Here’s How One Cranky Comcast Customer Got Even

Twitter account automatically tweets every time Internet speeds are slow.

An anonymous Comcast customer has drawn the attention of the tech industry by setting up a “bot” to automatically tweet every time his Internet speeds dip below levels promised by the company.

Reddit user AlekseyP described his effort in an online technology forum earlier this week, saying he pays for download speeds of 150MB per second. The bot tweets whenever speeds dip below 50MB per second.

“I know some people might say I should not be complaining about 50mpbs down, but when they advertise 150 and I get 10-30 I am unsatisfied,” he wrote.

The bot has drawn the company’s attention, he said.

“Comcast has noticed and every time I tweet they will reply asking for my account number and address…usually hours after the speeds have returned to normal value,” he wrote. “I have chosen not to provide them my account or address because I do not want to singled out as a customer; all their customers deserve the speeds they advertise, not just the ones who are able to call them out on their BS.”

Ars Technica counters that, whatever Comcast’s problems, delivering proper Internet speeds doesn’t tend to be one of them. A recent report shows that “Comcast outperformed most ISPs” in delivering advertised speeds — though it struggled a bit more with promised speeds in excess of 105MB per second.

You can use AlekseyP’s inventiveness to your own advantage. Here’s the source code for the bot, so you can play along at home.

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