COX MUST THINK PEOPLE IN LA ARE STUPID

[TBEAR]

Ok here it goes, does anyone in the forum have a Motorola DVR box from these idiots. That is the "new" box they offer to catch HDTV or if you dont order HD you can get the box to record anything you want on cable and play it back later. It uses a hard drive, like a computer, to record and playback. I've been subscribed to one for about a year now and have had to change it out about three times due to pixelation problems in the digital channels. Well I did some research, internet and talking to a cox repair man, and found out that us here in south louisiana are the proud recipients of old refurbed comcast cable boxes that they must have bought from comcast. These boxes are several years old.

The boxes we get from cox are the Phase 1 with old firmware and a real bad digital to analog conversion which is why if you have one you know what I'm talking about when you view the lower channels 1-99 they are distorted and or fuzzy.

The new boxes, Phase 3, have fixed this problem and updated the firmware so you dont have other problems with pixelation etc.

Well, cox wont give you one when you sign up nor will they let the repairman place the newer boxes on their trucks to replace them in the field, the only way to get one is to go to cox and demand a Phase 3 box then they will usually give you one, I havent tried it yet but plan to.

Here is an interesting link that explains alot:

en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Identifying_your_model#DCT_6412_Phase_I

The moral of this story is Cox must think we are a bunch of dumb coonasses that cant figure out the difference and are giving us crap for the amount of money we pay for service, well with them trying to push these old outdated boxes to customers, since they want to increase rates, now the game is on.

[Taureau]

T-Bear, That and the fact that they are actually going to
charge their customers starting next month to view the
weather channel is reason enough to drop them. I read
this today on one of the boards. I would like to see
a lot of people go to Cox and complain about this and
about your situation. Competition is the only answer.

[TBEAR]

Update, I went to get the phase III box and installed it and guess what, when i called them to activate it, it doesnt work and wont take a signal from them, they are sending a tech out in two days, what a piece of you know what, cox ripping people off again.

[coolboy]

I can't believe they're charging for the Weather Channel now! Cable prices are getting ridiculous. I wish Cox would give discounts to those customers that fix cable problems themselves. My cable was out recently. I went outside and reconnected some wires and VOILA! My cable was back up. I called Cox to tell them of my adventure and wasn't even offered a free Pay-per-view movie.

TBEAR, you know what you should do? You know how Cox always has the digital box set up in the reception area? Tell em you want that box because at least you know that one works! HA!

[TBEAR]

RIght coolboy, btw the tech arrived and changed out my box for another phase 3, guess what, that one didnt work either. You see when they plug the new digital boxes in it takes about 45 minutes to download its information. Well the tech then got an older phase 1 from his truck, plugged it in, and after another 45 minutes of downloading it worked. Needless to say, after that long of a time with the tech I found out alot of information.

The tech explained that when you call cox and get help you are talking to someone in Baton Rouge who doesnt know crap about how the systems run in the field nor do the assistants at the local office when you exchange a box. The tech advised they were supposed to allow the box to download, 45 minutes or so, before sending a hit to activate and that the telephone tech should have verified with me that it was finished before hitting, therefore he sent the activate, or hit, signal to the box and it fried it. He also explained that The new phase 3 boxes are giving them problems right now, the 6416 phase 3, due to the software thats loaded in it, but they dont tell you that when you call them. All the techs that i have talked to despise the phone techs who end up sending them on calls which could have been handled via telephone. Also the old tocom boxes will be inoperable in a few months because they are going all digital in the next few months.

Here it goes beleive it or not; after talking to the tech I learned something interesting. Right now I pay $91.00 a month for my bellsouth telephone and 3.0 DSL. I do not have LOS on my phone so when I call Carencro or Duson I have to dial long distance from my 856 number living in the same parish this is ridiculous.

Bellsouth telephone, caller id, call waiting, call waiting id, and call forwarding is the only thing I have on my phone bill and its $50.00 a month.

Bellsouth DSL 3.0 is $37.95 a month.

Cable telephone, same options, and you can call anywhere in the 337 area code for free, is $13.95, $20.06 after fcc charges etc, a month.

Cable Internet is $39.95 a month for 6.0 speed, twice bellsouth speed.

If I elect to try this, even thought thier cable tees me off, I will save $30.00 dollars a month.

I have talked to numerous people who have told bellsouth to go climb a tree for what they charge and the poor service, and all like cable telephone now that all the bugs have been worked out of the system, especially the telephone which had some hiccups at first. Bellsouth has been calling all these people and begging them to go back to bellsouth.

The moral of this story is I look for the best deal available. I hate both cox and bellsouth and their service and their overcharging, but I might give this a try to screw bellsouth like they have been screwing us for years. If something else comes around cheaper or if bellsouth gets their crap together and lowers prices with better service coverage area, etc, I'll go back to them. I think thats what has to happen here is everyone get together and go for the cheaper rates for the same or better service, for these mass companies to figure out we consumers wont stand for overbilling.

Ill eat crow for right now, to save some money, and try the internet and telephone, even though their cable rates are outrageous. So ill let everyone know and when bellsouth calls me and ask why i killed them they better get a pen and pad because Ill give them an earfull.

[Dorothy]

I too had BellSouth DSL, but the speed was FAR slower than advertised (you should test yours TBear). I switched to Cox, got all the telephone features, I opted for the less expensive Internet (twice the actual DSL speed) and am very pleased with Cox. BellSouth told me after several visits nd lost days of work that it would be years before they could actually provide the advertised speed. Also offered no discount for their failure to provide what i paid for !!!

[TBEAR]

Believe it or not Dorothy my speed is 3.0 now after four years, ive checked it many times. I have had 3.0 for over four years and it just started coming in at 3.0, sometimes it was 2.1, then id run another test and it was 0.9. it was never steady so I should have switched along time ago. Btw the 856 numbers cannot get bellsouth 6.0 yet but its coming, they say, and when it comes its already adverstised price is $47.00 compared to cables 39.95.

About eight months ago I got a call from bellsouth asking if I wanted to pay $37.95 for my already connected 3.0 which I had been paying $49.95 a month for over the last four years. So now I see what bellsouth was doing when they called me, they saw cable was coming with a lower price for more speed and began calling their customers offering a lower price before cable got their business. Shame on Bellsouth.

[coolboy]

I have a new reply for this thread: My neighbor Must Think I'm Stupid!

I have a wireless network set up in my home and I have a neighbor that just moved in next door. The Cox guy went over to his house to set up cable. The Cox guy came to my house later to tell me that the guy had this laptop with internet already up and running. The guy had no phone and no cable and the connection was wireless. This guy was stealing his internet access from me! My network is now password protected. It's nice to see someone from Cox making sure their customers aren't taken advantage of.

[TBEAR]

Glad the cox guy caught it and told you, imagine how rampant that is in neighborhoods, especially if the dude was using your internet connection, registered to you, to do some illegal acitivity. Your IP would have shown up on everything.

Its definitely not a bad idea to password your wireless network, I have heard several people with laptops bragging about connecting to high speed wirelessly and it not costing them anything. You ought to go tell your neighbor he can pay the bill this month for the bandwidth hes stolen from you.

You could always bake him some cookies welcoming him to the neighborhood, dont forget to put some exlax in them,