BT broadband disproportionate over usage charges

RDEEJAY

In similar position to all other over usage charges. I have requested DEADLOCK with BT and am going to arbitration. I have checked BT COMMUNITY, WATCHDOG, MARTIN'S PAGES and this is a common problem. Notification to BT e-mail accounts where customers already have existing e-mail accounts. No way of checking ACCURATELY the usage.

OFCOM do not want to know. It may come that I will have to go to the MP responsible for Communications.

BT has responsibilities to their customers not to rip them off.

Any help gratefully received

jrawle

If the maximum usage charge for people on the basic product was capped at the same level as the unlimited product, who would take the unlimited product? Everyone would take the 10GB product safe in the knowledge they would never pay more than they would have done on unlimited. The 10GB product is rather like a PAYG phone. If you are a light user, it's much cheaper than a contract, but if you use your phone a lot it soon becomes more expensive than on a contract. It's up to the customer to monitor their own usage and decide if they are still on the most appropriate tariff.

I believe BT's policy is that for the first month you go over your limit, they contact you to warn you, and suggest you upgrade to the unlimited product. If you still go over in the following month, they charge the £5 per GB. You may choose not to use the BT e-mail address, but it's your responsibility to ensure they have a valid contact e-mail address for you. BT can't be responsible for you failing to receive warnings, and I think their policy is fair.

I recommend upgrading to unlimited and suggest the family member responsible for the excessive usage makes a contribution towards this bill.

d123

Ollzz wrote: »

Thank you both for your replies, I know it's stated in the contract but so are bank charges and these have been judged to be excessive in their application recently, payday loans are under scrutiny at the moment due to the interest being disproportionate to the amount borrowed, in my opinion it's a similar problem with telecom companies who cap services and charge extortionate sums for over use, even when they offer a cheaper alternative. A customer on an unlimited package uses 50GB of data in a month and is charged £18, a customer on a capped service uses the same 50GB of data and is charged £50, I don't understand the justification for charging the latter customer £32 more for consuming the same product!

That is immaterial, if you want unlimited you pay for unlimited. By you analogy a person with a mobile phone should only ever pay the cheapest per minute rate.

For example, on T-Mobile I can pay £36 a month and get 600 minutes of calls, a PAYG customer could pay £240 for the same calls. That's an even bigger discrepancy and the PAYG customer can't turn around afterward and demand to only pay £36 for making £240 of calls.

mjm3346

RDEEJAY wrote: »

In similar position to all other over usage charges. I have requested DEADLOCK with BT and am going to arbitration. I have checked BT COMMUNITY, WATCHDOG, MARTIN'S PAGES and this is a common problem. Notification to BT e-mail accounts where customers already have existing e-mail accounts. No way of checking ACCURATELY the usage.

OFCOM do not want to know. It may come that I will have to go to the MP responsible for Communications.

BT has responsibilities to their customers not to rip them off.

Any help gratefully received

That's down to you, the notification e-mails can be sent to any e-mail address you want (I don't use the BT one).

It is not a rip off, if you go over the 10Gb limit you simply pay what you agreed to when you signed up, £5 per 5Gb extra, it is not a penalty fee or charge.

jrawle

On a related note, it'll be interesting to see what BT do when lots of customers' BT e-mail accounts expire. In future, if you don't log in for 150 days, the account will be deleted. If that was a customer's contact address, will BT write or call the customer to request an e-mail address, or will they just not send the e-mails?