Contributor
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120 Messages
Another EBB not accepted by Xfinity story
I hate to jump on the bandwagon but I must. I have been approved by the National Verifier as well. Yet, Xfinity has turned me away 6 times now. The reason ....."The personal information that you provided matches the personal information of another subscriber that is currently on file with the National Verifier. If you believe this to be fraud, contact EBBHelp@usac.org to resolve this."
I called the Lifeline National Verifier (833-511-0311) and was told that nothing was wrong and that Xfinity must be seeing my Lifeline phone account. So I call Xfinity Internet Essentials ( 855-846-8376) and finally was told that I have to cancel the Lifeline phone to get the EBB Benefit, which is completely incorrect.
I finally have given up because I am not going to jump thru hoops any longer. After seeing all the complaints here and elsewhere across the Internet it seems that someone, or shall I say, "some Company" needs to get their act together..... Good luck to all that continue to figure this fiasco out!
Accepted Solution
Dumaine
Contributor
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120 Messages
4 years ago
Well after all of my ranting etc. Xfinity finally reached out to me by phone this past Monday (6-21) and said that the issue was on their end and they had corrected it and re-submitted my app. Today I see a 50 EBB credit on my account so looks like it finally went thru.
They said my phone number was input twice for some reason and all they had to do was delete one. For whatever that means....Keep bugging them if you are sure you did everything right and Good Luck!!!
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XfinityRaul
Official Employee
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2.1K Messages
4 years ago
Hi, @dumaine. I'm sorry to hear about your negative experience with this process. I would me more than happy to review this information for you. Please send a private by using the peer to peer chat icon located on the top right of the page.
Clicking on the chat icon will bring up a chat box that will allowing you to initiate the conversation.
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Dumaine
Contributor
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120 Messages
4 years ago
PM sent as you requested
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Again
Expert
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31.9K Messages
4 years ago
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/06/some-people-cant-get-fcc-subsidy-because-street-isnt-the-same-as-st/
This article will explain some things you need to know. Some of this is not Comcast's fault, although the conspiracy theorists would like you to believe that it is.
The information you give for EBB must match exactly the information that Comcast has for you, otherwise, you will be rejected. As the title of the article says, "St." is not the same as "Street"; ditto for "Ave"/"Avenue", "La"/"Lane", "Blvd"/"Boulevard", etc.. Your name must match exactly, too! "Jim"/"James", "Bob"/"Robert". "Will"/"William", etc.. Have a child that is enrolled in one of the subsidized programs that qualify for Internet Essentials? All of that information must be include and match exactly.
Yes, Internet Essentials is who you need to get in touch with because they are the ones that are handling the program and the issues. If necessary, refer them to the article above.
And for anyone else reading this post, please do not spread rumors based on frustration or misinformation. You are not only doing a disservice to people that are trying to find answers, but you are also casting a shadow on yourself. Comcast does want to help its customers, contrary to popular belief.
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Holls215
Visitor
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6 Messages
4 years ago
Try calling Lifeline again and tell them you would like to apply for the EBB. I know that because you already qualify for Lifeline, you shouldn't have to apply for EBB, but that was one of the issues I had. I just had Lifeline cancel my application for Lifeline since I have Xfinity mobile and Xfinity does not participate in Lifeline anyway. Anyway, after canceling my Lifeline application, I was able to re-verify checking the box that I wanted to apply for EBB. Once approved I applied through Comcast, which was an ordeal since I qualify through my minor child and Comcast's original application did not ask if you qualified as an individual of through a dependent. I does now. I was approved on June 5 and the credit was applied to my account on June 6. I know it's frustrating and time consuming, but Comcast can't make changes if they don't know what's wrong. I applied every 2 days for 2 weeks before my issue was resolved.
And I had to speak with an Internet Essentials supervisor before anyone would listen about my son's information needing to be added to the Comcast application. I was about to give up too, the irritation I was under was not worth it, but I decided to give it one more try. I suggest speaking with an supervisor. A lot of times they know things that the regular employees don't. The reason I tried one more time, is because I spoke to a supervisor and told him that Lifeline said I needed to have Comcast input my son's information in their application along with mine and I had told several people what Lifeline had said and I didn't understand why no one at Comcast would listen to me. That's when he told me that Comcast was working on updating their application to be able to add your dependent information. I can only assume the umteen other employees I talked to didn't know this. Sorry for the long story, just trying to help.
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Dumaine
Contributor
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120 Messages
4 years ago
I am now starting to think this whole fiasco might have been the fault of my own misunderstanding of the EBB when I first heard about it. Here's how it went....Thursday morning I got hit by a lightning bolt right in the brain and I started thinking........
Yes, I have already had Lifeline service for quite a few years but I wanted to get away from Safelink. So I ran across Truconnect and decided to switch. Well during the switch I was reading on Truconnect's application where you can get extra Data during the Pandemic..etc etc so I clicked that to Accept, not understanding that right there is where I started using my EBB benefit for the increased Data package. That would be considered my Lifeline (phone) and EBB (Internet) benefits both being used at the same provider. I felt like a fool when I finally realized this!!
I called and cancelled TruConnect, I called Lifeline and closed my application, I called EBB dept and had them check to see if I had any more apps lingering in the system and was told no that my record was "Clean". So I went to Xfinity page and completed another app KNOWING IT WOULD BE REJECTED due to the fact that no EBB app was on file. I just needed to do that to make sure. I got my rejection email yesterday evening.
BTW...I could have just cancelled the extra Data package and kept the Lifeline phone with just the basic Truconnect package, but like Hollis215 mentioned above, I already have Xfinity Mobile so I really didn't need it.
I went straight to EBB and re-applied and was approved (with a new approval number) and then went back to Xfinity and completed their application. That is where I sit right now and should have answer by this evening or tomorrow. I will post again when I get the result.
I would also like to apologize for my earlier rants that may have seemed to come off as harsh but it was just me being (as mentioned above) frustrated and confused about my own previous actions!!!
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