Madasafish...5Gb just isn't enough!

Rock_fan35

Don't forget also that the Pipex deal you are referring to is for a 2mb service it isn't a MAX service. Their ADSL MAX prices start at £27.99 a month. I think if memeory serves you have to take their phone package too to get that 'reduced' price.

It's an unlimited service mind, but that's not relevent if we're talking about price for 5GB usage.

Rex_Mundi

espresso wrote:

This automated charge should be corrected because 1GB = 1000MB not 0.99GB or 990MB.

Other ISP's charge per extra MB used and do not round up to the nearest GB!

Customers should not have to ring customer services or send e-mails to argue for a refund that should not have been charged in the first place.

:rolleyes:

Sorry for being a bit picky here (and it actually makes it worse for Madasafish).

A GB in true terms is 1024MB, not 1000MB.

If you have a TRUE 5GB limit (not the sales talk ISPs use). This equates to 5120MB of data. Not 4999MB, or even 5000MB.

A very valid point can be raised here that Madasafish are guilty of false advertising (as are many other ISPs when they use the GB term to mean 1000MB).

If they advertise a 5GB limit, and take this as 5000MB, they are not using the term 5GB in the proper way.

This has only just occured to me (not only for Madasafish, but for a lot of other ISPs with GB limits).

I think that if this was challenged in the courts over charging for an extra GB as soon as you go over the 5001MB limit (which is under 5GB in reallity).

If the advert said 5GB limit, you would have a very strong case against any ISP that has stated this and tries to charge you extra as soon as you hit 5001MB.

Sorry Samara..............

I'm not trying to have a go or anything. I've never had to think about limits before (still on my completely unlimited Zen connection). When I saw the last few posts, this point came up in my mind, and I think this is a very valid point.

I'm looking forward to feedback on this idea..............

Rex_Mundi

Sorry to post again so soon...........

I've just had a look at the Madasafish website. Nowhere on the site does it claim a GB is 1000MB. The term they use is (quote from THIS page ).............

What is a GB?

A GB (or Gigabyte) is an amount of data equal to around one billion bytes.


This is very true. A GB is exactly 1,073,741,824 bytes (equal to 1024MB). So it is around a billion bytes, but it is more than 1000MB.

I've also gone all the way through the Ts&Cs. There is nowhere that states a GB is 1000MB (they can't because it's not true).

I'm sooooooo interested to see what you say about this Samara.

Rock_fan35

At no point in this thread does anyone claim a gig is 1000Mb either.

The boring fact is that Madasafish have been totally honest and open with their terms and condidions.

The anoraks can argue all they want about what constitutes a gig and what doesn't.

The fact remains once you hit the 5GB amount, you've effectively gone over into the next Gig and have to pay the £2.

If you don't like it choose another ISP, there's loads out there.

To be an anorak myself for a minute, 4.9999999999999 is under 5GB and should mean no charge. 5.00000000001 could be taken to mean over the 5, and chargable.

If MAAF choose to listen to a complaint an decide that anything less than 5.01 means you aren't over the 5GB limit then good for them.

How many other companies listen to individual grievences and act on them? Not many.

Rex_Mundi

Rock_fan35 wrote:

At no point in this thread does anyone claim a gig is 1000Mb either.

Sorry, this is not correct.

espresso wrote:

This automated charge should be corrected because 1GB = 1000MB not 0.99GB or 990MB.

It was this statement made in this thread that got me thinking about what a 5GB limit actually is. As I've already pointed out, I don't normally have to think about limits, because I'm on a completely unlimited (and unshaped) package with Zen (and have been for quite a while).

My theory applies to any ISP that takes a GB as 1000MB, not only MAAF. My statement about going to court may seem over the top, but was made as an example (in reallity, you would have to be a fool going to court over such small amounts). What I mean is that I think anyone would have a good case to claim back any charge for an extra GB if you downloaded say 5075MB on a monthly download limit of 5GB (which in reallity is 5120MB).

I brought this up purely as a discussion point. I'm looking forward to see Samaras view (an official POV from within an ISP).

.......................

I have not raised this point to have a go at anyone. I think my point has some validity, and really I'm interested to see what an ISP thinks about this.

I'm VERY impressed that Samara takes time to come here to offer support to MAAF users. Normally, CS staff stick to their own support forums, or the bigger boards at sites like ADSLGuide (another favourite site of mine). In some cases, they don't even do this (look at how E7 staff have been ignoring their own customers for many months now, even going as far as not answering support tickets for months).

This is also why I like forums. If anyone believes they have a valid point, they are good places to bring them up as a matter of debate.

ykloke

I am on a 5GB package with my ISP (f2s), and when I click on my account details, it tells me that I am allowed 5120 MB before any additional charges are levied.

I'm not aware of evidence in this thread to say that any individual ISP is claiming that 5GB is only 5000 MB, so perhaps there really isn't an issue here.

Rex_Mundi

Red_Cat wrote:

Well I was informed that the 1Gb over 5Gb goes up to 5.99Gb. So 6.0Gb counts as part of another Gb, so I was charged for 2 additional Gbs. As such I was told that I would have to pay for 2Gb usage.

Luckily, Samara was on the case and common sense prevailed. She was kind enough to arrange for me to get a refund that will be applicable next month.

So thanks Samara for your help.

This post makes it look like MAAF use 1000MB as a GB. Although Samara was good enough to help out this member in this instance. It looks like there may be confusion in the company as to how big a GB is (although I could have read this post wrong, maybe MAAF meant that up to 6134MB=5.99GB)

bargainaddict

We have been with MAAF for a few months and on the whole are very pleased. However we went over by 1point something last month and incurred charges which is fine cos we got the extra usage e-mails from them. There is also the facility to check your monthly allowance so you know if you are near your limit.

However, I would really like to see a rollover of unused allowance, as the previous 2 months we only used 3point something. Maybe naive thought?

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hello Rex Mundi,

We measure our usage to the byte. Therefore our 5GB actually amounts to 5120MB. And each MB is made up of 1024 kB, which are made up of 1024Bytes.

However, when we display our customers’ usage in My Account, we don’t go down to this level. We simply display to 2 decimal places the number of GB used. Therefore a displayed usage of 2.12GB is actually 2171MB.

A user who has a monthly usage of 5.00GB could indeed be charged for an extra GB of usage for that month. If their usage was 5121MB (i.e. one MB over their included usage) they would get charged the extra £2 for going over their included monthly amount. However, in My Account it would still show as 5.00GB as we’re only using two decimal places.

Also - thank you for the compliment in your post of 06-05-2006 3:43 AM, I feel appreciated

Kind regards,
Samara

Rex_Mundi

Thanks for clearing that up Samara. It was seeing someone in the thread state that 1000MB=1GB that got me thinking this way.

It is very good seeing examples of excellent customer service nowadays. Far too often, many companies seem to relegate this side of the service in the race for offering lower prices, or for profit.

You would be well qualified for a job at Zen (who are also reknowned for their excellent CS):rotfl: