Cox Business Support - FAIL!
I've had Cox business Internet service for years now, and when I was working and not using it 24/7 (since I never sleep), the intermittent drastic drops in throughput weren't a terrible problem. But now that I'm home, connecting to bunches of servers to fill out job applications and the like, not to mention web hosting and the other things I do with Internet service, it's really getting to be a pain. Some users have complained about speed issues, I've been disconnected from servers because the speed was too slow for them to handle, etc. etc. And so I tried to deal with Cox Tech Support. Except that navigating to the business site gives you a link to support that goes to RESIDENTIAL support, which I didn't know when I started up a chat session. After being told that the residential people can't possibly help me since they don't have access to business accounts, I actually had to ask for a supervisor to finally get an email address for tech support. "You have to CALL them." No amount of "I do not use the telephone" stopped them from telling me I had to CALL them. Or, they offered, fill out the web form. Well, I had filled out the web form at least 20 times over the years and had never, EVER received a response. I may have found out why...but that will come later. I persisted in asking for an email address where perhaps a person would be able to answer, and asked whether they could possibly see the irony of not being able to use the INTERNET to deal with INTERNET service for business, when if I called it a home account, I could use the very chat feature I was on.
After a very, very long time on chat, the supervisor gave me two email addresses, one for a supposed tech support person, and one for my account manager. I wrote to both. I provided speedtest.net graphs over time, an infospeed.verizon.net breakdown of all of the little bits involved showing nothing was wrong on my end yet throughput still sucked, and asking them to get hold of me ASAP. The account manager (whose name was the same as mine without an "a" and lastname,firstname...found that amusing) wrote back to say he sent it to tech support. So I got an email from Brandon giving me PHONE NUMBERS again. I wrote back that I don't use the telephone, I wanted to do this online. A bit later on, I got a PHONE CALL from Brandon, on my cell where he insisted that we do this by telephone. At the time, I could hardly croak and was having trouble being on the phone, yet Brandon persisted. I told him once again I do not use the phone, pony express, telegraph, or fax machines. It's 2012 and I buy Internet service from Cox, so why can't I use it to contact Cox.
Later that afternoon, I was at a job interview when the phone rang AGAIN. Yep, it was Cox. The voicemail that was left included "I understand you don't want to be contacted by phone." GAK! I mean total GAK! This was Craig, not Brandon, who also again gave me a phone number to call, but also said that now that they had my email they would use that. Uh, really? But wait, there's more. Craig told me that business support has no web portal where anyone could send information, so he was confused by my statement that I had sent at least 20 messages through there that had been ignored. And where could I possibly be seeing this?
It's right HERE: https://ww2.cox.com/business/northernvirginia/lead-generation-form.cox
So WTF. Tech support doesn't know about its own web portal? Craig said that he hadn't found any messages from me. Wonder where that portal goes to then. It's got a nifty little "support" button on top but apparently goes to /dev/null or something. They are "investigating." I, on the other hand, am checking out FiOS.
After a very, very long time on chat, the supervisor gave me two email addresses, one for a supposed tech support person, and one for my account manager. I wrote to both. I provided speedtest.net graphs over time, an infospeed.verizon.net breakdown of all of the little bits involved showing nothing was wrong on my end yet throughput still sucked, and asking them to get hold of me ASAP. The account manager (whose name was the same as mine without an "a" and lastname,firstname...found that amusing) wrote back to say he sent it to tech support. So I got an email from Brandon giving me PHONE NUMBERS again. I wrote back that I don't use the telephone, I wanted to do this online. A bit later on, I got a PHONE CALL from Brandon, on my cell where he insisted that we do this by telephone. At the time, I could hardly croak and was having trouble being on the phone, yet Brandon persisted. I told him once again I do not use the phone, pony express, telegraph, or fax machines. It's 2012 and I buy Internet service from Cox, so why can't I use it to contact Cox.
Later that afternoon, I was at a job interview when the phone rang AGAIN. Yep, it was Cox. The voicemail that was left included "I understand you don't want to be contacted by phone." GAK! I mean total GAK! This was Craig, not Brandon, who also again gave me a phone number to call, but also said that now that they had my email they would use that. Uh, really? But wait, there's more. Craig told me that business support has no web portal where anyone could send information, so he was confused by my statement that I had sent at least 20 messages through there that had been ignored. And where could I possibly be seeing this?
It's right HERE: https://ww2.cox.com/business/northernvirginia/lead-generation-form.cox
So WTF. Tech support doesn't know about its own web portal? Craig said that he hadn't found any messages from me. Wonder where that portal goes to then. It's got a nifty little "support" button on top but apparently goes to /dev/null or something. They are "investigating." I, on the other hand, am checking out FiOS.