Complaint factory: Angry Internet subscribers tee off against Comcast, Verizon, AT&T

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company and home Internet service provider, has a lot of angry customers. And instead of just privately fuming, thousands of them have complained to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The deluge of angry customers is so big that the FCC gets more Internet service complaints about Comcast than it does for AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable (TWC) combined.

We’ve written about complaints filed against Comcast before, but we also wanted to find out how those complaints compared to Comcast’s top rivals. So we filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FCC, seeking information on three major types of Internet provider complaints: availability, billing, and speed.

In those categories, Comcast received 11,812 complaints so far this year (from January 1 to November 9). AT&T got 3,896 such complaints, Verizon got 1,588, and TWC had 1,240. In total, AT&T, Verizon, and TWC received 6,724 such complaints—5,000 fewer than Comcast alone.

Comcast gets complaints about many things, but frustration with its 300GB-per-month data cap and its overage charges appear to drive much of the most recent outrage. (AT&T also imposes data caps ranging from 150GB to 1TB a month, but the 150GB cap on entry-level DSL is reportedly the only one that’s enforced. Verizon and TWC don’t limit data usage as strictly as Comcast.)

The “300GB data cap that Comcast is placing on households is ridiculous and they know it,” one Acworth, Georgia, resident wrote to the FCC in a complaint echoed by many others. “I haven’t gone a single week without going over the limit and I need the bandwidth for my job as a video editor.”

It isn’t surprising that Comcast received the most complaints, since it’s the largest ISP in the US and has regularly ranked at or near the bottom of its industry in customer satisfaction. Comcast also is the subject of much negative media coverage and attention from consumer advocacy groups, which may encourage more customers to file complaints.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear Comcast receives far more complaints on a per-customer basis than do other top ISPs. Comcast has 22.9 million broadband subscribers, compared to 15.8 million for AT&T, 13 million for TWC, and 9.2 million for Verizon, Leichtman Research Group reports.

For wireline broadband, that means AT&T, TWC, and Verizon have a combined 38 million customers—about 15 million more than Comcast, even though the three firms together receive far fewer complaints.

Moreover, the AT&T complaint data is inflated a bit because the telco offers mobile broadband in addition to home Internet service. Consumers can file complaints against cellular carriers under a separate category that’s just for phone companies, but some choose to file their mobile complaints through the Internet service category. Complaints about AT&T’s throttling of unlimited mobile data plans and other problems with wireless service have thus added to AT&T’s total complaint numbers. (Verizon’s mobile complaint numbers aren’t inflated as much as AT&T’s because Verizon’s cellular service is sold through its Verizon Wireless subsidiary. There were 559 complaints against Verizon Wireless in our data set, separate from the 1,588 filed against Verizon’s FiOS and DSL home Internet services).

No matter how you slice it, Comcast gets more complaints than you would expect based on its subscriber numbers alone. Despite the added complication of its mobile subscribers, AT&T still received just one-third as many Internet service availability, billing, and speed complaints as Comcast.

In addition to overall complaint numbers, Ars obtained the text of complaints over a five-week period from September 24 to October 30. Let’s take a look at some of them. (You can find the entire data set here.)

Comcast customers hate data caps, but that’s not all they hate

Credit: Free Press

Out of the 11,812 complaints against Comcast, 2,886 related to availability, a category that in theory is for people who don’t have access to Internet service or to all the options they want. (Customers suffering outages may also be filing complaints under “availability.”) Another 1,769 complaints were in the speed category, but the most common complaints were filed under billing, with 7,157.

Billing complaints are where data caps come in. Lots of people are mad that they had unlimited data when they first subscribed to Comcast Internet service, only to later be limited to 300GB a month. Customers must pay $10 overage fees for each additional 50GB or $30 extra each month for unlimited data.

Comcast hopes to prevent people from using alternatives to cable TV like Netflix, and it wields too much power over consumers because it’s often the only viable broadband choice, numerous complaints say. Some customers say they now closely monitor their Internet usage and restrict big downloads and online streaming in order to stay under their caps.

Many complaints also questioned the accuracy of Comcast’s data meters. We recently wrote about a different customer who proved that Comcast had inaccurately accused him of going over his data cap. Comcast admitted the mistake, but the company still maintains that its meters are accurate overall.

While most complaints only suspected that the metering was wrong, some customers claimed to have proof.

“As of writing this they currently place us at 271GB of 300GB (according to their online meter) used for the month of September,” wrote a customer in Richmond Hill, Georgia. “However, our FreeBSD router tracks the total data used (outgoing or incoming) on WAN and only reports a total of ~147.054GB (139.93GB DL / 7.12GB UL) consumed in the same time period. There appears to be a huge discrepancy between what Comcast reports and what is actually being consumed.”

Here are a few more Comcast customer complaints about data caps (names redacted, customer locations in bold):

Doral, Florida: “Comcast is now introducing a data cap for Internet services which I believe is a punishment for customers who solely choose Comcast as an Internet service provider and not as a cable TV or telephone service provider. They are trying to discourage users who prefer streaming their television shows through services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc…. Comcast already has an awful reputation with providing inconsistent service at questionable rates, and for most people (myself included), we are limited in our choices for internet service providers.”

Knoxville, Tennessee: “We are a family of 2 adults and 1 toddler. We ordered the 75Mbps speed Xfinity Internet from Comcast. In one month, we have already exceeded the 300GB cap. In this day and age of gaming, news via the Web, family time, business, online school, having a data cap that low for an Internet speed of 75Mbps is ridiculous. It seems like I cannot even watch a video of my son without blowing through the cap and without my service going out. Caps this low should be illegal especially with no competition.

There is no competition in our neighborhood in Knoxville (a suburb, not rural) that provides cable service so we are stuck with Comcast.”

Parkland, Florida: “Comcast has recently imposed a data cap of 300GB per month for my account. They have been showing data usage over 300GB per month over the past few months. This is incorrect. I have logs set up on my own router which monitors all traffic in and out of the house. My own monitoring shows that I am always 80-100GB lower per month than what Comcast reports. Comcast website does not provide any details of how they come up with this usage data.”

Nashville, Tennessee: “Comcast just surprised me with a bill that shows that I owed $180 for over cap surcharges. I called the same day I got the bill, and they also let me know that I owe another $220 for over cap surcharges. (That’s right, a surprise $400). All I have been doing for the most part is watching Netflix, so it appears there was some kind of data problem going on that I was entirely aware of.”

Cumming, Georgia: “On 9/30 around 9:00 PM EDT I checked my Xfinity data usage meter. I had 268GB of 300GB left, so I decided to start a 22GB download to get it in before the meter reset for October. I finished my download and went to bed only to find the next day my October meter said I had used 22GB already. This is impossible for me to have done from midnight until 8 AM EDT while asleep, so I contacted chat support… [The customer service agent] informed me that Comcast operates at Universal Time. He struggled to explain what time it is compared to my own time zone, but that’s their time… I use a lot of data, I’ve already scaled back Netflix to medium quality streaming to control my data. Starting 22GB in the hole, when I thought I had everything under control based on the tools and information provided, is very frustrating.”

White House, Tennessee: “I have called Comcast multiple times in regards to my very low Internet speeds. I pay for 75Mbps download, and on a good day I am lucky to receive an average of 10Mbps. Somehow with these very low speeds I have also managed to ‘exceed my monthly data cap’ of 300GB. My normal $60/month bill has now turned into $90 for an additional 150GB… If there was another broadband option in my area, I would gladly switch in a heartbeat… but currently there are none.”

Complaining to the FCC can help customers get a lower bill or prod an Internet provider into solving the problem. The FCC forwards complaints to Internet service providers, which are required to respond to the commission and to the customer within 30 days.

Complaints can sometimes lead to FCC investigations, but in most cases they are simply a way for customers to pressure ISPs when they believe a problem isn’t being addressed properly.

In response to the data cap complaints, Comcast issued the following statement to Ars:

“We are conducting data trials in select markets around the country, covering a small percentage of our customers. We designed the various plans we are trialing with a minimum 300GB/month data plan because more than 90 percent of our customers use less data than that and are not affected. The trials are providing us with invaluable consumer feedback. For example, we surveyed our heavy data users and 80 percent thought our data trials were fairer than our past approach, which was a 250GB/month static cap. It’s important to note that 10 percent of our customers are consuming nearly 50 percent of all the data on our network. As a result, these trials are based on the principle that those who use more, pay more and those who use less, pay less.”

Complaints, continued

Comcast customers complain about many things other than data caps, such as slow speeds, outages, technical problems, bills that are higher than promised, the use of collection agencies, technicians failing to show up for service installation appointments, and more.

Here are a few samples:

Baltimore, Maryland: “We need our household to be wired for Comcast. Wires for Internet service as well as cable need to be run from the cable pole located one street behind our house. We have had over 6 technicians, 4 appointments, and not one person has been able to help us. Every time someone has come to our house they don’t know what they are being sent to do, and it has been a month of no service or any progress with what needs to be done. We have had contact with an executive customer relations representative but the communication between everyone is lost. We have gotten e-mails confirming our order but those were delivered 1 week ago but still nothing has been done, and we need Internet service as well as cable at our household.”

Washington, DC: “For about 1 month, I have been attempting to sign up for Comcast Internet in my apartment. My landlords, who live upstairs, have Comcast service. Comcast is the only option I have besides DSL, which is costly and of lesser quality than the Comcast product. However, Comcast has directed me to managers, transferred me to other departments, and has even hung up on me on two occasions now. They have told me that my address did not exist. Three times I was told that my address would be verified and added within three days… Last night, I was told that it would be at least another week before I could possibly get Internet service.”

Key West, Florida: “Comcast Key West has continued with major internet outages. On Tuesday, September 24, Internet service went out between 2:01am and 6:20am. Today, September 29, internet service went out at 10:01am and when I called in to Comcast a recording stated ‘we expect service to be restored by 3pm.’ … Over 4 1/2 years now there have been between 75 and 100 outages and recently the outages have become longer in length. Despite many complaints (and statements from Comcast technicians visiting my home for needless service calls when the outage problem is always due to problems with the Comcast equipment out in the field, as these technicians tell me), NOTHING has been done to assure reliable Internet service in Key West.”

Gallatin, Tennessee: “I was a business customer of Comcast Internet and phone. Over a roughly 6-month period after becoming a customer, Comcast failed to provide me service for multiple hours, on multiple days. I have numerous claim ticket numbers of my complaints to Comcast for failing to provide phone and Internet to my law office. After 6 months, I informed Comcast that their failure to provide the service they promised forced me to stop using them as a service provider. They have since then tried to collect on “cancellation fee” of over $1,000, even going so far as to report me to a collections agency, from whom I received a call today. This charge is improper, and it is improper of Comcast to send me to collections for the same.”

Atlanta, Georgia: “I have repeatedly tried to get someone to fix the overcharges on my latest bill (24th erroneous monthly bill in a row) and to investigate why I am getting 3Mbps download speeds when I am paying for 50Mbps. I have had to call the Philadelphia HQ office 3 different days over the past 5 and spoke with 3 different representatives in the ‘Office of the President,’ all whom have promised that a regional case worker would call me by 8pm EDT that day. At no time did anyone ever try to call either one of my 2 phone numbers (home and cell)… There is a reason why they are the most hated corporation in the nation, across not just the Telco category, but across all industry verticals. If it weren’t for their monopoly in my neighborhood, I would have left them years ago. Aren’t monopolies illegal?”

Seattle, Washington: “A Comcast sales rep came to our door advertising a $69.99 cable and Internet bundle. When we got our bill it was actually $133.70. After contacting Comcast they claimed that the sales person gave us incorrect info and that they would not lower the price.”

Comcast responds to each complaint and attempts to resolve it, then reports the outcome to the FCC, Comcast officials told Ars. If a complaint shows that the company made a billing mistake, Comcast will fix it by issuing credits or refunds, Comcast said.

Credit: Mike Mozart

Many of the complaining customers have technical problems, such as slow speeds or service outages. Some problems are Comcast’s fault and others aren’t, but in either case Comcast tries to figure out what went wrong when a customer complains. Sometimes Comcast can fix a service problem by replacing a deteriorating cable line. In other cases, the layout of a house may cause poor Wi-Fi connectivity, and Comcast can recommend ways of improving it.

Comcast has worked on preventing billing mistakes and other problems like missed appointments, but the company has acknowledged that it still has work to do in improving customer service. Still, Comcast said that some of the complaints to the FCC come from customers who owe the company quite a bit of money.

In many instances, customers essentially disappear after filing the FCC complaint, the company said; Comcast may attempt to contact them multiple times but never gets a response.

AT&T complaints reveal many DSL problems

Not all of the FCC complaints are against Comcast, of course. Many of the complaints against AT&T come not from current customers but from people who cannot get AT&T’s Internet service.

This is the problem we covered in detail earlier this year. In areas where AT&T hasn’t upgraded its DSL Internet service, AT&T says it doesn’t have enough open ports to serve new customers. This results in the odd situation of residents being unable to purchase the same service that’s available to their neighbors. In some cases, AT&T refuses to hook up new homeowners even when a home’s previous occupants had DSL service.

Here’s a sample:

Dublin, Georgia: “We recently purchased a house. At the time we purchased it (8-27-2015), AT&T was providing DSL services to the occupants. They continued to provide services to the occupants up until the day of our closing (9-29-2015). We attempted to get that service changed into our names or just open an account to continue the service they were already providing. Instead, they have refused service to our address even while the DSL was still running to it. We are not eligible to receive Internet from any other provider, including satellite.”

Saint Clair, Michigan: “U-verse Internet is 1,500 feet from my house but they keep telling me I am too far from the loop even though I and the several other houses around me are closer to town than the people who have it.”

Zanesville, Ohio: “AT&T markets DSL service in our area, yet when trying to subscribe for service we are told everything is ok, they took our money and then cannot provide the service due to a ‘lack of ports.’ Customer service hangs up and does not resolve the issue.

Some of those who are lucky enough to get DSL report frequent service disruptions and slow speeds:

Porterville, California: “My DSL Internet disconnects 50 times a day. AT&T has admitted that the Internet in my area has been broken for the past year and still hasn’t fixed it, yet I’m still paying 80 dollars for Internet that doesn’t even work. This message applies to everyone in my area since everybody is affected.”

Newport, Tennessee: “I am a systems administrator that works from home and several months ago I looked into purchasing a home office. I went on the AT&T U-verse availability website and put in the address and it said I could get 18Mbps at this home’s address. I called in to double confirm I could get those speeds and explained how important it was that I be able to get those speeds. The sales rep confirmed I could indeed get those speeds. I purchased the home and signed up for the Internet service. When the tech arrived he laughed at me and said he could only hook up 1.5Mbps and that I was to far away from the VRAD. I explained to him how important it was for me to get at least 8Mbps because my job depended on it. He shrugged his shoulders and said sorry and left. I now have a home office that I can not work out of even though I did everything in my power to make sure it would work for me. Is there anything the FCC can do? I was promised those speeds before purchasing the home and now I am left with a $200,000 piece of property that does me no good.”

AT&T also imposes data caps on its home Internet service, starting at 150GB a month for its slowest DSL. Higher-speed packages get 250GB to 500GB a month, while the company’s highest-speed gigabit fiber service allows 1TB.

Though AT&T’s home Internet caps haven’t drawn the same level of outrage as Comcast’s, there are some complaints such as this one:

Rogersville, Alabama: “My family has been an AT&T DSL customer for going on three years. AT&T is the only broadband Internet provider in my area. AT&T has now decided that with no prior notification or new contract of service to impose a 150GB per month data cap onto what was sold to be an Unlimited Data service. My bill has jumped from 57 dollars per month to 132 dollars for this current month’s bill. It is also impossible to monitor our usage as the AT&T Billing and Usage monitoring page constantly states: ‘We’re unable to display your usage right now.’ … We have never received any such e-mails or notifications of any kind to notify us of data overages.”

Like just about any other ISP, AT&T has many customers who complain of billing mistakes:

McKinleyville, California: “I’ve had a horrible 6 months dealing with AT&T and I don’t feel like I have any recourse.

I cancelled my service with them in April of 2015 due to relocating. They continued to debit my account without my knowledge for several months. I called repeatedly and was told the issue was fixed, only to have my account debited several more times. I’ve spent many hours of my life speaking with representatives, being transferred from department to department, and been told it was fixed. The company owes me over $170. I managed to locate and deactivate the auto-pay program I had been using so the debiting would stop.

I called them and was told the issue was resolved and that I’d be receiving a refund, only to be contacted today by a third-party debt collections agency since the autopay was no longer covering the bills they were generating.

I feel harassed, lied to, and exhausted. Please let me know if there are any steps I can take to fix this issue. I no longer have any faith in dealing directly with the company.”

Kingston, Tennessee: “In June I signed up for an AT&T bundle, U-verse Phone and Internet. I was quoted a price of $51.95 per month for the bundle. Since that time, I have received four bills from AT&T, and each bill has charged me $52 for Internet, and $40 for phone. I have spent over ten hours on the phone and online with AT&T trying to get this issue resolved. I have been told that it will be taken care of, and that I will be credited the extra $40.05 per month that I have been charged for each month. Every time I call, I am told that it will take one to two billing periods for this to take effect. To date, I am on the 4th billing period, and each time I call, the AT&T representative acts as though it is the first time I have called, and assures me that they have given the information to their supervisor, who will make the changes, and credit my account. This has yet to happen.”

AT&T provided a short response to Ars, saying that the company “responds to every customer complaint we receive from the FCC. We contact each customer and work to resolve every issue, keeping the customer informed until it is resolved.” AT&T declined to say anything else on the topic.

In all, AT&T this year received 1,179 complaints about availability, 1,602 about billing, and 1,115 about speed.

Verizon: Spotty DSL availability and slow speeds

Complaints against Verizon are similar to those made about AT&T Internet service, especially DSL. Many customers can’t get it, and some of those who do report various technical problems and billing errors.

Verizon (excluding Verizon Wireless) received 517 complaints about availability, 664 about billing, and 407 about speed. Here’s a taste:

Spring Mills, Pennsylvania: “We recently moved into a new home and I’ve contacted Verizon 3 times about getting Verizon DSL. Each time, I’m told that they do not service our area. However, I’ve talked with neighbors and they have Verizon DSL. Upon questioning Verizon, I was told there are no more ports in their central office. On 2 occasions, I was told they would put in a ticket, but I never received a response about this. I was also told that the previous owners had DSL at the home we purchased. I do not understand how there is no port available when they are no longer there?”

Wheatfield, New York: “After many years with Verizon for our Internet, we moved 3 miles away from where we were on 9/3/15. To date, we do not have Internet service. My wife and I have called many times and are told it has been escalated, we will call you back (no one does), etc. etc. It is now 9/28/15, 25 days after we moved and we still do not have our Verizon DSL activated at our new home. We are told it is some issue with cables at a far away place and that our order has been placed and escalated. Cannot get hold of anyone that can get us our Internet. Daughter in HS, wife works from home a lot and I have a second job relying on Internet and all our bills, bank statements, etc. are emailed to us… cannot see any of them. This is ridiculous.”

Pinon Hills, California: “Verizon has given me DSL service to my home and advertises a rate of between 768kbps to 1Mbps yet I am unable to get anywhere near that. Speed tests show my service at .01 to .2Mbps. Their service lines (known as DSLAMs) are filled to capacity and when confronted with the lack of service Verizon’s response is they have no plans to upgrade our services. My connection drops out repeatedly and after 8PM is totally unusable.”

Marlton, New Jersey: “I got new Verizon Internet service. Sales sold 2yr contract 75Mbps for $40 month. 10 days later a bill came for $106. Called Verizon a number of times to resolve this and customer service did not try to help even though I have proof of email of contract stating that my bill should be $40.00 per month. I ended up canceling my service, now they want $298.00 for early termination fee. I tried a number of times on the phone to talk to them to resolve the issue but they have left me no choice but to escalate this matter.”

Manalapan, New Jersey: “I have FiOS Internet with Verizon. Every time when it’s raining hard outside, the FiOS service would not work properly. For the last year, it happened at least 4 times, and every time it takes about 1-2 days for Verizon to repair the service. The rep told me that their box was flooded and missing sealing so when it’s raining hard, my service would go down.

Last Friday, 10/2/2015, it was raining hard in my area and my FiOS service also went down. So I called Verizon support and they said they would dispatch repair at the earliest on Wed 10/7/2015. I’m deeply troubled with this, why Verizon does not bother to fix this issue even though they know the problem is. Taking 5 days for repairing service is simply not acceptable since Internet is considered a ‘Utility’ now.”

Moreno Valley, California: “My DSL service cuts out upwards of 100 times a day, and the speed even when it is working is so far below the prescribed speed as to be mostly unusable for anything but the simplest operations. This has been going on for the past year. Verizon maintains the copper wire that supplies phone and DSL to my home. They have sent surface wiring technicians to my home multiple times over the past year without ever repairing the problem.”

Verizon did not respond to our requests for comment.

Time Warner Cable: Like a mini-Comcast

The second largest cable company in the US, TWC has regularly scored about as low as Comcast in customer service ratings. While TWC still provides unlimited data by default, it still has a fair number of angry customers. The company was hit with 399 complaints about availability, 458 complaints about billing, and 383 about speed this year. Here is a sampling:

Monroe, North Carolina: “I discontinued my Internet service with Time Warner Cable in December 2014. I was not directed to do anything with my router (which I received in 2011) at that time. I was current with all bills and actually overpaid my final bill. I moved in August 2015 and received a bill for $100 for the router. A week later I received a notice from a collections agency to pay for the 4-year-old router (for which I paid a monthly fee and was never instructed to return). The router was discarded in the move. The sad part is that I signed up again for TWC at my new location.”

San Diego, California: “I am currently paying for 30Mbps from Time Warner. I routinely cannot stream a short YouTube video and when I test my speed, the average is usually 10 times less than what I am paying for. Just today I clocked my 30Mbps Internet from Time Warner at a blazing 3.34Mbps for download and 0.45Mbps for upload speed. This has been on going for over a year no matter what type of router or modem I purchase.”

Balch Springs, Texas: “I have tried for many years to get Cable TV and Cable Internet for my neighborhood. This last time I was told that I would be required to pay between $30,000 and $35,000. My neighborhood has been here well over 25 years, a new housing district was built a few years ago and that whole area now has cable and fiber. All we have wanted was the ability to get away from having satellite TV and extremely slow dial-up Internet… Please help us.”

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: “Since June, every single month we have had to chat with online assistance on Time Warner Cable’s website [about incorrect bills]. Every single month, they apologize and fix our bill down to the amount we should be paying (about $63). And then every month our bill is close to $200, and we start the cycle of logging on and complaining again. We are so sick of it. We want to cancel but we don’t really have many options for Internet in our area, and we both need it for work.”

Charlotte, North Carolina: “Every two weeks or so on the weekends, my Internet, cable and phone mysteriously go out for periods as long as 8 hours. Calling Time Warner has done nothing to fix the problem. I find this unacceptable from a company charging upwards of $200 for such services.”

Time Warner Cable spokespeople told Ars that the company investigates each complaint, assigning specialists from the region where the customer lives. A specialist works with each customer to resolve the problem, whether it’s a billing mistake or a technical error.

TWC said it’s atypical for the FCC to follow up with the company about its response to any individual complaint.

In some cases it’s as simple as clearing up a miscommunication, TWC said. Many complaints come from customers who are unhappy when their promotional pricing expires and they have to pay the standard monthly price. About 25 percent of the time, customers who have complained to the FCC don’t respond to TWC’s attempts to communicate with them, the company said.

TWC has lagged behind Comcast and other cable companies in providing high speeds, and this shortcoming has frustrated many customers. TWC is boosting speeds through much of its territory, however, and TWC says it has seen improved customer satisfaction rates in the upgraded areas.

Slow speeds can sometimes be fixed quickly, however. One complaint about slow speeds to the FCC asserted that “Time Warner has overloaded the node in my area causing consistent signal loss in a significant amount.” In that case, TWC visited the customer’s home and figured out that the customer had purchased the wrong router for the service; the node wasn’t the problem, TWC told Ars.

Like Comcast, TWC acknowledges that its customer service still needs improvement. But the company said it is working hard on the problem and makes sure every customer complaint is fully investigated.

Should you complain to the FCC?

ISPs generally say that it’s faster to contact them directly than to file a complaint with the government. While that may be true, it seems clear that many customers believe their problems have not been resolved properly through the normal channels.

We’ve seen cases where customers got bill credits after contacting the FCC, and others where ISPs didn’t fix a problem until a customer contacted media outlets like Ars.