Cox never activated my service, but my internet still works and I haven’t been billed
I moved into my apartment in June and signed up for Cox internet.
Mid June: I got my original order confirmation. It showed around $55/month including taxes/fees, with a 24-month promotion: a $74 discount for month 1 and then a $19/month discount for months 2–24.
When Cox came for the installation, the tech said the equipment/receiver serving my floor had too weak of a signal for him to complete the installation on his end. He told me to pick up a Panoramic Wifi Gateway from a Cox store and plug it in myself.
I did, and it worked immediately and has worked perfectly ever since.
Apparently the order was never actually completed/activated in Cox’s system. I got an email saying the order was on hold and would be canceled, but my internet continued working just fine and I’ve never been billed for service.
End of July: I called Cox to resolve the issue. They told me I just needed to return my current gateway and they’d give me another one. After the call, I received a new order confirmation showing $74.91/month instead of $55.91 — seemingly without the $19/month discount from my original order.
Cox then emailed saying I needed to return my gateway but I haven’t gotten around to it yet and they eventually added a $240 unreturned equipment fee to my Cox account.
The $240 has not been charged to my bank/card. It’s just sitting on the Cox account. I’ve also still never been charged a monthly internet bill.
Meanwhile, the exact gateway Cox considers “unreturned” is still plugged in and giving me perfectly working internet.
So… would you actually do anything?
Part of me wants to leave it alone until the internet stops working. Cox’s email specifically says the $240 equipment fee will be credited when they receive the gateway, so couldn’t I theoretically just keep using it and return it for credit whenever it eventually stops working?
My concerns are whether the $240 could eventually go to collections, whether Cox could retroactively bill me for months of service, and whether waiting several months to return the gateway would affect getting that $240 credit.
Anyone dealt with something like this? Would you fix it now or just leave the working internet alone?