'Unlimited Usage' Doesn't Mean 'Unlimited Usage'

[djoye]

Can't you sue for false advertising?

Probably not for a flier that is ~3 years old.

The flier says, "Up to 7 e-mail accounts with 25MB of web space." Unless their area is really behind the times, Comcast has had 1GB of web space per account in Tennessee for at least a couple years now.

At least one person in the consumerist comments caught on to this.

 

[dbu8554]

Im with cox, and I usually transfer at least 800gigs a month sometimes upwards of 1.2t and I never have any issues no one has ever said anything to me.

(most of it is artwork for comics big ass files)

 

[the-one1]

What does false advertising have to due with the contract? Seems like it wouldn't be legal to have one thing printed in advertising and another buried in a contract that most consumers don't even realize exists, but then again I'm not a lawyer

Agreed. I think it would be like McDonalds saying "100% all beef patties on every burger. *Disclaimer: The beef is really fish and soy made to taste like beef".

 

[King of Heroes]

I know a lot of people who if they did a reformat and reinstalled steam from scratch with all their games they would easily break 250GB. At 10GB per new game these days, it's only 25 games or at 5GB per game it is still only 50 games.

Thats probably why its a better idea to back up your Steam games to a local hard drive or server. Reinstall is faster and you don't accidentally run into retarded bandwidth limits.

 

[Kaitian]

Thats probably why its a better idea to back up your Steam games to a local hard drive or server. Reinstall is faster and you don't accidentally run into retarded bandwidth limits.

That's assuming they know how to do that. Alot of people have "reinstall" disc that came with their computers and they just run whatever the disc tells them to do. Which means wiping it clean without any backups. Most do have knowledge to save their personal crap but as for where Steam's games are installed at, they most likely haven't a fucking clue.

 

[vengence]

Thats probably why its a better idea to back up your Steam games to a local hard drive or server. Reinstall is faster and you don't accidentally run into retarded bandwidth limits.

I dunno, I can download 200GB in 18 hours on my connection so if I started it when I went to bed and came back to it when I got home from work it is easier to just redownload it. Then again, that's if you have a 25Mb/s download speed and don't have a cap.

 

[DracoDan]

I've lived with a friend for the past two years who has FIOS, it has been the fastest, most reliable, most open, and BS-less internet and HD TV I've ever used. So when it came time for me to buy a house, I told my buying agent "If a house doesn't have FIOS available, it's a strict deal breaker". She thought I was retarded, but I refuse to live somewhere I have to use comcast.

Last night my offer was accepted on what will be my first house, and it has FIOS!

 

[GotNoRice]

Doesn't all provider have limits?

I've never hit the Comcast limit, so I'm not complaining. I like my 15/3 connection just fine. It's very stable and hardly ever goes offline. I guess it also depends on how efficient your local cable technicians are.

What tier is that? They have 12/1 and 16/2 which are Docsis 2.0 tiers, then they have 22/5 and above which are Docsis 3.0 tiers. I'm guessing you ran a java test? Those tests don't give you accurate numbers with Comcast since very often the entire test packet fits within the power boost. See my graph below and you can see that if a test packet fit within the power boost I'd test at 40+megs even though my cap is quite clearly 24 (22).

Thankfully there are no caps on comcast business connections

 

[vengence]

I've lived with a friend for the past two years who has FIOS, it has been the fastest, most reliable, most open, and BS-less internet and HD TV I've ever used. So when it came time for me to buy a house, I told my buying agent "If a house doesn't have FIOS available, it's a strict deal breaker". She thought I was retarded, but I refuse to live somewhere I have to use comcast.

Last night my offer was accepted on what will be my first house, and it has FIOS!

Grats on the house. FIOS was a requirement of mine as well.

 

[Exavior]

Because then they couldn't make ridiculous profits! Duh!

That isn't a valid reason.

uhh no.. They don't need limits. They use it as an excuse to not upgrade their backbone and milk customers for money. Especially since bills keeps going up and the limit still stays the same. You'd think when prices goes up, more service is provided so customers don't lose out? Not so. They know they're better than the alternative in the areas where provided. Qwest for example is the same. In my hometown, there's either Qwest or Comcast. Both have excessive usage policies (250GB limit) and are billed the same. Hence the option still fucking sucks.

Qwest and Comcast can go fucking die for all I care.

Exactly. It is just an excuse to not spend money.

Ah. It could be that my town (Chesterton, Indiana) is too small to feel the impact that some others have with Comcast. We only have a population of 10-11k and I'd imagine a percentage of that have cable internet.

Valpo has a problem with it running slugish in some places. Surprised that Chesterton doesn't. My cousin's connection use to drop to about 1/6th the normal speed (sometimes worse) during peak hours. But then again Comcast doesnt' like Valpo from what i could tell as when my sister lived there she lost her phone for a few hours a week and the internet and tv a few hours a month.

 

[radioactivez0r]

Can you stop posting stuff from Consumerist? Maybe at the beginning it was useful, but most of the time now it's someone whining because they didn't actually read the user agreement they put their signature on somewhere, or agreed to have read before completing the service contract. Seriously, it's a BROCHURE; fine, it's not a true statement, but it should not be this big of a deal. The guy even states he came off a little rude in his initial communication. Consumerist has become such a popular "all corporations suck" site that it's hard to see the forest for the fools.

 

[xxEIEIOxx]

I don't know why these companies haven't been sued for misrepresentation. First calling service unlimited when they really do not allow unlimited use, and for the advertised price. My $89 a month unlimited service comes with a bill for $125. If it is going to cost that, they should be forced to advertise it that way.

 

[vengence]

I don't know why these companies haven't been sued for misrepresentation. First calling service unlimited when they really do not allow unlimited use, and for the advertised price. My $89 a month unlimited service comes with a bill for $125. If it is going to cost that, they should be forced to advertise it that way.

Would be nice if we went back to advertising crap with tax included.

 

[arentol]

The answer is NO, an add is not a contract

The answer is YES. You can sue for deceptive trade practices, which in most states includes:

"Advertises goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised."

This is a CLASSIC example of this act. The only sticking point is the word "usage", but common-man interpretation of the term should win over any argument by Comcast.

You can also sue based on "false or deceptive advertising". It doesn't matter what the contract says because you were enticed into the contract by deceptive advertising, and if you had known you were going to be purchasing a limited service you would never even have contacted the company to order the service, let alone signed up for it.

The key point is that the company intentionally set out to deceive potential customers, that is all that matters in such a suit, and it is certainly the case here.

 

[DracoDan]

Grats on the house. FIOS was a requirement of mine as well.

Thanks! I'm totally stoked about it, never thought I would be buying a $390k house at 27!

The joys of living in N. VA...

 

[Hamish Campbell]

this is EXACTLY what they are afraid of, losing tv viewers/subscribers, they are trying to keep people from using the internet as entertainment

This pretty much sums it up. Cable ISPs especially are trying to protect their bread and butter by introducing artificial limits on internet bandwidth. There's no real reason that an ISP should charge you for going over an arbitrary bandwidth limit other than to penalize you for using a service in a way they'd rather you didn't.

Traditional ISPs that have limits in place do so because they know they can get away with collecting bogus fees. The real cost to deliver a GB of bandwidth for a sizable ISP is a tiny fraction of a cent.

 

[DracoDan]

Can you stop posting stuff from Consumerist? Maybe at the beginning it was useful, but most of the time now it's someone whining because they didn't actually read the user agreement they put their signature on somewhere, or agreed to have read before completing the service contract. Seriously, it's a BROCHURE; fine, it's not a true statement, but it should not be this big of a deal. The guy even states he came off a little rude in his initial communication. Consumerist has become such a popular "all corporations suck" site that it's hard to see the forest for the fools.

So are you condoning their actions? Do you own their stock or work for them? it must be one of the two... Regardless of the article source, false advertising is illegal.

This is the same as having a McDonalds sign that says "Big Macs for $1", then when you get in they ring it up at $2. When you ask, they say $1 only gets you half a big mac, but it has all the compoenets of a big mac so it is fair for them to advertise it, saying theyre giving you the "big mac experience" for $1, but it's $2 if you want the whole samich. Companies like Comcast do this INTENTIONALLY, not be accident. they want you to believe you are getting something you are not, and if you argue they show you fine print that says "nah, we were just stringing you along". There's a reason they are one of the worst rated companies in America.

 

[NKDietrich]

The key point is that the company intentionally set out to deceive potential customers, that is all that matters in such a suit, and it is certainly the case here.

Actually winning a false advertising suit is more difficult than it sounds. Companies are generally cut a lot of slack for advertising. They would quibble over the definition of "unlimited usage." What part of usage is unlimited? How you use it, or how much you use it? Then they'd point out all the places they have in fine print where the user agreed to a 250GB cap, and then probably skewer the user for continuing to use the service even after learning of the cap. (You can hardly claim you wouldn't have purchased it if you're still using it after the fact.)

 

[bisby]

i struggled to find the stuff on their page. Its listed under the "acceptable use" (more specifically the excessive use FAQ). It wasnt easy to find, but it was there. They claim they have a huge banner on their homepage. I dont see one.
However, I'd say that a prominent "UNLIMITED ACCESS" claim vs a hard to find fine print citing otherwise is false advertising.

"How do I get the data usage meter and do I have to download it?

You do not need to download anything to access the data usage meter. Simply go to Comcast.net and log into “My Account” using your Primary or Self-Managed Secondary account. Click on the “Users and Settings” tab. There, you will see a link to “View Details” in the “My Devices” section (located toward the upper right hand of the screen) that will take you to your data usage details page. From there, you will see details of your monthly data usage."

So there IS a way to determine your bandwidth and the guy he talked to on the phone was an idiot.

 

[DracoDan]

So are you condoning their actions? Do you own their stock or work for them? it must be one of the two... Regardless of the article source, false advertising is illegal.

This is the same as having a McDonalds sign that says "Big Macs for $1", then when you get in they ring it up at $2. When you ask, they say $1 only gets you half a big mac, but it has all the compoenets of a big mac so it is fair for them to advertise it, saying theyre giving you the "big mac experience" for $1, but it's $2 if you want the whole samich. Companies like Comcast do this INTENTIONALLY, not be accident. they want you to believe you are getting something you are not, and if you argue they show you fine print that says "nah, we were just stringing you along". There's a reason they are one of the worst rated companies in America.

More accurately... they give you half a big mac for $1 and when you ask they tell you that you can't buy more, half a big mac is all anyone should consume according to their dietitian.

 

[bigj2k1]

I got hit for the first time last month re: my bandwidth cap. Comcast called me and told me that I went over my bandwidth limit by 120 gigs. I didn't do any of my usual downloading, so I was slightly confused. After about 15 minutes on the phone with the tech talking about how this could happen he finally mentioned that over 75% of my bandwidth was upload! I signed up for Mozy back up services in January and it transfered my 315 gigs of Pictures, 12 gigs of personal documents and 4 gigs worth of home movies... After explaining to him that it was my back-up he said thats not typical use and this was my 1 warning. I told him to piss off and if he had a problem he could go ahead and cancel my account.. I called back on Friday (it was about a week after my first call) and bitched out customer service. They gave me a $20 credit and sent me on my way... I'm interested to see how long it'll be before I hear from them again..

And back to downloading... I'm gonna see if I can hit 1tb this month just to be a dick.

 

[NKDietrich]

So there IS a way to determine your bandwidth and the guy he talked to on the phone was an idiot.

Not every area has access to that functionality. They are rolling it out one market at a time. In areas where the meter is not available, you'll have to ensure you have all your home Internet traffic going through a router that can monitor your usage.

 

[Azhar]

What tier is that? They have 12/1 and 16/2 which are Docsis 2.0 tiers, then they have 22/5 and above which are Docsis 3.0 tiers. I'm guessing you ran a java test? Those tests don't give you accurate numbers with Comcast since very often the entire test packet fits within the power boost. See my graph below and you can see that if a test packet fit within the power boost I'd test at 40+megs even though my cap is quite clearly 24 (22).

Thankfully there are no caps on comcast business connections

Speedtest.net shows me using 15/3 just about every time. I can post my result when I get home tonight. I'm at work at the moment.

 

[Parmenides]

They need to fix computers so they have limited sized hard drives. Kind of like a "all you can eat buffet." They plan that you will have no room left.

 

[beowulf7]

Comcast sure lives up to their Comcraptic stigma.

I'm glad I don't have to deal w/ their crap (pun intended) anymore.

What's worse is that they still don't offer a tool on their Web site that provide real time data usage.

No wonder a crappy company like them is buying the crappy division of NBC from GE.

 

[auspexd]

Actually winning a false advertising suit is more difficult than it sounds. Companies are generally cut a lot of slack for advertising. They would quibble over the definition of "unlimited usage." What part of usage is unlimited? How you use it, or how much you use it? Then they'd point out all the places they have in fine print where the user agreed to a 250GB cap, and then probably skewer the user for continuing to use the service even after learning of the cap. (You can hardly claim you wouldn't have purchased it if you're still using it after the fact.)

Exactly. This subject came up a few months ago when I moved into a new area and was finally rid of my cable for fios and happened to ask my colleague who is a corporate lawyer why comcast hasn't been sued yet. Well, he said, it's like this: You could only make a case in court for either false advertising or contract breach and comcast has the upper hand in both of those areas. Most people's perception of a false advertising lawsuit is completely off base and he said it is actually pretty difficulty to win one of those cases because the corporation in question has alot more tools available on their side; for instance, their legal definition of usage, what exactly is being used and how they define unlimited (not the common definition of it) they could request a location, state or service area that is favorable to them, they could drag out discovery... etc etc. And don't get me started on all the stuff they could pull on a contract breach lawsuit, he said with a laugh.

We might not want to admit it to ourselves but for better or for worse we live in an era of corporatism. The only thing anyone can do is try to vote with the wallet. Anything else is just shaking your fist at the sky in the hope for a measly 20$ credit.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

I use Comcast and my usage is avg 150gb a month. Out of all my friends, I would be considered a light user, I stream a dozen Netflix movies, watch all my TV online (only 5 hours a week), download 3-4 games on Steam per month, use my Zunepass fairly infrequently. I can see how it would be very very easy to hit or pass the 250gb cap, especially if you have a family.

I have hit up to 200+gb a couple months, it really didn't feel like heavy use.

 

[eon]

i guess ill go against the grain and say im ok with a reasonable cap (with reasonable fees for using more). If you are pushing beyond 250GB a month, then maybe you deserve to pay more than others.

 

[ditzilla]

Why does this not surprise me in the least? Have comcast, choices are limited to that, verizon dsl (nightmare) or dialup (which was faster than the verizon dsl). No fios here and I highly doubt we will be getting it any time soon.

Comcast is slippery. Claim "Unlimited" then make you go through having to check in on your account, go through pages of fine print to find that little tiny "LIMIT" clause. AND at the same time they're trying like mad to get people to use internet streaming TV, I get the stupid pop-up "watch this show and hundreds more" thing at least once a day.

It's like their speed claims - it always says "up to", not if you pay us $45 + every tax and fee known to man you will get 12/2. I've had way too many days where my average is 5MB, that's when we're not being throttled on weekends or it just craps out for a minute or so, then comes back. Which is still a mystery but I have documented and called again and again.

Oh and am I the only lucky person who got a lovely incomprehensible leaflet this week that bascially says everything but HD box rentals is going UP UP UP as of April 1? Even their joke of an "economy" tier - for up to 1MB/384Kbps that's going to $40.95 a month!!!

 

[Spectrum17]

I checked on the Cox web site, and I found that they had raised usage limits as of 9/29/09. Their current limits are 30GB.Mo for economy/basic/lite/starter packages; 50 GB for essential/value packages; 200 GB for preferred; 250 GB for premier; and 400 GB for the Premier Plus/Ultimate packages.

I have the Preferred package which is 10 MB down/768KB up. In my area they also have the Premier which is 18/1.5 and the new Ultimate (DOCSIS 3.0) which is 50/5. Basic price is about $40/mo for Preferred and $60 for Premier. Ultimate just says "Call Us."

 

[jwalk6]

There's a case here somewhere and I'd go to the FTC with it.
There's is only one definition of "unlimited" which is to be without limit or hinderance thereof.

Now if comcast put a disclaimer right next to it that said (250GB limit) that's just bad advertising
but I saw nothing in the evidence presented that challenged the author's belief that the service was indeed "unlimited"

 

[James54321]

Part of the problem is the delivery structure; a lot of CATV areas still use copper to deliver their content (I know Comcast in my area does). When you add HD video and on-demand services in addition to internet service, the pipe becomes quite limited and you have to employ some "creative" measures to push that content through (e.g. in my area, Comcast started using compression and low bit-rate "HD," which looked absolutely horrid on anything larger than 32").

Therefore, when you look at this scenario, it's not very surprising they've chosen to cap data usage. That said, while there is a case to be made regarding the whole "usage" vs. "access" marketing fiasco, its business as usual on bandwidth-limited delivery platforms, such as CATV. Finally: a small "yay for FiOS!" I was so enraged with Comcast for every possible reason and am spreading the fiber optic news as if it was gospel.

 

[Loki Sunrider]

There's got to be some Government Agency and rule/law/guidline that prevents providers from using the word Unlimited.
Because in reality they don't offer unlimited download usage.

Wake up providers!! Stop misleading the public!!

 

[Azhar]

What tier is that? They have 12/1 and 16/2 which are Docsis 2.0 tiers, then they have 22/5 and above which are Docsis 3.0 tiers. I'm guessing you ran a java test? Those tests don't give you accurate numbers with Comcast since very often the entire test packet fits within the power boost. See my graph below and you can see that if a test packet fit within the power boost I'd test at 40+megs even though my cap is quite clearly 24 (22).

Thankfully there are no caps on comcast business connections

I'm home now. Here's my speedtest.net result I promised you.



My bill says 16/3 and the last time I ran the test to achieve 16Mbps was on the weekend in the afternoon. I guess Powerboost might have given me the extra 7Mbps I'm getting tonight, I'm not sure.

 

[Gavv]

My area has caps also, daily caps that throttle your speed during peak time if you have used to much bandwidth for the day. There is a monthly cap as well. It to was also advertised as unlimited....not sure if that is the case now though.

The worst part of it is there really is no alternative to change to where I live. But we do have real time usage meters...

 

[shurcooL]

Wow, 250 GB caps...

I have Rogers in Canada, and I have a 25 GB cap now. They've recently "improved" my service; it used to be 60 GB.

 

[Ranma]

I do about 600 gigs a month doing HD video through netflicks and HD anime on usenet. It is actually pretty easy to eat up your bandwidth when you have 2-3 people streaming HD video 8-10 hours a day just to have some background noise.

 

[beowulf7]

i guess ill go against the grain and say im ok with a reasonable cap (with reasonable fees for using more). If you are pushing beyond 250GB a month, then maybe you deserve to pay more than others.

Obviously, you're entitle to your opinion, even if it is the minority viewpoint in this thread. However, don't you agree that if the ISP has a cap, that they should provide a utility on their Web site that measures the data usage for you, in real time (or near real time)? They obviously know what your data usage is, so why doesn't Comcast offer it?

 

[SS_Wehrwolf]

Can't you sue for false advertising?

You should be able to IMO. Even if its in the fine print that it is truely NOT unlimited, its false advertising. However, are you paying hundreds of millions to lobbyists? No? Then yer fucked.

 

[CMD]

Nope, just the shitty ones.

I download about 400-600 GBs a month through usenet alone and have never hit a cap with my ISP. That doesn't even include what I download through steam, itunes, netflix, hulu, youtube, etc. Between myself and other people in my home I'm sure we're hitting 1+ TB a month in usage.

LOL!!! downloading what? You trying to keep up with Google?