Comcast announced earlier this week that they would begin the process of rebranding their company as "Xfinity".  According to a Reuters story the reason behind this rebranding is the negative perception many consumers have of the customer service (or lack there of) provided by Comcast.

The Reuters story mentions this clip on YouTube of a technician fast asleep on the couch at a customer's home while waiting for someone at corporate to answer his call:

We agree that Comcast probably needs a new brand, however, unless they address the root problems that cause their bad reputation a new brand will be a waste of money.  Already many people are skeptical (including me) about this rebrand.  Time will tell, but it would have been nice for the company to roll out the new brand with this statement:

"Over the past several years, Comcast has failed to provide the high quality customer service and customer experience we promised to deliver.  Our 4 hour service windows were routinely missed, our customer service hold-times were unnecessarily long, and our television, internet, and phone services were not the cutting edge products that we promised them to be.

On behalf of the management of Comcast, I would like to apologize to our customers, former customers, employees, independent contractors, and shareholders for our failing.  We have no one to blame but ourselves.

It is in response to these failures that today Comcast announces a rebranding effort called "Xfinity".  It is our pledge that over the next several months Xfinity will begin to correct the mistakes of the past as we look to the future.

Our aim is to have the highest customer service satisfaction rating for all entertainment providers, the best on-time installation and repair record, and an average hold time of under 5 minutes for customer service calls.  I cannot assure you that these issues will be corrected immediately, it is our aim to meet and sustain these goals by January 1, 2011."

That didn't happen.  I am afraid that without addressing these issues head-on, the rebranding effort will simply be window dressing and the root issues that plague Comcast will not be addressed; but simply repackaged.