BTs so called 'Fair Usage Policy' is a scam

Legacy_user

So for 2 months in summer BT have charged us £20 extra for exceeding our usage allowance for the first time. We are on option 1, and have a 10GB limit. We were quite shocked as nobody in the family had used the internet any more than usual (if anything, a little less, as we went on holiday). We called up their helpline, who were very rude and basically told us that if we were not happy we could upgrade to option 2 or 3. Instead of making a fuss, we just paid the bill and took the following actions:

1. Installed bandwidth trackers on our house computer and laptop (the only 2 computers in the house). These track our downloads and uploads automatically.
2. Changed our wifi password to a very long, and much more secure password to ensure no-one was using our wifi.

So last month our 2 meters tracked 8.25GB of usage in total. We were very careful to note down our usage every day, and did not delete any history files from the computers, so every single website was tracked.

But yesterday we got an email stating that we have apparently used 28GB in 1 month and were being charged another £18!

I called BT instantly and told them about the trackers, and they just would not listen, they can't even provide proof of how we exceeded the limit. I refuse to pay the £18. I can just imagine this happening every month, even if we NEVER use the internet. They just impose charges upon us for nothing. To make things worse, I can't even switch to another provider, because I am on an 18 month contract. :mad::mad::mad:

I have no idea what to do. What are my rights?

ACDeag

candyflossing wrote: »

So for 2 months in summer BT have charged us £20 extra for exceeding our usage allowance for the first time. We are on option 1, and have a 10GB limit. We were quite shocked as nobody in the family had used the internet any more than usual (if anything, a little less, as we went on holiday). We called up their helpline, who were very rude and basically told us that if we were not happy we could upgrade to option 2 or 3. Instead of making a fuss, we just paid the bill and took the following actions:

1. Installed bandwidth trackers on our house computer and laptop (the only 2 computers in the house). These track our downloads and uploads automatically.
2. Changed our wifi password to a very long, and much more secure password to ensure no-one was using our wifi.

So last month our 2 meters tracked 8.25GB of usage in total. We were very careful to note down our usage every day, and did not delete any history files from the computers, so every single website was tracked.

But yesterday we got an email stating that we have apparently used 28GB in 1 month and were being charged another £18!

I called BT instantly and told them about the trackers, and they just would not listen, they can't even provide proof of how we exceeded the limit. I refuse to pay the £18. I can just imagine this happening every month, even if we NEVER use the internet. They just impose charges upon us for nothing. To make things worse, I can't even switch to another provider, because I am on an 18 month contract. :mad::mad::mad:

I have no idea what to do. What are my rights?

Are you sure you have security on your wifi connection, an old BT hub could have insecure WEP connection which someone has hacked into and is using your bandwidth. No guarantees this is the cause but it could be an explanation. If you have no security at all then this is very likely the cause.

System

ACDeag wrote: »

Are you sure you have security on your wifi connection, an old BT hub could have insecure WEP connection which someone has hacked into and is using your bandwidth. No guarantees this is the cause but it could be an explanation. If you have no security at all then this is very likely the cause.

We have the new HomeHub, and change the encryption key frequently. Is there any way to tell whether someone is using your wifi?

Graz-D

You are much better off just turning off the router when it's not in use. Apply this to any router, not just HomeHub.

An easy way to see if your internet is being used is to look at the router's lights when you aren't using the internet. If they're flashing, data is being transferred.

The best tip I have is not to go with BT. Overpriced, bad value for money, poor customer service and the HomeHubs are a joke. I'm on O2 with an unlimited plan so have no worries.

Torby

tha allowance includes uploads and downloads, do you watch a lot of streaming video....Iplayer etc or are you using any file sharing programs?

Finally, are you living in a "student" area....there are a lot of people using wi-fi in those areas...and some are smart enough to "piggyback" ordinary users....

And finally finally...go to this website
http://maps.fon.com/
and type in your address and postcode....you will see everyone of your neighbours who have a BT hub in your vacinity....you can zoom in really close....

going to sound like Michael Caine now; but not a lot of people know this....
I think users of the "new" BT hub are automatically signed up to FON without their knowledge (its hidden in your T&Cs) this is how BT can offer subscribers "roaming" broadband all over the country...as I understand it....this is NOT reflected in your bill or shown as part of your usage....but we all have our experiences of BT

If you're not on P2P, you don't watch a lot of streaming video, your encryption is GOOD, this is the only thing I can think of....hope its of some help...

DatabaseError

look into MAC filtering, also make sure the router is using WPA not WEP encryption.
if BT are counting up+down ...and you've tracked 8.5gb down, you're gonna have to get a different allowance or change your habits!
10GB/month is not really enough for modern usage over a couple or more PCs

Frozenace

1) Twitter the case and say that you don't think that automatically overcharging you is fair and that they should have either recommended to upgrade or given you a warning message (they are very good at this if you don't pay your bills)

2) Twitter that you are not feeling valued and that you will take your business elsewhere, including line rental, maybe they'll get the message

3) check what your lock-in period is, be and o2 both offer 2-3 months free and cashback too.

BT_company_representative

Candyflossing, can you PM me your details and I will check out what is happening.

Thanks,
Jon

BT Support

mrJ_5

or turn off wireless completely, and use the wired ethernet solution - that way no one who isn't directly connected to your hub cannot get online

System

Torby wrote: »

If you're not on P2P, you don't watch a lot of streaming video, your encryption is GOOD, this is the only thing I can think of....hope its of some help...

Thank you for the replies so far. In answer to most of your questions:

The 8.25GB tracked usage was for BOTH uploads and downloads on both household computers.

We do not use P2P at all. We watch Youtube videos and visit news websites and post on several forums but all the usage was tracked and websites saved last month so we know for certain we did not exceed the limit.

We have a WPA password which we have changed recently.

I have emailed BTs support team and will await their reply, as their phone helpline is useless.

This did all begin to happen when we joined BT FON (I have since cancelled our BT FON) but am concerned someone may have located and hacked into our wifi. We live in a central area of London near 2 colleges so I wouldn't be surprised if someone has hacked. We try to keep the modem off when not using it, it never flashes, even when we use it, so I have no way of telling whether a hacker is using it.

Ruby_Moon

I would be interested to know how you get on because the exact same thing is now happening to us.
We have used around the 20 - 30 gb a month on the Unlimited option...and BT have said that this is ok but don't like it if we were to go over 100 GB.
We have (for the last 2 months now) been getting emails halfway through the month saying that we are nearing the limit (over 80gb) but we have no idea why as nothing has changed.
If we are on unlimited and we use 25 GB they are ok with that. If another month we then use 175GB then they should be ok with that two, as we haven't used more than 100GB over the months.
BT seem to be only happy when it goes their way and we can't even figure out where the extra download is coming from.