A footnote to the Verizon / Cox (yep, that sounds like the intro. to some kind of joke.....) switch: Cox service (Jordan) was here this AM, strung new cable, installed and set up hardware, gave us a quick overview, got everything working and all in about 2 1/2 hours (strung a new cable from the nearest telephone pole to house, then some wiring inside as well as all hardware install / setup).
Just transferring my telephone number from Verizon to Cox seems to have generated a termination order for my Verizon digital phone service but to make sure I cancelled ALL services, including ISP and TV, I went into my account on the web site. As I figured, no way to terminate service so had to call. Spoke to a nice enough female in [some foreign land but I could not really place the accent] and went through the dog and pony show.... which ended when she informed me there was a pending order (the order to cancel the phone service, generated by Cox 'drawing' the phone number from Verizon) and I could not make any other changes to the account until the existing order had been executed, which will be on 17 Jan. So I then asked if I understood the situation correctly: I could NOT cancel my service now because of a pending action on the account but could on or after 17 Jan.... and that I would have to call back on that date or later to execute any account changes such as closing the account. Outstanding- they are going to bill me, pro- rated, at the new and [not- agreed to by me] amount until such time as I am able to close the account, which they not only cannot do now but cannot accept an order to do on or after 17 Jan.
I am not bit$hing about this because it is petty and really insignificant but I have to say that over the course of a year and a very large number of 'insignificant' charges, I betcha' there is some real money laying around at Verizon. I am also not picking on Verizon because I do not know if Cox does this or not.
BTW- a relatively close speed test does show in excess of the promised 300 Mbps D/L speed delivered. Not so good going through a bunch of nodes and reaching to the other coast but really fast locally. Not that the earlier limit of 50 Mbps that Verizon delivered was in any way a limit or needed improvement for my use, just mentioning that it is as fast, actually faster, than promised and all done with copper wire.... :-) TV picture quality is outstanding and surprisingly, noticeably better than Verizon, at least using the hardware that I had from Verizon (just over 2 years old). Cox also is using new Cisco boxes that use RF remotes (really nice!) with a voice recognition feature that works extremely well (really, really nice!). I hope I am as pleased in two years when I have to do this all over again in reverse and can only imagine what new hardware Verizon will be providing.
Brian
