user_f2a6e2's profile

Contributor

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31 Messages

Friday, March 17th, 2023 7:13 PM

Closed

Still cannot receive or even compose email since 3/13/23

​​This is now day 4.  Each day I have either chatted with or spoken directly to a number of different agents who either assure me after much digging that they have fixed the problem and all should start working "within an hour", or "within about two hours", or I am told (eventually, after a new agent apparently has done even more digging than the previous agent) that in reality it is a 'Known Issue' that they are working on, and I should give it 24 more hours...or 24 to 48 more hours.​​

​​At the end of my most recent communication, I was told they would text me when it is fixed, which I took as 'don't call us, we'll call you' (and since I now see these agents don't actually appear to be able to help me, I guess it makes sense to stop wasting my and their time).​​

​​I've seen posts after searching Google about a known outage that occurred on that same day (3/13/2023) that say the issue was resolved within hours; but for me, this is not the case.  ​​​​Is anyone else having this ongoing issue?​​

​​My symptoms:​​

​​After logging in my Inbox is empty, and it says "Error: Failed to load messages".​​
​​There are emails from the day of the incident in my Trash folder, that I did not place there.​​
​​A folder which should contain hundreds of vetted, filtered 2023 emails is empty.​​
​​Clicking on the 'Compose' button to compose a new email results in the error message:​​

​ ​ ​ ​

​​    Error​​

​ ​ ​ ​
​ ​ ​ ​ ​​      Mail server imap-west.ge.xfinity.com unexpectedly closed connection. Please try again later.​​​​ ​ ​
​​ ​ ​
​​Selecting an email from Trash and attempting to move it to another folder results in the same error message. ​ ​
​​ ​ ​
​​Sending an email from my business email address to my personal comcast address eventually results in this email being sent from [Edited: "Personal Information"]: ​ ​
​​ ​ ​
​​ ​ ​

​​     This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.     ​​

​ ​ ​ ​

​​     Delivery to the following recipients was aborted after 6.4 hour(s):​​

​ ​ ​ ​

​​     * ​​​​ [Edited: "Personal Information"]​​

​ ​ ​ ​

​​     Reason: Temporary Failure​​

​ ​ ​ ​
​​The agents I've communicated with have all been extremely helpful and friendly, but it's clear they are powerless to fix my issue (even though in some cases they are led to believe they have solved my problem), and are actually being kept in the dark.  They all begin the chat by saying there are no visible problems and everything shows them things are working as they should.  Only after deeper and deeper poking are they eventually prompted to tell me it is a known and ongoing issue, and I should give it another 24 (or 48) hours.  ​ ​
​​ ​ ​
​​Meanwhile, no emails in or out...again.  ​ ​
​​ ​ ​
​​I sure hope this "Temporary failure" is fixed soon. ​ ​
​ ​ ​ ​

Accepted Solution

Contributor

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31 Messages

2 years ago

This will be my last update here.  In the end, while my email service was restored, and at least some emails were restored between 3/17 and 3/19 (when service resumed), even the customer security assurance team was unable to restore the email I did not receive between 3/13 and 3/17.  To say I am extremely disappointed is an understatement.  Nonetheless I thank the numerous wonderful agents who have helped me behind the scenes over the last 8 days.  They did all they could.

(edited)

Expert

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31.4K Messages

@user_f2a6e2​ 

Before you go, I'd like to ask.....was any of your email forwarded to another strange email address during that time you aren't able to get those emails restored?

I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

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I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

Was your question answered? Please mark an Accepted Answer!tick
I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

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Contributor

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31 Messages

Thanks for asking, but no, not intentionally anyway.  I mean, I didn't set up any email forwarding myself.

Expert

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31.4K Messages

@user_f2a6e2​ 

But you did check that forwarding wasn't enabled during that time?

The reason I ask is because if someone other than you set up forwarding during that time those emails wouldn't be able to be recovered.

(edited)

I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

Was your question answered? Please mark an Accepted Answer!tick
I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

Was your question answered? Please mark an Accepted Answer!tick
I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

Was your question answered? Please mark an Accepted Answer!tick

Contributor

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31 Messages

2 years ago

Update: today, my business email has received a new version of the previous return emails sent from Comcast's mailer-daemon (in response to my attempts at sending email TO my personal Comcast address).  Instead of saying:

"Delivery to the following recipients was aborted after 6.4 hour(s):​
Reason: Temporary Failure"


It now says:


"Delivery to the following recipients failed permanently:

Reason: Permanent Error".

On the surface, that does not appear to bode well.  But since my last agent assured me they are aware of this "ongoing issue" and are working on my problem - and I haven't received a text message to the contrary...  my fingers shall remain crossed that the assurance is true, and that they will repair my problem soon.

Expert

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31.4K Messages

@user_f2a6e2​ 

If you are a business customer you need to be posting in the business help and support forums.
 
https://forums.businesshelp.comcast.com/

I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

Was your question answered? Please mark an Accepted Answer!tick
I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

Was your question answered? Please mark an Accepted Answer!tick
I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

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Contributor

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31 Messages

Thank you, but I am not a business customer.  To clarify, when I say my "business" email, I mean I have a business with its own domain (not using Comcast), from which I send my personal email address (at Comcast) a test email to see if it gets through.

Contributor

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31 Messages

2 years ago

Day 5.  Still no email being received since 3/13/23.  Still can't even compose an email without receiving the "Mail server imap-west.ge.xfinity.com unexpectedly closed connection. Please try again later." error.  PLEASE Comcast.  You have 1.5 hours until my last agent's assurance/instruction "please give it 24 to 48 hours to clear up" runs out.

New Problem Solver

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617 Messages

Hi @user_f2a6e2

 

I appreciate you taking the time to reach out and share all of these details with us on the email concerns. Thank you for continuing to work with us to get this resolved. I would be more than happy to look into this and see what our next steps are to get this resolved. 

 

Please send me a Direct Message so that I can gather some account details. 

Here's the detailed steps to direct message us: 
 • Click "Sign In" if necessary
 • Click the “chat" icon (upper right corner of this page)
 • Click the "New message" (pencil and paper) icon

 • Type "Xfinity Support" in the to line and select "Xfinity Support" from the drop-down list
 • Type your message in the text area near the bottom of the window
 • Press Enter to send your message

I no longer work for Comcast.

Contributor

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31 Messages

Hello Lysa.  Thanks for your response.  I am logged in, and do see a "chat" icon at the top of this page.  Hovering over it reveals the tooltip "Direct Messaging", but clicking on it takes me to a blank "Conversations" page that simply says there are no conversations.  A pencil and paper icon like you refer to is grayed out, so cannot by clicked, and there is no "To:" line; so I don't believe I am on the correct page.  Can you please provide a direct link to the page to which you are referring?

           Thank you.

Official Employee

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330 Messages

Thanks. That should be the correct page. Can you try signing out, clearing your cache and cookies, and sign back in and see if it lets you click on the pencil and paper icon? 

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

Contributor

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31 Messages

2 years ago

Day 6.  Still no email being received since 3/13/23.  Still can't even compose an email without receiving the "Mail server imap-west.ge.xfinity.com unexpectedly closed connection. Please try again later." error.  PLEEASE Comcast.  It's been SIX DAYS since an agent first told me he had fixed the problem and all should be back to normal "within a couple hours".  And it's been 70 hours since I was told by my last agent that I needed to give them 24-48 hours, and they would text me when it was fixed.

Official Employee

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695 Messages

Could you please send our team a direct message with your full name and full address? Our team can most definitely take a further look at this issue. To send a "Peer to peer" ("Private") message:
Click "Sign In" if necessary
• Click the "Peer to peer chat" icon
• Click the "New message" (pencil and paper) icon
• Type "Xfinity Support" in the "To:" line and select "Xfinity Support" from the drop-down list which appears. The "Xfinity Support" graphic replaces the "To:" line
• Type your message in the text area near the bottom of the window
• Press Enter to send it

I no longer work for Comcast.

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

Contributor

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31 Messages

Hello Xavier.  Thanks for your response.  No matter where I look, I do not see a "Peer to peer chat" icon, can you please provide a link to the page on which this icon appears?

           Thank you.

Gold Problem Solver

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26.3K Messages

2 years ago

... I do not see a "Peer to peer chat" icon ...

The icon was renamed "Direct Messaging" over a year ago, but some employees don't seem to know that.

To send the requested information in a private message ("DM") to Xfinity Support from any forums.xfinity.com page:

  • Click "Sign In" if that prompt is visible  

  • Click the "Direct Messaging" icon above or https://forums.xfinity.com/direct-messaging  

  • On the DM page 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. It won't work.

      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

See https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/email/cant-create-a-new-email-address/605e52b726aa974d63032d02?commentId=606107ea738c7f46a02b830e for an example.

If a circle-slash appears when you try to select the "pencil and paper" icon it means that your DMs are disabled. You'll need to go to your Profile Settings, clear the "Opt Out from Direct Messaging" checkbox, and click Save.

(edited)

Contributor

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31 Messages

@BruceW​ Thank you for the corrections.  Man, I hate it when I am given precise and clear directions - which are wrong, lol.  Yours are perfect.

Problem Solver

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311 Messages

@user_f2a6e2

 

This is Awesome, your email is back up and running now which I know this is half of the battle, now let's tackle that do not appear in your inbox.

 

Are you able to refresh the inbox?

Are you able to check the spam folders?

Also, are you able to check the filtering options to make sure the email addresses were not blocked?

I no longer work for Comcast.

Contributor

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31 Messages

Hello Felicia.  Thank you for your response.

In answer to your questions:

Yes, I can refresh the Inbox and the spam folders; and my filters are restored and working as expected again - moving emails to all my appropriate sub-folders (as they did before the outage).

The last problem to solve appears to be the 6 days, 7 hours of missing email (though I must say the response time for everything is really very slow.  Clicking on an email takes upwards of 30 seconds before I see the content.  My WiFi connection speed is currently ~250Mbps, so that is not the issue).

(edited)

Problem Solver

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311 Messages

@user_f2a6e2

 

Ok, perfect, I appreciate your efforts with troubleshooting. 

 

Have you already cleared cache and cookies on your browser, or navigated to another browser to see if the issue persist?

I no longer work for Comcast.

Problem Solver

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874 Messages

Thank you for detailed update @user_f2a6e2. No need to start a new thread, but thank you for offering! Can you meet me in a DM through the steps provided above in this thread? I can likely run a recovery on your email, but I will need to gather your personal details to do so. Here are the steps again- 

 

To send a direct message, please click the chat icon next to the bell in the upper right corner. Click the “notepad and pen” button. Send the full message to our shared support handle “Xfinity Support”. We look forward to hearing from you!

I no longer work for Comcast.

Contributor

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31 Messages

2 years ago

OK, my email started working as of 10PM PST (last night, 3/19/23).  THANK YOU to whomever worked behind the scenes to finally remedy that situation.  It was out from 3/13/23 at 3PM, so a total of 6 days, 7 hours.

I was assured that once my email started flowing, I would also receive all the emails that I was not getting during that time; but so far that is NOT the case!  Can someone comment on that?  Should I start a new thread?

Contributor

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31 Messages

Update - at least some of the email that occurred during the gap has made it into my inbox and through my filters.  At first it didn't look like it, because all the newly received email is time-stamped with last night's date and time.  The clue was in some emails which I know I receive on a daily basis.  In these cases there are now multiple of these emails with different content, now time-stamped mere minutes apart; but if I reveal the source for this content I can see that they were sent on different days during the gap.

So some of that mystery can be explained this way.  However, there are also emails I still expect to see that haven't appeared, so not all emails have made it through the gap.


Contributor

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31 Messages

Update - By revealing the source, I can see that the earliest emails I am now seeing from my now-resumed emails was sent Friday 3/17, so I am still missing anything sent between 3PM 3/13/23 and ~3:30PM 3/17/23.

Contributor

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31 Messages

2 years ago

Update - Despite a very helpful agent working on my behalf in a long "Direct Messaging" session yesterday, there was no solution found to retrieve the emails I never received between 3/13 when I lost email, and 3/17, the earliest emails that started flowing back into my Inbox after service was restored on 3/19.  I lost a total of four days of email, and yesterday's agent informed me that if they didn't come in by around 7PM last night, they were gone.

I need to know how that is even possible, and would like an official explanation.

Additionally, I noticed this morning that I am no longer receiving a daily email from one of my IOT devices.  Its last message to me was the day I lost service.  I know it is still sending email to me, because my wife is still getting her daily email from that device.  I have ensured that it is still 'white listed' in my email filters, and that I still have "Override Security Filters - Allow spam and potentially harmful messages in your Inbox." enabled in my advanced settings.  So I see this as but a symptom that something is still wrong "behind the scenes".  If this IOT email is not getting through, what other email am I still not getting?  Because of my settings I should be seeing EVERYTHING come in, and my 'white filters' should sort it all out (as they have been doing perfectly well for a very long time).

(edited)

Contributor

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31 Messages

Update on the IOT device issue: the service that manages my device had given up on my comcast email address after days of bounced emails, so had designated my email address as 'nonviable', *removed* it from my own settings, and added it to their own internal 'ignore' list.  I had to go through a process with them to prove my email address was viable and re-instate it.

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