scripting.com — Press 1 if you are stealing content, 2 if you are using too much bandwidth, 3 if Comcast hates your guts, 4 if you're a criminal. (I don't remember the exact wording, this wasn't it, but the word "criminal" was actually part of the presentation, to me, a paying customer, in good standing. Amazingly bad customer service.)
Apr 16, 2008 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountApr 17, 2008
Damn it Verizon, hurry the hell up and give me fiber..again its Rockville, Maryland.
alpha_male65Apr 17, 2008
comcast should be renamed comcrap only choice for cable where i live unfortunately wish i had version
u235sentinelApr 17, 2008
I had the same problem with Concast. One sad company. This is why I'm pushing for Senator mackey's internet infrastructure bill. So we could select another provider and NOT use Concast but keep the infrastructure we have in place. Kinda like DSL but stupid fast (as Concast would say)I've posted youtube videos about this along with blogging at comcastissue.blogspot.comIt's the only way we'll get this resolved. gotta push the government for an infrastructure like what other developed countries have. Either that or forget about competing over the internet as we already lost.
Closed AccountApr 17, 2008
Yeah, I've got Comcast, since day 1 it spikes my ping to gaming servers to the thousands every other minute. They sent out 5 guys on 4 different occasions, they all don't do s**t, every guy acts like I'm a f**king bum because I play f**king computer games, f**king ISP bulls**t. I've got DSL and it still f**king sucks.
notslickApr 17, 2008
I got him to finally say that I was over 300g a month and that was too much. I scaled back and put a warning level on my ipcop router to email me when I have got near 300g a month. I download a lot of podcasts so thats why I use a lot...oh well.Funny thing is, they said 300 was too much, well my ipcop router has logs for the last 2 years, and in June I used 600g. How come I didnt get a call? What Ive dug around and seems to be the reason is this. Some people on your node in your neighborhood called and complained things were slow. if they get a few of these calls they go into the node and check the logs. Then they blanket call everyone in the top '10%' there and threaten them. Its not an automated system, they wait for some complains, more than one, and then they call. Or that seems to be the common consensus around the net.
dtxtApr 18, 2008
WHERE POSSIBLE!
enladeApr 27, 2008
Yea, this is pretty common. Comcast targets their top power users, but your figures may be a little lower than actual. The group you talked with is a kind of secrete police for Comcast. My conversation with them went something like this. “You are using too much bandwidth, but since we have no cap on usage we can’t tell you how much is too much, and we can’t tell you how much you are actually using because that would imply that we have a cap, and we can’t tell you how much less you need to be using because that would also imply we have a cap, we don’t have a cap on usage, but you are still using too much and if you don’t use less we will cancel your service”. The conversation was amazingly idiotic. It’s not that I mind them having a cap on usage, but I do mind that they pretend they don’t have one in such an idiotic way. Also, it bothers me that I asked them about such a thing prior to joining their service. They told me that had no limitations on usage, so I joined up. The problem is that the support and sales group is oblivious to this little secret police group (at least when I had the problem). So, you could get the call from these secret police bozos and immediately call Comcast sales (pretending to be a potential new customer) and the sales people will tell you that they have no limitation on usage. The tech support people will also tell you they have no limitation on usage. And what is most funny is the secret police bozos will go to great lengths not to say they have any limitation on usage (only that you are using too much, but that they have no limitation on usage). It is so idiotic it makes your head hurt trying to reason with them.You know it is probably the most stupid thing that Comcast has ever done. I mean it is idiotic to hassle the top power users. They are usually the people that other people go to when they have trouble. The last thing that Comcast should want to do is get such power users mad at them. Those power users know how to convince other people to dump the Comcast service and these power users will take the time to post rants against the company on websites (like this). It just doesn’t make any sense. But that just shows how stupid this company is. The only reason they exist is because cable companies have had pseudo-monopolies for so long. Don’t get me wrong, I have had other cable services (like Cablevision and such), and I don’t have any rants about them. Sure it is unfair that all these cable companies have had it so easy for so long (as pseudo-monopolies), but I could live with it so long as they don't piss me off. But Comcast is so pro-actively ignorant and abusive of their clients that I can’t live with that. They just take so much advantage of their pseudo-monopoly status and abuse their customers that just have no other option (though that will eventually hurt them as more options become available, which is another reason this company is so stupid).Comcast also monitors your web and TV usage to create a profile on you for advertising. I don’t doubt that other cable companies do this, but Comcast is so driven by forcing advertisements on its clients that they should be classified as spammers. Originally when I installed their software to set up my account they installed spyware on my computer that searched my hard drive for keywords to associate with the profile they were making on my. I had to reinstall windows to get rid of it. I don’t know that they do that anymore, but it was done on my system and that pissed me off from the start.Now, I was lucky enough to have FIOS come out in my area just as Comcast was cancelling my service. I can’t say that I like Verizon much, but FIOS is pretty great. The TV quality is much better then what I was getting with Comcast. It honestly looks like I got a new TV. Not only is it clearer then Comcast, but Comcast always had little blocks that would pop up and the picture would often freeze up for a second or two while watching shows. And since they are, as I said, so geared to spamming their clients it took me over 3 seconds to change each channel because they had to give me an advertisement every time I switched channels and make me have to look at it. This made channel surfing impossible. In the time it took you to surf through to find something to watch the show was over and you had to start surfing through again. I actually just disconnected the box altogether and used the analog connection just because it was so frustrating time consuming to change channels with the box. Of course, I lost access to a number of channels doing that, but it was worth it. I hear that Comcast will be (or may have already) getting rid of the analog access and force everyone to use the boxes at all times. That would have been horrible for me if it happened when I had their service. In any case, I have none of these problems with FIOS.My internet access is a solid 19.7mbps download compared to maybe 5mbps (inconsistent) with Comcast. Heck, my upload speeds with FIOS are faster than the Comcast download speeds (and Comcast’s upload speed was well below 700kbps, usually down around 200kbps). And I also got a decent phone service (unlimited calling anywhere in the US). They gave me a wireless modem, and a UPS backup, so things will keep running if my power goes out. And I got 2 boxes for my 2 TVs. I save about $130 a month on the FIOS package (most of which is due to the phones which I paid a lot for, but everything was a bit less expensive). I would recommend FIOS at this time. Maybe they will turn into jerks like Comcast is now, but so far FIOS is great (I will just switch again if FIOS goes nuts like Comcast).I have directly convinced over 30 people to dump Comcast. But they were just friends that have the option of getting FIOS, so it was easy. Those friends that still have Comcast just don’t have any other option right now. I’ll be sure to get them to dump Comcast as soon as some other option becomes available to them.In any case, if anyone that has Comcast can get FIOS in their area then they should do it. I like Cablevision and a number of the other Cable companies, but Comcast is so bad that I would recommend that anyone that has Comcast dumps them as soon as possible (particularly if you have the option of getting FIOS). That doesn’t mean that FIOS won’t start acting like jerks like Comcast is now, but at this moment FIOS is great. If they start acting like Comcast I will just get all my friends to dump them for someone else just like I have done with Comcast. Companies have to learn not to be so abusive of their clients is all.
enladeApr 27, 2008
Before some Comcast tech support noob complains about my use of the phrase "limitation on usage" I should clarify. What I am talking about is limitations on bandwidth usage. Obviously there are limitations on how a client can use the Comcast service that are spelled out for its customers. For instance, it is understandable that Comcast would limit users from using their home service to set up a web server. As such Comcast spells out those illegitimate usages for its clients.However, what I am talking about is how Comcast limits legitimate usage of their service as it is described by their own usage rules. I’m talking about using their service within Comcast’s own rules and yet still having my bandwidth limited. The judgments made by the Comcast secret police are NOT made by referencing any rules that govern usage. This is because they do not want to say that they have any such limitations on bandwidth usage (bad for sales). They are NOT canceling my service because I am running a home business or because I have a web server running (I am not doing those things). Those would be legitimate reasons to cancel my service if I was doing such things (but I am not). There is NO rule that they are referencing to justify the cancellation of my service. In fact, they state that there is NO limitation on bandwidth usage at all (NO CAP on bandwidth usage). This is what I take offense at. It’s not a matter of you or I coming to understand why Comcast would have such usage caps on bandwidth or whether you are I would agree that such limitations are justified, rather it is that when you talk with Comcast they say that they do NOT have such limitations. If they say that they do not have such limitations then nothing you can say to me in this thread is of any comfort. Comcast is lying. Period.I mean, I know why they are lying. They want to attract as many people as they can and yet they still want to be able to dump all those people that are power users. In other words, they want to be able to say they have no such limitations and yet still boot people that use what they might consider to be too much bandwidth. Of course, it is perfectly reasonable for any company to measure profits against the individual clients that they may wish to attract. I mean, I would not be posting this message if Comcast had told me that they have such limitations on bandwidth prior to attracting me to their service. It is perfectly within their right to establish some cap on usage if they want to do that. But it is not right for them to say that they have NO such limitations on bandwidth in order to attract me to their service and yet still boot me after they find out that I am a power user. So, don’t give me a bunch of pathetic reasoning about why Comcast would or should have such a limitation on bandwidth. They say they do NOT have such a limitation. Thus they are lying.