BT Cut off after cap pass

sticker

I was cut off from BT for cap usage in Feb... Far enough really...

BUT, My first call to tech support had me talking to a woman who had me jumping through hoops for an hour tring to isolate the problem - followed by the line going dead!!! After another call, a decent enough guy had the answer in 20 seconds > I'd exceeded my cap and was disconnected for the remainder of the month!!

I think this is fair enough really, I was WAYYYY over the alloted 30gig, and they're well within their rights! I was told I wouldn't be billed for the overusage at this point, but if I abused it, There would be a real chance I'd be charged...

This is the real difference between the likes of Eircom and even UTV in this area - BT aren't antomatically grabbin' every penny.

I'm having trouble getting onto the bandwith monitor with BT thought (just to keep an eye on my useage...) I'll call em this morning...

Anyone else been cut off recently...?

ondafly

how have you managed to go over the cap of 30 gig in 3 days. what speed line do you have ?

sticker

ondafly wrote:

how have you managed to go over the cap of 30 gig in 3 days. what speed line do you have ?

Apologies for miscommunication! > Cap exceeded LAST MONTH!

zuma

Honestly.....this must have happened in Feb. as there is no way anyon could smash the 30GB CAP in two days!

sticker

zuma wrote:

Honestly.....this must have happened in Feb. as there is no way anyon could smash the 30GB CAP in two days!

See above... CAP exceed in Feb - Sorry for unintentional misdirection!

Origional post edited

kaizersoze

This must be a new departure for them. How much did you go over?
I went over by 3-4 gig in Feb and wasn't cut off. You must have hammered it.

jor el

I went over and got cut off on Feb 28th. In fairness it was a busy month and I went over by some 50-60G so I can't really blame them. Tech support guy told me why straight away when I gave him my number. He said I wouldn't be charged this time but future cap breakage would result in a charge. I don't know how true this is but at €30 per Gig I won't be going over the cap by that much next month.

I might try to go over the cap just at the end of the month to see if I get cut off or charged. Testing the water as it were.

red dave

sticker wrote:

I'm having trouble getting onto the bandwith monitor with BT thought (just to keep an eye on my useage

I haven't been able to check my usage online either so I rang them yesterday and some guy told me I used 7 gigs last month he said to ring the tech support to sort out the checking online because I thought I might have been using the wrong password and only the tech support people can help you tih those details.

I can well imagine going over the monthly limit as last month was a really quite month on the net for me with little or no downloading, couple of skype conversations and few hours surfing

red

sticker

red dave wrote:

I haven't been able to check my usage online either so I rang them yesterday and some guy told me I used 7 gigs last month he said to ring the tech support to sort out the checking online because I thought I might have been using the wrong password and only the tech support people can help you tih those details.

I can well imagine going over the monthly limit as last month was a really quite month on the net for me with little or no downloading, couple of skype conversations and few hours surfing

red

After ringing them this morning I found you have to add a "01" after your username...

Here's the link:
http://broadband.iol.ie/usage/

I really hope the don't enforce the first serious cap over-usage! I can't remember exactly how much I was over but it was about 50gig in total too...

I'll be keeping track of my usage from here on in...

To reiterate, I think it's pretty decent of BT to give a first warning, when I was with UTV they stung me for cap infringement from day 1.

zuma

50GB i.e. What you used in total or how much extra ON TOP of the CAP you used???

Sponge Bob

he didnt really pass the CAP , he swallowed it whole in one ignorant gulp and kept eating till they stopped him from bursting more like

I'd hate to think of what UTV would do to him if he did that !

Wolverine_1999

I have on average around 150 - 200 GB download and 30 - 40 GB upload per month and don't ever get notified about it... I have to say that I am paying enough for the service as it is anyway, Digiweb.

DingChavez

How about Eircom? Did anyone get cut off with them? I just got a Usenet account so.... >_>

IT Loser

ondafly wrote:

how have you managed to go over the cap of 30 gig in 3 days. what speed line do you have ?

Yeah,.....that is hella porn.

Kidding......

I spoke to a chap today cos I just couldn't get online with my new wireless router.
The chaps advice was as useful as tits on a boar.

Fighting Irish

zuma wrote:

Honestly.....this must have happened in Feb. as there is no way anyon could smash the 30GB CAP in two days!

newsgroups with a 3mb could do it

sticker

zuma wrote:

50GB i.e. What you used in total or how much extra ON TOP of the CAP you used???

50gig in total :
Web design & general browsing....

zuma

sticker wrote:

50gig in total :
Web design & general browsing....

Was your original CAP 30GB?....if so then 20GB is not exactly a hugeamount of extra data, esp since you are already paying a premium for the connection in the first place!

RuggieBear

i downloaded 65 gb on bt in feb.

bloody usage meter wasn't working so i rang up tech support on feb 14 and once they got it working it said i had 40 gb dl'ed. d'oh!

whosedaddy?

Hmm.. I moved house (and BT BB service) last year..
My usage meter shows 0 use and last login date when I disconnected the old service... what you think - should i ring tech support and have it fixed. Or do I enjoy sort of uncapped service at the moment as they are monitoring thw rong line.. probably not... don't want to face a costly surprise at the end of the month.

RuggieBear

whosedaddy? wrote:

Hmm.. I moved house (and BT BB service) last year..
My usage meter shows 0 use and last login date when I disconnected the old service... what you think - should i ring tech support and have it fixed. Or do I enjoy sort of uncapped service at the moment as they are monitoring thw rong line.. probably not... don't want to face a costly surprise at the end of the month.

well, my opinion (and it don't count for much) is that if you aren't able to tell how much you've doenloaded since bt's usage meter is borked, then you can argue clemency if they do ever try to charge you/cut you off

vibe666

useage meter was n't working for most of last month due to the upgrade (apparently, according to bt) but once they got it working again they decided to cut of people for going over thier cap.

I got cut off at midnight on the 27th so was without BB for the 28th.

just checked now though, and the nmeter is already reading 17gb at 12:30pm on the 4th.

moving house on friday and will be taking BB with me (hopefully, but not sure how long it takes to set up again)`but as soon as the business packages are available where I'm moving to, I'll be switching over. the home packages are just daylight robbery.

zuma

just checked now though, and the nmeter is already reading 17gb at 12:30pm on the 4th

Pron?...hahaha!!!

zuma

>Double Post!<

leche solara

This is something that will cheer UTV customers. UTV seem to have been the only provider that rigorously enforced cap policy. If you were over the limit you were charged - no question. They do and always have had the option to be charged or cut off. The fact that Eircom and BT ignored caps was always a cause of envy to UTV customers. It shouldnt surprise anyone that both BT and Eircom are now flexing their muscles and taking cash that they had been ignoring. Its just business and its a wonder they havent been doing it earlier.

To get a away with charging for overuse they all need an accurate and transparent usage meter - I'm not sure any of them have this though.

Willymuncher

My download was near 55gb last month and I was not cut off, I hope I'm not charged for it. I'll make sure to stick below 30gb this month.

vibe666

zuma wrote:

Pron?...hahaha!!!

might i suggest maybe hanging around with primary school children and typing 5318008 on a calculator and holding it upside down? :rolleyes:

Robbo

Are they counting total transfer or just download?

sticker

vibe666 wrote:

useage meter was n't working for most of last month due to the upgrade (apparently, according to bt) but once they got it working again they decided to cut of people for going over thier cap.

I got cut off at midnight on the 27th so was without BB for the 28th.

just checked now though, and the nmeter is already reading 17gb at 12:30pm on the 4th.

moving house on friday and will be taking BB with me (hopefully, but not sure how long it takes to set up again)`but as soon as the business packages are available where I'm moving to, I'll be switching over. the home packages are just daylight robbery.

Exactly the same for me... cut off the 27th... Off the 28th > back up 1st...

sticker

leche solara wrote:

This is something that will cheer UTV customers. UTV seem to have been the only provider that rigorously enforced cap policy. If you were over the limit you were charged - no question. They do and always have had the option to be charged or cut off. The fact that Eircom and BT ignored caps was always a cause of envy to UTV customers. It shouldnt surprise anyone that both BT and Eircom are now flexing their muscles and taking cash that they had been ignoring. Its just business and its a wonder they havent been doing it earlier.

To get a away with charging for overuse they all need an accurate and transparent usage meter - I'm not sure any of them have this though.

Totally agree... I personally won't be taking the piss with the cap going forward and I salute BT for giving a bit of breathing space. I was with UTV for a year and they stung me LARGE TIME with any cap over-usage... Thievin' sods...

Good on ya BT...

As a matter of interest, I was called by Eircom Sales (happens every month or so) talkin' muck about "...I see you've left us, we some interesting new packages coming up..." After talking for two minutes quoting BT's current price for 3med BB and the free talk package / line rental all in, the guy just gave up and hung up!!

It's funny how they have the balls to ring around with such OVERPRICED packages... I'll NEVER return to Eircom.

red dave

vibe666 wrote:

moving house on friday and will be taking BB with me (hopefully, but not sure how long it takes to set up again)

a friend of mine moved last week and bt told him it would take around 2 weeks to move line. if youre moving to a relatively close area from your last home you can hold onto the same phone number and that's what he's doing, whether that adds any extra time on i doubt it

kaizersoze

Robbo wrote:

Are they counting total transfer or just download?

They're counting both upload and download. The BT upload cap is the same as the download cap of whatever package you're on. So on the 3mb package the download is 30gb and the upload is 30gb.
From the BT FAQ:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]You will be entitled to use 30GB in either direction without penalty. i.e. you can upload 30GB and download 30GB in the same month without penalty. However if you upload 4GB and download 31GB then your account will be suspended.[/FONT]

kjt

Tbh they don't really do anything...
Well I havent had any problems with EsatBT in the past 2years.

Cormic

I just checked my history - in the last year I have downloaded 22GB and uploaded 9. I just have to ask, what are all you guys downloading?

smemon

kjt wrote:

Tbh they don't really do anything...
Well I havent had any problems with EsatBT in the past 2years.

that some program your running there? must get me 1 a those, dont wanna ring up BT to fix the usage calculator cuz i fear i'll be highlighting me going over the cap!

edit: DU meter i see! god bless google!

DS

Cormic wrote:

I just checked my history - in the last year I have downloaded 22GB and uploaded 9. I just have to ask, what are all you guys downloading?

TV shows, movies, music, games. If you're not in danger of breaking your cap every month then you're really not getting the best out of broadband.

zuma

My usage calculator has been stuck on pause for nearly 6 months now....and its a free "get out of jail card" I dont intend to use until Im fooked with possible charges in the future!!!

kjt

DS wrote:

TV shows, movies, music, games. If you're not in danger of breaking your cap every month then you're really not getting the best out of broadband.

haha I'll second that!

Onthebus

I WAS with BT for over a year

I have gone over the cap every month and then suddenly they decided to turn my dsl off near the end of feb - no warning at all

it was off for several days till it was reset by going into a new month on March 1st

The tech support and customer care couldnt have cared less

The Esat usage counter hadnt worked for months and permanently read zero

I was livid! No email, no nothing - I had to go to internet cafes to check email.

I am moving to Magnet - esat pushed me too far and I found great deals elsewhere - thanks esat for the favour, you just shot yourself in the foot!!!!

Esat cant treat customers like that - as if people had no other option. Magent are offering more for cheaper (if they are in your area.)

Im going to have 8meg and a 150gig download cap. And beyond the cap I only pay 50c per gig compared to esats 30 euro per gig!!!

Esat should get real

As customers we should support the hungry aggressive new companies who are prepared to offer much more that the big old dinasoars like esat and eir(con)

kjt

I have gone over the cap every month

Emmm lol?
Suits you right tbh. You know you were over the cap
so what's your problem. They didn't even charge. Why
the hell should they have to give you a warning.
I know you say their site wasnt working to tell you what
you had downloaded but you already knew you went over it.
Most people won't go near the cap so it doesnt matter.

Tbh If that happened to me I'd count myself lucky.

Skyuser

Wolverine_1999 wrote:

I have on average around 150 - 200 GB download and 30 - 40 GB upload per month and don't ever get notified about it... I have to say that I am paying enough for the service as it is anyway, Digiweb.

People like you that slow down speeds.

kaizersoze

@Onthebus,
No warning you say. So you didn't read the T&C's of the service you signed up for then or never read through the FAQ's on the BT website?
It's obvious that you knew the exact ammount you were downloading whether or not the online checker was working or not.
And why would customer service or tech support care that you were in breach of contract?

Carpenter

kjt wrote:

Tbh they don't really do anything...
Well I havent had any problems with EsatBT in the past 2years.

Hi
What is that program u are using i could do with it to

smemon

Carpenter wrote:

Hi
What is that program u are using i could do with it to

dumeter it's not a freebie though, unless your me.

nice little app i have to say, just sits hiding in the corner until i ask it to come to me. like a good dog. 60mb in 2 days for me, that must be a personal record. usually it'd be gb's.

Onthebus

who on earth goes and reads thru faqs and terms on the bt website??
.5% of nerds with a lot of time on their hands?

You get the info from the sales person, they answer your questions and then you sign up and away you go....

I did read the main terms and it said that they would charge for going over the cap.

This didnt happen so esat are not consistant with the terms they have agreed with the client

Esat dont have the means to bill when you go over the cap - they have stated this so they have just decided to shut down the line totally in order to compensate for their own short comings and therefore punish their clients wiht NO connectivity.

1 - they havent informed me as a customer that they are reneging on the agreement they made with me

2 - They never phoned or emailed me to warn me that they would be shutting down my connection to the web for several days (could mean I miss a major deadline worth tens of thousands, I might be happy to pay extra for the line to be kept open). Thereby giving me the chance to cut down usage

3 - They have an internal tool which they use to track the up and down rates of usage while the usage counter they offer to their clients doesnt work and just reads ZERO for months.

Terrible way to treat your customer and its pushed me to another company.

And in terms of the "conditions" how could a company state they are going to charge you for each meg when you go over the cap and at the same time shut you down when you do go over?

Are you claiming that both conditions were in the contract I signed?

Its common knowledge that isps have not charged customers who have gone over so thats a reasonable assumption to make but cutting clients off is a really primative form of communication and managing relations with customers.

Its not obvious how much I have down loaded as there isnt a working counter anywhere - when you down load a gig there is more than just that amount of data invovled, there is all sorts of data lost to error correction etc

do you time all your phone calls in case your phone company over charges you? No, you make a reasonable assumption that they are metering your usage accuratly and allowing you access to that info

1huge1

jor el wrote:

I went over and got cut off on Feb 28th. In fairness it was a busy month and I went over by some 50-60G so I can't really blame them. Tech support guy told me why straight away when I gave him my number. He said I wouldn't be charged this time but future cap breakage would result in a charge. I don't know how true this is but at €30 per Gig I won't be going over the cap by that much next month.

I might try to go over the cap just at the end of the month to see if I get cut off or charged. Testing the water as it were.

i wouldnt push it if i was you
there being nice enough you would'nt want to take that for granted
come on 50 to 60gb over thats huge
although considering im still stuck with isdn thanks to eircom and their bad researchers and id think that 100mb in a month is huge

Carpenter

smemon wrote:

dumeter it's not a freebie though, unless your me.

nice little app i have to say, just sits hiding in the corner until i ask it to come to me. like a good dog. 60mb in 2 days for me, that must be a personal record. usually it'd be gb's.

Thank you very much

vibe666

here we go again.

what's the point in giving people 3mbit dsl if they can't use it?

30gb cap? flat out that's gone in less than 48 hours. they may as well have left everyone on 512kbps for all the good 3mbit is without the legroom to use it properly.

companies like magnet aren't doing anything revolutionary with broadband in ireland. all they're doing it closing the gap between us and the rest of europe.

eircom (and therefore BT/UTV etc.) have been dragging their feet with regard to telecommunications in ireland to milk it's customers for years and they're still getting away with it because people shift the blame onto the users who are pushing the technology forward, (i.e. the people using it to its fullest potential) us, as in the net savvy consumer, by getting everyone into the mindset that we're the ones who make it slower for the people who aren't even using it most of the time.

the bandwidth is there in spades full of unused potential, as proven by magnet who are running adsl2 at up to 24mbit with 8mbit data, digital tv and voice on the same exchanges that eircom uses to feed us 3mbit.

a magnet customer on the phone to their mum whilst watching neighbours is using more bandwidth than i even have access to, and it all goes into the same exchange and onto the same fibre network as every other (aside from wireless) internet user in ireland. but me breaking a 30gb cap is going to cause the world to end? i don't think so.

i read somewhere that a 3rd of european internet traffic goes through ireland on its way to and from the US, yet even with these 'wonderful' new speeds we're still right at the bottom of the euro internet access league tables.

dub45

Onthebus wrote:

who on earth goes and reads thru faqs and terms on the bt website??
.5% of nerds with a lot of time on their hands?


..............

Sensible people who want to know exactly what they are committing themselves to. :rolleyes:

Onthebus

I think you might have missed my point dub45

if esat's original terms that I signed up to included both:

1 - we cut you off when you hit your cap

and

2 - we charge you for each meg you go over


then dont you think there is a "slight" contradiction here?

It was very clear that they were going to (2) - charge.

being cut off was never mentioned or typed on the page
its something esat have invented since they are incapable of billing for each meg over the cap

Onthebus

good point vibe666

the download speed increased and the limit decreased

the limit was 16 up and 16 down adding to give 32 gig when I initially signed up with Esat. Its now 30gig and then we kill you.

I wonder what genius thought of turning on the tap more and using a smaller bucket?

Its almost like teasing the customer - "heres a really fast ferrari, but you can only drive down this road and do 20 kmh, (otherwise we take the keys away - but lets not tell him that now, we will surprise him later when he really needs the car, hehe)"

and hey if esat ever get their billing system working - since they signed everyone up to 3c per meg they can suddenly make buckets of money by charging 60 times what Magnet charge per gig(30euro vs 50cent)

now thats what I call competition in the market! No one will every figure that one out - sure look at the abuse the Irish take from banks.....

are there double agents working in esat who really work for Magnet?

why havent esat already offered me 8 meg on the same line?
why havent they upped the cap from 30 gig instead of cutting people off?

are they trying to get rid of customers?
are their workers doing too tired to cope?

Their behaviour beggers belief

Anyone else out there dumping esat?

Diabolus

Some of your questions are just simply stupid.
Double agents, esat offering over the 3Mbit that Eircom sell to them?
You sound like you've lost it.

Esat have always said they "reserve the right to charge" and it was this that helped me on my way to NTL. So they didnt charge you! Your lucky. 30 yoyo's a Gig is madness! But you broke the contract by breaching your cap so they changed the service by cutting you off.

Legally i dont think you ave a leg to stand on so your argument on this point is pretty much null and void.

And personally i'd go with the option to be disconnected than pay 30 a gig when my BB costs just 30 for a whole month!!

Also how much is 8Meg BB costing you?