Rant about poor training

This is a rant about your staff lack of training.

I have basic internet service. I want to connect to Wifi with my Android when away from home. I have been reviewing the many YouTube videos about the security dangers of using public WiFi. I found this page,

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/xfinity-mobile-wifi-hotspots

It lists the different WiFi networks provided by Xfinity. The "xfinitywifi" I have been using is of the public insecure type in the YouTube videos.

I wanted to use the more secure "XFINITY" service. I found it in the Android WiFi listing. But if I choose it my device asks for "EAP Authentication," "CA certificate," etc. But I don't know what drop-down menu items to choose. I contacted your "Live Agent," and I soon realized that thing is a stupid chat-bot with artificial delays to simulate a person. It seems to take keywords of my text and return advice from a list of scripts. It has no ability to understand grammar or meaning.

Next I contacted a live person agent by telephone. Foreign accent. I explained that I have basic internet and I wanted to use my Android to connect to the secure "XFINITY" public version of WiFi. I just wanted instructions for the settings. So she emailed me the same URL above. I explained that was a description of what I wanted, not how to do it. Then she explained how to connect to public insecure WiFi. I kept telling  her I wanted the instructions for the secure XFINITY and I finally gave  up.

I drove 22 miles one way to the closest Xfinity store. I spoke to a young thin person. He asked me why I wanted to use the secure WiFi. I told him about lack of security of pubic WiFi and I wanted more security. He said it was impossible and tried to start arguing. I diverted back to the subject and he said it comes with Xfinity mobile service. I was confused because I am trying to connect to the internet with secure WiFi, not cellular data. He did not seem not certain about the need to buy phone service to access secure WiFi. Again he asked why I wasn't using phone service to access the internet. I told him I was in a situation I wanted more security. He said "Everybody can get your data. You have to be NSA or CIA to have that capability."

I said, "I'm not that paranoid," as I left for the exit.

I left and called the 800 number to talk to sales at Xfinity to verify that I had to buy mobile phone service to access the "XFINITY" secure Wifi. Another foreign accent on the line. She kept getting confused between WiFi and cellular data. I kept bringing it back to secure WiFi and asked if I need to buy phone service to access the secure WiFi. She then gave me instructions to access the insecure public WiFi. I reminded her again that I wanted the secure "XFINITY" WiFi. She said she would transfer me to technical support. I waited in silence for three minutes, and she came back and said she was transferring me. Again silence on the line and I hung up after two minutes. I think they knew I they were unsuccessful with me a few hours ago, and ghosted me.

I was still in Corvallis so I went back to the Xfinity store to use the public Xfinity WiFi. They took my name, but I said I would let them know if I wanted to talk to someone. The fellow came back and he seemed alright, not trying to make me feel bad for wanting more security. I had a URL for Xfinity secure profile but I kept getting 403 forbidden. So I offered it to him and watched him enter the URL and then I waited. I asked if he would go ahead with that. He said he did but "it didn't go through." His table remained on Google home page. I think he was afraid to try it in front of me.

I left and drove 22 miles back home. I am pretty angry at not getting any answers. I am angry at getting the stupid treatment by the store person I talked to. If he had more training he would have answered my question and not treated me like he could fool me like an idiot. Driving through my neighborhood I spotted a parked Xfinity truck. I stopped and talked to the driver. He verified that I had to have Xfinity phone service to access the secure WiFi. Also he told me that if I am traveling and see another provider such as COX I could log in with my Xfinity credentials. The guy in a truck was more informative in ONE minute than all your fake "Live Agent" chat-bots, phone customer service, and the in store agent.

The lack of training you provide your customer service employees make their job harder. Instead of having correct answers at hand they have to spew some [Edited: "Language"] to defend their false credentials as if they were an actual productive support person. This is how to drive burnout and turnover in employees.