Comcast Xfinity Refund Took Three Months and FOUR Requests

It doesn’t always pay to pay your bills on time every month, but we wouldn’t do it any other way. For thirteen years we had cable and internet service through Comcast Xfinity and never missed or had a late payment. When we moved from Capitol Hill to Virginia almost three months ago, we stopped at the Comcast store in Arlington to return our equipment right after we closed on our new condo. We were told we would receive our refund within a couple of weeks. Luckily I kept the receipt and the hard copy bill with the account number on it because I would be needing it not once, not twice, but three more times. Twice I called and one time I did a chat. I used the “ticket number” and it was referred to as many times. I was told to wait until May 26 because they were tracking the check. My inquiry was sent up the chain to three different supervisors. Nothing I said or did made any difference. The new home address was given on the first day, so that was not a good excuse. All of our mail had been forwarded from the old address anyway. So finally, after almost three months of waiting, the refund check arrived on Saturday. I’m sure everyone has experienced the same thing. And there’s not much you can do about it. Now we have Verizon because Comcast isn’t available in our part of Virginia. Maybe one of these days we won’t need any of them. 

ATT International Calling

When I got our phone bill this month it was more than the usual ridiculous amount we already pay. After checking the line items, there was an almost $15 charge for a single few minute call to England. The only reason we even used the mobile phone was because our desk phone through Xfinity cuts off mid conversation. It never happens to me, but always happens to my husband. When I got on chat and asked about this obnoxious charge, they could only say they would make a note of it, even though I requested a discount for being such a loyal customer all these many years. What they did offer were two international calling my packages - one for $15 per month or another one for $5 per month with additional charges by the minute - except if you call to Canada - which we never do. I really didn’t spend a lot of time looking at the details because we rarely make international calls. I have been toying with the idea of switching our cell phones to Xfinity because we have internet, cable, and phone through them and it’s a lot cheaper. But I am not convinced the service would be any better. I just don’t understand how people can afford these huge bills every month. What makes it even more upsetting is that the devices you pay for don’t work. And it hardly matters how many service calls you make. 

Comcast Phone Issues

We switched our desk phone over to Comcast from Verizon to eliminate a monthly expense and also decrease our Comcast bill overall by bundling all of the services - internet, tv, phone. I suppose it was a good idea, but because the phone isn’t a land line, it doesn’t work as well. We primarily need to use the device as a door bell, but it was good in the event the internet was down and cell phones were ineffective. However, over the last month, every time we get or make a phone call using this phone line, it is dropped after about five minutes. This gets quite annoying. So I finally decided to call Comcast and report our issue. I already checked the phone status using my app. To make a long story short and after two modem reboots and an hour and a half later, the phone at least rings - it stopped ringing midway through. But now the app that also rings when the phone dies stopped working even after deleting and reinstalling it. We don’t really know if the calls still drop because we haven’t received any, although at one point my husband was trying to test it by holding one phone in each ear and talking to himself. But that experiment was aborted! The last thing I want is a technician to visit, or have to get new equipment. So as long as I can check on the phone log and see any voice messages I suppose we can live with it. All I know is I hate having to troubleshoot any of this junk because it takes so long. And it’s more annoying when it’s not totally fixed. 

Pepco Power Outage - the Second Time in Two Weeks

My husband woke me up out a deep sleep this morning to tell me the power was out. There's not a whole lot you can do about it except report it and try to get updates. The odd thing was was that half of the power was working. Luckily the refrigerator was, but the air conditioning and lights weren't. So I checked the pepco app and saw it was already reported with 161 affected and a 9 AM resolution time. So we decided to go for a short walk and see if pepco trucks were anywhere to be seen. We saw three on the corner and when we returned, the power turned back on at 11AM, giving us enough time to shower and make breakfast. But it went out again with even more people affected and a 2PM estimated correction time. So of course this means there is no internet service - something that was validated using the Xfinity Comcast app. Thank goodness we don't have to be anywhere or do anything - except take a ride in the car to charge the phones if it gets to that. What I'd like to know is why this has happened twice now in two weeks? It reminds me of when we lived in Milwaukee that ours was the only block in the neighborhood that had consistent power outages until they finally changed whatever was causing the problem. It was most annoying to have no electricity only to see the neighbor's across the street with all the lights on in the house. At least it's daylight and we can't really tell who is affected. It still doesn't make us feel any better. 

Xfinity - For the Fifth Time, I Don't Want STARZ!

Our universal remote was dying after five years of continuous service so we decided we better upgrade to the newest Comcast Xfinity remote - the one you talk to. It was installed in February and works really well - except I have never had so many chat sessions and phone calls with Xfinity about all the other problems we never had before we made the switch. Initially someone kept hijacking our cable box and ordering children's programs and movies. After about ten conversations with them they finally realized we weren't making it up and came back out and switched the box again and added a "shut off valve" of sorts to keep our connection private. That seemed to finally work. I also requested a valued customer discount for all this hassle. I even set up parental controls in spite of the fact it's just my husband and I living here! But we still keep getting a STARZ promotional fee added to our bill. We never requested it, don't watch it, and are getting super irritated that it keeps showing up. So for the fifth time or more, I had another chat with Vijay about this issue. I refused to pay the promotional STARZ fee and additional prorated amount that mysteriously gets added. And I begged him to please document this issue and discussion so I do not have to repeat it any more. After being reassured it will never happen again I am not holding my breath. 

The Tiny Screen - Thank Goodness for TV Watching Options

We have two tiny apartments across the hall from each other. It makes for totally separate quarters when we have guests. Otherwise, one side is for living during the day, has a Murphy bed, and faces the front of the building; the other side has a separate bedroom for sleeping, a private patio and garden, and faces the rear of the building. That's all a good thing until it comes to TV watching. All of the Xfinity setup is on the side where we usually live and where the guests stay - with the big TV, so that means that the wifi signal doesn't always work so well across the hallway for us. And because it is a totally separate address, it requires two totally different set ups and all the additional expenses associated with it. Because we only used the tv on the "other side" when we had guests, we decided to eliminate the Xfinity box and service on that side, and live with the consequences. Our grandson was visiting with us the last two weeks, and he ultimately enjoyed the guest quarters with the full range of tv and Internet services along with the big screen. Luckily, I recently figured out that we could also watch live or saved tv on my iPad using the Xfinity apps. Using the iPad was okay, but too small and clunky. So I dragged out my laptop, put it on the laptop stand, and set it up for the same purpose. After two weeks we finally got used to sitting on the couch looking at the laptop a short distance in front of us. One of these days I will figure out how to get whatever is on my iPad on to the tv screen. But for now, this happens to work. Luckily we don't need to use it that often!

Updating Comcast Xfinity Equipment is NOT a Good Idea

For more reasons than I care to get in to today, it has been a royal pain since we switched out our seven year old Comcast equipment. It's been two weeks, and the cable television upgrade has been a nightmare. Someone has been hijacking our cable box and ordering movies off it. As for the Internet? It was cutting in and out a lot, but finally stabilized. However, when I was having one of several "chats" last week, the Internet mysteriously went dead when the conversation was getting no where. Aside from all this, not realizing what changing a router does didn't hit me until I tried to print some tickets we purchased for our guests we are hoping to entertain over the next few days. I knew I needed to change the passcode on the many wireless devices we have, but forgot about the printers. The first message I received was that the printer was offline. I tried again - same thing. I tried from my iPad and my laptop. No luck. I unplugged and replugged it. No good. I tried to just copy a page, and the printer worked fine - so I knew it wasn't the equipment. After several attempts it dawned on me ... We changed the **** equipment. I tried to remember how to enter the blasted access code and couldn't. Finally I stumbled upon the network screen on the printer, located our WIFI signal, and entered to code. This printer is so old that the letters kept sticking and it took forever! So the iPad finally could print successfully! But the laptop was still stuck in error mode. So I left it alone for the night and started back at it this morning, looking at printer settings and figuring I would need to enter the blasted code there. After messing around with that for too long, it finally worked. I am not very techy and get really frustrated with this - something any ten year old can figure out.  I was planning to call about my retirement paperwork at the office of personnel management and register another complaint with Comcast, but just didn't feel like it after wasting half - no - most of the day. 

Xfinity, Remote Controls, and Cable Internet Updates

Our universal remote control was dying. It was seven years old and would no longer hold a charge. I ordered very expensive replacement batteries. They worked, but then couldn't get recharged. Luckily I had the Xfinity remote control on my iPad. So as long as we could turn on the tv with the Sony remote, we could use that to change the channels - but we couldn't navigate the DVR. At the same time we received a notice in the mail from Xfinity, have seen several commercials, and the voice remote sounded appealing. Since we no longer require a universal remote for the now non existent subwoofer, surround sound, or VCR, we decided to take a trip to the new Xfinity store in Brookland and see if we could get a tech out to program our tv with a new remote. While there, we scheduled an appointment for a visit to update the system for yesterday. Wow - what a difference. I didn't want to change any of the current programs and services, just a swap out. Based on a very limited experience since the installation, which went very well, we are really happy we finally made the switch. I always dreaded any visit from the then Comcast - never on time, took forever, and never sure if it worked once the tech left. But we are more savvy about the Internet, and pass codes, and cable. So now we can record more than two things at the same time, talk to the remote control, and the search function and visual selections are more appealing. Sometimes closed captioned is a good idea, and we can quickly navigate to adjust all this stuff. Initially the Internet kept cutting out so we are hoping that gets under control. So far, so good. Now I'm waiting for the bill. The woman who helped us at the Xfinity store advised us to call the loyalty program folks at Xfinity and request a discount for using cable for ten years. We may need to do just that. Now, does anyone know how to wirelessly connect my iPad to the TV?

Comcast Xfinity Equipment Return

What do you do on the first day after retirement? Go to the cable company of course to return equipment. It is an ugly business, but has to be done. The blizzard must have affected the cable reception in one of the apartments. We only had basic service there anyway and were considering canceling it for the last few months. So that was a good reason to go ahead and save at least twenty dollars a month for something we never used. But that meant disassembling existing connections - always a challenge in our house. So last week we pulled the tv out and scooted the cabinet away from the wall to get behind all the junk and disconnect the wires. For whatever reason we were reminded by the service representative that we had another whole set of junk in a never opened box - so technically we had two sets of equipment to return. Luckily I was able to find the box tucked away inside a storage space. Heaven help us if we couldn't find that thing. So after lunch we made our way down north Capitol street, past Catholic university, to a very strange location under and overpass. It didn't take very long, and it was an interesting ride. My husband is relieved to get rid of it all and everything looks so different to me now! I can see a lot of future blogs and stories about this city we live in. What a difference a day makes!