Xfinity account problems rant

[Nil]

Gotta rant...

I'm the primary account holder, my husband the secondary, with all
available privileges. Xfinity insists that every account have a unique
mobile phone number. Multiple users on an account cannot share the same
mobile number (what about those, like my sister, whose only phone is a
shared mobile number?? Or if you don't have a mobile phone?) Anyway,
somehow we had wound up with our mobile numbers reversed, his UID
associated with my mobile, mine with his. So, the other night I tried
going into Xfinity on-line to try to swap the numbers to resolve the
mix-up. MISTAKE! Two problems encountered...

I found I can't change one phone X to phone Y because "that number is
already associated with another account" (which, indeed, it is.) And
there's no way to delete a number once it's verified (what are we
supposed to do if we get rid of a mobile number??) To make matters
worse, I accidentally changed one of the numbers to an invalid number
(typo.) Nothing left to do but call Xfinity, which I did yesterday.

The nice lady was able to delete the two mobile numbers which allowed
me to re-enter them for both accounts. HOWEVER (you knew there was
going to be a 'however') the Primary Account STILL shows the bogus
number as well as the correct one, and if I try to get into any of the
security sections on-line, their system wants to send a text to the
BOGUS number, which, of course, we can't retrieve. There is no other
option (email, alternate phone, etc.) I called again today (Saturday)
and they guy said that if the bogus number isn't verified within 72
hours, it will disappear. We shall see... I'll check back next week.

But worse, all their fooling around with accounts seems to have
disassociated HIS secondary account with the primary. Now, he can log
on and see his webmail, but if if he does anything else, the browser
goes into an infinite redirect loop (multiple browsers tried.) I see a
flash of an error message that I *think* says something unhelpful, like
"Oops, something went wrong!" If he tries to use the Xfinity mobile
app, he can log on, but gets a message saying something like, "You are
logged on, but you can't access this content unless you are an Xfinity
customer." WTF?!? How could he log on unless he was an Xfinity
customer??

I'll call back on Monday or Tuesday. Their phone menu system is SO f'n
ANNOYING, asking you at least 6 times if they can text you a link, no
matter how many times you shout "NO!" It should not be this difficult
or take so much of my time.

[Adam H. Kerman]

Post by Nil
Gotta rant...
I'm the primary account holder, my husband the secondary, with all
available privileges. Xfinity insists that every account have a unique
mobile phone number.

I have refused to put a mobile number in my account profile. I don't
want text messages. I want email messages.

Call your village hall. Ask for the Comcast liason. They will put you in
touch with higher level customer service.

Make sure you demand a credit, say $25, for inability to get this mess
straightened out in one phone call.

But in truth, you'd be better off with no mobile phone number in your
profile.

Post by Nil
. . .

[Nil]

Post by Adam H. Kerman
Call your village hall. Ask for the Comcast liason. They will put
you in touch with higher level customer service.

That is an excellent idea. I don't know for sure there is such a
position, but will find out. I'm willing to let this play out for a few
days to let their system catch up with all the changes, but I will be
watching closely. The problem is finding someone with the technical
knowhow to understand the problem and fix it, AND the permissions to do
so. The first person I talked to on Friday was pleasant and wanted to
help, but think she had just enough knowledge and system access to be
dangerous.

Post by Adam H. Kerman
Make sure you demand a credit, say $25, for inability to get this
mess straightened out in one phone call.
But in truth, you'd be better off with no mobile phone number in
your profile.

Yeah, that was a big mistake. I resisted it for years, but the system
bugs you every time you check in on line and it finally caught me in a
moment of weakness.

[Retirednoguilt]

Post by Nil

Post by Adam H. Kerman
Call your village hall. Ask for the Comcast liason. They will put
you in touch with higher level customer service.

That is an excellent idea. I don't know for sure there is such a
position, but will find out. I'm willing to let this play out for a few
days to let their system catch up with all the changes, but I will be
watching closely. The problem is finding someone with the technical
knowhow to understand the problem and fix it, AND the permissions to do
so. The first person I talked to on Friday was pleasant and wanted to
help, but think she had just enough knowledge and system access to be
dangerous.

Post by Adam H. Kerman
Make sure you demand a credit, say $25, for inability to get this
mess straightened out in one phone call.
But in truth, you'd be better off with no mobile phone number in
your profile.

Yeah, that was a big mistake. I resisted it for years, but the system
bugs you every time you check in on line and it finally caught me in a
moment of weakness.

Most large businesses with telephone customer service/support phone
numbers, regardless of what they sell, have supervisory people in their
chain of command. If you're not satisfied with the solution(s) offered
by the person you're speaking to, you can either hangup and call again
hoping to be connected to someone else who may help. At any time,
regardless of the details, you can always request that your issue be
"escalated". And, if you still don't receive satisfaction, you can ask
THAT person to "escalate" your issue to the next higher level. I've
found that the magic word is "escalate" and it's worked more often than not.

[Retirednoguilt]

Post by Adam H. Kerman

Post by Nil
Gotta rant...
I'm the primary account holder, my husband the secondary, with all
available privileges. Xfinity insists that every account have a unique
mobile phone number.

I have refused to put a mobile number in my account profile. I don't
want text messages. I want email messages.
Call your village hall. Ask for the Comcast liason. They will put you in
touch with higher level customer service.
Make sure you demand a credit, say $25, for inability to get this mess
straightened out in one phone call.
But in truth, you'd be better off with no mobile phone number in your
profile.

Post by Nil
. . .

+1 Adam. We've have a Comcast triple play account for the past 7 years
and have consistently refused to provide a mobile number (our mobile
service is with a different carrier anyway). Believe it or not, Comcast
AKA Xfinity still accepts our money and provide the services. We only
use our cell phones for extremely limited, defined purposes and leave
them off most of the time. We don't want anyone trying to contact us by
text or voice call to our mobile numbers and then tell us that they
tried to get in touch with us but can't. Least of all Comcast - which
provides us with our land line service. They certainly know that number
and if they refuse to call us on it all we can do is shake our heads.

[Cosmo Kramer]

Post by Adam H. Kerman

Post by Nil
Gotta rant...
I'm the primary account holder, my husband the secondary, with all
available privileges. Xfinity insists that every account have a unique
mobile phone number.

I have refused to put a mobile number in my account profile. I don't
want text messages. I want email messages.
Call your village hall. Ask for the Comcast liason. They will put you in
touch with higher level customer service.
Make sure you demand a credit, say $25, for inability to get this mess
straightened out in one phone call.

This is worth at least a million, maybe more with Kamalaflation.
Call Jackie Chiles (my lawyer) and see what he can do for you.

[Frank]

Post by Adam H. Kerman

Post by Nil
Gotta rant...
I'm the primary account holder, my husband the secondary, with all
available privileges. Xfinity insists that every account have a unique
mobile phone number.

I have refused to put a mobile number in my account profile. I don't
want text messages. I want email messages.
Call your village hall. Ask for the Comcast liason. They will put you in
touch with higher level customer service.
Make sure you demand a credit, say $25, for inability to get this mess
straightened out in one phone call.
But in truth, you'd be better off with no mobile phone number in your
profile.

Post by Nil
. . .

They have my cell phone number. I recently had to jump through hoops to
get Comcast email on my cell phone. To set it up I had to enter the
password and they sent me a conformation code to use on my cell phone.

Two factor authentication can be a PITA. Pharmacy will do email but my
401k says it is not safe enough and wants to use cell phone.

[Nil]

Post by Frank

Post by Adam H. Kerman

Post by Nil
Gotta rant...
I'm the primary account holder, my husband the secondary, with
all available privileges. Xfinity insists that every account
have a unique mobile phone number.

I have refused to put a mobile number in my account profile. I
don't want text messages. I want email messages.
Call your village hall. Ask for the Comcast liason. They will put
you in touch with higher level customer service.
Make sure you demand a credit, say $25, for inability to get this
mess straightened out in one phone call.
But in truth, you'd be better off with no mobile phone number in
your profile.

Post by Nil
. . .

They have my cell phone number. I recently had to jump through
hoops to get Comcast email on my cell phone. To set it up I had
to enter the password and they sent me a conformation code to use
on my cell phone.
Two factor authentication can be a PITA. Pharmacy will do email
but my 401k says it is not safe enough and wants to use cell
phone.

I think that's what may have forced me into it, I can't remember for
sure. Sometimes I'm presented an option to choose whether to get a
verification code via email OR text, sometimes text only. It's
inconsistent. I'd prefer email in most cases.

[Frank]

Post by Nil

Post by Frank

Post by Adam H. Kerman

Post by Nil
Gotta rant...
I'm the primary account holder, my husband the secondary, with
all available privileges. Xfinity insists that every account
have a unique mobile phone number.

I have refused to put a mobile number in my account profile. I
don't want text messages. I want email messages.
Call your village hall. Ask for the Comcast liason. They will put
you in touch with higher level customer service.
Make sure you demand a credit, say $25, for inability to get this
mess straightened out in one phone call.
But in truth, you'd be better off with no mobile phone number in
your profile.

Post by Nil
. . .

They have my cell phone number. I recently had to jump through
hoops to get Comcast email on my cell phone. To set it up I had
to enter the password and they sent me a conformation code to use
on my cell phone.
Two factor authentication can be a PITA. Pharmacy will do email
but my 401k says it is not safe enough and wants to use cell
phone.

I think that's what may have forced me into it, I can't remember for
sure. Sometimes I'm presented an option to choose whether to get a
verification code via email OR text, sometimes text only. It's
inconsistent. I'd prefer email in most cases.

Yes, I prefer email too as I am on the computer and need not turn on the
cell phone which is only on when I am out of the house.

[Nil]

Post by Frank

Post by Nil
I think that's what may have forced me into it, I can't remember
for sure. Sometimes I'm presented an option to choose whether to
get a verification code via email OR text, sometimes text only.
It's inconsistent. I'd prefer email in most cases.

Yes, I prefer email too as I am on the computer and need not turn
on the cell phone which is only on when I am out of the house.

The phones lives most of their lives on the charger and I may or may
not have it near me at any given time, whereas I have a better chance
of seeing my email.

[Retirednoguilt]

Post by Frank

Post by Nil

Post by Frank

Post by Adam H. Kerman

Post by Nil
Gotta rant...
I'm the primary account holder, my husband the secondary, with
all available privileges. Xfinity insists that every account
have a unique mobile phone number.

I have refused to put a mobile number in my account profile. I
don't want text messages. I want email messages.
Call your village hall. Ask for the Comcast liason. They will put
you in touch with higher level customer service.
Make sure you demand a credit, say $25, for inability to get this
mess straightened out in one phone call.
But in truth, you'd be better off with no mobile phone number in
your profile.

Post by Nil
. . .

They have my cell phone number. I recently had to jump through
hoops to get Comcast email on my cell phone. To set it up I had
to enter the password and they sent me a conformation code to use
on my cell phone.
Two factor authentication can be a PITA. Pharmacy will do email
but my 401k says it is not safe enough and wants to use cell
phone.

I think that's what may have forced me into it, I can't remember for
sure. Sometimes I'm presented an option to choose whether to get a
verification code via email OR text, sometimes text only. It's
inconsistent. I'd prefer email in most cases.

Yes, I prefer email too as I am on the computer and need not turn on the
cell phone which is only on when I am out of the house.

I have the exact same situation. However, supposedly e-mail accounts
are easier to hack (and to find hacked e-mail log-in credentials on the
dark web) than are sending spoofed text messages to the relevant cell
phone number. I wonder. With the amount of spam text messages being
sent these days, I think the only safe thing to do is freeze all your
credit reports, put notification alerts on all credit card charges, and
carefully examine all financial statements and reports for bogus
charges/withdrawals. Oh, and add the requirement for a PIN number to
your IRS income tax return. Your PIN is changed annually by the IRS but
it only takes a minute each year to log in to your IRS account and
obtain your new PIN for that year's return. Makes it much harder for an
identity thief to file a forged return in your name early in the tax
year and get a refund before you submit your return only to have it
rejected because the IRS says it already processed your return and gave
you a refund. It's a PITA to clear up.