Meteor Issue-Have I a leg to stand on

sfwcork

Morning.I dunno if this is the correct forum.If not feel free to move itI am a meteor customer around 5 mths.Never once had an issue with them until this week. I got a bill for 270 yo yos. Never once was I informed i went over my usage, I rang them this morning and their cc is shocking. I was opn the phone 32 mins and still no result. 15 mins was wasted after i was told to ring credit control; when in fact it was a customer care issueBascailly in a nutshell they are claiming i went 12 over my usage. This was over a period of 1 week. I was off 2 days as was a bank holiday and the jubilee. The other day was a saturday. In these 3 days they charged me over 100 quid. I dont understand how i went over 12mb in 3 days when i know i would have downloaded nothing and just been surfing normally.Also the agent claims its fair practice that they inform me at a point when i go over a usage.she couldnt tell me what point.I also rang on sat from abroad and was waiting 20 mins. Roaming cost me over 20 quid and they couldnt even find me on their systems.What do I do here? doesnt 12g over usage sound steep for normal surfing?They also claimed that i should have registered. I was never informed i needed too.No once.I must call thgem back later and speak to technical.any advice?

GarIT

12mb is tiny, its like 10 seconds of a high quality youtube video.

Or loading your Facebook homepage 10 times.

As for advice, you went over your limit, pay the bill. Just count yourself your not like me, I use over 1mb per second on average.

As for roaming, you can't expect them to predict that you are going abroad. It will be in the documentation that came with the sim card, you have been properly notified of what you need to do, you should have told them.

You might get a better response if you ask a mod to move this to talk to.

You said you didn't download anything but you clearly did if you went over. Once you have an internet connection your device is constantly downloading things.

sfwcork

12gb not mb.. sorry made a mistake. it was 120% over bill usage.
by not downloading anything i mean no movies or music

GarIT

That's very different, that's 1000 times more. Is this your phone, or broadband? And if its broadband is it mifi or a dongle plugged into your laptop?

Do you use any torrents, do you download movies or music?

sfwcork

its the hotspot thing? I have the itemised bill and i know 100% fact i wasnt downloading anything those days.Ive only downloaded 1 movie ages ago froma Torrent

Setun

I'd say either a neighbour has been using your wifi without your knowledge, or there is an error on their system (which is definitely not unheard of, despite the inevitable act of surprise on their part). What is the chances of a neighbour having access to your internet connection? What kind of password have you got on the connection (WPA, WEP etc)? If you were the only user on your connection that day, and were not streaming high definition television, or downloading music/movies as you say, then there are gremlins in the system somewhere along the line. I'm not sure how far you can argue your case, but perhaps moving this thread to consumer issues might be an idea, as there are some pretty knowledgeable posters there who could advise you on your next steps.

sfwcork

thanks for the help guys. how do i get it moved there!

GarIT

sfwcork wrote: »

its the hotspot thing? I have the itemised bill and i know 100% fact i wasnt downloading anything those days.Ive only downloaded 1 movie ages ago froma Torrent

1st of all downloading means to retrieve data from the internet. Every website you visit is downloading so you have done.

There are only two possibilities. Someone else is using your broadband or you left a torrient client open and you were seeding something to other people. Nothing else I know of couldn't have done that.

GarIT

sfwcork wrote: »

thanks for the help guys. how do i get it moved there!

Ask a moderator to move it. I don't know who the moderator is here though. Another poster might be able to help.

sfwcork

GarIT i would turn on/off my pc every day. How would a Torrent turn on without me doing it?

GarIT

sfwcork wrote: »

GarIT i would turn on/off my pc every day. How would a Torrent turn on without me doing it?

Applications like micro torrent (uTorrent) start when your computer starts and constantly send information to the internet. What did you use to download the movie and is it still on your computer?

sfwcork

think it was bit torrent.also if it was doing that would it not have done same in previous months and not just on 1 specific month

who_me

If it's a bittorrent issue, you should be able to open the bittorrent client and see how much that's uploaded. 12GB should be easy to spot.

If you've downloaded something recently which is in high demand, others would have been requesting that file a lot more than other months; hence far more uploads from your PC than previous months.

Still, it'd be good to confirm it is definitely bittorrent.

sfwcork

rang meteor againa- they cannot track if another IP is accessing the connection.If i need that done I need to speak to the Gardaib-If i need more info I will need to escalate and they will form an investigation on the Usage.At the moment I have a 40 quid good will gesture on my acc.If i request more investigation that will need to be removedall in all. No help. Pretty much was the case as in shut up and pay it.

GarIT

If it was bittorrent it was your own fault and thats what you have to do, just to add to what who me said if you left your computer on once in the month while you werent at it and forgot about it the data could rack up fairly quickly.

sfwcork

i just dont understand how it could happen just the one month. surely if it was p2p it would be happening all the time and going forward and not just the one month
i will check when im home if it was the P2PI was quite gobsmacked by the lack of info. Bascailly i was told tough titties

Paulw

It sounds like you really haven't a clue what you were doing.

If you're using torrents, then possibly you have content that, all of a sudden, has become popular, and your machine is serving it out.

Anyway, it is your responsibility and you have to pay.

sfwcork

i never said i knew what i was doing. hense the reason for the threadCan you enlighten me how 12gb can be used on 1 weeks usage when i was only around 2 half days.one day for only 3 hours.can u explain why the Bit Torrent only stretched the usage over this period?

Paulw

How best to explain this??

Think of your torrent like water. Suddenly everyone wants water. You come home and turn on your computer, and suddenly there is a line at your door and everyone wants water. They take the water from your tap.

But, when you go out, they can't get your water, so they go elsewhere.

Maybe these people are local, so when you are home, you're the nearest source for water.

After they get enough water, they're no longer thirsty, so they don't come to your door again. They now want only milk, and you have none.

sfwcork

i just find it strange that if it was p2p then why only the sudden spike that week and not going forward.....maybe im a thicko but i just find it strange....i will check my p2p later but if its not that then what is it?

Paulw

sfwcork wrote: »

i just find it strange that if it was p2p then why only the sudden spike that week and not going forward.

Because people suddenly wanted water, and when they had enough to drink, they changed taste and wanted only milk, so your water wasn't wanted any more. Maybe it rained and they had more than enough of their own water?

Suddenly people wanted a torrent you had. Then they no longer wanted it. Maybe someone in an office on Friday said "Have you seen that film - X". Next day 20 people from the office all downloaded a torrent with that film, and you had it. Then on Monday, they had all seen it, and no one was interested any more. :rolleyes:

It's not rocket science. Then again, if you don't understand torrents ......... :cool:

sfwcork

must have been some draught that weekend for some amount of ppl to want to download a movie available on dvd in the middle of the country.its been pissing since obviously

Xeyn

To be perfectly honest this sounds very fishy despite what Paulw says.
If youre computer was off as you stated no one would have access to your movie to download regardless of whether your internet was on or not (if you were using a dongle your internet would not be on if it wasnt connected to you computer whilst turned on).
So if you are sure you had your computer turned off for all but 3 days then it simply is not possible to have uploaded 12gb:
Given the speed of uploading - unless your computer was on for the full 7 days and it was maxed out non stop uploading for the full 7 days i doubt you could get 12gb upload in a week.

Xeyn

As stated as well this kind of error does occur and most service providers will and have recognised the error and refund/cancel the money owed.
Meteor CS is legend for being so poor.

who_me

sfwcork wrote: »

must have been some draught that weekend for some amount of ppl to want to download a movie available on dvd in the middle of the country.its been pissing since obviously

Actually, I might have been mistaken earlier. If the problem was with your download quota being exceeded, then it's less likely to be Bittorrent. Unless you downloaded several HD movies recently, Bittorrent is more likely to cause your upload traffic to balloon.

In any case, any half decent Bittorrent client will tell you your total usage (up & down) and per-file; so you'll be able to rule out if that's the cause.

It's quite possible someone else was using your Wifi network. I assume it's password protected, but even if so they typically can be broken in a matter of minutes/hours, depending on if it's WEP or WPA2, or if Meteor have randomised the passwords propertly (unlike Eircom previously!)

Paulw

who_me wrote: »

Actually, I might have been mistaken earlier. If the problem was with your download quota being exceeded, then it's less likely to be Bittorrent.

I think it's only a data quota, not specifically a download quota.

who_me

Paulw wrote: »

I think it's only a data quota, not specifically a download quota.

Ah, ok, thanks. I had a look on Meteor's site, and it was vague as to what the quota applied. In that case, Bittorrent is back to being #1 suspect again.

RangeR

OP : Ignore your usage, it's starting to cloud the issue.

Do you pay by Direct Debit?
From the sounds of it, this amount is something that you would not reasonably expect to be charge, considering the previous 5 months.

If you pay your bill by Direct Debit, you have certain rights and guarantees.

You are entitled to request a refund of any variable direct debit which exceeded the amount which you could reasonably have expected, subject to you so requesting your bank within a period of 8 weeks from the date of debiting such direct debit to your account; your bank is entitled to ask you to provide factual elements relating to your request for a refund

If you are in no doubt that you are not in the wrong [it's really not that clear], then you should contact your local branch [the one that holds your current account from which the Direct Debits are taken from] and discuss what I mentioned above.

Now, I'll be honest with you, you will have to fight for your rights because the front line staff don't get trained up on this stuff. But you MUST go through the motions to get rejected. THEN, ring the bank formal complaints department and explain the issue. they will sort it for you.

Again, you MUST start with your current account branch.

Now, to be clear. This will get you your money back, but you may still owe it to Meteor. At least it puts YOU in control of YOUR money. You may then have to pay the bill in cash if they are in the clear.

GarIT

There is nothing that could possibly put you that much over without you knowing other than P2P, someone else on your network or a mistake by Meteor.

You just need to work out which one it was. Are you sure it was 12Gb over a weekend or is it 12Gb extra over the whole month?

EDIT: If you get a chance run a virus scan just in case that might have caused it.