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COX - Run by A Bunch of Incompetent People

MarcB

MarcB

It seems that COX Cable in Meriden is run by a bunch of incompetent peop. This is the second time this week we've lost audio on Cable Channels 7, 8, 9, and 10. That's WTNH (ABC), WSAH (Infomericals), WCTX (MNT), and WHPX (ION) respectively. What the hell is going on? Plus on numerous occasions I've been up at 2AM flipping through the channels and the whole cable goes out for like 30-45 seconds. It's a regular occurance. The problem with the audio today began at 4:45PM when the cable went out for a few seconds. I don't know what caused the audio problems the other night.

Here in Southington we have no other choice for cable besides COX. The new Cable TV Service offered by AT&T isnt available yet. And my parents can't afford to switch to Direct TV Right now.
 
MarcB said:
... we've lost audio on Cable Channels 7, 8, 9, and 10. That's WTNH (ABC), WSAH (Infomericals), WCTX (MNT), and WHPX (ION) respectively.
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You mean to tell me they've assigned WTNH, OTA channel 8, to cable channel 7? You're right, they do have their heads up their posteriors over there!
 
DToTheJ said:
You mean to tell me they've assigned WTNH, OTA channel 8, to cable channel 7? You're right, they do have their heads up their posteriors over there!
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There is some interference from WTNH's OTA signal on Cable Channel 8. Depending if you've got good wiring or crappy wiring depends on how bad the interference is. And lots of people have bad wiring in their houses from the cable company that was there prior to COX. The company was called Dimensions. (Sp?) I'm familar with them from visiting my uncle in the Plantsvile seciton of Southington. Dimensions was really bad. 40 channels. Even after most systems had upgraded to at least 70s and almost every channel was share-time. With Dimensions they had a really whacky line-up. A couple examples of what they had were: 2 WGBY/57 Springfield PBS, 3 QVC, 7 WFSB/3 CBS, 8 Public Access/CSPAN, 10 WTNH/8 ABC.
 
That was Dimension Cable, not to be confused with dementia! New Britain has gone from United/United Artists/TCI/AT&T Broadband/Comcast. That's from at least 1981 until today.
 
I could see Cox putting WFSB 3 on cable 3 as cable channel 3 is fine. As for cable 8 it sometimes has WTNH but thats with the wires. But if most people have digital cable shouldn't the channels be fine even with the wires? Just wondering.
 
It's the same reason why Comcast in New Britain and Hartford put WFSB-TV on channel 2 and not 3.
 
Did Newington ever have Dimensions Cable? I was born in 1989 and only know Cox Cable. Did Cox ever have only 39 channels? I remember in 1995 or so, we got the cable box and recieved almost 80 channels.

Also with Cable 3, the signal on the Prevue Channel (my favorite channel of that time), was almost always bad. I remember once in the mid-90s, you were able to watch WFSB clearly on Channel 3 and also 2, and the Prevue Channel was not able to be seen. As far as Channel 7 being interfered with 8, I never experienced that up until I got DISH Network in 2006. I remember that move in 2000 or so. TV Guide Channel was put on 8, and 3 got Cox3, and the signal on 3 got even worse.
 
MarcB said:
It seems that COX Cable in Meriden is run by a bunch of incompetent peop.
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Why because they've had some technical glitches? Cmon Marc, get with the program here.
Instead of complaining, why don't you stop and think for a moment here. Things do occasionally burp.
Sometimes the problem is Intermittent. It is very possible what failed the first time corrected itself and ended up failing again, or the equipment problem might not have been fixed upon a repair. Does your car start everytime you turn the key? If it fails twice, does that make the manufacturer of your car or your mechanic imcompitent?

Plus on numerous occasions I've been up at 2AM flipping through the channels and the whole cable goes out for like 30-45 seconds. It's a regular occurance.
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Right. Usually they are doing sweeps of the lines, systems, and doing equipment upgrades. When would you rather they do the service interruptions? At 1pm in the middle of a soap opera? At 8pm during prime? Most cable companies allow a chunk of time from 1am to 4am for "plant maintenance" where service is not garenteed. If you read the fine print on most cable contracts you will see this is allowed. Are TV stations bad for going off the air at 2am for transmitter maintenance? They all do it...

The problem with the audio today began at 4:45PM when the cable went out for a few seconds. I don't know what caused the audio problems the other night.
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Then why don't you call them and find out instead of complaining about it here?

Here in Southington we have no other choice for cable besides COX. The new Cable TV Service offered by AT&T isnt available yet. And my parents can't afford to switch to Direct TV Right now.
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And if your parents pay for it, why are YOU complaining?


[/quote]
 
Well come to think of it Marc, I can't see why every little thing that goes wrong with the cable would be reason to come here and ask what's going on. I can see you doing this when your entire cable goes out for a full day or a certain channel goes off for 24 hours, but for a few seconds? I can't find that to be a problem. I'd think you would want to enjoy TV instead of worrying about technical difficulties. I'm saying this in the most respectful and kindest way, because I am also in to cable issues, etc. However, when it comes to tiny mishaps that clear up in a few seconds, don't sweat the small stuff.
 
Well the "No Audio" thing was a pain in the neck for both me and my parents. The audio went out in the middle of Judge Judy, forcing my parents to flip on the closed captioning to find out what was going on. Then since the audio was still out at 5PM they had to watch the 5PM news on WFSB instead of WTNH.

Meanwhile at 5PM I normally watch Becker on MY TV 59. Since there was no audio I just shut the TV off because there's nothing else of interest to me on at 5PM.
 
Maybe it was WTNH and WCTX that had the audio problem not the cable. As both WTNH and WCTX are both in the same building and both owned by Lin.
 
Ken, re-read his post. It says
Cable Channels 7, 8, 9, and 10
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.

WTNH and WCTX are just two of the four channels there.

What does LIN's ownership of the stations have to do with Cox's audio problems?
 
It's frustrating, but these things happen sometimes. The issue could even be local in nature (i.e. not system wide). Having issues like this does not necessarily indicate that COX is full of incompetent people. They inherited a previously mismanaged system that was poorly constructed - you said so yourself. Perhaps they still need to deal with glitches that occur from things that they didn't even install. Remnants of that old system that Dimension once operated. I wouldn't be surprised if they are still replacing old wiring and switching equipment, even at the neighborhood level.

Yes, the cable companies frustrate all of us: even increasing prices, monopoly-level control, dropping channels that we like in favor of crap, packages designed to make us spend even more than we want to, etc. They tick me off too. The latest annoyance is the new habit of periodically dropping analogue channels (one by one) in favor of more bandwidth for PPV and other "profit centers". Which will force us all to rent boxes at some point. COX, Comcast, Time Warner, Cablevision - all are greedy at some level. I would love to see more competition!

But, let's be fair about this one - it may have been something beyond their control.
 
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