The top 1% of of the top 1%
Many years ago, I plugged my computer into the internet and essentially downloaded at 1.5MB/sec for 24 hours for 30 days straight.
That math comes out to a rough total of 4TB that month. Comcast then mailed a letter (unfortunately I don’t have a copy of that letter,) but it basically said, “STOP NOW OR WE WILL BAN YOU!” And so I stopped. However, by the time the letter got mailed and by the time I received it, I was already 2 weeks into the new month. So by that time, I had already used up another 2TB. That’s when they shut me down.
I called in and tried to plead my case. They asked me what I was downloading since I was in the “top 1% of the top 1% of all Comcast customers’ bandwidth usage.” I told him, “Well, I’m a professional photographer and those RAW image formats are HUGE.” The rep actually agreed with me and understood, but alas, it was to no avail. I was banned. The ban however seemed to be name and address specific because when I moved, the new tenant was able to get Comcast service at the address.
Lessons Learned
Unlimited doesn’t truly mean unlimited. These days, I try to stay below 250GB per month. As for what I downloaded:
I love stories about cable companies/ISPs. They are always so amusing.
Despicable ISPs. Unlimited* internet for $40/month. *Not unlimited, we fooled you.
I don’t know how they can get away with this, seems like bait and switch, or deceptive advertising, or what have you.
I’m paying $70/month for internet only, and I will download as much as I damn well please.
So, you stopped internetting after that? 🙂
How did you get around it? Did this “tenant” who got internet at the same address someone whom you know?
I used to do this type of switcheroo with internet service – to keep getting promo offer, switch the account between me and my wife every year.
No and no, but I do know for 100% the next tenant was fine.
Yeah I got that letter too from Charter after downloading a bunch of 3D movies. Be careful if that’s what you’re downloading. I ended up getting sued by a movie company after they got my IP address off of a torrent website and subpoenaed charter to get my address, etc. learned my lesson the hard way. Ended up paying $3k.
Wow Jennifer, sorry to hear that. The last time I had heard of this was “Hurt Locker.” Can you share what movie studio it was?
It was Dallas Buyers Club. If you google it, you’ll see a lot of people got fined. I read that movie companies will put their movies out on these sites as bait so they can fine anyone who downloads it. We got the fine about 6 months after downloading the movie.
I (well my parents at the time as during the hayday of limewire and Kazaa I was 14ish) got a Cease and Desist from Disney for downloading movies in 2004ish. Scaired me away from movies, but music was still free game back then.
Well at least they were nice enough not to sue you. Man, that was a really long time ago. Never heard of Disney doing that. I remember Metallica suing people and the “Hurt Locker” incident.