False advertising?

[Drako]

LOL, it's DSL.

If you're 100 feet from the CO you might get 3 Mbps.

 

[DesiPower]

Thats what happens when you have monopoly, what are going to do? switch to DSL??

 

[arcenite]

Originally posted by: DesiPower
Thats what happens when you have monopoly, what are going to do? switch to DSL??

 

[dullard]

Poor advertising, yes.

False advertising? No. Plus, the federal false advertising laws are stacked up against the consumer (basically you have to be a competitor not a consumer to sue). Your only choice would be if your state, NH, has more broad false advertising laws.

 

[mugs]

It does sound shady. Even Comcrap makes it pretty clear that the burst speeds are not sustained. I don't see any indication that their 3 mb/s is a burst speed, which they admit it is. "Up to" would be a valid defense if the problem was that you're too far from the CO or the lines are crap, but I don't think it's acceptable to advertise burst speeds qualified only with "up to."

Not much you can do other than write to your state's attorney general's office and find a different provider.

Edit: WTF, mixed up their and they're

 

[Chronoshock]

<3 FIOS
I ordered 20/5 and I get 20/5 100% of the time. There are even times I sit above 2.5MB/s (= 20Mb/s) close to 2.7 for a while.

OP should complain to the manager a bit, if that doesn't work look into other options

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: Chronoshock
<3 FIOS
I ordered 20/5 and I get 20/5 100% of the time. There are even times I sit above 2.5MB/s (= 20Mb/s) close to 2.7 for a while.

OP should complain to the manager a bit, if that doesn't work look into other options

I will give customer service a call sometime this week - maybe I will get lucky.

Originally posted by: mugs
It does sound shady. Even Comcrap makes it pretty clear that the burst speeds are not sustained. I don't see any indication that they're 3 mb/s is a burst speed, which they admit it is. "Up to" would be a valid defense if the problem was that you're too far from the CO or the lines are crap, but I don't think it's acceptable to advertise burst speeds qualified only with "up to."

Not much you can do other than write to your state's attorney general's office and find a different provider.

Yeah - he told me right up front that it is a 1.5Mbps line (well, he said megabyte..but we all know that's not it ), so the 'up to 3Mbps' excuse doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[Jeff7]

Probably the same way "unlimited" Internet isn't, or the way the food industry can say 0.5g = 0.0.

Real math has little meaning where marketing is involved.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Probably the same way "unlimited" Internet isn't, or the way the food industry can say 0.5g = 0.0.

Real math has little meaning where marketing is involved.

How many people here get half of their rated bandwidth on a daily basis, though?

 

[nace186]

I think what the OP wants to say is how can they advertise "Up to 3Mbps." when the line only support 1.5Mps.

On that note, I don't know. You might have to take them to court.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Probably the same way "unlimited" Internet isn't, or the way the food industry can say 0.5g = 0.0.

Real math has little meaning where marketing is involved.

How many people here get half of their rated bandwidth on a daily basis, though?

Anyone who has AT&T DSL or a lot of other DSL services. It's a common tactic, but they usually have a little asterisk with fine print to tell you the "real" bandwidth is half of that.

 

[Drako]

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Probably the same way "unlimited" Internet isn't, or the way the food industry can say 0.5g = 0.0.

Real math has little meaning where marketing is involved.

How many people here get half of their rated bandwidth on a daily basis, though?

How far away from the Central Office our you?

When I had DSL, I was about a mile away from the CO and I did not even get half of the "rated bandwidth".

 

[WA261]

It say "Up to", meaning it is possible. It is not stated it is a constant, or that you would ever see that peak/speed.

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: WA261
It say "Up to", meaning it is possible. It is not stated it is a constant, or that you would ever see that peak/speed.

What I was going to say. "Up to" is the biggest false advertising loophole, but it's common enough that you should know what it means OP.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: gorcorps

Originally posted by: WA261
It say "Up to", meaning it is possible. It is not stated it is a constant, or that you would ever see that peak/speed.

What I was going to say. "Up to" is the biggest false advertising loophole, but it's common enough that you should know what it means OP.

/facepalm

He told me it was a 1.5Mbps line.

 

[WA261]

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: gorcorps

Originally posted by: WA261
It say "Up to", meaning it is possible. It is not stated it is a constant, or that you would ever see that peak/speed.

What I was going to say. "Up to" is the biggest false advertising loophole, but it's common enough that you should know what it means OP.

/facepalm

He told me it was a 1.5Mbps line.

So there is no way in the universe a a 1.5 line cant spike to 3?

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: WA261

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: gorcorps

Originally posted by: WA261
It say "Up to", meaning it is possible. It is not stated it is a constant, or that you would ever see that peak/speed.

What I was going to say. "Up to" is the biggest false advertising loophole, but it's common enough that you should know what it means OP.

/facepalm

He told me it was a 1.5Mbps line.

So there is no way in the universe a a 1.5 line cant spike to 3?

In 15 months, I have not seen it happen. And no, if it's a 1.5Mbps line, I don't see how it'll spike to 3.

 

[WA261]

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: WA261

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: gorcorps

Originally posted by: WA261
It say "Up to", meaning it is possible. It is not stated it is a constant, or that you would ever see that peak/speed.

What I was going to say. "Up to" is the biggest false advertising loophole, but it's common enough that you should know what it means OP.

/facepalm

He told me it was a 1.5Mbps line.

So there is no way in the universe a a 1.5 line cant spike to 3?

In 15 months, I have not seen it happen. And no, if it's a 1.5Mbps line, I don't see how it'll spike to 3.

Maybe they want ya to run shotgun. =P

I still think it is just peak, I really do not know if it is possible to get a spike every now and then that allows them to claim this.

 

[Scouzer]

If you complain enough I betcha they'll just change your bill to say your paying for 1.5mbps service.

 

[xj0hnx]

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: Chronoshock
<3 FIOS
I ordered 20/5 and I get 20/5 100% of the time. There are even times I sit above 2.5MB/s (= 20Mb/s) close to 2.7 for a while.

OP should complain to the manager a bit, if that doesn't work look into other options

I will give customer service a call sometime this week - maybe I will get lucky.

Find out if you have a local option, and then skip over customer service, and talk to customer "retention". Time Warner's customer retention department bent over backwards to keep my business, wound up getting a month free, and had a tech come out and run a dedicated line from my modem to our switch box, because the sales rep lied to me, and I recorded up, and download speeds for amonth and showed them that I was not getting what I paid for.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Probably the same way "unlimited" Internet isn't, or the way the food industry can say 0.5g = 0.0.

Real math has little meaning where marketing is involved.

How many people here get half of their rated bandwidth on a daily basis, though?

My "up to 7Mbps" cable Internet is getting.....
Heh, well take your pick.
- 4.5Mbps from a server about 20 miles away, in Canada.
- 13.72Mbps from a server over 400mi away in NYC.
- 4.23Mbps from a server in LA.
- East coast of Australia, 1.00Mbps. Funny thing, the upload speed is only 0.1Mbps slower than it is anywhere in the US (apparently I'm capped at 0.5Mbps upstream).

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: Scouzer
If you complain enough I betcha they'll just change your bill to say your paying for 1.5mbps service.

They don't even offer a 1.5Mbps service..heh - they have a 768k, 3Mbps and 7Mbps. Fairpoint purchased Verizon's share of the phone system up here, and I'm thinking that maybe Verizon had everything set up at 1.5Mbps and Fairpoint didn't (or couldn't?) switch it all over to their own tiered system, so they left it and figured they'd just deal with the complaints..?

 

[nsafreak]

Originally posted by: Crusty

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage

Originally posted by: tasmanian
Comcast has a speed boost thing, that doesnt ever really turn on but can. Also remember the whole craptastic megabit and megabyte thing.

I get downloads around 7.6mb/s and my advertised speeds are 50mbps. Comcast kicks ass.

So you're getting less then 20% of your advertised speeds and you're happy?

mb/s = megabits per second.
mB/s = megaBYTES per second.

My advertised speeds are 6 mbps (yes megabits per second) and here's what my latest speedtest.net result is:

14.77 mbps downstream
4.82 mbps upsteam

This stays pretty consistent too throughout testing. I'm in Denver, CO and tested on Ft Lauderdale, Fl, Orem, UT and Bellingham, WA. I'm not including my Denver, CO test in the statistics because they definitely would not be fair since the test in my area is actually hosted by Comcast. So in essence I'd be doing a local network test of sorts.