Over the holiday break, I called Comcast to upgrade our old gray cable box (the one with the blue-colored channel guide), to the new X1 box (the one with the more modern, black channel guide).

After logging into my Comcast.net account and not finding a way to do this via the interface, nor finding a way to do this via their help Search, I had to call.

The customer service person I spoke to was very pleasant. 20 minutes later, I was able to convey that I wanted to upgrade my existing, working box to the new X1 box I've seen advertised, and at friend's houses. She confirmed a new box would be shipped.

3 days later, the new box arrived.

Opening up the nicely designed box and getting the hardware setup was as straightforward as I'd expect.

However, shortly into the configuration process, and saw this, then had to pick up a phone and call Comcast customer service.

The first time I called, my call rang, then dialtone. Failure 1. The second time I called, I spoke to somebody who said they would be able to help, a setting had been toggled, and to wait a few minutes and I'd be able to proceed. I was out of the house, but came back a few hours later to the same error message.

The third time I called, I spoke to a person who was able to tell me that my old box was considered active and it needed to be removed before the new box would activate. This made sense.

The person stayed on the line with me to walk through the basic setups to ensure I was able to successfully receive a cable signal. Success.

Overall, glad to be updated. While Comcast's safety net of Customer Service was available and effective, the experience could be made more efficient and pleasant for somebody looking to accomplish a very common task of Upgrading an Existing Cable Box.