It’s pretty hard for Cox Cable to change the name on your account, as Keith and his wife (the original account owner) discovered recently. First they have to disconnect your service, then reconnect it under the new name—and that probably requires all sorts of paperwork and labor. Probably hours of work! Probably someone has to drive out to somewhere and manually do something!!! That’s clearly why they hit Keith with a $20 Digital Activation Fee and a $20 Video Activation Fee.

My fiance and I signed up for Cox cable service [in San Diego] last May when we bought a home together. We signed up in her name as she was an existing subscriber and just transfered her account to our new address. We married, but still received our cable bill under her previous name. I handle the bills so we decided to have it sent to us under my name.

My wife set it up over the phone no problem. When I received the new bill under my name, I discovered a $20 Digital Activation Fee and a $20 Video Activation Fee in addition to our regular charges.

I called customer service and spoke to Michael. After looking into the issue, he said it was a legitimate charge as they had to disconnect the service, then reconnect the service back on to change our name! He was sorry, but that’s the way that they do it.

I couldn’t believe it. Seriously. Since when do you have to physically turn a service off then turn it back on again to change a name on a computer screen?

I’m not a huge fan of AT&T, but if they bring their UVerse video service to our neighborhood, I will remember this incident.

(Photo: LabyrinthX)

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