Fucking Comcast!

[Phillycat]

We got a call last night from Comcast Abuse department, saying we'd exceeded the bandwidth amount for "acceptable use". When my husband asked whether it was uploads or downloads, they said "both" (Gee thanks, that's freaking helpful). When he asked what the cutoff number was, they wouldn't tell him.

And do you want to know why? Through excessive reading of articles and blogs, we've discovered it's because...THERE IS NO NUMBER. The rule is: if you are in the top 10% of users of the "cable node" you attach to - that is, your local hub - you get flagged. If you don't lower your usage by the end of the month, you get cut off, and you're not allowed to re-sign for 12 months.

Anyone know anything about math? What happens if you keep shaving off the top 10% of users? THAT'S RIGHT - your top number gets smaller and smaller.

For informational purposes, I'll mention that a lot of people estimate the "cut off" number to be around 90GB per month, but! It really depends on the usage on your cable node. There are people who routinely get away with 250gb per month, and people who've been cut off for less than 90. There are a lot of Comcast horror stories on the intertubes.

Fortunately, we haven't used that much so far this month and we'll obviously curb our usage for the rest of the month, but damn. FUCKING COMCAST!

[madinmaryland]

1. How are you able to track how much you use??

I have no idea how much i use.

:hi:

We had comcast until they refused to upgrade the outside wiring to our building, which meant we had no internet service. Idiots!

[Phillycat]

2. A lot of routers can tell you.

Or you can download a tracker. BUT DON'T USE COMCAST FOR THE DOWNLOAD. :rofl:

[madinmaryland]

3. We switched to DSL last fall and have had no problems.

A bit slower, but we don't do alot of downloading either.

[Phillycat]

4. Uh, yeah, we don't either...

:yoiks:

[TZ]

11. Good thing the brazilian joke doesn't take much bandwith...

Or you would have been kicked off a loooong time ago.:hi:

[madinmaryland]

21. Actually,

I spend more time at work on DU, than at home!

[Maraya1969]

5. Comcast is the anti-christ. eom

[Phillycat]

6. It really, really is.

:grr:

[RebelOne]

7. Well, I guess my AOHell isn't so bad after all.

At least they don't limit my usage.

[Phillycat]

10. Have you tested that theory?

Comcast advertises its service as "unlimited" too.

And are we talking about broadband here?

[RebelOne]

14. I have had it for years and no problems.

[Phillycat]

16. Right, but I mean...

how much are you uploading and downloading in a month? If you're anything like my mom, the only other AOL user I know, you're not downloading dozens of movies, hundreds of albums, and other heavy-bandwidth-using items in a month, are you?

[RebelOne]

19. No, I don't do a lot of downloading, but I do spend a lot of time

on the computer. I use my Mac at work for heavy downloading because it is more powerful and faster.

[ghostsofgiants]

8. Ridiculous.

I switched ISPs recently for a similar reason. They imposed a 65gb transfer limit per month. Fuck that shit.

[Phillycat]

12. The thing is, they really don't understand the future.

Now that they have those services like Netflix, but online, what are they going to do? Just get rid of everyone who is LEGALLY downloading many gigs per month? Pretty soon, that will be everyone. Books come in digital format now, movies, music, everything. Pretty soon, people will stop buying physical copies of almost anything. And when does Comcast plan to catch up?

[ghostsofgiants]

20. It's slightly ironic, but Comcast has been working with BitTorrent...

To make their networks more efficient apparently.

[Chan790]

9. Such policies are allowed only...

because the telecom and ISPs have (successfully) argued that it allows them to weed out users signed up for home services and using those connections to run businesses or extensively work from home...practices which tie-up and eat-up bandwidth and network resources. (either requires a business connection for this reason...business connections are billable at a higher rate because of the expectation of higher usage.) As long as you're not doing either, you have a legitimate leg to stand on to challenge those policies (to whom, I'm not sure...maybe your state AG or public utility agency); they don't want those policies challenged because they advertise unlimited service where there is an unstated and implied limitation on services rendered. They would like to avoid the sort of regulation likely to be imposed if they're found to be abusing a limited amount of leeway they've been given on this issue.

If you are running a business or working from your home computer, you're precisely the customer they're allowed to target with this policy.

[Pierre.Suave]

13. or...

doing a lot of illegal downloading.

That is something else they are trying to limit.

Coincidentally though, say you just bought an Apple TV and wanted to stock it with a bunch of movies, so spent your month downloading perfectly legal movies purchased through the iTunes store, and used the same amount of bandwidth.

What then?

[Phillycat]

15. Not running a business.

The thing is, as I said above, now that movies, music, books, games, and other items all come in digital format available for PERFECTLY LEGAL DOWNLOAD, how long does Comcast think they're going to last, limiting people's bandwidth?

[Chan790]

17. No idea...

I've been expecting the same sort of issues with them since switching to Comcast in March. (They're the only broadband service option available to me currently.) I've been watching very closely everything I do on the internet so that I can document that I am neither a pirate nor a business when/if they try this crap with me.

I'm fortunate that I live in CT where they've made a real enemy of the state AG and would like to avoid contact with him in a courtroom.

[grace0418]

38. Simple, they're going to have different "levels" of service, and anyone who downloads

more than a certain amount will have to pay for a "premium" package. And they'll probably have it in small print somewhere that they are allowed to automatically "upgrade" you whether you like it or not.

Did I mention I hate Comcast. Cause I do.

[bikebloke]

18. Just switched to Comcast reluctantly.

All my Internet life, I've always patronized the little providers. My DSL provider, which had a good rep once upon a time, really turned sour. There was a bad circuit board in the central office. They didn't want to fix it, nor did Covad, who they hired the lines from. Instead, the burger flippers with scripts wanted to charge me $200 to have someone play with the wiring in my building. Even though one of the remaining good techies previously diagnosed the bad circuit board.

Alas, the only alternative was Comcast. FIOS is in the neighbourhood, but negotiations for installation broke down. And I got a deal cheaper than Speakeasy DSL. So far, so good after two whole days...

[Phillycat]

22. Just be careful how much stuff you download...

even if it's legal, apparently. :banghead:

[bikebloke]

30. I did that real quick.

There's an Australian series (Underbelly) that's been taking months to download. Due to a criminal trial in Victoria, Aussies in that state can't even see it. Last night I finished downloading the series with my new speed - 1GB. That'll probaby be it for a while.

[grace0418]

40. Good luck my friend. Comcast is the only provider of cable television in my

neighborhood, and we can't get the dish for various reasons. So we are stuck with rabbit ears because it's not worth having to deal with Comcast any longer. Other people I know have had few problems, so maybe you'll get lucky.

[bikebloke]

45. Just an Internet connection

I don't watch television. Perhaps with a simple Internet connection I'll be lucky. At least I'm not on a contract and can bolt when it gets bad. But that'll mean Verizon DSL and the bad circuit board again. Oh well, it's still possible to post on DU via carrier pigeon.

[NewJeffCT]

23. try posting your complaint to comcastmustdie.com

Consumer guru Clark Howard mentioned how Comcast has a whole team of people monitoring the website for complaints, and after one person complained a while back, he had 8 trucks show up at his house the next day…

[Phillycat]

24. Jesus. Think I'll skip that!

[NewJeffCT]

28. sorry, didn't say that right

But, comcastmustdie.com was a website started by somebody complaining about the service at Comcast.

It became such a big hit with Comcast customers that Comcast assigned a whole team to monitor the website, and when anybody complains about them on there, they respond immediately.

The person who had the 8 trucks at his house was somebody who complained he couldn’t get a technician to his house. He posted his complaint on the website and the next day, trucks from the 8 closest Comcast offices all showed up to serve him.

[Phillycat]

29. OH!

:rofl:

Sorry, I didn't get that from your post. Heh. Well, that sounds good. Thanks!

[grace0418]

36. When I called to cancel my cable after years of frustration and runaround, they suddenly

got VERY nice and REALLY wanted to help me. The company that, for years, claimed I just had to suck it up and wait for days on end until they deemed me worthy of a visit from a technician (four hour window my ass), suddenly wanted to send someone over to my house that very evening to fix my problem once and for all. They were falling all over themselves trying to convince me to stay with Comcast. Luckily, I knew better and told them where to stick it (nicely).

My instinct was confirmed when it came to getting the stupid cable box returned to them. I said I had no intention of wasting any more of my time driving the cable box to some location. If they wanted it, they needed to pick it up or send a post-paid box. They agreed to send the box. Three weeks later the box still hadn't arrived, but a nasty letter telling me they were going to charge me hundreds of dollars for not returning their equipment did arrive. I called, I bitched, they finally sent a box and had a DHL truck pick it up. Thankfully I had the forethought to get a copy of the shipping number. Because two weeks later we started getting calls on SUNDAY EVENING from Comcast reps who wanted to come over and pick up the cable box I supposedly hadn't returned. The ineptitude of that company is just staggering.

[BuelahWitch]

25. Our local cable company, which is supposedly independent

does the same thing. Their highest "tier" of service is up to 40Gb bandwith a month. That's one reason I stayed with DSL when I was employed there, even though I could have gotten my internet for free...

[grace0418]

26. Comcast sucks so hard, I can't even thing of a proper insult for them.

I just loathe that company.

[Phillycat]

27. I almost had a fucking stroke getting it installed in the first place.

Seriously, I was so angry on the phone at one point, I had to hang up because my head felt hot and the vein in my forehead was throbbing. Just to try to get them to show up within the FORTY-EIGHT HOURS they said they would. :banghead:

[AirmensMom]

31. They showed up within 48 hours?

It took us over 3 MONTHS to get them to come and hook us up. When I told them I was going to get Direct TV, they said everyone says that and then comes back to Comcast. If I had another choice for internet, I'd take it, but we don't have DSL here yet. Might still go to Direct TV ... it's not like Comcast is giving us a break for the "bundle". :eyes:

[grace0418]

33. Oh honey, the stories I could tell you. The number of days I took off from work to

have them blow me off completely, the number of hours on the phone, the number of ridiculous lies they told me (my favorite: "no, we have no way to contact our technicians when they're out on jobs." Really, a communications company can't communicate with technicians, not even through the cell phones they all carry around?), the levels of runaround, the harassment, the screaming matches, the letters to management... boggles my mind. All for fucking cable television? So not worth it. I'm sooooooooooooooooooo glad I didn't get cable internet access with them. AT&T is not exactly my favorite company but (knock on my melamine desk) my dsl works brilliantly.

I feel your pain. I really do. :mad:

[Phillycat]

43. I got the same lie about how they can't contact the technicians.

It was one of the things that made me think I might have a stroke. One of MANY. I had an entire page of notebook paper, front and back, covered with employee's names and phone numbers, dates, and promises they made me before it was finally installed. Ick, thinking about those two days is making me sick to my stomach. And I think the only reason we got it that fast was because I took off work and called them constantly, actually every 10 minutes,for 2 days until they came out. :grr:

[grace0418]

44. Yeah, that one really shows their utter contempt for the customer. How fucking stupid

do they think we are? Especially when the technician (after he finally arrived) was getting calls on his cell from dispatch about every 3 minutes. I know what you mean, thinking about it again is making my blood boil. I don't think I've ever been as angry at any company as I was at Comcast. Although Best Western comes close (long story).

[crimsonblue]

32. this is nothing short of illegal..

You signed up for unlimited access at whatever bandwidth.. You are entitled to use all of your bandwidth all day long. Would the cable company call you and threaten to shut you down because you watched too much tv? No. If the ISPs don't have enough bandwidth and infrastructure to handle all the people on their network, that is THEIR problem, not yours. I hope to God that Net Neutrality goes gets passed.

[Phillycat]

34. I know! Especially, the self-declining stat they use to cut people off!

If they picked a damned number and we agreed to it when we signed up, that would be one thing. But they don't want to do that, and why? Because if they said it was, say, 90GB per month, many of us would DL 89.9GB's a month and that would be more usage than they have now, because people want to stay well away from the arbitrary and unnamed cutoff point. Also, they don't need to increase their service to where it is acceptable at that level of download if they never state what number you're allowed to use! As you said, their infrastructure can't handle the fact that many people are getting all their entertainment items - books, CD's, movies, games - in digital format; however, that is NOT THE CUSTOMER'S FAULT and shouldn't be our problem. This is the way it's going to be going forward - they need to suck it up and improve their services to deal with it.

So instead of stating what the cutoff is, they can just cover their asses with the "acceptable use" clause in the contract you sign, which, as you say, should be FUCKING ILLEGAL.

Sigh. :rant:

[crimsonblue]

37. I'm waiting for Fios or Wimax to get to Lawrence...

so that I can dump ATT (I don't like they fact that all their traffic goes to the NSA). And sunflower broadband (a local cable company) caps their internet at 50 gb/month (for the most expensive service-- cheapest is only 1 gb/month which you would go over from just surfing the net). The ISPs have this vendetta against torrents, but streaming video has surpassed torrents as the biggest bandwidth hog. Thanks Youtube and the stupid people that post every minute of their lives on it.

[Phillycat]

39. Not to mention online radio and services that offer downloadable movies for a fee...

which are all PERFECTLY LEGAL. Ah, this shit drives me nuts! Thanks for commiserating. :hug:

[crimsonblue]

46. There has been some debate that ISPs are violating anti trust legislation

by filtering and censoring traffic. They have been given specific immunity for the communcations that go over their lines as long as they do not filter.. It was put in place so that phone calls wouldn't be filtered, but the internet falls in the same category of communications, at least according to the FCC (well, before bush's cronies destroyed it like they have every agency)

[DS1]

35. Yes, that's a BS policy.

There must be some big downloaders in my town, so far this month I've downloaded about 26 gigs worth of Lost, plenty of movies, television shows, and a few ebooks.

[Phillycat]

41. And see, that's...you know...what we would hypothetically use!

:rofl:

Which to me, isn't that much! Maybe 50gb's a month, total. But in our neighborhood, most people live in extremely nice houses and I think are over 60. (Our house is normal, but we're surrounded by a senior citizen blueblood neighborhood). So I don't think they are big downloaders.

Also, since I got the good camera, I'm uploading a shitload more, and the first couple of uploads, I didn't think to decrease the size of the photos to 800X600, so you can imagine how big those files were. :) The Flickr Uploader was like, "Um, DUMBASSES. I can't move this much!" :D

[DS1]

42. Yes. I uploaded a huge batch of wedding photos full-sized

for family members ( the new ones never even bothered to look, fucking ingrates ) and it took many hours of "Are you sure you want to continue uploading *gasp wheeze*"?

:mad: