BT & Broadband useage

snowshine

Up-until the end of March I was with Pipex for my broadband services.
[Pipex became part of Talk Talk some time last year or so but my services remained unaltered. I was happy with 10 GB monthly use and never charged extra for the broadband use. I therefore presume I never went over 10GB in a month.]

After repeated cold calling by BT I succumbed their tariff at the end of March for the 10GB monthly broadband use. My internet use behaviour has not altered- I hardly ever download any music or films. I may listen to a internet radio station for less than 30 minutes per day. The BT broadband use meter suggests I have gone over my 10GB by 24th of my first month. The BT broadband use suggests I will be using about 17GB by end this month.

I am very surprised to see that my use of the broadband is going to be over 10GB a month and I could not change to a new contract [40GB monthly use] with preserving the discount agreed. I am happy to pay the extra but to preserve the agreed discount but that is not possible.

I am stumped now and will have no option but to continue with my 18 months contract with BT. [By the way I cannot get the same tariff I enjoyed with Pipex gain as the Pipex no longer exists nor the new company Talk Talk offer such attractive tariff!!]

So the lesson learnt are
1. not to rush and change your ISP

2.The ISP choices are reduced dramatically since the take over of smaller companies by the big players.There is no longer competition in the provision of the broadband services.

We customers are ripped of and very little that a customer can do.

Regards

Heinz

snowshine wrote: »

I therefore presume I never went over 10GB in a month.

Have you considered that Pipex's 10GB limit was not actually policed and that you regularly exceeded the limit?

snowshine

Heinz wrote: »

Have you considered that Pipex's 10GB limit was not actually policed and that you regularly exceeded the limit?

You may be correct.....
That is one possibility and was in favour to my pocket, if that was the case;).
I remember discussing with Pipex 4 years earlier and opted to change from 15GB/month to 10GB/month broadband use tariff on their suggestion.:)
Regards

outofmoney

We swapped to BT end of last year and had the same problem. We were previously on a 6GB limit and never went over. Suddenly we were using double or triple that amount.
BT claimed we could be being hacked so had to reset all our settings, but still no change. I googled it and it seems hundreds have the same complaint but BT claim they do not monitor usage so cannot prove how the limit was exceeded, however still charge.

We ended up swapping to unlimited. Really not what we wanted but didn't want extra charges each month. I'm guessing this is their tactic. They charged us over £100 for swapping as we ended our contract early. But persistent calling did get that refunded. Today we also got refunded as a 'glitch' meant we were being charged for calls even when we were under an hour.

It really is time this was investigated.

snowshine

snowshine wrote: »

You may be correct.....
That is one possibility and was in favour to my pocket, if that was the case;).
I remember discussing with Pipex 4 years earlier and opted to change from 15GB/month to 10GB/month broadband use tariff on their suggestion.:)
Regards

Now that only two days before the 1st month is over with my contract, the BT broadband usage on my line has jumped as [Up until 27th April 16.35GB used]
1.85GB used on the 28th April 2011 and
2.84GB used on the 29th April 2011.... I do not know how much today will be recorded as>>>

As the previous poster mentioned, I cannot now move over to new tariff of 40GB /month or the unlimitted unless I am prepared to pay for early termination of the contract panalty of 60 or so pounds and loose the concessonary discount I had with the change over....

Big companies get away with jiggery pokerry is my humble opinion:mad:
Regards

HappyMJ

There is no early termination fee to upgrade. You can negotiate a new discount with them. I'm sure BT Company Rep will be on here soon to help you. They really aren't that bad to deal with. Do you realise that BT counts both downloads and uploads so that 10Gb really isn't that much at only 330Mb per day. Maybe about 1 hour per day of reasonably intensive browsing.

outofmoney

I believe if you transfer they should not charge which is why we were refunded. But they will try.

Going by the amount of complaints I found it seems this is what hey hope will happen and so they offer it cheap then force you to upgrade.

snowshine

HappyMJ wrote: »

There is no early termination fee to upgrade. You can negotiate a new discount with them. I'm sure BT Company Rep will be on here soon to help you. They really aren't that bad to deal with. Do you realise that BT counts both downloads and uploads so that 10Gb really isn't that much at only 330Mb per day. Maybe about 1 hour per day of reasonably intensive browsing.

I attempted to upgrade to 40GB/month by contacting the BT on Thuresday but was told that they will do so but I will loose all the presently agreed tariff [That means my presently agreed discount too]. I am hopeful I get corrected by a BT company Rep here and that would be helpful and wonderful.....
I finally decided to off set my anticipated extra payment for the broadband use each month by advance payment of my line BT rental of £120.00 and saving about £4/month. This could go towards my anticipated extra payment for the broadband.

However I hope a BT rep could correct me and suggest something better.
Regards

snowshine

It is still worth remembring in my case [experience], I for over 4 years with Pipex not paid any extra for 10GB broadband use a month!!. It may as a previous post the Pipex did not police the broadband use. The company for home broadband from Pipex no longer available.
I do still wonder if the BT broadband use meter is correct?!!
Regards

djp64

I have exactly the same problem. Signed up for the 10GB and all was OK for the first 6 months and then for one month the usage went to 17GB.
BT unable to provide any information on what caused this sudden spike and it occurred in a month when my BB service went down for 3 days.

Tried to upgrade to the 40GB a month package as I don't want the hassle of constantly monitoring my usage going forward and told I couldn't as this wasn't an option with my phone package (anytime calls). The only thing I could upgrade to was the unlimited package which would very nearly double the cost and be excessive given my previous usage patterns

I'm just waiting for the contract to end so I can move on to another supplier that's a bit more flexible. With hindsight (as my sister has just done) I should have taken the 40GB a month package (with free evening / weekend calls) and then added on the anytime calls as soon as the contract started.

Debbie

BT_company_representative

Hi outofmoney,

If you want I can check the cancellation charge you incurred, as normally you don't get charged for upgrading the broadband package.

@ snowshine, I presume from your post that you signed up to a bundle, in which case you'll need to change your bundle to one that includes Infinity, so the price may well be different. If you want I can double-check the order for you.

You can get our "Contact Us" web form by clicking on my username and accessing my profile page.

@ djp64, You can have the Unlimited Anytime Plan as an add-on.

Hope this helps,

Stephanie