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Blog: Internet Comcast LiveAssist Customer Support Chat: Uncut
Purav Sanghani - September 17, 2007 4:35 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 8 comment(s) - last by Hacp.. on Sep 18 at 5:18 PM
Two of three Comcast customer support representatives confirm no numerical limits for bandwidth usage

Recently there were reports that Comcast has provided some firm numerical figures for the limits they use to gauge abuse of the broadband internet service. These numbers were given in the form of the number songs, pictures, and emails downloaded during a given month. These numbers are obviously not what customers are looking for as they provide no real world or actual value when it comes to bandwidth. We decided to do some digging on this topic and to go straight to Comcast's customer support channels.

We logged onto Comcast's support site and started a live chat sessions with 3 different customer support representatives, each within the same hour, in search of a clear cut answer. These transcripts are official unedited dialogs copied from the transcript window after the chat has ended and includes the 'chat id' for reference. The first session went like this:
LiveAssist Transcript
[Print] Print [Email] Email [Close] Close
chat id : 27906135-8dcf-4e28-a933-796ac7b393bb
Problem : Question about monthly bandwidth usage

Purav: Question about monthly bandwidth usage
Jason: Hello Purav, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Jason. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Jason: Thank you for contacting Comcast, my name is Jason. How may I be of assistance today?
Purav: Is there a monthly quota set for usage?
Jason: There are monthly quotas however it would be very difficult to reach these based off of actions that do not violate the terms of service.
Purav: Is there numerical figure you could provide?
Purav: Say, in megabytes/gigabytes?
Jason: I would not be able to provide the numbers of any such quotas.
Jason: Is there anything else that I can assist you with at this time?
Purav: I am not sure how I would be able to measure my usage to make sure I am not exceeding these quotas. Is there any other information you could provide on this? I believe the work I do does not violate the terms of service but I do transfer large files through email frequently.
Jason: You would be notified of any occurance where such limits where being met.  If you have not received any such notifications I would not worry.
Purav: OK. Thank you.
Jason: Is there anything else that I can assist you with at this time?
Purav: That will be all. thanks.
Jason: Thank you for contacting Comcast.  You can find the answers to many common questions regaring your Comcast service by visiting http://faq.comcast.net as well as seek assistance from other users on the Comcast help forums located at http://forums.comcast.net. Have a great night.
Jason: Analyst has closed chat and left the room
The first support chat gave us no solid, etched in stone answer as many customers have also experienced with Comcast customer support. We decided to ask another support representative for any information he had regarding any limits or quotas on broadband usage. We were expecting to hear much of the same response as Jason gave us but we were somewhat surprised at what we were told:
LiveAssist Transcript
[Print] Print [Email] Email [Close] Close
chat id : 4b4c96fa-a2bd-4453-abc6-cab5ebf82eb8
Problem : Usage quotas

Purav: Usage quotas
Wayne: Hello Purav, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Wayne. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Wayne: Hi can I help you with today Purav?
Purav: I'd like to request information regarding monthly bandwidth usage quotas.
Purav: For example, the megabyte or gigabyte limit a user should not exceed.
Wayne: Okay one moment please
Wayne: Purav, from what I can see there are only usage quotas for newsgroup
Wayne: Which is 2gigabytes
Purav: I see. So for email transfers or picture uploads and other general bandwidth usage there are no limits? I do watch streaming video from various sites and want to make sure I do not go over any limits set by Comcast.
Insert a very long delay here, around 5-10 minutes, most likely because Wayne was looking for answers to my question...
Wayne: Is there anything else I can do for you today?
Purav: Wayne, are you still with me?
Purav: I will restate my last question. I don't know if you received it.
Purav: So for email transfers or picture uploads and other general bandwidth usage there are no limits? I do watch streaming video from various sites and want to make sure I do not go over any limits set by Comcast.
Wayne: No limits
Purav: OK. Thank you.
Wayne: Wait actually your e-mail seems to have a quota of 250MB
Wayne: Sorry =)
Wayne: Wait nevermind, thats just the max limit
Purav: OK, so email along with attachments is 250MB/month?
Wayne: You can have in your mailbox
Purav: oh ok
Wayne: http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=Email117579
Wayne: Is there anything else I can do for you today Purav
Purav: I think that's it. Thank you for your help, sir.
Wayne: Thank you for contacting Comcast today, if you have any further questions feel free to chat back in. Have a nice day.
Wayne: Analyst has closed chat and left the room
"No limits" you say? Well except for the 250MB limit for a single email account, Wayne states there are no limits set by Comcast for monthly usage. Could this be the way things are or is it just some misinformation from a CSR? Not taking any chances on answers from the first CSR to give this information to us we decided to try one more time:
LiveAssist Transcript
[Print] Print [Email] Email [Close] Close
chat id : 16c15e86-7031-417a-b0f3-56285a183250
Problem : Monthly bandwidth usage limits

Purav: Monthly bandwidth usage limits
Edgar: Hello Purav, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Edgar. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Edgar: How may I assist you today?
Purav: Hello Edgar. I was wondering what the bandwidth limits (quotas) were for broadband connection use on a monthly basis. Could you provide me with some information on that?
Edgar: There are no set limits.
Purav: OK. I just wanted to make sure as I have been hearing there are limits set and that Comcast may terminate my connection if a certain limit is passed.
Edgar: No that wont happen. Basically I think how it works is we go after the very top few bandwidth-users but we would email them and warn them first.
Purav: I see. So do you know what is considered to be high for bandwidth usage? I tend to watch a good amount of streaming video from sites like ABC.com as well as listening to internet radio stations and uploading photos to Picasa web albums.
Edgar: I do not know that info.
Purav: Can you provide a ballpark figure maybe?
Edgar: Unfortunately not I have no idea they dont tell us these things.
Purav: OK. Well thank you for your help. Have a good one.
Edgar: We are always happy to be of service. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to chat back for more assistance. For online assistance, our FAQ section is a great resource; just visit http://faq.comcast.net . Thank you for choosing Comcast and have a nice day!
Edgar: Analyst has closed chat and left the room
There you have it. We received confirmation from two CSRs that no quotas or limits exist for Comcast broadband internet service customers. Again, these are official transcripts copied from the chat sessions with Comcast customer support representatives on the LiveAssist chat service through Comcast.net. Have any of you  contacted Comcast regarding this topic? If so, we at DailyTech would definitely like to read your stories.

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
No, definitely not "there you have it".
By mindless1 on 9/17/2007 6:59:01 PM , Rating: 2
What kind of junk science is this blog entry? You imply a conclusion that there are no limits when clearly one of the techs (Edgar) wrote: "Basically I think how it works is we go after the very top few bandwidth-users but we would email them and warn them first."

It would be impossible for them to go after ANYONE, including the top few bandwidth users, if there is no limit. There have been customer reports of this for the past few years, it is not as though we can suddenly assume those don't exist and think it is their burden to prove to you personally, something already established.

Chat session level 1 techs aren't going to be of much help with an issue like this, you'll need to contact the ISP's home office and get an official statement not just some text copied and pasted from a browser window.




RE: No, definitely not "there you have it".
By PuravSanghani on 9/17/2007 7:57:22 PM , Rating: 3
mindless1,

When Edgar stated ..."we go after the very top few bandwidth-users..." it could have meant that they take the entire user-base within the given service area, sort by the number of GB they have downloaded, and pick out the ones (the top few) who use the most of that group.

Now you could be right, Comcast could have some number they use as a ceiling known only to those within the Comcast organization, but why not share that number with customers? If Comcast is warning or cutting off those customers who are the top bandwidth eaters or who are exceeding this hidden limit, customers may benefit from knowing what the soft limit is and will try to avoid going over that limit and Comcast may benefit by not wasting as much time monitoring those "problem" customers.

In regards to your last point, I work in customer relations, more specifically, 3rd level customer/tech support. In my line of business we have level 1 techs who do not have the technical knowledge we do, however, our organization expects the proper communication to occur if customers ask questions that only a 2nd or 3rd level support rep can answer correctly.

Now, I won't assume that is how it works with Comcast as my experiences with the service provider have not all been up to my organization's standards, but if 2 out of 3 Comcast CSRs tell me there are no limits without hesitation (with one trying to avoid giving me straight forward answer), I am going to believe they are well informed on the matter or have contacted their 2nd/3rd level support, or whichever group handles these issues, to acquire the right information.

Regards,
Purav Sanghani


By jak3676 on 9/18/2007 12:50:25 AM , Rating: 3
It looks to me that there is not any clear answer here either.

It seems like you got one tech who truely understood your question, but only gave you the company line about it being unlikely that you could ever exceed it and we'll notify you by email if you do. The 2nd tech seemed totaly clueless and probably did not understand the question at all - all he gave you was some info about inbox size limit which has little to do with your real question. The 3rd tech is the only one that I would quote as having said there are no limits, but when that conflits with what the 1st tech said and how he said it, I think the 3rd tech was just giving you the simple answer that will work for 99% of the population.

The only conclusion I would draw from all of this is that of there is a limit, it is not predefined. It may vary from area to area or form time to time. As much as I (and probably most customers) would prefer to have the details published, I can see how comcast may prefer to keep that secret. As annoying as it may be for customers it gives them flexability to change it how, when and why they want to.


By mindless1 on 9/18/2007 10:35:32 AM , Rating: 2
Regardless, if they go after anyone then there is a limit, but the worst kind of limit in being secretive. Even on Dailytech numberous people have reported as much.

You continue to write "if" but there is no "if" about it happening. You can believe what they (level 1 techs) stated but obviously this would be a false belief, it has already been reported over and over for years.


By Moishe on 9/18/2007 8:10:33 AM , Rating: 2
I wouldn't call it science :) but it is pretty interesting.
The problem clearly exists and I think that it's reasonable to expect that companies like Comcast be above board with their numbers.

Back in the dialup days I had two friends who got permanently banned from Earthlink dialup on one weekend (banned, no recourse, no email, no discussion, no return). I used my connection heavily and was worried about receiving the same treatment. So I called Earthlink and asked what my limits were. They said they were unlimited or course and I asked about the disconnections. They claimed that those people used too much of their unlimited bandwidth.

I cancelled my account right there on the phone with a strong message that I won't pay for "unlimited" with limits. Providers are a dime-a-dozen and there is no need to put up with that crap.


Not so sure 'bout Comcast, but...
By HaZaRd2K6 on 9/17/2007 4:55:39 PM , Rating: 2
Up in Canada, Sympatico (run by Bell Canada) has a stated limit of around 45GB/month of bandwidth usage. I've exceeded that limit several times (sometimes doubling or tripling it) and not once received an e-mail, warning letter or anything else.

I know that Rogers has no stated bandwidth limit, but if you pay for an 8Mbit line and use anything more than 4 at any given time, they will threaten to cut service. So hey, telecom companies have different ways of measuring "bandwidth": some of them evidently don't do it at all.




By viperpa on 9/17/2007 8:05:10 PM , Rating: 2
As a customer, I would like to know what my usage is so my service wouldn't get cut off. It's like having a big weight on your shoulders wondering if your going to get cut off or not because of what you download.

I have Road Runner and dowload about 100 gigs a month. I haven't gotten a notice so I must be in the clear. That's the point I am trying to make. If I knew what the download quota was, I wouldn't have to worry about it.

As far as Comcast, I wouldn't believe everything I hear cause you can't get a accurate answer. There are many stories where CSR's say there is no quotas and then you read stories about people getting dumped due to exceeding the quota.


Comcast is evil!
By Hacp on 9/18/2007 5:18:36 PM , Rating: 2
Comcast is also famous for blocking WoW ports. It has happened at least twice, and prevented some of my former guildmates from making raids. You can't kill patchwerk with 30 people!




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