BT Broadband usage (1 Viewer)

[Janine]

I've had BT broadband since January this year and have no problems with the service.

We signed up for 20gb limit as we don't use the laptops for gaming/watching tv/streaming videos - just surfing the net and it's been fine for 6 months, averaging 12gb per month.

This week, I had an email saying we'd used 14gb, but I didn't worry as we're nearly at the end of the month.

This morning I find out that we're over the limit! How can 6gb disappear in 3 days?

I've found an article which suggests that BT Fon usage by others can accidentally be included in a customer's usage. http://www.choose.net/media/guide/news/bt-snafu-leaves-customers-suspicious-about-usage.html

Anyone else had a similar problem?

 

[tonka]

Just checked my usage...

499 gb Last month.... WOW.... It's a good job we have unlimited fibre..

 

[Chris]

It happened to us a year or so ago.

We called them and they put us onto unlimited (infinity?), and it was £5 a month less

Edit - it might have been £5 per quarter less. It was less anyway.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Poohbear]

Yes there is lost of evidence on the web of them getting your usage wrong in order to tempt you to take a more expensive broadband option with higher limit or unlimited. I fought them and won and remain on my 10GB limit which I rarely get anywhere near. If you have a record of not getting anywhere near your limit and then suddenly you exceed your limit over a short period then it is obvious that they are up to their dirty tricks.

 

[Janine]

I'm 'speaking' to India via livechat and apparently I download 4.5gb yesterday - except I wasn't even home most of the day.

They want £18 more per month for unlimited.

 

[Janine]

Yes there is lost of evidence on the web of them getting your usage wrong in order to tempt you to take a more expensive broadband option with higher limit or unlimited. I fought them and won and remain on my 10GB limit which I rarely get anywhere near. If you have a record of not getting anywhere near your limit and then suddenly you exceed your limit over a short period then it is obvious that they are up to their dirty tricks.

Absolutely!
They've just provided me with these stats:
Mar-2015 10.96gb
Apr-2015 15.77 gb
May-2015 12.51 gb
Jun-2015 10.25 gb
Jul-2015 19.51gb - and 4.5gb of that was yesterday!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[icantremember]

India

Says it all!

 

[Poohbear]

Yes, tell them it's rubbish and ask them to justify their data

 

[Sundowners]

Just cancelled ours because of the same reasons, using 3 mifi at home now instead, works just as fast .

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Janine]

BT are monitoring the usage and told me to change the security key. Changed that now can't connect to internet wirelessly only through ethernet cable and can't find how to change it back again. :-(

Why does everything to do with computers have to be such hard work.

 

[Mikeco]

We have a 10gb limit and nearly every month we go over but if we pay the extra to go unlimited we would be paying it while we are in Spain in winter when we use nothing.
as it happens the BT contract runs out at the end of October just as we leave for Spain so I will phone them at the end of September and tell them we are ending the contract including the landline. When we come back at the end of March I can see what deals are about.

Mike

 

[Stealaway]

After just arguing the cost if my mobile phone contract a few moths ago I thought I would try it with Talk Talk as the contract was also coming for renewal and line rental had gone up a lump.
With out to much moaning I got a deal of £16.70 including line rental and unlimited broadband - no calls as I now only use my mobile for phoning out. ( I still cant use up the 600 minutes I get every month with my 3 contract at £10.18)
Internet speed averages between 10- 11 Gb - more than enough

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Poohbear]

You will need to change the Wifi password on each device that connects via Wifi, that should be simple enough to do.

 

[Janine]

You will need to change the Wifi password on each device that connects via Wifi, that should be simple enough to do.

Well, I did just that and couldn't connect to the internet wirelessly, luckily I had an ethernet cable so was able to do some googling and get reconnected.

Bit nervous about changing anything now :-(

 

[JeanLuc]

Two thoughts:
Have you checked that you are using the same encryption at each end of the WiFi link? It is likely to be PSK2 but could be PSK or WEP. The first one is the best to use - I doubt whether anyone still uses WEP. If your router is expecting the password for the wrong encryption it will not work - make sure the router is set to PSK2 and check that you have the password you wish to use associated with it. Then make sure you choose the same PSK2 encryption on the laptop / PC / whatever and apply the same password.

If you have already done the above, you will probably have to force a reconnect from the laptop to the router. I'm not sure how you do this with Windoze but suspect there is some option such as 'ask to join another network'. Alternatively, reboot and then go through the procedure as above.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Gellyneck]

Well, I did just that and couldn't connect to the internet wirelessly, luckily I had an ethernet cable so was able to do some googling and get reconnected.

Bit nervous about changing anything now :-(

When you were trying to connect to the wireless network did it come up and ask for the SSID and passkey? If not it may still be trying to connect automatically using the old passkey and will fail.

 

[Janine]

When you were trying to connect to the wireless network did it come up and ask for the SSID and passkey? If not it may still be trying to connect automatically using the old passkey and will fail.

I think you're right. I'll try and get my head round it tomorrow

 

[Gellyneck]

I think you're right.

Any chance you can tell the wife that in triplicate?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Janine]

Any chance you can tell the wife that in triplicate?

Bad boy

 

[Gellyneck]

Bad boy

Oh goody this thread could be taking a turn for the better! Ouch!

 

[davejen]

Got an email yesterday, saying I was near my limit(10gb) then it said I had used 6gb, as said, scare tactics to make you sign up to new deal, well, bollo*** to that.
Cheers, Dave

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[bobandjanie]

That was happening to us two years ago. Did not want to go unlimited cos of the nil usage when away, not even of Fon as I only ever found one, in Germany, I had to stand in the middle of a pavement to get the signal. It was raining.
Rang BT twice and got treated like a pratt by some foreign people. Sent an email to the CEO, got a reply by return, got a phone call from the specialist team (like the SAS) they monitored and investigated.....agreed they amount was high, but could not find a reason. Refunded the extra payments that had been taken and then we sold the house. We did have a very handy lay by in front of our house and wondered if it was people downloading from there. Whatever...it was wrong! Hope you get it sorted. Janie

 

[rb62]

Oh goody this thread could be taking a turn for the better! Ouch!

Time to get the naughty step out again

 

[robnchris]

We switched from talk talk back to B/T after having a fault which talk talk took 5 weeks to sort out.
Since being with B/T on unlimited usage at their fastest fibre optic speed we haven`t had any problems at all.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Janine]

Apparently the 5gb we allegedly used yesterday equates to a full-length film in HD so I would have noticed! The BT guy is phoning me tomorrow night to see if the usage is still high.

 

[Janine]

Well, no contact from BT but I've been doing a bit of googling again.

This makes interesting reading!

http://www.bitterwallet.com/is-your-internet-usage-as-high-as-bt-claims-it-is/45210

The response from Joseph on 2nd July 2015 is heartbreaking.

As I pay via direct debit, I don't know how I can refuse to pay the extra £5 per 5gb that BT are going to slap on my bill

 

[nomadic]

Cancel the D/D and pay by debit card/cheque or on line single payment.

and then you could contact BT's CEO at: gavin.patterson@bt.com

requesting an investigation.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Langtoftlad]

Or move to PlusNet [ironically owned by BT, use their infrastructure but are separately managed, have UK call centres, and are cheaper for both broadband & line rental]

Their current offering is for an 18mth contract, but the first six months are free - works out to be the equivalent of £9.99/mth over the life of the contract for unlimited + weekend & evening calls (and their line rental is cheaper too!
https://www.plus.net/home-broadband/

 

[Gellyneck]

@Janine doesn't help you with your current "overbilling" but going forward you could try self-monitoring your broadband usage by using something like BitMeter (http://codebox.org.uk/pages/bitmeter2) or tbbMeter (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html).
Never used myself as on unlimited fibre but have heard of both.

You might also want to look at setting up mac filtering on your router (if it allows this) to restrict access to specific hardware? This should remove the risk of unauthorised access \ usage.

 

[Scout]

I've had BT broadband since January this year and have no problems with the service.

We signed up for 20gb limit as we don't use the laptops for gaming/watching tv/streaming videos - just surfing the net and it's been fine for 6 months, averaging 12gb per month.

This week, I had an email saying we'd used 14gb, but I didn't worry as we're nearly at the end of the month.

This morning I find out that we're over the limit! How can 6gb disappear in 3 days?

I've found an article which suggests that BT Fon usage by others can accidentally be included in a customer's usage. http://www.choose.net/media/guide/news/bt-snafu-leaves-customers-suspicious-about-usage.html

Anyone else had a similar problem?

yep had the same email 3 days befor months end

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}