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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

#101

Post by matwood »

aeontech wrote: post #88
matwood wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Most utilities cannot just shut you off. Many states have laws that determine when and how. The biggest thing about a utility though is that you pay for usage. If you want to leave your lights on all day, they really don't care as long as you continue to pay your bill. Personally, I do…

$6/Gb on mobile? That would be wonderful compared to, let me check... $20/Mb that I just paid for checking google maps over AT&T roaming when lost in another country. Sigh.

I think the $6/GB came from the original unlimited plans in the US that were $30/month and had soft caps of 5GB. Pretty much all those plans have since disappeared.

The point is, I think most consumers are fine with metered data if they feel like it's mostly fair.

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

#102

Post by Oompa »

I'm worried about this. I live with 4 other internet heavy users, so I checked our usage last week, and saw that we've consistently been blowing past the 250GB cap. Last month, we hit 566GB.

Comcast hasn't contacted me or shut off our service yet, and I hope they don't.

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

#103

Post by forensic »

joelhaus wrote: post #70
recoiledsnake wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My question would be is does the 250g data cap apply when they are watching TV/Movies online via Comcast (XFinity) provided services? Yes it does. But, of course it doesn't apply to the On Demand services on Comcast Cable, which is where they want to push customers at.

This. Combined with the power of local carrier monopolies, it's exactly the reason we need net neutrality.

I appreciate your opinion but I downvoted you because you said "This."

The "This." meme contributes nothing to the post and is the worst kind of contentless bandwagonism.

"This." is lazy and degrades the quality of the site in general.

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

#104

Post by zinkem »

dbingham wrote: post #100

I am entitled. I am entitled to a competitive market. I am entitled to companies that have to compete for my business, not take it for granted. I am entitled to companies that always try to move forward and improve their products, not jack up the price while offering less. Right now, that doesn't exist in the broadband market. And as with any other market that requires high levels of infrastructure investment, I'm be…

Yes, I agree.

Isn't Comcast abusing their position here to protect their cable business? My friends recently got cut off for going over their limit; well they went over their limit because its a house of 4 using Netflix and downloading games on Steam all the time. This seems obvious to me but nobody else is bringing it up so I must be missing something.

In many markets Comcast is the only option, and they aren't offering connection upgrades or pay per gb. This is the part that doesn't seem right. This is the part that makes me think they are just railing against Netflix users.

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

#105

Post by alphaoverlord »

Implicit in the title of "250GB of legitimate use" is the assumption that torrenting or things of that nature are not legitimate.

And also supports Comcast's claim that 99% of people do not use that much bandwidth. Sure a bandwidth cap is not a one size fits all solution, but if this is the only guy complaining, it sounds like a one size fits most solution.

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

#106

Post by zinkem »

alphaoverlord wrote: post #105

Implicit in the title of "250GB of legitimate use" is the assumption that torrenting or things of that nature are not legitimate. And also supports Comcast's claim that 99% of people do not use that much bandwidth. Sure a bandwidth cap is not a one size fits all solution, but if this is the only guy complaining, it sounds like a one size fits most solution.

Why is Comcast cutting people off for a year instead of just charging per GB above the cap or upgrading to a higher class service?

This is a punishment without a trial.

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

#107

Post by Luyt »

evan_ wrote: post #66
fr0sty wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. They do? Where is this the case? My water and electricity usage have no monthly cap and are only shut off if I fail to pay the bills.

My friend had some kind of washer hose burst in his house when he was away for the weekend. The damage was minimal (it was in his unfinished basement) but the water company, detecting a large amount of water being used, came by and shut his water off. "Oh but that's different" - not really. Same thing would have happened if my friend was intentionally trying to fill his basement with water.

I suspect that would not have been a problem. The water company guy rings at your friends door:

Water Company Guy: "Just checking, we think there might be a burst pipe around here somewhere. Have you noticed some flooding?"

Your friend: "No. I'm just filling up my pool however, but everything is fine."

Company guy: "Ah, ok. Excellent. Have a nice day!"

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

#108

Post by ceejayoz »

evan_ wrote: post #66
fr0sty wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. They do? Where is this the case? My water and electricity usage have no monthly cap and are only shut off if I fail to pay the bills.

My friend had some kind of washer hose burst in his house when he was away for the weekend. The damage was minimal (it was in his unfinished basement) but the water company, detecting a large amount of water being used, came by and shut his water off. "Oh but that's different" - not really. Same thing would have happened if my friend was intentionally trying to fill his basement with water.

> "Oh but that's different" - not really. Same thing would have happened if my friend was intentionally trying to fill his basement with water.

Sure, but if he called and stated that, they'd likely turn it back on and bill him for the usage.

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

#109

Post by slavak »

I've seen a lot of posts about US telecoms having "soft caps" for usage on what they call "unlimited data" plans, and I can't for the life of me figure out how in the hell something like that can possibly be legal.

If you have a written service contract with your provider that does not explicitly state the service has a bandwidth cap, then how can them shutting off or artificially limiting your access speed /not/ be a breach of contract?

Even if there is a clause in the contract about the traffic cap - without them explicitly informing you of the clause, wouldn't you be able to claim deceptive advertising?

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