Xfinity/ComCast tech support, scripts, and idiocy.

[ed629]

Yesterday at home, I could barely get online. 4 out 5 times I would get "Server not found" error messages. Then if I did get a website it would load very slowly, and stop loading. It would then take several refreshes to get it loaded, but once it was loaded I could stay it, even Netflix would stream video once loaded, getting it to load was a pain though.

So before I call I powercycle the equipment, try three different computers, connect to the modem directly. None of this helped. So I try connecting to neighbor's wireless that have the same service, same thing, so I call Xfinity/Comcast.... ugh.

So the tech monkey tells me to powercycle, tell them I already did that several times. They want me to do it anyway, so I pretend to do so. Then tell them it didn't work, they then check the modem..... it took them 2-3 minutes to connect to it. They say it usually is a lot quicker. They say no problems on the modem, they blame the router. I point out that it took a long time for them to connect to the router, and the whole time it wouldn't connect that I couldn't load any pages. Once they could I could connect, but still very slowly. They say it's all fine, I point out that the neighbor's connections are the same. They still blame the router... so I ask to talk to someone who is smarter than they are, they tell me i can't because it's my equipment. I ask if so, how come the neighbor's connections are the same.

They blame the routers, I ask "Are you saying that 3 other routers are having problems?" They say yes...???

So again I tell them to put someone on who can think beyond the script they have... no avail. So I hang up and call again, same thing, do it 2-3 more times. Finally talk to someone who does check past the script, turns out there is a problem in the area. They had to wait 4-5 minutes to connect to anything in this area, so they Send out techs to check the equipment that is right across the street, they mess with it for about an hour. Turns out a part was cutting in and out, which explained why it was taking so long to connect and why it was so slow.

Seriously, do these people get trained to ignore the obvious???? If several customers are having the same problem it's not a random and highly unlikely event where several customers' equipment fails at the same time.

This is the 3rd time in the last 5-6 years that something similar has happened.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, I hear you. I had a similar problem myself years ago where my ISP would pass the buck onto the router. I think it's the easiest thing to blame, since they technically don't support routers. At least mine doesn't, so policy tends to be to put the blame onto something that they don't have direct control of. They don't like it when you use it to share connections as they rather make money on as many connections as they can. The last time I had problems, it was an excersize of frustration in getting them to admit a problem that was on their end. It makes you wish that sometimes they'd look a little harder into the situation.

 

[sojourner]

Why didn't you tell them you took the router out of the loop?

 

[ed629]

Why didn't you tell them you took the router out of the loop?

I thought I mentioned I did that too, even connected directly to modem and it didn't help.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yesterday at home, I could barely get online. 4 out 5 times I would get "Server not found" error messages. Then if I did get a website it would load very slowly, and stop loading. It would then take several refreshes to get it loaded, but once it was loaded I could stay it, even Netflix would stream video once loaded, getting it to load was a pain though.

So before I call I powercycle the equipment, try three different computers, connect to the modem directly. None of this helped. So I try connecting to neighbor's wireless that have the same service, same thing, so I call Xfinity/Comcast.... ugh.

So the tech monkey tells me to powercycle, tell them I already did that several times. They want me to do it anyway, so I pretend to do so. Then tell them it didn't work, they then check the modem..... it took them 2-3 minutes to connect to it. They say it usually is a lot quicker. They say no problems on the modem, they blame the router. I point out that it took a long time for them to connect to the router, and the whole time it wouldn't connect that I couldn't load any pages. Once they could I could connect, but still very slowly. They say it's all fine, I point out that the neighbor's connections are the same. They still blame the router... so I ask to talk to someone who is smarter than they are, they tell me i can't because it's my equipment. I ask if so, how come the neighbor's connections are the same.

They blame the routers, I ask "Are you saying that 3 other routers are having problems?" They say yes...???

So again I tell them to put someone on who can think beyond the script they have... no avail. So I hang up and call again, same thing, do it 2-3 more times. Finally talk to someone who does check past the script, turns out there is a problem in the area. They had to wait 4-5 minutes to connect to anything in this area, so they Send out techs to check the equipment that is right across the street, they mess with it for about an hour. Turns out a part was cutting in and out, which explained why it was taking so long to connect and why it was so slow.

Seriously, do these people get trained to ignore the obvious???? If several customers are having the same problem it's not a random and highly unlikely event where several customers' equipment fails at the same time.

This is the 3rd time in the last 5-6 years that something similar has happened.

Level 1 tech support aren't paid to think, they're paid to get you off the phone as quickly as possible so they can get to the next person. They also assume you're a moron, since most customers are.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Level 1 tech support aren't paid to think, they're paid to get you off the phone as quickly as possible so they can get to the next person. They also assume you're a moron, since most customers are.

See, that's the thing. Customers are told to respect technicians, but respect goes both ways. I'm surprised that things haven't improved since the last time I had the same problem to help things become more efficient, but at the time, I felt rather insulted that they would insist on a problem being the router's instead of looking beyond it, and it was a brand new router too. It feels like a waste of time, both for the customer and the company when the customer calls up, knows something is wrong and keeps getting fingers pointed at his router.

I don't know how things work in terms of tech support, but part of this problem seems to be a lack of information and disconnect that the level 1 tech has, and it could easily be solved by having the tech log-on and see if there are any problems for the area that the customer is calling from instead of immediately blaming something that the customer has for his problems. Efficiency and quality of support would improve as a result. I don't think it would require any extra training or thinking on the part of the tech too. But if the goal is getting to the next customer as quickly as possible, then this would achieve it by wasting less time on the script. I think all customers really want is for someone to really listen to their problems, and if someone can figure it out without pointing fingers, then it's all good.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I'd like to know what part of the country you're in. Where I live, the Comcast/Xfinity people tend to assume we have some knowledge of technical issues.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I had similar issues last night with the Comcast cable broadband.

It happens once in a while. As long as it isn't out for long, I won't get too worked up.