 Review by BloodRoses 
UPDATED: 28 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 2206 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Fairfax,Fairfax City,VA
 $54 per month
 about 2 days
 "Faster than FiOS for me"
 "Cost, Installer"
 "It works, for now."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Pre-Sales Information: All sales information was clearly stated on their website, I knew what I'd be paying and for what before I ordered the service. I ordered everything online without the need to call anybody, so I had no concerns if they received the correct services that I wanted or not, and I didn't have to speak with any Indians.
Install Co-ordination: I got the self install kit, with a planned pick-up date that gave Cox more than 2 weeks advance to turn me on from the apartment. To be fair, the maintenance closet is locked by key, and only management has it. I'd think they would have that information in their system for this apartment complex. I'm pretty annoyed that I have to wait until the next business day for a truck to be rolled to my location. The guy that showed up and got the key from the office was very friendly, however. He was still nice after he had to leave and return later that day because the office closes during lunch hours. I'd have been pretty irritated by that point if I were him.
Connection Reliability: Horrible. Frequent high latency and packet loss, and large fluctuates in speed. I regret what my latency is going to be like every time I'm home.
Tech Support: Not very good at all. I ended up speaking to an Indian who was only interested in reading a script to get me online and nothing more. He was also in a rush to hang up on me. This seems ever typical anymore of everyone to outsource incompetent people, but it doesn't make it acceptable.
Services: Newsgroups are capped to 1.5 Megabits, so it is useless for anything but text, and even that goes slow. For this reason, I have to pay an additional $25 to Giganews. Worse than that, I found spam in my inbox the first time I logged into my ISP mail. Guess my overpriced service wasn't enough of a profit margin for them.
Value for money: For how much I pay, there is a lot of room for improvement. On the plus side, when it's working, the advertised speed is 15 Megabits and I regularly sustain high 20's at worst without speedboost.
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The Good
Faster than FiOS: FiOS here is way oversubscribed and during peak hours, you're lucky to get 5 Megabits. Cox doesn't get that slow, but it starts to drop packets and my latency goes insanely high.
The Bad
Cost: I'd sure like to pay more around 30$/month. I've always thought technology got cheaper over time, and 40$ used to be the going rate for a residential broadband service. I think cost is a major hurdle for many families, in order for broadband to reach the penetration levels I'd like to see.
Installer: I already ranted about this, but the install coordination should have been handled a lot better.
Bottom Line: It works for now. Considering how limited my choices are, and the other options aren't hand over feet better I'll continue paying.
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