Where Has All the Customer Service Gone?

Mary and I joined the 21^st century when we recently decided to get wi-fi through Xfinity . While reading the instructions, it mentioned that a backup battery should be installed. We didn’t see the battery and we spent a lot of time looking for it in the box, and looking for it in the trash as well, and just couldn’t find it. Mary called them. They informed her that the battery did not come with the wi-fi box and that we would have to purchase it for a mere $45 through the Xfinity Voice Battery Backup line.

Mary goes ahead and orders the battery. When it arrived, she installed it and nothing happened. The battery just wouldn’t charge. The green battery light never appeared as mentioned in the instructions. Two months fly by and I finally get around to calling Xfinity Customer Service.

After making three phone calls and speaking to four individuals, I truly believe that Comcast’s customer support staff originated from the spawn of Beelzebub!

In my first phone call, I explained about the battery situation and that the green light was not appearing on the front of the box which meant that the battery was not charging properly. At this point, the Customer Service Rep would not continue the conversation until I gave her the serial number. She told me it was located on the front of the box. Wrong. It was on the back of the box, and due to the short cables, it was hard for me to turn it around to read the numbers. I had to move both a chair and a lamp and then scoot the desk out from the wall to get to the back of the box.

I finally read off a long series of numbers to her and then she asks me why I was calling. This is when I had a true Juan Pablo moment - he’s the rude guy on The Bachelor who chided the host for interrupting him. I interrupted her and said, “You are not listening to me. I told you in the beginning of this conversation what the problem was.” She said, “Sorry...I can’t hear you and you should call back to the Xfinity Voice Battery Backup line” and then she hung up on me.

I immediately called back and person #2 kept me on the phone for a total of 12 minutes with many minutes of silence between each question he asked me. I had to say on two occasions “Are you still there?” because all I could hear was background noise of people talking. He finally came back on the line and said, “We will send out a new battery.” Yeah!!! I was then informed that I would have to personally return the first battery to the nearest Comcast store. For us, the closest one to us is 45 minutes away which does not make me jump up and down with joy about returning it.

My third call of the day…I’m looking at my notes and I realize that the battery is called the “voice battery backup” and I wanted to be sure that I really needed a battery for the wi-fi since I wasn’t using the phone jack on it for our phone service. Person #3 told me the battery was only for the phone and that it wasn’t meant as a backup for the wi-fi if the power goes out. At this point I’m so frustrated that I’m making strange sounds instead of intelligible words (I was envisioning practicing my high dive off the nearest cliff). Then she said, “I’m transferring you to our technical service department.”  

This is just getting better by the minute. I spoke to person #4 and explained the entire battery situation again and that the woman I just spoke to informed me that the battery was only for the phone service and not for our wi-fi if we lost power. Person #4 said the battery was for both the phone and wi-fi t if here is a power outage. Why didn’t the previous person know that? Aren’t they given any training???

His next comment was priceless - he informed me that we must have installed the battery incorrectly. I took a very deep breath and said, “Well if this second battery that is being mailed to us doesn’t work, I will call back for instructions about how to install a battery.” Because at that point all I wanted to do was scream at the top of my lungs at this individual that I felt that the entire Xfinity Voice Battery Backup staff was a bunch of untrained idiots, but for a change I kept my mouth shut. I thanked him politely for his helpful assistance and wished him a nice night and hung up.

I now have bruises on my forehead from hitting my head repeatedly on the kitchen table after this last conversation. All I can say is that second battery better work or mayhem will ensue.

Until the next time…

Update: The second battery was the wrong size. The only reason I cared about having a battery was the instructions said to “install the backup battery.” Word to the wise – don’t always rely on instructions as whoever is writing them may not know what they are talking about.