BT Internet Fair Usage Policy

russ9898

russ9898

russ9898

Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2004
Posts
1,696
Location
Staffordshire
Hi,

Firstly let me apologise if this is in the wrong forum, ive just had a look and this seemed the only appropriate part of the forum for my rant.

Ive just had an email from bt informing me that ive gone 3gb over the 50gb max download limit and that i will be charged an additional 90p on my next bill.

Whilst it is only 90p so im not too worried what i am feeling rather annoyed about is the fact that bt have always said they will inform you when you are approaching your usage limit...which suprise suprise they never have.

My final gripe is the fact that bt dont provide a tool to monitor your usage accurately, within my house there are 3 computers connected to the internet and an xbox 360. So it is proving difficult to monitor the household usage accurately even if i install bandwidth monitor on ever computer.

Anyone know were i stand in regard to telling bt well to shove their charges? How do i know ive actually used 53gb and that it isnt a billing error? its not like my phone bill where im provided an itemised bill, whilst i understand this is not really possible with an internet connection it IS possible to provide me with my usage on their homepage if they chose to.


Rant over, Russ
 
Not too sure where you would stand with regard to telling BT to shove their charges, I expect their terms and conditions/FUP are fairly comprehensive. I really think ISPs need to wake up to the fact that restrictions like 50GB per month are soon not going to be enough for normal people as more content is available/accessed via the net, in particular media such as music and movies etc which use a lot of bandwidth.

You may be able to monitor the total bandwidth of your network via the router if it supports SNMP.
 
being charged first time is harsh. i went over in november and they let me off. they did warn of the charges if i did it again though..... :p

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agreed on the usage tracking. i think they should definitely introduce that. :)
 
I suppose I could go google this answer but meh...

How can a lower priced option 3 have unlimited useage, where your option 4 has a 50 gig cap, which I suspect you are paying more than option 3 for.
 
to be fair to be they informed me last month that id gone over the limit by 20gb, but what annoys me is the fact that they do state they will tell you when your approaching your usage limit...which they never do. They tell you when your over it lol

only prob with using the router to manage bandwidth usage is that if we have a power cut or phone line goes down then weve lost the bandwidth used so far.

Surely if Bt wish to have a usage limit then its their obligation to provide an accurate usage tool
 
russ9898 said:
Surely if Bt wish to have a usage limit then its their obligation to provide an accurate usage tool
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tottaly agree with this for the last 3 months of 2006 we had internet bills of over £100 and they made no attempt to contact us and tell us we were near the limit.
 
barnettgs said:
If they do inform people, it would have cost BT more just to inform people than 90p.
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Automated systems cost nothing. If they can monitor how much b/w you have used, they can make that available in an http frontend so that all customers can track their own usage. They shouldnt be allowed to charge you for going over if they dont have a system like this in place or else how does the consumer know that what they are being told is accurate? OfCom certainly shouldnt allow it.
 
My Dad just got charged a extra £30 because I went over the 40GB cap. Ahh well, next time he will listen when I tell him not to go with BT.
 
DU Meter is a little app (993kb) for measuring download & upload rates.I used it in the past when I was on dial up and had a limit of 150mb/month :eek:

The meter itself look naff but the report showing daily/weekly/monthly & projected download & upload is awesome.
It also lets you set an alarm to warn when you reach x number of kb/ M/b or GB per day/week or month for download/upload or both. :) :)

http://www.dumeter.com/

Sadly it is only free for 30 days :( (£10.75 to buy) Vista compatable.

I would recommend a free one but this is the only one I have used. I'm sure someone will recommend something else. :)
 
Things like DU meter are pretty impratical for multiple machines and I expect there isn't anything that can be used on the X-Box. This is why I suggested seeing if his router supports SNMP, if it does then something like PRTG can be used to monitor the traffic through the router.
 
I've always been on cable and unmetered. I cant go on ntl in my new property and will be looking into new providers. I was considering BT.

I dont download anything on torrents P2P etc. I surf the net for a few hours per day and use the 360 online. Sometimes I online game on average over the course of a week 2 hours per day. Would I run into trouble using a 50 gig limit with BT do ya think?
 
Netmeter look the same as Dumeter although last update for Netmeter was on 03/04/04

Only problem with free apps is when do you find the time to work on them. If only we all donated everytime we download a program. :D

I only recommended Dumeter for monitoring of big downloads i.e. torre** using p*p :D for all those freely available royalty free music & programs we use. ;)


I never surf 50gb a month and don't yet own an xbox 360. :)
 
1337z0r said:
For basic email internet browsing ect, playing xbox you wont go near 50GB imo.
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its not just an xbox though

its an xbox and 3 PCs

keeping track of all of the above is not just a case of "install DU meter" or "its only an xbox"

because all 4 of them contribute to the total bandwidth used.
 
Last year, possibly about this time, give or take a month or two, I got a letter informing me, that I had gone over my bandwidth...

I was told that I was getting charged £400 ( cant remember exact figure )

They said it was somehtign like £190 for one month, £110 for another month, and a further £100 and something for the third month.

When I tried to argue this one out ( I too was never told I was reaching anything and I was being charged £1 per MB never mind per GB - which I would be more than happy to pay by the way, but not MB ) they told me that I either had to pay up or go somewhere else!!!

I was with XLN for my business, and so I went with them.

Been the best move I have ever made.

Ofcourse, since then, BT have written letters askign me back, and even phoned me on 3 occasions, but the fact is, that not only am I on 8MB Broadband, not only have I got free evening and weekend calls and not only do I have 3 phone numbers that are 100% free 24/7, but my monthly bill has never gone over £30 for it all.
 
BT have stuck me for £30 extra this month for useage.

Problem is they shouldn't have been able to but they cancelled my migration to SKY and delayed the whole thing by a couple of weeks.

So now shock horror my activation date with sky is 2 days after my BT billing period comes up and they say if i cancel it I cant migrate it becomes a new order.

And all this took me about 3 hrs on the phone to sort out.

Their main "stay with us" tactic on the retention line was "we give you better customer service" In badly broken indian/english that tbh i could barely understand. I would have been laughing my head off if i wasn't so angry at the time.
 
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