I'm sure some of you have read about the Comcast bandwidth exceeded letters. This is my late experience with my ISP, which seems to be following in the footsteps of Comcast, minus the warning letters.
I just had one hell of an experience with my cable internet provider. This will be a long read. On July 10th, mid afternoon our internet stops working. So I go up to the network closet and restart the router and cable modem. Wait for them to power back up, router powers up fine, but something isn?t right with the modem. Only the power light comes on and not the online light.
Oh no, ?ISP issues again? I think to myself. Not like this is the first time the internet has had a sick day. So after a couple hours of still no luck getting connected, I give BRC (Blue Ridge Cable, our cable provider) a call to see if there are any problems in the area. The customer service lady of course says ?no problems.? Alright? so let?s wait until tomorrow to see if it goes back up.
Morning comes but the internet is still not working. Time to call Blue Ridge up again. Once again the lady checks her computer and says ?I don?t know what the problem is, we?ll get a tech up to your house between 12 and 5.? The nice BRC tech guy shows up right around 12pm. I take him down to the network closet and he proceeds to test the cable line. After a couple minutes of testing, he says ?something is up; I?m going to go check the cable outside.?
So he checks the box where the cables run into on the side of the house, then goes to check the telephone pole down the street. Comes back and runs his tests again on the cable. Test results come back ok, looks like the internet is back on. So he hooks up the modem and after it boots up the online light comes on. He grabs his tools and says ?ok, looks like I fixed the problem.? Of course I ask him what was wrong, and he tells me ?Well kind of funny. Have you had any work done lately?? Of course we didn?t, so he then tells me what the problem was ?The problem was that someone put a feedback blocker on your internet line. Those are only supposed to be on the TV lines. I?ll find out if there was any work done and get you credit back for the day of no internet.?
Alright, problem fixed! Or so I thought? I tell the guy thanks for the help, and he leaves. I go upstairs and check the router status page, ?Internet IP address 192.168.100.11?. That?s not right. Half an hour of restarting the cable modem and the router, still nothing. Online is lit on the modem but it?s not connecting or grabbing an IP address from the ISP. So I call BRC once again, explaining the new problem, and she radio?s the technician that was just here again to let him know it?s still not working. She then says ?I?ll forward you to Prolog Express tech support department.? Prolog is the internet provider that BRC uses for their cable internet.
On hold again, at least this local radio station they play as the background is interesting. Finally get through. The guy asks for the email address of the account and modem MAC address and checks the information. ?Sir, your account was turned off and blocked yesterday from our end.?
?Huh? Why?? I ask him. ?Well it says here that you?ve had excessive bandwidth use and your account will be suspended for 30 days.? So I explain to him that the internet just stopped working yesterday, we know nothing about this ?suspension.? He tells me to hold on and that I?ll be forwarded to some other department. Here is where things get interesting.
After being on hold again, a lady picks up and asks how she can help. So I explain that the internet stopped working out of no where yesterday. That after having a technician come down and fixing the ?cable? issue, the internet is still not working. Now the Prolog tech person is telling me that the account was suspended. She asks for my phone number and says ?hold on let me check.? On hold once again, this is getting to be fun. She comes back a minute or two later and starts explaining what happened to me.
?You internet has been suspended for excessive bandwidth usage today at 10am. The amount downloaded was past the limit. It will be suspended for 30 days. You received three letters for the last 3 months saying that your account will be suspended if the bandwidth usage continues. There is nothing I can do about this.?
Wait, hold on. What letters? What bandwidth limit? We did not receive a single letter, email, or phone call about this. Nothing about a limit, nothing about us going over this new limit, and certainly NOTHING about our internet being shut off. I explain this to her, and since she no longer wants to deal with this issue, she begins talking to me with a big attitude. She says ?there is nothing I can do?. I explain again that you can?t shut off our internet when we did not receive any letters. She checks her computer and says ?you were sent three letters. If you did not receive them it?s a problem with your mail. Talk to the post office about it.?
Strange that I receive their bill for $82.87 fine every month for the past 7 years, but the post office somehow loses these three letters. So again I calmly explain to her that we have never had a problem with the mail, we get all other mail just fine, and we get the bills from you fine. That I don?t think the post office is to blame and that if they were sent we would of received them. The attitude continues ?They were sent, and you should have got them, call the post office and talk to them.?
?Did you write and send them yourself?? I ask her. She replies no, hold on. So again I?m put on hold. She comes back and says ?The letters were sent. We did not get any return mail. It?s not our problem, talk to the post office and get your mail fixed.? I again try to explain to her that if they sent the letters we would have received them. It?s not the post office. That I understand her computer says ?letters were sent?, and ask her what I?m supposed to do now, can?t she turn the internet back on since we never got any letters. ?No, no one can turn it back on. It will be off for 30 days. I can?t do anything.?
After talking to her for another ten minutes, her attitude was getting ridiculous. She told me ?arguing with me will not do anything. I don?t care if you did not get any letters, they were sent. There is nothing I can do.? Ok fine lady, I say ?I?m not arguing with you. Since you can?t help, can I talk to a manager.? She says ?fine hold on? and puts me on hold. Comes back and tells me that the manager is busy and she?ll call me back. I ask her when, she says ?I don?t know.? Ok fine, I say ?thanks? and she says ?bye? and hangs up.
My blood pressure is rocketing at this point. I wait a little while and get no call back. So I decide to call BRC back, rather than wait for the manager at Prolog to call. A different customer service lady picks up and I explain the situation to her. She says ?that?s not right, you should have received a letter before they turn it off.? I explain that I know we were supposed to get these letters, but we never did and the internet just gets shut off unexpected. She says ?I understand, wish I could help but we use them (Prolog) for our internet and only they can do something about this. Let me forward you to someone that can help you there.? I ask who and she says ?a supervisor.?
On hold again? another lady picks up and says ?Hello, what can I help you with.? So again I explain everything. She checks the same information and tells me the same thing. Your internet will be off for 30 days. Nothing we can do about it. It doesn?t matter if you didn?t get the letters, we sent them. At least she didn?t have an attitude, until the end of our conversation that is.
Since she also no longer wants to deal with this issue any longer, she says ?can I talk to Michael, the account holder?? I tell her no he does not live here anymore, that I?m his son and my parents got divorced. She says ?how old are you?? I tell her that I?m 21. Not the answer she wanted to hear, I?m sure if I was 15 or something she could tell me she can only speak with someone over 18. So she says ?I can only talk to Michael so have him call us instead?. I ask ?He can?t call, and how would him calling make a difference?? she tells me ?It won?t make a difference but I can?t talk to you. Either change the account name or have Michael call.? I tell her ?alright thanks? and get off the phone.
Game over. I?ve had enough of this BS treatment. Get the BRC number again, time to cancel this account and get my money back. I don?t even care at this point if the only other option is dialup in my area. With any luck someone (not Prolog) will have DSL service available. So after sitting on hold again, a third customer service lady from BRC picks up. I explain to her the problem and tell her that I would like to cancel the service and get my money back. That every person I spoke to at Prolog was unhelpful and did not care at all. She says the internet account can be canceled, but that I should speak to the manager at BRC first. ?Alright.? I tell her and she puts me on hold.
She comes back and tells me their manager is busy too. Asks if it would be ok if she called me back, I tell her that?s fine, and she says ?alright you?ll get a call back within the next half hour.? I put the phone down and await the manager. Phone rings, but it?s the same customer service lady. She says ?I?m sorry the manager is still with a customer, but she heard me talking to you and told me to forward you to support abuse department.? Ok, I ask her ?is this at Blue Ridge or Prolog? because I rather not waste anymore time talking to someone at Prolog. She says ?Blue Ridge? and tells me if they don?t help to call back and ask for her.
On hold yet again. Another lady picks up. Again I explain the situation and she asks me to hold on. She comes back and says ?the note in your account says that you did not receive the letters and Michele was supposed to call you back. Did she call?? I told her nope. So she tells me ok I?m going to forward you to a manager at Prolog. While waiting on hold the door bell rings. I?m the only one home so I go down with the phone. It?s the BRC technician guy! He came back.
So I tell him what?s going on while waiting for the manager and he says ?yea I called back to the office before coming back and they told me that the account was suspended. I guess this support ticket was not supposed to go through and they told me the blocker should be installed after all. I didn?t want to install it back since I don?t know what?s going on and I wanted to find out first. Not sure why they installed it since they can just shut off your internet from their end.?
I tell him ?yea I don?t know either, the internet is not working anyway so they blocked the account there too.?
?Hello, how can I help you? the manager says on the phone. So I explain the situation once again and she tells me the same story once again. How they sent the letters, it?s all the post office?s fault, and the account is suspended for 30 days. The technician guy takes a seat on the front steps. After a two minute conversation she says ?Alright, you have Prolog G3 (3mbit down cable). There is a bandwidth limit of 50GB a month for your account. We will send you the letters again, that you were supposed to have received, using registered mail.? I?m a little confused at this point ?I?m sorry, is this 50GB a month limit stated anywhere?? she replies ?It?s not stated on the website.?
?Is it stated anywhere in my account, anywhere on my bills, did you send a letter stating there is a 50GB limit?? Her answer wasn?t really an answer ?Your account will be turned back on now. If you do not want it to be suspended again stay under the 50GB limit.? It?s 4pm now and I?m so sick of being on the phone at this point, so I tell her ?ok thanks, bye?.
So I sit down next to the technician guy and tell him what she said, along with all the other phone calls. He laughs at how crazy it all was. He really liked the part about it being the post office losing mail (but only these mysterious 3 letters) and this random bandwidth limit. Maybe next time I?m at the post office I?ll talk to a manager there and see what he thinks of their comments.
I also told him about the customer service/support at Prolog. How the one girl had a straight up attitude the whole time, and that they all told me there is nothing anyone can do. While on the other hand every time I called the Blue Ridge customer service they were always nice and tried to help, but couldn?t do anything. He simply said ?I?ve heard that before about them at Prolog... So I guess Prolog sent us a letter or an email or something yesterday about your account. I only found out when I called the office back. This is the first I?ve heard of a bandwidth limit and it didn?t make any sense to me that they shut off the account because of bandwidth use.? As he gets ready to head back, I tell him thanks for the help and sorry for all the trouble. He says ?no problem? and I walk back into the house.
Now let?s see how long it takes them to turn it back on. The manager said ?It will be turned back on now? at 4pm on July 11th. Midnight it was still not working. Finally at noon on July 12th it is back on, how nice of them to wait until the next day. It takes one minute to enter in the MAC address of the cable modem into the allowed client list. Well now I have my internet working again at least. I guess now I have to worry about how I use my internet. Maybe I can blame Microsoft for my internet being shut off, all those demos/videos they release on Xbox Live that I just have to download. Prey alone was 1.3GB or so. Then there was Windows Vista ISO at 4GB. Oh look in an hour or two of using my high speed internet; I?ve used up 1/10th of my monthly allowed bandwidth. Doh!
So we reach the end of my long story for now. But now I would like to hear your comments and thoughts. What am I supposed to do with this 50GB limit once more and more of content is download based? Tell Microsoft, Valve, movie/music companies and others who plan on distributing content over the internet to scrap that idea? Because now that bandwidth usage is going up (and trust me, in a few years it will be much higher), ISP companies are going to tell their customers ?sorry you can only download this much a month and if you go over we kill your account.?
I?ve read of someone receiving a letter (similar to what I was supposed to receive) from Comcast for using too much bandwidth. I hope no one goes through what I did, but keep an eye on the mail, because you could have your new high speed unlimited internet all a sudden turned into a bandwidth capped connection. Or just turned off.
I just had one hell of an experience with my cable internet provider. This will be a long read. On July 10th, mid afternoon our internet stops working. So I go up to the network closet and restart the router and cable modem. Wait for them to power back up, router powers up fine, but something isn?t right with the modem. Only the power light comes on and not the online light.
Oh no, ?ISP issues again? I think to myself. Not like this is the first time the internet has had a sick day. So after a couple hours of still no luck getting connected, I give BRC (Blue Ridge Cable, our cable provider) a call to see if there are any problems in the area. The customer service lady of course says ?no problems.? Alright? so let?s wait until tomorrow to see if it goes back up.
Morning comes but the internet is still not working. Time to call Blue Ridge up again. Once again the lady checks her computer and says ?I don?t know what the problem is, we?ll get a tech up to your house between 12 and 5.? The nice BRC tech guy shows up right around 12pm. I take him down to the network closet and he proceeds to test the cable line. After a couple minutes of testing, he says ?something is up; I?m going to go check the cable outside.?
So he checks the box where the cables run into on the side of the house, then goes to check the telephone pole down the street. Comes back and runs his tests again on the cable. Test results come back ok, looks like the internet is back on. So he hooks up the modem and after it boots up the online light comes on. He grabs his tools and says ?ok, looks like I fixed the problem.? Of course I ask him what was wrong, and he tells me ?Well kind of funny. Have you had any work done lately?? Of course we didn?t, so he then tells me what the problem was ?The problem was that someone put a feedback blocker on your internet line. Those are only supposed to be on the TV lines. I?ll find out if there was any work done and get you credit back for the day of no internet.?
Alright, problem fixed! Or so I thought? I tell the guy thanks for the help, and he leaves. I go upstairs and check the router status page, ?Internet IP address 192.168.100.11?. That?s not right. Half an hour of restarting the cable modem and the router, still nothing. Online is lit on the modem but it?s not connecting or grabbing an IP address from the ISP. So I call BRC once again, explaining the new problem, and she radio?s the technician that was just here again to let him know it?s still not working. She then says ?I?ll forward you to Prolog Express tech support department.? Prolog is the internet provider that BRC uses for their cable internet.
On hold again, at least this local radio station they play as the background is interesting. Finally get through. The guy asks for the email address of the account and modem MAC address and checks the information. ?Sir, your account was turned off and blocked yesterday from our end.?
?Huh? Why?? I ask him. ?Well it says here that you?ve had excessive bandwidth use and your account will be suspended for 30 days.? So I explain to him that the internet just stopped working yesterday, we know nothing about this ?suspension.? He tells me to hold on and that I?ll be forwarded to some other department. Here is where things get interesting.
After being on hold again, a lady picks up and asks how she can help. So I explain that the internet stopped working out of no where yesterday. That after having a technician come down and fixing the ?cable? issue, the internet is still not working. Now the Prolog tech person is telling me that the account was suspended. She asks for my phone number and says ?hold on let me check.? On hold once again, this is getting to be fun. She comes back a minute or two later and starts explaining what happened to me.
?You internet has been suspended for excessive bandwidth usage today at 10am. The amount downloaded was past the limit. It will be suspended for 30 days. You received three letters for the last 3 months saying that your account will be suspended if the bandwidth usage continues. There is nothing I can do about this.?
Wait, hold on. What letters? What bandwidth limit? We did not receive a single letter, email, or phone call about this. Nothing about a limit, nothing about us going over this new limit, and certainly NOTHING about our internet being shut off. I explain this to her, and since she no longer wants to deal with this issue, she begins talking to me with a big attitude. She says ?there is nothing I can do?. I explain again that you can?t shut off our internet when we did not receive any letters. She checks her computer and says ?you were sent three letters. If you did not receive them it?s a problem with your mail. Talk to the post office about it.?
Strange that I receive their bill for $82.87 fine every month for the past 7 years, but the post office somehow loses these three letters. So again I calmly explain to her that we have never had a problem with the mail, we get all other mail just fine, and we get the bills from you fine. That I don?t think the post office is to blame and that if they were sent we would of received them. The attitude continues ?They were sent, and you should have got them, call the post office and talk to them.?
?Did you write and send them yourself?? I ask her. She replies no, hold on. So again I?m put on hold. She comes back and says ?The letters were sent. We did not get any return mail. It?s not our problem, talk to the post office and get your mail fixed.? I again try to explain to her that if they sent the letters we would have received them. It?s not the post office. That I understand her computer says ?letters were sent?, and ask her what I?m supposed to do now, can?t she turn the internet back on since we never got any letters. ?No, no one can turn it back on. It will be off for 30 days. I can?t do anything.?
After talking to her for another ten minutes, her attitude was getting ridiculous. She told me ?arguing with me will not do anything. I don?t care if you did not get any letters, they were sent. There is nothing I can do.? Ok fine lady, I say ?I?m not arguing with you. Since you can?t help, can I talk to a manager.? She says ?fine hold on? and puts me on hold. Comes back and tells me that the manager is busy and she?ll call me back. I ask her when, she says ?I don?t know.? Ok fine, I say ?thanks? and she says ?bye? and hangs up.
My blood pressure is rocketing at this point. I wait a little while and get no call back. So I decide to call BRC back, rather than wait for the manager at Prolog to call. A different customer service lady picks up and I explain the situation to her. She says ?that?s not right, you should have received a letter before they turn it off.? I explain that I know we were supposed to get these letters, but we never did and the internet just gets shut off unexpected. She says ?I understand, wish I could help but we use them (Prolog) for our internet and only they can do something about this. Let me forward you to someone that can help you there.? I ask who and she says ?a supervisor.?
On hold again? another lady picks up and says ?Hello, what can I help you with.? So again I explain everything. She checks the same information and tells me the same thing. Your internet will be off for 30 days. Nothing we can do about it. It doesn?t matter if you didn?t get the letters, we sent them. At least she didn?t have an attitude, until the end of our conversation that is.
Since she also no longer wants to deal with this issue any longer, she says ?can I talk to Michael, the account holder?? I tell her no he does not live here anymore, that I?m his son and my parents got divorced. She says ?how old are you?? I tell her that I?m 21. Not the answer she wanted to hear, I?m sure if I was 15 or something she could tell me she can only speak with someone over 18. So she says ?I can only talk to Michael so have him call us instead?. I ask ?He can?t call, and how would him calling make a difference?? she tells me ?It won?t make a difference but I can?t talk to you. Either change the account name or have Michael call.? I tell her ?alright thanks? and get off the phone.
Game over. I?ve had enough of this BS treatment. Get the BRC number again, time to cancel this account and get my money back. I don?t even care at this point if the only other option is dialup in my area. With any luck someone (not Prolog) will have DSL service available. So after sitting on hold again, a third customer service lady from BRC picks up. I explain to her the problem and tell her that I would like to cancel the service and get my money back. That every person I spoke to at Prolog was unhelpful and did not care at all. She says the internet account can be canceled, but that I should speak to the manager at BRC first. ?Alright.? I tell her and she puts me on hold.
She comes back and tells me their manager is busy too. Asks if it would be ok if she called me back, I tell her that?s fine, and she says ?alright you?ll get a call back within the next half hour.? I put the phone down and await the manager. Phone rings, but it?s the same customer service lady. She says ?I?m sorry the manager is still with a customer, but she heard me talking to you and told me to forward you to support abuse department.? Ok, I ask her ?is this at Blue Ridge or Prolog? because I rather not waste anymore time talking to someone at Prolog. She says ?Blue Ridge? and tells me if they don?t help to call back and ask for her.
On hold yet again. Another lady picks up. Again I explain the situation and she asks me to hold on. She comes back and says ?the note in your account says that you did not receive the letters and Michele was supposed to call you back. Did she call?? I told her nope. So she tells me ok I?m going to forward you to a manager at Prolog. While waiting on hold the door bell rings. I?m the only one home so I go down with the phone. It?s the BRC technician guy! He came back.
So I tell him what?s going on while waiting for the manager and he says ?yea I called back to the office before coming back and they told me that the account was suspended. I guess this support ticket was not supposed to go through and they told me the blocker should be installed after all. I didn?t want to install it back since I don?t know what?s going on and I wanted to find out first. Not sure why they installed it since they can just shut off your internet from their end.?
I tell him ?yea I don?t know either, the internet is not working anyway so they blocked the account there too.?
?Hello, how can I help you? the manager says on the phone. So I explain the situation once again and she tells me the same story once again. How they sent the letters, it?s all the post office?s fault, and the account is suspended for 30 days. The technician guy takes a seat on the front steps. After a two minute conversation she says ?Alright, you have Prolog G3 (3mbit down cable). There is a bandwidth limit of 50GB a month for your account. We will send you the letters again, that you were supposed to have received, using registered mail.? I?m a little confused at this point ?I?m sorry, is this 50GB a month limit stated anywhere?? she replies ?It?s not stated on the website.?
?Is it stated anywhere in my account, anywhere on my bills, did you send a letter stating there is a 50GB limit?? Her answer wasn?t really an answer ?Your account will be turned back on now. If you do not want it to be suspended again stay under the 50GB limit.? It?s 4pm now and I?m so sick of being on the phone at this point, so I tell her ?ok thanks, bye?.
So I sit down next to the technician guy and tell him what she said, along with all the other phone calls. He laughs at how crazy it all was. He really liked the part about it being the post office losing mail (but only these mysterious 3 letters) and this random bandwidth limit. Maybe next time I?m at the post office I?ll talk to a manager there and see what he thinks of their comments.
I also told him about the customer service/support at Prolog. How the one girl had a straight up attitude the whole time, and that they all told me there is nothing anyone can do. While on the other hand every time I called the Blue Ridge customer service they were always nice and tried to help, but couldn?t do anything. He simply said ?I?ve heard that before about them at Prolog... So I guess Prolog sent us a letter or an email or something yesterday about your account. I only found out when I called the office back. This is the first I?ve heard of a bandwidth limit and it didn?t make any sense to me that they shut off the account because of bandwidth use.? As he gets ready to head back, I tell him thanks for the help and sorry for all the trouble. He says ?no problem? and I walk back into the house.
Now let?s see how long it takes them to turn it back on. The manager said ?It will be turned back on now? at 4pm on July 11th. Midnight it was still not working. Finally at noon on July 12th it is back on, how nice of them to wait until the next day. It takes one minute to enter in the MAC address of the cable modem into the allowed client list. Well now I have my internet working again at least. I guess now I have to worry about how I use my internet. Maybe I can blame Microsoft for my internet being shut off, all those demos/videos they release on Xbox Live that I just have to download. Prey alone was 1.3GB or so. Then there was Windows Vista ISO at 4GB. Oh look in an hour or two of using my high speed internet; I?ve used up 1/10th of my monthly allowed bandwidth. Doh!
So we reach the end of my long story for now. But now I would like to hear your comments and thoughts. What am I supposed to do with this 50GB limit once more and more of content is download based? Tell Microsoft, Valve, movie/music companies and others who plan on distributing content over the internet to scrap that idea? Because now that bandwidth usage is going up (and trust me, in a few years it will be much higher), ISP companies are going to tell their customers ?sorry you can only download this much a month and if you go over we kill your account.?
I?ve read of someone receiving a letter (similar to what I was supposed to receive) from Comcast for using too much bandwidth. I hope no one goes through what I did, but keep an eye on the mail, because you could have your new high speed unlimited internet all a sudden turned into a bandwidth capped connection. Or just turned off.