Re: cutting off my Cox; the DVR that died

On Tue, 22 Jul 2025 21:09:44 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net>
wrote:

Almost exactly 2 years ago Cox did some maintenance outside and when they
put things back together, they put the wrong limiter clip in my external
cable box. I had for years had the 500 Mbps service and they knocked me
back to my previous service of 300 Mbps.
 
I spoke to many tech-support people in the days since. The first one
insisted I had to restart my computer. I told her I didn’t have a computer.
I was on an iPhone. She told me I had to restart the iPhone. I told her
that the text chat we were on would be gone. She insisted my phone would
come back on and the chat would light right up. I knew she was crazy, but I
also realized there was no further point in talking to her. I did make her
give me case numbers and references so I could start over with the new guy,
which she did.

I had one try to get me to do that once. I refused since I knew it
would disconnect us and got her to pass me off to someone with some
common sense.

So after I restarted the phone and she was gone, I got a new guy and gave
him the numbers and he refused to do anything with it and we started over.
He said I had to buy all new equipment and that you have to replace your
equipment every two years And that you have to buy it from the Cox store.
May I point out that he was lying? Anyway, he refused to send anybody out
without charging me $75 even though I pay $10 a month to get free service
calls.

Sounds like he was either an idiot or was trying to get you to spend
money you don't need. Unless you were using your own personal modem
there's nothing to buy as whether the company provides free equipment
or has you pay a monthly free, the equipment as in the cable modem is
owned by the cable company. So there's nothing for you to buy. Also
where did he come up with this two year term? Is this all some way to
paid his bonus (assuming the purchase would get assigned to him) ?

Since I was getting the 300 speed, I tried to get him to knock me back down
to the 300 service I was actually getting and he adamantly refused and said
you can’t ever go back.

That's clearly not right. So long as it is a service level they are
offering everyone it's available to everyone, even you.

So I didn’t bother any further with him. And in the weeks and months that
followed called several times and always hit the barrier where they won’t
send somebody out without charging me $75. A couple of times they got them
to agree to a free service call but then I immediately got an email that
said if I didn’t cancel it, they were going to charge me $75.

I guess Cox is truly hurting for money. I had Comcast try to pull that
on me but when I insisted they dropped the fee as the problems I
reported where always outside the home (even though they always
insisted on starting inside.)

Two weeks ago, they knocked out my service on and off for most of a week
for planned maintenance.
>
Every night between 4 and 6 AM the DVR reboots to get a program guide
update. This is supposed to take five minutes. Since the recent planned
maintenance, the reboot time takes longer every day. Right now I am at
something like 17 hours of it trying to reboot and trying software reboots
that simply tell you to unplug it instead and I’ve unplugged it a dozen
times ranging from a few seconds to a half an hour. The poor thing just
keeps trying to reboot.

That should be more than enough to get a free service call to check
out and likely replace the DVR. Though that would also likely mean
losing what ever you have recorded on there unless it is in the cloud.

So barring a miracle, it’s dead, Jim.
>
Since Cox dumped our email service a year or two ago the brand really
doesn’t matter so much to me anymore. And every possible avenue results in
me losing the DVR and all the accrued programming so I see no point in
keeping the service.  Also, with a new DVR, they insist on sending out an
installer who will spend four hours measuring the signal in every room in
my house and putting in repeaters. Said repeaters require you not only
renting them monthly but paying a usage fee as well. This ain’t gonna
happen.

They may want to do that but it should only matter if you want the
repeaters. I've only ever used the single TV in my living room so
spending time testing out any other room would be a waste of mine and
their time as I'm not putting their equipment in any other room.

So my first step will be to try T-Mobile wireless home Internet.  I’ve
heard nothing but good things about it (until quite recently where people
are saying that it’s going out and slowing down a lot as they get
overextended for the current infrastructure).

Yeah, I've heard about the slowdowns that can happen during prime time
hours but otherwise it seems like a decent offering.

My big problem is figuring
out all the stuff I have connected and what my new set up will be. The
T-Mobile modem needs to be in a window and things connected to it
wirelessly.  So I guess I need a router that will connect to it wirelessly
that I can plug the hardwire equipment into and hopefully let the Wi-Fi
equipment go straight to the modem.
>
Buckle your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Best of luck to you.