Never before have I dealt with a more disconnected company.
This saga started in December of 2019 when I decided to upgrade my service plan for TV, internet, and voice. I wanted to get more TV channels and found a promotion that cost less than my current plan. This plan came with 1,000 mb internet. SWEET!! So I did a little research, found the Arris T25 DOCSIS 3.1 (gigabit cable speed compatible) cable modem. So I went to my local Best Buy and shelled out over $200 for this speed demon and brought it home to do the easy self setup.
The easy self setup went like this: The Xfinity website did not detect my new modem, and I had to call support. After being on hold for roughly 30 minutes, the agent worked with me for more than 1 hour to configure my new modem. One of the first steps that she did was to send me a link confirming the removal of the Comcast owned modem from my account. I figured this was too soon, and it was. When she failed to get my new modem working, I asked for her to re-enable my previous modem. She said that was not possible until the request to remove the Comcast owned modem was completed, which may take several days. And the kicker, to get my new modem working they will need to send out a service tech for a $70 fee. Um, hell no put your supervisor on the phone! The supervisor listened to my issue, and got my new modem up and running within 15 minutes. Maybe the agent was a rookie, but it paid to get a supervisor on the phone.
A few days later I call Comcast to upgrade my plan to the gigabit speed package. When all was done I ran a speed test and it maxed out at 350mb. This was a nice improvement over my previous 100mb plan but not close to what I was paying for. Time to call Comcast again.
Calling Comcast these days is quite laborious in that if you are aware of what the problem is, you still are treated like a dummy and forced through various system health tests and modem reboots. All of this has to happen before you can wait on hold 40 minutes for an agent.
When I get an agent on the phone he sees something strange in my account with the HFC MAC address entered twice. He sends me to a higher up agent. This guy tells me he has never seen anything like this before and tries to fix it. We then go through the standard routine of restarting my modem, router, computer, etc. We do this several times and the speed test is still 350mb He also tells me that the plateau is 350mb and perhaps the instructions to go to 1000mb have not propagated to all servers yet. Give it 24 hours.
48 hours later, still 350mb. Let’s talk to mother Xfinity again who won’t let me talk to an agent before restarting my modem. Now this agent wants me to restart my modem and router again. We do this several times. I tell her this was done many times before but they have to follow the script. Here would be a point for improvement Comcast, you can have notes from previous support calls and just skip the script. Ultimately nothing helps, speed is capped at 350mb. The agent sets up a service appointment.
It’s now January 2020 and the service tech arrives and asks what is the problem I am having. RED FLAG! Apparently nobody in Comcast communicates. Are they not a communication company? I tell him the issue and he says…. “I don’t have a gigabit speed tester on me” Oh my! Brilliant! So we go to my computer, check out the speed test screen, yep 350mb. He plugs his laptop directly into my Arris T25 modem, speed test, wait for it, 350mb. For the record, I have the Arris T25 plugged into a Netgear Nighthawk router with Cat 6 cables, and a Cat 6 cable plugged into my 2018 Mac mini. He goes outside and checks the wiring then comes back and tells me there seems like a possible problem at the main box in the neighbors yard and he cannot fix it himself. He calls in a service order, I hear him on the phone starting to set up the order. He tells me he will come back in a few days with a gigabit tester.
Two weeks later, nothing. No service repair to the main box, no return with the gigabit tester. Did the service tech never complete the additional service request? Maybe he quit his job, who knows. So time to call Comcast again and deal with mother Xfinity. She wants to restart my modem. You know what, not today, I have to use the internet at the moment.
The biggest problem that I have found with Comcast is lack of communication. There is little or no communication with agents, service techs, and customers. I really don’t care about gigabit speed internet. 350mb speed is just fine for me. But I do want to get what I am paying for which at this point seems impossible to get. At this point I’m not feeling the energy to fight with them. How many more phone calls and modem reboots will it take? Mother Xfinity has won for now.