Works very well in this area
Written: Jan 21 '02
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Pros: Good service, clear picture, great channel selection, few problems
Cons: Digital music channels could use some work
The Bottom Line: Provides a great service in Northwest Arkansas in terms of customer service, value and picture and sound quality.
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| HawgWyld's Full Review: Cox |
I'm absolutely amazed at the number of negative reviews I've read here at Epinions about Cox Cable. Honestly, the service provided by Cox here in Northwest Arkansas has been fantastic. Perhaps, of course, the quality of Cox's cable service varies from location to location. I, however, can only comment on how great that company has been in Northwest Arkansas.
I moved to Fayetteville, Ark. around 10 years ago, and Warner Cable was the provider. Warner was perfectly fine, but that company was bought around 1997 by TCA. TCA held the franchise for a couple of years before it was purchased by Cox. Now, Cox controls the cable service in the northwest corner of the state, and I have almost no complaints about the company.
Why? The first thing Cox did when it purchased the territories here was start to update the analog cable system in the area. That conversion, while not complete in Fayetteville, has cost the company millions (an estimated $12 million for Fayetteville alone). While that's not yet available in Fayetteville, I was fortunate enough to have it when I moved up the road to Springdale just a few days ago.
While Cox digital cable is fantastic, I should comment on the great service call we received from the company while moving in to our home. The cable guy showed up within the two-hour time frame he was scheduled to arrive, and set to hooking up the cable system. We thought the house was wired for cable, but we were wrong -- what we thought was a cable connection was actually an old wire for a roof-mounted antenna. Indeed, our house had never had cable before.
So, the cable guy went to work and wired a couple of outlets. He took care not to damage our house and the job was done in less than an hour. The cost? About $80 for installation plus running the wires for two connections. And, the cable guy took out time to show us how to use our digital system.
And, the digital cable is absolutely fantastic. Want to know what's on television? That's fine -- just hit the "guide" function on the remote, and the happy viewer is given the chance to browse through the available shows, get information about them (for example, what's happening on Everybody Loves Raymond or that made-for-tv movie that's airing?) and then go directly to what looks good. And, there are a good number of packages available -- we pay around $40 a month for about 100 channels that range from Cartoon Network (a HawgWyld favorite, mind you) to History Channel International. Premium channels like HBO (i.e., that junky channel that costs more money) to Cinemax (a.k.a., Skinemax) are available for an extra cost.
And, then there's digital music. I know my tastes are out in left field a bit, but the selections seem a bit limited. For example, the "alternative" channel plays that blasted hard-edged pop by slugs like Blink-182 and Green Day rather than underground stuff or even older bands like Black Flag, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Ramones or etc. On the other hand, having channels like "Hits from the 80s" and "Hits from the 70s" is pretty darn nifty, and there's even a decent mix of things that fall under the "hard rock," "classic rock" and "oldies rock" available. And, indeed, there's even a "classic country" channel for fans of cry-in-your-beer country (which is, of course, the way God intended country music to sound). For folks who hate country music, you've got the "contemporary country" channel that features scrubs like Faith Hill and those other flavor-of-the-week artists.
Still, there's enough there to keep one occupied. Try some classical, adult contemporary, jazz, disco and etc. on for size. Still, it's too darn bad there's not more attention paid to some "dead" genres hardcore punk from the 1980s (or, even any punk stuff at all, for that matter), heavy metal and the like. In spite of those complaints, I can usually find plenty of stuff in the digital music service to keep me interested (listening to a mix from the 1980s right now -- wacky!)
The cable box, too, is wired for sound. Sure, you can run everything through your television set, but you can also use the RCA jacks to run it through a stereo system. So, digital music sounds great through a good stereo, and shows also sound great.
The picture, too, is what you'd expect. It's shard and clear, and the digital sound is very good. I have no complaints at all about the quality of the signal I receive from Cox. There's no congested broadband transmissions or anything else that interferes with my goal of sitting down and watching some television.
As for Cox's reliability, we've had no trouble with it for the past four years or so. While the majority of that time was spent watching analog cable, Cox had always responded quickly to outages. While it has always taken a little bit of time to get through to customer service, the folks there have always been friendly, have told me why my cable's not working and have either taken care of any problems quickly or told me when they should be resolved. Better yet, the Cox office in my area is local and easy to find -- I could go over there and find a real, live person to holler at if the company wasn't responsive to my complaints.
While there are a score of folks out there who swear by small, digital satellites for their television entertainment, I'm happy with Cox Cable. I believe the picture and sound is every bit as good as what some companies like Dish Network offer, and I know for sure I can watch my local channels on Cox. In these parts, Cox has obviously realized they have stiff competition from the satellite folks and have taken steps to offer a great product to customers. This is one customer who would like some more stuff available on the music channels, but will remain a Cox customer for several years.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $40 a month
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Epinions.com ID:
HawgWyld
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 - Top 200 |
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Member: Ethan C. Nobles
Location: Benton, Ark.
Reviews written: 1437
Trusted by: 495 members
About Me:
The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient.
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