Xfinity Stream
Reviews and Complaints

I switched from DirecTV because I wanted better Internet than what I was receiving from Verizon. Xfinity has some nice features and with their promotion I am paying over $30 a month more than what I paid with no promotions left on DirecTV. So I was expecting better service all the way around. I am not sure the extra cost is worth it.

I do not believe they have any support for the app. I called a few times. The person who answered the phone was pleasant but could not help me. She said she filed a ticket but no one ever called me back even though she said they would. I then tried the online blog site. Only response I received was that my shows may have had an issue uploading to their cloud. Again no help.

I receive an issue each week using the app. I honestly thought paying more for Xfinity would provide better service but so far I have not seen this to be the case.

They need to have a special team for the app and respond back to customers but I do not think they care.

So I finally broke down and purchased TiVo. Xfinity downloads the shows quicker but not all the shows are available for download with Xfinity. It is very hard to catch up on shows when the first couple shows are not available to download. I had so many issues with the Xfinity Mobile app that I am not experiencing with TiVo. For example, sometimes you download a show on Xfinity and when you play it says there was a problem with it and it tries to have you watch the on demand version where you must watch commercials. TiVo seems to have all my shows available. I never had a reason to call TiVo for issues. Sad I needed to purchase it since Xfinity app has too many issues. Counting down to when I can end my contract...

My husband and I both travel for work a lot. For frequent travelers, keeping up with your favorite shows is not easy as not all hotels offer the same channel lineup or you may be on a flight while a show airs. Streaming made keeping up with shows easy as I would record and watch anytime. Maybe I’m sitting in the airport so I watch on my phone, or maybe I’m in the hotel and watch from my iPad, either way, it was a breeze. That is until early this year when I realized the latest update removed the ability to watch remotely or schedule a recording.

I’ve seen others mention getting one device so maybe I unknowingly set up my iPad therefore making it unavailable for my iPhone but why can’t I view/update that device in my settings?

Why would we only be allowed one device? How many families today have only one device in their household? That’s ridiculous! So families must choose who gets to watch remotely? If I use it for my iPhone as I travel regularly, then my toddler can’t watch on her tablet while driving on a family vacation? Anyone with young children knows the benefits of giving them their own tablet with super padded cases vs risking damage to your phone.

My other frustration is the removal of scheduling a recording through the app. Neither the Stream app nor the TV Remote app allows you to schedule a recording anymore. Say I’m out running errands and hear about a news episode that will air tonight before I get home - I can no longer go into the app to schedule that recording. This was another great feature that was removed. WHY?

We pay a high premium for service that is advertised as watch and record from anywhere but it simply isn’t true. Xfinity needs to get their act together. Highly disappointed in what used to be a wonderful app that I used regularly. If you haven’t updated the app in awhile, save yourself some grief and don’t...I wish I hadn’t!

Comcast “Xfinity” is a monopolistic fraud, in my opinion. The company provides what I consider such a poor service that they actually changed their name a la serial conman... Think about that - who else does that? The only examples that come to my mind are failing businesses like those on “Bar Rescue” that rebrand themselves in an attempt to save the company.

Corporate accountants assign a value to a company’s “goodwill,” which is the value of their name brand, e.g., the goodwill of “Coca-Cola” allows them to charge a higher price than private label/store-brand cola companies. Comcast spent millions of dollars in advertising to establish and grow the company’s goodwill, but the nature of their product erased all of that value and more. I doubt Comcast ever put their goodwill in the liabilities column as their change in name implies it belonged, but someone was obviously aware their name was a detractor because they literally changed it... to “Xfinity” - they spent millions of dollars to rebrand the company and that campaign focused on their self-proclaimed good “customer service” almost as if the marketing team had a sense of humor and just wanted to rub that nonsense in people’s faces... Imagine if they’d spent those marketing dollars on fixing their internal problems-what a novel concept.

The most recent “update” to this app mentions ¿snacks? and faster error messages... how funny is that? Instead of fixing the software bugs, they acknowledge that downloads don’t work and laud themselves for speeding up the app’s ability to tell you it’s wasting your time so as not to “leave you hanging” - what absurdity. I am loving this hilarity, but only because I’m no longer one of their rubes. When I was last a customer my bill often contained unexplained extra charges. It seemed apparent to me they engaged in widespread and blatant consumer fraud. I am no longer a Comcast customer. Cut your losses...

My experience with this clueless and misguided company started this past Saturday afternoon while trying to cast a sporting event. When I went to cast the event, my app and tv responded, but I was left hanging with a “ready to cast” message on my tv. So I called in and after explaining my issue multiple times I was told the trouble was a result of an unplanned maintenance outage due to servers Impacted due to recent storm activity in my area. Customer Service 101 says the best time to conduct maintenance is always during your customers prime weekend viewing time - right?! After expressing my frustration I was given some credit for my time and told the issue would be resolved by end of day Saturday. Shame on me for taking them at their word when they just want to get me off the phone.

Today is Monday and it still does not work.

Tonight I was passed to a total of 5 people. I spent 2.5 hours on the phone. First, I was on a text chat with a poorly trained CSR and then his equally inept supervisor - being given various (!?) nonsensical answers for my problem. Then, after being forced to work through various stupid, duplicative troubleshooting steps, I was told I would be called back by Advanced Technical Support to continue to troubleshoot the issue.

The callback I received was from someone who had no clue what casting to a device / tv even was!? She was not aware that you can buy a separate Chromecast device. She could not help me nor get a true advanced tech support lead on the phone and she could not have me holding any longer, so she was going to have her boss call me. Never happened. Shocker, I know.

So I grit my teeth and called back in and finally got to a live in-person CSR. She forced me through the same ridiculous troubleshooting steps -AGAIN - only to tell me after 30 mins that it’s A KNOWN BUG IN THE STREAM APP THAT HAS NO ETA FOR A FIX THAT CAME OUT OCT. 10! 2.5 hours when all they had to do was tell me that and offer me credit for my loss of service.

Why didn’t EVERYONE who answered the phone have that info at their finger tips? Unbelievable. It’s a joke. What’s great is that despite my frustration they had the guts to ask me how my day is going. LOL. They are so oblivious and tone-deaf to what customer care is all about. Awful company.

THE most annoying thing it does is only play the first 2 minutes of a football game on my iPad or PC! 3 of the last 5 games I’ve recorded have behaved like this. If I view directly from the DVR to the TV, it has the whole game. Another thing is the app always says the DVR is about 30% more full than it says when viewing from the TV—i.e. iPad says the DVR is at 90% capacity, when the TV says the DVR is at 60% capacity.

Update 8/9: still can’t watch a football game with the app! Only shows 2 minutes and 54 seconds of the recording!

Update 09/14: This app is going backwards, as far as practical, usability is concerned. The reason for having an app that’s connected to your TV account, on your portable device, IS TO BE ABLE TO WATCH YOUR OWN CHANNELS AND PROGRAMMING WHEN YOU’RE AWAY FROM YOUR HOME! PERIOD! This should be fundamental. HIRE NEW LAWYERS IF YOU HAVE TO! Cut through any FCC regulations or whatever; find the loopholes. When I’m at a hotel, with a limited amount of interesting TV programming, I want to be able to log into this app and watch the same channels that I watch at home and have access to all programs that I’ve recorded...tap into the physical DVR’s if cloud space is the issue. This app could be brilliant! Instead, it’s nearly useless on the road. I used to be able to schedule a program to record using the app, while away from home. That very useful function is now gone.

So, now that I’ve talked about the ‘two steps back,’ the ‘one step forward’ part is that I was finally able to watch an entire football game using the app...but then again, I was in my own home, right in front of our TV...that’s connected to our DVR, that’s connected to the internet...while the kids watched the Disney channel.

Update 09/17: I’m taking back the ‘one step forward’ part of my previous update. Monday Night Football only shows 2 minutes and 54 seconds of total runtime using the app. So, I’m staying up late to watch the recorded game off of the DVR, on the TV, after waiting for my wife and kids to get done with the TV. They’re in bed, asleep. I’m watching the game now because I can’t ‘go dark’ on social media any longer and I know I’ll hear the score in the morning, as people discuss the game at work. If this app would have worked, I would have already finished watching the game.

This applies to my services in the home as well as this app. We signed up 3 months ago after 10+ years with DirecTv. As soon as xfinity became available here we made the switch so weather would not cause our services to be interrupted. In these three months, I have had to call more to report problems than weather ever caused us in all of those years. Our entire neighborhood, who all signed up at the same time and had the nuisance of yards and roads dug up for almost two weeks to have cables laid down and brand new connections, had repeated disconnections with internet and phone along with the tv freezing and needing to be unplugged to work again. Repeated calls and a visit from a tech resulted in being told it was a problem somewhere at the source and had nothing to do with our connection or equipment. We were told they had narrowed it down and isolated where the problem was and that a truck would be there that night and service would be disrupted for a half an hour or so... but that once fixed, we would have no problems. We had no service for 4+ hrs and more intermittent issues for the next couple of days. That seems to finally be resolved. Another issue: free hbo and Cinemax weekend came around but we couldn’t watch without subscribing. An hour plus on the phone of system resets, try this try that and ultimately never being able to try those channels. The agent who tried to help gave us a month of free HBO. It ended up showing up on my bill anyway so cancelled it immediately, even though there was more than a week left. Had to call about that again because they still tried to charge for the partial month and was able to have that removed. We signed up for a specific package when the sales agent was in our home and assured us that the package we chose would have a specific channel. He also told us that the price we signed up for was guaranteed for the length of our agreement. Three months later, the monthly bill went up and according to customer service, the written agreement was what mattered, not what we were told. Same story with the channel... the only way to get that channel is to have tv/internet/phone separate as Discovery ID (despite the specific assurance we would have it) was not available with any package. So with all of the problems with the service and with what we were told vs the written agreement I am probably returning to DirecTv... despite finding out that I will be charged $230 for terminating a 2 year agreement.

I was trapped with Comcast for about 30 years. Finally Verizon FIOS won the last of Comcast’s legal attacks and I was able to switch. Truthfully Verizon FIOS was so bad it made Comcast look good. I moved after two years with FIOS and although only 6 blocks away from previous home, FIOS only offers Internet Service in my new building. They told me to just get Internet and stream TV. I should have listened. Instead, I had Xfinity installed the day after I moved. At first I thought that with the name change. there was also great improvement with service. The install man was right on time and pleasant and professional. He knew exactly what he was doing and had my Internet and TV setup quickly. The truth is I should not have had to pay for this as it’s very easy and I’ve done it before when Comcast changed equipment. The installation was Thursday and setup of WiFi was easy on TV and computers and iPhone. Then, comes the watching experience. Just like FIOS. Comcast has no printed guide. The sales person on the phone told me I’d get over 220 stations. I saw online it even included HBO. I started watching then surfing channels. I used the voice remote which actually works and asked for TCM - Turner Classic Movies. In 30 years of cable TV I have always had TCM with no problem. Suddenly I learn I’m not subscribed to TCM. I had to go through the agony of calling Comcast to check. The guy tells me TCM is suddenly too expensive for them to include with my 220+ channels. I have HBO and forced to pay a sports fee for stuff I never watch. But to see the one channel I like, I must now ADD A SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT PACKAGE! That adds another $10.00 plus another $5.00 fees. I can’t get rid of the sports channels or HBO neither of which will I ever watch. After done talking to Comcast guy today he tells me to click on link he’s texting me to confirm change. After that it takes me to a screen telling me to watch “free movies” with the streaming app. I go for it, if only to be more familiar with getting TV or movies on the Internet and it takes me to the app site but tries to download it from the browser. That can’t be done with Apple so it tells me something went wrong. Sign out them come back. I do that and end up at the App Store and the app seemed to be installed as usual. I go to look at the reviews and after reading more of what’s wrong with the app, I find I’m out of the app. There was no going back. I searched down the list of Comcast apps and see none that say open. Meaning I must figure out which app it pretended to install. Long story short and it’s clear somethings have improved such as install and the remote. But the rest is pure Comcast from years ago. They have built two of the tallest buildings in this city and were able to get major tax breaks from the city to do so. I could go on but this is enough for today. Beware you’ve been warned about Comcast. (aka xfinity)

10/30 Dear Developer still awaiting your ESCALATED RESPONSE from around 6/29. Also, why are you blocking STARZ?

9/2 Dear Developer still awaiting your ESCALATED RESPONSE from around 6/29

8/7 Dear Developer. Recorded an unauthorized biography of Rihanna. Watched it. Not Rihanna. It was all in Chinese. Is this an oops?

7/29 Dear Developer, looks like Hacksaw Ridge got fixed.

Dear Developer. The last private message identifies me entirely. Do me a favor then end expedite my ESCALATED response from about 30 days ago.

Dear Developer. There are private messages to ComcastMax, ComcastChe, and ComcastZach. If you type in that horrendous URL you post you get redirected. The last message was 7/27. All 6 are unread. One show worked from last night. Hacksaw Ridge plays goofy.

Dear developer. One recording worked this afternoon. However, Hacksaw Ridge screws up around 2:06. Downloaded Hacksaw Ridge. Still screws up.

Dear Developer, went back to the forums. We have sent a number of messages. 6 of 6 unread. One recording worked this morning. 7/28.

Dear Developer, we did all the account specific stuff. Absolutely everything is ok. Why don,t you focus on fixing it for everybody. Then I will be happy. Still waiting for my escalation response.

Dear Developer, your response had a seven hour delay before it showed up. I have been to your forum sites, about a month ago. Some good got done. But absolutely nothing of permanence happened as evidenced by much more 8001 errors and now other Playback malfunctions.

Update 7/27 evening. Got another recording to play. Tried Hacksaw Ridge. At the 2:06 point it plays about 50 seconds and then goes back to the 2:06 point.

COMCAST, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Update 7/27. I got a new recording to actually play. Perhaps you fixed something. Keep it that way. Of course the previous five did not work.

Dear Developer, I checked again at 7 PM. Guess what, I got another one. I AM PAYING FOR THIS!

I schedule a show to record. You record it on the Comcast cloud? You show I now have a recording. I go to play it. I get Playback Issue::8001

Now you are either under resourced, devious, or criminal. What else could it be?

DEAR DEVELOPER, when you get one of these errors, it says try again later, each and every time. I now have approximately 8 of these, in a month.

Dear developer. Tried it your way. I went to On Demand. Guess what, Playback Issue::8001.

COMCAST FIX THE DEVELOPER!

Read the developer response. I do not record these programs. You do. It only took about a month to hear from you. Now what?

Why give me the option to record something when you cannot or will not do it.

Is this the ESCALATED response?

Update 7/26 morning. Got another Playback Issue::8001

Update. Have another Playback Issue::8001

Update 7/25. Two more recordings have Playback Issue :: 8001

COMCAST PLEASE FIX THE APP

Well, Sunday morning, most of it is fixed. I think they stuck in a series of commercials before Blues Brothers. Kind of changes the definition of a recording. I still have three recordings unwatchable. It is now over a month. The problem was ESCALATED over three weeks ago. No contact.

Update as of 7/23. Hey the data issue 404 got fixed.

However, I now have 14 recordings. I can play NONE of them. Movies on demand - DOES NOT WORK. Try playing the Blues Brothers. See what you get. It does not matter what device, nor what internet path you use. If I use my cell phone without wifi it does not work either.

COMCAST - PLEASE FIX

Update as of 7/3. I looked at movies on demand. I found 29 movies with "Data Issue::404" I did not poll all the movies. There has been no resolution on the playback errors.

COMCAST, FIX THIS. I AM PAYING FOR THIS.

I have this error on the playback of some recordings. We tried to troubleshoot on chat. That led to my modem going down 4 times in an hour. That is a sure fire way to end a chat session. We then had extremely limited service. We could only get some 13 channels. We tried phone help at several different levels. We checked our account. OK there. Everybody bewildered. We found a forum, spelled it out, did some private email, and got the service back along with our 8001 error. A tech was sent out. Every connection from the pole to the modem was disconnected, inspected, and renewed. This installation is less than a year old. The signal strength is great. This modem has two speeds, which Comcast joined. The tech split them.

The 8001 error persists. Techs do NOT troubleshoot apps. Somebody was supposed to call yesterday afternoon. It did not happen.

COMCAST, FIX THE APP!