Over the years, I have grown accustomed to my decent-speed home internet. If I needed to google something urgently, I had my mobile phone for that. I could even say that I was happy that I did not have "blazing speed" internet at home because the lack of speed taught me patience. Sure I had to let the youtube videos buffer before I could watch the 4 minute clip without it freezing, but it was not like I was deprived of life's necessities.. 

One day, my family did decide to finally upgrade our cable/internet/phone services. We all thought we were making the right decision and step out from under our technological rock. At the time, there was a really good promotion with Xfinity/Comcast for a triple bundle which was slightly lower than what we were currently paying, so we decided to switch providers! 

I had heard of the terrible customer service reputation that Xfinity/Comcast had in the past, but I thought those were just rare instances with people waking up on the wrong side of the bed. I even knew a few Xfinity/Comcast reps who worked in retail stores who were stand-up guys! I never would have imagined that I would be in one of those customer service horror stories.. 

My experience with the Xfinity/Comcast customer service was so terrible that it prompted me to write my first ever letter of complaint. I don't know if anyone from Xfinity/Comcast will ever address my concerns, let alone actually read it, but I hope it does help someone avoid an experience as terrible as mine. 

My letter was as follows: 

Tom Karinshak

Senior Vice President of Customer Experience

Xfinity/Comcast Corporation

Dear Mr. Karinshak,

    I sincerely hope this letter finds you well. It may come as a surprise to you that there have been many customer service complaints in the past that have been swept under the rug due to the high volume of customers that Xfinity retains, despite having all these complaints. However, there are many complaints from disgruntled customers that find themselves in online discussion forums regarding the lack of genuine customer support from Xfinity’s Customer Service. I have never written a letter of complaint before, but I write this letter to you in hopes that you can use my story as a catalyst to improving the customer satisfaction culture within your company. 

    Almost two months ago, my family finally decided to switch to Xfinity service. Many of our friends are Xfinity customers and I even know a few acquaintances that work as retail salesmen for Xfinity/Comcast. We spent a few days looking over all the available options in our area and decided to go with the Starter Triple Play package believing that it would make our lives better; having the “fastest in-home Wifi”, “high-quality HD picture on every package” and “reliable home phone service”.  After briefly speaking with a customer service representative, we scheduled the soonest available installation date (about a week and a half from the day we called). We were all very excited that we were finally going to upgrade our internet/tv services! 

    The installation day could not have come any sooner! The technician came at 11:00 AM; right on time! His English was not the best, but we understood the gist of what he was trying to say. His job entailed technical work, not conversational, so we did not dwell on this inconvenience. However, it would have been nice to have spoken with the installation technician to understand what he was doing. After all, the customer service representative we scheduled the installation with had assured us that the technician would be walking us through every step of the installation and would be knowledgeable in answering any questions we may have. 

    After a few minutes of pleasantries and showing the technician where our previous cable box and phone lines were located, he went straight to work. And moments later, he was on his phone, speaking to a friend and laughing. We do not speak Spanish, but we could tell that his tone was more casual versus formal, so he was most definitely not speaking with an Xfinity/Comcast coworker. We thought this behavior was a highly unprofessional. After about 10 minutes of dealing with wires, and plugging in different boxes, he told me to call the house number to see if the house line works. It did. He them told me to check if the wifi was working, it did. He then handed us our previous cable box and told us to “ship back to old company”. He handed me the paper to sign off that the installation was complete, and once my signature was on the paper, he began to walk away! 

    Were we supposed to just magically know how every thing works? He also did not help install our current router, which we wanted to keep using because of its signal strength. This was a very important part of the installation that I had explicitly asked the customer service representative prior to scheduling the installation, and I was assured the technician would be able to help us connect it. 

    I asked the technician how I could use my router instead of the all-in-one modem he had just installed without telling us what he was doing and what he was installing [because he barely spoke English] and he just kept repeating “no”. I tried to ask further questions to inquire how to solve this situation and he simply told me to “call customer service”, and then he left. Just like that. No more pleasantries. I was extremely frustrated at the lack of customer service this technician had, so much so that I called customer service 5 minutes later to get this issue resolved. 

    Upon speaking with the customer service representative, I was asked if the technician was able to explain what he was doing and answer any questions about the installation process or product; to which the answer was No. I was also asked if the technician wore shoe covers over his boots upon entering our home; to which the answer was No. During my conversation with the customer service representative, we also found out that only ONE television was working.. This was the point at which I was baffled. Why was this moment, the FIRST TIME I was told that each individual television needed a box in order to get the hd channels, and that each box was a rented unit, meaning we needed to pay an additional $50 per month (for 5 other televisions in our home)?? I also was told by the first customer service representative that I could use my own router, but this was not the case according to the second customer service representative. If I had known all this BEFORE installation, I would not have switched to Xfinity! I did my research and this information was NOT easily available on the Xfinity website. Furthermore, the first customer service representative should have addressed all the issues that entailed switching over to Xfinity from a different cable/internet/phone provider, such as asking us how many televisions we have in our home and that each television needs its own box to receive hd channels! 

    This service was unacceptable. The last customer service representative I spoke with was very patient, very knowledgeable, and very assuring that he wanted to make things right. However, with all these issues that compiled on the day that was supposed to make our lives easier, I could not see the value in switching to Xfinity. The customer service representative helped us cancel the service right then and there, and I was told that I would get a 100% refund. Of course, they could not send a technician to pick up their equipment and undo what was done (which caused a much bigger headache over the next few days). I went to UPS and shipped the Xfinity equipment that same afternoon. 

    A few weeks later, I received a letter in the mail telling me I have a bill to pay with Xfinity. This was very upsetting because I was told that my service with Xfinity was done, and that I would receive a 100% refund. I called customer service again to get this issue resolved, and after 2 hours on the phone, they told me that my account was NOW closed and that I did not need to pay this bill. However, since then, I have received 2 letters in the mail and several voicemails telling me that I need to send in the Xfinity equipment. The same equipment that I had shipped back on the same day of the installation. The same equipment that I received an email confirmation telling me that Xfinity had already received the equipment back. So I was not sure why I was getting letters in the mail, and automated phone calls and voicemails telling me to return the equipment. This also forced me to call customer service yet again, to get this straightened out. 

    I do not understand why there is such a large disconnect between the Xfinity customer service reps, the technicians, and the other departments. 

    Perhaps I was just unlucky with how terrible this installation experience was, but this is not something I will ever move past. I’m sure Xfinity has fast internet speed and great HD channel options, however, it disheartens me to say that I will never become an Xfinity customer after this train-wreck of an experience. 

    I’m sure that there are good customer service representatives and installation technicians working at Xfinity; I just wish that one of those representatives had helped me from the get-go. 

    In closing, I would like to remind you of your statement which can be found on the Xfinity website in regards to customer service; and I sincerely hope that your corporation takes a good look at how it’s employees are treating their customers, both current and potential.

From your Customer Care Improvement Letter found on xfinity.com (http://www.xfinity.com/Corporate/Customers/TomKCustCare.html) 

"We know that our customers often want to speak with us – a real person. So, we’re continuing to invest in our frontline agents more than ever, empowering them with better tools and processes, so they are equipped to help you the first time you call us. We’re reimagining the way we interact with our customers, not just fixing the experience that exists today. Our promise is to bring you the best experience every time, every interaction."

Sincerely,

Stephen G.

The image above was not of my home or of my customer service technician. The image credit belongs to Brad Bourque from DigitalTrends.