What is Digg?74 Comments
- thebuggalo, on 04/17/2008, -11/+86Comcast is clearly in the wrong here... but do you have to be such a typical blogger douche bag about it?
"I also told him I was a blogger and would be writing it up. He didn't care."
Damn right he didn't care. Normal people really don't care about bloggers, all they do is complain and whine about stuff and act like their opinion matters more just because they put it online and have their friends comment on it.
"Honestly, I think Comcast should give me my service for free..."
You have to be joking? You? The person who is in the top 1/10th of the top 1 percent of bandwidth users? You should be given free service?! Sure... while you're at it, why not have AT&T give you free service on your iPhone too. I mean... you clearly deserve it.
"figured out why I use so much more bandwidth than the average Internet user. I have five computers, all Macs, all sucking down FlickrFan pictures once an hour. That adds up to quite a few gigs."
A few gigs download per day is more than average usage. A blogger as smart as you should know that if you want to download several gigs per day you should get a higher bandwidth package. I'm all for downloading a lot, but seriously... you can't expect Comcast to be able to handle a situation where all of their customers decide to download 300GB per month. Which, if everyone was like you (ie, normal/average), would be the case and Comcast's network and service would crash.
"I've now spent all of today working for Comcast. Should I send them a bill?"
No, you shouldn't. Although I'm sure you are already hard at work creating one to send them. The annoying blogger inside you can't resist the chance to 'zing' Comcast one more time, and in the process create a new story to add to your blog to drag out the short lived digg-fame. Add it to the list, along with you '$3 Million Comcast Bill" story.
I'm totally with you in the complaint to Comcast... if a user wants to take full advantage of the service they pay for, they should be entitled to it. But, tech savy people such as yourself need to understand that Comcast can't sit idly by while you test your bandwidth limits and download 300-600GB per month for a whole year. I mean, honestly, you and I both know that is WAAAAYYYY above normal usage. So cut Comcast some slack, they are just following standard procedure... you disconnected your Blackberry number (the number tied to your account), you didn't give them your iPhone number, they attempted to contact you about your usage, they had no alternative other than to turn off your service. You can't expect them to just give up in a situation like that. And yeah, the man you spoke to on the phone probably should have been a bit nicer, or explained the situation better, but can you really blame him? He probably hates his job more than you hate Comcast. I'm rooting for you to get this all worked out, because I honestly do believe you should be allowed to use the bandwidth you pay for, and if they are unwilling to give you a limit, then the sky is the limit. But I just hate to see problems like this get blown WAY out of proportion with whining and complaining that really does nothing to help solve the problem, it just fuels the fire of hatred for a company... which makes for interesting stories, and is guaranteed a lot of diggs. - ANT1138, on 04/17/2008, -1/+34"Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?"
-HAL - Vipersfate, on 04/17/2008, -2/+24I think it's ridiculous! Stopping your "Unlimited" Internet service because you actually use their networks that you are paying for. Especially, since downloading pictures, AFAIK, isn't illegal. ***** Comcast. Once they get fiber out here, I'm switching as soon as I can.
- hollyminkowski, on 04/17/2008, -0/+18 I figure it is like restaurants that offer all-u-can-eat buffets.
A small % of customers actually cost them money because they eat an enormous amount of food or they pick a high cost item like shrimp and pig out on that. But restaurants succeed with this because they know most customers eat a normal amount...so they just put up with the bingers so they can advertise all-u-can-eat. Comcast seems to want the same deal but also reserve the right to give the heavy eaters the bums rush..... this is deceptive. - tuzy2k, on 04/17/2008, -4/+20Give them hell Dave!
- mkriss5681, on 04/17/2008, -3/+18I'll probably be severely buried for this but I disagree with this user. I used to work at Comcast Internet in Baltimore when I was in my early twenties. While it was my into IT, I hated the company and the way it treated its customers. I couldn't stand by and defend a company that treated it's users in the way Comcast did. So I decided not to make a career there but I did learn a lot of things about the company in that time.
That being said, It pains me to defend Comcast but... I think this user is obviously breaking the ToS of his contract. First the whole 3 years I worked there I only received maybe 3 or 4 users that have disconnected due to bandwidth violations. Take in mind I took close to 200-300 calls a week, 15,000k a year and I only got one out of 1/15000 a year that hit this problem. Second, the fact is the Comcast infrastructure sucks, and isn't setup for these super downloaders. This guy was downloading so much crap (most likely terabytes and terabytes a month) that it actually effected his neighbors download speeds. That's the only time you get this notice when you are using so much bandwidth that you are capping your neighborhood node. The tier 2.5 will get notifications that a node in a neighborhood is hitting unacceptable numbers and when it's mostly one user there is a problem. Instead of capping everyones download speed (i know except for bittorent) they view these on a case by case basis which is why there is no set limit. If your not ***** with your neighbors or download in off-peak times no problem. Third this guy was stealing terabytes of pictures for websites? Why? It's obvious he is running some sort of business which is a violation of the terms of agreement by comcast. If the guy has DSL and Comcast as a backup he's running a home business. The fact that he thought DSL was faster than Comcast proves this guy is an idiot.
It's not that comcast is out to get customers they weigh a customers worth opposed on how much money they make on them vs how much money they will lose by keeping them. They saw this guy was using so much bandwidth it wasn't worth it and judging from the whiney article he wrote I can see why. If the guy can afford two internet connections he can afford comcast business internet that is only 20-30 bucks more a month, which is faster, on a separate allotment of bandwidth not to mess with others, and has no download restrictions.
Buried. - N3wtR0ckn13, on 04/17/2008, -1/+12Send comments to @ComcastCares on Twitter
- pyro12, on 04/17/2008, -2/+13This doesn't surprise me, I have comcast and the connection is fast (when it's working) but you definitely do get the impression that they hate you. I paid for the bandwidth dammit, why is it my fault if I use it??
- reyoo30309, on 04/17/2008, -1/+9"reyoo30309, Nods in agreement."
- bjtitus, on 04/17/2008, -2/+10Cool! Oh wait.... no
- unrealmp3, on 04/17/2008, -0/+8I totally agree with you. However, their unlimited contract is not so much unlimited, and they should be forced to change their terms and condition to reflect that maximum limit.
At least people would know exactly how much data they are allowed to get each month. - Beylan, on 04/17/2008, -0/+8That was Verizon. Comcast was only too happy to comply.
- DVRDude, on 04/17/2008, -0/+7As long as we're piling on, I posted a chat transcript with Comcast where they gave us the former residents email password. No social engineering required. In fact, we didn't want it! We wanted our own credentials and they totally ignored our account number, phone number, and soc. http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2008-04/comcastic-inse ...
- Arcueid01, on 04/17/2008, -0/+7comcast sucks
- benguild, on 04/17/2008, -1/+7@DigiDave
You got told, *****. - jgzman, on 04/17/2008, -1/+7I would generally agree with you, except that Comcast (as noted) advertises unlimited plans. Therefor, by their own admission, they are prepared for everyone to use 300GB a month. If not, they are lying to their customers, which used to be called false advertising. These days, I think they call it good business practice.
- netdroid9, on 04/17/2008, -0/+5FTA: "8. What's the big issue with bandwidth anyway? Does a company like Comcast pay their ISP for bandwidth? Do they even have an ISP? Permalink to this paragraph"
Comcast isn't a backbone provider AFAIK, so they have to pay one for their bandwidth. There are no 'unlimited' plans on that level, so they really don't have any right to offer you one. The only reason they can is because they don't expect you to use above-average bandwidth, which is why they do everything they can to drop you once you go over their invisible cap. - derek20cali, on 04/17/2008, -0/+4More like a different job.
- camino262, on 04/17/2008, -0/+4That is awesome to be in the top 1/10th of 1 percentile of bandwidth usage. He must have multiple machines all downloading torrents. I'd like to see his video collection.
- CressCrowbits, on 04/17/2008, -0/+4Wow. You need a holiday.
- Faasnat, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4Heh, reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer got kicked out of the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet place cuz he was heating too much.
- superpixel, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3sounds like most of you have no clue who Winer is. I'm not surprised, nor am I surprised that my joke about comcastfanboy.com got buried. oh diggtards, you make the world grind to a screeching halt, dontcha?
- Xorp, on 04/17/2008, -2/+5Too bad those speeds are big scams trick their dumb users into thinking they got uber faster internets. Those "fast speeds" last for the first 10 seconds of the download. After that you are back down to pitiful 6/384K.
- Mootabolife, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4Give them nothing, but take from them…everything!
- Nestor10, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3I have Charter, and aside from consistently providing me with services I didn't pay for and failing to bill me for them (which is awesome), they're very honest and upfront.
- Braingoo, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3Man your right I hate, hate. If there is one thing I could possibly hate more than hate its haters who hate me for hating hate.
- krellor, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4A little bit different though. In the case of ISP's that have shared hubs one person pigging out on bandwidth can cause reduced speed for the rest of the users on the hub. I would bet that if a person at an all you can eat managed to eat so much/all of an item so that no one else could get any and people complained, that the restaurant would ask the person to chill a bit and let other people get some shrimp.
- benguild, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3Thank you for this rich, compelling statement...Really made me think...
- Pixelante, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4"I also told him I was a blogger and would be writing it up. He didn't care."
Yeah, right, because he should have trembled like jelly, then snapped to attention and go all "YES SIR!" on you. Get over yourself, boy, being a blogger is nothing special. Everyone can be, and it's not like your two-bit little blog can ever measure up to Comcast's massive PR and advertising machine. Who is the public going to believe, the little pissed off user with a (WOW! SHOCKING!) blog or a known and respected (by the majority, not digg users who think they are important) telco?
I find it odd that he didn't laugh at you. Mind you, you could have gotten a "publish the content of this conversation or write anything negative about Comcast and we will sue you into the gutter". - jhandfield, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3"I told him this wasn't much of a threat if they weren't willing to put it in writing, and I wasn't intimidated. I also told him I was a blogger and would be writing it up."
That'll put the fear of God into them! Especially coming from the self-professed father of blogging! - mal1964, on 04/17/2008, -2/+53 Things are certain in life; Death, Taxes, and Hate on Digg.
- theandy1, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2I always knew game hating mac users were the cause of my games being lagged.
I know this guy is obviously a bandwidth hog and I like the fact that comcast is banning people who slow down our internets. But this just shows how ill prepared comcast is for high bandwidth usage. I don't really know what they plan on doing about broadcasting more hd channels, but they are already way behind. - Y0tsuya, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2You don't actually pay for all of the bandwidth. You're sharing it with others so the ISP could charge you less. Want to know how much 100% of the bandwidth+loop costs? Price out a T1 line.
- chadu, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2i second this. i got immediate attention after doing this. great channel for tech support, hope other companies follow suit.
- formergthing, on 04/17/2008, -3/+5I listened to the recording and it wasn't that bad at all. It's not like he was calling the regular line - he was calling the digital security line or whatever. All they said was - if you're calling about a DMCA notice, press 1.
Buried for stupidity. - u235sentinel, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2I 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.com
It'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. - bbliss17, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Comcast is super lame and people need to change internet providers
- bjs3171, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1can't you people, just, like, discontinue Comcast service?
- ryanknapper, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Who uses DSL and has an active cable modem just laying around? How many other, unused Internet access methods does this guy pay for each month?
- circusbred, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2heh... his name is w(h)iner and thats exactly what he is doing.
- mnemonick, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2I'm a Time-Warner customer. Once, I asked how they knew if someone was using too much bandwidth. Did they meter each customer's use? (My service started taking a dive shortly after the local schools let out each day, so I guessed some kid was busy filling up his drive.)
Anyway, the answer was: no. They don't routinely monitor bandwidth consumption. Like Kevin suggested, they just wait until people start complaining.
My main gripe with T-W is their lack of phone lines when an outage occurs. You can't get through. - BOFH2, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2Have your manager put a message on the front end of the messaging system that says that you are having an outage. That takes care of most people. Next find something to do in your life that does not involve computers or networks. You will be a lot less stressed.
- DestroyFascism, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2Did I read Correctly, 300GB a month? In Australia you pay near to or above $100 just for 30GB a month. Some ISP's will then charge as much as 18 cents a MB. People get $1000 dollar Bills just for watching a Video online. And all that on at a blazing speed of 8gb/s average.
Thank You Telstra, Thank You Singtel.... - DTXT, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1WHERE POSSIBLE!
- CatalystDM, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Podcast with Dave Winer and Christina Warren on the subject:
http://sundaygang.com/dave/podcastAboutComcast.mp3
Christina Warren's write-up:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/04/16/comcast-sh ... - inactive, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2Yeah, 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 *****, every guy acts like I'm a ***** bum because I play ***** computer games, ***** ISP *****. I've got DSL and it still ***** sucks.
- cwgannon, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1"Internet law enforcement"? At Comcast? They are so much further ahead of the curve than we know.
- bbitmaster, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1I have to say, I am glad digg is finally picking this up, and people are finally realizing the wrong comcast is doing.
In 2003 I got a letter from them, and it was wrong how they would not tell me how much I had to cut back in downloading, and they even denied there was even any kind of limit. I guess I cut back enough because I didn't hear from them again until I got "The call" in 2007. The sad thing was that I couldn't really make anyone aware of it. Posting on any forums would only get me ridiculed, it actually seemed most people were defending comcast. I am more than willing to work with them if they would treat me like a customer and tell me what it is that I need to do. Instead they give one phone call with threats, and they can and will cut you off for a year if you show up on their radar again. Many people even did cut back by more than half as they were instructed to do, but were still cut off the next month.
Another really sad fact for me is comcast is pretty much the only broadband available in my area. If they cut me off, I would basically be on a 28.8K dial up (the phone lines don't even do 56K in my neighborhood which isn't even far from the city). Comcast has the monopoly so they can do as they please and deny internet access to anyone who they don't like. - apraxia, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1I drink your bandwidth.
- Alpha-Male65, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1comcast should be renamed comcrap only choice for cable where i live unfortunately wish i had version
-
Show 51 - 74 of 74 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is