My newly nominated "Worst Company" for customer service

[chief38]

Short and sweet, we have Xfinity for internet and cable service. We get that through our HOA at no additional fees - just as part of our HOA fee. They provide plenty of channels and high speed internet service along with the modem/router, 3 boxes (wired or wireless - your choice) for 3 tv's and the remotes. If anything breaks they replace the equipment for free. OK - that's the good news.

The bad news is when something goes wrong it is virtually impossible to talk with a representative on a live phone call. Chat sessions are a long wait and have long pauses between responses - almost like they are chatting with 3 customers at the same time. After a minimum of a half hour - 45 minutes of punching buttons on your phone and responding to AI prompts, MAYBE you can get a live agent in India, which at least for me is all but impossible to understand. After struggling to understand what they are saying and explaining my issues they usually tell me they can not assist and I must make an appointment for a technician to come out @ $100+ fee. OK fine, I make the appointment and the following day it gets automatically cancelled! When I spend another 45 minutes on the phone trying to find out why my appointment was cancelled, I get no answer but they will make another appointment for a few days down the road. I guess you get the idea by now - THEY SUCK!

I have a friend coming over tomorrow or Monday who worked in the business for decades (retired now) and he says he will be able to solve my issues. I certainly hope so as I have given up on Xfinity's customer care. BTW, we were given Xfinity's "bulk customer" phone line number because we go through our HOA. That's just window dressing because you are still going to the regular call center in India - regardless of the "special" bulk customer service number we have. Last time I had a box go out it took me 48 hours for someone with technical knowledge to restore the service, after spending hours trying to resolve them with chats and Indian agents.

Unfortunately, this is not just about Xfinity! This has happened pretty much with ANY company that needs to deal with the public now days - including the utility company's. Absolutely horrible!! So computers are going to make our lives easier and more pleasant now hey? NO WAY!!! I now put many of these company's in the same class as the USPS - bottom of the barrel! Rant over!

 

[Onomea]

Maybe try talking go the HOA board. If enough HOA members are unhappy with Xfinity, the HOA, I speculate, should either be able to switch to a more satisfactory service, or demand a lower price and pass on savings to HOA members.

 

[NYlakesider]

Well stated OP.
You hit the nail on the head in a couple categories. Trying to talk with a actual living entity is getting harder and harder. That holds true to many outfits out there not just the OPs.

You always get the talking machine that is programed to not allow you there by throwing all sorts of questions at you. If you finely persevere and get through to a human 9 out of 10 times your connected to beautiful downtown Delhi or Manila. Then you get a person that sort of speaks a obscure form of English and then proceeds to ask all the same things the talking machine did.

You then ask to be connected to someone hopefully in the US that English is a first language and knows a bit about the subject you called about. Of course most times the person that is "Helping" you will not/can not transfer your call and will say something like i speeka very gooood Engish and want to do the questions over again.

Yes this scenario is very frustrating but unfortunately very common.

 

[robertrwalsh]

IN my neck of the woods the customer service from them is easy to reach. It might not be very helpful and you might have trouble understanding them, but you can reach them.

 

[Greyman50]

Whuvt uuu tlkin aboot?

 

[rockquarry]

I've dealt with these companies too, regarding TV and Internet service. By design, they make it difficult for a customer to contact them. And once you do, you'll pay for bothering them by going through required rituals to restore service. They don't want to hear from you. Management and workers have their careers to consider rather than having to deal with unhappy customers.

 

[Kinman]

Whenever I have a problem with Xfinity I go over to the office and have been met with nothing but courtesy and respect, usually having my problem resolved in a satisfactory manner. I used to go in once a year and gripe about the rate increase, I usually walked out with more service for less money per month. Often it required a commitment to a yearly contract, I have been with Xfinity/Comcast/Cox Cable since the 70's when they first started. With very few exceptions everyone I know that went somewhere else has either come back or is continuing to have issues with service quality from time to time. Their rates are what they are, my old dad once said "Sometimes you have to wonder if the screwing your getting is worth the screwing you got." That replies to just about everything in life when you get right down to it, nothing is free. However when Cox first started out here my cousin got a job as a lineman. He was over to the house one day and saw my cable box and asked me if I had any premium channels. I told him all I could afford was basic cable but mentioned that my reception was amazing, picture quality unmatched by anything at the time and the price was reasonable. He said "Would you like more channels?" I told him sure but what I had was what I could afford. He asked for a screwdriver and a soldering iron. Pulled the framework out of the black plastic box and unsoldered one ground wire, proclaiming "There you go." I had everything that was available including HBO and the Playboy Channel. He said "The only way they could ever catch me was if someone was on the line outside." We used that black box until they went digital and we had to turn it in....ground wire resoldered of course.

 

[Doug M.]

Baxter/Vantive. A pox on them. They supply one component of my dialysis treatment (a specific solution that is only a couple thousand ML at the end). Everything else has been Fresenius, and those folks at all levels, from my clinic to the top management, have been great.

Baxter makes changes to deliveries without notice; screws around with delivery by UPS when I have told them repeatedly that UPS is not a viable option for this, and getting hold of a responsible person to address problems in a timely manner is not good. The regional delivery folks are pretty; had to have a driver here to move the last delivery, and he was great. This is not a delivery of fun stuff; it is critical to my well-being and timeliness matters. I don't like them, and I made very sure that they did not like me.

 

[ralph7]

Guess I am lucky.
Comcast called me the other day and made an offer to cut my monthly charges in half
for 3 years. All I have to do is pay a year upfront by sending a Target gift card to them.
What nice folks!!

 

[Kanewpadle]

We dumped Xfinity a few years ago. Best thing we ever did. Now have Verizon 5G. Light years better.

 

[Onomea]

I'm pretty happy with Verizon 5G, too.

 

[dben002]

Maybe try talking go the HOA board. If enough HOA members are unhappy with Xfinity, the HOA, I speculate, should either be able to switch to a more satisfactory service, or demand a lower price and pass on savings to HOA members.

Trust me when I tell you the HOA board is going with the cheapest service avail. But more to the point, if the homeowner is paying the HOA and not Xfinity then the HOA should resolve
trouble issues.

 

[LVSteve]

I wonder if the appointments get canceled because the account is with the HOA and your address doesn't match.

 

[chief38]

Trust me when I tell you the HOA board is going with the cheapest service avail. But more to the point, if the homeowner is paying the HOA and not Xfinity then the HOA should resolve
trouble issues.

Unfortunately, we are signed up with "the only real choice". In our area I do not believe Verizon offers service yet. The only other option might be satellite which pretty much everyone agrees is a lot worse. Xfinity's equipment itself is not the issue that is fairly good. They provide us with Netflix, hundreds of channels, fast internet and many many movie's, it's just whenever you need technical advise, a technician, a forced reboot, or anything at all goes wrong you sweat bullets to speak with a live person and when you finally get a hold of one it is very difficult to understand them. Yes, I can go to the physical store, but it's 1/2 hour away and who needs to waste time when a phone call would have done.

The other problem with Xfinity is the are "trained" to lie to the customers. They will tell you anything so you give them a good rating on the survey, but it's usually an out and out lie. For instance about 6 months ago I had a technician actually came to the house (had to go to the store to get one here) to repair the cable connections that were poorly made up and were shorting out. They told me I would not be charged because the wires in question were outside my home. They repaired the connections and the next billing cycle they charged me $106.50, I had to spend over an hour online and then after getting nowhere had to drive over to their store in the mall (1/2 hour each way). Finally they credited me, but what a hassle!!

They also told me that I should bring my main wired cable box into the store for an upgrade as they have new boxes with faster speed and better technology now. I did and the representative behind the counter just looked at me weird! He asked, "is it working" and I said yes, but it seems slow. He told me I had the latest version (3 years old) and the new boxes they have are just refurbished when they break but are no different or faster than the one I had. I insisted I go home with a "new one" which he finally agreed to give me but it was exactly the same as the old one. Turned out the issue was on our block and not my individual cable box.

I could go on and on but we have just not had a good experience with them! The exception is their cell phone service which uses Verizon's network. That is excellent, inexpensive and works well. $30 per cell line and includes unlimited data, calling and texting.

 

[JcMack]

I've had ATT since dial up was the only way to access the internet. Comcast was here but only as a TV provider. So I must have been with ATT for 20 years. I actually worked for ATT and found out customer service is not in their corporate vocabulary. The router they provided me is about 10 years old and it came with a sticker on the side of it that is has a little prayer you must recite every time the system crash's if you want the service restored.

 

[Jeff423]

I vote for Apple. After noticing several $9.00 - $11.00 Apple charges on my CC statement (we buy nothing from Apple except our phones) I contacted them for an explanation. It was impossible to get past the computer which said it couldn't find them - even with the 4 digit reference #. I contacted B of A. They canceled my CC, issued me a new one, gave me a temporary credit for all the Apple charges pending investigation/resolution and blocked Apple from charging my new CC.

 

[ameridaddy]

Guess I am lucky.
Comcast called me the other day and made an offer to cut my monthly charges in half
for 3 years. All I have to do is pay a year upfront by sending a Target gift card to them.
What nice folks!!

My poor recently widowed and gullible sister got burned like that to the tune of ~ $9,000 in home depot gift cards.
I want a baseball bat and two minutes in a locked room with the scumbag who did that to her.