CAX80 won't work at all on WOW Internet; firmware update ruined it

Received the second replacement today. Did absolutely nothing with it until I called WOW. This is the extremely detailed process I went through in calling WOW, so be prepared for a long read.

TL;DR VERSION: It's definitely WOW, and not a darn thing got resolved on the 2h15m call.

The WOW tech rep had me connect the coax cable for the first time, and then plug in the power supply to turn it on for the first time. All lights came on and cycled on like you'd normally expect -- including the 2.4 and 5G symbols, and the push-button symbols at the bottom.

During this time, I gave the WOW tech rep my MAC address so he could activate it on the ISP's end. (I had no Internet connection up to this point, but I wasn't saying anything as I was unsure what he had to do on his end.) He then confirmed my MAC address, and asked me to unplug it for 30 seconds, and then plug it back in. He then allowed 2-3 minutes for a reboot to happen.

During this reboot, the 2.4/5G symbols and the push-button symbols did not light up at all. It was just the top four lights, as well as the 1 flashing for activity for the ethernet connection of my laptop in the first port.

Once the 2-3 minutes passed, I still had no Internet connection, and suddenly it went into a reboot. This was a repeat of everything I had been experiencing in mid-November, and the two prior units, and the repeated calls with WOW tech support.

The tech rep took longer than that 2-3 minutes to speak again, and he asked me to connect to the Internet. I told him I had no Internet connection. He asked to confirm my MAC address again. He then went silent for a few and then said he did something on his end and to allow 2-3 more minutes. My unit rebooted during this. The rep confirmed that I was using a modem/router combo from Netgear.

Mid-reboot, he asked me to power cycle the unit by unplugging it. I waited a couple of minutes, then he asked me to plug it in, and allow it to reboot. Once again, everything lit up except for the 2.4/5G and the push-button lights. No Internet, either. There was no change in status. I told him as much. And it rebooted yet again. And once that finished, still no change in status.

Clearly, everything is being caused by WOW. At this time, I took over the call and just flat out told the rep that whatever WOW did in mid-November, it has "bricked" my unit from working. I could safely hypothesize it was a WOW issue from mid-November, because if the modem/router was incompatible with WOW, it would not have worked when I got it in mid-September, and not worked for approximately two months without a flaw.

He sent another signal and it rebooted. During this, he tried to say that a tech needed to come to my house. I said no, because in October, we hooked up all brand new wiring from the outside hub for the neighborhood to support the speeds I upgraded to. Everything was working perfect. There was no need for that because that wasn't the issue.

He took my info to escalate this, but I said maybe let's try to speak to someone in escalated tech. (When he said we needed a tech sent to my house, that was about the point I realized the tech rep had served his purpose and could not provide any more help.) He transferred me to the escalation team.

I explained everything to the new rep. She agreed that perhaps it was the signal from WOW being sent out that was causing the issue. She said maybe it was too strong of a signal. She sent me to an escalated troubleshooting team that can do more looking into things. I confirmed with her this wasn't the basic troubleshooting team I just got done talking to.

I was put on hold for 40 minutes, then spoke to an agent. She claimed that there is an Internet issue which is preventing modems from being activated. I said that was an Amazon Web Services outage, but this issue has gone on for closing in on a month, so it's not related to AWS. She wasn't able to help much because of the AWS issue, so she said to call back tomorrow. She gave me a direct phone number and a PIN for my case, and I call that tomorrow to repeat this entire process all over again. In the meantime, I swapped back to my old setup, confirmed I had Internet, and the call ended.

So, what the heck, I'll do this tomorrow I guess and see what happens. I have no faith at this point. I will update on this tomorrow. But I really need something to happen tomorrow one way or another. I've spent too much time messing with this.