First, I am a current subscriber to Cox Cable television services. While I am not ecstatic about the service, its signal glitches and its cost, I am more or less satisfied with the basic quality of the service itself.

My issue? I have been considering trying the cable internet for a number of months and have perused the site referenced here a number of times because of the offer of $24.99 (for 12 months) for the service usually offered at 49.99 per month. I have looked at the "terms of offer" pages for hidden charges or conditions a number of times as well and finally decided to give it a try today.

I clicked on the chosen service plan, arrived at the individual plan page with the offer clearly stated to be $24.99 for 12 months, and the $49.99 price struck through. I once again reviewed the terms page, went back to the offer page, clicked the order now button... and arrived at a page with the price... $49.99 at the top and at the bottom, as the offered price.

I contacted cox through on line help, was told they did not handle this type issue, was given 800.234.3993 to contact, waded through the automated prompts and was finally told by the employee "we do not handle this. I will give you the e offer department... 877.644.8387". The person I got after the prompts was not the right person and handed me off to the 'right person'. Things got more interesting from there.

The e-offer person, when asked why would a web site offering service at $24.99 lead to a 49.99 offer, explained that the page was showing how much the lucky consumer was saving! When asked why such confusion was needed and why would anyone who could clearly read $24.99 above the order now button, see $49.99 on the order completion page, with no reference to the previously offered 24.99 hit the submit button and complete the order in faith rather than visual evidence?

The e person repeatedly told me I did not get what I saw on the page. I told him I was looking at the page as we spoke, there was no reference to $24.99 on the page, and I had loaded the page several times already with the same result. He indignantly said "scroll to the bottom of the page!", to which I replied, "I am looking at the bottom of the page, and it says $49.99 just as it does at the top of the page". After several exchanges during which I told him, "I have trouble believing I am the only person who has viewed this page with this difficulty, though I am probably one of the few who, despite the task of simply contacting Cox about this problem, was until now still willing to purchase the service".

At this point I would like to report how much better things worked out, but... Mr. E-order gave me some unintelligable mumbo jumbo about my viewing settings or something keeping me from seeing what was on the same page he was viewing! I asked him how that solved my problem when I was sitting on the page while talking to him, had gone back and forth several times while doing so, and still was seeing what started the conversation in the first place. His response? GOODBYE SIR! CLICK! My response? This letter and the decision to increase my internet speed somewhere else.

Can you say Bait and Switch? At the very least, not a well executed set of codes in the offer pages, and a worst set of people "backing" it.