I hate Comcast
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This is purely a rant post because I hate Comcast with every part of my being. Louie CK said it the best, summarizing: “I am using my whole body to hate them.” I thought I hated AT&T the most, but in comparison Comcast and the crap they are pulling with their customers it is absolutely reprehensible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0sAVtOt2wA
If you haven’t seen this clip already then I would say watch it for a good laugh, South Park gets it right everytime.
Where is the hate coming from?
As some of us are aware Comcast is trying out a program that they are trying to pass off as some sort of beneficial feature? Who the hell is this benefitting? It sure isn’t me.
Program features explained with Comcastic sarcasm!
This Comcastic program includes the following irritating features:
- A data cap of 300GB for Florida users (this varies from state to state, some are at 250GB)
- You are exempt of the data cap for the 3 first months! Woo hoo! Oh boy I can’t wait to pay more for the exact same thing I had already!
- If you surpass the 300GB cap, then don’t worry you just have to pay an additional $10 for each 50GB that you use over your 300GB cap. No big deal! Right?!
- Don’t want a data cap on the service you have probably had for a very long time already? No problem! You can pay a Comcastic extortion fee of $30 additional on top of whatever you pay already! Isn’t that great? It’s like they are doing you a favor, great guys over there on the C-Level of Comcast.
Why this isn’t fair
I don’t download tons of files from questionable sources like other people I know. I stopped doing that a long time ago. So what the hell is eating up my bandwidth? I use my home PC for working, which I use with the Citrix Receiver so I can work remotely. When I am relaxing I will watch Hulu, Amazon Prime Video or Netflix because I can watch what I want when I want without commercials. This apparently eats up a lot of bandwidth per hour.
Assuming you are using the best quality available then this is what you are looking at using (estimated):
- Netflix – 2.3GB per Hour
- Hulu – 650MB per Hour
- Amazon – 2GB per Hour
http://www.gci.com/kb/netflix-movie-and-data-usage
http://cordcuttersnews.com/comparing-data-usage-for-netflix-hulu-and-amazon/
Therefore I am saying this isn’t fair because I don’t illegally download anything, but I am surely being punished for what other people are doing and the fact that Comcast doesn’t like that everyone is cutting the cord. Therefore they are backlashing at the streaming providers and their customer base which they can obviously do because they are a Monopoly. http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/netflix-responds-to-comcast-its-extortion-to-demand-payment-for-delivering-video-1201312847/
I got no where else to go!
Lastly I am rightly calling Comcast a Monopoly because in my area Comcast is the only *gag* reliable vendor. In Florida the AT&T (formerly BellSouth) copper phone lines are absolutely shot and totally unreliable and who the hell wants to use DSL? That’s right, nobody. I will credit Comcast with decent speeds and service that is about 90% uninterrupted. There is a possibility of jumping on AT&T’s U-Verse but it is very difficult to obtain and it uses those same cruddy lines I was talking about before.
Therefore – I GOT NO WHERE ELSE TO GOOOO!!!
Taking action against the Monopoly giant
http://fortune.com/2015/05/19/cable-industry-becomes-a-monopoly/
The only way to realistically fix this problem is for the government to step in and tell Comcast they have to stop what they are doing right now. Unfortunately that could take a while, but don’t wait around, do something about it yourself. You need to submit a complaint with the FCC and the Better Business Bureau if you got burned on a bill which Comcast is famous for doing.
Submit your complaints
- I got burned on several bills when Comcast hiked up my bill without notifying me, they just kind of decided to jack up my bill by ~$30 without telling me. I didn’t notice for 3 months because I am a busy guy, I saw red when I found out though. After you call Comcast and try to sort it out yourself, you will see that you are rather screwed with your options, if you are unsatisfied then I suggest submitting a complaint with the BBB against this company: http://www.bbb.org/washington-dc-eastern-pa/business-reviews/television-cable-catv-and-satellite/comcast-cablevision-incorporation-in-philadelphia-pa-80003221/
- I strongly suggest submitting a complaint to the FCC about the data cap and the $30 extortion fee that Comcast is charging everyone to have what they already had: An unmetered internet connection. Home internet has not been metered since AOL. Many people are submitting complaints already, so you won’t be alone: http://bgr.com/2015/08/01/comcast-customers-fcc-data-cap-complaints/ You can file your complain here: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
Thinking of ways to screw with Comcast legally like they are doing to us
Everytime I feel like I have gotten the short end of the stick, I look for ways to make the offending party’s life a littler harder too. I don’t care if it is petty and I don’t care if it isn’t very significant, as long as I know that I made a small impact I am a happy guy.
I contacted Netflix and Hulu to give them an idea that they could use to reduce bandwidth which will help everyone out if this applies to you. Some people like to just have background noise like my wife. My wife listens to HGTV she doesn’t actually watch it like 80% of the time. Well since she is just listening to it then why not provide an option to just disable video? That will certainly reduce the 2.3GB per hour figure down to a manageable 50MB per hour or less and I am sure the development for this wouldn’t be a big deal. Add a new checkbox that simply says “Disable video stream” and stop streaming video so you can just listen to your shows or that movie that you have watched like a million times already.
I emailed Hulu
I spoke with a customer care representative from Netflix over IM
Conclusion
I hate Comcast so hard right now. They hate their customers and we hate them back. The only reason some of us put up with them is because we don’t have a choice, we have to use them as our internet utility. I have always said that if I was going to start a gang I would name my gang Comcast because I would instantly obtain street cred because of the affiliation alone.
To close out this rant, here is one last video about cable companies because it hits every nail on the head for what we are all thinking.