Comcast XFINITY → [Business] Trying to use my own modem with new Business Class se

I had my Comcast residential internet service switched over to 16/3 Business Class today. The installer was great (fixed my hanging outside line after Sandy) and tested and complemented me on my proper signal levels and wiring since I had redid all the in house wiring myself a while back.

However, I wanted to use my owned Motorola SB6121 since I didn't need a static IP address. I even had my sales rep specify on the contract that I could use this approved modem to save the rental fee. Despite the tech's best efforts, he couldn't get what looked like an industrial Palm smartphone to scan the SB6121's complete serial number and when he contacted his office he got forwarded to a supervisor that said they wouldn't activate the SB6121, so now I'm stuck with the huge SMC hooked up right now (and the associated rental fee).

I know other people have had success with a customer owned 6120 or 6121 on Business Class, so what is my best course of action right now?

1.) Disconnect the SMC, hook up the Motorola in hopes of getting the walled garden and try to go through the activation process? Then if I can get it to work, take the SMC back to the Comcast Office?

2.) Contact my sales rep?

3.) Post my issue in the Comcast Direct forum and see what they say?

I just started my 30 day money back guarantee period, so I'd like to get this straightened out as soon as possible in case I need to just say screw it and go back to residential. My main goal in switching was to lock in the $59.95 price and because my plan was to start backing up my work PC to my house as a remote backup location instead of using the ancient method of tape backup since I work with some HUGE database files and didn't want to ever run the risk of hitting a cap now or in the future.

Just wishing things would go smoother dealing with Comcast sometimes, once everything actually work's I've always been satisfied with the internet side of the service itself. It certainly wasn't the tech's fault, even though he personally had never hooked up a customer owned modem to Business Class before.

Thanks for the advice!!

Call your Rep. If they are the one that said it then they need to fix it.
If you didn't get it in writing then there may not be anything you can do if the Rep doesn't fix the issue.

Good luck.

Your choice 1 is all I had to do as far as getting my SB6121 activated. I had no problems getting it activated just by using the walled garden, but mine was a new SB6121, not one that had previously been assigned to a residential class service.

You say that you switched over from residential to business class, but I don't think that is possible since residential is handled by Xfinity, and business class is still Comcast (two different entities). You will probably have to wait until your old residential account is completely closed (and that can take weeks) before you can get Comcast to accept your old SB6121 for use with your business class account. Several years ago when I had a residential account and moved, it took several weeks (and the intervention of the local franchise authority) before I was allowed to activate my D-Link modem at my new address because Comcast said that it was already being used by "another customer" (me at my old address).

Even after you are allowed to use your SB6121, you may not be able to simply return the SMC gateway to your local Comcast office. My local Comcast office told me (after I waited in line for an hour and a half) that they did not accept returns for business class customers, and I had to arrange for a service call and have a tech pickup my SMC gateway.

As for contacting your sales rep, good luck with that. My sales rep has never returned a phone call or email since the day I signed my contract.

your contract says that you get to use your modem. stick that in that supervisors face and tell him to make it happen.

You can move your modem from your residential to business account at any time. I've done that myself within the last year, but it did take a few calls but that might be specific to my account. The residential account will remain active (even without a modem) so you will need to call and cancel it once you are up on business. Since the install tech did not do it, make sure that business or residential cancels the automatic disconnect order that will be entered when you cancel the residential. They shouldn't disconnect it even so, but...

Worst case when you call to cancel they'll activate your modem. They won't loose a customer over a silly modem issue.

Make sure you get them to waive the install fee over this hassle, pull the 30 day cancellation card (if you cancel, you don't pay install fees) if they don't. They play these same games when you try to get a leased modem as well.

So I called and confirmed that my residential internet account was cancelled, and now my residential account online shows the "amount due" that just reflects my basic cable TV service and shows that I just have TV and no Xfinity internet service on that account.

I also set up my business account info online and that account shows the SMC modem under "My Equipment"

However, I swapped the modem back to my Moto SB6121 expecting to get the walled garden and it still worked! How long does it take for internet service to be deauthorized on a particular modem? I'm going to swap the SMC back on for now because I don't want my service to be unexpectedly dropped whenever they do deauthorize the SB6121's MAC address on their system. I sort of expected that to happen instantaneously though since the billing reflected the change quickly.

I'm sort of kicking myself for even activating the SB6121 initially since I had an old DOCSIS 2.0 Motorola up until about a month ago. I bought the SB6121 in anticipation of getting Business Class.