Latest Cox bait-and-switch?

[Voebe]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

Why do you think the federal government would be involved? They don't have all that much involvement with cable companies. The FCC refers you to your Local Franchising Authority for rate, customer service, etc. issues.

I keep wishing I had time to research/study the system so I'd have a better idea of how it works. But from what little I know, cable is regulated mainly at the local level, but the city has very little power to either enforce or punish. The state isn't involved at all, as far as I know. So, if you get no place with your city, my guess is that as a last resort, maybe at some point customers could get federal people to pay attention.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by Voebe

I keep wishing I had time to research/study the system so I'd have a better idea of how it works. But from what little I know, cable is regulated mainly at the local level, but the city has very little power to either enforce or punish. The state isn't involved at all, as far as I know. So, if you get no place with your city, my guess is that as a last resort, maybe at some point customers could get federal people to pay attention.

The Federal Communications Commission regulates cable only at the macro level in terms of major policy issues such as carrying local broadcast stations and net neutrality. The FCC has never been involved in customer service issues at the micro level, and under its current leadership, it has become more laissez faire even at the macro level. I find the cable industry to be under-regulated at all levels of government; others in this thread think the status quo is fine as an affirmation of capitalism. In any case, I had another conversation with my contact in Cox's escalation team. They are still researching the issue. At this point, that's fine. I just got my latest Cox bill, and it's unchanged from last month. The unwanted channels were never added after I protested. What remains unresolved is if and when my old box will be replaced with a Contour box at no charge. That doesn't matter as much to me as it does to Cox. It's the cable company that wants to decommission those old boxes and replace them with newer equipment.

[fluffythewondercat]

I just started dealing with Cox -- to order Internet service only -- and I hate them already.


I'm guessing my reaction is typical...

[veritased]

Cox and the rest of the wireline providers are doomed... just a matter of time.

When 5G cell comes to your area, those guys are toast and fast.

You'll get 100Mbps speeds for same price from ATT, VZW, TMo, whatever.
Maybe it takes 3-5 years, but cable and DSL are history soon.

[Ztonyg]

Originally Posted by veritased

Cox and the rest of the wireline providers are doomed... just a matter of time.

When 5G cell comes to your area, those guys are toast and fast.

You'll get 100Mbps speeds for same price from ATT, VZW, TMo, whatever.
Maybe it takes 3-5 years, but cable and DSL are history soon.

The advantage of the wire line providers (at least Cox) is that there's a 1TB monthly data cap.

I believe that ATT, VZW, and TMo will charge ridiculous data overage charges (with caps much lower than 1TB) at least when 5G is in its infancy.

[Ripper3785]

Originally Posted by Ztonyg

I believe that ATT, VZW, and TMo will charge ridiculous data overage charges (with caps much lower than 1TB) at least when 5G is in its infancy.

Or they'll throttle speeds.

[veritased]

I would not bet against throttling or overage penalty in 5G, surely in the early days.

[elcajones]

My bill was $280 for cable and internet. I finally cut the cord last week. I still have internet through them but, I'm doing the hulu live tv now. It's actually really cool for the price. It has everything I watch, great On-demand and a 200 hour DVR. So now with my internet being $102 a month and Hulu being $40, my total bill is nearly cut in half to $142 a month.

[exit2lef]

My final update to this thread: After I escalated this to the City of Phoenix and received a response from the "Executive Escalations Team" at Cox, this whole matter has been resolved. It turns out that Cox is indeed trying to migrate all customers to Contour boxes and that I was entitled to a free equipment upgrade. I therefore retract my earlier statement about not reading the fine print. It turns out that fine print was incorrect. An Advanced TV package is not required for a Contour 1 box, just a newer Contour 2 box. Although I received my new box about two weeks ago, I wanted to wait until my latest bill arrived before posting that all had been resolved.

Although no one seems to know why, my original online order for a free equipment swap was not processed correctly. The person I spoke to on the Executive Escalations Team was finally able, after several phone calls over a few weeks, to place a correct order for my equipment to be replaced without any changes to my channel line-up or my monthly bill. So, the good news is that I've finally got the new box I was promised, and it didn't cost me any money. The bad news is that it cost a lot in terms of time and frustration. Let me conclude by answering a question posed by a Cox apologist earlier in this thread: "How hard it that?" Answer: It was much harder for both me and Cox than it should have been. At least it's over now.

[ElleTea]

Sounds like this thread has now concluded.