Cox Cable Woes....

[Dan Lizanich]

Tim,
Sorry I'm late to the conversation, but I had the same issues as you. Cox with phone and internet. I did a lot of research and found that AT&T internet (after the promotional period) is about the same price as cox. They charge $7 a month for equipment + tax, but cox internet is very reliable. For phone I went with a device call an ooma. It just under $5 a month ($39 device fee to start). You can transfer your existing number and it works the same as cox over the internet, no new phone is needed. But what I do like is the 911 feature. Unlike a cell phone, your address is displayed and also if anyone calls 911 from your house you can set it up to text cell phones, so you know if a family member is in trouble. next for my TV entertainment I did the antenna for the basics (news is on almost 24 x 7 on channel 19 now, why is that?). I when to depot and put one on my house near where the cable & power is attached. I also have Hulu and netflix (DVD mail only). Hulu has a lot of TV shows and some movies. I also have amazon prime. If someone in your house has a college Email address (.edu) you can get that for 50% off, $49 a year and get prime membership. I went from $186 a month to $89 a month and never looked back. Want sports, hey get that radio out and listen to WTAM 1100 the same way your dad did, LOL. I didn't go dish for TV as a rental property owner I hate hate hate them. They don't remove the old dishes and FYI if it's put on your roof your warranty is voided. Plus if there is an issue, your going up there to adjust it, or waiting to call. Hope this helps you or others.

[Mark Mraz]

I am single, 31, live alone, and work an 8-5/M-F job. With that being said, in my free time, I watch a fair amount of TV. Having both cable and internet is just too high of a cost esp via COX. My internet alone is $40 a month and just like you...the promo expires next year which means I will have to contact them and plead to keep me at $40.

Nonetheless, besides my antenna ($5 on amazon), which brings me the most random of random channels including ABC and NBC...but not CBS...was okay for a bit but I wanted more. On Black Friday I bought a Roku online for $25 and love it lots. https://www.roku.com/

Now when I am home I watch Netflix ($9 a month) and stream a ton of movies and TV, Crackle which offers free TV shows and movies but can also be a paid service, numerous cooking channels, sports, travel, etc. So far so good. I really do not need, want, or miss cable. And because I have the internet, I watch a lot of shows on the ABC, CBS, NBC website. It might be a day late but it doesnt matter to me. There are individual channels/apps you can pay for however mostly are free. Its cheap, easy to use, navigate, and the choices are limitless.

[ryan costa]

I obtained some MANNIX dvds from the library. I won't need to watch network television for weeks.

[Tim Liston]

So I said I would post again when I cut Cox Cable….

I called a few days ago and finally said “disconnect me”…. The guy asks why, I say “the TV service is way too expensive but leave me with Internet for now while I explore other ISPs or maybe a hotspot or something.” Then he says “sorry Mr. Liston my computer is running a little slow, by the way have you considered dropping back to just the broadcast channels?” (Funny how their computer “gets slow” when they have to interject some small talk about keeping TV service.) Then he asks “well how much would you pay? I said not one damn penny, now let’s move on. All of a sudden his computer came back up….

So yesterday I unhooked the Cox boxes and took them over to the Cox store at Westgate in a blue plastic grocery bag. (I also hooked up the coax wire directly to the back of one of the TVs and did a channel scan, no dice yet.) While I’m there (10 minutes?), two other people walk into the place with blue grocery bags full of Cox boxes. Nobody else came in the place. Cox better hope they can milk their ISP business….

Hey have you seen the Sling TV commercial? It’s hilarious….

https://youtu.be/_1vHzLdy2EE

So right now I’m on Netflix (two of three TVs) and trying to get my long-time Amazon Prime subscription to work. And I’ve unearthed my old Pandora subscription (listening to Kenny Wayne Shepherd right now….). My wife misses the cable news but she’s not sold on putting up an “ugly” antenna. Looks like I’m gonna have to gamble $10 on one. I bet when she can listen to CBS news for free while the morning make-up goes on that she’ll be OK with it. Or maybe I’ll just look into Yahoo news or something like that. And I’m gonna get Sling I think but I have to decide on what TV first.

IMO everyone in Lakewood should drop Cox cable TV and explore their options, in that order. Don’t wait. The traditional cable TV business model is dead and Cox cable TV (not their ISP business) is on the ground convulsing with their eyes rolled back. Maybe they thought their whistles and bells (“record five shows at once!”) would help. Or maybe they thought that changing channels on Netflix, etc. is too hard. I don’t know.

I really appreciate the discussion and suggestions. I’ll post again when I’m finally where I wind up.

[Corey Rossen]

This thread is the best example in recent history of the Deck that best demonstrates what a community exchange (of information) should look like. Kudos to all involved.

[m buckley]

This is a great thread. I'm going to have to re-think Cox cable. I particularly appreciate that no one has attempted to step on this or to assign it to a separate forum. Thanks for the information.

[Stan Austin]

Tim-- When you get a chance I'd like you to stop over so you can see how I'm doing structured wiring in my house. It might give you some ideas for the options you're considering.
Stan

[Valerie Molinski]

I dropped Uverse back in May after four years and returned to Cox. Which pained me because Uverse was pretty great, but it got too expensive! I got the local channels plus HBO and Encore, I think? And I upped my internet a little bit. That halved my bill for cable ($140 to $70ish), even with adding a land line back for $10, which I can cancel anytime.

The issues I have had are the following:
-the debates were mostly on cable channels so I had to wait until the next day and watch in snippets
-barely watched any bowl games as most were on cable
-have barely seen any cavs games because most are on cable
-we've reached our data usage quota of 350 gb twice and were charged $10 extra for another 50gb of data. First time this happened was when we tried out sling for two weeks. The channel offerings for Sling are good, but I found the service glitchy. And it uses a lot of data, so beware.
Second time was in December with the kids off for two weeks using the internet and watching stuff on Amazon Prime and HBO Go on their tablets and our tv.

The things I like:
-Saving some money. We only have one tv that we all use, so it is easy to save that way.
-I am paying less and have less channels, but I am using more of what I do get. Instead of having 200 channels we don't watch anyway.
-This was a good compromise for cutting the cord slowly. I think next move will be antenna for local and putting that cost towards faster internet with more data per mo. Or add Hulu as well for another 10. We feel like even if we don't save a ton, we are using more of what we have through the ala cart offerings via Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, Sling, etc...

[Tim Liston]

Stan….

I would like to see what you are up to with your wiring. What I haven’t said (yet) is that I’m looking at all this from a broader perspective, and getting off Cox is just the first of several steps, albeit one that saves the most money for now.

About a year ago I started playing with Z-Wave based home automation gadgets. Z-wave is a wireless communication protocol specifically designed to facilitate home automation. It’s superior to better-known wireless specifications (e.g. wi-fi, Bluetooth) for home automation because Z-Wave is very low-power and it’s a “mesh” network, meaning the devices (e.g. a thermostat or AC outlet) simultaneously transmit as well as receive. Lots of home automation and security companies have adopted Z-Wave and its competitor Zigbee, and some use both in the same devices. At any rate I didn’t get too far before I set it aside, but with the cable stuff I’m doing I want to pick it back up again.

Unfortunately the Lakewood place presents one significant challenge for all wireless applications: a 15” think masonry wall that runs right down the middle of the house from front to back. For wi-fi I had to stick a repeater (just another router really) right in the doorway that goes through that wall. To really do home automation right, I think I might need at least some wires. And back when I bought the house (1995), I had stranded Romex and volume controls put in to run speakers into some rooms other than where the stereo is. Seems old-fashioned now but it works great and even the plaster walls give Bluetooth some fits so the wiring is probably still necessary. The bottom line is that real-McCoy wiring may solve multiple problems here, and really enhance reliability.

BTW back then I did get the Z-Wave stuff going to the point where I could at least check the temperature in a vacation home over on the other side of Vermilion, from here in Lakewood (or from anywhere), but it stopped working and I have not taken the time to figure out why. I’m back to the gizmo that flips on a light to alert the neighbors if it gets too cold in there….

I’m headed to Pittsburgh to take my daughter Katie back to Carnegie Mellon, then out to Vermilion. I’ll PM you not too long after I get back. Gonna spend an extra day and watch Katie’s new boyfriend play a varsity basketball game. I kinda like him although I don’t want him to know that just yet….

(Oh and Return to Forever is now playing on the "Jazz Fusion" station I created on Pandora a couple years back. Jean-Luc Ponty guesting on this song. Pandora could just convince me to eff all forms of TV....)

[Mark Crnolatas]

Every other day, our COX cable box needs to be "recycled", since the t.v. screen goes black on it's own whim, no sound, nada. That "box recycling" takes anywhere from 10 minutes to a half hour, before we get ANY channels back. Calls to Customer Support are well, interesting, and the latest explanation is THEY tell us that to save bandwidth (?) on whatever channel, after 3 hours, to change the channel, then go back to what your watching. If we had a smart phone, which we don't (our phones are just for talking - unique hm? ) we could use the Cox App and watch SOMETHING while we're waiting for the box to clear it's throat so to speak.
Anyone else having this issue?

Mark Crnolatas Sr.
Wear your TFI,

[Tim Liston]

Hello from Pittsburgh. As if on cue, David Stockman has just posted an article on the state of the cable industry....

Click here for Stockman article....

After some horrific anecdotes, the money line is in the last paragraph....

"I think the only part of Comcast business that may have some customer-retention power is in the Internet Service. But companies like Google already saw that void and started its Google Fiber business. With consumers moving towards cord-cutting, and the line expansion like Google Fiber and other players, it is only a matter of time the entire cable industry could become obsolete real quick."

Back later. When Pandora finishes playing Comfortably Numb, Katie, her boyfriend and I are moving her in then it's off to Vermilion....

[Lori Allen _]

I am thinking about bundling with Cox. Does anyone know if they have any good bundle deals or know of any other company that does?

[Tim Liston]

Sometimes things happen for a reason, at least that's what some people say….

I haven’t missed cable TV much at all. I’ve used the TV time to rip my entire CD collection and organize the MP3’s on my computer and phone. I even bought a bluetooth speaker! Maybe next I’ll refinish a couple pieces of furniture, or tune up the bikes for spring, or do a soccer scrapbook for my daughter (who just finished her formal soccer career at Ohio U, and broke virtually every goalkeeping record there….).

But my wife Dawn REALLY misses the cable TV, and I’ve taken quite a beating over it. More than usual. A few days back she insisted I restore cable service. I said no. Then a couple days back she said “what about Sling?” I said I’d get around to it. So about an hour ago I sat down to figure out how to get the Sling seven-day free-trial going, and the land line rings. I answer it, got the telltale robocall intro noises, and readied myself to suggest that someone selling extended warranty (non)coverage for my car get a real job.

Well it was Cox. And I knew I was about to get a much better offer. After a bit of unwanted small talk (“just tell me the rates!”) it turns out to be $10/month for the broadcast channels, and $30/month for the normal 80-channel package, the package we had before. For two years. Plus taxes, and she said the taxes were all the normal govt/FCC stuff, no unbundled stuff from Cox like content/royalty fees and such (like Sirius/XM does, that’s another story). No more than 10%.

Hallelujah! I don’t have to find a new place to live! And the combined Internet plus 80 channels of TV will be LESS than we were paying BEFORE they raised tried raising the prices.

So I’m gonna talk with my wife tonight and suggest we restore only the broadcast channels with Cox for $10, and get the $20 package with Sling. For $30 it won’t be quite as good a package as Cox offers for $30, but we’ll be “where the puck is going” as Wayne Gretzky was famously quoted as saying (though we’ve had Netflix with the Roku box for awhile now). Then maybe we'll dump Netflix and use Sling for on-demand movies (Sling bought Blockbuster I think). Either way, no antenna. Plus if I go with Sling for seven days free, then pay for three months, I get a free Roku 2 that I can take out to the beach house. Then I can start in on Time Warner.

I can’t wait for Dawn to come home….

[Stan Austin]

Tim-- good outcome. Not to rain on your parade but what about lots of other folks who really just don't have the time to sort through all this shit? Stan

[Tim Liston]

Stan says: “what about lots of other folks who really just don't have the time to sort through all this shit?”

I couldn’t agree more!

First, your observation should be taken up with Cox Cable. Cox uses sophisticated and nefarious practices that are designed to produce “the most amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing” (as another saying goes). I don’t know if what Cox does is illegal, but it certainly is improper. The price one pays for cable TV should not depend on how much time one takes to fuss about it. But many things are like that, especially expensive things like cars for instance. If you want a good deal on a car, new or used, be prepared to spend a lot of time at it. I do.

It should also be taken up with the municipalities, as they constrain cable TV (and Internet) competition for their financial self-interest. I have no idea how that came about historically, but it just seems plain wrong to me. Not surprising though, as corporatism runs roughshod through all levels of government.

(As a quick aside, the late, great Ken Warren once said that the biggest problem we face as a society is anti-social behavior. Ken was right a lot. And from anti-social behavior we get corruption and corporatism, and shit like Cox Cable pulls.)

And “folks” have to shoulder some blame too. If folks would turn off the TV long enough to take the time to fuss with Cox (a few hours), the time spent watching TV would cost much less. Ben Franklin said “a penny saved is a penny earned.” Ben is wrong these days -- thanks to income taxes (which did not exist back then) a penny saved is worth way more than a penny earned. Folks who recognize that reality have different priorities. Folks need to allocate MUCH more of their time reducing expenses, not just increasing income. But government schools don’t spend much time teaching folks about tax implications or finances in general. No surprise there either and a rant for another day.

So anyway this evening I tell Dawn the story and she says “I want my cable back, all of it.” So I’m calling Cox back tomorrow. “Free installation” probably means I’ll have to make a trip to Cox at Westgate to pick up the equipment and install it myself, at least if I want it in place soon. But instead of $85 a month (their first price) or $65 (their second offer) it will be $33. Over two years that amounts to about $770 off even their second offer, which equates to about $1100 or so in income in a 30% Federal/State/City tax bracket, that “penny saved” thing. That’s about $200 an hour for my time, and why I spend the time I do at stuff like this. And I can probably finagle another HDMI cable and one of their signal boosters out of them….