Having issues with Xfinity? You may have legal options.
Xfinity is mostly known for its Internet packages, and it’s one of the many companies beneath the Comcast corporate umbrella. They also have a presence in the home security market, so they’ve taken advantage of their TV-based origins to offer home security as well as home automation and monitoring services. But does Xfinity Home Security break free of the poor customer service shadow that Comcast, well, casts? Let’s find out by breaking down all of Xfinity Home Security’s features and services and examining what their current customers have to say.
Xfinity Home Security offers three services: home security equipment, monitoring services, and home automation.
Xfinity Base Home
Their first equipment package is called Xfinity Base Home, priced at $360 and including a touchscreen control panel, three window or door entry sensors, a single pet-friendly motion sensor, a proprietary app for remote controlling the equipment, and a yard sign.
Complete Home
Or you can opt for a more expensive equipment package called Complete Home, which is priced at $480. It comes with everything above in addition to two more window or door entry sensors, a wireless keypad controller, and an indoor or outdoor HD Xfinity camera. The equipment is also valuable because both systems are designed with cellular backup batteries, so they’ll continue to work even if your home experiences a power outage.
Base Monitoring
Their base monitoring plan comes with everything you would expect from a bare-bones home security service, including instant mobile alerts, 24/7 video monitoring, and smart home automation. The premium plan is a little more expensive but includes video recording as well as motion-triggered recording, built-in AI for smart detection, and everything in the original surveillance plan.
Finally, Xfinity’s home automation services are another thing you can take advantage of. They can integrate with other smart home appliance creators like Nest, Philips, and Lutron. Being connected to Comcast, the Xfinity systems can also integrate easily with your other smart home features like TV control, thermostat controls, and so on.
Let’s take a look at some other review collection websites and consumer feedback resources to see what Xfinity’s overall reputation is.
Consumer Affairs provides a great window into this aspect; they give Xfinity about a 1.3-star average of five based on reviews over the last few years. This isn’t incredibly surprising given the low reputation of Comcast, Xfinity’s parent company. Apparently, billing issues and generally poor customer service remain even when using Xfinity’s home security equipment. Many people have complained about the constant raising of fees, even with the current upfront costs.
The Better Business Bureau gives us a window into Xfinity’s reputation even further by looking at the reviews for their parent corporation. With a whopping 24,000 complaints in total, the BBB has arguably the biggest reservoir of issues with Comcast and, thus, Xfinity Home Security out of anyone. Once again, there are plenty of issues with customer service and billing beyond all other aspects.
We can also look at Reviews.org’s rating of Xfinity Home Security. They give the company 1.5 out of 5 stars, praising the service for bundling its security offerings with TV, Internet, and phone services. However, as expected, they criticize Xfinity for their poor customer service, which seems to be inescapable given that the company is part of the Comcast umbrella. Anyone looking for an easy time when it comes to technical difficulties or handling billing issues should definitely move on.
To no one’s great surprise, Xfinity has a huge number of customer complaints, and virtually all of them deal with customer service representatives or billing issues. Comcast is practically infamous at this point for incessantly raising the prices of those who are contracted with one or more of their services, often without announcing this to the customer in an attempt to sneakily steal more money. As soon as customers see this in action, they make a complaint, only to be redirected to the equally infamous Comcast customer service squad.
Customer service representatives are historically rude and unhelpful, likely because the parent company directs them to be so. The goal, according to many of the customer experiences recorded on their reviews, is to wear down the resolve of every customer who has a complaint until they accept higher costs without question. Naturally, many customers refuse to give up and decide to press claims against Comcast instead.
Ultimately, most of their complaints revolve around poor customer service and billing rather than actual issues with the equipment. This goes to show that if Xfinity had a good customer service team, they might be one of the best-reviewed and most used home security systems on the market. As they are, they’re middling at best and poor in most other cases.
Xfinity is no stranger to lawsuits, being an umbrella company of Comcast. In 2014, the company was sued by a Washington state family when the home security system was not effective at preventing intruders from entering their home. Evidently, the installation professionals from Xfinity advised the family not to put sensors inside the basement, as others would supposedly keep them safe. However, the attackers who entered the home did so through a basement window, directly counteracting these claims.
Furthermore, Comcast has had to settle a class-action lawsuit in 2019. This was over alleged anti-competitive practices and all lawful practices all surrounding their premium cable subscriber boxes.
All in all, Xfinity seems to be repeating the mistakes of its parent company in dramatic fashion. We’ve got plenty of experience handling Comcast, so if you’re one of the many customers with legitimate problems with how Xfinity treats them, we’d be happy to help with your case.
We can help you pursue independent arbitration against Xfinity so you can get real results without being tied up in a years-long legal misadventure. Best of all, you can start by filling out one of our easy contact forms below. One of our legal experts can get in touch with you very shortly!