Inside Secrets of Comcast Xfinity's Customer Service

*** COMCAST CUSTOMER SERVICE ***

If you place an order and are given a Confirmation Number instead of an Account Number your order was taken by a third-party vendor and not a real Comcast employee.  It takes 24-48 hours for these orders to get entered into Comcast’s system and installation dates/times provided with these orders are not guaranteed.  If you call in to modify an order before the 48 hour timeframe it’s highly likely your order will not be in the system.

Comcast hires third-party vendors for everything.  They take overflow calls, they install (contractors), they’re outside Walmart and Best Buy, they manage Comcast’s sales web site, they manage a large part of the Company’s IVR (phone system when you call in).  For security reasons, vendors do not have access to all of the tools and information that In-house Comcast employees have.

Agents selling Comcast service outside of Walmart and Best Buy are NOT actual Comcast employees – they are third-party vendors. You can call in and get routed to a vendor and not know it.  Orders placed through Comcast.com are all handled through a third-party vendor.

Comcast doesn’t have an actual “Customer Service” department.  They expect all departments to provide “customer service.”  Comcast has residential Sales, Billing and Technical Support departments.  If you call in for a Tech ETA, to report a down line, check the status of construction, etc. you are most likely being transferred to the sales department.  Sales can see very little activity in other departments and communicates with other departments via ticket system.  The Comcast agent and the customer both have no direct phone number for calling the other departments. 

Demanding to speak with a supervisor will most likely not yield the result you are looking for.  For example, when you call in you most likely end up with the Sales Department which has little control over scheduling (they can only see future appointments).  Asking to speak with a supervisor is a waste of time because supervisors cannot see anything different than the agent you are speaking with and supervisors can also only submit a ticket.  They have access to the same scheduling system and can only input a ticket to dispatch.

The agents that route tickets to dispatch, construction and other departments regularly close tickets without any actual resolution thereby causing a bad customer experience and generating another unnecessary call back into Comcast for the customer.  The internal ticket system has strict limitations and requirements as to what qualifies for a ticket so agents submit tickets as best they can to take care of customers but the reason for the ticket might not “quality” per the ticket system so the ticket gets closed.  For example, if a ticket is submitted for what would make sense as a technician “go-back” requiring a tech to go back to your home (system requires this must be same day as appointment only) but the agent *routing* the ticket thinks it should have been submitted as a different ticket- rather than taking care of the customer and getting the request to the right department or just handling the request they simply close the ticket. If you haven’t received a call-back from Comcast within 4 hours of having the ticket entered then you should call back in to make sure the ticket wasn’t closed.

Comcast agents cannot see your technicians ETA on the day of installation.  They can only see the 2 hour appointment arrival window, which you can check online or through the Xfinity My Account app.  Only customers can get their technicians ETA through the Xfinity My Account app which can be pre-activated and used prior to installation.  Comcast provides customers with a 2 hour arrival window when you place your initial order and you are expected to have someone over the age of 18 at home during this timeframe.  You can reschedule online without having to call in to reschedule.

Comcast does not generally offer same day or next day appointments for professional installation.  Call with the expectation that it might be a week before your service is installed.  Plan ahead when you want a technician to come to your home- technician availability is usually about a week out.  Self-Installation may be an option if your address qualifies and you are capable of doing so.

Understand if a Comcast agent is telling you a technician is required then it is probably required.  Agents (Sales, installers, etc.) get paid for installing orders so it’s to the agent’s financial advantage to get your service installed as quickly as possible – they would rather set you up with a self-install if it is an option so your order closes quickly rather than waiting for an installer to do the work.  An in-house Comcast agent is not going to recommend a technician installation if you can do it yourself quicker.

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