Streaming bundles, endless transfers, and the limits of modern technology

When you ask friends and neighbors which mega-company provides the worst customer service, Comcast/Xfinity is usually the landslide winner. Few businesses generate more frustration than the area’s dominant cable and internet provider.

Until recently, I was not part of the anti-Comcast chorus. They provided a service, I paid the bill, and the internet and streaming kept humming along. Even after cutting the cord, I stayed with Comcast as the best way to keep everything connected. Then came a glitch.

When I transitioned to Comcast’s streaming package without cable TV, the bundle included services like Hulu, Netflix, and Apple TV. Comcast assured customers they would handle all the behind-the-scenes details, canceling old subscriptions and activating the new bundled versions without interrupting access to Ted Lasso, Your Friends and Neighbors, or our guilty pleasure, Shameless.

But then I noticed that Apple TV was still charging us separately.

In the grand scheme of things, this was hardly a major crisis. But Barb and I don’t enjoy Ted Lasso enough to pay for it twice, especially while the series is on hiatus. So began my three-day descent into the Comcast customer service labyrinth.

My efforts to resolve the problem included Comcast’s online chat assistant, multiple live agents, a visit to a Comcast retail store, a live video session with a Comcast representative in Egypt, Apple customer service, and ChatGPT, which by that point had become both therapist and technical consultant.

Each Comcast representative marched me through the identical sequence of links, toggles, logins, refreshes, and reboots, none of which resolved the problem. Each agent assured me detailed notes were being added to my file before putting me on hold. Those notes, apparently, vanished into the same digital black hole that swallows forgotten passwords and two-factor authentication codes. I have now come to believe that “putting a note in your file” is simply customer service shorthand for “the next person I hand you off to will know nothing.” KLM used the same line while we were rearranging our Africa trip, with identical results.

I would like to tell you that after all that work, our streaming issue is resolved. I would like to, but I can’t.

The final Comcast agent advised me to wait until the current Apple billing cycle ends in July and “see where we are then.” As he explained it, “Those people at Apple do things weird.”

And you can put that note into my file.