27 Messages
After 20 years of loyalty, I'm about to leave Xfinity
It is with great disappointment that I have to write this letter. I have been a Comcast subscriber since it was Rogers Cable system and now Xfinity. I have been paying for Comcast for 20+ years and today was the straw that broke the camels back. Last month I received an email saying Xfinity is raising my bill $27 next month. So this month I received my bill and it is $304. This has went up in the past year from $214 for the same number of cable boxes (one which I can no longer watch on Demand because they stopped supporting it) and for the same number of channels including Starz, HBO, and Showtime. (Of which now they charge to rent movies that we use to be able to watch with our premium subscription or now requires you have a subscription to one of the 20+ channels which are now considered premium to watch the same movies) There use to be 5 premium movie channels: HBO, Starz, Showtime, Cinemax, and The Movie Channel. Within those channels you could watch any movie On Demand. Also in On Demand, you had a format where movies were broken down by New/Featured (Pay per view) movies, Premium movies with no ads, and New movies, then by network. Today there are Featured which is New movies they charge to rent or buy as well as old movies to rent or buy (Why am I having to rent an old movie? It use to be included in the Premium channels) New and Most Popular (which is a mix of everything on Netflix, premium channels and charges for old movies as well as new) Premium & Streaming from my services (It's like the previous section without the new movies. Now instead of being from just premium channels, it includes Pluto, Paramount, TBS, Screen Pix,Tubi, AMC etc which half have commercials or you have to rent it). We do not pay for Premium Channels to then go to on Demand to find out we have to watch it on Pluto or Tubi with commercials or to have to rent movies. In the last 2 years there has been a major switch to channels that use to be included on Demand with our package to now having to have a separate subscription for each network such as AMC+, Disney, Paramount, Peacock etc. Comcast has gone from a company which if you have that channel you can watch anything on it no matter who the creator of the movie is to now needing a separate subscription for the movie creator. We use to be able to watch Disney movies on HBO or Showtime and now we have to have a separate Disney subscription. And now I can watch a movie on Showtime that tomorrow they will charge me to rent the same 20 year old movie. Xfinity has become a fancy Roku, allowing us to watch apps over cable instead of using WiFi. This on top of the fact that Xfinity created a new app around July and since then my light switch which I purchased and had been using for the past few years flawlessly no longer works. I had a technician out to troubleshoot and when trying to add the light switch to the Home App (which my GE light is in) it says the app can't communicate with my touch screen. I've spent days on the phone, days with technicians, and days writing in to the app developers to get my light switch working again with no response from the developers and no follow thru. I have been trying since July and they just don't care. Also Xfinity stopped supporting my DVR with hard drive and so now I cannot watch On Demand. I asked if there is a way to switch over my movies I have saved and noticed that with the new boxes everything is saved in the cloud of which they delete after a year. I was told DVRs were never meant to save movies. (By nature, that's exactly what they were designed for) Let the customers decide when we want to delete the movies we record. So I over the past 2 years, Xfinity has gotten rid of the movies with no ads section On Demand, they require you to have subscriptions to multiple streaming services to watch a majority of movies or watch them with commercials on Tubi, Pluto, or TBS. They have stopped supporting my DVR and are forcing us to the cloud service so we can't keep our movies longer than a time frame they determine, They have stopped supporting my light switch which worked fine for years, or at least are unwilling to contact me and actually fix the issue, and they have raised my bill from $214 to $304 of which $27 was this month for the same exact package which now I have to rent or buy movies that I use to be able to watch or subscribe to another streaming service.
After receiving a bill $27 higher this month for no additional services (which I did not agree to) I didn't pay my bill on time because I needed to try to negotiate the bill back down. Last week my cable and Internet and security were cut by Xfinity and today I received a call to collect payment. I informed the agent of what happened and he stated that he can lower my bill up to $65 for the same services but in order to have access to the options, I need to pay the past due amount. He agreed to waive the late fees which I then paid. (He did not waive the reconnect fee) I was then transferred to another agent and I was on hold for 25 minutes then finally got thru to the Customer Loyalty section. After explaining what was going on with the extreme price hikes while receiveing less services the agent after 2 hours of being on the phone stated he was able to get my bill down to $236 keeping everything the same with fees and taxes. I asked if he could credit a couple cable boxes like they use to (especially since I can no longer use on Demand on my DVR with hard drive,) he told me to give him a minute to see if he could discount the boxes. I was put on hold and after 2 minutes a woman picked up and asked how she could help. I was confused as this was not the agent I had just spent 2 hours on the phone with and she stated she was with Home Security. I asked her to please transfer me back to the agent from the loyalty team as we were just about to finish up fixing my bill. I was told she has no idea the name or employee number of the agent I was talking to and there is no way for her to transfer me. This after 2 hours!! Absolutely insane! This is not ok on so many levels. I asked her to transfer me back to the loyalty team and she said she was going to. After dealing with Comcast for 20 years I knew exactly what was going to happen next, I was transferred and instead of going to the loyalty department, I was sent to the beginning all over. Over 2 hours of my life wasted. So after going thru the prompts and saying no to the automated system sending me a link the agent picked up and transferred me to the loyalty department. Then another 15 minutes on hold only to be told by Matt, that there is no way he can put me thru to the agent I had the 90 minute conversation with. I then explained everything all over and was told that there was no way he could lower my bill to what the previous agent stated. He kept saying it must of been before taxes or he had the wrong account etc. I asked Matt to look up to see who I had just been talking to for 90 minutes and let's get him back on the phone to clear things up and see how he got my bill down to $236. He said there was no way to do that and only supervisors can look that up. Just a bunch of excuses and him pushing me to cut my services if I wanted to lower my bill. I asked him to escalate the case and at no time was I offered any kind of compensation for the 2 hours of my life wasted. Then 3 hours later (which I was actually pleased about) I was contacted by the Customer Loyalty supervisor. I explained everything that happened (again was never offered any kind of compensation for the 2 1/2 hours wasted) I once again explained everything that happened, and asked if we could get the first agent that got my bill down to $236 on the phone and the supervisor stated "what most likely happened was the first agent misspoke and once he figured out he couldn't get the price down he transferred me and they will rededucate him" . I said how about we just get him on the phone to find out how he got there and I was told "it will be looked in to". The supervisor then proceeded to apologize and tell me while she appreciates my 20 years of loyalty, all she can do is bring my bill down $25 dollars if I sign up for auto pay but then my Showtime would not be included so I would have to pay for that so pretty much all she could do was bring my bill down $15 for auto pay. After 20 years that's all she could do. I asked to please escalate this case to the next level and she said no and this is as far as it's going to go as her bosses don't have time to reach out to customers. She stated she can lower my bill $15 dollars for auto pay, reduce my services to lower my bill, or she can set it up to have my services discontinued. I asked again to please escalate the case to a district or regional manager as 5 years ago the only success I had with the loyalty team was when a regional supervisor reached out to me and my bill was brought down from $230 to $176 with taxes. I'm not sure if Xfinity hired a new President/Vice President/CEO or what, but in the last 2 years especially the last year everything has gone drastically down hill. Everytime I have called in, I get to the first level of supervisor and am stonewalled. This after 20 years and over $30,000 in payments. There is absolutely no customer service when it comes to calling in, there is zero accountability, half of the people are working from home, there is no communication between departments, and they are jacking up the rates yet providing less services. Xfinity could quadruple its profits by dropping its rates to $100 for every channel, security, and wifi because Xfinity would be in almost every home in America. Instead they would rather squeeze every single penny out of its most loyal customers and the middle class who can barely afford it..
I am writing this letter today to be a voice for the many other customers who are experiencing the extreme disrespect and unprofessionalism we have been treated with and to ask one last time for a regional manager or someone who has the power to make change to contact me. There is a reason anti monopoly laws were created and it is for this reason exactly. By having no other cable company to offer competition in the area, Xfinity can get away with continuously raising rates with no justification and without providing more or better services and we just have to take it or go without. I'm about to go without after 20 years of being a loyal customer and sticking with your company even though there has been errors and miscellaneous charges to my account over the years. We shouldn't have to play this game of where every two years we have to call in to hagle with you over the price of our bill just to get a fair deal. Once the cable is ran to my house there is no overhead in sending the signal to my house. I have had the same cable boxes in my house for the past 5 years and you raise the cost on them, there has been no additional channels or premium services added and yet you continue to jack up my rates. This is simply about greed, and Xfinity nickel and diming us while their CEO's and presidents get huge bonuses and outsource and automate their customer service. I ask you to please have a regional manager contact one of your most loyal customers. 20 years of being a customer I hope would earn me that much and to not have you constantly raise my rates month after month. And if you aren't willing to do that then I guess I will be getting a Roku, a Ring home security, and Ziply. I need my bill to go back down to no more than $220 a month for the same services I am receiving now, and I need someone at your home security to fix the home app so my light switch works, and I'm sure all of us would appreciate you bringing back the format of On Demand that has the section "Movies without ads". Thank you for your time, I hope we can continue to do business in the future. Just do right by your customers and rethink your current business model. I am sure I am not the only 10 year plus customers that is just tired of having to have this same conversation over and over. Your loyal customers is what made Rodgers cable Comcast, and Comcast into Xfinity...
Respectfully,
~Chris
user_pjl2cq
1 Message
8 months ago
Sorry this happened to you. I unfortunately have had a very similar experience recently speaking with a customer service rep. My bill has gone up nearly $80 in a 2 year period, and with less services now. When I used to speak to the representatives on the phone, it always sounded like they wanted to do what they could do retain my business. This time, it sounded like they could care less if I cancelled right then.
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tbill1
Contributor
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652 Messages
8 months ago
FYI , Xfinity does separate movies without commercials On Demand. On Demand / Movies / Premium & Streaming from your services.
All movies in this section are free without commercials if you subscribe to the appropriate service. The movies with commercials are the next section down called "free movies"
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user_15a8c0
27 Messages
8 months ago
Here's an update....
A bit ago I posted the previous letter explaining how Comcast has raised my bill from around $220 to over $300 in the past year. So I decided to not pay and asked to talk to a district supervisor. In over a month I have not heard from one Supervisor trying to make things right and not lose me after 20 years, only received calls from Bill collectors. Well yesterday I received a call from a Collector named Wayne, who said my account is past due and can I pay it. I told him I could, but I'm not going to as the district or regional supervisor I asked numerous times to reach out to discuss my bill with has not called. He then educated me that I have only been a customer for 17 years not 20 and the reason they haven't called is because my bill is not up to date. (Which last month I paid my bill for this reason and then was told they could get my bill back down to around $220 and then the agent helping me was disconnected and I was transferred to an agent that said he was wrong and he probably figured out he made a mistake so transferred me) I let Mr.Wayne know I need the district or regional manager to call so we can discuss my bill or I'm finished with the price gouging and the squeezing of every dollar out of us. Mr. Wayne then seem to get aggressive and defensive and kept just mocking what I said. After explaining to him all the increases on my bill for example my cable box cost went from $7.99 to $9.99 for boxes I have had for 10 years. So instead of saying let me look into it, he said well at if anytime you wanted new boxes you can swap them out. I told him I don't need to swap out my boxes, they work just fine the issue is you now charging me an extra $8 a month out of the blue. The cost of maintaining my box did not go up, I am not receiveing any more performance out of my boxes, so the increase in charges is (Edited: Inflammatory).. He continued to be aggressive and told me there is nothing he can do and that he is in Collections.. So for 10 minutes on my way to work a guy from collections wants to get into an argument with me trying to justify gouging me and other customers and isn't even the person that can help me. Good Job Comcast!! You are really doubling down on your great customer service. I am willing to talk to a district supervisor if you will please have them call me. In the past this has been the only level where I can get a competent person who doesn't make promises and the screw up my bill. I am asking for a 5th time to please have the regional or district supervisor call me. I don't want to leave Comcast, but I won't be price gouged and disrespected. There is absolutely no accountability in this company. And to top it off, they keep adding charges to my bill even they disconnected my cable.
(edited)
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user_15a8c0
27 Messages
8 months ago
Today after reaching out multiple times, I received this message from Comcast/Xfinity. After 20+ years of being a customer they are unwilling to step back from their computer and pick up the phone. The days of customer service and valuing the people who stick with you are gone.. Here is the message and my response:
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user_15a8c0
27 Messages
8 months ago
Good morning everyone, I just wanted to give you another update. On Tuesday I received another call from Xfinity. Once again it was not from a supervisor reaching out to discuss my bill and the excessive charges, instead it was again from them trying to collect payment from me which I have replied several times I will pay as soon as a supervisor takes the time to reach out and have a conversation with me. I explained what was going on and that after 20 years of being a loyal customer I don't think asking for a district supervisor to take 10-20 minutes to discuss what's going on is too much to ask. She replied by saying she understands my frustration and just talking to me as a person, Comcast is going to continue to add the full monthly charges to my bill even though my services have been turned off. So as it is right now, my cable TV, my home security, and my wifi have been shut off yet Comcast is continuing to charge me as if I am receiving those services. I said I understand them charging me for the equipment that I have but how are they going to charge me over $300 when I'm not receiveing any services? This is one of the most greedy, corrupt companies I have ever dealt with. I'm not sure if they had a change in the CEO in the past couple years but the company has demonstrated it does not care about its customers, it does not want to give us a fair price for our services, and it is unwilling to reach out to the people that have supported them the longest. All they care about is getting every dollar they can out of us while the services they provide are getting worse. I was told that if I pay my bill, the one that I have been charged for services I did not receive, they would give offer me a $60 a month credit for 6 months. It's a continuation of the Comcast game where they offer you a limited discount which doesn't even bring me close to what I was paying before the excessive charges. How about offer me a deal where my bill isn't going to keep going up excessively, and where I have to call in every 6 months to see if you have a promotion going on. I have been dealing with this game for way too long. Just charge us a fair price and we will be happy to pay. Just stop nickel and diming us to death. If you listened to your customers, charged everyone a set fee which is fair, and didn't continuously add random charge increases, your profits would double as everyone would have Xfinity in their home. Your business model of giving your customers a promo then jacking up their bill over and over is getting old and you are losing profits and customers because of it. The fact you are charging me for services I'm not even receiving shows where your values and ethics are. You want to triple your profits, offer all the cable channels, and wifi for $150 a month with fees and taxes instead of charging the people who can barely afford it $280. Once you have your service lines ran, there is no additional overhead costs except the initial install. After that your profits would double because the number of happy customers would double. Just a thought. Instead you would rather squeeze every penny out of the people struggling to pay their bills and tell us take it or leave it. Thanks Comcast for your great customer service!
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user_15a8c0
27 Messages
8 months ago
And once again, not one call after a month except asking me for my payment. And after I replied on here over a week ago, they are now asking me for all of my info again and telling me they cannot call. So they can call to ask for money (which they are charging me $300 a month for my shut off services) but they are unwilling to have a Supervisor call to lower my bill back down to what it was before the gouging.. And after a month they told me there is no ticket with a request to escalate this.
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user_15a8c0
27 Messages
8 months ago
Here are some messages they sent to my direct mailbox giving excuses for the price hikes and that I can turn in my cable boxes to cut costs:
"
(edited)
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gggardner4
Visitor
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1 Message
7 months ago
I have very much the same complaints as Chris, though my primary issues are their customer service and their pricing. Customer service appear to be only out-sourced people from other countries and nobody to actually dialogue effectively with due to the reps are likely ESL English Second Language. I am accustomed to haggling every 2-3 years to keep a reasonable plan without significant increases, but my 90 minutes on the phone yesterday was the worse call ever with Comcast. I've been with comcast for over 30 years. This call with "retention /loyalty" was utterly awful. I spoke with 2 (ESL) retention employees from India most likely, who were unable to understand that I can't and won't pay 25% more for internet-tv services. I actually expected them to offer me some sort of plan to keep me because they've done that 4-5-6 times prior. The only plans they actually offered to reduce my monthly bill back down to ~215.00- month would include drop my Netflix and ~20-25% of the programming and services that I have always had. That wasn't even crystal clear by the way they presented the plans. I had to ask for clarification to get that out of them. Comcast appears willing to do nothing to keep older loyal customers who helped make them who they are. Comcast appears to be poised to lose customers. There is only one way to deal with this kind of disregard. There appears to be a trend,, DAH!
Keep leaving in droves until they are forced to change their trajectory!
Gregg
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user_l1pdl1
2 Messages
6 months ago
I am now too canceling my service. After 15 years. This is to much money. Also was a Xfinity phone customer and after they overcharged me 381.00 and refused to refund it I am canceling them. I’m also going to keep there phone for 303 days as that is what they charged me in time. I will then send it back to them.
comcast your loss of 5,000 plus customers a day is going to hurt you. For me it’s over 381.00. That’s one months cable bill. Oh well I’m free.
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user_f7ee27
Contributor
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53 Messages
6 months ago
wow, i didn't know their was a customer loyalty department. i've been with them for 17 years. first time i ever heard of that dept. That is no surprise, but "they appreciate you being a loyal customer of xfinity. after they have treated you HORRIBLY on the phone. PLUS, they will try to sell you a cell phone! Yea, "we don't compensate for time. only loss service". yea, they don't want to compensate for lost service. any prior credit they use again you for your lost service. EVEN though the prior credits had NOTHING to do with your loss service. again, i just figured out that their modem caused my massive problem. so, i get to pay for their modem massively messing up my service. my massive waste of time to get frustrated, irritated, mad, etc. mean nothing. YOU PAY to get massively irritated, etc. Yea, u have to go through 10 level 1 techs that barely know anything who can't even activate a modem. you have to massively beg a ton to get a higher up person.. all this time with the ten techs i'm saying "you should know how to do this deal.. i said i could do it myself if i had a comcast laptop. told them that MANY times. to many level 1 "so called techs". they know i can do it myself. i learned that about two weeks later after full time job of dealing with comcast. that would of save me a TON of time. oh yea, it's horrendous. i'm really surprised you got your home security with comcast. i'm shocked you got a regional manager to contact you. i'm shocked that someone let your problem get to a regional mgr. HAVE you dealt with their problem that caused your problem from JULY until FEB? you no longer be a customer so this could be a waste of time. i'm VERY GLAD that you wrote this letter not just for yourself, but also for other customers. so much more i could say, but i've been forced to waste valuable time with comcast for horrendous service, bad equipment. i never thought about getting an increase for renting equipment, yet you have had the same box for five years. i hope things have worked out for you.
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user_17jnz8
1 Message
5 months ago
Same,
I had every service Xfinity offered and like many, yield a 20+ year run as well... I am now down to 1 service. I Wasn't aware of a loyalty department, since at one point I was even paying for my parent's services at their home. I believe paying $125/month for internet only is robbery, let's be honest. I tried using the mobile service only to be paying another $45/month. Let me preface, before cutting out all the other services, I would call and try to work out something. I am always offered more products for more money. If I am trying to lower my bill, adding a $25-$40 service doesnt help. Let T-mobile's $40 service with trial period work... I am done with the non-chalant approach and paying good money for it.
Thanks,
Chan
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user_567mi2
1 Message
4 months ago
Sadly, I've gotta say I'm with Chris on this one. I've been a very loyal customer for 30+ years and am repeatedly told I'm one of their "top-tier" subscribers (whatever that means?) whenever I call with a problem, which is sadly more often than it should be. I suppose it could be the length of time I've been a customer, or the fact that my bill is well over $400.00 per/month (i.e., seven tv sets, internet, phone, home security, etc.), presumably it's some combination of both. Additionally, I'm also a Comcast Business customer, so all my services combined are costing me well over $700.00 per/month, combined.
That being said, however, I, like Chris, have watched prices skyrocket and customer service plummet for quite some time now, just about to the point of my sad departure. "Tech support" has become a joke, outsourced to foreigners who apparently know less about how cable tv works than I do. Endless time trying to navigate the phone menus, screaming "Representative! Representative!" while the system forces me to unplug my box or modem, plug it back in, and wait for it to reboot -- like I didn't think of that before I bothered calling. Did I forget to mention that I've had service for like thirty (30!!!) years...?
In any event, I'm not here to write a manifesto, but did want to at least back Chris up in the sentiment that Comcast or Xfiniity (or whoever [Edited: "Language"] they are this month) seriously needs to step up their game or face losing some long-time loyal customers. There are, in fact, other options out there these days that are far less expensive and frustrating, so the end of the days of having your foot on our necks is nigh.
So seriously..., step up your game folks! I assure you, Chris and I are not the only two out here who feel this way. Not by a longshot. And I want to stay, but don't think I won't leave. Everyone has their breaking point.
(edited)
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lkillian121
New Poster
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10 Messages
3 months ago
I've about had it, too, Chris. My 86-year-old mother has been with xfinity for thirty years. She has been getting charged for 24/7 professional monitoring and she doesn't even own a camera. It's been over ten years since xfinity has tested their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. A representative said that charge is for door and window "alarms". They also charged a late fee to my mobile bill two months in a row. Automatic payments have been set up for years. I was forced to manually pay them with the same payment method. My mother is also being charged for equipment she does not have. Her bill is $351/month!!!!! I qualified for the APC and they failed to apply it. I was repeatedly told I did not qualify, despite the proof that I had. There have been countless issues with xfinity over the last thirty years. We are down to one TV that utilizes xfinity. The other three are smart TVs. Xfinity is well aware that their cable will soon be a thing of the past. They are literally stealing from my elderly mother.
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EASmitty
New Poster
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8 Messages
3 months ago
Add my voice to the chorus. I went through the horrible, horrible phone three several times before I could get them to acknowledge my request for an agent—and then I was told the only possible way to "speak" to anyone was through text. An hour and a half of texting and them trying to get me to sign a contract that way...after I told them no contracts...I asked them to move it to email so I could actually read it. Then they tried to give me a phone to get me on a mobile plan. They said they would send the proposal through email. Then the agent stopped texting and never sent the email. They forced me into a wifi equipment change so they could remove my free DVR space, then tried to upsell me on wifi. When I wouldn't do that, I started getting notices that I was going over data....which we had never done before and are doing nothing different. Exorbitant fees, the website is designed to send you in circles, and it's the worst customer service I have EVER encountered. Apparently they work on commission because every time you contact them, someone tries to high pressure you into buying stuff you don't want. I've been a customer for a very, very long time but that's about to change. Stupid and infuriating way to do business. My bill last month was $358.
You'd think a company would have someone reading these posts and trying to find ways to keep long-term customers. All they do is send you back to the AI phone tree from hell.
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user_1t2vj6
1 Message
2 months ago
Same happened to us. When our contract is up, we are leaving. We’re with them for 15 years. Really bad now.
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