Replace your equipment to get faster speeds - email

I’ve decided to post my latest experience with Xfinity, hoping someone from the Xfinity support team can help resolve my issue or provide a real explanation. Perhaps other users had a similar experience and can provide feedback as well.

Last week, I received a couple emails from Xfinity with the subject “Replace your equipment to get faster speeds”. A portion of the email is listed below:

I thought, how nice of Xfinity to upgrade my speed for free (I’m a Comcast Internet customer for 22 years at my current location). My current plan was 500/20 Mbps. When I logged into my Xfinity portal, I could see my new plan of 1200/35 Mbps and I thought again, I’m all set. The reason the message said I needed to upgrade my equipment was because I had a Netgear CM1000v2 cable modem which could do only up to 1000 Mbps downloads, but could handle 35 Mbps just fine (I had a 1Gbps service in the past with this modem on the same line). Rebooting the modem would not get the new updated speed (I didn’t care much about the new download speed of 1.2 Gbps, all I wanted to get was a little higher upload speed).

Before I decided to contact Xfinity (I knew they would tell me the CM1000 is not supported for the new speed tier), I quickly researched existing approved modems for higher speeds and purchased the CODA56, Full List of Compatible Devices. My current location is still at HFC/DOCSIS Sub-Split with a Max plan of 1200/35 Mbps. I’ve been following the news and deployment of the HFC/DOCSIS Mid-Split which could potentially bring a max package to 2000/200 Mbps when completed.

Day 1:

New CODA56 modem arrives, activated via the Xfinity app on my phone (first time the app crashed, second time it worked); this process was easy and straightforward, a nice improvement from the old days. Now I’m watching the modem update, restart, and unfortunately the speed stays the same as on the old modem (constantly testing ~590/22 Mbps; the tests are done from a PC and Mac hooked up directly to the cable modem via the Ethernet cable). That day I powered the modem off and on a few more times, trying to force it to get the latest boot strap, firmware and config update, but no new speed.

Day 2:

The next day, the speed stays the same. I do more research and a lot more reading of posts in this forum. To confirm all looks good from my end, I log into the CODA56 GUI management interface (I agree with many people in this forum it’s a pain to get to the GUI and the logs are not as good as on the old Netgear modem). I confirmed I had the latest boot strap from Xfinity for this cable modem, and all readings were good. Powering the modem off and on a few times, there was still no change. At this time, and based on many similar problems from the past, my conclusion was that the issue is with incorrect provisioning of the speed tier on the Xfinity side.

I proceeded with my first attempt to contact Xfinity support over the phone. Most of you here know how difficult it is to get to a live agent these days, with instead a lot of time spent going through the IVR menus, and Xfinity assistant restarting the modem remotely. Finally, I get a call back from an Xfinity agent. I’ve got a case number. As many of you know, Tier 1 support agents have to follow predefined scripts going through, yet again, modem reboot (agent said he sees in the logs the modem was rebooted multiple times already), running basic tests, etc. I patiently waited for the agent to go through his scripted tests. I asked at least twice if my account is provisioned correctly for 1200/35 and the agent confirmed. His conclusion was that everything is fine on Xfinity’s end as far as provisioning the correct speed tier, modem configuration and firmware, and that the issue is with my coax line. After a long time on the phone, he sets up a tech visit to my house. I get many texts from Xfinity assistant and set up a tech visit for Monday morning (the day was Friday). I get text and email confirmations for my tech appointment. I didn’t think the tech visit was necessary, but I followed the process.

Day 3:

Even though I had confirmation for a Monday tech visit, I got a text message from Xfinity that my appointment was cancelled, with no details or explanation why.

Day 4:

I decided to call again today. Again, lots of time spent in the IVR menus, another cable modem restart, and finally a call back from the agent. I asked about my existing case; he said it was closed and my appointment was cancelled by me, which I didn’t do. He runs all kinds of tests one more time, restarts the modem again, and confirms my modem is provisioned for the correct speed. He says the tech will need to visit my house, so we set up another tech visit for Wednesday morning.

Day 6:

The Xfinity installer tech arrives with his tester. He tests the speed outside of my house directly on the coax cable before the cable modem, and this test shows the maximum possible bandwidth on my cable. Test shows all green, all channel bounding, power levels great, and theoretical maximum speeds on the line show 1751/97 Mbps. Inside the house on the coax, the same speeds. Now he does a test on the cable modem, which is almost the same as me testing from a PC, and still the same old speeds.

Eureka, finally he checks his application and shows me that I’m still provisioned for the old speed 500/20 Mbps. I show him my Xfinity account which says my plan is 1200/35, which he notices but he is the installer so there is nothing he can do. He calls his tech support line just to be told there is nothing they can do for me, and I have to call customer support. The tech leaves, and I am still on the old speed.

I call support again, go through already familiar voice menus, another cable modem restart, and finally receive a call back from the agent. I tried to explain the situation while the agent read comments on my account, confirmed the tech visit, and started yet another scripted test and troubleshooting. Finally, he listened to me and confirmed my account is provisioned for the old 500/20 Mbps speed and told me I would need to pay and upgrade to the higher speed tier. He didn’t have a clue about the promotional email from Xfinity, and his conclusion was that it was a spam or phishing email (I verified and traced the email to Xfinity email servers, so this was not true). At this time, I asked for my case to be escalated to a higher support tier, so he transferred me to the retention department. I was already verified before transfer, yet the retention department agent starts verifying me again and has trouble finding my account. I provide my phone number, email address, physical address of the service and Xfinity account number, and still she has a problem locating my account (hard to believe). 15 minutes later, she finds my account. She confirms my current speed is the old one and can’t explain why I see a higher speed tier on my Xfinity portal. I explained the two emails I’ve gotten from Xfinity; she doesn’t have a clue about them either. I offer to forward the email I have if she can provide an email address, but she says they can’t do that. I was put on hold multiple times as she checked with someone else. After being on the phone for over an hour, still no progress. She finally tells me I would need to pay and upgrade to the higher speed tier. At this point, I asked to speak with a manager, and after minutes on hold again she tells me she escalated the issue and a supervisor will give me a call. She also said the supervisor will have the ability to receive my forwarded email to see the promotion with their own eyes. I get a text with an escalation case number and a call coming from Xfinity. Now I’m on the phone with a supervisor, but I am not sure if it was from the retention or escalation department. Right away he says he spoke with the previous agent and is familiar with the situation. He is the fourth person to tell me that I need to pay and upgrade to the higher speed tier. He tells me that the 2 emails I’ve gotten were due to an Xfinity email system glitch, which he confirmed with a different department. When I asked why my Xfinity portal shows the 1200/35 Mbps plan, at least he didn’t blame it on another system glitch, rather that he didn’t have any explanation. Overall, the call with the supervisor was not pleasant; he tried to talk me down and talked to me like I was totally clueless about the whole situation. I left the call without resolution and a believable explanation. Two hours later, I got a third reminder email about the speed upgrade, which adds to why I do not believe it was an email system glitch like the supervisor claimed.

I would like to add that I’m a Senior IT Engineer and have worked in the IT field for almost 30 years. I work from home and do a lot of uploads, hence the desire for higher upload speeds. I closely follow the news and the development of the Xfinity HFC/DOCSIS Mid-Split and eventual DOCSIS 4.0 deployment.

Thank you for reading

Screenshot of my current plan I can see via the Xfinity portal: