BT Excess Usage Charge

stevehafc

I've just received my BT Broadband bill for the next three months and have been charged an extra £71 for excess usage charge over the last 3 months, 25gb one month, 35gb the next and 22gb the other. I use Sky Player and iplayer on occaision and assume this is what has pushed me over the limit although BT's website says that even for the 10Gb limit you could watch 25 hours of iplayer a month and I doubt I got near that with the odd football and cricket viewing.

Anyway BT say they will email and warn you when you are approaching or over your usage limit so you can upgrade or limit your use, I never received an email for any month so never assumed I was going over or near the limit, surely after three months they should have been in touch before sending a bill. I'm only halfway through my contract but seriously considering just moving to Sky and getting the tv, broadband and phone deal with them, is there a best way to get out of a contract early or will the charges be heavy? Because they haven't sent a warning email is there any way I can leave on account of them going against their word or even get this bill reduced?

penrhyn

I suggest you get yourself a network usage monitor like NetMeter, and make sure if you use wireless that it is secure.
BT is one of the most expensive broadband suppliers but beware exit penalties, even if you are out of contract.

stevehafc

Thanks I'll have a look and get that. Frustrated that there was no way I would know I was going over, never have before and have never received an email or phone call warning me or offering the chance to up my service. Then they hit me with 3 months worth of excessive usage. I could accept one and the offer or warning but they're taking the mickey a little.

penrhyn

Here is a link, I'm running it with Vista OK.

http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/index.php?action=tpmod;dl

unabrooks

Have just had a similar prob .When I first joined BT 3 month ago I expressed concern that I would exceed the minimum package and was told not to worry as they'd send me an email if I was near , I was still concerned as the kids are always on You tube etc so phoned BT again and said I wanted to upgrade , they sucessfully talked me out of it (using personal recommendation i.e." my wife online nearly all day and we only use 7gb per month" ) and anyway they would send me a warning E mail . as I never received such an e mail I felt happy all was ok .Today I got my bill and have been charged £29 extra ! I worked out that BT will make more money out of me if I DON'T upgrade than if I pay the extra £10 per month for unlimited , so that's obviously why they talked me out of it . How stupid do I feel ? and I still have 15 months to go .
I won't even go into how they paid someone elses bill from my account !

smcaul

To be honest I would be asking them to quantify and verify that they are correct. The amounts you are talking about are massive for the average user, I would expect to see usage like that with a moderate to high torrent user, but not from normal day to day surfing and the odd use of iplayer.

If you watch iplayer in HD then approx 1 hour of tv is equivelent to 1gb of data ish, a bit rough but will give you an idea. So you would have to watch 35 hours a month or over an hour a day in HD, I assume you would know if this were the case!!!

Is there anyone else in the house who has a connection, i.e. kids?

I would definitely be challenging BT on this though!

timmmers

unabrooks wrote: »

Have just had a similar prob .When I first joined BT 3 month ago I expressed concern that I would exceed the minimum package and was told not to worry as they'd send me an email if I was near , I was still concerned as the kids are always on You tube etc so phoned BT again and said I wanted to upgrade , they sucessfully talked me out of it (using personal recommendation i.e." my wife online nearly all day and we only use 7gb per month" ) and anyway they would send me a warning E mail . as I never received such an e mail I felt happy all was ok .Today I got my bill and have been charged £29 extra ! I worked out that BT will make more money out of me if I DON'T upgrade than if I pay the extra £10 per month for unlimited , so that's obviously why they talked me out of it . How stupid do I feel ? and I still have 15 months to go .
I won't even go into how they paid someone elses bill from my account !

I doubt that unlimited means what it seems to with BT. I was once kicked off by them without warning for going over unlimited regularly...losing my email addy which I used for business...and so were a dozen of the people I knew for the same thing.

I pay BT about 40 quid a quarter for NO phone calls and NO internet either...mine isn't capped at all though so at 80ish gigs a month that's important to me. 40 quid a month for 2 copper wires because they hold the local exchange to ransom .

The !!!!! are in the wrong business really aren't they, BT could teach them a thing or two about extortion and threatening behaviour

t

iniltous

If BT havent warned you of the excess data usage then you have a good case for calling them and getting the charges waived, but can you use sky player if you are not already a sky tv customer ??
Although not perfect have a look at the stats on your homehub, it shows the amount of data downloaded/uploaded since the last sync, it may give an idea of how much data is being consumed (total data (up and down) divided by how many days since sync times by 30 to give a rough monthly usage), also check your wireless network is secure check on the network if any devices you dont recognise have been connected

unabrooks

Just to say writing to head office works ! I did and although it took a while they refunded all the excess usage charge (which at the time of my last post was £29 then a very similar amount the next month) , and gave me a very reasonable and much cheaper than advertised monthly rate for unlimited broadband which, so far touch wood and everything else , has worked out well for me. I'd advise anyone who has a similar problem to go straight to the top , keep notes of everything , telephone calls , names , any e mails you've sent and received print and include.