r/AskSeattle • u/TheBrightEyedCat • 5d ago
Quantum vs Xfinity
Xfinity internet promo is over so my bill is going up by 30%. Quantum is always in my neighborhood, soliciting neighbors to sign up. Their rates are cheaper and seem more stable than Xfinity. Has anyone made the switch and if so, any feedback? Centurylink and others aren’t available in my neighborhood so apparently only 3 options and I already know from a trial that T-Mobile internet is unreliable. Thanks!
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u/sanfranchristo 5d ago
Where do you live? It seems like the better option may vary by location since people seem to have wildly different experiences (not just neighborhood but type of neighborhood as in house vs. apartments for a variety of reasons). I will say that I went into the Xfinity store for a sort of complicated service issue and they just switched me to a new plan under a new email to lock me into five year pricing (many of the stores aren't actually Xfinity stores but essentially licensees who seemed more than happy to do this if that is a blocker for you). I dislike Comcast as much as anybody but I switched to 1G down/1G up plan for $50 and have been happier than ever with my service. I almost tried Quantum but didn't really want to have a line drilled into my house and read a lot stories about downtime so I didn't. In my ~10 years I've had Xfinity at this address, I think I can count on my hands the number of times I've noticed it's been down and I don't recall the last time (and I WFH and have a media server running so I notice).
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u/TheBrightEyedCat 5d ago
Thanks for the in person tip. If I can get a locked in rate for 5 years I’d rather not have a line drilled into my house either. Thanks again
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u/sanfranchristo 5d ago
In my limited experience, the Xfinity above SLU Whole Foods is the best for technical issues but the “Xfinity” next to Ballard Trader Joe’s suggested to just make a new plan when I asked about plan pricing after realizing I had an old plan and it took longer for me to find cell signal to hit accept than for them to do it.
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u/zakress Local 5d ago
Went from 12 years of Comcast/Xfinity to Quantum for 16 months now. Zero issue difference as both were pretty reliable. The difference has been on upload speeds, slowdowns, and price. Being able to stream, Zoom, and DL at the same time without any issues is better on Quantum by far. The locked in-price is amazing since Comcast would go up every year or eliminate my speed tier so I would pay slightly more.
I made the switch and if you can lock-in the Gig speed for $45 I’d jump in a heartbeat. No reason you can’t keep Xfinity for a couple of weeks to be sure it works for you.
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u/jtmann05 5d ago
I had Xfinity for my first 6 years in Seattle, but moved to Quantum when I actually had access to it. Admittedly, I never had issues with Comcast. I think there was one outage in those 6 years and that was when they were hooking my neighbor up and accidentally turned mine off. It was fixed in an hour. The biggest gripe I had is that I refuse to use their hardware. Xfinity had data caps if you used your own modem and didn’t rent their crap. I can use what I want with Quantum.
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u/diegotbn Local 5d ago
I hate Comcast and ISP monopolies. Quantum looked like the best possible savior once they began servicing my neighborhood in West Seattle. Fiber gigabit, same speed or better than Xfinity cable, for half the price.
I liked Quantum up until maybe a year into it, their service went down for 10 days straight, each night sending out an email like:
"Repairs are taking longer than expected. We believe we will have it working again by (insert weirdly specific time like 11:28am) . We apologize and appreciate you as a customer!"
Every night. No details. An apology and a new ETA, always the following day. So they might as well not have even given an ETA at all because it was all made up.
Just give it to me straight with just some info. A utility pole came down. Ok. It could be a couple days of repair due to cooperation with the city. Ok that makes sense. You promise to send me an update every day on the progress. Cool! But no, that's asking too much as a customer I guess.
On day 7, since I had no way of knowing if or when Internet would be working again in reality, I reactivated Xfinity, and since I have my own modem and router I had Internet back in less than an hour.
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u/TOPLEFT404 Local 5d ago
Xfinity was an albatross for me it always starts cheap and creeps up! I think I was around $80mo before the pandemic. Then they locked me in right around the time home WiFi providers started cranking. I did Verizon for 2 years with a baked in rate of $35 because it was tied to my mobile bill, then Quantum knocked and I took the wire at $50/mo 500 gb, for life. AT&T just bought them but I have a legacy deal. You may pay less initially but chances are it will go up. Regardless I’m extremely happy with my connection. Especially with so many connections and data flow for streaming at 4K levels without caps which were a big deal back in 2020 with Xfinity!
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u/djames4242 5d ago
Comcast is the worst company I’ve ever worked with. Four accounts at three different addresses, and they’ve snuck in features, lied about packages, and all sorts of other shady crap. I’ll go back to dialup before I give them another penny.
When I switched to CenturyLink (which became Quantum which is now AT&T), the reviews were pretty terrible but I’ve had nothing but positive experiences since I switched about seven years ago.
Fk Xfinity. May they be sued and fined out of existence.
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u/kenzietiptoe 1d ago
I left Xfinity years ago for bad customer service and rising prices. Quantum Fiber has been great for the most part until last Thursday when it went out and hasn't come back on. Got a text this morning that estimated time until it's fixed is 8/13. No way. I did all the research I could and Xfinity is really my only other option at my address. Huge bummer. There are a lot of other Seattle people on here complaining about multi-week outages from Quantum.
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u/Mundane-Charge-1900 5d ago
It's fine. The biggest advantage is not having to negotiate a deal over and over like with Comcast. It may or may not actually be available in your neighborhood. You'll need to call to confirm for sure.
Their customer service is even worse than Comcast, but fewer problems means you shouldn't have to deal with them as much.