Cap - Unfair contract - ?!!

sticker

Here's mine for last month: with Clicksilver

Call Charges €14.69
Advance Subscription Charge €29.99
Advance subscription charge(s) for October 2004
Your download limit was 8,192.00 MB.
You downloaded 17,567.54 MB.
Download Charge €140.63
Total Charge €185.31

Payment Method Credit Card .
Payment will be collected on or after 25 October 2004.

A few points;

I'm a happy UTV Customer.

I accept fully that I was informed I would be charged for going over my limit. MY FAULT FULLY.

Two Months ago, I contacted UTV asking them about an upgrade to the 16gig cap - I informed them I was moving house soon and would this present a problem...

UTV told me if I upgraded my account I would start a new contract, and in my new address I'd have to pay for new installation / pay out the existing contract!! With leaves me stung big time!!

If I was on the higher package of a 16gig cap to begin with my months charge would be €40 (+€10 on what I'm paying with a 8 gig limit)

So essentially I'm paying €140 for a €10 account upgrade!!!

I have never had a problem with UTV Internet - I assume it's an industry standard... I just feel it's unfair to me as a customer.

I'd like to go for the best package when I move - Is there a decent 1meg connection in the clonsilla / clonee area. Or the cheapest 512 with a healthy cap!!

Any thoughts / ideas?!

Cheers in Advance...

joolsveer

I'm on the 512 Breeze with IBB and am living in Clonsilla. There isn't any cap on downloads or uploads and the connection works perfectly. I think the mast is at Ballycoolin which is miles away. I previously tried to get adsl from eircon but they said that my line wasn't suitable. They wouln't say what was wrong with it and suggested that I get a new line at a cost of about €120 I think. The catch was that they would not guarantee that the new line would work.

sticker

joolsveer wrote:

I'm on the 512 Breeze with IBB and am living in Clonsilla. There isn't any cap on downloads or uploads and the connection works perfectly. I think the mast is at Ballycoolin which is miles away. I previously tried to get adsl from eircon but they said that my line wasn't suitable. They wouln't say what was wrong with it and suggested that I get a new line at a cost of about €120 I think. The catch was that they would not guarantee that the new line would work.

Forgive my ignorance - Is IBB Breeze satelite? How much per month? Is it a solid connection? I've heard for online gaming satelite is pretty poor...?!

eth0_

But you're going to have to pay out the existing contract when you move ANYWAY.

sticker

eth0_ wrote:

But you're going to have to pay out the existing contract when you move ANYWAY.

Yeah, I've resigned myself to that fact - but my contract started Feb March of last year with UTV... so I obviously want to keep the pay-out to a minimum - Any idea of the cheapest - high cap service in Clonee?! aside from IBB?

Saruman

sticker wrote:

Forgive my ignorance - Is IBB Breeze satelite? How much per month? Is it a solid connection? I've heard for online gaming satelite is pretty poor...?!

No IBB is in simple terms Radio! Its wireless and while there my be more latency than ADSL its not much and should be fine for games. Its no where near as bad as Sat!!

Mutant_Fruit

sticker wrote:

Forgive my ignorance - Is IBB Breeze satelite? How much per month? Is it a solid connection? I've heard for online gaming satelite is pretty poor...?!

IBB is basically just a huge big wireless network, just like what you'd have if you bought two wireless cards for 2 computers, and networked them. The only thing is they have different pieces of equipment which offer different qualities of service.

Ripwave: Its good if you are covered well by the signal. Many people are complaining that they don't have a signal, but really theres nothing that can be done. If you are one of the people with a good enough signal, you can expect download speeds of about 55kB/sec, upload of about 12ish and pings of averaging 125ms. Its not really suited for low-latency gaming like Counter-strike. EUR30/month

Breeze home (1/2meg): This is usually installed using the 2.4ghz equipment. This is prone to interference, and once again, if you have interference there is practically nothing that can be done. If you are interference free, you can expect 55kB/sec upload and download. Pings similar to that of ADSL. EUR35/month

Breeze 1mg lite: This would probably be the best package. It uses the 5.8ghz equipment, and i've yet to have problems with it. Pings typically 1/3 of those gotten by ADSL. Download and upload speeds about 115kB/sec, so its uber fast. It is a hellofalot less prone to interference, but costs EUR48/month.

sticker

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

IBB is basically just a huge big wireless network, just like what you'd have if you bought two wireless cards for 2 computers, and networked them. The only thing is they have different pieces of equipment which offer different qualities of service.

Ripwave: Its good if you are covered well by the signal. Many people are complaining that they don't have a signal, but really theres nothing that can be done. If you are one of the people with a good enough signal, you can expect download speeds of about 55kB/sec, upload of about 12ish and pings of averaging 125ms. Its not really suited for low-latency gaming like Counter-strike. EUR30/month

Breeze home (1/2meg): This is usually installed using the 2.4ghz equipment. This is prone to interference, and once again, if you have interference there is practically nothing that can be done. If you are interference free, you can expect 55kB/sec upload and download. Pings similar to that of ADSL. EUR35/month

Breeze 1mg lite: This would probably be the best package. It uses the 5.8ghz equipment, and i've yet to have problems with it. Pings typically 1/3 of those gotten by ADSL. Download and upload speeds about 115kB/sec, so its uber fast. It is a hellofalot less prone to interference, but costs EUR48/month.

I'd prefer to stay with ADSL through the phone line...

sticker

I'm in Ongar Park atm - with Clicksilver broadband, I'm moving 10 minutes away - Hope it's covered!! It's a new house, so it'll probably take a while to setup the regular phone anyway!

Ripwave

Saruman wrote:

No IBB is in simple terms Radio! Its wireless and while there my be more latency than ADSL its not much and should be fine for games. Its no where near as bad as Sat!!

Latency on IBB Breeze is often less than DSL. Latency on IBB Ripwave is much higher than DSL.

IBB offer a number of different services, using different technology, with different performance characteristics.

John R

sticker wrote:

I'm in Ongar Park atm - with Clicksilver broadband, I'm moving 10 minutes away - Hope it's covered!! It's a new house, so it'll probably take a while to setup the regular phone anyway!

Is ntl broadband available where you are moving to?

dub45

sticker wrote:

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


UTV told me if I upgraded my account I would start a new contract, and in my new address I'd have to pay for new installation / pay out the existing contract!! With leaves me stung big time!!

...

I had not seen this mentioned before that an upgrade to the more expensive package meant committing for a further 12 months. Presumably a downgrading would mean the same? I know there is a charge for downgrading but none for upgrading.

Does anyone know if the other isps have a similar requirement for people upgrading?

sticker

John R wrote:

Is ntl broadband available where you are moving to?

I'm not sure - I suppose I won't know before I get my phone number in the new house...

Why? Do you have NTL? if so any good? I believe they've no cap...

Ripwave

sticker wrote:

I'm not sure - I suppose I won't know before I get my phone number in the new house...

As NTL doesn't use a phone line, I don't see why they'd need to know your phone number.

Call them and ask them. The number is on their website.

MarVeL

NTL do have suggested caps though they are very generous (by Irish standards at any rate). IIRC the lower bundles have a 30Gb cap and the 1.5Mb/s has a 60Gb cap.

sticker

Ripwave wrote:

As NTL doesn't use a phone line, I don't see why they'd need to know your phone number.

Call them and ask them. The number is on their website.

Called them - Until my house is finished (a few weeks) no info of availablility. I'm told for €50 - 1.5 connection - 30 gig cap - Anyone using NTL - Any problems?!?! Is it a reliable connection?

thund3rbird_

check what services you can get here:
http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/sales/

just enter your ntl account number

300kbps - €25 per mth
750kbps - €35 per mth
1536kbps - €50 per mth
ALL have a 30gig p/m cap

macronot

sticker wrote:

I'm in Ongar Park atm - with Clicksilver broadband, I'm moving 10 minutes away - Hope it's covered!! It's a new house, so it'll probably take a while to setup the regular phone anyway!

You should check if you can bring you phone number with you. If so your will not be breaking the contract with U.tv as it is phone number based just update your address.
You will have to see if the new house is under the same exchange. Eircom should be able to tell you.

sticker

macronot wrote:

You should check if you can bring you phone number with you. If so your will not be breaking the contract with U.tv as it is phone number based just update your address.
You will have to see if the new house is under the same exchange. Eircom should be able to tell you.

Cheers Mate - Will do.

paddy

sticker wrote:

Your download limit was 8,192.00 MB.
You downloaded 17,567.54 MB.
Download Charge €140.63
Total Charge €185.31

sticker wrote:

Sounds like a quote from <Who wants to be a millionaire?> only the opposite way

tuxy

wow is this the first person to have reported being charged for breaking the cap?

have eircom started charging yet?

paddy

tuxy wrote:

wow is this the first person to have reported being charged for breaking the cap?

have eircom started charging yet?

I don't know about Eircon, but Utv have been charging for going over the cap for the last 2-3 months, they charge about E18.00 inc. vat per gig when you pass the cap. <advanced Ireland>
:mad:

smileyrecords

140 yoyo!!

dont pay it dude!!!
the bastards!!

i download 40MB a minute (yes thats 40 Megabytes u a reading rite)
here in college for free, uncapped!!!

dub45

smileyrecords wrote:

140 yoyo!!

dont pay it dude!!!
the bastards!!

i download 40MB a minute (yes thats 40 Megabytes u a reading rite)
here in college for free, uncapped!!!

Absolutely pointless to tell someone not to pay. When you sign up you accept whatever cap is in place and all of they isp's will have their T&C's set up so as to ensure that the onus is on the user not to exceed the cap.

So if you don't pay you are going to end up in trouble.

Also given the general pressure thats out there to prevent downloading of copyrighted and other types of material (I take it that its not 40mb of study and course related material you are downloading) I am sure universities and other similar institutions are not going allow this sort of situation to continue very much longer. A while ago I noticed a couple of threads on boards where students had been caught downloading porn strictly against colleger rules and were worried about being expelled.

sticker

smileyrecords wrote:

140 yoyo!!

dont pay it dude!!!
the bastards!!

i download 40MB a minute (yes thats 40 Megabytes u a reading rite)
here in college for free, uncapped!!!

I've every intention of paying - As said here already, I've signed up for a contract, UTV informed me when I approcahed my Cap; and I went ahead all the same... It's steep alright, but I'd be breaking an agreement if I was to ignore or fight it.

smileyrecords

A while ago I noticed a couple of threads on boards where students had been caught downloading porn strictly against colleger rules and were worried about being expelled.

only the stupid ones get caught, neither am i a student

i still dont understand how yee men equate "downloading=porn", im not interested in it, maybe you dub45 like downloading porn ......

dub45

smileyrecords wrote:

only the stupid ones get caught, neither am i a student

i still dont understand how yee men equate "downloading=porn", im not interested in it, maybe you dub45 like downloading porn ......

I made reference to the downloading of porn as an example of Collge authorities cracking down simply because there had been threads on boards about it

I made no assumption whatsover about what you might be downloading except that it would not be course related material given the volume involved:)