Cox Communications

This is the absolute worst internet provider, I would’ve rated them zero star but there is no such thing. Cox manipulates the Internet market in this part of Santa Barbara so I had no other choice but Cox.

I have had the worst experience over the last five years with Cox. Not only do they charge so much for very poor internet connection, it keeps going up without any notice. Also, their customer service is terrible. I had to call seven times over the course of a year in attempt to get my address changed. Not only were their customer service representatives incapable of helping, they were also rude and condescending! Additionally, they signed me up for paperless billing without my consent and proceeded to send my bills to an email address that I had not used for 5 years! I do not recommend using this internet provider, such a pain!

Worst customer service ever — hung up on me twice. Over charging my 90 year old mother-​in-​law for services not received. Terrible Terrible Terrible — Find anyone else!!!

We have been getting about a tenth of the internet speed that we pay for.
Tried to solve it on the phone and nothing was resolved.
They made an appointment for a technician to come out to see about fixing the problem.
They made the appointment for a Sunday. So we waited all day.
Turns out, all of Cox Communications is closed every Sunday.
Why they would make an appointment for us on a day that they are closed every week– I’m baffled at.
Horrible service.
Provided by my landlord.
Avoided it if you can.

We are already cox customers. They told us they would be here between 1−3pm to install new stuff. My family and I stayed in the living room within 20 feet of the front door the whole time so we wouldn’t miss them when they arrived. At 322pm my wife called and was told they were here at 355pm. she informed them that it was only 322pm. Then she was told that the service person claimed he’d arrived at 115pm and knocked on the door but nobody answered. Terrible.

I honestly can’t complain about the internet service (which is why I didn’t give a one star review), however my customer service experience this morning regarding my cable package was very frustrating. I contacted a Cox representative asking how to lower my bill (I know huge red flags, because these are sales people trained in making money not cutting it). The gentleman I spoke to (who mumbled his name so I didn’t catch it) told me that he could lower my bill by about $ 30 a month by cutting out some of my service (that was the best he could possibly do for me) but that rate would only last one year. After the year was up I would be paying $ 50 more a month. I said, «wait, so you are telling me that after a year I will be paying more than I am now for LESS service?» He said, «yes, because I have had to restructure your entire package and am giving you a promotional discount to get the rate this low.» As if he is doing me a huge favor.
At least I now understand why all the other reviews were so terrible for this company. When you call wanting service they can’t wait to bend over backwards to help you, but when you call to take something away they are less than helpful. Honestly. Here is a lower bill for a year but after that time, you can pay more for less. Unfortunately, I know the other options out there are no better, it is the industry standard.
Cable TV: The Hotel California of the Digital age.

Really just a complete mess of a company.
A complete complete complete complete complete mess.

They are incompetent and cannot follow simple directions. Since my friend graduated, she transferred the service she had under my name. They told her they would not shut off our internet but they did anyway. They also charged us for a «set-​up» fee even though the modem and router was already set up. The person who came to «set things up» just took a look around and then said, «Your internet should be working again.» He did not touch or fix or «set up» anything yet we were charged for a set up fee.

Can’t complain about the Internet. We have the 50 mbps plan, and consistently get about 65 mbps on wifi. If you have Cox and you’re getting less speed than you’re paying for, chances are good that something is wrong on your end. Previously I wrote a review here complaining about getting only 35 mbps– turned out we just had to upgrade to a DOCSIS 3.0 modem.
HD TV on the other hand is really quite bad. The cable box has a user interface that looks straight out the 90s, and is not even HD, although many channels are in HD. However, the «auto tune to HD» feature simply does not work, so you have to manually add 1000 to channels you want to see in HD. Even worse, the picture often freezes up or pixelates for seconds at a time. The only fix for this seems to be to occasionally unplug the cable box and plug it in again to force a hard reset. If we didn’t use cable as much as we do we would’ve ditched it long ago. Oh and did I mention it’s ridiculously overpriced? Maybe we should switch to satellite…

Rude representatives, bad service, and Internet speeds significantly lower than what you are charged for. Their behavior would be criminal if they didn’t own the market.

What a joke Cox is. I am a current customer and moving to another home. I don’t have phone service with them and they keep sending me bundle offers so I decided to bundle per their offer and add phone service. When I told them that was what I wanted to do they told me the offer doesn’t apply to me, BUT they have another bundle that is perfect for me. Bait and Switch. Nice Cox. How about taking care of your customers.

Why is this the only option for internet in the SB area? The internet speed seems to be good… but the whole process of getting everything set up was an absolute nightmare. They tech was supposed to show up between 8 and 10 am in the morning and the dude calls me at 1015 to say he is running late but doesn’t show up until 1130!!! Unforgivable…

This is the worst internet service one could imagine. My husband could not even complete his fantasy football draft yesterday because the internet kept going out. In fact I had to wait five minutes to get this screen to come up! Please give us an alternative in Goleta for internet providers PLEASE !!!

It’s basically the worst internet provider ever and you have no other options. Pay for the service you want, get service that is unreliable and throttled for large files. Net Neutrality would be nice because these guys are horrible.
Oh and while you hate your existing service they will mail/​call you about other services. They will offer you a chance to «lower» your bill and add TV/​phone service! It’s paying to be sold to, weirdest business model ever.

I don’t even know where to begin.
Over a year of issues, hassles and the worst part is, it’s all automated so we talk to a person and they get it, they know we are being screwed but they can’t do anything about it. They take «notes» and try to help, but we keep getting false charges on our account and then billing notices and our service was even shut off.
We pay on time and in full, mind you; this isn’t some issue of non-​payment. So essentially, we paid for service that we didn’t receive. Instead, we received automated phone calls telling us we owed them money that when we called, employees assured us we didn’t owe and then we just kept getting calls and kept wasting our time.
I honestly feel like suing them for hardships and grievances for the stress and hours and hours of time wasted running in circles due to their terrible business model. Seriously. OVER a YEAR of this bullshit makes you want to go off grid and live in the woods.
I do want to add that the actual, human employees are usually quite sympathetic and TRY to help, but the system they are working with and the corporate policies or computer-​run billing process is prohibitive.

Worst company I’ve ever dealt with. They do not care about the consumer. Forced me to have a «professional» installation when I transferred services .5 miles away. The technician was here for less that 4 minutes and was a complete jerk.

If I could give them 0 stars, I would.
Frankly, they’re a monopoly. You know, I know it. And most importantly, they know it.
I have basic and expanded cable as well as internet service with them because there really isn’t an option in the area in which I live. I’m virtually forced to use Cox or else have no tv service and no internet.
That might be okay, except it doesn’t work. I have unreliable internet service, I have shoddy cable service that means that even though I pay through the nose to get premium channels, if I miss an episode of a premium show, I can’t access it on On Demand because they don’t seem to update it frequently enough that it shows up. I literally have to call up and have my cable box rebooted EACH TIME I WANT A CURRENT EPISODE of the shows I pay for every month.
I keep asking them to explain to me how this means good service (because, while you wait on hold for someone to answer your call, you get to hear a bunch of crap about how they’re rated #1 in customer service. Somewhere. By someone. Probably on the Planet Monopoly.)
When I finally got someone to admit the issues I have been having for nearly two years with my cable rebooting in the middle of the day, spontaneously, interrupting my programming and internet connection (but mysteriously not updating my On Demand selection), the conversation included a brief apology and an urging to upgrade to HD boxes because «they don’t have that same problem.»
Yeah, just pay us more and you won’t have crappy service interruptions and no On Demand choices.
Like I said, zero stars would be my choice. If you have any other option (and if you’re reading this in the city limits of SB you probably don’t, which is why Cox is still even here as a company) then take it. Otherwise, get in line and suffer with the rest of us.

I haven’t used Unilocal in over a year and I only am on it now to rant about the horrible experience I have had with them. Unfortunately, they are the only internet provider in Isla Vista so they can do how they please without caring for their customers because they monopolized the area.
I have NEVER in my entire life experienced such horrible customer service until I had to start dealing with Cox. With charges that they made up to my account that I had to dispute to sending over a technician every other week to keep the internet running… I have had it!
Why do they have no customer relations department that cares? This is literally the worst experience and if there is ANY ANY ANY way you can get internet in the Goleta Santa Barbara area without having to deal with Cox, I recommend it 100%

There’s really nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said. This is the worst «customer service» EVER and it is so unfortunate that they have such a monopoly over the area. Fees for everything, and never a simple straight answer for any dilemma.

Worst TV provider I’ve ever had. «Whole home» DVR system intermittent and error prone, often get unavailable channels due to «No signal detected…», online services crude and limited, iOS apps are a joke. I would have gone with infinitely better ATT Uverse but Cox has a monopoly in SB. Cox’s universal solution is «reboot receiver» but that only works half the time. Multiple service tech visits, every one finds a different issue for the same consistent problems. The problem ain’t at my house, it’s at the home office.
Go with satellite or internet TV instead.