Not notified when exceeding usage limit

mmackenzie

My parents recently realised that they had been charged for going over their 2gb usage limit (they didn't even realise they had a limit) for at least the last 13 months if not 5 years resulting in huge bills. Upto £211 a month, resulting in a internet bill £1600+ over the expected cost this year. But at no time did their isp which happens to be eclipse tell them that this was happening. Does anyone know if they have a case to complain, it seems ridiculous that they can be charged this much while eclipse keep quiet about it.

P.S They have sent an e-mail of complaint to customer services and the reply from eclipse was of a dismissive nature.

spike7451

It is impossible for an ISP to monitor & then inform a customer if they're going over their usage allowance,not only that but for them to try & do it plus inform the customer would cost a small fortune,which would mean extra staff & a cost that's passed onto the customer.
When you go over the usage limit at the time the bill is generated,it's flagged up,the bill calculated & sent.

cajef

spike7451 wrote: »

It is impossible for an ISP to monitor & then inform a customer if they're going over their usage allowance.

Not impossible at all, Plusnet always email you when you are reaching your limit and ask if you wish to pay for extra allowance.

mmackenzie

It is definitely not impossible to monitor customer usage, every broadband company does it and almost all inform their customers that they are using too much, just in this case our family using too much wasn't an inconvenience to them as our limit was so low so they decided to keep quiet.

Maestro.

A limit of 2GB? In this day and age - heck, wait, even 10 years ago - that's an absurdly low limit and barely even allows enough scope for software updates to come through.

For what your parents are paying for that they are probably getting the worst value for money you can possibly think of. Consider helping them move to a better plan, BT do 10GB internet packages (although I wouldn't even subject that on a human) and 40GB internet packages which are very reasonable in price.

skyinsider

Is there an agreement that the ISP will contact you if you go over your limit? Think of it like being on a mobile phone with inclusive minutes - are you told when you go over the limit or do you just get billed?

Unless you have it in writing that they would contact you you have no case, sorry.

david39

Even TalkTalk advise their customers.

I went over my limit with them a few months ago and they wrote to tell me and warned me that if it happened again then they would making a charge.

However, I was "let off" for the first offence!

McKneff

david39 wrote: »

Even TalkTalk advise their customers.

I went over my limit with them a few months ago and they wrote to tell me and warned me that if it happened again then they would making a charge.

However, I was "let off" for the first offence!

Sky do this too.

The terms and conditions would have been there when they signed up for it OP, if they didnt read them, well that's there problem to be honest.

ChiefGrasscutter

As preivously said, Plusnet inform you when you get near to your package limit.
Importantly, as part of the initial agreement you the user are required to monitor the email address Plusnet use/you chose to inform you of this (and probably other matters concerning your broadband).

So there may be two issues here
1. Does the ISP concerned send out limit warning messages.
2. Is the recipient monitoring the relevent email address for such messages or has the address been forgotton about/abandoned/not used.