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I think my father's being ripped off by his ISP

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:44 pm
by Transient
My father was talknig to me the other day about how his ISP (Charter Communications) increased their monthly rate again and how he's ready to switch. He asked me to get some info for him to use as ammunition when he tries to get them to lower his bill. While I was over there, I noticed that browsing websites with embedded video files ran a bit slow, so I finally got around to running some speed tests.

The average result was 300-350 Kbps down and 100-120 Kbps up. I downloaded a few files around the net at about 35-45 KBps, so all the numbers were consistent. My father told me that he had a decent plan, so this seemed odd to me. I went to Charter's website to check his plan and see just what it was. It was hard to find, but it was there, and it said he had a "384K/128K internet speed". Well, what kind of "K"? Bytes or bits? There's a slight difference... :icon27:

The number 384 seemed familiar to me, and then I remembered why. Earlier I had stumbled across the page on their site that lists different High-Speed Internet plans, with 3 Mbps being the lowest advertised. Well sure enough, 3Mb = 3,072 Kb, which divided by 8 = 384 KB! So I guess Charter is saying my father's got a 3 Mbps plan. But the speed tests I did say he's getting, at max, 384 Kbps, not KBps... :icon6:

Whatever. I wanted to call to be sure, and when I did, I was told that he was getting charged for a 5 Mbps plan, and has been since last October. That's 13x more than what he's actually getting. Now, I know when they say he's getting 5 megs, they mean up to 5 megs, but this is ridiculous!

Someone please tell me I'm just doing my math wrong and call me an idiot now before I convince my dad that I'm right and then march into the local Charter office and make an ass of myself... :(

ok if you say so

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:56 pm
by eMu
you're and idiot; you're doing your math wrong.

and one more thing

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:57 pm
by eMu
sounds like charter is getting the last laugh here. i'd complain about it. the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:57 pm
by [xeno]Julios
he's getting ripped off.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:26 pm
by [xeno]Julios
riddla wrote:cable internet is a joke.
why do u say that?

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:37 pm
by seremtan
complain

my ISP pulled this shit with me, i complained, did the speed tests they asked, sent them the results, and they said "oh, yeah, whoops" and now i get the speed i'm actually paying for

what's happening in your dad's case is all about contention ratio. ISPs chop up their bandwidth into pools, then cram as many customers into those pools as they can. most people don't notice because they're thick. just complain and they'll put him in a different, less-congested pool

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:46 pm
by stocktroll
i had to move because charter were a bunch of faggots

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:58 pm
by MaCaBr3
First of all, you could have simplified things in your post: bandwith(speed of line) is always expressed in Kbps(kilobits per second) or Mbps(megabits per second), download speed is expressed in KB/s (kilobytes per second) or MB/s(megabytes per second).

Now that we cleared that up. If the ISP said that the line was a 384K/128K line then 1) they expressed it wrong because there is no such thing as xxxK line 2) it was obvious for me that it was a 384kbps/128kbps line, which is very very poor.

If they don't ofer such slow lines on their website but it should have been a 3Mbps/128Kbps line instead then yes he's ripped off.

If they do offer a 384kbps/128kbps line somewhere on their site, then he isn't, but he's paying for a very crap connection.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:59 pm
by Transient
When my Dad got home and I explained to him what was going on, you should have seen his face! He's the type of person who gets quiet when he's furious. I could see the gears churning as he was thinking of what he was going to say to whoever he talked to. I think he's going to drive down to their head office to resolve this.

I asked to go with him. Mainly to see the whole thing play out, but also because I think it will help his case to have someone there who can call them on any more shit they try to pull. :smirk:

Anyone else use Charter? I think DooMer said he did, but I haven't seen him around lately.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:06 am
by Transient
MaCaBr3 wrote: If they don't ofer such slow lines on their website but it should have been a 3Mbps/128Kbps line instead then yes he's ripped off.

If they do offer a 384kbps/128kbps line somewhere on their site, then he isn't, but he's paying for a very crap connection.
I am a bit curious about the speeds they showed online for the account, but I think it's irrelevant. When I talked to the person online, I made absolutely sure they told me the price and speed my father was paying for, which was definitely 5 Mbps. His last bill reflects the number I got on the phone, which he showed me a few minutes ago.

Thanks for the clarification with the first part of your post, by the way.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:10 am
by MaCaBr3
well if he's paying for a 5Mbps line then he's definately beeing ripped off. Time to kick some ass over at Charter.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:25 am
by Nightshade
[xeno]Julios wrote:
riddla wrote:cable internet is a joke.
why do u say that?
Because he's a retarded gasbag that likes to try to feel important. He won't a reply for you, but if he does, it will be utter bullshit.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:11 am
by DooMer
Charters bad, but I don't think they're out to rip people off. It's mostly because of fucking dumb mistakes. I had the lowest priced connection for years, but I was getting 3m speeds, more than I was paying for. One day they found the error and corrected it, so I was getting shit speeds like how I was supposed to. After that I had them upgrade me to 5m, but I was really getting 3m speeds. I don't know how they run shit over there, but I'm sure it's a mess.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:36 am
by Transient
Now why couldn't they have made the error in my favor? :icon8:

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:55 am
by seremtan
errors don't work that way, and when they do, their correction usually involves their lawyers

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:49 pm
by Doombrain
funny, because my cable internet shits all over any adsl i've had and shits over my friends adsl.

can you explain please?

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:08 pm
by Nightshade
riddla wrote:
Nightshade wrote:
[xeno]Julios wrote: why do u say that?
Because he's a retarded gasbag that likes to try to feel important. He won't a reply for you, but if he does, it will be utter bullshit.
I dont feel important, but its really fun to bust you down every time you're a massively short-fused hypocrite.
What's fun is you thinking that you get me wound up and that you've ever actually 'busted me down'. :olo:
And you know that cable internet subscribers share bandwidth. Holy shit is that ever a revelation. :dork:

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:24 pm
by Nightshade
You sound like a desperate idiot. :olo:

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:34 pm
by Captain
Funny how you call o'dium "plained-like", yet here you are trolling another thread. Good job, fatty.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:36 pm
by Nightshade
riddla wrote:so you are then.
Nice try Cletus. Keep flailing. :olo:

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:00 pm
by Doombrain
i was going to split this where riddla fucked the topic up, but it seems that was five posts in.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:14 pm
by Doombrain
you'll get over it m8

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:49 pm
by Nightshade
Image

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:50 pm
by Transient
Goddamnit.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:19 pm
by Nightshade
Ah excellent! Ladies and gentlemen, here in this post above mine we see a prime example of the North American Inbred Dolt (homunculus retardus) uttering it's classic "no u" call.

Thrilling, isn't it? Let's keep watching.