Certainly true here. This year I got a phone call from Comcast saying I was using too much bandwidth and if it happened a second month they would cut me off without notice. I complained to no avail, but did find out the following from company representatives:
The amount you can actually use is a secret, depending on your location.
The secret limit also applies to business accounts.
Each month the top x% users get these notices.
They are unwilling to set your cable modem to limit you to a data rate you could safely use, probably 1Mbps or less, so you would not have to guess if you're under the limit.
The sales office still reports "unlimited bandwidth" to prospective customers.
In my location, steadily using a 1.5Mb rate (or using the 8Mb rate for 4.5 hours at full speed per day) is definitely enough to get you on the SOL list. I don't know how much less you could use and still get on the list, depending on your location.
My central complaint is not that there is some usage cap, but that they lie about it to new customers and the will not tell you what the limit is.
I have the same problems that some do, (1) that Comcast willfully lies to their customers in telling them that they're paying for unlimited use, and (2) that instead of publishing clear terms of service they just cancel accounts for people going over the secret limit.
But more than that, it strikes me that this goes beyond Dilbert and into madness. Here they are, taking more than 1,000 customers every month if the math is right, and taking what are likely pretty happy customers who you would think would be recommending Comcast to friends. And those customers might be subscribing to cable TV or buying Comcast VoIP services. Then wham. Instead of merely capping their lines with some limit Comcast feels is appropriate, they terminate their service.
So now these happy customers are no longer paying for service (which was probably still making Comcast money even with high usage--places like Giganews could keep a fast line fully busy all month long for less than a Comcast bill) and in addition unhappy campers are dropping TV service, dropping VoIP, and telling people how unhappy they are with Comcast. So all those revenue streams are turned off forever or for years.
And the whole thing could be easily avoided by some honesty--publishing the cap on their web site. And it could be avoided with a little common sense--by limiting the customers' usage by merely downloading lower transmission-speed limits into the customers' DOCSIS cable modems.
So Comcast is running low on both honesty and common sense.
This truly is why God invented Scott Adams. If I had Comcast stock, I'd sell it.
In contrast, my phone company advertises unlimited long distance. When you call them and ask them if long distance is really unlimited, they will right up front tell you there actually is a limit. 5,000 minutes a month. So they're lying too when they advertise unlimited long distance, but at least they will tell you a number if you ask. And then you can decide whether (1) the number is high enough that it won't require deliberate budgeting, or (2) by doing some budgeting it can be lived with, or (3) move to a competitor. And if you need more time, the phone company is willing to sell you a business line with more minutes.
I guess the cable companies are the new phone companies, at least in terms of poor service, monopolies, and customer complaints. At least with Internet access, there's lots of competition on the horizon from powerline transit, wireless, satellite, and faster DSL. Today's monopolies may find themselves next year's Betamax sellers if they p*ss in the pool too much. Limits are OK, but publish them.
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Certainly true here. This year I got a phone call from Comcast saying I was using too much bandwidth and if it happened a second month they would cut me off without notice. I complained to no avail, but did find out the following from company representatives: The amount you can actually use is a secret, depending on your location. The secret limit also applies to business accounts. Each month the top x% users get these notices. They are unwilling to set your cable modem to limit you to a data rate you could safely use, probably 1Mbps or less, so you would not have to guess if you're under the limit. The sales office still reports "unlimited bandwidth" to prospective customers. In my location, steadily using a 1.5Mb rate (or using the 8Mb rate for 4.5 hours at full speed per day) is definitely enough to get you on the SOL list. I don't know how much less you could use and still get on the list, depending on your location. My central complaint is not that there is some usage cap, but that they lie about it to new customers and the will not tell you what the limit is.
I have the same problems that some do, (1) that Comcast willfully lies to their customers in telling them that they're paying for unlimited use, and (2) that instead of publishing clear terms of service they just cancel accounts for people going over the secret limit.
But more than that, it strikes me that this goes beyond Dilbert and into madness. Here they are, taking more than 1,000 customers every month if the math is right, and taking what are likely pretty happy customers who you would think would be recommending Comcast to friends. And those customers might be subscribing to cable TV or buying Comcast VoIP services. Then wham. Instead of merely capping their lines with some limit Comcast feels is appropriate, they terminate their service.
So now these happy customers are no longer paying for service (which was probably still making Comcast money even with high usage--places like Giganews could keep a fast line fully busy all month long for less than a Comcast bill) and in addition unhappy campers are dropping TV service, dropping VoIP, and telling people how unhappy they are with Comcast. So all those revenue streams are turned off forever or for years.
And the whole thing could be easily avoided by some honesty--publishing the cap on their web site. And it could be avoided with a little common sense--by limiting the customers' usage by merely downloading lower transmission-speed limits into the customers' DOCSIS cable modems.
So Comcast is running low on both honesty and common sense.
This truly is why God invented Scott Adams. If I had Comcast stock, I'd sell it.
In contrast, my phone company advertises unlimited long distance. When you call them and ask them if long distance is really unlimited, they will right up front tell you there actually is a limit. 5,000 minutes a month. So they're lying too when they advertise unlimited long distance, but at least they will tell you a number if you ask. And then you can decide whether (1) the number is high enough that it won't require deliberate budgeting, or (2) by doing some budgeting it can be lived with, or (3) move to a competitor. And if you need more time, the phone company is willing to sell you a business line with more minutes.
I guess the cable companies are the new phone companies, at least in terms of poor service, monopolies, and customer complaints. At least with Internet access, there's lots of competition on the horizon from powerline transit, wireless, satellite, and faster DSL. Today's monopolies may find themselves next year's Betamax sellers if they p*ss in the pool too much. Limits are OK, but publish them.