It's Comcastic!
Message:
These retards disconnected me also. I've start a blog and have been thinking of building a satire of the experience for publication on youtube.

My wife and I are trying to get them back as they are the ONLY show in town. I plan on making that a thing of the past. We're going to City Council meetings and will be pushing utopianet.org to our area plus I'm looking at wireless internet.

Oh and our new blog is at http://comcastissue.blogspot.com

People have no clue how pathetic Comcast customer service is. We've even spoke with Bill Gephart about this. One of his reporters is currently going through the Comcast mire to figure out what's going on. I feel bad for inflicting this on him but I'm hoping to get the word out.

Like you I'm a heavy user. Been accused of many nefarious things. What's sad is people don't realize there are many legit reasons for running bittorrent and other download services. Most respectable services these days provide p2p for downloading products.

I wish I could go with Verizion Fios or some other service. You are fortunate to have an alternative. Heck, even Clark Howard said I should fire Comcast and provided me a couple of links to articles he's written about them. Not his favorite provider I guess.

Anyway... check out the blog and if you read slashdot.org you might see my article out there also. I'm hoping the editors approve it.



http://comcastissue.blogspot.com

Hey Joe N.

I feel your pain. I have had some of the worst experiences with Comcast. They are con artists operating on a national scale. None of the technicians know whats going on. I wrote a short blog about my terrible experience as well...feel free to check it out.

Comcast Sucks

Sorry, didn't link properly : http://www.howtojumpfences.com/?cat=2

I always say what goes around comes around. This is only the beginning.

"Been accused of many nefarious things."

I'd prefer that a person elaborate further when making s sweeping statement such as this. Although he does go on to mention that one of those "many nefarious things" had to do with running bit-torrent, it would have been helpful to know of at least two or three issues he's been accused of (so we could get a feel of the flavor of his use of the word "many").
Perish the thought that he was EXAGGERATING when he chose that word; such an impression on my part would be akin to, uh, being rather PESSIMISTIC in my approach.
(Not to imply that anyone around here would be pessimistic or cynical by nature!)

My keyboard typed "s sweeping statement"
instead of "a sweeping statement".
Bad keyboard.
I apologize on its behalf.

If you want I'll ask him. It's sad actually.

here's another user who right now is fighting Comcast:


On Saturday my internet service was disconnected again. I had to wait until today to get an answer from their "Network Abuse and Policy Observance" department. They told me that although I had cut my usage in half, it wasn't enough, and they were terminating my account for 12 months. Again they flatly refused to say how much was acceptable use. I requested they reenable my email for a period of one week so that I could switch any accounts to another address - they refused. I asked for a manger - they refused to tell me if they had one. I asked for another point of contact - they told me I was welcome to do my own research.

Needless to say, I'm pretty angry. I don't mind staying within defined usage limits, but I have a big problem with my service being shut off without any warning without defined reasons. The person I spoke to couldn't have been less helpful.

Unfortunately, since Comcast lobbied against communities laying fiber to the home, there is no comparable internet service in Salt Lake City. In any event, Rob and the others will be handling most of the posting on the Deseret Spectacle this week. I should be back up and running within a week or so.

Another user responded back to me:

Joe,

I searched out your youtube videos and left several comments..

My experience was almost identical to yours. Absolutely no give and no information. They have it well scripted.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything to be done. You know the routine. Starting the on-line movement is difficult because Comcast has so many aggressive stooges out there. Combine that with a bunch of customers that don't know jack shit about the issue (no user knows if their usage is being impacted by high-usage customers, so you know they're - at best - full of shit)

I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the FCC. You can complain with the local franchise authority, but that involves a lot and I get the impression that it's ultimately fruitless.

My FCC complaint went unanswered - literally no response or acknowledgement whatsoever.

The BBB passed along the complaint. I tracked it for THREE months while Comcast missed deadline after deadline to respond. I asked for three things: 1) a weeks worth of access to switch over accounts which relied on my comcast e-mail address for confirmation 2) an apology for the way the "Policy Observance" idiot treated me (actually, I kept him on the phone for 45 minutes and wasn't that nice either.. He couldn't wait to get off the fucking phone with me) and 3) Clearly state what their bandwidth cap is.

Anyway, after three months, I received a terse letter from some chick at Comcast saying "Thank you for allowing us to try and resolve this complaint through the BBB..... blah blah blah... In response to your complaint, please review our acceptable use policy, which can be found at....."

And that was it. Like I hadn't been through that thing with a fine tooth comb already.

The BBB then told me I could answer back, but that I should compromise, which I found odd, since Comcast did not even offer an EXPLANATION, much less any response to my requests. I thought it over, and a week later went back to send off a response. the BBB had closed the case with a "Didn't hear back from customer, assume complaint resolved."

I wrote them and told them I found it odd that Comcast got over 3 months to respond, but that I was given less than a week before they closed the case. They were worthless.

The only thing that can screw up comcast is publicity, scandal and competition.

They are agressive against publicity, and are aided by ignorant users. I don't know how to find scandal. Competition can only come in the form of regulation, municipal fiber networks (which Comcast lobbies against HEAVILY) and other comparable internet services, which at thte moment are practically nonexistent.

Comcast is a scary company.

If nothing else, I hope this e-mail at least let's you know you're not alone. I, too, was surprised by the backlash against people who have been cut off.

Best,
DS

I did some research and found out that the 2 GB's allowed for newsgroup downloads per month means that Comcast subscribers receive a free "Bronze Package" subscription to Giganews, normally $7.99 per month for 2GB's of downloads. http://www.giganews.com

I did some research on that too but if you think about it, 2GB per month is NOTHING.