Sky automatic upgrade on broadband

GV29

:mad::mad:

Hi all,

I have received a letter from SKY stating that as we have exceeded our internet usage (2GB) twice in the past 6 months, they have upgraded us to the unlimited package which will cost as £7.50. I am fuming! We do use the internet everyday to check emails/internet browsing but we never download anything.
Before we had our internet in our sky package so it was free.
Are they allowed to do this? They said its under contract.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Is it worth me changing my internet provider?
Thanks in advance.

espresso

You seem to be fuming because you have been told that you have exceeded the free 2GB monthly usage limit twice. Do you not monitor your data usage yourself?

A monthly limit of 2GB is very small and many people use 2GB each day. It would appear that you are obviously using a lot more than you think that you are.

Yes of course they can change your package and charge you accordingly, your ignorance is no excuse if you are using more than your monthly allowance!

gonzo127

unfortunatly yes they can do this as it is the the terms and conditions on their service. however you can downgrade after a month back to the 2gb free package although this will not reset the 'twice in 6 months' counter so if you go over it again they will automatically upgrade you again. - i am not sure how many times you can downgrade back to the 2gb package

best thing to do is to make sure you sign up to the online account management on sky.com as there is a broadband usage monitor supplied there which is the one they use.

on top of this however i would download and install a seperate broadband monitor on your system (i personally like the thinkbroadband one) so you can monitor how much you are using on your system and compare this to what sky says you are using - if there is a large discrepancy you should change the password on your wireless or turn it off if you can to make sure no one is hijacking your connection, and if you do use the thinkbroadband one you can set it to give you a alarm when it reaches 1.5GB so then you can keep track on the Sky one as they will not accept any other monitor information so in reality the one on your system is just to help you

i personally am a little worried about what Sky is doing at the moment as there appears to be a very large increase in the amount of people who are on the 2gb package getting the upgrade at the moment as both my mum and my parents in law have been upgraded this last month even though they dont use the net much (my mum and dad use it 2-3 times a week at most to check their email), although i have got them sorted with downgrading and put the net monitor on it is still a pain and a concern that people who i would be surprised if they used 200mb a month are suddenly being told they are using over 2000 but hey ho untill i get the information between what their laptop is using and what sky says they are using i cant be sure if its something to be worried about or if in fact they are using it a lot more than they are telling me


ALSO QUICK EDIT as to changing your internet supplier - the issue with this even the £7.50 package is incredable value, i htink the cheapest you can get would be someone like talk talk or plusnet at £6.50 if you take their line rental, low usage broadband is still around £10 a month with most other suppliers

GV29

thanks I will def make an eye on my usage in the future.
I was just cross that they changed it without telling us.

macman

It's not downloading that is measured, it's data usage. Streaming from youtube/iPlayer, opening a web page, sending an email-it's all using data.
Sky deliberately cap this so called 'free' tarrif at 2GB, knowing that for 90% of subscribers it will be quite inadequate and that they will have to upgrade. For the same reason your line speed is capped at 2MB.
Unfortunately if you are now on a Sky LLU line then you are locked in and can only have Sky broadband, the only way out is to first take your line rental back to BT on a return to donor basis. then you can switch ISP's.

outlaw777

Sky in there T&Cs are allowed to up your package and up your bill whenever they feel like it!

GV29 wrote: »

:mad::mad:

Hi all,

I have received a letter from SKY stating that as we have exceeded our internet usage (2GB) twice in the past 6 months, they have upgraded us to the unlimited package which will cost as £7.50. I am fuming! We do use the internet everyday to check emails/internet browsing but we never download anything.
Before we had our internet in our sky package so it was free.
Are they allowed to do this? They said its under contract.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Is it worth me changing my internet provider?
Thanks in advance.

bobbybristow

It is still quite shocking that they can change your tariff without your consent and it is ironic that they are offering new customers lower tariffs than existing ones.

anthonyduk

In today's age of competitiveness companies will offer teasers to "brand new customers only". As far as the upgrade is concerned OP I confirm that internet usage covers download, upload, web browsing, streaming, online gaming etc etc. If you do not do any of the "intensive" habits of web surfing etc then perhaps you should double check that no one else is using your BB (very unlikely but worth checking). Also do you have Sky Anytime +? As this uses the broadband connection....

Gordon_Hose

bobbybristow wrote: »

It is still quite shocking that they can change your tariff without your consent and it is ironic that they are offering new customers lower tariffs than existing ones.

What?? You consent by agreeing to their T's & C's.

marleyboy

Check your BB is secure, the last thing you would want is a neighbour downloading dodgy data by piggybacking on your BB.

espresso