Technician demanded our Wi-Fi router password

We have just had a terrible experience with a technician visit. We were experiencing sporadic disconnections and at one time lost the internet connection for over 12 hours for no apparent reason. The AI bot could also tell that we were having signal issues, so we made an appointment for a technician visit.

The tech who showed up was a nightmare. Aside from the fact that he did not act and sound very competent or knowledgeable (he had a glazed look when we asked a basic networking question), but here is the ultimate part of this bad tech visit. When it became clear that we were still not getting the internet signal, the tech DEMANDED our Wi-Fi router's password. We responded that the signal not coming into our house had nothing to do with our router, and besides, we would not not share the password of our device with anyone, let alone someone who had just showed up. He then repeated he needed to have our Wi-Fi password, so we pointed to our router's indicator light showing red, which meant that it was not getting the internet signal (and the modem indicator light did not show connection). And as a technician, he had a portable device that would plug into the coax outlet and enable him to determine whether the signal was coming in or not. Besides, we reiterated that we would not share the router password with him or anyone, for an obvious security reason. But the tech guy insisted that he had to have our router password to check the internet signal and finally said: "I gave you my solution, and you do not take it. I can't help you." He then just walked of our house and drove away. Just like that. Unbelievable. The tech just walked out on us, leaving us with no internet connection as before all because we did not give into his unreasonable, illogical and frankly unconscionable DEMAND to provide him with our router password. Some audacity from an amazing loser.

Responses

XfinityPeterH

Official Employee

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2K Messages

1 day ago

hanairokimisomu Thank you for your feedback about your experience and for making sure everything is secure.

A technician might need your WiFi password for several reasons:

Troubleshooting and Setup
Network Diagnostics: To diagnose and fix connectivity issues, the tech may need to access your network to check signal strength, configuration, and performance.
Device Setup: If the technician is installing or configuring new equipment (e.g., a modem, router, or smart device), they might need to connect it to your WiFi network.
Security Considerations
Temporary Access: It's generally safe to provide your WiFi password for temporary access during the service visit. After the technician completes their work, you can change your password to ensure security.
Guest Network: If you're concerned about security, consider setting up a guest network for the technician to use. This keeps your main network secure while allowing necessary access.

That all being said since you are still without service we can look at setting up another appointment for a tech to come back out. Please feel free to send us your full name and complete address via our Direct Messages.

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hanairokimisomu

Visitor

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3 Messages

@XfinityPeterH About the need to share the Wi-Fi password with your tech, we disagree because:

(a) Troubleshooting and Setup
Network Diagnostics: To diagnose and fix connectivity issues, the tech may need to access your network to check signal strength, configuration, and performance.

The tech was there to fix the signal not coming into our house, not the connectivity inside our house. So long as it could be determined that the signal was coming in, which the tech could easily check with his handheld device plugged into the wall coax port and by looking at the modem indicator light, and which we could easily have verified by accessing one of our Ethernet-connected devices, there would have been no need for the Wi-Fi password as if there was no other way to deal with the present issue. But the tech just flat out DEMANDED that we surrender our Wi-Fi password to his highness. We refused.

(b) Device Setup: If the technician is installing or configuring new equipment (e.g., a modem, router, or smart device), they might need to connect it to your WiFi network.

This tech was not there to perform any device setup, so this is irrelevant.

(c) Temporary Access: It's generally safe to provide your WiFi password for temporary access during the service visit. After the technician completes their work, you can change your password to ensure security.

This is ludicrous. What do you mean, it's "generally safe." It must be 100% safe or no password is given out to a stranger like a technician. Along with that, many households today have a number of IoT devices connected to their routers. Changing the password on the router would mean that you must reset all of the IoT devices that do not operate within a shared security landscape. In our household, it would have meant 50+ devices to be reset. Besides, a password like this cannot and should not be shared no matter how easily changeable it may be, most especially where there is no need as stated above.

(d) Guest Network

We have a guest network setup in our router, but we did not trust this man. He did not give us the right vibe, so to speak, so we did not want to share any security credentials with him, even the guest network password that we knew we could change right away. He did not need the Wi-Fi password, period, so the guest network access is also irrelevant.

We have already set up another appointment for a tech visit because the Xfinity AI bot could tell that our connection problem remained unresolved. Of course it is unresolved because said tech refused to help unless we gave into his unreasonable request. By the way, it has been confirmed to be unreasonable because I have already spoken with two people from Xfinity support today, both of whom agreed that, in our situation, what the tech demanded today was wholly unnecessary and uncalled for.

1 day ago

XfinityPeterH

Official Employee

•

2K Messages

hanairokimisomu Thanks for the feedback and glad you were able to set up an appointment without Xfinity Assistant. Please let us know if you need any further help with your account. Our team is happy to help.

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