Comcast BS service shutoff

Comcast called me in march to tell me that I had gone over the secret 250GB bandwidth limit that they have in place, they were jerks about it when I asked when it was implemented so whatever.

Three days ago my internet is just shutoff by them, no warning. I call and they tell me I went over again. After checking my bandwidth usage myself I find that I did not go over 250GB. Now they are telling me that I cannot get my internet back from them for 12 months. They also are making it very difficult to actually cancel the cable service that I have through them by telling me they will have a supervisor call to help me get my internet service back. Nobody has called me back.

The biggest problem is that all of the other companies offering service in my area are way more expensive for lower services. Anyone run into this before? Can I get my service back?

Read the agreements posted on there site. see if they have any ground to walk on.

If Comcast has that stated
Then you don't have much you can do i wouldn't think.
If not you have some ammo to get your service back up with out much trouble, but they could decide to drop you from there service and leave you with nothing.

See if your state has an agency to deal with telecom disputes. Here in NY we have the Public Service Commision, which lets people dispute billing issues and problems with utility companies such as electric and cable.

You may also want to put a complaint into the FCC and contact any local news agencies regarding it.

One thing though is, to hit that 250gb cap you need to be downloading/uploading 8gb/day. Thats like a full HD movie a day. What exactly do you do on your cable?

CGR said:

See if your state has an agency to deal with telecom disputes. Here in NY we have the Public Service Commision, which lets people dispute billing issues and problems with utility companies such as electric and cable.

You may also want to put a complaint into the FCC and contact any local news agencies regarding it.

One thing though is, to hit that 250gb cap you need to be downloading/uploading 8gb/day. Thats like a full HD movie a day. What exactly do you do on your cable?

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February was a lot of backing up of DBs and websites for work as well as some torrents. The DBs and website stuff was also uploaded to other servers as well. I don't doubt that I went over for that month, although they quoted me for 620 GB of bandwidth used which also seemed very high to me but I had not tracked it at all.

March I did nothing different from January in which I was under the 250GB apparently, yet they quoted me at over 500GB, but according to my calculations it was around 220GB.

Anyone have any experience with WOW! cable and internet?

OUCH.

I've hit 700gb down and up combined this month.. Hope my cable company doesnt get ****ed lol...

Talk to a supervisor or two and see if you can get an exception. otherwise you maybe out of luck.. perhaps putting the cable under a different name and opening up a new account would help.

xb1az3x said:

Anyone have any experience with WOW! cable and internet?

Click to expand...

I have no personal experience with them, but a guy I play COD-5 with online has them and loves it...fast speeds and never any problems....

not sure about caps if they have any, but the service according to him is top notch..

I just called WOW!, got through immediately, talked to someone who understood that I knew what I was talking about and didn't belittle me, they didn't go at me for having my own modem, told me they could install today, and my price for 15/2 internet plus HD DVR would be $101/month after taxes. Oh yeah, free installation too.

This company is the complete opposite of Comcast. I will be switching I think.

Edit:
They also have no bandwidth limits.

I had WOW in Ohio and they worked just fine.

Oh and before you going running off to CGR's FCC and such, please PLEASE read the TOS for the company before you go and end up looking like a fool.

xb1az3x said:

February was a lot of backing up of DBs and websites for work as well as some torrents. The DBs and website stuff was also uploaded to other servers as well. I don't doubt that I went over for that month, although they quoted me for 620 GB of bandwidth used which also seemed very high to me but I had not tracked it at all.

March I did nothing different from January in which I was under the 250GB apparently, yet they quoted me at over 500GB, but according to my calculations it was around 220GB.

Anyone have any experience with WOW! cable and internet?

Click to expand...

Why were you backing up DB's and sites on your cable line and not your works connection?

CGR said:

Why were you backing up DB's and sites on your cable line and not your works connection?

Click to expand...

I like to backup my work stuff at home as well as at work. Its a family business, a small office and if something happens I want to have an extra backup.

xb1az3x said:

I like to backup my work stuff at home as well as at work. Its a family business, a small office and if something happens I want to have an extra backup.

Click to expand...

Ahhh. Well, assuming this other service you want to move to isnt cable, then you should be fine. I dont know any non cable providers that have bandwidth caps, but could be wrong.

I know comcast denied having any caps for a long time, even though they had the 250gb cap in place.

god that sucks man.... bandwidth caps are lame im so glad i dont have crap tastic cable net any more especially from timewarner or comcast.

You got a wireless network setup? Possible someone is stealing your bandwidth?

Thats BS. 12 Month Shutoff. Common... You should tell them if you go over just let them charge you like 3$ a gigabyte.

My internet service used to phone me when I went over, but I just threatened them to leave the service so quickly the tables turn then im in charge.

My ISP just likes to change their service bandwidth limit with out informing us, first they advertise it as unlimited, then on details it says 80 GB. Couple years go by and now the same service is down to 10GB today. But im hitting over 50 at least per month and they don't bother dealing with me anymore so its good for me. But still.

Comcast shouldn't be able to do that, I could see them charging you extra if you go over. But cutting you off for 12 months. Thats stupid.

CGR said:

You got a wireless network setup? Possible someone is stealing your bandwidth?

Click to expand...

Yes I have wireless but I do not broadcast the SSID and have both WPA2 and a MAC filter enabled. I also checked the logs to see if anyone else had been using it at all but that was not the case.

MonkeyMhz said:

Thats BS. 12 Month Shutoff. Common... You should tell them if you go over just let them charge you like 3$ a gigabyte.

My internet service used to phone me when I went over, but I just threatened them to leave the service so quickly the tables turn then im in charge.

My ISP just likes to change their service bandwidth limit with out informing us, first they advertise it as unlimited, then on details it says 80 GB. Couple years go by and now the same service is down to 10GB today. But im hitting over 50 at least per month and they don't bother dealing with me anymore so its good for me. But still.

Comcast shouldn't be able to do that, I could see them charging you extra if you go over. But cutting you off for 12 months. Thats stupid.

Click to expand...

It was definitely a stupid decision by them because they are down a customer. Also, most of my family and friends come to me for anything computer related so they probably lost future customers as well.

What were you using to track your bandwidth usage? Because I'd like to have something to do that as long as it doesn't involve flashing my router (DGL-4500.)

And yeah I think caps are bs especially since they don't provide any way for you to know how much you've used, just a call 'Hey this is how much we say you've used.' I also hate the TOS crap even though it may be legal the 'we can change whatever we want whenever we want' stuff is crap given that most locales are duopolies.

However I will say in Comcast's defense you were using the line as a business line and that's the reason you went over. You really should have signed up for business service if that was a consistent use even though it's more expensive, you'd also get better service that way.

As far as recommendations you really ought to recommend whatever service works best for the individual. I don't bother with anything more than basic cable so for me Comcast is ~$50 a month. DSL is cheaper but it's not very good here but it's a good choice for somone who has a landline anyway and wants something better than dialup. There may be people who aren't going to come anywhere near the cap and might be best served by Comcast. Just saying that your experience with them enforcing the lame TOS shouldn't make you recommend sometihng that isn't the best option for someone else.

Terms of Service are not a legally binding contract, it's a framework for you and the business to work within. TOS can always be challenged in a court of law. There's a few reasons TOS may not be upheld:

1) if it's only posted online, the business can change it at any time and therefore it's not a valid, verifiable legal document.

2) items within the TOS could be illegal or unethical, and on those grounds it can be thrown out in a court of law.

3) verification of your agreeing to the TOS can always be challenged, especially if you signed an original then years later after several amendments there's no proof you ever received/could review those changes.

So don't yield, especially if a company buries clauses like 'customer will give first newborn after 6 months' in their TOS.
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As far as bandwidth use - 250GB in a month is a lot. One thing you need to do is set up some upload bandwidth throttling on the torrents, or stop seeding so many torrents. If this is already being done, you need to move to a business class account (or move on to an unregulated provider like it seems you have). They'll likely route you through a different series of routers and switches on their infrastructure that is set aside to handle higher volumes of traffic. At least that would be my hope, if they're going to charge more for identical service uncapped then it's a BS charge.

i believe if you have a comcast business class connection, there are no bandwidth limits. i know a bunch of guys i work with say they have it and have no bandwidth limits. not sure if its considerably more expensive though. doesnt seem like it is from the way they talk about it.

also i would like to know how you were tracking the bandwitch usage? did you track both up and down? or just down?

Comcast's business class services have the same bandwidth limit as residential.

^^ wow, that's ridiculous.. then what is the point..

also Comcast came public about their limites months ago when the FCC investigated them and basically told them they need to change their policies.