[COX] Hampton Roads, VA - Cox

I'm guessing the problem is with local Cox management; seems they just don't get along with the local stations. I spent some time this year in San Diego and Las Vegas. Both are served by Cox and both provide all the local HD feeds. You can check the Cox web site and see what subscribers in other areas receive - in almost all cases people outside of Hampton Roads get far more HD channels than we do. I've had Cox HD almost since they started offering it and since then they've only added a handful of channels and none of them are local.

I guess Dish is the way to go. I just have to remove a few more trees and it's so long Cox.
 
Tuesday's Beach Pilot

Okay, I wrote a letter to the editor in the Virginia Pilot stating there were not enough HD options. I was startled that they published the letter, but even more so when at lunch Cox cable called me and tried to explain what their problems were. Anyway, the only thing I got from the was TNT would be on channel 766 on September 23rd.

They did indicate that they refuesed to pay money for free broadcasts - Fox, NBC, ABC, UPN, etc... and that they were at a deadlock for negotiations.
 
skid97 said:
Okay, I wrote a letter to the editor in the Virginia Pilot stating there were not enough HD options. I was startled that they published the letter, but even more so when at lunch Cox cable called me and tried to explain what their problems were. Anyway, the only thing I got from the was TNT would be on channel 766 on September 23rd.

They did indicate that they refuesed to pay money for free broadcasts - Fox, NBC, ABC, UPN, etc... and that they were at a deadlock for negotiations.

We will see if Cox adds TNTHD by the 23rd of this month. I think Cox needs to add all locals since that is what they advertise. My friend up in Northern VA has Cox and he has ALL LOCALS in HD. In the meantime I went ahead and reconnect my old Voom receiver and OTA antenna.
 
Here is the response I got back from Cox yesterday:

Thank you for your inquiry. Cox is committed to providing the best
customer service possible.

TNT HD comes to Cox HD channel 766 beginning 9.22.05.

Currently, we have CBS, PBS, ESPN, Discovery, Universal NBC (recently
added), Bravo and HBO, MAX & Showtime (with regular subscription) and
in
Demand 1 & 2 in HD format.

We are still in negotiations to expand our lineup. We are hoping that
we
will have more channels for your selection by the end of this quarter.
Thank you for your interest in HD. We will have more for you soon.

We hope that we have been able to provide you with the information you
requested. If we have not, or if we can be of any additional service
to
you, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Thank you.

Cox Communications Online Customer Care Team

If you need additional information on other Cox products or services,
please visit our web site at
 
I have heard that DirectTV is getting ESPN2 HD added tomorrow. I wonder how long Cox is going to take to add this to their HD channels. Anyone heard anything about channel being added.
 
jimmykce1 said:
Cox charges $50.00 for service calls now.
I had a call for internet service about a month ago. The Cox tech put an amp in the outside box, but, because he had to go in the house to plug it into my power, the charge was $40. He said that I should subscribe to their maintenance plan for $3 a month so that there would be no charge, and then, after he left, I could drop the plan and only pay $3 for one month. :rolleyes:
 
skid97 said:
Okay, I wrote a letter to the editor in the Virginia Pilot stating there were not enough HD options. I was startled that they published the letter, but even more so when at lunch Cox cable called me and tried to explain what their problems were. Anyway, the only thing I got from the was TNT would be on channel 766 on September 23rd.

They did indicate that they refuesed to pay money for free broadcasts - Fox, NBC, ABC, UPN, etc... and that they were at a deadlock for negotiations.

I think another letter to Daily Press and Va Pilot is needed to put pressure on Cox to add local HD channels.
 
Cox around here sucks for adding HD content. I get the same answers that you get when I ask Cox about the addition of locals in HD. I just returned from a trip to Northern VA where Cox, Adelphia, and Comcast are all available. My dad subscribes to Comcast, and have a long list of Local HD channels, as well as a few others that we already have here. I guess the local maket competition causes them to carry the locals, or loose the customer. Here in HR, there is no competition, so we will subscribe to Cox regardless. If there was another company in the area, maybe Cox would get off thier butts and give us the locals in HD.

Where did you see that Cox charges 50 bucks for service calls now?? Every house near me (5 on each side) has had Cox out here this month. We are all having the same problem (static on analog, pixels on HD/Digital). Each day one of us has a tech out here, and everyone comes out of thier house and talks to the tech. Each tech says the same thing---all looks ok, but they will turn it over to maintenence to fix. I could not imagine spending 50 bucks each time they send out one of thier cable monkies to try and fix stuff....
 
Cox Service Charges

A1cntrler said:
Where did you see that Cox charges 50 bucks for service calls now?? Every house near me (5 on each side) has had Cox out here this month. We are all having the same problem (static on analog, pixels on HD/Digital). Each day one of us has a tech out here, and everyone comes out of thier house and talks to the tech. Each tech says the same thing---all looks ok, but they will turn it over to maintenence to fix. I could not imagine spending 50 bucks each time they send out one of thier cable monkies to try and fix stuff....
The tech told me that there was a $40 charge only if he had to go into the house. He had to go into my house to connect their amplifier to my power. :rolleyes:
 
I sent a letter to the VA Pilot last week regarding this, but have not heard anything back as of yet. Probably will get lost in the mix.... I don't subscribe to the paper, so I cannot read wether of not thay publish it because in order to view letters to the editor, thier website says I have to either subscribe for home delivery, or for 7 bucks a month I can read it online...
 
Cox needs to add NBC, FOX, ABC, and UPN to their HD service to get all the remaining locals here. I guess they are going to wait until 2008 when all broadcast goes digital.
 
Competition for Cox

Perhaps part of the problem, at least in Hampton Roads, is that Cox has no competition. If you can't, or if you elect not to, use a satillite service, you have no choice but to use Cox. Cox knows this so they don't have much of an incentive to add these local HD channels. If we had a choice of cable companies, I bet Cox would make major improvements to their service. Not that the service is bad now but they don't seem to be making many of the changes that their customers are asking for.

There is a web site http://www.cablechoicenow.org/ that covers this issue. They also make it easy to send a message to your State elected representatives asking for their support. Maybe just the threat of some competition could inspire Cox to resolve the local HD and other issues.
 
I have written to Cox again seeing when they will add the remaining local channels to their HD service. I got a response back saying that they are going to be adding more channels by the end of this quarter and don't know which channels will be added. They are also trying not to increase their prices and to provide free HD local channels.

I guess we will have to wait and see if anymore HD local channels gets added. It would be nice to get Fox and ABCHD soon.
 
That's pretty much a standard canned answer. I write to them at the beginning of each quarter (7 consecutive quarters so far) asking them when they are going to add more local HD. The answer I always get is that they hope to add more by the end of the quarter. So far, they've added a few national HD channels but no local. I guess I'll be asking again in April...

and July...

and October...
 
Cable Vs. Phone Companies: Fair Competition Helps Consumers

This month, Cox Communications surveyed Hampton Roads consumers about their feelings on fair competition. We did so in light of the fact that, across the country, the nations big telephone companies are asserting they need special favors from legislators and regulators to enter the local video business.

Of course, the notion that the regional Bell behemoths need a government handout to compete strains credulity.

Clearly, changing the rules for the phone giants, and no one else, would tilt the market in their favor and penalize the true entrepreneurs that have invested the time and resources to bring the benefits of broadband technology to a vast majority of Americans.

In Hampton Roads, Cox Communications has invested nearly $600 million since the 1996 Telecommunications Act to build a regional fiber-optic-rich broadband network. As a result, Hampton Roads consumers have access to high-speed Internet service; state-of-the art video products such as high-definition television; and competitive telephone-service options, which can be as much as 25 percent lower than Verizons prices.

It was competition largely from direct-broadcast satellite companies that prompted cable operators to invest money in broadband networks and upgrade their service offerings, without asking for any government favors.

Even as cable companies have improved their offerings, the two national satellite companies have added 25 million subscribers, claiming better than one-quarter of all subscribers to multi- channel video services.

Competition for new and existing customers is fierce across all facets of the communications business. This kind of marketplace rivalry is the rising tide that lifts all boats.

These developments are due in large part to a regulatory framework that has fostered increased competition and provided incentives for companies to make private capital investments in technology and networks that are a springboard for new services.

The phone giants have had nearly a full decade to share in this growth, and many of the incentives in the 1996 Telecommunications Act were designed specifically for them. During that period, several of their predecessors entered and then beat a hasty retreat from the cable-television business.

Only after it became clear that their monopoly local telephone service would be challenged by competition did the phone companies begin to seek regulatory shortcuts for entering the television business. And now theyre claiming that a service that is virtually identical to cable television should be given preferential regulatory treatment.

When the FCC recently deregulated parts of the phone companies high-speed Internet-access business to level the playing field with cables high-speed Internet service the cable industry supported the change. Thats because we believe that like services should be treated alike.

The phone giants need to accept this logic. Hampton Roads consumers certainly do. The results of our survey show that Virginians sense of fair play is quite clear: Eighty-nine percent of those surveyed indicated that they think phone companies should play by the rules that are in existence for current cable television companies.

Further, 90 percent said that if rules and regulations are changed to accommodate phone companies, the changes should apply to all cable providers, including existing ones.

The most exciting development in todays telecommunications marketplace is that consumers are only just beginning to realize the promise of broadband technology. Innovation and creativity are flourishing, bringing Virginians and all Americans a diverse and compelling array of content and applications. The result is that consumers will continue to be the true winners.

If state and national policymakers will apply the rules equally to all competitors, the best will be yet to come: greater choice and higher value, along with an increasing ability to personalize services for our homes and lifestyles.

When customers can choose their companies (and not the companies choosing their customers), better, more innovative telecommunications services will be made available to everyone.

Its that simple.

n

Frank Bowers is vice president and region manager of Cox Communications Hampton Roads in Chesapeake. other opinions

Source: Virginian - Pilot

http://www.redorbit.com/news/techno...elps_consumers/index.html?source=r_technology
 
Just a little perspective here...

I was a cox tech in HR untill june last yr (4 yrs in the field)

As far as the $50 dollar service charge goes...there is one, but in certain conditions

If its cox's problem (plant related) or anything up to the point of demarcation (basically, where it enters your house) cox will obviously cover it, same for things like bad boxes, etc...

The only problem prior to demarc that you can be charged for is a cut drop...

If you dont have CSAP (that 3.99 insurance) anything inside of your house that is a problem you can be charged for (except boxes). If you do have CSAP, you are mostly safe, unless its something like intentional damage (trying to move the outles and screwed it up) you wont be charged.

That being said...a tech can find a reason to charge or not charge you anytime they come to your house. If you are nice you probably wont get charged, even if you dont have the CSAP. If its something you obviously should be charged for, a tech (not supposed to) offer you CSAP to avoid the 50 bucks. If you're really nice, you might not get charged at all.

On the other hand, if your rude/mean/bossy/pissy...which is usually totally uncalled for (i never cared what happened between you and cox/other techs when i came to your house...if i had never been there, there is no call to get angry with me from the start)

If you read the fine print, and look at all the things we can charge for, there is alot of things that you've agreed to be charged for, that most techs never do. If your mean or hatefull, you will probably get charged for something. Techs are people too, and the majority of cox techs, dispite the "feeling" people have about them, are good techs, the numbers prove that. Like any job there are bad employees, but you can say that for verizon, dominion, the plumber...its just people...there are always bad ones.

Enough of that, onto the HD stuff.

I dont think fox will be comming soon, fox is full of itself (look at the escapades over fox sports and fox trying to get channel 14)...which sucks because im a nascar fan. NBC is similar. Not alot of people realize that of the 39 bux you pay for basic cable, 34 of it goes to fox sports and espn...fox affiliates tend to be just as greedy. From what we were told about it, both fox and nbc want more than 3 times what cbs gets from cox to carry the channel...that will never happen. Especially since you can just put up an antenna and get them, so it wont neccessarily drive people away.

I do wish though that they would get over themselves and lower their demands on the pricing...i need my nascar in HD!
 
What Is With the Test Channels?

I noticed that Cox has added 7 test channels in the 800s. Anyone know what these are for?
 
Dont know for sure, but i would imagine maybe their setting up the nascar in-car...since the races start this weekend...
 

Social Network Widgets

RedZone Channel on Comcast

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Latest posts