How Xfinity’s Poor Customer Service and Confusing Pricing Undermine Their Products

How Xfinity’s Poor Customer Service and Confusing Pricing Undermine Their Products

My recent experience with Xfinity reflects the frustrations, I’m sure, many of you have faced when dealing with cable companies. Here’s my saga, along with some advice on how service companies—especially those that feel like entitled incumbents—can improve their customer service.

As a starting point, my bill for the last two years was $219.31. The bill, post two-year discount, rocketed to $255.35.

Xfinity’s Poor Customer Service: My Saga

A few weeks ago, I headed to the Xfinity store in Redmond, WA, to proactively renegotiate my soon-to-expire two-year deal. I was met with a packed room and over an hour wait. Unable to even check-in due to the line, I left without being helped. Shortly after, my wife informed me that our bill had increased by $35 a month, prompting me to turn to Xfinity’s remote customer service to strike a new deal.

I started with the chatbot, requesting a contract renegotiation. Of course, it understood nothing about my needs and could not help. After several requests for a representative, the bot finally gave up, sending me to a human representative via chat, who also could not help me. He needed to have someone call me. So, I waited. The phone rang, and I had a live person to work with. I went over the bill and stated that I wanted the same services with a new discount applied. That was my position throughout this negotiation.

I was informed my “grandfathered” services were no longer available and that holding them, even at the higher rate, was still a good deal. Re-bundling me would only increase my bill, perhaps higher than the $255.35 coming at me for payment in September. He suggested I just be happy paying $255, which he said was a great deal in today’s market.

Most suggestions included reducing services, which presaged the eventual resolution and ongoing frustration. Go Wi-Fi only―turn in the $10-a-month set-top boxes (BTW, I have paid for these boxes so many times Xfinity should pay me rent to have them in my home). Go down a notch on the television plan by giving up items like Root Sports, our local sports feed. I was watching the Dodgers and the Mariners series play out during this week, which was only on Root Sports, as it was blacked out in the MLB app in Seattle, so no.

And I get it. I want what I want, and that configuration has a price. But a day ago, it had a much lower price. I’m a twenty-one plus year loyal customer, there must be some kind of loyalty accommodation to not only keep me, but to make me happy. That seems not to be necessary when selling services as a near monopoly. In my service area, my options are severely constrained, and Xfinity offers the best service.

I saw no path forward with that conversation.

The Spreadsheet

As an analyst, I started looking for alternatives. To explore the cord-cutting option, I created a spreadsheet. I broke down the costs of my current services and compared individual subscriptions. I did not have a price for xFi Complete yet, which I would eventually get after some conversations tug-of-war, but I’ll get back to that. What I discovered was that, in general, assuming about $100 for xfFi Complete, subscribing to the various services would cost me close to what I was paying Xfinity. Since I also write about television and film, having access to all the services is important.

That prompted me to make one more call. Let’s see if another customer service agent can do the discount search work that the other service agent would not do.

Customer Service Woes

My first three touches with Xfinity—a chatbot, a chat representative, and a phone representative—yielded no helpful suggestions for lowering my bill without eliminating services. Determined to find a better solution, I called back later that day.

The second phone representative listened—sort of. Despite my repeated insistence that I didn’t want to change any services, he assured me he could find a discount without altering my current setup. He also disparaged the previous customer service rep as someone who didn’t like getting into the configuration system. I kept repeating what level of Internet I had and which services I subscribed to. “Yes, Mr. Daniel, I have this.” I received the order, which didn’t clearly state which of my previous services remained, but the representative assured me they were there. I committed. It was only $224.55 a month, and the first month was prorated to $192.75, a good trick for cooling down a clearly unhappy customer.

After all of this, I still did not have a number for xFi Complete. I think my representative considered our deal closed, but I insisted. It seems that he had to go into a tool again and reconfigure my account to take out everything except xFi Complete. I finally received the answer of $90. Good to know for the future. There should have just been a price, but the configuration systems that just reconfigured services out of my package had to be reinvoked to query a bill for me with almost no services.

I took my own cool-off lap and patted myself on the back for investing way too much time over $420 a year, but that is real money. A couple of hotel nights and dinner at minimum. A contribution to the bathroom remodeling fund.

But then I started looking at the bill. Given what I was told, I assumed (stupid me) that some of the services I had, most notably HBO and Showtime + Paramount+ were bundled into my very expensive Ultra Television package, the new name for what had been known previously as “Double-Play.” I was wrong. One of the cost savings measured that was never stated was the elimination of HBO and Showtime, which also means the eventual demise of the Max account.

Worse, the order hadn’t fully taken effect, leaving me with my old, more expensive bill to reference online. I wasn’t sure how to verify what my package included at this point. I was not going back on the phone.

So, I decided to try talking to a person face-to-face. I went to the Redmond, WA store again. This time it was somewhat less crowded, though the problem resolution time seemed rather slow. People were talking to representatives for a long time. But I get it. This was probably hour four for me on this renegotiation and problem-resolution trek.

I finally made it through the virtual queue. I waited about 20 minutes.

A nice young lady with an iPad called out my name. I warned her I was in need of sharing my story (which I still am, obviously). I recounted my experience. The young lady looked at the bill and then looked at her system. She confirmed that I did have xFi complete (good, bundled modem with unlimited internet, a $15 a month bump as it includes the previous $10 a month rental on the modem), but not something I had asked for. She offered to see if she could come up with a new option, but I was done.

That night I flipped on the TV and switched to HBO. I no longer had HBO. It was not buried in anything. It was just gone. Same for Showtime.

And that is where I sit now. Still clearly frustrated with difficult to reach customer service representatives, misleading or unhelpful representatives, a lack of pricing transparency, unclear order confirmations, under communication on account changes, and seemingly, little concern about loyalty in a market where customers have few options.

Lessons for Xfinity

From this experience, it’s clear Xfinity (and other service companies) need to make significant improvements in their customer service practices. Here’s what they should focus on:

• Transparency in Pricing:
  • Clearly list prices and packages online, so customers can easily see what services cost and what’s included.
  • Avoid confusing or duplicate entries on bills, which make it difficult to understand the actual charges. If the document includes a total, it should be clear how that total is calculated.
  • Orders should clearly show the following:
    • What is included and what price (with a clear indication of a discount if it is discounted; just look at a grocery bill).
    • What has been removed.
    • What has been changed or renamed.
• Proactive Communication:
  • Understand customer behavior. Notify customers through multiple channels well in advance when their discounts or special rates are about to expire. Xfinity has no problem getting their bot to text. A couple of proactive texts about bill changes would be good.
  • Relying on printed notices on bills—especially when many customers, like me, have automatic payments set up—is not enough, if the total doesn’t change month-to-month.
• Simplify Customer Interaction:
  • Reduce the number of steps required to speak with a human representative. AI and automated systems should assist, not replace, human interaction.
  • Ensure representatives are fully trained and comfortable using the tools at their disposal to help customers without causing unnecessary confusion or errors.
• Listen and Respond Appropriately:
  • Representatives should truly listen to customer requests, not just give the appearance of listening. Miscommunication can lead to significant dissatisfaction, as in my case when I lost services I explicitly stated I wanted to keep. I know they talk to a lot of people, but being good at talking to people is the job.
  • Do not tell customers that a communications failure on the part of Comcast/Xfinity should be managed by the customer putting a calendar entry in their phone to remind them it’s time to renegotiate their deal (all three people I spoke with suggested this and shared they personally do it). That tells me Comcast should consider a more automated process with better visibility that uses multiple channels. They should, perhaps, consider a business model that doesn’t require a regular bill renegotiation. A stable plan would reduce customer service issues by making it easier to be an Xfinity customer. Perhaps a lesson from the billing folks at T-Mobile.
• Fair Pricing for Equipment:
  • Charging $10 a month for each TV box seems excessive, especially when the customer has likely paid for those boxes many times over the years. This practice feels exploitative. I get that it’s transparent, but just because I can see it on my bill doesn’t mean it is good customer practice to charge for hardware required to deliver a service. They should treat these boxes like phones. $150 bucks over 15 months with no interest. At the end of the period, the box is yours. If it dies, you get a new one. Or, as they do with modems, rent them, but $10 a month is too much for a cable box, maybe $2 a month. But math seems hard for Xfinity.

AI idea: Have an AI manage the billing. Configure a bill yearly based on what people watch and how they use their other services. Offer an optimized, personalized service portfolio that includes loyalty discounts.

Xfinity’s Poor Customer Service: Final Thoughts

While I remain an Xfinity customer, largely because I value the quality of their Internet and cable TV products, their customer service and pricing transparency leave much to be desired. My hope is that by sharing my experience, Xfinity and similar companies will take steps to improve their customer service processes, making them more efficient, effective, and human-centered.

For those of you who’ve experienced similar frustrations, know that you’re not alone, and there are voices in the analyst community advocating for better practices. Let’s keep pushing for transparency, better communication, and a customer service experience that respects our time and intelligence.

I look forward to your thoughts.

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All images: meta.ai using Llama 3. The order is a screen capture of the author’s actual Xfinity order dated August 19, 2024.