Comcast: You've Been Terminated

This is going to be a long one. Yeah, sorry about that…

About two months ago, I got home from work to find that our Internet wasn’t working. The status lights on the cable modem were on, but the power light was blinking. I power cycled the modem and the router, and still nothing. So I figured that our Comcast service was just being stupid. I went to bed not worrying about it, figuring that it would come back one at some point.

The next morning, it still wasn’t working, but I didn’t have time to tinker with it. I went to work not worrying about it, figuring that it would come back on at some point.

When I got home from work, it still didn’t work. Now it was time to call everyone’s favorite number, 1-800-COMCAST. When I got through to Customer Care, I actually spoke to a very nice lady who, once she pulled up my information, said that there was a note on my account telling her to forward me to another number. I asked if she knew what it was about, and she said she didn’t. So she transferred me. I listened to a few more seconds of bad please-wait-while-your-call-is-being-connected music, and then I heard a voice telling me I’ve reached Comcast’s Customer Security Assurance (CSA).

When I got through to a human and did the whole what’s-your-number, confirm-your-address, name-on-the-account crap that I already did with the Customer Care Rep, I was told that my account was suspended because it had been flagged for high bandwidth usage. Excuse me, what?! Yes, every month, Comcast flags the top 1% (or fraction of a percent, I don’t remember) of their users in terms of bandwidth. I was apparently in that group.

Now I was getting aggravated. I asked how they could just shut off my service without contacting me first. Surly they must know how to get in contact with me, as they know my phone number, my email address, my mailing address, my SSN, and probably my mother’s maiden name and the name of my first pet. Why was I not notified? Well, he told me, they tried to contact me twice and left voice mail on my phone. I told him I never got any message (which was the truth), and at the very very least, you KNOW that I have a Comcast email address. They should have sent a message there. But since they claimed they tried and couldn’t reach me, my service was suspended.

Aside: After getting off the phone, I checked my answering machine and the caller ID. It turns out they actually DID try to call me, but only once. It was during the day, so I was at work, and there was a message on my machine that was barely audible. It was someone who spoke very softly, very quickly, and with a thick accent. It took my wife four or five times just to be able to make out the words “high speed Internet,” and she has amazing hearing. Yes, we did hear the message when we got home a few days ago, but we thought it was just a wrong number, or spam.

I asked the CSA guy what exactly was the upper threshold that I went over. He said he couldn’t tell me; all he knew was that I was in the top 1%. They try to contact the users to get them to lower their usage, and if they can’t, they suspend service. I said that was completely unacceptable. I was never (adequately) contacted, and my wife and I both work for web companies. We occasionally need to work from home. We cannot be without Internet.

So I was told that my service would be turned back on, and I would be credited for the two days I was without service. He told me to check our computers for malicious software (which I told him we do regularly), but it could have been a one-time fluke. He had me hold the line for a minute while he turned my service back on, and that was it. Thank you, and have a nice evening.

Last night, two months later, I got home to find the same issue. The power light on the cable modem was blinking, which meant that my Internet was out. Again I tried restarting the modem and router, just to be sure, and again I had no luck. Time get the phone and go at it for Round 2.

I didn’t even entertain the notion that I may have been terminated again. I assumed there was some problem somewhere. I even assumed that Comcast was already aware of it and would be fixing it shortly. This time they were a little busier, so I was on hold for about 10 minutes before the music stopped. Then I got disconnected. Great. So I called back, waited another 10 minutes, and got through to a rep who also happened to have a pretty thick accent. I really don’t have a problem with people from other countries coming to work here. By most accounts, it’s a great freakin’ country. I’d probably do the same thing. But when I have to press the phone against my ear to make out what the person on the other end is saying, that’s when I get a little annoyed.

But I was patient, went through the account verification process again, and waited for him to pull up my info. I told him what the problem was, and he told me to wait 2 minutes while he accessed my account. When he got back on the phone, he said he was having problems opening up my account, so he was going to transfer me over to Network. There was some more annoying music, and then I heard a familiar recorded voice: “You have reached Comcast’s Customer Security Assurance.”

The person I spoke to was a little less helpful than the last guy, but I won’t bother mentioning his name because we already logged a formal complaint. He told me that my service was TERMINATED due to repeated abuse and violation of their terms. I asked him to elaborate (in somewhat different words). He told me all about the incident two months ago, and said that my bandwidth usage hadn’t dropped. He also gave me the first number I’d heard when he told me that I exceeded 400GB of bandwidth last month. Damn, that’s a lot of bandwidth.

Now this time, I wasn’t even contacted with a garbled phone message. I was just immediately turned off. I said there must be some mistake. We’re at work all day, and we really only use the Internet for the web and IM. We hardly download much, we don’t play games online, and there was nothing else I could possibly think of that would account for that much use. He told me that maybe our wireless network had been hacked, or we had some malicious software on our computer. I told the guy everything I could. I said my wife and I both work for web companies. We’re aware of the dangers of viruses, worms, adware, spyware, etc., and we do what we can to protect our machines. Hell, I used to work for an adware company (though I didn’t feel the need to mention that), so I kinda know what I’m doing. We have just two computers plugged directly into the router, and a Nintendo Wii in the living room using wireless. We also have our laptops that we use wirelessly on occasion. I’m not broadcasting the SSID, and it’s all encrypted. We regularly run virus scans, we use pop-up blockers, and we don’t download crap that we don’t trust. What else can I do?

I asked if they can tell what kind of usage accounted for this unfathomable 400GB of bandwidth and was told in a very plain this-is-our-official-policy voice that they do not monitor activity (yeah sure). They just had that it was high for last month, so I was shut off. I asked, “So what can I do about this now? I’m fully willing to cooperate and find the cause of the high usage.” He said, “Nothing.” I’ve been terminated and now have to wait 12 months before my service could be turned back on. “12 months?! Is there anyone else I can speak to about this?” “No, I’m the only one here, and there’s no appeal process.”

Now let’s think about this for a minute. Comcast employees must get paid A LOT, because their time is obviously much more valuable than trying to keep a customer. I said repeatedly that I would do whatever I can to find the source of the problem. Sure, for all he knew, I actually was downloading that much, but I can’t be the only one this has happened to. Another thing that bugs me is that there was a two-month span. Two months ago it was high, and in the past month it was high. That means that for one month it was back to normal? Or does that mean that enough other users were higher than me, thus bumping me below the arbitrary 1% yellow line. Also, I haven’t found anywhere in their terms of service that says an actual number. A version I found online just says this:

“You further agree to comply with all Comcast network, bandwidth, and data storage and usage limitations. You shall ensure that your bandwidth consumption using the Service does not exceed the limitations that are now in effect or may be established in the future. If your use of the Service results in the consumption of bandwidth in excess of the applicable limitations, that is a violation of this Policy. In such cases, Comcast may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your Service account or request that you subscribe to a version of the Service with higher bandwidth usage limitations if you wish to continue to use the Service at higher bandwidth consumption levels.”

That last line is definitely interesting because it was never suggested in either phone call that I subscribe to a plan with higher limitations. That would be the smart thing to do if you want to make any attempt to keep your customers. Also interesting is that, while they do offer free McAfee software for download from their site, they do not offer any way of checking your own bandwidth usage. They don’t offer any bandwidth meter software, and they certainly wouldn’t even recommend a program to use because, like all good companies, they do not provide third party support. Well, except for McAfee…

So now Verizon DSL will likely be our only option. FiOS is not available in our area yet, neither is RCN, and there’s no way in hell I will go back to dial-up. I will also be getting rid of Comcast’s cable TV service this week in favor of DirectTV or whatever else I find that’s available. Even if we were to figure out what the problem was, there’s no way I’m giving them any more of my money. They were rude, uncaring, and have absolutely no sense of customer service.