Comcast Data Caps Document Leak, Shows Company Sugarcoating Terminology As it Tests Customer Tolerance With ‘Fairness’

Newly extended Comcast data caps and the leak of its instructional document indicate the company is training its staff to politely inform the customers that their data usage will soon be subjected to a ceiling. Interestingly, the company appears to be trying to sugarcoat the bad news with some clever use of alternative terminology, which might help soften the blow.

Comcast recently expanded its 300 GB monthly data cap to several new markets. According to Geek, Comcast may be testing the limits of customer outrage, but through using alternate information, the company is attempting to ensure its customers don’t feel marginalized. Leaked documents strongly indicate the company wants to convey to its customers that the data caps, which are bound to upset quite a few, aren’t intended to help keep the service running without hitting snags.

Leaked documents that outline the procedure about addressing queries about the data caps, indicate the company is playing the “fairness” card. Apparently the goal is “fairness and providing a more flexible policy to our customers.”

The leaked document might indicate the company is fully aware of the rather disastrous consequences of limiting data usage. Apart from FCC complaints, Comcast is bound to receive hundreds of angry letters and phone calls after they get significantly inflated bills with eye-watering overages. To help its representatives address majority of the unhappy customers, Comcast seems to have created a document meant strictly for internal circulation only. However, it seems the document has somehow managed to get leaked and now is up on the internet for scrutiny by bereaved Comcast customers.

Comcast has attempted to get the documents off the internet using DMCA, but copies of same currently exists on a Reddit thread. The leaked document clearly outlines the pricing structure in detail. However, what stands out is the way Comcast instructs its customer service representatives to respond to customer queries about the data caps. The representatives have been given out very specific language when they are to address the issue. For example, Comcast representatives mustn’t refer to the data caps, as, well, caps.

The representatives have been asked to mention that the data caps as “Data Usage Plan.” Moreover, when the customer asks why Comcast is forcing such limitations, the representatives have to answer that the measures are about “fairness” and the company is implementing the data cap, oops, sorry, “Data Usage Plan,” “to provide a more flexible policy to our customers.” Under no circumstance are the people answering the phones to say Comcast is trying to limiting data usage because the company is having a hard time handling the workload, also referred to as “network congestion.”

According to Comcast, the data caps are meant to offer a way to allow customers to pay as per their usage, instead of offering a simple and uniform plan. Justifying the same, Charlie Douglas, executive director of corporate communications at Comcast, said as follows.

“This plan sets up a mechanism that those who use more, pay more and those who use less, pay less. We do think this is fair. We will continue to evaluate our policies and evolve as the Internet evolves. These policies continue to just be in a trial mode.”

The data cap implementation is certainly in trial mode, because Comcast has implemented four different data usage trials in the United States, reported Philly Mag. The most common plan has data cap set at 300 GB, with each additional 50 GB costing Comcast customers $10. Customers in Florida can buy a true unlimited data pack at $30, while those in Comcast’s Big South territory like Atlanta, Shreveport, Louisiana, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, will have to shell out $35 in case they don’t want to be bothered by repeated reminders, which Comcast will send as the customers near their monthly quota and even exceed it.

[Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images, Reddit]