bait and switch

In August while logged into my Xfinity Mobile account I saw an offer for “FREE Unlimited Intro mobile line with 400 Mbps internet + FREE WiFi Equipment.  All for $50/mo for 2 years.”  I already had 400Mbps internet but the disclaimer did not state the offer was limited to new customers and I was viewing it while logged into my account.  At the time there was also an offer for a $100 gift card for each line ported.  Having not received gift cards from a previous offer and leery about missing something, I attempted an online chat who stated I would need to call.  I called customer service and spoke to “Jeffrey” (who stated he did not have an ID number) who repeatedly confirmed that I qualified for the offer and eagerly ported two phone lines, one for a by the gig plan and the other for the “free” unlimited intro plan.  

Of course when the first bill came I was charged for the unlimited intro line and my internet bill did not change.  After over 3 hours on the phone with customer service being placed on hold while they “research my account,” transferred multiple times, and being told various things including “don’t worry, we will take care of everything,” “that offer never existed” and “ that offer existed but you didn’t qualify” I finally spoke with an “Ellison” (again no ID number) who stated that after speaking with the “back office” he found out that I did sign up for the offer, he would credit my bill for the mistake, and future bills should be correct.  He did say however that the mobile division could not change the internet bill so he gave me a number to speak with them.  To prevent even more time on the phone with yet another representative repeating the same thing I asked him to directly connect me or at least put something in my account notifying them of the issue.  He was not able to connect me but stated he left a note explaining the issue.  When calling the internet division, they stated they were not aware of the offer and that only mobile could fix billing but were able to create a package that got my internet bill down to around $50 and increased my speed (which after doing speed testing did not change).  Well, mission accomplished, or so I hoped.

Guess what? On my latest mobile bill I am still being charged for the “free” unlimited intro line. After 136min and 23 sec on the phone today with three different people including Raul (who had an ID number but was not allowed to give it to me since it was ‘personal’) I was again told that the offer “did not exist.”  After stating there was a TV commercial for it last night I was then told that “it did exist but not at the time I signed up.”  When relating my hours long conversations several weeks earlier and the credit I received they stated that it was for “customer experience” and not for the offer I signed up for. After reading the screenshot and disclaimer of the offer I was told there was nothing they could do.   During this conversation I started looking up “Xfinity bait and switch” and came to this website.  Raul’s supervisor (I can’t recall her name but interestingly she gave me her EDIT:<Personal Information> stating that representatives can and should give their ID number) essentially reiterated what Raul stated and encouraged me to post to this site stating corporate reads this.  

Well, corporate, if you’re actually reading this, I have a few additional comments:

• The representatives I have spoken to after porting my lines have been nothing but polite and pleasant. I’d like to think they are really trying to help and are probably more frustrated than me since they are listening to same thing all day.
• Who exactly is the “back office”?!
• Jeffery who ported my lines was pleasant as well but I do wonder if he knew about the ‘bait and switch’ and is paid by the number of lines he opens or if he read the same thing I did.
• In case you don’t remember the Golden Rule that was probably taught to you by your parents, treat others as you would like to be treated.  If you make a mistake, take ownership of it and make it right.
• Your representatives should be given an ID number that they voluntarily share with customers.
• Years ago when visiting a Comcast office to drop off a set top box I thought it was funny that all the agents were behind ceiling high bullet proof glass. My bank didn’t even have that.  At the time I had asked why and the agent replied “people can get pretty upset about their TV.”  I now understand why.
• Transcripts of phone conversations should be made available by default to customers. Your chat feature has this but it does not work.  In fact, the only way I could post to this site was to log into Xfinity.com first and then log into the forum.   This issue has been mentioned in this forum since at least March.  It is now October. 
• It’s a good thing that you are a monopoly in many areas because if you weren’t, you would lose customers in droves.