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Friday, February 9th, 2024 6:44 PM

Closed

Service Outage and Total Lack of Communication from Comcast

My power went out, PGE was there within hours to fix the issue.  I have called Comcast repeatedly to find out what is going on since the power HAS been restored and the area IS SAFE.  However since I am in an area of outage I get a message and the "customer service" robot automatically hangs up even if I say I am not calling about the outage.

Why is it that you are automatically routing calls to be hung up on and not allowing customers to know what is going on with the outages?

I'm supposed to be getting text updates but have not received a single update.  PGE was sending me updates instantly and at acceptable intervals until the issue was resolved.  Comcast = crickets.

This presents customers with a very [Edited: "Language"] picture of your company, one that who is eager to take money but very slow to help customers with problems.

I had a service issue last year and not one "service" representative knew what 'lag' was or 'packet loss due to routing' was.  It shows that your 'service' staff is not trained in actual internet service issues (or even common internet terms).  In addition I was told to check my router when the issue was clearly due to what happens after the packets have left my system and are being routed by YOUR system to their destination.  Which is easily demonstrated by a trace route in Windows.

It is really no surprise that you now refuse to discuss anything with your customers and hang up on them without any options to give what I would consider VALUABLE information about the area in which they serve...

You are shutting out the customer and the reason is not even a valid excuse (the power has been restored and the area is safe).

Sure you may be overloaded right now, as you should be when there are issues after a storm (and so you should have people on staff available for these situations), what you should not be doing is automatically routing people to a dead end because you lack the ability to address issues with your system and equipment.

Do better Comcast, what you are currently doing is [EDITED: Language].

PGE has demonstrated that a company can interface with customers, why is it that you are failing to do so...?

Official Employee

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921 Messages

7 months ago

Hi there @user_wg6m2t ! Thank you for reaching out to us here on the Community Forum and providing this feedback. When there is an area issue, and it involves power, the power being restored to your home does not necessarily mean that any damage to our infrastructure or systems is repaired, unfortunately. With text updates, the messages will provide an update on restoral. Any information we have available would be posted in the venues listed here : https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/check-service-outage 

 

I am very sorry that you experienced issues calling in, that is definitely not the experience we want for you, but I do want to express that beyond what is listed online, agents would not have any additional information to provide I'm afraid.  I would be happy to assist with anything else you may need or questions you may have to the best of my ability. 

6 Messages

I'd like to know why one of my emails was fixed (and only by BBB intervention), and now I can't log in- Truly, should I start looking for a more reliable company?

This reply has been converted into a post

Contributor

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33 Messages

@XfinityFrank​ I'd like to believe you, but what you say here is simply not true for many many of your customers.  And also at the same time, unfortunately, much of what you say is true.

The biggest misinformation here is that https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/check-service-outage is kept up to date with accurate information.  It is NOT kept up-to-date, and the information is NOT accurate.  But it does seem to be true that your agents on the phone and in the stores have no more information than us customers.  All that means is that XFINITY is keeping support people equally in the dark as us customers.  It's untenable. 

During an extended outage us customers have literally no method of getting accurate up to date info from XFINITY.  You will not connect us with a human on the phone.  The store people have no information other than the status page.  You will not keep the status page up to date.  We have no way of knowing how long we'll be without 911 emergency services.  No idea how long until we can work from home again and stop working from coffee houses and parking lots.  No idea whether or not we will fail our online only university course due to absence or when we will be able to resume attending.  Since at least 2020 this is way more than a mere inconvenience. 

The fact that support folks and store folks are kept in the dark, and not allowed to see detailed information from field tech personnel is PITIFUL!  Seriously I pity you guys because that is the information us customers must have to plan our post 2020 lives, and XFINITY isn't allowing information to flow amongst the field, support folks, store folks, and the customer!!  We are all being treated equally poorly by XFINITY.  They've created a complete out-of-control cluster [Edited: "Language"] and now are backing away and refusing to take responsibility!  Seriously WHO DOES THIS?!?  XFINITY that's who.

[Edited: "Off-Topic"]

For customers being told that they get no credit for a weather or power outage...make XFINITY prove your outage was due to weather or a power outage.  They can't even update a status page!  In addition, how can XFINITY require you to pay for services they could not deliver and you could not receive?  Legally speaking, how can they charge you for a product you did not receive?

(edited)

Official Employee

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812 Messages

@_G_G_G_, thank you for using the Community Forums page to reach out. I understand the frustration you have surrounding service disruptions and the timeline associated with updates for them. The truth is that we do have information at our hands as do customers using the status page. This is regularly updated, however if there is no new information to provide then no new update will occur at times. Please keep in mind that a lot of the work our technicians complete involve troubleshooting. The tricky thing about troubleshooting is that you may have the exact same issue occur, but a different resolution is needed. Of course there is additional insight that can be provided such as whether an issue with the local node exist or major damage to a line impacting a neighborhood, but the specifics to that degree only lead to the estimated time of restoration which is provided. Sometimes an estimate can be given, but an additional issue is uncovered which causes that original projection to change. That is why we always emphasize that it is just an estimate. 

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Contributor

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33 Messages

@XfinityMarcus​ Incorrect.  The status page is not kept up to date.  There are multiple threads calling attention to this.  The status page does not work if the field techs do not update the page for days, or ever.  This is part of the communication problem your many frustrated customers are pointing out (especially recently, look at all the threads raising the same issue).  We were out for multiple days, and the all-important status page was not updated once.  It always said estimated time of restoration was "as soon as possible."  That is not a status or an estimate, that is an assumption that all of us have.

The reason we point out the status page is not working is because we want it to work as you say, BUT IT IS NOT.  Information from the field is not flowing from the field techs to the status page that store personnel, front-line support personnel, and us customers are all trying to look at, for updates.  But if field folks don't communicate back to the status page, then yeah, we all sit with no communication, no update, no way to communicate back to XFINITY that we would like a daily update at least, something!

If the problem is that field tech is not updating the page frequently enough, then GET THIS FEEDBACK TO THEM because WE HAVE NO OTHER WAY TO DO THIS!  Things did not used to be this way.  Comcast used to be pretty good about communicating back to customers with updates at least providing a estimated time of restoration.  I'm not sure what changed, but these days we get nothing, for days, at a time when online services are more important than ever before. 

Official Employee

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2.2K Messages

@_G_G_G_ Thank you so much for that feedback. I completely understand wanting to have the most up-to-date information regarding any service interruptions in your area especially when you are relying on your connection. I will make sure that your feedback is submitted as we are always working to improve the customer experience. I truly appreciate you providing these details and for being in the Xfinity family and Forums community. 

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick
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