BT Total Broadband Package NIGHTMARE

AA99

After being with AOL for £19.99 p.m. for 7 years and having a separate BT Landline, I decided in August 2010 to switch to the very enticing BT package of Total Broadband Option 1, Broadband and Calls for £6.99 for the first 3 months. This was confirmed and transferred on 13 Sep 2010. Total monthly cost £20.77

On 7 October, I received an email advising that I had exceeded by Monthly useage allowance of 10GB and that in September I had downloaded 28GB.

To avoid additional costs, I upgraded to Option2 with 40GB download allowance and this became effective on 10 November. I also opted for BT Vision for which I paid £60 for the box. In addition I order Sky Sports1 for £6.99 p.m. (Contract now jumped from 18 to 24 months) Total cost p.m. now £39.26.

This was still not going to cost me any more than AOL Broadband + BT landline.


On 6 December 2010, my online BT bill arrived showing that £166 was to be taken from my account a week before Xmas !!! This included £60 for the BT Vision box plus £50 broadband useage.

I immediately telephone the accounts dept and explained that it was a bit of a hefty bill just before xmas and could I spread it over the next 3 months. Also that the SkySports option was not available in my area until September 2011 so could I cancel that and have the fees refunded.

It was agreed that would not be a problem and if I cancelled my direct debit for £166 that was due on 17 December, they would activate a payment plan of £54 p.m. for 3 months effective from 28 December 2010.

This amount, however, was not taken from my account and I went into my bank to check why not. They had no idea.

I then received a call on 07 January 2011 saying my bill was now over £286 and could they take £88 there and then over the phone and then pay £60 p.m. I could not do this as we are on pensions and benefits and my payment plans were now totally boshed up. I was very upset.

I just do not understand how all these broadband download useages can be justified. BT's own advert says:

QUOTE
A whopping 40GB allowance, enought to download 10,240 music files, 40,960 photos, 59 movies, 10 HD movies or 117 hours of iPlayer every month. If you exceed your usage allowance, we won't cut you off. You'll simply be charged a little extra (£5 per 5GB). UNQUOTE

All I do is surf the web................... and nobody in my house has downloaded ANY of the above :mad:

So, all in all, it looks like I have made a serious mistake switching provider in order to save money :mad:

Incidentally, all correspondence regarding my bank details have been addressed to an entirely different person's name, not mine! The Data Protection Act springs to mind!

BT Company representative would be most welcome here, your link in your homepage does not appear to work for me.

lucylucky

If you don't do any downloading I would be concerned as to what was using up my monthly allowance.

saintscouple

I would echo the comments above, there is a broadband usage app somewhere on the bt website (sorry can't remember where - but they provide the link in the email they send you when you're near your limit), but it's worth checking frequently after you've used the internet and when you log back on. If there is a difference then you have security issues.
Btw do you have any game consoles that connect to the internet? as this could eat up some useage.

Would the fact that the banking details are in a different name be the reason they've been unable to collect on the payment plan?
Have you informed them that the banking details are incorrect?

I would recommend monitoring your internet useage for a few days and see if you can identify anything, then give bt a call, explain your findings, get the banking details sorted and hopefully they can revise a payment plan for you.

Please make sure they are aware you are benefits, etc and tell them what you can afford to pay. DO NOT agree to an amount you can't afford or else things will only get worse.

I hope you get things sorted.

AA99

Thanks for your reply. I have read about broadband useage apps but not tried them. My son has xbox live connected but there is only streaming involved, I understand, not downloading, normal game playing doesn't use download useage.

I have also been led to understand that BT cannot PROVE download useage

mjm3346

AA99 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. I have read about broadband useage apps but not tried them. My son has xbox live connected but there is only streaming involved, I understand, not downloading, normal game playing doesn't use download useage.

I have also been led to understand that BT cannot PROVE download useage

That still counts as downloading, it has been downloaded from the internet if you stream or keep it makes no difference.

mjm3346

X box usage


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2917580

penrhyn

AA99 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. I have read about broadband useage apps but not tried them. My son has xbox live connected but there is only streaming involved, I understand, not downloading, normal game playing doesn't use download useage.

I have also been led to understand that BT cannot PROVE download useage

Any broadband activity involves downloading data, if your son is streaming data then this is a major contributary factor to your overall usage. The same applies to the BBC iPlayer a half hour programme probably represents a download of say 0.5 Gb.
Do you have BT Vision?
As I understand it some programmes are delivered over the 'net, does this not contribute to your usage as well?


All ISPs have the ability to measure download usage.

lucylucky

AA99 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. I have read about broadband useage apps but not tried them. My son has xbox live connected but there is only streaming involved, I understand, not downloading, normal game playing doesn't use download useage.

I have also been led to understand that BT cannot PROVE download useage

I think this answers the question.

Streaming,browsing, downloading, emailing = data usage.

AA99

Only from what I'd read, will have to find my source again, I understood streaming and surfing to be very different to downloading. Also, their own advert quotes quite a lot of downloading for 40GB per month

A whopping 40GB allowance, enought to download 10,240 music files, 40,960 photos, 59 movies, 10 HD movies or 117 hours of iPlayer every month. If you exceed your usage allowance, we won't cut you off. You'll simply be charged a little extra (£5 per 5GB).

penrhyn

AA99 wrote: »

Only from what I'd read, will have to find my source again, I understood streaming and surfing to be very different to downloading. Also, their own advert quotes quite a lot of downloading for 40GB per month

You have misunderstood or have been seriously misinformed.
To look at a webpage data has to be downloaded to your PC, surfing is just a vernacular term, streaming refers to a 'live' feed e.g watching live TV online.

Have a look at the BBC iplayer. A half hour programme streamed in HD is a 0.5Gb download or stream.

lucylucky

Unfortunately there have been a number of posts from people who have failed to understand the full implications of visiting web-pages and streaming content can have on their data usage.

"Download" is indeed used a lot but as already pointed out that is merely one way in which data is used.

EVERYTHING sent or received over a network connection uses data.