Talktalk and their download usage charges

KILL_BILL

Ive notcied on anothter thread that a person was having problems with BT and their charging for going over download limit

On talktalk it has been noted by quite a few people that they have been sent out emails saying that they have downloaded way over their limit of 40gb a month

myself i received a email saying that i downloaded way over the 40gb download limit and in the past 11 days they say i have already recahed the 40gb download limit which i know is not correct

i have a wired ethernet connection and not wireless so am curious as to where they are getting there figures from etc

anyone else receive these emails etc ?

penrhyn

Do you use a program like NetMeter to log your usage?

andrew_tr1

Hello

I too received an email from TT about my usage for August being over my limit. they said I used 60GB :eek: which must be a lie because I only surf occasionally and read email. I don't download or stream anything.

My wireless network is secured so it is not like any one s "borrowing" my connection!!

I looked on the TT website and found that they have a forum section so I looked on their forums and there are LOADS of customers saying they got these emails so we are not alone!!

The cynical posts on the TT forum, are saying that it is TT way to scare people into taking out the extra download limit cover at £4 a month. so customers wont get hit with a £5 charge for going over.

There is currently NO WAY to check how much of your limit you have used on TT so we have to take TT word for the amount we are using!! This seems very wrong in my opinion! :mad:

What is it stop TT just saying, you used XX amount this month and take the £5 charge out of our accounts!!

In fact the only way to get any sort of usage from TT is to post on the forum and ask for it, then wait and hope they reply!

some people that have received these emails have done this and I have posted some replies from TT below...

(this is not my usage!)

Current Month: Download: 18937 MB Upload: 114 MB
08/2009 Download: 91735 MB Upload: 2049 MB
07/2009 Download: 17444 MB Upload: 437 MB
06/2009 Download: 18420 MB Upload: 705 MB

and there is

Current Month: Download: 23882 MB Upload: 1579 MB
08/2009 Download: 134744 MB Upload: 51892 MB
07/2009 Download: 47859 MB Upload: 2505 MB

and

Current Month: Download: 643 MB Upload: 90 MB
08/2009 Download: 82003 MB Upload: 289 MB
07/2009 Download: 7178 MB Upload: 563 MB

in each of these examples you can see that Augusts' downloads are a lot higher than other months!

I think that TT have made a mistake and are refusing to correct it.

In the T&C for TT, it says you get one (1) warning about being over your limit and then they we start taking the £5 out every time you go over the limit. even if you go over your limit months after the warning email. it is a "1 strike and your out" rule!

So now I have had my warning ( albeit wrongly!) they can take money when they see fit. and as I mentioned there is no way to monitor usage ( bar emailing them, and who is to say they are correct) so they can just make up the figures when they want a bit of extra cash!

I think that this will all end in several people ( me included ) contacting OFCOM.


Any way your not alone!

ttfn

A

Matt_A_2

Hi,

After spending a large part of this morning being transferred around the TalkTalk customer service system, I believe I can add the following.

The customer service team only have access to total bandwidth usage figures (upload and download), not a breakdown of the sessions that make up the total.

The customer service team do not know how the total usage figures are calculated. They just know that there is an automated system and accept what it tells them.

I therefore questioned how they expect me to trust the system's calculations and asked for a log of the IP addresses that TalkTalk have assigned to my account during the last month and the bandwidth used during each session (the equivalent of an itemised telephone bill). This would allow me to verify that the total was made up of legitimate connections.


After being bounced more than half-a-dozen times for this seemingly straightforward request, the customer service team agreed to escalate the issue. At this point they admitted that they had had a number of people querying their usage limits and agreed to the following:

• If there is an issue with TalkTalk's system and the usage has been calculated incorrectly, TalkTalk will not provide me with the logs (as they will obviously be incorrect) but will write to me informing me that there has been a mistake.
• If they are happy that the system is calculating bandwidth usage correctly then they will provide me with the logs so that I can verify that I recognise the date/time and duration of my internet usage session, as well as the amount downloaded / uploaded.

It would appear that TalkTalk are not overly confident in the usage figures that they have issued and have no easy way of verifying that they are correct. If you suspect that the figure TalkTalk have given you is incorrect then give them a call and dispute it.

Lastly, don't be fobbed off if they start to say that they don't have detailed logs of what was downloaded or can't provide this detail because of the Data Protection Act. Quite simply, you don't need to know what was downloaded, you only need to know how much was downloaded and when.

Drop me a PM if you have any questions.