Consumer Gripe: Comcast won't tell me what my bandwidth use is
We get a lot of questions and complaints about businesses here at Consuming Interests. Sometimes we get complaints wrapped inside of questions. This particular one comes from Reader Ken of Columbia, Md. about Comcast:
I thought you might appreciate some insight as to how Comcast is servicing their long-time internet customers. Here's an online chat I had with one of their rep's as I tried to learn how I could monitor my bandwidth usage and avoid being penalized for exceeding their new limit. To summarize - they do not provide customers with access to their current measurements of our bandwidth usage, yet they will penalize us if we exceed it.
The online conversation between them follows:
Live ChatStatus: Analyst Cariza is here and your issue status is: working
Problem: How can I monitor my monthly bandwidth usage?End Sessionuser Ken_ has entered roomKen(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:38:37 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>How can I monitor my monthly bandwidth usage?analyst Cariza has entered roomCariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:38:45 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>Hello Ken_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Cariza.Please give me one moment to review your information.
Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:38:53 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>Hello. How are you today?Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:39:08 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>Hi Cariza. How are you?Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:39:38 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>I'm doing fine. Thank you for asking. How about you?Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:39:51 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>I'm great! Life is good.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:40:09 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>It's nice to hear that you are great!Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:40:14 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>I can help you with that and I am going to run a health check on your account toddayto make sure everything is performing as it should.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:40:15 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>For Security purposes, I may need to verify your security.Can I have your Account holder's full name and your account number.Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:40:52 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>So - I understand comcast has a new monthly bandwidth limit.I just want to know how I can keep track of what I've used each month.Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:41:17 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))><DELETED FOR PRIVACY>.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:42:09 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>Thank you for that.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:42:35 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))> Here is the link that will help you in monitoring your usage:http://manageengine.adventnet.com/products/netflow/monitor-bandwidth.html?adwords33bm&CampaignID=104228422&CampaignID=NFA_Search_US&CampaignID=20072000&gclid=CJyxmqv0mJYCFQmdnAodjC9i7gCariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:43:10 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>Was I able to provide you the information that you needed?Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:43:31 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>ok. Is this a comcast product and does comcast guarentee that it is accurate?Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:44:26 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>For now, comcast has no bandwidth meter available for you but I assure you that,that is accurate for most of our customer are using that meter.Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:44:34 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>oh... this is a tool that I must install. I thought that I could have access to comcast numbers.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:44:46 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>You need to download it in your end.Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:45:01 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>I presume Comcast must be tracking my bandwidth,can't I just get access to what you are recording for my usage each month?Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:46:05 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>I do apologize but your issue is already beyond my scope of work.We currently do not have any information regarding your issuebut I suggest that you use the tool that I have provided you to track or monitor your bandwidth usage.Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:46:45 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>ok, i understand. Is there anyone that you can escalate this too?Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:46:47 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>Cocmast has no bandwidth meter for available for you at this moment.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:47:57 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>I'm very sorry but as I check it to our supervisorthe only way for you to track your bandwidth usage you must install a meter for itand for now comcast does not offer that meter.Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:48:34 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>ok, thanks so much for trying. I appreciate your help.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:48:33 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>I suggest that you install the meter that I have provided you so thatyou will be able to monitor your usage.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:48:47 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>You are most welcome.Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:49:06 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>For your notes, you can record that I really want to know what Comcast think's I'm using,not what I think.Ken_(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:49:30 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>bye now. have a great evening.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:50:31 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>I just want to set an expectation that I have already solved this issueby providing you the bandwidth meter that you can install to measure your usagefor comcast does not offer the meter at this moment.Cariza(Wed Oct 08 2008 20:50:32 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>I am happy that I was able to help you in resolving this issue.If you do not have any other concerns, you may properly close this interaction by clicking on theEnd Session button. You may receive a 3-question survey after this chat.Kindly take some time to fill it up as we value your feedback about our services.Thank you for contacting Comcast. Have a great day!
So Ken poses a great question.
Is the tool he's supposed to download the numbers that Comcast uses for its own evaluation system? If it's not and if Comcast is going to penalize customers for exceeding bandwidth limits, shouldn't users know exactly what those limits are? We know Comcast monitors the Web so we'd love to hear from the company, especially since this is a hot button issue for lots of Internet users, as various media stories have reported.
Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 6:45 AM | Permalink
| Comments (3)
Categories: Cable/Satellite/TV/Comcast/FiOS, Complaints, Computers, Technology
Categories: Cable/Satellite/TV/Comcast/FiOS, Complaints, Computers, Technology
Comments
If I recall correctly, Comcast's monthly cap is 250GB. The vast majority of Comcast subscribers will not come close to this limit. If you upload/download a large number of audio/video files, then you could be in danger of approaching the cap.
This link will take you to an article that will help you monitor your bandwidth if you use a router to connect more than one computer in your home network:
http://lifehacker.com/5048579/monitor-your-monthly-bandwidth-with-your-router
Posted by: Kyle | October 9, 2008 7:53 AM
We appreciate the opportunity to provide additional information around the tools available to our customers for monitoring their data usage. We are in the process of creating a usage meter for our customers and it will be available in the next few months. In the meantime, a meter comes with our McAfee Security Suite software, which can be downloaded at www.comcast.net/security. That way, customers can not only track their monthly usage, but they can also be safer and more secure online. It is important to note that the monthly data update threshold will have absolutely no impact on 99% of our customers because their usage doesn’t even come close to 250 GB in a month. The current media monthly data usage by our residential customers is approximately 2 to 3 GB/month. For more FAQs about our excessive use policy, please visit http://lite.help.comcast.net/content/faq/guid/ce29dfac-73d9-4cb4-b433-70abe3b295e6#tracking.
DD: Thanks for answering Ken's question, Aimee. We appreciate it.
Posted by: Aimee Metrick, Comcast | October 9, 2008 6:10 PM
But why should users install software to monitor their usage when Comcast is doing it already? I don't need more bloatware on my PC. And in case of a dispute, is Comcast going to honor the meter installed by a customer or believe their own data? Why can't we just see what Comcast is recording for our usage? What are you hiding?
Posted by: Ken | October 9, 2008 7:29 PM