Ban Use of word Unlimited

reddwarf2002

before_hollywood wrote: »

but a fair use policy in a lot of cases is common sense

if you went to an all you can eat buffet and ate astronomical amounts they would throw you out

That's exactly my point. They should be allowed to throw you out because you've abused it.

However, they should not be able to come to your table and say "excuse me fatman, you've eaten a lot so we think we'll just charge you for the extra!"

before_hollywood

reddwarf2002 wrote: »

That's exactly my point. They should be allowed to throw you out because you've abused it.

However, they should not be able to come to your table and say "excuse me fatman, you've eaten a lot so we think we'll just charge you for the extra!"

in a social situation like that throwing you out would be embarrasing though.

with an isp they will either cut your connection or make it unusably slow

MrsBartolozzi

before_hollywood wrote: »

but a fair use policy in a lot of cases is common sense

if you went to an all you can eat buffet and ate astronomical amounts they would throw you out

I seem to remember that Homer did just this and took the owner of the Flying Dutchman to court - and won - even though his lawyer was Lionel Hutz!

Seriously though, the phrase "fair usage policy" annoys me more. I know what unlimited means, fair usage is purely open to speculation and subject to change.
The phrase "up to" when used to sell you a particular internet bandwidth is more misleading IMO. Sometimes it means in relation to your PC and router/modem combo and what they can manage to deal with, and if I am paying for 8Mb and only get 5Mb cos I have antiquated equipment then that's fine by me. When I pay for 8Mb and the BT line will only manage (outwith my control); or the ISP are curbing my line to, say 5Mb then I should not be paying for 8Mb!!!
I hate it when, having phoned up in the past about slow line speeds, I am palmed off about my equipment being crap (when it did significantly better yesterday:rolleyes:) and being told to clear cookies etc (I do nothing at this point, just note down what to do later) and magically the speed increases, me having done nothing. Something fishy there!

If an ISP are not able to service 100% of their customers at 100% capacity at any single time then they have too many customers - imagine if they were electricity companies, after the big match when everyone goes to make a cup of tea there was only enough power being supplied to the house for the kettle or the TV, not both - how ridiculous would the company look.

Sorry rant over:D:o.

DarkConvict

They should cut you off /warn you about using it. But never charge you imo as i was a few posts up.

As you say above, you can't charge people in a all you can eat restaurant for eating to much. Charging for something you have already paid for, to me is something they should be in big print, not the small print on the back which is a url to a website with t&c's.

croft08

I dont think the word 'Unlimited' should be used nor i think fair usage is that clear. Yes I understand they cant have all of us texting/downloading etc. all day long as this costs. I feel allot of the ways they word it, small print etc. is just misleading.

Something like, 500mb download limit but continuous use over that you should be charged extra or have your service cut off. You cant say unlimited then the one day they go over 500mb you charge them. A simple phone call from the provider saying "Sir/Mrs last month you went over the limit if you continue to do this we will have to charge you xx to add one extra MB".

I'm not an expert but Unlimited is basically a lie and they shouldn't be allowed to use it.

before_hollywood

on phone billing systems the fair useage policies exist because the systems have to give everything a number in order for it to be on the account at all.

how would you react if your phone got disconnected or barred if you went over a reasonable useage amount? i bet all the money in my wallet (which ok i confess isnt much) you would hit the roof

fiish

If the said service providers have a limit defined in their Fair Use Policy then these limits should be advertised as the package. For example, advertising '3000 texts a month' for mobile or '20GB downloads per day' for internet. In those cases I would see charging extra for overuse to be justified, because the limits are defined.

Advertising an unlimited service and then putting the actual limits in fine print is misleading IMO, and I feel that billing for exceeding those obscured (I won't say hidden, because they are spelled out but often in a smaller font) limits is wrong.

How about a friendly message to the customer when they are exceeding the fair use policy then?

DarkConvict

before_hollywood wrote: »

on phone billing systems the fair useage policies exist because the systems have to give everything a number in order for it to be on the account at all.

how would you react if your phone got disconnected or barred if you went over a reasonable useage amount? i bet all the money in my wallet (which ok i confess isnt much) you would hit the roof

I would be happy to hear from the operator i had exceed usage and that phone/text/internet which ever was exceed would stop until next months allowance came into affect, rather than get stung with a huge bill that takes months to sort out.

sporedude

croft08 wrote: »

I dont think the word 'Unlimited' should be used nor i think fair usage is that clear. Yes I understand they cant have all of us texting/downloading etc. all day long as this costs. I feel allot of the ways they word it, small print etc. is just misleading.

Something like, 500mb download limit but continuous use over that you should be charged extra or have your service cut off. You cant say unlimited then the one day they go over 500mb you charge them. A simple phone call from the provider saying "Sir/Mrs last month you went over the limit if you continue to do this we will have to charge you xx to add one extra MB".

I'm not an expert but Unlimited is basically a lie and they shouldn't be allowed to use it.

Or how about you wipe your own bottom and keep ontop of it yourself? Its perfectly okay to use the word unlimited, It takes just two mins to read the T +C's to see what limits there are. Your petition = Waste of time.

Oh and DarkConvict, Thats why they have a system to check it for yourself, Why should networks have to do everything for customers? Too many lazy and ignorant people who own mobile phones expect it all done for them. :rolleyes:

phillh79

DarkConvict wrote: »

I would be happy to hear from the operator i had exceed usage and that phone/text/internet which ever was exceed would stop until next months allowance came into affect, rather than get stung with a huge bill that takes months to sort out.

So you would prefer to be without your internet/phone for the remainder of the month?

Virgin do seem to cap my internet quite often but i live in a house with 6 people who all do a lot of downloading.

It does get fustrating at peak times but i knew unlimited actually meant subject to fair usage so i can't complain against virgin for that but they should never have advertised it as Unlimited.