Bad management isn’t the sole providence of individuals. Oft times big companies instill bad decisions in their day-to-day business practices—practices that benefit the company but do a disservice to the consumer.
Which brings us to today’s installment of Big Companies Doing Stupid Things. This one involves Comcast, in particular their Xfinity Internet service.
I’ve been a Comcast/Infinity customer for 17 years now. I’ve had no real problems with the service in all those years, which is a good thing. Recently, however, I noticed that the (ancient) Internet plan we’re on is way overcharging me for the speed delivered; the company has newer, lower-priced plans that they conveniently neglected to inform me and other existing customers about, thus keeping us on needlessly higher-priced (and, for them, more profitable) plans.
The details are that I was paying $116/month for 500 bps service with unlimited data. Under Xfinity’s new plans, I could get a 1 gbps plan for $65/month. Then I could pay $30/month for unlimited data OR get their xFi Complete upgrade, which includes unlimited data, for an extra $5/month. To summarize, 1 gbps with unlimited data (via xFi Complete) for $70/month vs. half that speed for $116/month. Not a tough decision.
So I went to the Xfinity website and tried to change my old plan to the new one. It seemed to work fine but insisted on sending me what appeared to be an unnecessary “starter kit.” Unnecessary because I’d been a customer for 17 years. Also unnecessary because I’m using my own hardware (separate modem and router), recently upgraded to the latest tech from Hitron and Asus.
A week goes by and I notice no increase in Internet speed. Then I get a package in the mail from Xfinity containing one of their combo modem/router gateways—which I neither need or want, as my equipment is faster and more powerful than their lousy hardware.
Confused, I decide to go to their website and initiate an online chat to find out what’s what. (No point trying to call them, for reasons I really shouldn’t have to explain.) It took me almost 10 minutes to maneuver my way out of the automated chatbot (supposedly “AI powered” but not really, just kept asking the same questions and not providing an easy way to chat with a human being).
When I finally got a real human being, I spent almost a half hour arguing with this person about how I wanted the $70 plan and didn’t want their gateway, and he insisting that the only way to get the $70 price (that is, the $5 xFi Complete add-on) was to use their gateway hardware. I couldn’t get xFi Complete with my own equipment; if I wanted to use my own gear and get unlimited data, that would be $30/mo, not the $5/mo for xFi Complete.
Like I said, I was on the horn with this guy for almost a half hour. (I am very stubborn and the agent would not budge.) As I pointed out, this requirement to use their hardware was nowhere on the xFi Complete promotional page on their website—to which the agent pointed out that the requirement was noted in a long FAQ page that required a click or two to get to and that no one, including me, would ever read.
I finally demanded (several times, and forcefully) to be elevated to this person’s supervisor. After about 10 minutes on online hold, I finally got the supervisor—who, more politely but just as insistently, said the only way to get the $5 xFi Complete price was to use the Xfinity gateway. If I wanted to use my modem and router, I’d have to pay the $30/mo for unlimited data.
I finally decided to give up and ditch the xFi Complete plan, but just then Xfinity started having system problems and the online chat was rudely disconnected. (Their website also went all funky at the same time, so I didn’t take it personally.) So an hour or more of my time wasted for nothing.
This morning I went to my local Xfinity store, waited for about 10 minutes, then had a nice gentleman sign me up for the new 1 gps plan with unlimited data, using my own hardware, for $95/mo—$25 more than I wanted. I also returned the Xfinity gateway at the same time.
There were several things wrong with this experience.
First, Xfinity should not charge more if you want to bring your own equipment, they should charge less. Period. I realize the desire to have their customers use their company-supplied hardware is a holdover from their days supplying cable boxes to people who used to have their cable service, but that’s not the way things work today. In addition, they probably think that having their own equipment out there cuts down on compatibility issues (arguable) and makes it easier for less-technical customers to get started (also arguable).
More important, having their gateway in more houses lets them advertise their “free WiFi hotspots” service, as all those Xfinity-supplied gateways also double as signal-sharing devices that leech off the Internet that customers are paying for. In other words, the higher price for bringing your own gear has nothing to do with being customer friendly and offers no advantages to customers at all; it’s simply for the supposed benefit of Comcast.
Second, hiding the “use our gateway” requirement in a FAQs page is disingenuous at best, and criminally misleading at worst. If this is a deal breaker, it ought to be there on the main promo page that all customers read, not hidden away in what is essentially fine print. Period.
Third, having to spend an hour chatting online—and then getting disconnected—is the opposite of what good customer service should be. It should not have been that difficult to get connected to a live agent nor should the resolution taken that long. Comcast is obviously skimping on customer support staff, hoping that “AI” and automated chatbots can do most of that work. While this is common among big companies today, it is wrong. Technology and algorithms can never replace skilled human employees. Doing so ensures that customer—and customer satisfaction—suffers.
And that is today’s story of big companies doing stupid things. Next time, let me tell you about my experience with T-Mobile…
