I have had Comcast's 'standard' high-speed internet service for about two years now. It's advertised as 6mbps download. Oh, excuse me, it's technically up to 6mbps. I've clocked it many times and have never gotten higher than 4mbps.

I actually called Comcast once when things were particularly slow. The gist of my question was: What is a normal download speed, and what is so slow that I have a problem worth calling in about? It was quite clear the CSRs had been schooled to not answer this question.

After all, if all the ads say 6mb, and the staff say 3.5mb is 'normal', then some might describe that as fraudulent marketing.

Just let me know where to sign up once the class action suit comes around.

Exact same deal with Time Warner. "Up to 6mbps"... I always hit exactly 4 mpbs.... I understand different areas have different levels of loading and perhaps older equipment, so I'm OK w/ it as long as it stays at 4mbps.... my neighbors 2 blocks over consistently hit right at 6, so I think it's a location thing.

The only thing is when I talk w/ my FIOS-equipped brother in northern VA with his 15mbit speeds for the same price that I pay, I frown....

This ploy by Comcast (and, frankly, all ISPs I've ever dealt with) is a farce. I am having the same issues across the pond, in the UK, with BT (British Telecom). I am paying for top-tier ADSL Service (Up to 8Mbps), but have NEVER gotten over 1 Mbps. Call after call to the customer support team, based in India, has gotten me nowhere, and I've had nothing but issues. I do mention the fact that th CS Center is in India only to highlight the "stick-to-the-script" training that my experience with reps from that region of the world has afforded me. The fact remains, if I'm paying for top-tier service, I should be getting a top-tier product (even if it's only for a few hours a day). I'm not asking for a miracle...just what I've paid for.

I will be following this story to see how it pans out.

Comcast wants to provide you with the best in customer service and takes this type of behavior extremely seriously."

That's likely...

"The only thing is when I talk w/ my FIOS-equipped brother in northern VA with his 15mbit speeds for the same price that I pay, I frown...."

And when I talk to my friends in Japan whom are getting 100mbps to the home both ways for roughly $35, I frown... -.-

Consumerist, I'm scared.

I currently get 10 Meg Cable with Insight. Well, guess what?! Insight's selling out to Comcast! I've always felt like I've been better than everyone else because I didn't have to deal with Comcast...now I guess that's what I get for being smug. I fear that they'll drop me down to 6mbps (or less since there is NO other competition for them) and randomly throttle the services I use.

I've tried to talk to Insight about my fears, but they ignore me.

I guess I might switch to the lovely 1.5 Meg DSL we can get just to spite them (but then I'm just giving my money to AT&TSBCINGULAR).

I had hoped that one day Verzon (Like they're any better than the others) would come save me with FIOS, but I doubt that will happen.

I wish I could do something to change it all . . .

While Kamen's complaint regarding the advertised speed is warranted, I couldn't help but be a bit put off by the manner in which he phrased his voicemail 'problem'. That is, he wanted the system to respond to his calling his own number in the same way it responded to his dialing '*99'. For whatever reason, it seemed more than a little rude.

I took a look at Kamen's web site, ([stuff.mit.edu]) and he lists a number of other 'projects' with which he has been involved. He lists:

* An attempt to get King Richard's Faire to stop discriminating against people whose disabilities or religious observance prevent them from eating the food sold at the Faire.

* An ongoing battle with the U.S. Social Security Administration to get them to admit that their software for "fixing" mailing addresses when sending out social security cards is buggy, and to get them to issue a replacement for my daughter's card, which was lost in the mail because their buggy software threw away my correct ZIP code and replaced it with an incorrect one.

* A somewhat surreal battle with Staples over a $10 rebate which they failed to handle properly, to say the least. Read my story and e-mail me if you've had similar experiences!

* My crusade to make Peoples Federal Savings Bank own up to, and correct, various screw-ups they committed in the process of upgrading their computer systems in June 2001.

...there is a fine line between 'self-appointed consumer advocate' and 'crank'.

@Mike626: Of the items in that bullet list, what exactly is "cranky"? Bitching about King Richar's Faire and regilious issues may be a little over the top, but the other three look to me like typical stories that happen all the time to far too many people.

Proginoskes, it's very hard to explain... search Google Groups and you may get a better understanding.

This is a decision I never thought I'd have to make. Root for Comcast... or Kamens? Wow. Can I get back to you guys?

@Mike626: Please do me a favor and spell my name right. Thanks.

Judging from the comments I've received in response to the various issues I've taken on, there are quite a few people who think I'm a "crank," and quite a few people who don't. I can live with that.

I know for a fact that what I do actually helps people, since I hear from people all the time telling me so. I know of at least one case where my complaint probably changed the behavior of a major corporation in a consumer-friendly way.

I think it's sort of funny to be accused of being a crank for fighting aggressively on behalf of consumers and citizens on a site whose tag line is "shoppers bite back."

Incidentally, getting back on point, I fail to see why it's "more than a little rude" to expect the company providing me with voicemail service to fix something that worked before and then suddenly stopped working because of something they did wrong. I have my reasons why I wanted that particular feature to work properly, but those reasons aren't the point and they're none of your business. The point is that when a company breaks something that's supposed to work, the customer has the right to expect them to fix it.