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Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

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Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#21
post #2

The worst thing about this is not the cutting off of the service, but the fact that this guy has no reasonable alternative to Comcast in his area. Tyranny of the last mile still exists, and isn't going away any time soon.

Wrong...

1. Satellite Broadband 2. Wireless Broadband(most wireless co's slow bandwidth by 15% after bandwidth cap is exceeded and do not cut off) In building use buy a $200 Wilson Wireless amplifier

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#22
post #17
post #6

I listened to him read his canned warning that if I exceeded their cap again I'd be cut off again. Ok. Sure, the data cap sucks, but this guy broke a Comcast policy, got a warning, and then broke the policy again. I'm not surprised he got cut off. I do not recall details on how long the cut off would be, likely because I spent the next few minutes working with the service agent to add notes to my record about my deta…

Actually if you read his post from a day ago, you will see him state he stopped the open access point. He took steps to stop what he thought was the issue. It was not until the cap was broken a second time that he realized it was his backup system uploading to a 3rd party service. That is not entitlement at all. If anything it was ignorance of the fact that your upload data is also measured against the cap. I agree w…

Perhaps if he was more civil with the service reps and just explained the mistake he would have been given a reprieve. Regardless, it doesn't sound like he's willing to cut back his data use.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#23
post #14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yawn... first world problems. I wish I could slap you...

Why? I was turned off by the American view point of this post. I can't even stream Netflix in my country, and this guy is complaining that he can't watch 250GB of it?!

Two main reasons.

1. Your response is a solid way to avoid having an intelligent discussion. As you start out with the equivalent of "stop bitching". What good does that to other than antagonize people?

2. The whole "first world problems" thing is a huge pet peeve of mine. Firstly, following that logic, the only person allowed to complain about anything is literally the one person with the most miserable existence on earth. Secondly, why would we want to accept any apparent negatives in our community/society/country on the grounds that "Hey, it could be worse." How is that a useful stance to take? Why is it wrong to want to improve upon ones current situation?

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#24
The author had me up until the moment he claimed that internet access is a "right". Ok, so let's say internet access is a "right". Rights often come within a framework. You have many rights that are yours for the losing. Your freedom to come and go freely, for example. If you break a law, you lose your freedom by being put in jail.

To say something is a "right" is to say that it ought to be available, or that the government should not infringe upon your ability to seek that right unduly. In this case, the author broke the rules of the framework, and thus his right was suspended.

What a right to broadband is not: an irrevocable license to use as much of a shared resource as possible for a fixed price you deem appropriate.

Author, if you're reading, this is why people are saying you sound entitled. You're conflating "rights" with your own viewpoint that you should have unlimited internet access at a fixed price.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#25
post #6

I listened to him read his canned warning that if I exceeded their cap again I'd be cut off again. Ok. Sure, the data cap sucks, but this guy broke a Comcast policy, got a warning, and then broke the policy again. I'm not surprised he got cut off. I do not recall details on how long the cut off would be, likely because I spent the next few minutes working with the service agent to add notes to my record about my deta…

Comcast refused to work with him, even though he was willing and motivated to address the problem. Even after being careful with bandwidth and disabling his public access point, they still cut him off for a year with no appeal.

This mirrors what happened to me. I was given an automated warning. I called the security number but they wouldn't tell me what sort of traffic I should be looking for. They didn't even have a bandwidth meter rolled out in my area at the time! I had to guess what my bandwidth usage was for the next few months. I even called to make sure that I was under the cap, but they wouldn't tell me anything at all. "I'm sure you're fine" the rep said. And then they cut me off. (Turns out it was a misconfigured bittorrent client, but at least I knew that upload counted toward the cap.) I at least managed to switch to a business account, which isn't too much more expensive and has no cap. Last month I pushed over 1TB, no complaints.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#27
post #6

I listened to him read his canned warning that if I exceeded their cap again I'd be cut off again. Ok. Sure, the data cap sucks, but this guy broke a Comcast policy, got a warning, and then broke the policy again. I'm not surprised he got cut off. I do not recall details on how long the cut off would be, likely because I spent the next few minutes working with the service agent to add notes to my record about my deta…

Comcast has a geographic monopoly in his area and like every other monopoly should be under some sort of government regulation. What Comcast should do if they are actually under bandwidth constraints is lower his 15Mb connection to 1Mb after he passed the 250GB cap. What they actually did was drop a customer because their profit margins weren't as high as the wanted them to be.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#28
post #2

The worst thing about this is not the cutting off of the service, but the fact that this guy has no reasonable alternative to Comcast in his area. Tyranny of the last mile still exists, and isn't going away any time soon.

This crybaby's in Seattle and he's complaining about the lack of ISPs? Hell, there's Speakeasy to begin with.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#29
How is it reasonable for somebody to expect to be able to upload "terabytes of RAW images, musics tracks ripped in lossless format, etc."? That seems to be substantially outside the scope of what both Comcast's home user internet service is designed for, and, I would guess, Carbonite as well -- although I note that Carbonite does offer "unlimited" backups for home users. I agree with other commenters -- this sounds like a serious case of entitlement. I don't know whether Internet access should be considered a right or not; but even if it is, I would say it only really works if people are reasonable and responsible in their usage of it. Just like it's a right for me to speak my mind, but people will still shun me if I insist on doing so at full volume in all venues at all times, in a way that impedes others from enjoying _their_ access to that right.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#30

I totally disagree about broadband being a right. And neither is electricity, insurance, or clean water. However, I do agree that it's a necessity for modern living, just like the rest of the above. As such, I think it should be protected in the same ways.

But if you use large amounts of electric, water, or insurance you get to pay for it. None of them offer unlimited models.
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