The Earth stood still today...did you feel it?

I received a customer survey today....from Comcast...my former ISP. I decided to take it, and I'm sooooo glad I did. They asked my why I no longer had Comcast internet service. Here is what I wrote:

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The 250Gb monthly bandwidth limitation...period!!! The ONLY reason I changed to AT&T U-verse was because of the monthly limit. It wasn't price, it wasn't service, it wasn't speed, it was ONE THING!!!! The monthly bandwidth limit. There are 5 people and 8 computers in my home, and I work from home, so the potential of waking up one day and suddenly having no internet service (that was disconnected because of exceeding some arbitrary limit) was wholly unacceptable. I asked if there was an unlimited usage plan, or at least a tiered usage option (I knew there wasn't, as I was already paying FOR THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF CONSUMER SERVCE, but asked anyway), and was told no, other than an expensive dedicated business line (similar to a T1). Obviously I passed on that option. To say I was disappointed at having to go to all the trouble of changing email addresses for the entire family is an understatement. Is AT&T U-verse any better speed-wise? NO. Is the TV signal any better? NO. Is the channel selection better? Not really. But I was left with no choice since the arbitrary 250Gb limit was imposed. I exceeded it the first month it was in place, so I knew I would exceed it again, so I was left with no choice. Sad really that Comcast took such action. We were pefectly happy with our Comcast TV and internet service....reliable and fast. But we were unwilling to live within the strict limitation set forth by the bandwidth policy.

One of the WORST things about the 250Gb limitation is that no one at Comcast could tell me my usage pattern for the past 3 years when I talked to them after exceeding the limit in March. Nor could they provide me with my current usage. Nor could they provide me with an official way to check my usage. All they could offer was to download a bandwidth monitor and install it on all of my PC's, and then manually do the math each day to check my bandwidth. That would be like AT&T to tell me to take each of my cell phones at the end of the day to check their usage minutes so I could track how much of my monthly limit I still had available. VERY AMATEUR!!!! AND VERY DISAPPOINTING!!!!

After that conversation (about how to track my usage), the decision to go with AT&T U-verse was EASY!!!!! NO limits! Same channels! Very similar price! Did I mention NO bandwidth limits? Yeah, thought so...!!!!

There you have it...my Comcast flame. I'm so glad I was chosen for this survey. You know? If I had been offered a tiered usage plan that covered what I believed my usage to be, I probably would have taken it (as long as it wasn't outrageous). And if I had been allowed a higher bandwidth plan, and could monitor my usage, receive email warnings when usage hit a user defined level, and then was only charged ($$) when I went over, it would have been a better option. Facing disconnection for a year for exceeding the arbitrary limit is simply poor business. Would AT&T disconnect my cell phone service if I exceeded the limit? Hell NO! They would charge me for it. I don't understand the moronic decisions made by Comcast, but now I don't have to! Why, you ask? Because I'm no longer a customer, and probably never will be again.
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Do you ever get a chance like that to vent, even if it may never be read? Not as often as I would like (or have the guts to do).

Could AT&T U-verse by in my future?

Well, as I just found out this week, my penchant for downloading and sharing live concerts is pushing me perilously close to the 250Gb monthly limit as outlined by my ISP, Comcast. Combine that with 5 or 6 other PC's in the house, including my work from home office, and it's pretty easy to see that it's gonna be painful to try and stay below the threshold.

Enter AT&T U-verse. I've heard really good things about it, and apparently it's available in my area. If I combine the price for the 200 channel package and the fastest internet connection (18Mbps), it's about the same as my Comcast monthly cost. The AT&T channel package has ALL the same channels we get now, but it also has a few more that I would like to have (NFL network and ESPN Classic). The internet rated d/l speed, assuming it's available, is nearly twice as fast as the fastest offering by Comcast, and even if i have to step down to the 10Mbps, that still faster than the 8Mbps I'm paying for now. The best part is that there don't appear to be any usage limits associated with the service (unless you an abhorrent abuser to the tune of TB's per month), so it will allow me to continue sharing my stuff w/o fear of getting dropped for exceeding some arbitrary limit. Sounds like a winner!

Throw in a super cool DVR that lets you playback on any TV in the house, and it's really a convincing offer....more to come!