Customer Service Agent Scam

A cautionary tale regarding a customer service rep offering a promotion that didn't exist, and how Xfinity expects me to pay $700 for that.

In April 2024, I had a problem with my email and internet service. After some troubleshooting, on 4/2/2024, I live chatted Xfinity and ordered a new Xfinity XB8 gateway to replace my two-year old Motorola MG8725 modem; Motorola's top-of-the-line device was no longer an Xfinity-approved device. After the new rental order was placed, the Xfinity agent offered me a "free iWatch as token of apology". Then he asked for my SSN. I didn't want to share that at first. After 45 minutes of live chatting to discuss the details, I finally gave in and placed the order. He had assured me that the $27.92 monthly mobile charge for the watch (which included the $10 line charge) would be offset by a $30 per month discount on my internet services billing. He repeated this a total of six times during the live chat. I have the transcript. For example, he typed specifically: "You will also get $30 discount by adding this watch line on your internet bill so this will be FREE for you." I asked why the discount wasn’t shown on the iWatch order that he sent me and he told me that it the discount would be handled by Xfinity Internet Services so it isn’t shown on the Mobile documents, but “please be rest assured”that the $30 discount will be applied.

 

In a few days, I received the watch and the monthly mobile bill began including the new charges. But I never got any discount on my internet bill. For the next four months, I live chatted and spoke with at least 15 Xfinity representatives and, more recently, Xfinity executives. Some of them created tickets and I was promised callbacks and "fixes" several times that never happened. During one call in July, I was told that the discount would be applied "manually" each month. On my July internet bill, there was no discount, but there was a new $390 "Disputed Charges" line item, and the Disputed Charges increased to $765 on the August bill. There was also an increasing negative (credit) "New Balance" on these bills (-$401.65 in August), so I thought this is how they would "manually"handle the discount.

 

I didn't make any payments in July and August because I thought the credit balance was being applied. Then I got a past due notice in my email. I called Xfinity to find out what to do and representatives told me that there was a negative balance so ignore the emails. On July 30, I was told: “… you do not have to make any payments”. I have that transcript too. On August 30, I came home after a short vacation to find that Xfinity had stopped my internet service. I called the 1-800 customer service number and explained the situation. They told me that I must pay the past due amount now to get service. I explained there was a credit balance, that I was told I didn’t have to pay, and the call was again escalated to a supervisor. He restored service during the call and told me that I would get another call or an email within 24 hours from a higher level with further info. No one ever called or emailed and, in 48 hours, internet service was turned off again. I discovered it after getting home after business hours and, at that point, I just paid the requested past due amount on line in order to get service restored right away.

 

The following day, I called Xfinity again and spoke with another representative. He transferred me to a supervisor. The supervisor reviewed the records and told me "in her 20 years she never saw anything like this" and the situation "was above her pay grade". There were 7 tickets in the file. She said that she didn’t see anything in the records that mentioned how to address the discount. She suggested that I call the Philadelphia corporate office and gave me a phone number to call. Since it was 4:50 PM by then, I called Philadelphia the next morning and, after being transferred a few times, a corporate person escalated the dispute and gave me a new “ESL…” ticket number. The following day, I got a call from Xfinity Corporate in "Executive Customer Relations". He told me that this iWatch promotion never existed and that they did not have any record of the April 2 live chat transcript. I was looking at the two-hour-long, word-for-word transcript on my monitor at the time and I offered to email it to him. I told him that, in previous conversations with Xfinity people, they said that they could read the transcript. He said I could email him the transcript and he'd send it to Xfinity's Coaching people for "training" purposes. But, no matter what it said, it would not change the situation since it wasn’t currently on file at Xfinity. The Executive Customer Relations person said the iWatch promotion never existed and that was that. He did offer to give me credit for one month's internet service, which is slightly less than $125, including taxes and fees. I was hard to comprehend that a credit of $125 was being offered to compensate for an unacceptable expense of $670.08, plus fees. (I wasn't even asking for the full amount of the promised discount offer of $30/month for 24 months, or $720.) I didn't accept the $125 offer. At this point, I'm not sure what my next step will be.

Bottom line is the Executive Customer Relations person has refused to honor his agent's April 2 six promises to "please be rest assured" that a $30/month discount would be applied to offset the $27.92 charge for the watch. I'm expected to pay for the watch for the next 24 months with no offsetting credit, and that's that. And the Executive Customer Relations person told me there is no one else at Xfinity that could speak with me about this. I guess my 10+ years of being an Xfinity customer – with never a late payment until now - and the Xfinity Gold level customer status means nothing.