Comcast Still Hates Its Customers, Still Not Secure
Ooooooooh Comcast. If there’s one person whose service you probably shouldn’t terminate without cause and who you shouldn’t made idle threats against, it’s probably Dave Winer. You know, the guy who invented blogging? Yesterday, Winer posted at length with regards to a recent ordeal with Comcast. To paraphrase, Comcast identified Winer as a customer using excessive bandwidth. They attempted to call him one time at an old number that had been disconnected and were unable to reach him. They subsequently shut his internet service down. No additional attempts to contact him, no letters and no formal warnings of any kind. Terminated. Apparently Winer had violated a secret rule of some kind and when he finally did get in touch with Comcast to inquire as to why he lost connectivity… Let’s just say it didn’t go well:
I was quickly connected to a man who told me I had been deliberately disconnected because they had tried to call me and I didn’t pick up… Then he threatened me. He told me I was in the top 1/10th of 1 percent of all their Internet users and that if I didn’t immediately stop using so much bandwidth they would suspend my service for 12 months. I asked if I could get this in writing, he said no. I asked how much bandwidth would be acceptable, he wouldn’t say. I told him this wasn’t much of a threat if they weren’t willing to put it in writing, and I wasn’t intimidated. I also told him I was a blogger and would be writing it up. He didn’t care.
Fantastic. In related news, Comcast doesn’t just hate its customers, it hates their privacy as well. This morning Dave Zatz wrote about an interesting episode he recently had with Comcast. About a week ago Dave contacted Comcast in an attempt to recover his comcast.net credentials. Despite providing the Comcast representative with his account number, phone number and partial social security number, the result of a lengthy online chat was not a retrieval of the information he was looking for. Instead, the Comcast rep reset the account password of someone who had been at his address prior to his moving in, and gave Dave the new password. Again, fantastic. A word of warning to Comcast customers: Your service can be terminated at any time without warning or a proper explanation, and your private information is not secure. It might be time to explore other options…
[Via Zatz Not Funny!]
On Apr 17, 2008 @ 4:30 pm, jds Said:
When will these ISPs learn? Sounds like Comcast wants to be on the fast-track to bankruptcy court.
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On Apr 17, 2008 @ 4:34 pm, GIAN R - GEEKBERRY Said:
COMCAST ARE A BUNCH OF PRICKS!!!! SECOND CLASS CORPORATION TRYING TO OUTDUE THEMSELVES!!!!!!!
STICK TO ONE THING, AND AT LEAST TRY, TRY YOUR HARDEST, INVEST, FOR YOUR SELF, AND YOUR CUSTOEMRS TO DO IT WELL. DUESTCHS!!
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On Apr 17, 2008 @ 4:45 pm, SNP Said:
They will learn when the gov allow more competitions locally, why would they bother to change when users in a given town only have them as their broadband ISP, FFS, hurry up FiOS!
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On Apr 17, 2008 @ 4:50 pm, Shad Rackstein Said:
Winer wasn’t terminated without cause. He was downloading 450 GB a month from Comcast, which is incredibly excessive usage well beyond the terms of any ISP’s consumers service agreement.
As for the claim he invented blogging, stop bogarting the joint dude.
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On Apr 17, 2008 @ 5:25 pm, Chris Said:
If you downoad 450GB/mo you are not just downloading podcasts. I’m not surprised they canned you. You are approaching half a terabyte of data per month and the phone number you signed up with is disconnected… hmmm.. No freaking wonder they disconnected your dumb ass.
Next time try READING THE CONTRACT before you sign it, and when you get to the part about “we can shut you down for excessive use” ask for a written statement of what is too much BEFORE you sign up. Otherwise you are at their mercy and have no right to complain. I don’t think they did anything wrong.
If you want more bandwidth pay for business class.
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On Apr 17, 2008 @ 5:51 pm, james Said:
There is no reason to defend comcast. We all know they suck. That’s why I am on fios.
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On Apr 17, 2008 @ 7:03 pm, Jeff B. Said:
Fucking brilliant…but all is well because we all hate them back more than they hate us…YOU FUCKING PRICKS!!! FUCK YOU COMCAST!!! HEY, YOU KNOW WHAT’S COMCASTIC? MY FOOT UP YOUR FAT FUCKING ASS!!! DICKWEEDS!!!!!!!!
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On Apr 17, 2008 @ 9:48 pm, Morgan Said:
I have been dealing with comcast for months…I turned in cable boxes 4 years ago and now they say i haven’t…i have attempted to call them and get it resolved…they will not return a single email…now a credit agency is after me…2 digital cable boxes for 1200 dollars…absolutely insane…I for one am boycotting anything comcast for the rest of my life…
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On Apr 17, 2008 @ 10:04 pm, Javahooked Said:
Morgan, I feel your pain. I ran into the same exact problem with my cable modem. After cancelling my service I went to their service center and returned it per standard procedure. Next month I get as usual with no charges. The following month I get a bill for 100 bucks plus my usual cable bill. I call back and find out its for the modem. “But I returned it” I said. I even had proof in the form of a receipt. “Oh ok we will take care of it” I was told. I asked if they wanted a scanned copy of the receipt, to which the rep said no. The next month I got a fine for the 100 bucks and a collection agency was after me. It was such a torture and took 8 month to resolve. All I can say is Comcast needs more competition to get their act together and care for customer for a change.
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On Apr 17, 2008 @ 10:10 pm, Tyrone D. Said:
Who the FUCK cares how much he’s downloading!? ISP’s should be providing more bandwidth, anyway.
Let’s put the U.S. Broadband infrastructure under the microscope and we can all agree that it is the shittiest excuse for “broadband”. Walt Mossberg said it himself in the following video, at 04:45:
http://www.9to5mac.com/3G-60-days-walt-mossberg-appletv
U.S. Broadband sucks and I could give a shit about what U.S. ISP’s define their speeds as broadband because any TRUE IT professional, like myself, knows that real “broadband” doesn’t exist in the U.S.
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On Apr 18, 2008 @ 9:50 am, DavidB Said:
It’s obvious there is no consistency in the Comcast customer service experience. And it is equally obvious Comcast will not change their practices until either a) the fcc/ftc forces a change or b) competition cuts their customer base. Here in my town, we have BPL and DSL, but speed on both sucks. And NO competition for TV service.
Supposedly FIOS has a franchise now, but in my city of 45000 how long will it take VZ to deploy fiber? And does anyone REALLY think VZ is any better company to deal with than is Comcast?
Hmmm…and WHY doesn’t Comcast have a customer ombudsman program? The govt agency’s that permit their monopoly will do nothing, so all we have are blogs by which to vent. Sad.
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On Apr 18, 2008 @ 9:53 am, TFR Said:
“Who the FUCK cares how much he’s downloading!?”
I’d guess his neighbors care, actually. The reason cable providers get pissy about bandwidth usage is because excessive usage negatively impacts the service of everyone else.
It’s nice to attack comcast, but what if this was a story about Dave getting really slow ping times several times a day because comcast refused to do anything about his neighbors downloading movies 24/7? Then we’d be pissed at them for that.
Dave went overboard and then threw a tantrum when he was called on it. Pretty much par for the course with him.
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On Apr 18, 2008 @ 10:04 am, Zach Epstein Said:
I think some of you might be missing the point here. To put this in perspective:
You drive a car to work every day. You purchase gas from Exxon - the only brand of gas station available in your area - that fuels your car. You pay for your gas every time you fill up, just like everyone else. Imagine one day Exxon, with no warning, decides you use too much gas and blacklists you at every station. You are no longer allowed to purchase gas.
Internet access is Winer’s gas. He needs it to do his job; to earn a living. The biggest issue here is not that they cut him off for using excessive bandwidth, the issue is that they did so in a disgustingly irresponsible manner. Had they, as Winer suggests, sent letters or otherwise contacted him about the issue and posed some possible solutions (you know, provided some semblance of customer service) this would be a different story. Instead they putted for par and screwed over their customer.
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On Apr 18, 2008 @ 10:36 am, Chrysalid Said:
Reminds me of Rogers in Canada, the land of ancient, protectionist, monopolistic telecom regulations.
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On Apr 18, 2008 @ 7:53 pm, Fish Said:
Comcast is the Best….
….or you would not order the service.
Until someone….anyone….can out perform Comcast….
….they will be around for a long time.
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On Apr 18, 2008 @ 9:11 pm, niftydl Said:
You are right, Comcast is the best, probably why everyone jumps to FiOS as soon as its available in their area.
I personally love waiting at least 30 minutes for low level tech support overseas and little blocks on my HD channel! You don’t?
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On Apr 19, 2008 @ 8:01 pm, Jeff B. Said:
You know what the best part of Comcast is? It’s when the boxes go green screen of death and you pull the power then wait and it does the same thing 10 minutes later. Oh, and you can’t forget, there are days where they “want” their internet to go fast and there are days they “want” it to glow so slow dial-up is faster.
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On Apr 20, 2008 @ 3:36 pm, Shawn Said:
OH THANK GOODNESS. I haven’t checked the other tech blogs yet, but has this made the rounds on the internet? It’s about time we had some influential bloggers call Comcast out on their crap.
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On May 12, 2008 @ 2:33 pm, Beth Said:
Exact same thing happened to us, several years back. The shoddy cable modem we were ‘renting’ from Comcast was working badly. We found a list on their website of compatible cable modems for their system and, with it in hand, headed off to Fry’s to purchase a high-quality cable modem. We had a little difficulty getting it recognized, but with a helpful tech support person on the other end of the phone line, we were finally in business. At their request, we returned the defective modem to their office and were given a receipt for it. Despite that, it took well over a year to stop being charged for ‘lease’ of their provided modem — and we never did get the overcharges credited to us.
Then, a week ago, I got the same threatening phone call that Dave Winer received. Like him, I was unable to get them to put ANYTHING in writing. I had thought that under a Republican administration, the FCC would be a ‘paper tiger’ but it appears that the current FCC chairman is ready to put it to Comcast for their many excesses.
If Comcast is going to advertise and sell a given level of broadband capability, they ought not be allowed to terminate customers for using it at that level.
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