Century Link or Cox for cable modem (internet only) ?? (Scottsdale: to rent, neighborhood)

[veritased]

Can I get your thoughts on one vs the other ?

I am happy to spend $25-60 a month depending on the bandwidth... I don't care much for customer service as I can do everything IT related inside the home, but would like a reliable provision of bandwidth and service to the house, which will be in Scottsdale.

Any rec's ?

[madison999]

I hate them but Cox all the way. Not even a question

[veritased]

Any insight as to why, as Cox is significantly more expensive ? And there's probably a reason, too. Would like to get some hints as to why... Thanks.

[fluffythewondercat]

I think this tells you everything you need to know:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/centurylink-phoenix-4

Cox lied to me and told me they had to send out a $75 installer for our service "because you're on fiber." We're not.

Still, when the choice is between bad and worse, you go with bad.

[Ponderosa]

I'm happy with Century Link. I switched from Cox several years ago and never looked back. I get better performance numbers than I pay for if that makes sense and problems/outages are rare to non-existent. Fixed price for "life" is much less than Cox after the one year promo runs out. Available speed and reliability of CL depends on where you live. They have 100 Mbps in my neighborhood, but I have the 40 (I test at 50 actually).

[veritased]

Thanks everyone. OK, I'll just flip a coin I guess !

It looks like all the jokes about 'the cable company' still apply.

Over here in Cali, one good thing is Comcast cable service is pretty decent both in customer service and throughput reliability.

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by veritased

Thanks everyone. OK, I'll just flip a coin I guess !

It looks like all the jokes about 'the cable company' still apply.

Over here in Cali, one good thing is Comcast cable service is pretty decent both in customer service and throughput reliability.

They both have areas that or oversold & poorly maintained- you really have to try both in your neighborhood to know which is better for you. Cox was super fast and reliable in my neighborhood for a long time, then they weren't.. centurylink was way cheaper as long as you called & got the price lowered every year. They both have awful customer service & lying/worthless installers.

[veritased]

LOL, ok, thanks, appreciate all the inside info.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Zippyman

They both have areas that or oversold & poorly maintained- you really have to try both in your neighborhood to know which is better for you. Cox was super fast and reliable in my neighborhood for a long time, then they weren't.. centurylink was way cheaper as long as you called & got the price lowered every year. They both have awful customer service & lying/worthless installers.

Century Link has, for now, dropped the call and cut price game and just offers a fixed price that won't ever change if you don't change service. Changing service though means just about any action on your account like going seasonal when you are not here. It could go up if they are not offering their promotion still.

I've had decent installers with both, cable is a self install usually. CL might want to send out a tech for the 100 Mbps. You can use your own modem with Cox too and save a bit. With CL you pretty much have to rent or buy their interface modem. I run that in bridge mode with a really good router in front of it as the CL combo box had a crappy router section at the time I first signed on. FWIW, most problems I see from friends and neighbors that are blamed on the provider are actually router issues caused by so many devices connected and congestion in the neighborhood on 2.4G wireless. A fast router with 5G everywhere you can get it to work, or ethernet for TVs, can help a lot whether its Cox or CL.

(if you plan to mess with modem and router settings - like bridge mode setup - make sure the CL installer gives you your ID and password)

[DougStark]

I've had both companies for internet and currently have Cox for internet only. My monthly bill is a whopping $70/mo. That's more than my DirecTV bill.

Anyone else paying $70 for Cox internet only?

BTW, for anyone with DirecTV, can the receivers be moved to different rooms? I tried disconnecting one active receiver and moving it into a bedroom with no service. It didn't work. Why?