Cox - what happened to your customer service?

I used to have to call Cox's customer service quite often, as they're internet service used to be less than perfect in my area. I was always able to reach a real person that could deal with my problems. They were always very helpful. Over the past few years, however, the connection has been decent. But I have to say, I've never gotten so aggravated so quickly than I just did tonight trying to reach Cox's technical support, for the first time in a while.

First of all, when your internet is down, how the heck do you find out any information? How do you even look up a support telephone number? It sure is hard. I pulled out my iPhone and went to status.cox.net, the somewhat unreliable and slow status page for Cox services. It's usually never updated in time. Well this time, it didn't even load. Awesome.

What do I try next? I pulled up the Cox website on my iPhone and try to navigate to some support phone numbers. First I have to select what region I'm in. Then I see a list of phone numbers, all sales and billing-related. I look around a little more for a support number. Nothing. The only references to support they have are for online chat (in English OR Spanish, by the way), email, or better yet, they actually encourage customers to write snail mail. Are you kidding me? Don't you think that occasionally (okay, often), people whose internet isn't working are going to need to CALL you and will be on mobile devices since their internet doesn't work? Don't you think you could make it a *little* easier for people like me?

Okay, so since I couldn't find a customer service number (they broke rule #1), I decided to call the sales number. Since they were closed, the first option was to reach technical support. Perfect, now I'm getting somewhere.......or so I thought.

A rigid, automated voice then asks me if I'm calling about cable TV, high speed internet, or digital phone support. Okay Cox, seriously? You have three products, and you're going to use an automated voice? Couldn't take 5 minutes and have somebody record them for ya?

After I select high speed internet, I'm greeted with a real voice. Awesome. But what is the first thing she says? "I think I can help with that problem." Umm, what problem? Have I told you what my problem is yet? Nope!

Then she asks, "Are you calling about a technical problem with your high speed internet service?" No waaay, the machine is a genius! I say, "Yes." She then proceeds to instruct me on how to power cycle my router, and a few other basic troubleshooting steps.

If I didn't try shouting a few common phrases into the phone like, "customer service" and "agent", I'd probably still be sitting on the phone with that dumb machine right now.

After hearing my cries for help, the automated recording says, "I understand you want to speak with a customer service agent. But I really think we were getting somewhere." AHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Cox, seriously? I know you have a lot of people calling with mundane, ordinary problems, but you've got to at least allow one quick, obvious way to reach a human being. There are more than a handful of people using your service that know enough to never need to listen to your recorded tutorials. Your recordings aren't a blanket fix for everybody, and they just end up annoying most people.

If you're going to use a dumb recorded messaging system, at least make it work enough so you don't annoy your customers to the point where they start writing negative blogs about you.