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Jeff3
@comcast.net

1 recommendation

Jeff3

Anon

My Comcast Service was Cut Off - And Restored!

I recently got shut down by comcast. I received one warning by phone and argued with the guy when he refused to state what my bandwidth cap should be. I was exasperated to say the least. He mentioned that I'd been doing about 200GB per month and needed to "drastically cut back" on my bandwidth usage. He did also mention that I needed to stay off of their "top 1% of users list". I admit, my family are Internet power users. We have about 5 computers
connected to the firewall router and my 8yo daughter uses the connection too.

The next day I called ATT and got signed up for DSL. ATT has new types of DSL that do not depend on distance to the central office and rely upon remote connection points instead, where a fiber connection is aggregated for the area and sent back to the CO and then connected to the Internet backbone. This is a much more scalable architecture and it is obvious to me that Comcast is very much worried about being able to maintain their current
network in light of some customers downloading Netflix movies and so forth in the months
to come.

The 200GB figure was not completely a surprise to me, as I do various P2P activities on occasion, we have Vonage and my wife is a homemaker and talks to friends and family every day. I think software and video downloads on youtube, as well as ebay picture uploads would account for a great deal of bandwidth in addition to the Vonage use. I did cut back on downloads quite a bit (I tried to limit to 2GB per day) and thought I would be OK for the next couple of weeks until ATT DSL was installed; having a date about a week out when I would get switched on, I continued to do downloads on my Comcast account, albeit at a much lower level.

I WAS WRONG. My Comcast Internet service was shut off within about a week.

Of course my wife (who uses the phone a lot, as well as the Internet for her business) was ticked off; po'ed at me and very mad at Comcast. I told her I had been reading DSL reports and various ISP reviews that indicated that once the service was cut, nobody had been successful in getting them to turn it back on. Maybe a dozen reports I had read were very uniform in this respect.

I told her to take the kids and go visit her mother (has DSL) for the weekend and our service with ATT would be switched on in a few days...
Of course ATT has never been a very progressive company and I found out just how bad they are when I ordered DSL and realized they had completely fouled up my DSL order, except for the phone line itself (there are 3 parts: phone line, unlimited LD, and DSL installation) needed to be completely reordered! They had not completed 3rd party verification of the ULD, and that was on hold. The DSL order was completely misplaced and had to be reordered.

This pushed out our ATT DSL service date a bit..

ATT it seems is completely unable to track DSL orders for new customers that do not yet have an ATT phone line. I found this completely unacceptable and inept, and not a small bit disconcerting! Old school.. they don't even answer the phone after about 9pm pacific.

I pointed out to my wife that our 911 access (via Vonage) had been cut off (by Comcast) without any notice; a vague warning did not cite any hard limit, and we were not capable of monitoring our actual usage with any tool provided by Comcast. My emails to abuse@comcast.net (dev null) inbox where merely being autoresponed to and I saw no
coherent responses that looked like a human being was involved. Mean while the wife has a cell phone and was putting it to good use.

She called the consumer hotlines. She called Sacramento, the state capital. She talked to neighbors and tried to alert the media of our problem. Finally she ended up at the Public Utilities Commission. I guess she happened to find the right person there because they conferenced her in on their calls to Comcast on her behalf and transfered around to various departments until they ended up with the high speed Internet department.

The PUC lady kept up her mantra "You have disconnected this woman's 911 access without notice, and she has a sick child at home; if she needs 911 service, you have a HUGE LIABILITY on your hands here; do you really want that?"

My wife's cell phone finally dropped the call and she was worried but looks like the PUC did the trick because within an hour, our Internet connection was back on, and we had
a $50 credit to our Comcast bill (!).

I'm posted this around the Internet because it is the first example I had heard of any success whatsoever in this type of case.
rody_44
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA

1 edit

rody_44

Premium Member

no, its on strike three where it wont be restored. its often restored up until that point. its just a PITA to get it done .
bbitmaster
join:2006-06-17
Knoxville, TN

bbitmaster to Jeff3

Member

to Jeff3
Excellent success story! This makes me wonder if I should sign up for vonage and try this. I got the warning a couple weeks ago, and I'm worried they'll cut me off. Unlike you, I don't have any other high speed internet options in my area. DSL is not available here.

Good luck, keep us updated if anything else happens.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt to Jeff3

Premium Member

to Jeff3
So you now feel entitled to return to your abusive downloading ways?
Aside from the fact that I think CCand the PUC overreacted/gavein to easily.
(CC is a best effort service, has no obligation to maintain service for you to use a third party phone service, and obviously she had a cell phone which could be used in and emergency. Under that scenerio potentially no one could ever be cut off, for excessive use, abuse, or even non payment and you were warned " to cut back drastically" something you say you tried, but cannot document that you suceeded)
So now CC will have to change the TOS to state you are not permitted to use your HSI for third party phone unless you have a seperate means of contacting 911 and to change all accounts to a metered rate system with increasingly higher costs at each tier or set opressively low caps (have to use the lowest common capacity so it covers even the most highly congested nodes.)
better re-sign up for that AT&T DSL install, all CC needs to do next time is send a certified letter to document their advance notice wait a day or 2 and then bye-bye.
rody_44
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA

1 edit

rody_44 to Jeff3

Premium Member

to Jeff3
nope, they can use this instance as the notification. not that it matters the puc doesnt regulate voip.

b1gdr3
I Blame Your Mother
join:2001-07-28
York, PA

b1gdr3 to Jeff3

Member

to Jeff3
I call BS here. You didn't mention anywhere in this post until the end of it about a sick child. I sincerely hope that your need to abuse Comcast's network wouldn't push you or the wife to lying. If I had been the rep on the phone, your service would still be off. You have a cell phone to call 911 for emergencies.

MadMANN3
Premium Member
join:2005-08-19

2 recommendations

MadMANN3

Premium Member

said by b1gdr3:

I call BS here. You didn't mention anywhere in this post until the end of it about a sick child. I sincerely hope that your need to abuse Comcast's network wouldn't push you or the wife to lying. If I had been the rep on the phone, your service would still be off. You have a cell phone to call 911 for emergencies.
Anyone who knows anything about the PUC knows that this whole story is a fabrication. The PUC wouldn't touch this because they don't have the authority. And Comcast is not legally obligated to restore internet service to accomodate a third party VOIP service. The whole story is made up.

I would advise the OP to get a little more creative and know the facts when trying to pass fiction off as reality.
Sgt Raven
join:2007-02-01
9511

Sgt Raven to Jeff3

Member

to Jeff3
With their Triple Play package Comcast wants to play in the telco market and they better be ready to offer 911 service. Since they want to be your sole telco provider they better be ready for more contact from California PUC.
pharma7
join:2004-02-06
Princeton Junction, NJ

3 edits

pharma7 to Jeff3

Member

to Jeff3
Great News! Keep us informed as any further developments.

There's a thin line regarding whether Comcast can legally cut your service off like that ... just like a gas/electric company in some states can't cut your service in the Winter. I guess Comcast realized the liability is too great if an emergency happens or someone dies.

Just an idea, but if Comcast still comes back to you regarding being in the top 1%, why not get 2 Comcast internet accounts. With 2 separate lines coming into the house it should be more than enough maintain your family's current bandwidth usage and more. And it would only be approx. $43.00/month more - less than the cost of taking your rather LARGE family to a movie.


CableTool
Poorly Representing MYSELF.
Premium Member
join:2004-11-12

CableTool to Sgt Raven

Premium Member

to Sgt Raven
said by Sgt Raven:

With their Triple Play package Comcast wants to play in the telco market and they better be ready to offer 911 service. Since they want to be your sole telco provider they better be ready for more contact from California PUC.
Comcast does offer 911 and they will not shut you off without notice if you have CDV.

This customer was using a third party VOIP. Read the TOS. Comcast is not repsonsible for QOS on your third party VOIP and can disco without penalty, especially when an abuse warning is documented.

The media blitz and neighbor alert was a pleasant twist!

"Tell everyone, if you use P2P and download and share Movies and Warez all day Comcast will disco you!!!"

"Hi, Im from next door.. Comcast has informed me that I am negatively impacting my neighborhood by being one of the largest bandwidth hogs in the area, In the upper 1%! "

Isnt that what they make sex offenders do as well?

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

Robert to Jeff3

Premium Member

to Jeff3
The only problem I see is this:

Many (AND MANY!) have reported that it took days (weeks sometimes) to get their service restored by the abuse department. Yet this person was able to get it back on within 1 hour?

gwbuffalo
join:2001-12-08
Mokena, IL

gwbuffalo to CableTool

Member

to CableTool
I am pretty surprised that people visiting this site would be giving this guy crap for using 200GB a month. I don't think that is an out of this world type number considering how many different ways people use the Internet now.

Consider this, at the 8Mbps plan, if you used your connection full out 24/7 you could download approximately 86GB a day and approximately 2600GB a month. 200GB is using about 8% of the maximum that you could use at the speed given.

At the very least Comcast needs to come out with numbers for everyone to view and have set limits on the service that they sell. All of this hiding the numbers crap does nothing for anyone, except to let Comcast pretend to be "unlimited" every time they sign up a new subscriber.

rico
@comcast.net

rico

Anon

Here we go yet again ...... YAWN......
rody_44
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA

2 edits

rody_44 to Robert

Premium Member

to Robert
actually you need to reread his post, it wasnt a hour. in fact it was days later. the way i take the story is, 1 he got warned and talked to the abuse people. 2 was nasty to them so they politely shut him down one week later. 3. he recieved his warning so they restarted him after the customary phone conversation. if he had not been nasty on the first call probably none of this would have even happened. read his first part where he argued with the guy. be nice and listen and tell them you will work on why your using so much bandwidth thats all they want to hear. in the story he mentions he visits here so you would think he would have known better.

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

Robert

Premium Member

said by rody_44:

actually you need to reread his post, it wasnt a hour. in fact it was days later. the way i take the story is, 1 he got warned and talked to the abuse people. 2 was nasty to them so they politely shut him down one week later. 3. he recieved his warning so they restarted him after the customary phone conversation. if he had not been nasty on the first call probably none of this would have even happened. read his first part where he argued with the guy.
he wrote:

My wife's cell phone finally dropped the call and she was worried but looks like the PUC did the trick because within an hour, our Internet connection was back on, and we had
a $50 credit to our Comcast bill (!).

That's what I am referring to....
rody_44
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA

rody_44 to Jeff3

Premium Member

to Jeff3
that phone call was days after he was shut off tho.
rob2006
join:2006-11-07
Austell, GA

rob2006

Member

lol, thats why i moved to bellsouth.
fiberguy2
My views are my own.
Premium Member
join:2005-05-20

2 edits

1 recommendation

fiberguy2 to Jeff3

Premium Member

to Jeff3
1) You do realize the PUC has nothing to do with a) voip and b) cable tv or cable internet services, right?

2) The PUC answering the phone in CA? WOW! When did that start? Any complaint I have ever had to lodge against PacBell, SBC, ATT has been handled in about 6 weeks in writing and sometimes sooner via email.. but by phone? wow.

3) Your Vonage service over the cable internet service is "not telephone service" and they have no obligation to notify you of anything regarding your internet traffic, as to them, your Vonage is nothing but internet traffic.

4) They DID warn you - you ignored them and smugged them like everyone else has - and has been cut off.

5) It would be very interesting to know where these DSL 'non-dependant-on-distance' services are being provided and how.

6) The BS you spew about how the PUC was on your side about not having 911 service....? I had to laugh.. you have cell phone in hand, calling the PUC and make a claim that you have no 911 service? One thing any lawyer will tell you is never make false or misleading statements while trying to make your case.

7) On the phone with comcast? Comcast who? The abuse isn't handled in Sacramento or California for that matter so I'd like to know who they called an who exactly got it restored in 1 hour. The PUC, which I STILL laugh at, has NO authority over Comcast's internet in California what so ever.

Taking the kids to moms because of no internet? Sounds like what people do when the heat is off in the winter but at least it shows how important your internet is to you and your family. I bet you won't ignore any warnings in the future, right?

Good luck with your battle. I'd love to know where this goes.. but in the meantime, welcome to the Slowskys club.
fiberguy2

fiberguy2 to gwbuffalo

Premium Member

to gwbuffalo
I agree Rico..

.. Yet another calculation on usage which we've seen a million times here.. (would love to see a cap on that kinda post here) not to mention, qw is defending a story that is CLEARLY fabricated to begin with. Since he's lying and it's VERY obvious by the so-called facts he has posted, how do any of us know that if he really was cut off (the anon poster) that it was even 200gb that he was contacted over in the first place?

Don't feed the Troll.
PghNeon
join:2006-12-21
Pittsburgh, PA

1 recommendation

PghNeon to Jeff3

Member

to Jeff3
Why is the hour figure so hard to fathom?

I had my connection turned back on *after hours* in about 2.5 hours on a Friday night after I started the cancellation process.

You guys don't believe anything that doesn't fit with your predetermined views.

CableTool
Poorly Representing MYSELF.
Premium Member
join:2004-11-12

1 recommendation

CableTool

Premium Member

Haha, and you spend twice as much time trolling the Comcast forums since you dropped them.

Whats your point?

hbreg
Premium Member
join:2000-11-09
Feasterville Trevose, PA

hbreg to PghNeon

Premium Member

to PghNeon
said by PghNeon:

Why is the hour figure so hard to fathom?

I had my connection turned back on *after hours* in about 2.5 hours on a Friday night after I started the cancellation process.

You guys don't believe anything that doesn't fit with your predetermined views.
No, we just don't believe what comes out of your mouth. Your facts change each time you post.

*After hours?* What does that have to so with anything. Comcast is a 24/7 company so there are no *after hours*

Didn't you leave Comcast? No need to troll here any longer.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS to gwbuffalo

MVM

to gwbuffalo
I would agree about giving people a hard time about 200GB per month. However, it is still an unusual volume of data. I doubt that more than 20% of the people connected to the Internet are moving that much data every month. Peak usage? I can see that. But I can't imagine that there is enough stuff of interest for a constant stream at that volume.

TraumaJunkie
Premium Member
join:2004-03-05
Knoxville, TN

TraumaJunkie to Jeff3

Premium Member

to Jeff3
Hmmm....most VOIP services need use less than 8k of bandwidth on average so if that is a big part of ytour usage it must be going 24/7. Business use of a residential service is against TOS. eBay pics are a moot point because youare not uploading 100's of 2-3 meg pics. As for 911 service..if you have a sick child and reply on ONE (no matter who the provider is) provider you need to rethink your actions. As for the PUC...that is complete BS. Residential internet service is still classified as an entertainment service not a necessity so therefore the PUC would have no authority to require it to be restored. Want to try again?
CLEVELTECH
join:2006-12-21
02107

1 edit

CLEVELTECH to Jeff3

Member

to Jeff3
You're NOT going to get anywhere posting here so hit these links:

»comcastissue.blogspot.co ··· dex.html
»www.chadmayfield.com/blog/

MadMANN3
Premium Member
join:2005-08-19

MadMANN3 to TraumaJunkie

Premium Member

to TraumaJunkie
said by TraumaJunkie:

Hmmm....most VOIP services need use less than 8k of bandwidth on average so if that is a big part of ytour usage it must be going 24/7.
Judging from his post, he talks a lot.

TraumaJunkie
Premium Member
join:2004-03-05
Knoxville, TN

TraumaJunkie

Premium Member

said by MadMANN3:
said by TraumaJunkie:

Hmmm....most VOIP services need use less than 8k of bandwidth on average so if that is a big part of ytour usage it must be going 24/7.
Judging from his post, he talks a lot.
Yeah, most of his smells like bull droppings.
p200002
join:2001-12-26
00000

p200002 to Jeff3

Member

to Jeff3
CC c/s probably was guessing this guy used a lot of bandwidth otherwise the service wouldn't be back within an hour and he received $50 credit. BTW, where is he located?

MadMANN3
Premium Member
join:2005-08-19

MadMANN3

Premium Member

said by p200002:

CC c/s probably was guessing this guy used a lot of bandwidth otherwise the service wouldn't be back within an hour and he received $50 credit. BTW, where is he located?
Again, read the story (and my first post). This whole story is utter BS. I don't even know why this thread not locked.