Stickied - xFi Complete and xFi Pods

I'm going through this experience myself and have highlighted to the relevant teams the experience gaps I've encountered. I'm not the product owner or expert of xFi Complete / Pods. Your best bet on your individal status is to chat/call in.

Here are a few things to note:

• You must have xFi Complete as part of your plan.
• Once you activate xFi Complete, the wifi assessment takes 2 weeks to complete.
• You must have an eligible xFi gateway (modem/router).
• The results are sent to you in the email and we have an event log of the outcome.
• The results may indicate you may not need xFi Pods and therefore are ineligible.
• I recommend chatting/calling between 11AM - 8 PM Eastern time, and the frontline representatives can discuss the issue with the specialists who work on Pods fulfillment to check on your status. There is no direct line to the specialists as they cannot be reached by phone.
• Retail stores cannot provide you with complimentary pods, they follow the same escalation process as chat/phone agents.
• You should not purchase an xFi Pod and expect to get one reimbursed as part of xFi Complete.
• If you cancel xFi Complete within 90 days, you will be charged the amount of the xFi Pods.
• There are two types of xFi Pods, the first generation and second generation. They can be differentiated based on a few identifiers:
  • Gen 1 xFi Pods
    • One ethernet port
    • Has the model number "XE1"
    • Smaller
  • Gen 2 xFi Pods
    • Two ethernet ports
    • Has the model number "XE2"
    • Larger/heavier
• One Gen 2 should cover the work of 3 Gen 1 pods. So if you got 1 and not the 3, it's because you received the 2nd generation one with more speed and coverage.
• Spec-wise:
  • Gen 1 xFi Pods
    • Tops out at 300Mbps (higher at the 5Ghz frequency)
    • Dual-band antennas 
  • Gen 2 xFi Pods
    • Tops out at 500Mbps (higher at the 5Ghz frequency)
    • Tri-band antennas (better range and signal reliability)

Sometimes, it's not just all about xFi Pods, or any 3rd party mesh system, that will fix your issue, double check the fundamentals:

• Position your gateway somewhere high and central in your home.
• Don't bend your coaxial cables more than you would around a mason jar. Bending at an angle will create impedence.
• Tighten your coaxial cables, loose ones will cause ingress and noise in the network to you and your neighbors
• Remove/replace old/malfunctioning splitters
• You can always buy more pods. 1st and 2nd gen are cross-compatible
• If pods won't cut it, and you have one device you need to have good signal and need to extend the range for, consider buying a wireless USB adapter that extends the antenna, the ones in your laptop may also be older and weaker. You can also hardwire from your pod into the laptop if your laptop has ethernet ports.

Things to note about speed:

• If you have 300Mbps as your service plan, that's your maximum speed shared across devices. If you have Gig service and are using an iPhone 7 and run a speedtest, you're not going to see 1Gbps or even 900Mbps, you're topped at 450Mbps because of the WiFi radio capabilities of the phone.
• Don't run your speedtest when someone in your home is gaming on their PS5, since that device is taking up some of the bandwidth.
• As far as specs go, if you're gaming like me, I'd recommend running hardline/wired ethernet for the lowest latency and fastest speeds. If you have an XB7, there's one 2.5Gbps port. If you have Gig service, CAT5e/6 ethernet cable and a 2.5Gbps NIC, you may be able to get above 1Gbps in your speedtest. 
• Also if you're going to run a speedtest, use ours https://speedtest.xfinity.com/
  • It's more accurate (speedtest.net uses servers that include other customers who host the server, and the speeds may not reflect what you're actually experiencing)
  • It's logged (we actually can see the speedtest results you ran before to help the agent as you troubleshoot)
  • It educates you on your device's speed limitations