Regular Visitor
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13 Messages
What to do when an outage is not an "outage"?
I live in south-eastern Michigan and we had bad storms roll through last week. Power was finally restored yesterday. During this time, my xfinity Internet was out most of the time, but would occasionally pop back on for awhile, before going out again. Yesterday, about an hour after power was restored, it stopped again. I looked on the app (as I had done many times before) and it says there is no outage. I work from home. My Verizon hotspot data is gone, and I'm now being told that it's going to be Thursday before a tech can get to my house to check. I'm essentially dead.
There HAS TO BE some kind of local outage related to the power incident that's not just affecting me. Literally, everything was fine and then and then all of the sudden, it wasn't, and I changed absolutely nothing. Even so, I disconnected all cables, reconnected, tried different cable outlets around my home, etc. My modem still shows no connection (at all). To be clear, this is not a wifi issue. The modem itself shows no connection, and xfinity says it cannot reach my modem.
My concern is that my neighbors probably just assume this is still part of the "outage," but if xfinity doesn't believe there is an outage, then no one is going to be fixing it any time soon, and that's a serious problem for me, and I find it hard to believe it's just me that's having a problem, after everything else that has gone on the last few days.
Accepted Solution
UncleHoot
Regular Visitor
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13 Messages
4 years ago
So, it will be an official "outage" very shortly. Now that someone could come out and confirm that me and my neighbor's modems did not simultaneously self-destruct, and that there is, indeed, a cable dangling from the pole, I guess it's an outage, and may be fixed in the next few hours. Before that, it was apparently not an outage, and nothing I could say to anyone made any difference. For anyone to say that they were taking this seriously, is a complete joke, even after I described the problem in detail to the representative on the phone. Additionally, my neighbor had called in the problem as well, noting that the overhead line was down.
I don't fault you, the employees. I fault your system and those who designed it, which ignores all input from the customer when reporting an outage.
How could this be improved? Very easily!
Step 1: Add an option for a customer to report a line down, even if it isn't obstructing traffic or laying across a street. The only other option was "tripping hazard," which not only doesn't describe the problem, but also implies that the problem is no big deal, and is not causing an outage.
Step 2: When a customer reports a line down, put them into contact with someone local to provide them with more information.
Step 3: Don't ignore helpful information from the customer. In this situation, my neighbor apparently noticed the downed wire before I did.
Step 4: Allow someone with sufficient security clearance to investigate further. Since my neighbor also reported the same issue, it should have been a simple matter for someone to look and say, "Hey, we have two people right next to each other at the end of the line and both are out."
Step 5: Actually do something with this information above. If you folks on the front lines never make suggestions, management will NEVER know there is a problem that needs addressed, and when it is finally brought to their attention, who will they blame? You! So be proactive! Make a difference!
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MNtundraRET
Gold Problem Solver
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5.9K Messages
4 years ago
Moved to Customer Service forum for help.
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XfinityEva
Official Employee
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1.6K Messages
4 years ago
Good morning @UncleHoot Thank you for reaching out to us about your connectivity issues. Issues after an interruption especially weather related can be common. We want to make sure we address this properly and to get started can you please send us a private message with your full name and service address. If you have any ticket numbers please include as well.
To send the requested information in a private message to Xfinity Support:
• Click "Sign In" if necessary
• Click the "Direct Messaging" icon or https://comca.st/3xS7hpp
• Click the "New message" (pencil and paper) icon
• The "To:" line prompts you to "Type the name of a person", but don't do that.
Instead, type "Xfinity Support" there. As you are typing a drop-down list appears.
• Select "Xfinity Support" from the list. An "Xfinity Support" graphic replaces the "To:" line.
• Type your message in the text area near the bottom of the window
• Press Enter or tap the > icon to send it
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UncleHoot
Regular Visitor
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13 Messages
4 years ago
To be clear, this had nothing to do with the current weather. Yesterday was a fairly calm partly cloudy day. Service was restored, worked for several hours, then subsequently went out again and has not returned, even though there is no "outage" in my area.
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UncleHoot
Regular Visitor
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13 Messages
4 years ago
Because I was told "there is no outage," I narrowed the problem down to the only item remaining: my modem. And there was good reason to suspect it. After bad storms, electrical surges along cable lines can produce surges that can damage equipment, and these problems may not immediately show up. So, I bought a new modem.
Guess what? Same problem!
So, I see two possibilities. Someone "flipped a switch" that turned me, and only me, off. Or, I am "in an outage" affecting lots of people, but for whatever reason, no one can tell me.
Without being part of Xfinity, I cannot troubleshoot this problem any further. All I can say is that it's not me. Absolutely nothing in my home changed. Nothing near my home changed. No one was working on any power or cable lines near my home when I lost service.
Someone HAS TO KNOW what is going on. Someone locally aware of the situation. So, why is it impossible to communicate with them, unless I wait 3 days? If it is as simple "Oops. Someone accidentally terminated your service on your account." I'm going to be even angrier than I am now if I had to wait 3 days for someone to tell me that.
(edited)
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UncleHoot
Regular Visitor
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13 Messages
4 years ago
The line is down. As in, it's on the ground. Mystery solved. Problem, unsolved.
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user_633e26
Visitor
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1 Message
4 years ago
Another SE Michigan customer here. Technician was here Friday and said it was a network issue. No network outages are currently in my area and still no service. I'd like to report my problem, but Comcast has made it impossible to do so (no phone support & useless virtual assistant). This forum? Is that supposed to be real customer service?
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