BT Broadband Usage Meter Wildly Inaccurate

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

HardNut2Crack wrote: »

I recently signed upto BT infinity option 1 40GB allowance since 1st June 2014.
I have already gone 10GB over my 40GB limit in my first month and BT are over charging me and I dont even use the internet much or download crazy amounts of itunes or watch videos etc.
When I phoned them to complain and and asked them to provide me a daily report of the sites and data and times I downloaded/uploaded so much data, they were unable to provide me this. Instead advising me I downloaded 16GB of data on 27th June! and I should purchase the unlimited option - I advised this is impossible because I dont download movies or software files or music. Not sure how I went over the limit with only 2 devices connected at any 1 time and I only use my internet for Viewing emails for work and the odd WiFi access (WiFi password is 31 characters just to be safe) on my iPhone for viewing newsfeeds.

But just how can I prove to BT I didn't use that much even when you do monitor usage separately. They always have an excuse!

I have been monitoring my usage via the BT website daily since 1st July 2014 and it already shows I have used 6GB!
How is this possible when on 2nd July I checked the usage and it only showed I used 0.4GB for the 1st July...?

With my previous provider Sky I know I didnt use over 1GB per day and I was on the 2GB allowance limit for the month!

Before anyone asks I am IT savvy and dont have any malware or other dodgy programs continuously running in the background of my laptop or iPhone which could be downloading nonsense.

Surely there must be a way of BT providing better alaytical tools considering this issue has been going on for over 3 years now!

I dont want to pay the extra per month for Unlimited usage when I know I definately do not use over 40GB per month!

Please can someone advise further....?

Many Thanks

Personally I find it incredible that people still use metered services. The difference in price, for £8. As for having infinity, and you claim to be a low user, then why have you upgraded from the basic package in the first place!


We are on normal broadband, but get 12MB download, and we watch all TV online tax free, and currently exceed 150 GByte every month with no problems at all.

HardNut2Crack

Hi 'Blackbeard of Perranporth'

I was originally paying Sky £10 per month for less than 3Mbps download speed Broadband only. I was thinking about upgrading to Fibreoptic for quite sometime and BT's was relatively cheap considering I have my phone line with BT for many years.
I decided to take the plunge and go with BT and thought there was definitely an advantage than staying with Sky:
Total costs as follows:
£197.00 paid outright for
£160= 12 month line rental
£37= BT Router
+
£366 for 18months BT Unlimited Anytime calls + Broadband:
15 per month = 6 months
23 per month = 12 months

After taking out the BT infinity option 1 40GB I am thinking about downgrading my service but I'm sure this will have further cost implications...

JJ_Egan

Is your WiFi secure .
Try disabling WiFI for a few days and see what the usage is .

HardNut2Crack

Yes it is, only a 3 wifi devices ever connect to it, i have also check the Router settings for any other unknown devices which could have connected but found no others.

Also my WiFi password is 31 characters just to be safe!

peterwot

Readers of this thread should refer to latest developments with BT by logging on to "BT Community web page" and search for Bills - Packages - Broadband - usage - massive - surge.

and add their own views.

Hope this is helpful.

SPJW

Ditto Peter's comment above.

BT have now (24th July 2014) admitted a fault whereby any BTWiFi-with-FON usage on our BT home hubs was being recorded against our personal broadband allowance.

As a result of this fault, BT broadband customers would incur excess charges and/or unnecessary upgrade costs to avoid such charges.

BT have admitted the fault on the BT Community forum.

We cannot paste links as 'Newbies', but interested parties should Google (.co.uk) search "broadband usage massive surge" and go through to the BT Community link. There is a post by PaddyB from BT (page 10, 24th July 2014, 13:37) acknowledging the fault.

BT state that the fault was caused bt an accounting process, and that it only affected a 'very small number of customers'. I have suggested numerous reasons not to believe BT on this thread...

antiquatedanne

Hi,
Am posting here in the hopes someone at BT will see it. Our normal monthly broadband usage is on average 19 gb. and has been for years. On 27th July we received a warning email that our usage was now 27gb. As we are on the 40 gb package and we were near the month end, I didn't worry. The next day we received another warning email saying our usage was up to 36gb. I was puzzled, but again within the 40 gb didn't worry. However two weeks later, 13th August, received an excess charge notice of £21 because our final July usage was 57 gb. I cannot for the life of me envisage just how anyone could use 30 gb in 5 days (given that their notifications are 24 hrs behind). Since then the usage has returned to normal, so it would seem there had been a one of surge of some sort.

Unfortunately the BT monitor clears after the month end, so I couldn't even go onto that to check up. Hours of telephone calls to BT have resulted in nothing. Being pushed from pillar to post, technical saying its an accounting issue, accounts saying its on the bill so its correct, complaints saying technical had proved to me it was correct - round and round. Eventually complaints offered me a £15 reduction in my bill if I would sign up to a new unlimited broadband contract.

I have threatened to cancel my contract (it expires on 21st September) and their attitude was that is fine, but I had to give 30 days notice from the 21st September.

My husband and I are pensioners, there are just the two of us here and I have checked all downloads and TV catch up over those dates and there was nothing exceptional.

I just don't know how next to proceed. Can anyone help.

Many thanks

mira77

Win at the ombudsman!
I had an ongoing get fight with BT since they told me (I didn't ask) they were giving me a "free upgrade" to infinity. I had a 40gb limit. I imediatley started going over the limit and incurred charges. I went on BT community forum and found a substantial number of people saying the same. I complained to the forum admin who took up my complaint. Friends of mine in IT said it was virtually impossible for me to use the amount of data they claimed. BT said it was because all data downloads on infinity were in HD by default and this was the reason. However i heard that the fibre optic joint to copper cable can cause data to rebound and be re counted as outgoing from BT. When I brought this up they refused to discuss my complaint any further. I complained to the ombudsman who, surprise surprise believed BT saying they counted data to create it! BUT.... They upheld my complaint on the grounds that BT only told me of the benefits and didn't tell me about the increased usage. They now have to refund all excess payments. So a partial success.
NOTE.... anyone with this problem should complain to the ombudsman!
Maybe MSE should lobby of com to investigate this properly.

Jill_smith

My infinity broadband was switched 5 days ago. Yesterday I received an email telling me I had already used more than 14Gb of the 20 allowance.
I am a light user although I downloaded about 5 hours of catch up tv to the sky plus box. Also about no more than 1 1/2 hours Internet per day. Is that really worth 14 GB. I THINK NOT.
Phoned and complained bitterly given unlimited Bb for less than I waspaying but only for a year. There is something not right here altogether.
Just to add to the picture my allowance was unlimited before so this was done without discussion as was the stopping of caller ID.
The connection is padlocked and secure I hope

lee111s

5 hours of HD can easily be 5Gig. 1.5 hours of internet could use anything from a couple of hundred meg to a couple of Gig depending on wht you're doing. Factor in software updated etc, it's not very difficult to use 14Gig.

Why anyone doesn't go for unlimited these days is beyond me.