Opponent's clock timed out, but I lost

I was playing a player, and I made a move. I then waited for him to move for about 20 minutes, and I saw his clock go down to zero. I couldn't make any moves as I was waiting for his turn. When the clock went down to zero, nothing happened at all. I was confused, so I refreshed the page. It then showed the game as me losing in my archive, with a move that he made that never appeared on my screen when I was waiting. My connection works perfectly, and I have my browser up to date. I never had the opportunity to move or respond to his person, as it showed him timing out on his turn, but I have lost 8 points.

I tried emailing chess.com about this, but they gave me a very obvious automated response. I probably can't change any about the game or the points, but how can I prevent this in the future? I don't want to look like someone who abandons games. Please help me

You were disconnected. Sometimes the client will disconnect but the client doesn't show the disconnected state. I'm not sure why exactly the client doesn't see that though.

The following link have some suggestions that might help some with disconnects.

https://support.chess.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1444918-my-internet-connection-is-fine---why-am-i-getting-disconnects-

https://www.chess.com/blog/News/how-to-adjust-your-live-chess-connection

Thank you Martin

All traffic flows through the Live chess server process. All chat, all moves, all move timestamps.  Anything your opponent could try to do to impact your connection would only impact them. Your connection information isn't available to them. 

Ok thanks.

i just accept this is something that occurs time to time. The only consistent factors have been that the opponents have been of a lower rating. I personally believe it's a strategy, not a technical issue, whereby the person waiting gets so fed up they timeout. I encouragingly did receive a message from chess.com stating that they believed an opponent had played unfairly. In similar circumstances. I guess it would've self evidential if someone has accrued wins through opponents 'timing out'. I'm sure chess.com can safeguard players through some policing and observation of this unsportsmanship (I will call it that for now) behaviour.