious and a mere fraction of the download bandwidth. (940 mbps download /35! Mbps upload). This upload speed makes even the highest available "Gigablast" plan ($99.99\month 1 year promo) near useless for content creators, photographers, videographers, power users, VPN users, website designers, and anyone who needs to upload a file larger than a few hundred megabytes. Oh and did I mention that after 1 year they will jack up your rate to at least $119.99\month? It gets better. Even in the highest speed tier you are only allowed 1.25TB (terabytes) of total data transfers a month and above this they charge you $10 per 50 GB of additional data usage. Furthermore, the advertised speed of 940mbps (megabits per second)\ 35mbps is measured in megabits, not megabytes (a deceptive marketing tactic used by almost all ISPs). There are 8 bits in a byte, so in units that people are actually familiar with (megaBYTES), you are actually only getting 117.5 megabyte/sec download and 4.375 megabyte/sec upload. In other words, if I am downloading at the maximum possible speed, I would exceed the data cap in only slightly more than 177 minutes. This is absolute garbage. By comparison, with Google Fiber in Kansas City, I get 2 gbps download\ 1gbps upload, plus a WIFI-6 (the latest standard) router with a 10gbps LAN port. Google Fiber charges a flat $100\month for 2gig service and $70\month for a symmetrical 1gbps\1gbps connection. There are no promo periods, no gimmicks, no data caps and no frustration; and it is near 100% reliable. Furthermore, the latency (ping) of Cox averages 45-65ms. Google Fiber: 7ms. If it weren't for Google Fiber forcing Cox to compete, I doubt they ever would have voluntarily increased the speeds of their plan offerings in this decade at all. Google Fiber even allows me to host a non-business personal website from my home server, no business plan required. If at all possible I highly recommend waiting until SpaceX STARLINK internet coverage begins in Wichita later this year (2021). Even with the higher initial setup cost, you will thank me in the long run.

First, I am a current subscriber to Cox Cable television services. While I am not ecstatic about the service, its signal glitches and its cost, I am more or less satisfied with the basic quality of the service itself.

My issue? I have been considering trying the cable internet for a number of months and have perused the site referenced here a number of times because of the offer of $24.99 (for 12 months) for the service usually offered at 49.99 per month. I have looked at the "terms of offer" pages for hidden charges or conditions a number of times as well and finally decided to give it a try today.

I clicked on the chosen service plan, arrived at the individual plan page with the offer clearly stated to be $24.99 for 12 months, and the $49.99 price struck through. I once again reviewed the terms page, went back to the offer page, clicked the order now button... and arrived at a page with the price... $49.99 at the top and at the botttom, as the offered price.

I contacted cox through on line help, was told they did not handle this type issue, was given *******993 to contact, waded through the automated prompts and was finally told by the employee "we do not handle this. I will give you the e offer department... *******387". The person I got after the prompts was not the right person and handed me off to the 'right person'. Things got more interesting from there.

The e-offer person, when asked why would a web site offering service at $24.99 lead to a 49.99 offer, explained that the page was showing how much the lucky consumer was saving! When asked why such confusion was needed and why would anyone who could clearly read $24.99 above the order now button, see $49.99 on the order completion page, with no reference to the previously offered 24.99 hit the submit button and complete the order in faith rather than visual evidence?

The e person repeatedly told me I did not get what I saw on the page. I told him I was looking at the page as we spoke, there was no reference to $24.99 on the page, and I had loaded the page several times already with the same result. He indignantly said "scroll to the bottom of the page!", to which I replied, "I am looking at the bottom of the page, and it says $49.99 just as it does at the top of the page". After several exchanges during which I told him, "I have trouble believing I am the only person who has viewed this page with this difficulty, though I am probably one of the few who, despite the task of simply contacting Cox about this problem, was until now still willing to purchase the service".

At this point I would like to report how much better things worked out, but... Mr. E-order gave me some unintelligable mumbo jumbo about my viewing settings or something keeping me from seeing what was on the same page he was viewing! I asked him how that solved my problem when I was sitting on the page while talking to him, had gone back and forth several times while doing so, and still was seeing what started the conversation in the first place. His response? GOODBYE SIR! CLICK! My response? This letter and the decision to increase my internet speed somewhere else.

Can you say Bait and Switch? At the very least, not a well executed set of codes in the offer pages, and a worst set of people "backing" it.