3 Ireland - Exceeded Broadband Limit – outrageous charges.

Matt406

Hi Folks,

I’d appreciate any advised or past experience that people have on this issue.

I have been a customer of O2/3 for about 5 years now both phone and mobile broadband.
I have a three Value broadband 15GB bundle that costs €17.84 per month. My BB bill is always €17.84 as I never exceed my limit – in fact usually I don’t come close to using the data limit i.e. I have unused capacity at the end of each month.

I recently received a bill for broadband usage of €261.99! I can’t understand this as my internet usage hasn’t changed! I contacted 3 about this and they are saying that the usage is correct and that I have exceeded it my 11GB this month – 3 are trying to charge me at a rate of €22 per GB!!

Firstly I question if I did go 11GB over my limit and even if I did charging €22 per GB for this is ridiculous.
What about all the months where I didn’t use my limit – are 3 going to compensate me at a rate of €22 per GB not used??

Also surely they have to issue a warning if you are exceeding your usage limit?? I received no such warning.

3 have already taken this payment from my account via direct debit – I called them about it this morning and the best they could offer was a 20% discount on it! It was also suggested that I upgrade to a 60GB bundle for €39.99 a month! I pointed out how crazy this was to them in the fact that I could get 60GB with them for €39.99 yet they have charged my €261.99 for exceeding my current limit by 11GB. I’m not currently in contract with 3 for this device.

Does anyone have any experience of this with 3, or any suggestions on how I could get my money back? Thanks.

gerard2210

Call into your bank and get the direct debit refunded. Then get 3 to send you an itemised bill of your data useage.

Cuddlesworth

Contact the representatives on the talk to forum here.

Be clear on your history of data usage over the last number of years. That you believe this was a error on their usage system.

That there were no notifications or alarms of exceeding your usage cap leading to a 1400% bill.


I'd also take a hard look at your usage stats daily. Have you started video streaming recently(youtube, netflix etc)? Make sure nobody else has access to the wifi or that family friends are not using it to download. Nowadays 15Gb can disappear quite quickly.

ThisRegard

gerard2210 wrote: »

Call into your bank and get the direct debit refunded. Then get 3 to send you an itemised bill of your data useage.

I don't think you can just walk in and ask for a DD to be refunded. Under SEPA I think there's a list of 4 or 5 reasons and the closest in this case is that you've been debited more than what appeared on your DD notification which I don't think will be the case here?

28064212

ThisRegard wrote: »

I don't think you can just walk in and ask for a DD to be refunded.

Incorrect. Under SEPA, a customer can initiate a no-questions-asked refund for any DD within 8 weeks of the payment.

guil

ThisRegard wrote: »

I don't think you can just walk in and ask for a DD to be refunded. Under SEPA I think there's a list of 4 or 5 reasons and the closest in this case is that you've been debited more than what appeared on your DD notification which I don't think will be the case here?

Under SEPA rules you can have any direct debit in the last 8 weeks refunded without giving a reason.

ThisRegard

Cool, good to know. I remember reading a refund request form from BOI I think it was and you had to tick a box for the reason behind your request, and incorrectly assumed it was only under one of those conditions listed that you could request the refund.

edit: Here's the form I was talking about https://personalbanking.bankofireland.com/fs/doc/wysiwyg/css075960-mss130675-sepa-dd-refund-form-edits-v2.pdf

ED E

Do you have any windows 7 or windows 8/8.1 laptops in the house? That could account for 4GB extra usage per laptop last month as windows 10 downloads itself.


Fact is you used the service, you pay for it. Terms are what they are, 3 didnt change them, it may be silly that its so expensive per gig but thats the deal you signed up for.

Mobile broadband is not a replacement for fixed line and you need to be careful and self monitor when using it.

scamalert

While i imagine no sane person would be chancing using bb over the limit on bill pay,its rip off none the less,maybe op connected his phone to pc/laptop and used internet and got hit with windows 10 update,since it runs in background and chances to see it are slim,do it couple times and youd be well over 10gb in no time.

And sure enough mobile providers dont mind sending you 10messages every month with crappy promotions,yet when one is clearly going over the limit its silence.

As said reverse DD,and get full usage list-it its a case where mbs where raked up in couple hours you can bet some update or download took place.

If three wont back off cancel contract and look into legal advise.

KD11

Also, you should ring 3 and get them to change your limit to zero. As in once you reach your limit it will just stop working. Buy a prepay card and top that up if you ever do need more than 15gb. If they say they can't do this hang up and ring again. Took me three trys a few years ago to get the limit changed.

ACLFC7

Any chance you've just recently been using 4G?
If you've been watching YouTube or Netflix on 4G it might be playing in Full HD 1080p which uses a lot more data.
Maybe before ( on o2 's 3G network) your videos would have only loaded in 480p.
Just a guess