UPC Broadband 1st Notice Error

JulietLima

This is my problem they seemed to have made an "error" cough*scam* cough. And this is what i said to them as they conveniently provided me with an email address to write to on the letter which im confident will be left unanswered.

""I have just received a 1st Notice Letter from Paul Malone Stating I have used 124.41GB of upload/download data.

I would love to know how they have managed to come up with that figure because since I've had it installed I've been monitoring my upload download data with a 3rd party application and it is still well under 30GB.

I had already intended on upgrading the service at some point anyway but there has to be some mistake with the figure you have given me and I should not have received a 1st notice at all.

I also keep a close eye on my wi fi router and there is no other attached devices only mine.

Please confirm this, if you want further proof of monitoring from my end i can give that too.""

Has anyone else had this problem, I dont mind upgrading eventually but if they auto upgrade me or charge me for this im canceling on principal. Is there any other way of dealing with this?

jor el

Before being so certain that they won't respond, you might give them a chance to respond? It could just be a mistake, no need to jump up and down over something that's not that serious.

JulietLima

Hmm Ok, I take your point maybe Ive jumped the gun a bit by assuming they wont answer but you know how these things go...

(gets handed down to someone else, they dont bother to check it lalala next thing i know im being charged)

I will heed your advice for now and give them the good old benefit of doubt. Yet I'm hardly jumping up and down, Im just genuinely concerned.

Nobody likes a notice letter so I hope not to get another nasty one in the door with a charge on it, then it will be serious. Also I suspected this might be a common occurrence so thought id get the word out for any feedback or traps. Good to be prudent.

jor el

JulietLima wrote: »

next thing i know im being charged

Have you actually been charged though, are have they increased your package on you? If this hasn't happened, or you haven't yet given them time to respond, then you don't know what will happen.

This has come up a few times on the broadband forum. You're given the choice to upgrade your package, or cut your usage, in cases where the usage is genuine. I've not heard of any mistakes being made.

JulietLima

nope havnt been charged or anything yet, as i said already ur right that i did jump the gun a bit as i dont know whats going to happen but i wouldnt be surprised in the least.

maybe a lot of people it happened to already just took it for granted that upc where right with their calculations, i doubt there where many of them if any at all that actually measured their own usage, but i did so it puts me in a position to question it, at the end of the day they can still say no mistakes where made and then its just my word against theirs.

dudara

Well, you said that you monitor your internet usage, so you can use that to support your argument.

In reality though, give them a chance to sort it. Don't use e-mail for this though, pick up the phone and get in touch with someone in the billing department. Make a note of all contact including dates, times and names.

Give them a chance to sort out the error first.

JulietLima

Good idea. I'll five them a buzz in the morning.

upthecake

JulietLima i work for a hardware sellier to upc for network monitoring hardware and software (sorry can't say too much) and believ me they can see exactly what traffic you are passing to where and what mac address its passing through (network card on your pc / mac / router etc ).

The system in place is very accurate with high detail so unless its a genuine mistake you've been caught :-) If your using Bit torrent i believe downloads and uploads are taken into account so less seeding may help !

Hope this helps.

Cabaal

JulietLima wrote: »

next thing i know im being charged.

I wouldn't think so,
If UPC are anything to go by you get two warnings and then your terminated .....that is of course unless you upgrade before the third.

They of course offer you the ability to upgrade which is fair enough, I've seen my UPC usage in the past and it was 100% accurate and given how it monitors it I'd be reluctant to think there's a mistake.

As such I'd tend to agree with upthecake,

Off hand I believe download AND upload is counted towards that total figure they are contacting you about...though I could be wrong on this aspect of things so don't quote me on it

jimoc

Is UPC broadband the same as Eircom, where you get a router to plug into your phoneline?

If so then maybe there's traffic going on between the router itself and UPC which your 3rd party app isn't monitoring, since I assume that your app is only running on your PC?

When you ring UPC you could ask them if the traffic levels that they are reporting are inclusive of any control traffic that occurs between the router and their system.

Cabaal

jimoc wrote: »

Is UPC broadband the same as Eircom, where you get a router to plug into your phoneline?
.

Nope eircom is ADSL, UPC is cable

GerardKeating

JulietLima wrote: »

Hmm Ok, I take your point maybe Ive jumped the gun a bit by assuming they wont answer but you know how these things go...

(gets handed down to someone else, they dont bother to check it lalala next thing i know im being charged)

I will heed your advice for now and give them the good old benefit of doubt. Yet I'm hardly jumping up and down, Im just genuinely concerned.

Nobody likes a notice letter so I hope not to get another nasty one in the door with a charge on it, then it will be serious. Also I suspected this might be a common occurrence so thought id get the word out for any feedback or traps. Good to be prudent.

Do you have WiFi, if so could someone be leaching off your BB, since your software only records what your machine did.

I assume it is the only computer connect to the BB, no Games consoles, IPTV etc...

JulietLima

Thanks for all the responses, its an ongoing issue at the moment, I am still disputing it.

I was on wi-fi so i went hard patched for a week and then re checked back with usage, and it was still 25 gb's too high compared to my readings. She was giving me an average 5gb a day and i was below 1gb a day.

I could transfer all the emails and screen shots in here if you really like to get into detail but I'll save you the bother for now.

Yes it does include downloads and uploads, of which I was monitoring both and getting a total from.

I don't do torrents and am fairly light user bit of browsing, streaming and chat.

Long story short im waiting for them to get back to me tomorrow as i have officially tried to claim a fault on the phone to get a technician out but they have to wait till the usage girl comes back to work. She was also waiting on a word back from someone in Amsterdam to see if the readings where carried over from last tenant. I forgot to mention the connection was only established on 21-10-09 and the reading for approx 250gb they gave was till 31-10-09 so that was 250GB IN 10 DAYS!!

Anyway there is not much point in that now as her readings are still well off mine so I must continue the dispute.

I'm not sure what steps to take if they just put their readings against mine, I suppose just cancel or try to put in a complaint?

I can give more detail if needed, if anyone else has been in this situation, give us a shout, cheers.
As long as they don't sneak money out of my direct debit for charged GB's that aren't mine - what could i do then, just want to be prepared for the worst should it happen.

ps yes its only the computer plugged directly into the broadband by the Ethernet wire now. no consoles or anything. there is the tv coming off the cable on a splitter though. as both digital tv and broadband come from the cable with ntl.

MarkR

Would you consider unplugging the router over a 24 hour period and see does your usage still increase? Or maybe check the usage statistics for times when you are not at home, and your computer is off?

They should be able to give you a mac address of where the traffic is passing to / from. Check it against your own to see if it correlates with anything on your network.

JulietLima

Good Idea Mark, hopefully be on the phone to them tomorow. Ill try leave the laptop off for the day with the router on and see if that does anything.

Then maybe knockin the router off altogether as you said if thats still showing activity.

EDIT- UPDATE.

They where meant to ring me back today specifically Mia from usage as they said they couldnt go any further without her. Surprise Surprise, she didn't. So, I rang to tell them so, they said she'd ring me back in 20 mins.... whdya think? Ofcourse not. Here we go... the runaround.

Just got back on to them, and they where about to fob me off again but i dugg in me me heels and its as well i did, there is now a complaint logged and its elevated to supervisor and they also checked the usage again and said there is definitely something wrong alright coz its 5gb again for the day. (and all i did was check emails) So it looks like I am getting somewhere but it still remains to be seen. To wait for a phone call from them tomorrow.

JulietLima

I think we've got to the bottom of it. They have found the problem, apologized and gave me a months credit for my efforts.

The supervisor explained it was a number wrong at the back of the modem the actual mac address of it and they where calculating someone else's usage.

Then usage emailed me and said there was a mac address carried over from the last one, which in fairness could have been partly my fault in a way because i had plugged in my other laptop to see if there was a connection prior to my installation.

So in combo i guess things got confused.

Glad to have gotten to the bottom of it, I was almost picking up the phone to comreg because i thought they where not going to bother investigating it.

Happy Days.

Cabaal

Good outcome to be honest, months credit is also a good response from them and removal of the "mark" on your account

1580Steve

I have the same letter stating in done 244GB in Feb, asked for a breakdown of this which Mia sent me and it says from March 13th I done 28GB which is good because we were on holidays for a week and everything was unplugged, looking forward to a reply to that one!!!