Vermilion Parish Police Jury questions Cox Cable about closing Abbeville office

The closing of the Cox Communications store in Abbeville in November created a hardship for many of Vermilion Parish’s older, rural residents, and Vermilion Parish Police Jury members let a representative of Cox Cable know at the police jury meeting on Wednesday that they are unhappy with the company’s decision.
“As you all are aware, the Cox Solutions Store at 1906 Veterans Memorial Drive closed late last year due to low customer traffic,” said Kristina Sarai, director of government affairs for Cox. “This is a standard process for our company and part of ongoing work to ensure we have the right stores in the right place at the right time. We understand that the store closure impacts our customers, so I want to highlight some other channels we are utilizing to serve our customers.”
Those other channels include reaching the company by telephone, text or chat, and customers can pay their bills at various third-party locations such as Walgreens, CVS and Family Dollar. Equipment can be shipped directly to customers’ homes and Cox provides return boxes and pre-paid shipping labels for equipment returns, she said.
“We understand that some customers still prefer to meet with us in person, so our nearest stores in Lafayette and New Iberia do remain open,” she said.
That provides a hardship for many of Vermilion Parish’s older residents, District 6 Police Juror Mark Poche said.
“It’s a huge inconvenience,” Poche said. “We are an older parish, an older age parish, a lot of old people in the rural areas. I had to drive to New Iberia (to visit the Cox store). It’s not easy. It’s on the other side of New Iberia. It’s not an easy location. It’s not near (Louisiana Highway) 14, it’s not near (US) 90. It’s not an easy thing for just anybody to do.
“I, like these old people, don’t like to do things in a mailbox and you mail it to me and I mail it back to you. I’m the kind that’s going to keep it and throw it away because I don’t know what to do.
“So I’d like for y’all to reconsider. I think it warrants one in our parish. We have enough subscribers. Every time y’all came to us for a rate increase, we have approved every one. There never was one we didn’t, and we took the heat for it. So I’d like for y’all to reconsider that.”
“I can definitely take that back to our teams and let them know that you’ve made that request,” Sarai said.
Sarai added that at an Abbeville City Council meeting in November, she had been told of the need to assist senior customers in the parish.
“I want to be able to partner with you all if you have ideas how we can reach and help that community, I want to make sure that our door’s open for that,” she said.
“There’s a major difference between the city of Abbeville and the rest of Vermilion Parish, being rural,” District 8 Police Juror Errol Domingues said. “It’s a totally different entity here than across the street. It’s a totally different customer base. It’s an older base. It’s the most rural area around. You can’t compare us to Lafayette. You can’t compare us to Iberia. It’s a different parish. There’s a lot of our parish that doesn’t have Internet.
“When Cox was soliciting to extend Internet to some of those regions, the fee to do so was almost like a slap in the face to some of the residents and to some of us that represent some of those constituents, in the tens of thousands of dollars, to go sometimes less than a quarter of a mile from where it stops to get to an additional area. And then you pull that portion out of the parish and it’s even more inconvenience. Please reconsider.”
District 7 Police Juror Paul Bourgeois suggested having employees from the New Iberia or Lafayette office work a few hours a week at the Vermilion Parish store. Sarai said that Cox had done that at some point in the past as they tried to keep the Vermilion store open, and she would relay that idea to the company.
District 5 Police Juror Liz Touchet asked why the police jury wasn’t notified of the closing in November. Sarai said that was her mistake. She had notified the Abbeville City Council because the store was in Abbeville, but did not notify the parish government.
Poche asked how many customers the company has in the parish, and how much of the franchise fee comes to the parish. Sarai said she’s have to find the exact numbers and get that information to Poche.
“I don’t know what the exact number is, but I’m sure it’s a lot,” Poche said. “Every time that Cox has a rate increase, they come to this board and we approve it. And we take the heat on it. But we also take the heat when y’all pull the service out, as simple as the old lady who doesn’t understand requesting a box be mailed to her house, and doing everything, packing it and sending it back.
“All I would like is that y’all reconsider based off the numbers in Vermilion, and I’m sure the numbers warrant it.”
Domingues added the parish may need to look at other cable options.
“Maybe the parish needs to solicit another provider, that wants to house in Vermilion and employ Vermilion residents, and have an office for our people,” he said. “Maybe that will get their attention.”