February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know I recently posted however I received some rather interesting email's today. It seems recent posts on a Comcast forum tries to explain their position on download caps and network traffic. I've learned something new but before I get to that let me address a statement "Jason1" on the Comcast forum made.

Your first link above discusses a blog entry which is completely one person's opinion and should not be taken as an official Comcast response. So please take caution when reading the info in the article as it is not completely accurate.

Yes this is a blog and NOT a Comcast web site. I do not represent Comcast in any way. We can also agree I am an individual posting my personal opinion of Comcast regarding an issue I believe was handled poorly. I hope to make Comcast aware of the problem along with it's customers and potential customers.

I have documented as best I can the events from day 1 and have presented them in the only way I have available. People deserve to know how things "could" turn out. If there are ANY inaccuracies then I expect Comcast to contact me directly and let me know where I am in error.

I will retract anything I can't prove or haven't documented through this experience. I would also publicly post a sincere apology. I don't wish to "get back at Comcast" as some have suggested as I consider that shallow. As stated at the top of the blog, I intend to get the word out of what happened to me and to encourage wider competition. I believe competition is what makes mega corps take stock of what they are doing wrong compared to their competitors. I hope Jason1 after writing "Re: Comcast has made news world wide - and not for good reasons" or another Comcast rep posts here or emails me to explain where I failed to be accurate. Otherwise I would argue his statement is simply innuendo and should be dismissed. I have done my best but I am not perfect.

If their usage is several times greater than the average Comcast HSI customer, they will be notified of the issue and their service may be terminated if the excessive use continues and service to hundreds of other customers is degraded. This usage may be around around 200-500 GB/month or it may be up to 800 GB/month - the actual amount you download is not what initiates the termination due to excessive downloading so it is not what is focused on.

So then calling someone a bandwidth hog isn't accurate. Interesting. This would explain why they say there isn't an official cap. Downloading up to 800 GB/month is suggested and may be perfectly fine depending where you live. I believe this may be why Jason1 is suggesting my comments are not entirely accurate. Ok. I can accept that. What I don't accept is the harsh manner a HSI account is terminated so quickly after multiple phone calls are made to Comcast CS to try and resolve the issue (see the live chat posted last night). There should be a little more leeway than the "You get a call then you're gone" response as Geovanny from the Abuse department stated.

If a customer is terminated due to excessive downloading, they will generally be given an estimate on how much they downloaded but this amount should not be called the download cap amount.

I'm back to confused now. Despite the confusion over whether Comcast or an ID thief called my wife in December, we reduced our usage (though we had no idea what number we should target) and were terminated the next month despite our reduction. Given an estimate? MRTG and RRDtools give you exact numbers in 5 minute increments. RRDtools will do it faster but industry best practices for monitoring have suggested 5 minute intervals are typical. I'm wondering if this is why they say it's an estimate rather than an actual number.

Yes, the download amount makes a nice easy way to visualize to the customer on a quantity that they used over the month but again, the issue is that the customers connected to a node is exceeding the capacity that node can provide so everyone connected to that node will suffer a bad connection.

My research suggests a node provides service for about 1200 homes. Still it's a crap shoot. A Comcast customer is left guessing how much is too much and risks termination even though they reduced their usage. For example, an Editor for the "Deseret Spectacle" was disconnected in July 2006, called Comcast later that day and had the HSI restored and promised to reduce usage by 50% but was terminated again in August 2006.

They were directed to the Abuse department as their account had been flagged by the CSR's system. The Abuse rep stated "even though you cut your usage in half, it's still too much. You have been terminated for 12 months". The editor posted his experience on their online magazine and moved to DSL (lucky bum). I've found dozens of other's who have been disconnected over the last few months, several here in the Salt Lake Valley. Many were fortunate to have alternatives (such as Verizon's Fios), Utopianet or DSL.

In my opinion, people generally are reasonable and willing to help (well, aren't they?). If Comcast is the ONLY real solution around, would anyone really continue pushing the network and risk termination? I couldn't have been more surprised with how poor this situation was handled. I would expect a better customer service experience.

These bandwidth abuse notifications and terminations are a way of ensuring that one individual is not responsible for degrading the service to hundreds of others.

It sounds like there is no way for a Comcast customer to make an informed choice whether he is adversely impacting Comcast's network or not. Might I suggest Comcast take a portion of their record earnings from 2006 and upgrade their infrastructure to reduce this possibility. I respectfully request my HSI be re-enabled and I will be paying VERY close attention to my usage. It's not like I can't monitor traffic or throttle it. I say that here only because I've been completely unsuccessful in finding someone at Comcast who can do anything to solve the problem. Somehow I doubt this is what Brian Roberts meant when he said Comcast was responding to what consumers want. He should have added "Customer Service" to the list.

So again, the bandwidth abuse notifications/terminations you mention here are not based on the content of what you are downloading.

I don't recall suggesting it was based on content (maybe he is referring to another disconnected customer). After speaking with the Abuse Department, I may have mistakenly understood there was a bandwidth cap. Now I'm thinking the bandwidth I could use when I had HSI is even more of a variable if 200-500 Gigs could be considered “normal”. It sounds like he is saying it depends where you live and how many are connected in your node.

If this is accurate blink twice. Once if I'm still not accurate. Or perhaps Comcast should just do what many HSI providers have turned to and set a cap so we can all be happy. Comcast wouldn't do something like this with Cable TV. If today I have 100 channels and tomorrow I have 30, the next day 40. How do I know I'm getting the service I paid for? After all, it's very difficult to be a good customer when the terms of the agreement keep changing.

I found this petition some time ago. I'd like to suggest people sign up and respectfully send Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast their opinion on the subject. I also found this petition online. If so inclinded please at least read what they have to say. Even though Jason1 is suggesting there is no cap and I'm beginning to think perhaps this really is company policy, my conversations with Geovanny in the Abuse Department suggested there is.

So there you have it. I still don't know what to make of these guys.

Update

In speaking with a buddy working at Qwest, I'm told not to worry, DSL is coming to my area very soon. My wife the other day noticed a DSLAM box going in 2 blocks from our house. Been hearing this for months but maybe it will really happen now. We'll see. If this situation isn't resolved in the next couple weeks I'm dropping the remaining Comcast services and going with Dish or Direct TV plus DSL. I'm ready to deal with top notch customer service after this experience.