 Network Guy
join:2000-08-25
New York | Someone needs to fire PR department Xfinity makes me think of the movie Toy Story, not a triple play bundle from a cable company.
Stupid people | |
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 | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY | Re: Someone needs to fire PR department The PR didn't do this, Comcast gave $20 million to a PR firm to come up with the name, and the PR firm was selected on the golf course by Mr Roberts. | |
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DaveDude
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey
 ·Comcast
| Re: Someone needs to fire PR department said by en102  :Xfinity makes me think of one of 2 things: 1. Nissan Xterra crossed with an Inifinity Q45 (Xfinity?) 2. A stereo system for a drag strip car (Xplod anyone ?) Comcast should keep its name, or at least come off with something better as a replacement. Uverse isn't exactly a name that I agree with either (Underverse from the necromongers of Chronicles of Riddick would have sounded better, IMHO) I thought of the Cross bar, on many tvs.
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They Live... We Sleep...
“Spreading the wealth around” never results in a better outcome for people. It always results in destruction.
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SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17 | Re: Someone needs to fire PR department I can't count the number of marketers that think that any name with "X" in it is cool and will sell. Just look at radio station monikers. | |
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| | | | fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| Re: Someone needs to fire PR department I have a brilliant IDEA... and they could pay ME $20 Million for it...
Ready??? are you ready for this??? pay attention.. come on!!!
... here goes....
... COMCAST.
Wow!  | |
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Neyland
join:2003-02-04
USA | Re: Someone needs to fire PR department And And you could like use the name in other words like.... Comcastic!
That'll be $10 million please. | |
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| | | | | | fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20 | Re: Someone needs to fire PR department .... dream big!!! | |
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| | BarneyBadAss
Badasses Fight For Freedom
Premium
join:2004-05-07
00001 | now when you call for help they can legitimately tell you you'll have to wait for Xfinity 
What a hoot
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---Barney | |
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PGHammer
join:2003-06-09
Accokeek, MD
clubs:
·Comcast
| said by Network Guy :Xfinity makes me think of the movie Toy Story, not a triple play bundle from a cable company. Stupid people So you would rather they do *nothing*?
I'm actually just hearing about the rebranding today, and it actually started internally *last year*; Xfinity was the internal name for the entire transition of which Project: Cavalry was a part (two other parts were the simplification of Comcast's product catalog at the CSR/CAE end and rollout of DOCSIS 3.0; like Cavalry, both are ongoing). Cablevision did the same thing with Optimum (did they come in for the same amount of scorn?) over a decade ago. Some of you remind me of so many ostriches (or worse, Luddites); you would much rather things not change (or worse, you'll actively resist a company's attempts AT change), even if it's nothing more than a rebranding.
I actually *like* the rebranding. | |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28 | Re: Someone needs to fire PR department Like, dislike... the word games are still fun either way. [:) | |
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| | AVonGauss
Premium,MVM
join:2007-11-01
Boynton Beach, FL
| I'm personally indifferent to the name change, but I doubt readers here are the target audience for the name change effect. The name change by itself will do nothing but cost a lot of money, so I hope there is a lot more than just a name change in the works. The ironic part is my view of Comcast at the moment is rather positive for the most part, with my impression being the HSI and CDV are good products - the anchor in my opinion is the antiquated cable TV model still in use.
Without even changing their name, in my opinion, they could help their TV business compete by doing the following:
1) Simplify the TV pricing model nationwide. The customer service representatives get confused by it at times and most of the customers get blurry eyed trying to understand it.
2) Nationwide uniformity in billing practices and non-programming costs. Programming costs differ per market, but other costs such as receivers and when/if/how outlet fees are charged should be uniform across all markets. A receiver in South Florida costs absolutely no different than one for Kansas. If it does, you have a bigger problem.
3) Lower the receiver cost to be competitive with other providers - yes, I'm sure it looks good on the books, but you really want subscribers to have real receivers. If an executive does not understand this or why it is important, fire them.
4) Kill the triple/quad/duo plays. Take the lesson learned, people want more price competitive services and create a model that is sustainable. Right now, you acquire that triple play customer and you have just started the clock as to when the customer is going to be unhappy, perhaps extremely unhappy, when you have to decline to extend that offer for another year.
5) This isn't really going to help business a lot probably, but a personal pieve - what is so darn hard about maintaining a consistent national channel lineup? Every market may not have the same stations, I understand that, but they really need to have different channel numbers too?
6) This is a reoccurring theme, but you're a national company, to the customer - present yourself that way regardless of any internal organizational layers. I don't go to Google and type in Comcast of South Florida (or probably Palm Beach in my case), I type in "Comcast".
7) I haven't seen it personally, but based on my experience with service calls you really need to re-do the backend system that is used to manage trouble calls. The piece of paper I sign from the technician includes a SMS sized portion to describe the problem and where's the history? Yes, it will list the last couple of visits - the date of the visit - what about what was done, why, readings, etc, etc, etc... Maybe the techs have a real trouble ticket sheet I just never see and this could be ignored.
To get ahead of the game...
1) Break the mega tiers up, what is going to drive me to cancel the TV portion is I am quite simply tired of paying for crap I never watch or care about. Give a base package (locals, plus a sampling of others) at a reasonable rate and let me add groups of channels with similar interests at a decent rate. If a content provider wants in that base package, then they ought to price it accordingly. Keep the base package price consistent as you have with HSI and for the most part CDV even if that means moving a channel to a tier or dropping a greedy provider when necessary.
2) Standardize the set-top boxes used to a small number or even possibly consider a single standard design driven by Comcast. This can be looked at as an extreme expense or as a possible opportunity to both save costs long-term and also present more interactive services. Yes, people get content off the Internet and even will watch content on laptop screens if the price is right (read free or low cost) but what they really want is still to watch TV on that TV they purchased.
I could write more, but I've already rambled more than I intended, so I'll shut up now...  | |
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| fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| said by Network Guy :Xfinity makes me think of the movie Toy Story, not a triple play bundle from a cable company. Stupid people I could care less WHAT it's called... when I turn on my TV, pick up my phone, of click something in my browser, those things still act the same way..
When I pay my bill, it still will say Comcast.
When I have a problem, I still call the same phone number.
When they change their name, it means nothing to me.. It means nothing to me when ANYONE changes the name of something.
If the name was changing becuase of a new owner, then I MAY care a little, but even then, what does it matter, there is still only the one coax line running to my house so that really wouldn't even matter as far as cable goes.
To be honest, I can't even believe this is a topic worth discussing here on BBR. Its funny that people even care about this to begin with.. all the way from the horses mouth (Comcast) to the analysts (don't they have anything better to do?) to the media (where it would have to be a slow news day) or to the customer (who still knows who owns the company)...
I will say this.. at least when at&t started U-Verse, it was a new product... at least when FiOS came out, it was VERIZON'S new project.. What Cablevision and now Comcast is doing is trying to slap excitement on a 10 day old piece of meat with a new name hoping someone will think the meat is new..
Seriously.. what's in a name? Just improve the product, tell people what it is you're selling and stop the gimmicks... and stop slamming everyone else's products (this goes to ALL communication companies) ... just put your best foot forward, be honest about what it is you're selling, price it fair, and the people will come to your door, ESPECIALLY when there are only a few choices.
It just amazes me at how much money these companies would $AVE if they would stop wasteful marketing tactics. | |
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| | Network Guy
join:2000-08-25
New York
 ·PHONE POWER
·Broadvox Direct
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Someone needs to fire PR department said by fiberguy :I could care less WHAT it's called... when I turn on my TV, pick up my phone, of click something in my browser, those things still act the same way.. When I think of my Internet connection, I also just think of the telephone company that debits my checking account monthly for network access.
I don't feel any warm and fuzzier to know that Verizon likes to call their DSL product "High speed Internet" with popup blockers and a pretty little news portal.
What I do give a shit about is that my latency averages 10 ms or less to the DSLAM port, that I get the bandwidth I pay for most of the time, and that it doesn't disconnect much if at all.
My point is, companies find that selling a brand is more vital to push up the price of a product instead of actually adding value to the marked-up product. So one would figure more thought would go into the brand than a stupid name like that. | |
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| | riblet
join:2006-03-08
Naples, FL
·Embarq Now Century..
| Amen, brother. You can polish a turd all you want, but it's still a turd. When product names are changed it's usually due to negative perceptions of the product. Why would a company waste consumer goodwill? In this case there isn't any to waste. | |
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| | | fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20 | Re: Someone needs to fire PR department .. uh huh.. and this is one case where I REALLLLLLLLY believe that Comcast is missing the point here.. AND could put that re-branding money, marketing money, etc. to better use...
... like system upgrades, etc. | |
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bent
and Inga
Premium
join:2004-10-04
Loveland, CO
clubs: | Ha! Know what will help me forget the high prices?
Not paying Comcast every month.
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Greedy Old Pigs v. The Donkey Show | |
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SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17 | Re: Ha! Doing that already - at least for cable TV. | |
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bent
and Inga
Premium
join:2004-10-04
Loveland, CO
clubs:
·Comcast Formerly ..
| Re: Ha! said by SLD :Doing that already - at least for cable TV. Same here, but living in a Qwest served area, my options are somewhat limited for data.
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Greedy Old Pigs v. The Donkey Show | |
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Gbcue
E.I.T.
Premium
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs: | Xtreme + Infinite Xtremely infinitely poor customer service! | |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28
·magicjack.com
| Heh... WhoKnew. (rhymes with "hulu" [which is, I think, where "Syfy" came from--marketing-wise, that is... not that I'd call it "wise", but, hey!, it did get noticed, and isn't that, after all, why they do it. ]) | |
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Ken
Premium,MVM
join:2003-06-16
Brownsburg, IN | Is this April 1st? This almost sounds like a joke. Maybe someone at Comcast is a fan of The Office and wanted to make a play on Dunder Mifflin Infinity. | |
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See 6 replies to this post |
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gia
join:2008-01-30
Edinburg, TX
·RoadRunner Cable
·Time Warner Cable
| I can forget "Comcast hopes the new moniker will help customers forget the high prices and poor customer service"
I can forget all that providing that I get higher internet speeds.
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LeftOfSanity
join:2005-11-06
Felton, DE | Whats the difference. Not any worse than FiOS or U-Verse. | |
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| EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA
| Re: Whats the difference. I would argue it's significantly worse than either, but that's a matter of personal taste I suppose.
But, I mean, at least FiOS and U-Verse are pronounceable, the typical rules of english pronunciation must give way to marketing when you see a word like "xfinity". | |
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| | | EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA | Re: Whats the difference. Hey, that's not that silly- that's how you're supposed to pronounce the X in "Mac OS X", after all... | |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28 | Re: Whats the difference. There's also Cross-finity, like 'Ped Xing', which reminds me of Zik Zak, which reminds me of Max Headroom, which...
Oops... the too-much-fun alarm just went off. !! | |
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pokesph
It Is Almost Fast
Premium
join:2001-06-25
Sacramento, CA
clubs:
·Comcast
| mocking one step further.. ..placing it at number one on a list of the "top ten worst corporate name changes" (even worse than Syfy!).
That right there says quite a lot. The syfy name change was very, very bad, but apparently many others, myself included, think this Comcast name change is worse, its just ridiculousness gone insane.
Don't fix what isn't broken.
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Webmaster - Steve
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»www.1-gb.net
»www.ppnstudio.com | |
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r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX
·magicjack.com
·Cox HSI
| Re: mocking one step further.. I agree Syfy (Seefee) was the worst change in the history of corporations.
It also casts doubt on the people who run the company. Changing the name makes it seem like they are going to go after the CW crowd which will ruin the Scifi channel.
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Republicans: less fiscally conservative than that other party. | |
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remmie
join:2002-06-26 | I hope our email addresses don't change I hope our email addresses don't change, or they should atleast continue to forward XXXX@comcast.net to XXXX@xfinity.com indefinitely. | |
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jus10
join:2009-08-04
Sterling, VA
·Comcast
| Interesting idea quote:
"Comcast hopes the new moniker will help customers forget the high prices and poor customer service for which it has been criticized in the past,"
Perhaps step one would have been to get rid of the high prices and appalling customer service ... | |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28 | Yeah, but only customers see those as "problems". For Comcast, those are "solutions". It's all a matter of perspective.  | |
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| 
Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| said by jus10 :Perhaps step one would have been to get rid of the high prices and appalling customer service ... If there were such a thing as truth in advertising, it would be called "Comcatastrophe."
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"The trouble with computers, of course, is that they are very sophisticated idiots." - Doctor Who (from Robot)
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Van
Premium
join:2009-07-08
Washington, DC | I just can't stand when companies add "Extreme" or "Super Extreme" or some other adjective like that to the end of a regular plan
I mean, come up with something original for crying out loud | |
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chronoss2009
Premium
join:2008-09-23 | comcast must be using hollywood writers to invent LOL haha now hat they own media they can be as retarded and its starting to show. | |
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ironwalker
World Renowned
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-31
Keansburg, NJ
clubs: | who cares? I can care less what they call themselves, there service, and how they brand themselves, just make the service work right, stop capping, never go metered, and listen to your customers. | |
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pnjunction
Teksavvy Premium
Premium
join:2008-01-24
Toronto, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| Re: who cares? I only care because these companies spend the money they could use to provide better more reliable service on this marketing/PR crap.
For example, my ISP gives most of my money to Bell. In the last year or two Bells retail internet has gone from Sympatico with 3D-animated beaver mascots to Bell Internet with various bettER slogans to whatever they're using to peddle their crap now.
Neither I nor Bell's retail customers benefit at all from the millions of our dollars spent on this junk, so my opinion on it leans from indifference towards scorn. | |
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| fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20 | I agree with you to a point.. if they listened to their customers, they'd go broke... | |
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Skol
@mchsi.com | Rebranding seldom works well Rebranding didn't work very well for the Blackwater mercenaries so how can it work any better for Comcast? | |
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| WernerSchutz
join:2009-08-04
Sugar Land, TX
| Re: Rebranding seldom works well said by Skol :
Rebranding didn't work very well for the Blackwater mercenaries so how can it work any better for Comcast?
The criminals are doing just fine, stealing our tax dollars every day to "defend America" and wage a war of occupation for the benefit of the oil companies.
Seems our soldiers are learning their techniques, too.
»www.alan.com/2010/02/07/us-soldi···lphabet/ | |
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conk2k
@charter.com | name change Xfire
Eyefinity
xgames
xbox
xfx
x2 x4 cpu
x rated
xerox
X is over used and abused. | |
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| jus10
join:2009-08-04
Sterling, VA | Re: name change But not as much as I.
(Ah a reply that's a pun. Go me!) | |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28 | Mission accomplished... By the time xfinity gets rolled out across the entire Comcast footprint, who won't have heard of it? (said the marketers: "You don't have to like it. You just have to remember it.") | |
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| EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA | Re: Mission accomplished... Yeah, I suppose, but people already knew what Comcast was too, so where's the benefit? | |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28 | Re: Mission accomplished... Idunno... first comes xfinity, then there's, well, beyond... they're still toying around with what to do next. I mean, what good is having only one product/brand... they may have others "in the fire". (too many puns? yeah...) | |
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BBBanditRuR
join:2009-06-02
Parachute, CO | No real "benefit" to customers, just a gimmick to fit in with FiOS, U-Verse etc... | |
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FicmanS
Premium
join:2005-01-11
Brownsburg, IN
clubs:
1 edit | I got one... XLatency....
X as in eXtra | |
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siouxmoux2
@sbcglobal.net | Xfinity Its Comcastic! Xfinity Its Comcastic! | |
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Comcast Xfinity Rebranding Largely Laughed At
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Xfinity not that good; neither is Google or Bing or iPad
