Comcast Upload Speeds

Early in 2007, Comcast sent out a letter to its customers (this was Massachusetts) that they were raising the speeds of the basic tier; Download was going to (I think) 6 Meg, upload to 1 Meg.. The letter was a nice piece of 4 color printing on slick and heavy paper, as I recall.

Well, they raised the speeds, which was a wonderful thing, since I was able then to watch my slingbox from remote locations with much better pictures than with a 384K cap.

Then, a few months later, after I'd tossed the letter, they reverted to 4 Meg/384K. Calling Comcast, of course, provides nothing. They have no way on the phone of saying "yes, sir, we remember that free upgrade for our customers, and we'll reinstitute it". To the contrary, they deny any corporate memory.

Does anybody have any similar experience with that "promotion" and its disappearance from Comcast? Or prehaps even somebody saved the letter and can scan and post it somewhere? I don't want to have to pay the extra $10 per month for high speed DOWNLOAD that I don't need.

Thanks

Reply to
exray
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Here in Northern Virginia mine is 6/1 all the time with an occassional burst to 12 down. They sent out flyers, months ago, trying to get everyone to go to an 8/1 for an extra $10.00 but most people did not bite.

Reply to
f/fgeorge

Do you have video service from Comcast also? In many areas, if you don't have video, you only get 4000/384, with no PowerBoost.

Reply to
Andrew Rossmann

Andy, thanks for your reply. The email address I have in newsgroups is bogus, so your response to me via email should have bounced.

I don't have comcast video, and won't.

The issue is that Comcast sent out this letter to its customers where I live saying they would raise the speeds to 6 (I think) / 1.

Then they did the change. Then a few months later they undid the change.....and they have completely forgotten about that letter.

I am just hoping somebody has a copy of that letter.

Reply to
exray

There was probably a policy change, or your upgrade was a mistake that they later caught. You need to check exactly what speeds are available to those without video. As it is, you are probably paying $10-15 more than somebody with video. It may be practical to pay for the lowest basic video you can get, even if you don't use it, and then you can get any speed you want.

Reply to
Andrew Rossmann

How rude. $ host amexol.com amexol.com has address 12.29.100.131 amexol.com mail is handled by 10 wppim001.aexp.com.

You want to use a bogus address use ones made for that activity.

snipped-for-privacy@mouse-potato.com or snipped-for-privacy@nomail.afraid.org

Reply to
Bit Twister

Since the domain IS valid (American Express), you shouldn't be using it.

Reply to
The Kat

I'm not sure either of those two domain examples are actually intended to be used in bogus addresses.

I've always read that @example.com or @isp.invalid should be used.

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Reply to
Bill M.

Go ahead and ping mouse-potato.com and ping nomail.afraid.org :)

Reply to
Bit Twister

Cute. :) I'll stick with the two more well-known options, though.

Reply to
Bill M.

All you people who don't like my using amexol.com:

A while ago, AMEX provided free email to its customers. They assigned us to the amexol.com domain for those email addresses.

Then they decided to stop.

So it was a valid address and I didn't bother to change it in my outlook express setup for newsgroups.

For some reason I don't feel guilty about it.

Reply to
exray

Andy, the real problem is that they sort of deny ever having had such a tier as 6/1 available in eastern massachusetts. And of course it's very difficult to find complete information on current available services and even more difficult to find information on past available services online. Communication companies don't seem to want to just tell you "send us $XX per month and we'll sell you $YY". Everything is a bundle. The only two places I ever saw the service were first, the letter they mailed to customers, and then second, for three months in action.

Then they made the service just disappear without any notice at all. If it was a mistake it was a doozie....giving away a tier of service for a while that they assert does not exist and they don't remember giving away.

It all makes me wonder if perhaps I am just making it up (they are winning).

Reply to
exray

Ralph Sims, the owner of mouse-potato.com, set it up for just this kind of thing.

Reply to
Tim Smith

I think the problem is you are fighting a losing cause. All businesses have the right to change their minds when what they are doing does not make fiscal sense. For some reason Comcast gave you 6/1 for 3 months, then stopped. You say you got a flyer saying enjoy the free upgrade, okay no problem, you did enjoy the free upgrade. No way a company, ESPECIALLY Comcast, would say "free for ever". Companies just don't do that and Comcast NEVER would. So you have enjoyed your free upgrade and now they are telling you if you want to keep that "enhanced" level you must sign up for more stuff. That is their right and it makes fiscal sense for them. "Bundling" is a way to offer good sellers with slow sellers, businesses do it all the time. 'Buy one get one free' is a good example of a "bundled" sale. Moves product off the shelves to make room for new stuff. Comcast is just selling you faster internet, none of us like to wait, along with something you don't want or apprently need, cable tv. They get more money coming in, and you get what you want. That makes sense to them but apprently not what you want. It seems your only alternative is to call Verizon and find out about DSL or FIOS in your area. There is always satellite internet, MUCH slower for the same money, but no Comcast involved.

Reply to
f/fgeorge

Yep, I saw that.

Reply to
Bill M.

I'm in the Washington DC Suburbs. I currently have both Comcast Internet and Verizon DSL (copper). Using speedeasy.net/speedtest (washington DC server) my speed test results at this time is as follows:

Verizon DSL 741 Kbps(download)/ 137Kbps (upload) Comcast Cable Internet 5136 Kbps(download)/ 362 Kbps (upload)

Reply to
drydem

f/f, you are, of course, completely correct. Even if they DID promise the upgrade as a forever, there must have been some way they'd be able to weasel out of it.

The annoying thing, as I have said, is that they seem to have no corporate recollection of the 6/1 that they were giving.... and when I call and tell them that they are only providing upload of 384, they tell me they have never done anything else and would I like to buy blast...or maybe I shouldn't be using a Toshiba 2200 Modem that I own and they'll send a guy out to check out the system....or maybe my computer settings are wrong....or perhaps it's the phase of the moon.

It would be refreshing if they were able to send me a copy of the mailing and point out that it was clearly (or even obscurely) as promotional and perhaps temporary.

Reply to
Exray

Geez - take the corporate stance why don't you. 6/.5 is the normal on our cable - don't see why Comcast couldn't manage the same. Oh, and it's not 'free' - I pay $40-45/mo for mine (forget the exact amount). That's a lot of money for a lot of people to pay every month for something as basic as internet access. The problem with internet access is we still don't have enough competition to get a reasonable pricing structure - it's still pretty much a monopoly in many areas.

Reply to
$Bill

Japan gets at least 10 times the throughput for the dollars than we do. You can get TV/Internet/Phone there for $30/mo and that's 100Mbps download. Phone is by minute charge rather than unlimited.

Check this out - it's a couple of years old, but still looks pretty accurate:

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Note figures 9 and 10 for US ISP broadband speeds. Figure 11 for triple-play rates around the world. Iceland has the greatest market penetration for internet access (and pretty much the lowest pop. density). Cablevision has 10Mbps download compared to 4-6 for Comcast/TW.

45% of non-broadband users in US say it's too expensive. 83% of CA low income families would subscribe to BB at $15/mo
Reply to
$Bill

But $Bill, that's really a different issue from the one I raised.

I believe that I have a right to demand that my service providers behave somewhat rationally, and that they live up to their advertising. At the same time, I also have a right to demand that such services as BB not be a monopoly.

In the case of my original issue in this thread, it's not really a matter of money, it's a matter of the service that is available and the honesty and competence of the provider in just doing what they say they will do - and if they are going to change what they will do, to acknowldge that and provide notification. That is competent business practice, and competent customer service. To me, customer service if handled properly is just about as important as the actual service or its price.

Reply to
exray

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