I Hate COX

I really hate Cox Communications right now! My cable was freezing off and on last night, but if I changed the channel, it would unfreeze and be fine for the next half hour. I assumed it was just the channel I was watching. Then, tonight, 10 minutes before the Project Runway season finale, it starts freezing again. And doesn't unfreeze for 2 whole minutes. Even after I try chaning the channel. The picture finally comes back up but then proceeds to freeze every 30 seconds. Suddenly, the box re-boots itself. It takes 4 minutes for it to completely cycle and when it comes back on the 2 shows I am recording have stopped recording and it won't let me change from the default OnDemand channel.

That's it! I have had enough! I call in to tech support. I go through their automated trouble-shooting system (which consists of "did you turn it off then back on?") before a person finally takes my call. Now I'm more than 15 minutes into Project Runway and haven't been able to watch a single second of the show. RGH! The agent was way too peppy for my liking so her empathy statements just didn't ring true. She has the gall to ask how my night is going, so I ever so politely mention the lack of cable programming. To which she responds "oh yeah, well, besides that, has it been a good night?" WTF? Then when I jokingly ask her to hurry so I don't miss any more of my Project Runway Season Finale, she gasps, exclaims "OMG, I forgot that was on tonight! Well, I'm missing it too, to help you." Again, I state WTF? She proceeds to power cycle my cable box 3 more times which, ironically enough, make matters worse causing it to freeze, lock onto one channel, and phantom record the Weather Channel. She gives up stating my box is broken and I will have to exchange it the following day.

I get off the phone frsutrated and wondering what I should do with the rest of my evening when, miaculously, my box self-heals. It turns off on its own. It power cycles, on its own. I turn it on, and it already on channel 726-Lifetime HD showing Project Runway. I am more than 45 minutes into the show, but I watch the rest of the 2 hour season finale without it freezing a single time. I like to believe this is a miracle of some sorts. Or maybe karma for such a crappy week. Of course, I kind of hoped my karmic payback was a little bigger-say, in the form of that $172 million PowerBall lottery ticket I picked up last week in Phoenix using my father's birthday and date of death. That would have been sweet! But I will just have to settle for working cable.