f*** you, GCI: A Rant.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Have any of you fellow GCI customers read GCI's latest revision of their "Cable Modem Fair Use Policy?"  No?  Let me enlighten you:

Cable Modem Fair Use Policy
GCI previously offered some cable modem Internet service plans that included "unlimited downloads," meaning GCI neither billed for nor prevented additional data usage over any defined threshold in a given month. These plans, unlike GCI Dedicated Internet Access Services, were never designed to support continuous high-volume data transfers by individual customers and were always subject to fair and reasonable use of service conditions that are necessary to provide a quality broadband experience at affordable rates for all customers.

To maintain the superior quality and performance of GCI networks and ensure the highest level of service performance for all users - which could be disrupted by the usage patterns of a small number of customers - GCI has established data usage thresholds under the Fair Use Policy for all previously “unlimited download” cable modem Internet service plans. Under this policy, GCI has reviewed the monthly usage by service plan and established usage profiles under this Fair Use Policy that far exceed the average usage under each service plan. Usage that exceeds the monthly usage profiles will be considered a violation of this Fair Use Policy.

For a large majority of customers, normal usage activities are not expected to exceed the plan profiles defined below:
   

Plan Name	Usage
Ultimate Xtreme	40,000 MB
Ultimate Xtreme Family	60,000 MB
Ultimate Xtreme Entertainment	80,000 MB
Ultimate Xtreme Power	100,000 MB

Activities that involve extensive high-volume and continuous data transfer might cause your activity to exceed the expected monthly amount. Examples of these activities may include (but are not limited to) extensive use of streaming video and peer-to-peer file sharing programs, or an unsecured wireless signal.

GCI proactively identifies accounts with usage in excess of the plan profile. If your monthly usage exceeds the profile for your plan, GCI will provide the opportunity to upgrade your service plan or discuss how to maintain usage within the profile. GCI reserves the right to terminate service if a mutually agreed resolution cannot be reached.

To add a little dimension to this before I start ranting, here are the respective rates for the above service plans:

Plan	Monthly Rate
Ultimate Xtreme	$39.99
Ultimate Xtreme Family	$49.99
Ultimate Xtreme Entertainment	$69.99
Ultimate Xtreme Power	$99.99

Now, those prices are misleading because they are only for the internet service portion of the "bundle."  What they're not telling you (anywhere on the web site that I can find, in fact) is that in order to receive that price, data transfer rate, and monthly bandwidth, you must also pay for GCI's digital cable television service ($57.99 when part of a bundle), local phone service ($15.49 a month), and long distance service ($5.99 a month plus taxes and surcharges). 

Without factoring in the various FCC fees and whatnot, the above information brings the total cost of GCI's fastest, highest monthly bandwidth package to $179.46 per month!  That's actually the cost they quoted me on the phone, too, so at least we know their "customer service" staff are at least intelligent enough to figure out an adding machine.  The one I talked to was a complete jerk (woman jerk, at that) otherwise.

Oh, and did I mention that those speeds and transfer rates are not available for standalone cable modems?

I run a server, and when you run a server 100GB isn't a lot, especially when that server isn't the only internet-connected computer or device in the household.  What happens when you do go over?  BAM!  $5.12 per gig tacked on to your bill!  I don't know about you guys, but I'm sick of getting ripped off by GCI.  Those of you who live outside of Alaska can confirm this, but GCI is just about the only cable company that still meters their customers' bandwidth.  I have friends who tell me that they're paying $49.00 a month for 8Mb/s transfer rate and unlimited bandwidth!

What GCI is doing is highway robbery.  How are they getting away with it?  I'll tell you: no competition.  For very high speed broadband internet, they're the only show in town, so they can charge whatever the f*** they want to anybody who wants more than 3Mb/s.

Well, you know what?  I don't need more than 3Mb/s downstream, for a server it's upstream that counts (and 3Mb/s downstream is plenty for gaming and streaming video anyway).  GCI fails in that regard.  Unless you're willing to pay their ridiculous prices for their top-end services, then you're limited to 512Kb/s upstream.  My server has been operating on that specific size tube for years, and nobody complains.  I certainly don't need to pay nearly $200 a month to be force-fed cable television service that I don't even watch!

So, I looked into my options.  Well...option.  There's only one, really, if reliable broadband internet (wireless broadband isn't what I would consider "reliable," what with wireless signals being subject to the vagaries of weather, dead zones, drop outs, etc.) is what you're after: ACS.  Ooooh lookey here!  Unlimited data transfer with reasonable downstream and upstream speeds - local and long distance landline telephone service included (yes, I'm one of those artifacts that still keeps a wired telephone in the house for emergencies) - for less than a hundred bucks per month.  Granted, their monthly fee for a static IP address is twice that of GCI, but the overall cost is still less than what GCI is expecting us to pay.

We opened our GCI account in 1998.  As of Monday, July 12, all of their services are being canceled and replaced with ACS.  Permanently.  f*** you, GCI.  You just lost a customer of more than a decade because of your recent shenanigans.  Customers don't like being cornholed for what is increasingly being viewed as an essential service in our increasingly data-oriented society, I thought you had figured that out back when you decided to offer unlimited bandwidth to your "Ultimate Xtreme" customers. 

My mistake, won't happen again.

[Goman Fox]

I've never really liked GCI, we've had plenty of problems with them in the past (although Cat has been... 'persuasive' enough to get free service from them from time to time when those problems have interrupted our service a lot).  I kept trying to get Cat to switch to GCI but he always "needed" his ultra high speed internet.

Now, unfortunately, I don't think we could manage on ACS's best plan since it's more than just me and Cat using the internet here.  I just hope we don't go over the limits, lol.

Edit:  After looking online at their monthly usage thing, it claims we're over our 60GB limit by quite a bit... although I don't remember GCI's billing periods being two months long.  I hope they don't decide to charge us extra for what they're showing because Cat would have to raise hell, lol.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

You're only proving my point further, Fox. XD  I'm well aware of your past problems with GCI, having worked with C@ to try and solve them.  The fact that you're over your 60GB limit by "quite a lot" indicates that you guys are going to have quite the surprise on your bill when you receive it later this month....

[Goman Fox]

If there is an extra charge on our bill, there will definitely be some bitching from Cat to GCI though, because a single billing period is not from late May to late July, which seems to be what they're tracking as far as our "current monthly usage" is.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

You can check your bill online too, you know.   

[Goman Fox]

Yeah I know, but the last month that's been billed so far hasn't been any larger than usual.  I'm just worried about the next one, in case this mistake I see isn't caught on their end, lol.

[polarassasin]

upload isnt that great for alaska because everything is fed through a satalite at one point, yea.. they do ask a bit for certain things as far as package deals go, but if you do some more research, youl find what you need for the right price, im rocking 20 server towers right now, each with 6, 12 TB. HDD's i download and upload a lot of information, but when you dont have a cap on downloads or bandwidth, its all good, not sure what we have, but my dad works cell desk for gci and my brother is field tech. so we arnt getting a "special deal"  other than the fact my router sucks, im pretty pleased with what we have for where we are at, could be worse, could be stuck with DSL or Dial up o.o

yea, my dad works cell desk for GCI after working field tech, and my Brother works field Tech. out here in wasilla, and they both said you overlooked something, yea, the package deals are sh**, but if ya look again, you could EASILY get just internet and a phone line AND even a basic cable box if ya want for pretty cheep, unlimited down and up too.. AH, having nice things is cool

[Taylor-MadeAK]

upload isnt that great for alaska because everything is fed through a satalite at one point, yea.. they do ask a bit for certain things as far as package deals go, but if you do some more research, youl find what you need for the right price, im rocking 20 server towers right now, each with 6, 12 TB. HDD's i download and upload a lot of information, but when you dont have a cap on downloads or bandwidth, its all good, not sure what we have, but my dad works cell desk for gci and my brother is field tech. so we arnt getting a "special deal"  other than the fact my router sucks, im pretty pleased with what we have for where we are at, could be worse, could be stuck with DSL or Dial up o.o

Wow, I want some of what you're smokin'.  I bet it's faaaaantastic! 

None of the data coming into or going out of Alaska is "fed through a satalite [sic]" at any point, it all goes through the main fiber optic trunk that connects all of our communications to the rest of the United States by way of Seattle.  I hardly consider a 110 Gbps fiber optic line to be any kind of bottleneck, at that.  No, the only limitation on upstream speed is arbitrarily imposed by the ISP, not the hardware that connects Alaska to the rest of the World Wide Web (wow, haven't used that term in a while).

It's also fairly well-known that GCI Communications' field techs and other employees get perks in the way of discounted services.  Just because you're unaware of what perks your family might be getting doesn't mean they don't exist.  For us regular customers, however, no such advantages exist. 

DSL may be slower than cable (so bloody what, I have yet to download anything significant from the internet at over 900Kb/s even on my existing 6Mb cable modem, even from Steam), but at least the data throughput isn't metered and DSL customers don't have to worry about a nasty $5.12 per 1,000 megabytes surprise showing up on their bill.  As I stated before: 3Mb/s downstream is plenty for gaming, streaming video, and small-scale web server hosting.  Throughput is what has more impact, and that is where GCI is gouging their customers.

[polarassasin]

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[Taylor-MadeAK]

yea, my dad works cell desk for GCI after working field tech, and my Brother works field Tech. out here in wasilla, and they both said you overlooked something, yea, the package deals are sh**, but if ya look again, you could EASILY get just internet and a phone line AND even a basic cable box if ya want for pretty cheep, unlimited down and up too.. AH, having nice things is cool

I went easy on you the first time, but I have a reputation to uphold when it comes to dealing with people who make claims without providing any evidence to back them up.  Nothing personal, you understand, but you've brought this upon yourself.

You have completely missed - or worse: entirely disregarded - the entire point of my original rant, which was:

To maintain the superior quality and performance of GCI networks and ensure the highest level of service performance for all users - which could be disrupted by the usage patterns of a small number of customers - GCI has established data usage thresholds under the Fair Use Policy for all previously “unlimited download” cable modem Internet service plans.

The bold emphasis is mine, to illustrate that your family members are operating under outdated information.  According to their new Fair Use Policy - effective April 25th, 2010 - "unlimited down and up" no longer exists for residential accounts.  It doesn't matter if you're using a bundled cable modem or not.

If your brother (a poppy field tech?  would splain a lot, actually...) and dad (cell phone desk?!) are still telling residential customers (business accounts can still get unlimited usage, but it's so expensive that they won't even list the price of their plans on the web site) that can get unlimited bandwidth with their cable modem, then GCI obviously needs to spend more money on training their employees.

You cannot get "just internet and a phone line AND even a basic cable box if ya want for pretty cheep [sic]" from GCI.  The math just doesn't work.  The minimum cost to get those services would be the GCI Ultimate Package Plus, and I hardly consider $97.99 a month to be "pretty cheep [sic]."  I certainly don't consider 3,072 MB included monthly usage to be "unlimited down and up."  And I don't fucking want a cable box!

In closing, I reiterate: put the bong down.  I realize that it must be some incredible sh** if your dad and brother are smoking it too, but you're only proving Nancy Reagan right by abusing your brain in that manner.

[Goman Fox]

I remember meeting someone a few years ago that had a pretty good job with GCI, who basically said (without actually saying it) that he got incredible internet connections practically for free, because he worked for GCI.  And before Cat got his job at Charter, he even mentioned once the idea of working for GCI (even though I think he hated that idea, lol) just because we'd be able to get our services for really cheap.  Other than working for GCI, there's no such thing as "cheap service" with them unless you qualify for a Lifeline phone, unfortunately.

And TMAK, seriously, I'll tell you what I tell Cat all the time, "Leave the Butt alone!"  lol, just kidding.  I do think it's funny that the Dr. Butt thread gets linked from so many other threads though.

I was reading through the agreement for ACS, to make sure there was no hidden surprises (I was also bored) and they have a section that sounds like GCI's whole "constnat high-volume transfers are bad" thing... just without the "We're going to rape you in the ass with overage fees if you go over your small bandwidth limit" section.  ACS even mentions not allowing their users to have servers... but I imagine they're only really concerned with servers with huge amounts of traffic.

Honestly,  an 8Mbps/512Kbps connection (which is what we have), the 60GB/month they allow might be an acceptable amount for a single person, but I think most people with faster connections are sharing it with other people in their house.  On average we have about two out of three computers actively online, and in the evenings it's usually all three computers and an xbox 360 that's playing streaming videos from netflix.  I don't think 60GB is a realistic limit for a larger household...

Cat keeps talking about the plan Google has with their massively fast high speed internet and how he wants to get on it, lol.  Something about free connections at speeds far faster than GCI even provides, and connections even faster than that at prices below GCI's higher plans...  Sure would be nice if it happened.  I'd be plenty happy with just a cheap 10Mbps connection.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Oh come on, Fox!  Don't diss the Dr. Butt thread!  That sh** was classic!

In all seriousness, wanna fess up a link to the ACS stuff you were reading?  Maybe with a page and paragraph that drew your concern?  Because I went so far as to tell the lady at ACS that I had a personal web and e-mail server that receives 800-1200 HTTP hits a day, and the only thing she had to say about it was "Hey, that's great!"  I honestly didn't see anything in any of the stuff that I read that sounded remotely like what you've mentioned. O.o;

[Goman Fox]

ACS Internet Terms and Conditions: http://acsalaska.com/personal/internet/acceptable-use.asp

Usage Review

ACS manages its network for the benefit of all users.  To maintain the quality and performance of the ACS network, ACS reviews the overall statistics of its user community and identifies those accounts with usage in excess of expected ranges.  Normal use and occasional heavy use should not cause usage patterns to exceed the expected range.  Activities that involve extended, high-volume continuous data transfer might cause your activity to exceed expected ranges.  Examples of such activities might include, but are not limited to: extensive use of peer-to-peer file sharing programs, game hosting applications, or streaming video.  The hosting of a server of any kind, including for personal use, is prohibited.  If your usage pattern is excessive, you will be notified to either upgrade your service plan or reduce your usage pattern.  If you choose neither of these options, ACS reserves the right to terminate your service and/or account.

My guess is it's probably one of those things you agree to that they don't really care about unless it gets to be excessive, that way if you end up causing problems, they can point to their agreement and say "stop or we cut services."  Although if that's the case, their customer service people really need to be aware of the agreements their customers are signing so they know the facts.

They also have other interesting things in this agreement to, like their "prohibited illegal conduct" examples.

Posting obscene content (including child or adult pornography)

The first part is obvious, but I didn't realize posting material of two (or more) consenting adults was illegal...  Although maybe they wanted to leave it broad so they didn't have to go into descriptive detail of what is illegal, lol.

Pretending to be anyone you are not -- you may not impersonate another person (including celebrities), another ACS Internet customer, an ACS employee, or a civic or government leader;

This made me giggle a bit, any furries using ACS are screwed, lol.  Obviously not what they meant, but it's what I thought of.  The world must really hate furfags, lol.
OniC@: "I believe I'm an anthropomorphic bengal cat"  *cops bust into the house and take him away in handcuffs*

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Interesting.  The rep I spoke with at great length while setting up my account didn't seem to think my server would be an issue.  After all, that's the reason I'm paying for a static IP address.  Ah well, we'll see if they take issue with it later on down the road.

[Eternimus]

I currently have GCI. I switched from ACS because for some reason, even though I could ~pay~ for a 3mb connection, the apartment can't handle it, and I would be limited to 1.5-2mb AT BEST and that doesn't work here. I have three computers (two now) that are online, and two laptops, as well as a 360, PS3 and Wii. When everyone was online my lag would be retarded no matter what I did. So I got the GCI package. And then Vic started working, and wanted her own WoW account. So we maxed it out and she pays for half of it. 12mb connection is delicious. Everyone does their own thing and no one lags. And it was unlimited so that was fun. Then I look at this. You have three people playing WoW, and that'll run 1gb-5gb a day depending on how long you play for. I have a Netflix account, everyone has access to when they are here. 250mb-1gb per movie. And I'm limited to 100gb a month. Last month was 126GB. Wonderful.

Letter to GCI:

I was informed by a friend that you recently changed your unlimited policy to capped policy. This infuriates me. And I will warn you now. The first time you so much as attempt to charge me for overages when my signed up bill states "Ultimate Xtreme Power unlimited" and you switched it to a cap without so much as mentioning it to the customers or allowing us a chance to drop your service I will have you in court faster than you can blink. I already had this issue with AT&T and I legally DESTROYED them. You will be next if you attempt this. This is not a threat. This is a chiseled in stone promise.

I won't take it like TM does. I am way more aggressive.