Tuesday, October 23, 2007
A Comcast "One-Percenter" Speaks!
I got email from Christine Metzner that says, unedited:
And that's the news from Lake Woebegone, folks.
I was going to comment on your blog but I didnt know how?...Anyway I am one of those 1% people [Comcast said it was 0.1%, but who's counting? David I] comcast is referring to. I am in touch with a man by the name of Matt Moleski, he is the manager of Comcast "Excessive Usage Security Dept". The only reason this man is talking to me is because I contacted my local news station regarding the "Comcast Call". I was called by one of his staff and told that this would be my 1 and only warning. I had to cut my bandwidth drastically or when they ran their next Audit the first week of November and I came up on it again They would disconnect my service for a minimum of 1year without notice. I was confused when I received that call. I had no idea that my unlimited home networking package (up to 5 computers) was restricted for bandwidth consumption. So I contacted the local news station and that same day they did a story on it. needless to say 1hour before the story was to air I was contacted by the VP of our local comcast office. She wanted to work with me on this situation. that is how I ended up on Matt Moleski's desk. He told me that even if I upgraded as the VP of our local office told me to do..I would still be disconnected for using too much bandwidth. There is no set number on the usage you are allowed in fact if i use the same amount as someone in a busier neighborhood I was still breaking the Excessive Usage Policy. Matt is going to get my records for the past few months (which I was origianly told do not exist as comcast doesnt keep records of their customers usage) and call me if my name comes up again in Novembers Audit.So I wrote to her and asked if I could put her letter in my blog and she replied:
I think more ppl need to be informed that they are being targeted and lyed to by a huge company for services they pay for. That 1% Comcast refers to... in my opinion will get to be a much larger number after they have disconnected us and target the next set of customers. We are not cost effective for Comcast to keep as customers on their Sub-Par network. The only places that upgraded the networks are where FIOS has come to town. I dont know how my story will end but i do know that the bottom line is unless I cut my bandwidth usage drastically I will be disconnected the first week of December.
by all means!! I need ppl (ordinary users) to know just how serious this is... I consider myself pretty computer savvy... but now I feel like I am a naive person.. I had never heard of this until I got that phone call!! and then to find out that customer service reps aren't even privy to this information... they don't have a clue if you call them to ask about "the Comcast call" Sorry I am rambling this has me so upset!!I asked her what she was using all that bandwidth for and she said,
My husband and I are on a file sharing program that uses DC++ we share files shn and flac and I also buy download and burn from movielink.com also movies on demand now from netflix I also use gotomypc to help my 5 kids in Vermont ... I am in Florida... when they are having computer issues and I usually grab current pictures and file from them while I am on ... but I think that he was torrenting that month and that's what set off the red flag...because we never got a call before and we have been using DC++ for over a year?And I asked her for more details on how much bandwidth Comcast thought was too much and how much Comcast wanted to cut her usage by and she wrote:
I asked the [General Manager for Naples/Ft. Myers] . . . Barbara Hagen, I asked the first woman who called me (didnt get her name) oh my god i have the news story on my computer i recorded it with my camera while it aired. everyone on DC++ has uploaded it lol. cause the news lady called them and asked that question on air!!
They will not under any circumstance give a number... it is based purly on your neighborhood usage according to Matt Moleski...So if bob in Sarasota usese 400 gigs and I use 250 my neighborhood is smaller and less users than his he is ok and in the clear and i am not Barbara Hagen wanted me to talk to the VP here in Port Charlotte.. i have her on the email cause i asked her to email me and she didnt like that one bit lol
Their answer was to drastically cut it....thats it
And that's the news from Lake Woebegone, folks.
Technorati Tags: Comcast, Customer, CustomerService, NetworkNeutrality
Comments:
I'm a Comcast customer in Jacksonville. I've used torrents for awhile, but I don't tend to run them 24/7. My wife has been download all sorts of shows from the now defunct TV Links. She's found a replacement already. Way to go copyright police!
She also does regular backups of her corporate laptop, and having downloaded some of the stuff that she works with on a regular basis (Access files among others), that's not small potatoes either.
I use Peer Guardian 2 to try and hide somewhat. I know it's not perfect.
My torrents are probably less bandwidth intensive than the old Usenet days. I just have more upload bandwidth in use now.
The kids use Limewire occasionally, but I went in and curtailed the upload bandwidth to a trickle. Much better than when it was full on, and it was hard to surf because all of the upload bandwidth was taken.
I also have a WOW player. Peer Guardian recently had an update that blocked that. My son didn't even consult me, he just reinstalled WOW. And then he couldn't even get the updates. After googling, I found out how to unblock it, and it seems to be working just fine now. But that's more bandwidth, not including Ventrillo bandwidth, which is probably even more bandwidth intensive. One patch alone was over a gig.
And I really have no clue as to what I've been using. According to the router log (who knows how long or soon that has been reset, so it's a snapshot that doesn't tell much)
71744228 Packets in and 21931794 Packets out
That's 132 gig altogether (assuming 1500 bytes/packet).
Maybe I am a "lightweight". Then again, maybe the counter has overflowed.
Who really knows? If it's that big a problem, Comcast needs to give us some sort of indication on one of their webpages. But of course that isn't going to happen.
She also does regular backups of her corporate laptop, and having downloaded some of the stuff that she works with on a regular basis (Access files among others), that's not small potatoes either.
I use Peer Guardian 2 to try and hide somewhat. I know it's not perfect.
My torrents are probably less bandwidth intensive than the old Usenet days. I just have more upload bandwidth in use now.
The kids use Limewire occasionally, but I went in and curtailed the upload bandwidth to a trickle. Much better than when it was full on, and it was hard to surf because all of the upload bandwidth was taken.
I also have a WOW player. Peer Guardian recently had an update that blocked that. My son didn't even consult me, he just reinstalled WOW. And then he couldn't even get the updates. After googling, I found out how to unblock it, and it seems to be working just fine now. But that's more bandwidth, not including Ventrillo bandwidth, which is probably even more bandwidth intensive. One patch alone was over a gig.
And I really have no clue as to what I've been using. According to the router log (who knows how long or soon that has been reset, so it's a snapshot that doesn't tell much)
71744228 Packets in and 21931794 Packets out
That's 132 gig altogether (assuming 1500 bytes/packet).
Maybe I am a "lightweight". Then again, maybe the counter has overflowed.
Who really knows? If it's that big a problem, Comcast needs to give us some sort of indication on one of their webpages. But of course that isn't going to happen.
# posted by 
: 10/23/2007 10:44 PM
: 10/23/2007 10:44 PM
It's the same scam that hosting companies pull when they tell you it's a 100Mbps connection and they'll give you 5000GB traffic per month. If you even come close to using that much (which you usually can't as they have vastly oversold that shared connection) you will soon find yourself targeted for removal.
At least Comcast told you why you were disconnected. They disconnected me yesterday and after about an hour on the phone was unable to get anyone to tell me why I was disconnected. But, for $30 they will reconnect me in 3 days! Say WHAT!? Can you say FIOS? Good bye Comcast!
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