I tried to reboot my husbands computer... reboot the router... and the modem... but I came up completely dry. I tried my Laptop to see if it was just his computer but no... it was also infected.
Thankfully though, we have smart phones. I figured out how to watch the TV show on my phone (thanks You Tube) and then curled up in bed while I waited for SCB to come home and work some magic with his computer skills.
When he got home he did everything that I did again to make sure it couldn't be fixed with a re-boot. Then he tried to connect the internet cable directly to his computer (instead of through the router) but that didn't work either. He was out of ideas and patience so I took my phone and googled the phone number for Cox.
After calling that number and getting a new number to call, I was on hold for about 15 minuets before I reached a technical assistant. I told him about our rebooting, disconnecting, and our previous trouble shooting efforts... but he made me do them all again while we were on the phone with him. When the right number of lights wouldn't turn on, he told us we would have to have a someone come out to fix it... (Slightly problematic since we would be leaving for our honeymoon in a mere few days and getting a tech out on the weekend without being stuck in your home for eons is almost impossible).
I asked the Cox employee how much a service visit cost and he was incredibly vague. He told me it could possibly cost $75, or be free... it all depended if it was something that was "our fault" or not. The last Cox employee who came to my house swore up and down that we wouldn't be billed for his work... only to in fact be billed for it which meant lots of phone calls back and forth to get the amount credited and refunded to my checking account... needless to say I just didn't want to go through that again.
While we were chatting, the Cox employee told me that for $3 a month we could have service protection added to our bill that would make all Cox tech visits FREE. I asked him if I signed up for the service now if it would work towards this little hiccup and he said it would... The icing on the cake is that I can cancel the subscription anytime I wanted to (I just can't add it back on for 6 months).
So I decided to sign up for the $3 fee since it would take 25 months for it to equal the cost on one Cox Rep visit to our home... and I'm sure they will have to come back again over the next 2 years most likely. If we need to, we can always cancel it later, but i'd rather gamble on $3 and not have to call about the bill then loose $75 and my time calling them up and complaining.
Once that was all worked out they thankfully had an appointment open for Friday from 5-7pm and I was able to finagle my work schedule so I was home before 5pm... which was good because the tech called me at 4:50pm saying he would be there in 10-15 mins...
How many techs ACTUALLY show up on time??? AND Within the first hour???
So at 5:00pm he arrived and got to work on our modem. We had a REALLY long cable so the first thing he decided to do was slice and re-configure our cable since the main problem we were having was an inability to get any "signal" power. After splicing our cable and re-setting the system multiple times from the outside closet utility box we were up and running... and he was out the door after 20 mins. Our Friday night was salvaged!
My cable internet connection has been fairly reliable over the years. So it has never really affected me.
ReplyDeleteLosing Internet is always an awful experience, especially as a blogger. Glad you got things worked out!
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