Challenging excess broadband usage charges from BT

harj1185

If you have an iPad connected to iCloud this could be backing up on a daily basis over wifi whenever it is plugged in to charge. Android maybe similar depending on the model, i.e. my phone will upload all photos and videos to backup at some point.

StuC75

Agree ipad could be the culprit.

Do you have sky tv at all? as anytime can download content too..

Does your router have any usage stats?

All that any screen capture will show is that machine, whats to say anything else isnt using the internet \ picture been 'shopped'..

JimCorri

bocaboca wrote: »

Hi, I need some help understanding and challenging my bill for BtBroadband.
I am on Option 1 which has a 10Gig limit; this month BT allege that I have used over 20.
I have challenged this but they tell me that they cannot provide any data other than the total monthly usage; does anyone know if they do actually have more data than this? For example, it would be very useful to have a daily or , even better, hourly graph.
It doesn’t seem right to me that they can make a charge and not be able to prove my usage!

On the assumption that BT are correct, how can I check/reduce my usage?
I have a PC, tablet and Kindle.
• I do not download movies or music.
• I don’t use catch-up TV or stream movies.
• I do not store info in the cloud.
I have installed a broadband usage monitor on the PC and it shows about 25Mbyte per day.
My usage of the tablet is mainly Facebook ( again with no videos)
My usage of the kindle is email plus somne book downloads.

Any ideas gratefully received.

BT BB usage. BT say 30.9GB; Think Broadband record 15.17GB for January. BT say they are 'right' but why the difference? Who is right? How can I challenge usage?
BT want to pus me up from Option 1 to Infinity. Is this a con?

iniltous

Your homehub keeps a running total of usage both up and download, don't forget that your 10Mb is combined up and download, if you access your hub stats, you could power off and on your router, this resets the counter, then after a typical days usage, or a week or whatever, check the usage from your router stats and divide by the number of days, then x30 to give a rough real monthly total, if it's less than 10Mb you are being overcharged, but if it's over 10Mb you are using more than you think, and probably need to change to a more suitable deal, for what it's worth, 10Mb is not a lot, and if you have multiple devices connected, then exceeding your limit would be easily done

bocaboca

iniltous wrote: »

Your homehub keeps a running total of usage both up and download,

Thanks,
where do I find the usage meter on the Homehub?

According to BT, I have used 4G in the last 4 days,
My PC usage monitor shows 277M, the tablet has only been used for email and the Kindle for reading previously downloaded books.

bocaboca

StuC75 wrote: »

Agree ipad could be the culprit.

Do you have sky tv at all? as anytime can download content too..

Does your router have any usage stats?

All that any screen capture will show is that machine, whats to say anything else isnt using the internet \ picture been 'shopped'..

I'm not using Sky and do not use any Cloud storage that I know of.

I think the screen capture referred to was of the myBT usage monitor which , I think , is total usage on my account.

As mentioned in an another post, there may be some usage stats on the HomeHub but, at the moment, I can't find them.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

iniltous

Open your browser and type in http://bthomehub.home and this should take you to the hub management screens, and of course it's 10Gb not 10Mb

bocaboca

According to myBT,
• on 26/1/13, :- “total usage is now over 7Gbyte”
• At 9pm on 30/1, the usage meter shows 10.64Gbyte; an alleged usage of ~3.64 Gbyte

Accessing my Homehub at 9pm 30/1/13 shows :-
• Connected for 5 days 6 hours.
• Transmit 138 Receive 1466

That is, my Homehub reports that since 25/1, I have used 1.6Gbyte

This highlights a discrepancy of greater than 2Gbyte

I have raised this with BT.... watch this space!!

Bradfield

StuC75 wrote: »

Agree ipad could be the culprit.


All that any screen capture will show is that machine, whats to say anything else isnt using the internet \ picture been 'shopped'..

The screen capture shows the total usage "alleged" by BT at any given time of the month. If you take one screen capture a day then you will have a good idea how the usage is increasing on a daily basis. If there is a wild fluctuation then you will see it.

If you cannot account for a monumental fluctuation (of say, several Gigs in a day) then it is very likely that BT have made an error.

If you present BT with the evidence (your screenshots) then they will be obliged to explain it. They are screen-shots of their own usage monitors. Why would they want to deny this evidence?

Update!

There is no need to do a screenshot. Just print the page showing the usage monitor. The monitor is updated at 23:59 each day. It gives all relevant details.

Bradfield

Today is the time for all BT broadband users (on limited data plans) to access their usage monitors and print off the page (I find it is best just to print page 2). This will give you your statement for the month of January and a base-line to evaluate future use.

You should then do a regular check to see how your usage is varying.

I would urge you to do this because I have only been checking for three days and I have found a significant increase in my broadband usage on the last day.

Here is the data.

Tuesday 3.51 GB used:
Wednesday 3.56 GB used:
Thursday 4.87 GB used:

The last day of the month shows a usage of 1.31 GB which is much higher than normal and many such increases would soon take me over my data limit of 10Gig.

The only reason I can account for it is that my Ipad3 updated the operating system last night and that might have been a large download.

If I was not keeping a check I would be totally in the dark at the end of the month. I would never have remembered something like that.