Are you getting the most out of your Comcast Xfinity account? Because I wasn’t— not even close. Read on and enter to win a Nest thermostat!

Wow, Xfinity has a lot more to offer families than I knew! A big thanks to them for partnering with me to bring you this post. #XfinityMoms

Last week, I was invited to check out the latest and greatest Xfinity has to offer, at their storefront in Willow Grove. Because I am a very bad blogger indeed, I didn’t do a lot of studying up on what I was going to learn there beforehand, and because we downgraded years ago to the very barest of basic cable, I had no idea what new technologies I was missing out on.

So some of this may be old news to you— but I was legitimately blown away by my visit. Make sure you’re getting everything you can out of your Comcast Xfinity service!

7 Big Things I Didn’t Know
About Comcast Xfinity

1) The Xfinity store is an enjoyable place to spend time in.

It’s sleek, spacious, serene. Although I’m a very longtime Comcast customer, I’d never actually had to visit a Comcast location—but I’d heard the horror stories. In my mind it was very office-like, a dark and stuffy place with long lines. The reality was practically the opposite of that. Greeters held the door open for customers, the color scheme is very airy and inviting, the seating is comfortable and bright. There are flat screens and tablets available for you to try the different apps and services out on while you’re waiting (a queuing system means no waiting in line), and everyone is very knowledgeable, agreeable and accommodating.

For Northern Delawareans, your local store is located in Market Square, 5601 Concord Pike.

2) Xfinity is making customer service a top priority.

Ok so, this is a horror story I had some personal experience behind. I can’t remember if it was last year or two years ago, but I sat in the same room as a relative while she was on the phone with Comcast for at least an hour trying to figure out why the cable wasn’t working. There was a lot of being on hold and relating what serial numbers were on units and turning things off and on and waiting for signals to be sent.

Compare that to yesterday, when my power went out. When it returned, I tried to hop back on my laptop but couldn’t connect to the internet. I checked my Xfinity “My Account” app and saw that there were outages in my area for both TV and internet, and they were projected to be fixed by 3pm (3 hours away). So, instead of wasting time on the phone or trying to fix it, I just took care of some other stuff. Both were back up when I checked from my phone about 90 minutes later.

(Now, if there had not been a general outage and the problem was my unit, I can do all that restarting and troubleshooting from that same app. It has all the device serial numbers on there, too.)

Being able to do so much from your phone means that fewer people are having to call in, and those that do spend a minimum of time on hold and have their problems resolved more quickly.

And, if a service rep does have to come out to your house, they give you a much tighter visit window than they used to. You can schedule those visits through the app; soon you’ll be able to track your rep’s real-time approach via GPS. Plus, they’ll send you the rep’s name and a picture of the rep, so you know you’re not opening your door to a scammer.

3) Comcast is a local company.

I sort of knew this, or at least that it was regional. Comcast started right in Philadelphia and continues to expand, providing local jobs.

4) Xfinity X1 is an insanely integrated, custom experience.

I don’t watch live TV anymore. Like I said, we reduced to the barest of cable so my sports choices are limited, and Letterman went off the air. Instead, I catch up on my few shows (Once Upon a Time, Lucifer, Nashville; I know, I should be ashamed of myself) once they’re on Hulu or Netflix, and try to duck spoilers for the shows that aren’t available there for at least a season (Doctor Who, Sherlock). That’s been my situation for at least five years now.

So I was completely unprepared for all the options available with Xfinity X1:

• You can DVR six shows at once!
• You can auto record all the games of a certain team, or every movie, show, late night appearance, etc. of a favorite actor (or band, which is what I’d probably want most!).

• You don’t need a separate box for every room, you can access channels and recorded content on your phone or tablet!
• Jake, when he leaves for college, can also access the DVR and a limited number of channels on his phone or tablet in his apartment via the Xfinity TV Go app!
• I can livestream from an event to a TV connected to the X1 platform from the Xfinity Share app!
• There are Gaiam and Grokker yoga and fitness videos available On Demand!
• And to navigate all this nonsense, you can issue commands via your voice activated remote control!

That’s a lot of exclamation points, I apologize. But I was legit excited because when you factor that I’d no longer need a Netflix membership, and Hulu, and Gaiam, upgrading to an X1 Triple Play plan would cost the same as what I’m doing now only my internet speed would triple.

5) Xfinity has some serious parental controls

The kid safe Kid Zone has, obviously, kid programming, that’s easy for littles to navigate. Parents can really lock down on what content they can access by age.

Age-appropriateness of content is determined by Common Sense Media, and a passcode is needed to change the settings. Even if a wily kid thinks to unplug the TV, or if the power goes out, those settings are retained once the TV is back on.

6) Xfinity helps you have the connected home of the future

The future is now, folks. Xfinity Home is Comcast’s total home security and automation solution. Not only do you have the capability for 24/7 security monitoring that can be armed and disarmed remotely, but you can check the live video feed at any time or have video clips sent by text or email— say, when someone opens the front door.

Photo via Jennifer Bilotta /Comcast Xfinity

You can set rules like: if your mom’s medicine cabinet door doesn’t open by noon, you can be sent an alert so you can check on her. Security cameras can be set to trigger when they detect motion, so if you need to go back and view footage (up to 10 days at a time are stored), you can jump from a motion detection point to the next rather than have to watch 10 days worth in real time.

You don’t need to have a landline for the security features, and you can use the equipment you’ve already invested in, like keypads, motion sensors, window or door sensors.

Other automated options: save energy by controlling the thermostat and lights remotely, be alerted if a smoke detector or water detector in your beach house goes off… plug your straightener into a smart outlet and you can make sure it’s off when you panic about it at the office… there’s probably a thousand practical applications I’m not thinking of. And you control all of it from one single app, as opposed to a different one for each device.

7) Xfinity has a ton of apps to streamline your online life

I use the My Account app monthly to pay my bill, and Xfinity TV Remote to change channels and volume via my phone. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

With the Xfinity TV app, you can

• see the guide & schedule X1 DVR recordings; stream X1 DVR recordings at home or on the go
• download On Demand items or X1 DVR recordings directly to mobile devices to watch offline
• watch On Demand TV series and movies, or livestream more than 80 networks
• plus, while at home, stream virtually the entire channel lineup from iOS or Android devices inside the house

Xfinity Home: manage/monitor home security and control remotely

Xfinity Share: livestream and send photos and videos to a TV; send or receive livestreams, photos and videos on a mobile device (X1 DVR customers can watch livestreams or receive photos and videos from Xfinity Share on their TV)

Xfinity WiFi: shows a map of Xfinity Wi-Fi hotspots available in your area

Xfinity Connect: access Comcast.net email, call logs and call forwarding, Universal Address Book; also includes complimentary Voice2go access.

You can read up on all the apps here. 

And to try everything out and get more info, remember you can check out your local Xfinity store.

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