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Comcast Shoots For New Image, Rebranding As Xfinity

artemis writes "Comcast is making efforts to repair and restore its 'former glory' by the act of transformation, rebranding itself as Xfinity. Hopefully step 2 is an actual change in quality and customer service. 'Comcast will use the Xfinity rebranding to talk up its improved customer service as well as its technical upgrades. “There’s a lot to be proud of,’’ said Steve Hackley, Comcast’s senior vice president for the Greater Boston region. “We want to take credit for it.’’ W2 Group’s Weber said such a rebranding is “a bit old-fashioned’’ and a new name is unlikely to impress consumers. “I think the public is smarter than that now,’’ he said.'"

14 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. Xfinity equals... by aardwolf64 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Xfinity = the amount of time you'll be on hold if you call Customer Service.

    1. Re:Xfinity equals... by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      News flash: They all intentionally suck when there is no direct competition.

      The ONLY places I have seen cable not suck is the rare community where there are two cable providers. Most of the time the likes of Comcast search out a franchise agreement with the city to make competition "illegal" or very expensive.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:Xfinity equals... by supernova87a · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have to add my experience with TimeWarner idiocy here.

      About a year ago I called their technical support line on behalf of my aunt in NYC, who had just gotten their HD upgrade or something I don't recall, and the picture was missing the red portion of the signal. (note that your reading that last sentence, there wasn't much room for misunderstanding, was there? You can understand the situation I'm describing, right?)

      The conversation began badly, and went downhill from there:

      Me: "Hi, we seem to be having a problem with our HD cable signal -- the picture is missing the red channel, so everything looks a little bit blue. I've tested this by swapping out the cables from the RGB (whatever it was), reversing them, so I think it's definitely a problem with your cable box, not our cables or our TV. Can you help me with that?"

      Her: "sorry sir, looking in your channel lineup, I don't see any Red Channel."

      Me: @#$!%#@

      Me: regathering politeness, and for the next 20 minutes: "Sorry, I must not have explained that well -- you know how the tv signal has red/green/blue parts? Well, it seems to be missing the red part, so that the color is off."

      Her: "no sir, I don't understand, and please, don't fiddle with the cables, please follow my instruction to turn the unit off and reset it."

      after 20 minutes:

      Me: "Maam, you don't seem to have the technical knowledge to even understand the problem I'm having -- could you please transfer me to someone who does."

      10 more minutes of me getting angry that she won't transfer me. Followed by my filing a complaint with a request to be called back. I get called back, the guy on the line understands the problem immediately, and sends someone out the next day.

      I cannot stand incompetence that doesn't recognize itself. And that a customer service assistance unit would staff its helpline with someone of such stupidity.

      The other thing I learned -- don't get frustrated with stupidity, just leave. Politely hang up (there's no sense in angering yourself, or offending the moron) and call back until you get someone who knows what they're talking about. And I'm not just talking about with cable companies, I've discovered that this applies about life in general....

  2. Re:Yeah, and Blackwater is now called Xe. by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 5, Funny

    Still, it's nice of these broken companies to move themselves to the end of the phone book.

  3. The 90s called, by Ryanrule · · Score: 5, Funny

    they want their "x" back.

    1. Re:The 90s called, by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

      Unfortunately, the 90's were using Comcast Voice and the call didn't go through.

      --
      There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  4. You know by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm going to go out on a limb and say that your name is NOT your problem. I'm going to say that your problem is that you suck ass at providing service. You can change the name all you like, so long as your service blows, people are going to hate on you. Conversely, fix the service and it won't be a problem.

    Seriously, I'm amazed how bad Comcast is. Where I live, both Cox and Comcast provide cable service of the TV, Internet and phone variety. Which you get depends on which part of the city you live in. I live in the Cox area. In general, I'm happy with them. They aren't prefect, but they are pretty good. They fix their problems, their speeds are good, etc, etc. My friends on Cox seem to feel the same way.

    Not long ago my parents came to visit, and stayed in a condo owned by friends of theirs. This condo was in a Comcast area. I couldn't believe how bad it was. Not even dealing with tech support, just general usage. The net was amazingly slow, their DVR was a massive POS, etc, etc. I made very little use of it and I found it to be poor quality. I can't imagine how dissatisfied someone who uses it all the time is.

    Rebranding won't fix shit. You have to fix your quality if you want people to respect your brand.

  5. Re:its still comcrap to me by Jimmy+King · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, I do use Comcast to access the majority of my adult films.

  6. Seriously? by algormortis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    “I think the public is smarter than that now,’’

    Everyone knows this isn't true. Why do you think Comcast still has customers?

    1. Re:Seriously? by Pojut · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because of people like me who live in an area where my choices are Comcast or Dial-up.

  7. Meaningless names by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WTF is it with this trend of conjuring up completely meaningless words to use as company names?

    On NPR in the mornings I hear about a company that used to be called Horn Murdoch and Cole (a sensible name that tells you they've been around for a while and actually means something) who for some unfathomable reason decided to call themselves "Acretive Solutions," or something. I mean, aside from the impossibility of being able to tell if it's "Acretive" or "Acrative" just by listening to it, what the hell is that supposed to mean? It sounds almost like "Excretive" which calls to mind images of someone taking a dump!

    Accenture, Cingular, Elementis, Altria, I mean, what the fuck is that? At least the idiots at "Consignia" had the sense to revert back to the name that everyone understood and recognized for decades, i.e. 'Royal Mail.'

    Sheesh!

    There's a transcript here of a BBC radio show talking about this very subject.

    --
    Drill baby drill - on Mars
  8. Xfinity? Sign me up! by honestmonkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, Xfinity! That sounds great. Where do I sign up? I want better service, faster internet and cheaper prices, and Xfinity sounds like it fits the bill. It's got an "X" in it, so it must be ten times better than what I have now.

    Can't wait until it's available in my area.

    --
    Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
  9. I just dropped their service by tigheig · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... so does that make me an XCustomer?

  10. Re:bad branding by RoFLKOPTr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Your friends may talk shit about Comcast, but they have no idea how good Xfinity is, but damnit they have gotta be better than comcast.

    Comcast isn't changing their name... they're just renaming their service. It's going to be Comcast Xfinity now.