[Mishmash] Time Warner Links Web Prices With Usage

[Fred Atkinson]

Dick,

    I've heard that, too.

    The way I've heard it works is that you get a call from someone at
Comcast.  They usually leave a message on your voicemail warning you
that if you do not reduce your usage, that they will suspend your
account for a year.  They give you no idea of what is permissable.  And
they don't leave a number to be called back at.

    You get the message, call customer service and ask them what is
going on and by how much do you need to reduce your bandwidth
consumption.

    You are told that there is nothing recorded in your account profile
about this and that it must have been a prank call and to go on using it
like you always have.

    You come home a few days later and discover that you cablemodem
isn't working.  You call Comcast and ask them what is going on.  You are
told that your account has been suspended for one year because of
excessive bandwith use.  When you explain that you called customer
service and they told you that the call must have been a prank, they say
they don't record that information in the customer service files and
they don't care.  They tell you that you'll have to wait out the year's
suspension or pay for business service to have it turned back on.

    If this should happen to me (which I doubt because most of my
bandwidth usage in on my Web site, not my home network), I would get an
attorney and go after them.  They've not defined what is acceptable use,
they told me that there was nothing wrong with my account, and they
promptly cut me off after I was told that everything was fine.  I
suspect my attorney would roast them over a hot fire before he got
through with them.

    Of course, what I am hearing is scuttlebutt though I've heard a
bunch of it.

    Regards,




Fred




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Barth" <w3hwn at comcast.net>
To: "Mishmash" <mishmash at mishmash.net>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 12:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Mishmash] Time Warner Links Web Prices With Usage


> Should be interesting to watch.  There have been complaints that
> Comcast has been choking
> downloads (e.g. via BitTorrent) and arbitrarily cancelling the
> accounts of those who have
> been downloading "too much" data, without defining what "too much" is
> supposed to be.  As
> the complaints go, some customers have simply been told their
> accounts are closed without
> advance information as to what the limits are.
>
> Charging by data volume seems a reasonable alternative for heavy
> users, PROVIDED the rates
> for light users go down.  I'm not holding my breath for that one,
> though, and it wouldn't
> affect me either way unless Comcast adopts a similar procedure.
>
> Dick
>
> At 10:23 PM 1/17/2008, you wrote:
>
>http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/technology/2008/01/17/Time.Warner
.Cable.Internet/
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Mishmash mailing list
> >Mishmash at mishmash.net
> >http://mishmash.net/mailman/listinfo/mishmash_mishmash.net
>
> Richard Barth *** W3HWN(at)ARRL.NET *** Silver Spring, MD
>
>
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