Cox Customer Service, try 2

Try 2.  Below is the transcript of my chat this afternoon.  Another "sorry, we can't help you."

Finally spent 45 minutes this afternoon after calling and farting around with their automated "help agent"
(do they know what "help" means?).  Got frustrated and entered "0" a few dozen times on the touch-tone,
then they gave me a human.  Who, by the way, said he'd seen this problem earlier.  Elevated it, and the
next-level guy said he hadn't seen it before, but it'd be fixed by Monday.  We'll see.

Just think of the frustration they could save (the customers, who PAY them) if they'd offer an option to
contact someone from the outset.

Anyway, another "helpful" on-line chat with an "analyst".....
===============================================================

Problem = Cox.net has lost all the e-mail in my mailbox prior to July 8 at 0455.

How do I get them restored?
TicketID = xxxx71
Picked up user from queue: chsi general
user AMCIT has entered room
analyst Jenny has entered room
Jenny> Welcome to Cox High Speed Internet Service Online Technical Support. My

name is Jenny and I will be happy to assist you with your concern.

Jenny> I understand that you are having difficulties with your Cox e-mail account. Is that correct?

AMCIT> No. It’s working fine now. The problem is that every e-mail delivered prior to 0455 on 8 July shows “unavailable” “unavailable” and 12/31/2069, 7pm.
AMCIT> I need to restore those e-mails.
AMCIT> That’s five years worht of information
Jenny> Did you have your cox account disconnected before?
AMCIT> No, and it’s not disconnected now. The e-mails are just not there.

Jenny> Do you have the ” Leave a copy in the server ” option active at this time?
AMCIT> I don’t know. Where is that option? I’ll check.

Jenny> Please follow these steps in order to set up the option to leave a copy of the messages on server in Outlook Express:

a. Open Outlook Express, click on [Tools] in the menu bar.

b. Click on the [Accounts] option from the list.

c. Highlight your e-mail address in the list and click on the [Properties] button.

d. Click on the [Advanced] tab and put a check mark on the [Leave a copy of messages on server] box.

e. Click on [Apply] and then click on the [OK] button.
AMCIT> I don’t use outlook express.
AMCIT> I access directly through the webmail server.
Jenny> Wich e-mail client you are using?

AMCIT> Cox.net. I click on webmail.east.cox.net, enter my address and password, and my mailbox opens up.
AMCIT> It doesn’t go through any other POP
Jenny> Are you at home right now or in a different location?

AMCIT> At home.

Jenny> First, I suggest you verify your “Trash Folder”, “Spam Folder” and all the folders you have in WebMail.

AMCIT> The e-mails are all there. They’re “unavailable” They’re empty. They’re not in trash. They’re not in spam. They’re just empty. Lost. Gone. Nothingavailable.
AMCIT> They’re in “inbox” – the ones that should be.

Jenny> A most common cause of the difficulty you are experiecing is that your e-mail address does not have the option to leave a copy of messages on the server. When this happens, all your messages will be stored at the computer where you open Outlook Express or any other e-mail client that has been configured to receive e-mail from your Cox.net e-mail address. Keep in mind that Cox does not provide support to any other e-mail client that is not Outlook Express or Windows Mail, because we do not have the license agreement to support them. If you want to set this option on your e-mail client, I suggest you contact the official support for further assistance.

AMCIT> Other folders have the same issue. Everything before July 8 is gone-empty-kaput.
Jenny> Have you moved recently?

AMCIT> You ARE the official support. I DO NOT USE OUTLOOK EXPRESS.
AMCIT> NO. Not unless 6 years is recent.

Jenny> When you leave copy of messages in the server, they will count towards the quota usage, and you will need to access WebMail from time to time to free up space.
AMICT> I’m only at 24 percent………………
AMCIT> Or was, until COX lost ALL my e-mail
AMCIT> Now, it’s probably 1 percent — only 63 messages have content.

Jenny> The options to set up the ” Leave a copy ” option is using Outlook Express or Windows mail.
AMCIT> I ONLY use webmail.

Jenny> If after reviewing the information above you are still unable to retrieve your missing e-mails. Unfortunately, we cannot retrieve that information because we do not have access to any personal information content from our customers e-mail addresses. I hope you understand, I am really sorry about this.
AMCIT> Who can I call?
AMCIT> Sorry doesn’t cut it. I need that info.
AMCIT> Please provide a contact number.
Jenny> You can contact the Local Office at: 1-800-234-3993
AMCIT> How do I log this chat?
Jenny> You can copy and paste in a Word Pad or Note pad.  (note, a normal “cut and paste” would not work. I’m literate enough to have tried this.)
AMCIT> it won’t copy
Jenny> I can send you this information to your cox.net e-mail address.
AMCIT> thank you. That would be wonderful. (gives e-mail address)
Jenny> Hold on a second, please. I appreciate your patience.

(edited to correct spacing for readability)

Cox Customer Service

No, this is not a post of praise.  Cox is one of those customers like the “cable company” in the satellite TV commercials — relying on “we’re not as bad as the other guys.”

I’m not so sure.

Somehow, yesterday Cox Communications managed to lose approximately 1800 e-mails I had stored on the system.  Everything before 4:55 am yesterday is showing a sender of “unavailable”, a subject “unavailable”, a date/time group of 12/31/2069, and a file size of 0.0 Mb.

After deleting about 400 (thinking I had been hit by a spam bot), I realize that ALL my previous emails were showing up this way, and realized that I had permanently deleted the most recent.  So I’d wait until today, and if it didn’t clear up, I’d call.

What a joke.

Jeremy is probably a very nice technician, but his response was “we have an outage in the Fairfax region”.   OK, perhaps he did’t understand.  My problem is not NOW, my problem  is the 1800 emails I’ve lost (some were there for reference; some to populate newsletters, etc.; some included fun, poignant, or astute photos or cartoons; yes, some were just junk I hadn’t gotten around to deleting).  Jeremy apologized for the inconvenience.

After he apologized again and told me I would likely not get them back because of the (current, mind you) outage in Fairfax, I politely explained to Jeremy this is more than “an inconvenience”.  Then he said he’s not an e-mail tech support, but rather a high-speed internet tech support.   Oh.  I have the wrong department.  Who can answer help me?

No one, Jeremy explains.

This is customer service.

Their only saving grace is that I’m not willing to take off three weeks of work, one day at a time, to wait for FiOS installers who don’t show up.  And my home doesn’t receive satellite signals.

Tomorrow I’ll be calling the business office.  I expect no adequate resolution, but I’m the eternal optimist.

So, there’s a difference?

It seems the Congress and the Obama administration believes the entire US financial system needed government intervention because of derivative markets, which created an artificial demand for products that exist only by definition.  Or that existed only in esoteric form.
But then they support trade in emissions credits?

Where carbon-reducing technologies can be replaced by heat-producing technologies.  Where NO ONE knows what, if any, technologies are better for the planet than others.

Where there will be artificial demand for products that exist only by definition.

Cuccinelli can’t understand simple English

I just got yet ANOTHER call from his campaign, thanking me for agreeing to volunteer with them this summer. What part of “NO” do they not understand?

This time I told the young man there must be some mistake, since I’m supporting his opponent. Put the brakes on that conversation, and perhaps will stop the annoying phone calls.

I’m going on record

predicting the annointed nominee for Kris Amundson’s House of Delegate seat is Janet Oleszek.

There’s a reason Kris waited until after a primary to make an announcement, and she’s been grooming Oleszek. Bet the Party makes the choice and runs Janet.

Gut feel. Wanted to get it down on record so I can see if my gut was right.

Customer “service” ?????

Lustine Jeep has an on-line service appointment scheduling “tool”.  Outstanding!  I need an oil change on my Jeep.

Pull up the form.  Fill out all the info.  Get “Thank you for submitting your request.”   No “we’ll contact you within xx hours.”  No “yes, that time is available.”  No “we’ll call you.”  Just a “thank you for submitting your request.”

No worries.  There’s an online chat available.  Right?  Yeah, right:

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you…
You have been connected to Diane Gorman.
Diane Gorman: Thank you for chatting with us today. I am a live person here to ensure you have a great online shopping experience. How may I help you today?
Customer: What? No feedback? No indication of when I’ll find out whether you can do an oil change at 10 on Monday morning?
Customer: I’m truly disappointed in this online scheduling experience.
Diane Gorman: I am sorry you feel that way. Is there anything that I can assist you with today?
Customer: I want to know if I can have an oil change appointment for Monday, the 29th, at 10 am. I submitted the request, but there’s no indication of how or when I’ll get an answer. That’s unacceptable.
Diane Gorman: You will need to speak to our service advisor to set an appointment for you. I can have them contact you with our available times, what is your full name, e-mail address, and telephone number?

(about 3-4 minutes; I was doing other things too)
Diane Gorman: If you are still there and interested in chatting with us, I will hold the chat open for a few moments longer.
Diane Gorman: It has been a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you for using our chat service and have a wonderful day!
Thank you for using our Live Chat service. You may now close this window.
Your session has ended. You may now close this window.

Mind you, I had given all that info in the on-line tool.  And I still don’t have an appointment, apparently.

I guess he doesn’t know the word “hypocrite”

Ken Cuccinelli.

You know, the guy who’s been running for AG in Virginia for longer than Terry McAuliffe has wanted to run for Pope.

Yeah. That guy.

Who started a “don’t tread on me campaign” … forgetting that “don’t tread on me” means leave me the hell alone. From the same man who thinks “choose life” is the only choice, forgetting to take in to account that he has no say in someone else’s moral choices, that he would deny women choice of a perfectly legal medical procedure (good stance for an AG, eh?), and that “Don’t tread on me” means mind your own flipping business.

The same man who led the fight to deny two perfectly rational adults the right to marry.  Who still insists they have no right to marry – because they don’t fit into his idea of what love and marriage might mean.  Who forgot that “Don’t tread on me” means mind your own flipping business.

Ken … don’t tread on me.  Get out.

Well, at least he did what few others have been able to do — seriously consider making me actively support a Democrat.  Attorney General is a position where legal skills and clarity of thought should be significantly more important than ideological extremism, and so far he has campaigned on his priorities to target lawbreakers, while  Cuccinelli has gone negative and stressed ideology.  I’ll be watching Shannon closely, but so far he seems the more honorable man.

A compromise

It seems the DC voting-rights bill is dead.  Apparently, Congress didn’t care enough to pass the bill with the gun-rights amendment attached.

Apparently, the citizens of DC, through the people they elect (I can’t believe their rep keeps her seat), only want one civil right, not two.  Two is probably too much for them to handle at one time.

But some of us don’t live in DC, and we like ALL our rights.  So here’s my compromise.  DC gets its voting rights, and in the deal, they offer reciprocity to all other states that offer concealed handgun permits.  Their own residents can’t carry, but those of us with permits can.  Seems like it satisfies everyone.

They vote.

We vote and carry.

I’d even almost be willing to limit it to concealed carry, to start.  It’s not a good compromise, but you wouldn’t want Chief Lanier’s officers to have to stop everyone carrying openly to ascertain whether they’re non-residents or not.  They have too much else to do — like limiting who can travel on which streets, and playing personal bodyguard to the bigwigs.

Just random peeves

Just random peeves.  Nothing earth-shattering; nothing exciting.  Just peeves.

I watch a lot of History Channel, Science Channel, History International, and Discovery.  The grammar used in their documentaries lately leaves a lot to be desired.  Dangling modifiers abound.  Subject-verb agreement is apparently no longer required in formal writing.

But most annoying is “this area was once covered by an ancient sea.”  — Not hardly.  Perhaps it was once covered by sea.  Perhaps a sea appeared there in ancient times.  I bet I’ve heard that particular statement in three or four different geology and archaeology shows in the past few months.

———–

People who drive 70 miles an hour up to the exit ramp, then cut in front of those who’ve been patiently waiting in the exit lane.  Worse is when they don’t signal, and they know you won’t let them in, and they just creep over in an effort to take off your side mirror or make you play chicken.

———–

People who are so “considerate” when they drive that they allow extra space in front of them for people who might change lanes.  So it’s not bad in fairly light traffic, or at high speed.  In slow rush hour traffic, it’s an engraved invitation for people to run up the wrong lane and pull in.  Or to do other stupid stuff.

brady humor – again

In all these cases Brady lawyers are assisting with our legal expertise — pro bono.

I hope you will support our fight against new challenges with a tax-deductible contribution as soon as possible. We will prevail — wherever the next battlefield might be.

Yep.   We’re doing it for free.  So send us money.

You, too, can help squelch individual liberties, the Second Amendment, and unconstitutional ordinances everywhere!