Customer Service Support

This is the second significant Xfinity internet outage I have experienced in approximately two weeks.

Today's outage occurred immediately before I was scheduled to conduct a professional video interview from home. I ultimately had to use my cellular hotspot to conduct the interview.

The outage itself is frustrating, but my bigger concern is that Xfinity effectively removes access to customer service while an outage is occurring.

I tried both telephone customer-service numbers and the online Xfinity Assistant. Once the automated system determined there was an outage associated with my service, it would not allow me to speak with a representative. I tried explaining that I was calling about something other than the outage. I tried other menu options. I even attempted to reach someone as though I were interested in establishing new service. I still could not reach a human without the system routing me back through my existing service/outage.

I understand that a customer-service representative cannot personally repair a network outage. I was not asking them to do that.

I needed to speak with someone about the fact that this is my second outage in approximately two weeks, the reliability of my service, whether there is a recurring infrastructure problem in my area, my account and appropriate outage credits, and what options exist if these reliability problems continue.

An active outage should not make customer service itself unavailable.

I rely on high-speed internet for my work, and there currently appear to be very limited comparable wired broadband alternatives at my address. I would prefer to resolve the reliability problem rather than change providers, but today's experience is not acceptable.

I am requesting that Xfinity:

1. Review the two recent outages affecting my service and determine whether there is a recurring network or infrastructure issue.

2. Apply appropriate credits for the service interruptions.

3. Document and escalate my concern that customers experiencing an outage are prevented by the automated systems from reaching a human representative about other account and service issues.

4. Explain what can be done to improve the reliability of my service going forward.

I am happy to provide my name, service address, account information, and specific outage information privately to an Xfinity representative.