COX, FAIL!
Posted on March 2, 2010 by Brian under Life.
As many of you know, recently Ching and I moved out of our house and into an apartment. One of the many frustrations that occur is transferring your services from one place to another. I decided to get a jump on a lot of these by calling the week before we left for San Francisco (2 weeks before our move). Out of all of the services I called, none were as frustrating to deal with as Cox.
I called Cox the week of Feb 8th and spoke to a young lady in their Sales Department. She was kind but not very helpful. Being an ex-employee of Cox I found myself telling her how to do her job because she could not figure out how to add me to the bulk discount that Quarters at Cambridge offers. After several minutes of conversation she informed me of my new bill and the call was over.
On Feb 24th I called back to provide an accurate number of outlets and to make sure that the transfer was set up correctly and that the service would be activated on Saturday as I requested. I spoke to another rep that could not find any information on my new address and looked at my old address and found that the person I worked with before had simply set up my service to be disconnected but didn’t bother transferring any of my services to the apartment. I spent several more minutes on the phone with this rep making sure that everything was going to be set up and that I would receive the service I had on the day that I requested. Again, I was told with confidence that everything was fixed.
Saturday rolls around and I hook up the TV to make sure that everything is working. We checked the internet and to our surprise we had service. Satisfied I go to the business of putting together my new home and vegging in front of the TV in the evenings.
On Monday we come home from work and start to make dinner. We decide that we were going to watch some TV while dinner was cooking and that’s when we realized. We had no TV or Internet. I immediately called Cox and fight through their unbelievable automated system. Finally getting a hold of another tech person they ask me several questions only to tell me that I need to go to sales. I speak to a sales person who tells me he can fix my problem, places me on hold and then comes back several minutes later and tells me that everything is transferred and that we should have service in 15 min. I wait at least 20 because I know that it takes a little time to push the signal through. After the 20 min I call back and get a hold of a very nice woman named Bethany. She pulled up my account and found that the sales guy transferred my equipment but failed to activate it. She took the time to make sure that my internet was working and that all of my questions were answered. She advised that it was going to take an hour for the service to push through and that she would call back to make sure that everything was working fine. I advised her that I had been told this already and that they had all failed to follow through. She convinced me to trust her and sure enough an hour later she calls. Unfortunately, I was not home at the time and asked if she could call me back in 30 min. She agreed and sure enough, 30 min later she called and my services were working perfectly.
As compensation I was offered $20.00 towards my service for over 3 hours of frustration and the loss of confidence. If it were not for Bethany, I would have canceled my service and looked into an alternative method of entertainment. I have since sent a letter to Cox corporate detailing the above and advised them, it’s on them now. If they were in my shoes and had to go through what I had to go through, would $20.00 be enough. Would that pacify your frustration and disappointment in a service you have had for over 10 years.
In the mean time while I wait to get an answer from them, I am looking at alternative services. I like the Cox service and have never been disappointed with them in the past. They have always been helpful and more times than not, have resolved my issues with a minimum of effort. Hopefully they will see the error of their ways and offer something more substantial in the way of compensation. I guess only time will tell.
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The Year that Was… 2010 : Life After Marriage on January 23, 2011
[…] Besides all the traveling, probably the biggest thing that happened was that Brian and I sold (more like gave away) our house. It was the single largest check we’d ever written (prior to that, the check we wrote for Brian’s truck held that record) because we had to pay the difference between the purchase price and the amount left on our mortgage. Yes, believe it or not, after owning the house for 10 years, we trashed it so completely and thoroughly that we actually had negative equity. It’s tragic, I know, but Brian and I are both just happy to be out of there. […]