Ntl Cutting Off High Usage Users

sharpjaws

i got a letter too today, saying i downloaded 85 GB in august(no idea how i did that with a 2MB connection) altho they did not say they will disconnect me, they just told me i will be forced to upgrade and pay more without notice.. but now am back to 1 MB from 3 MB .. i think am gona call them and upgrade to 6 MB if possible.

CiaranC

The 6MB product has the same 40GB cap...

If anything, upgrading will expedite your termination

opo

Screw NTL.

If they were selling cars, they would offer you a moped or BMW or a Ferrari.

But you'd still get a gallon of petrol a day for each.

I also got one of their beligerant snotty high handed letters. I am outraged at the tone.

They have lost me as a customer for good.

shltter

CiaranC wrote:

The 6MB product has the same 40GB cap...

If anything, upgrading will expedite your termination

Actually the 2Mbps service has a 16GB cap
The 3 has a 30 gig cap
The 1 has a 2 gig cap

Only the 6 has a 40 gig cap

CiaranC

My bad, I was looking at this page, which seems to show 40Gb for them all.

A 2GB cap on the 1MB service, thats gas.

zwyrolek

slightly lost wrote:

We have a winner! I thought I was bad. I have no scanner but here is the latest version of the letter. Dated 15/9/06

Dear Customer,

We are writing to you because, unfortunately, some of our broad band customers in your area have been experiencing deterioration in the service we offer them. We have found that this is most often caused by a small number of our broadband customers who are continually uploading and downloading extremely large files, which has a detrimental effect on our network.

The usage guidelines for ntl Broadband Max is up to 40GB of data transfer monthly. Our systems show that your usage during August was 120+(not real) GB. The following provides a rough guide* to the usage for normal Internet activities:
100 emails – 5Mb
100 WebPages = 10Mb
I hour chatting online = .04Mb
1 hour online gaming = 1.5Mb
1 video clip downloaded = 25Mb
1 MP3 music file = 4Mb

Please, for the sake of all our broadband customers, reduce the bandwidth utilised through your cable modem. We do not wish to impose restrictions on your broadband service, however if your usage continues to exceed the usage allowance we may be forced to upgrade you and charge accordingly. Suspend or disconnect your service for continued high usage.

Ntl’s broadband services are intended for normal recreational or educational use by individuals and families and our pricing and network architecture have been designed accordingly.

“Normal letter ending”

Nial Mc Nally

PS To view the Acceptable usage policy for ntl visit www.ntl.ie

*This should only be used as a guide

Maybe they are perfecting it from reading this thread? And is the whole educational and family thing is true no real need for 6mb lines tbh.

As for me.... I joined NTL BB about 4 years ago. I recall the sales pitch being "Unlimited"

I shall be asking them later in the week to tell me what has changed. But please note I lost a lot of files in August and the 120+gigs was me replacing them. So I would say over the 4 + years or what ever I have averaged <1 GB a month... if even that. Hell I have gone for months without donloading anything.

/goes off to find original contract...

[edit] I didn't put my exact dl in GB' for ntl to track me down from boards.ie

I got the same letter today with 389.433 GB usage what is not true. My Bandwidth Monitor Pro show me 233 GB in August. Why is more then 100 GB difference?

CyberGhost

Hey maybe we should create a list or something to show them that, this many users can't all be abusers(hey it rhymes!), and it's just their stupid limit that is set unreally?

It's really sad that at one point such a praised isp is becoming one of the crappiest and hated ones in Ireland.

I wish UK ntl never sold out

Set real limits.... 200GB a month, and no one will complain...

dub45

CyberGhost wrote:

Hey maybe we should create a list or something to show them that, this many users can't all be abusers(hey it rhymes!), and it's just their stupid limit that is set unreally?

It's really sad that at one point such a praised isp is becoming one of the crappiest and hated ones in Ireland.

I wish UK ntl never sold out

Set real limits.... 200GB a month, and no one will complain...

Want to bet?

stormyday

I have been following this thread for past couple of weeks and just wanted to say, YES is is unfair that NTL are cutting people off for going over the cap by a few Gig but its not unfair when they cut people off for going over there cap by twice or more of the allowed limited. This causes annoyence for people like myself who pay for the 6MB connection but are only getting just over 1.2MB at peak times because of high users on the line these people are eating up the bandwidth for everyone else on the same line. Unfortunatly NTL do have a cap on the service and we will have to live with that until such time they decide to improve the service for high users and to also be fair there are other people on the line trying to use the service like youself but cant get what they pay for because of the over usage. As far as I know UPC are only finding their feet with the purchase of NTL and probably have a new better BB package on the way for everyone but until then anyone that has there service still has NTL's user policy to abide by. The policy is there for a reason and maybe there system can only cope with the allowed cap for each speed which shows how badly the company is in need to upgrade.

Im not looking for an argument with anyone on this thread, just voiceing my opinion on the situation.

peepsbates

zwyrolek wrote:

I got the same letter today with 389.433 GB usage what is not true. My Bandwidth Monitor Pro show me 233 GB in August. Why is more then 100 GB difference?

thats a big difference but do you not think 233gb is a bit extreme:eek:

6th

I was told last night that ntl will not be warning people and cutting them off for going 10 or 20 GB over the cap and that seems fair to me. Maybe they should offer a higher cap for those that need it and charge accordingly?

I know I am fine with a 40GB limit as I dont download movies, game demos etc but I can understand that people do. I ahve a 2MB connection which suits me fine but the last month or so have been so slow. I've been credited for my last bill and told that with the amount of people being cut off in the next 10 days it should all go back to normal for me

Jonnie_Onion

but its not unfair when they cut people off for going over there cap by twice or more of the allowed limited. This causes annoyence for people like myself who pay for the 6MB connection but are only getting just over 1.2MB at peak times because of high users on the line these people are eating up the bandwidth for everyone else on the same line.

Did all of these abusers magically sign up after the takeover?

I don't think so. I've not had any trouble previously.

6th

No the new set up decided not to put up with people going over the caps. Maybe the decided to tighten things up a bit, I imagine it would save them money. Its a business - get over it.

If i bought a pic-a-mix stand and saw that the previous owner had been giving people 2lb of sweet when they were paying for a 1lb bag I'd put a stop to it.

sham69

Apologies if this is slightly off topic, I have just cancelled my subscription.
Was 30 mins on the phone and was transferred 4 times, when I evetually got to speak to someone they could barely speak english and it took me a further 10 minutes to explain why I wanted to cancel. Before people pick me up wrong as being racist or something the guy was extremely pleasant and was doing his best to understand what I meant.
One last comment, Micro as a moderator it doesnt seem right for you to warn people about their suspicions regarding Foxwood. Should you not be more partial about the issue?. It seems to me that you were tough on the people that were anti NTL and sided with Foxwood. At the end of the day it is nothing personal against him just agaonst NTL and how they conduct their business. I guess I just expected a bit more fairness from a Mod and thought that this forum was all about people speaking candidly about certain isssues.
I have said my piece.

stormyday

Jonnie_Onion wrote:

Did all of these abusers magically sign up after the takeover?

I don't think so. I've not had any trouble previously.

No they didnt magically sign up after the take over but over the last few years BB has been only made avail in more and more areas around the country so thinking logically the more people that subscribe to BB and use is the more bandwidth is being used. It was only avail in my area last year. When I called NTL about my own speed issues and queried the cap I was told that this only came into play 2 years ago so maybe they had to do this to provide a fair service for everyone, if you have half the people in your area downloading/ uploading twice their allowed amount every month of course the service is going to deteriorate for everyone else on the line so again until the company decides to improve there service we just have to live with the cap.

CiaranC

If you read the thread, you will see why the service has deteriorated. Nothing has changed on the user level, while several other factors have changed at the wider network level.

I wouldnt hold your breath for any performance improvement.

Jonnie_Onion

6th wrote:

No the new set up decided not to put up with people going over the caps. Maybe the decided to tighten things up a bit, I imagine it would save them money. Its a business - get over it.

If i bought a pic-a-mix stand and saw that the previous owner had been giving people 2lb of sweet when they were paying for a 1lb bag I'd put a stop to it.

That's not the point I'm making. You're not getting slow speeds because of heavy users, you're geting slow speeds because the business screwed up.

I've no problem with them cutting off abusers who are raping the cap, but I won't be lied to. I'm getting slow speeds myself, so I'll be getting my own little credit or I'll be off to another provider.

Moriarty

stormyday aka Boomer23 banned.

Ban evasion is naughty, mmkay?

Drapper

opo wrote:

Screw NTL.

If they were selling cars, they would offer you a moped or BMW or a Ferrari.

But you'd still get a gallon of petrol a day for each.

I also got one of their beligerant snotty high handed letters. I am outraged at the tone.

They have lost me as a customer for good.

Never got the letter myself but like others I share my bandwith with my lodger and my other half, we have 3 pcs and a laptop so its hard to monitor the bandwidth in use. As stated I've ordered Eircom, as I've been trough the IBB nightmare and now NTL nightmare and I reverting back to a service I had long ago that was relaible. Its a fee mrket, not happy with the service vote with your feet.....

Jonnie_Onion

Yep, I've been browsing the current offers. Seriously considering getting a line back in and going with Esat. If Smart weren't suffering all these problems, I'd go with them.

tman

I received a letter last week stating that my downstream usage exceeded 73.891GB down in the month of August... funny thing is, DUmeter states that I only downloaded 39.46GB...

the combined download and upload for that month in DUmeter adds up to 73.87GB, but the letter clearly states that I've exceeded the downstream allowance
gonna give the ****ers a piece of my mind now!

Jonnie_Onion

Jesus. Sort it out UPC! :rolleyes:

tman

yep. I would've pleaded my case with them if they still offered the same service that I had before UPC shook things up, but with the recent disconnects (mostly for hours on end at the weekends), I've decided to just jump ship.

JNive

looks like the discrepancies and indeed due in part to the cap applying to upload+download combined. They really are goin to face a severe reaction if that is indeed the case, as for some people it may well mean unlawful disconnection of service.

Jumpy

Sponge Bob wrote:

Confirm that in full.

Add point 4. Chorus in Limerick is running the show now.

This site (a) has been like this for ages...at least since late year ..... while this other site (b) has recently had a schnazzy makeover.

Welcome to Chorus Hell !

That is a bit of a guess now isnt it? Tis a rather large assumption.

PixelTrawler

tman wrote:

I received a letter last week stating that my downstream usage exceeded 73.891GB down in the month of August... funny thing is, DUmeter states that I only downloaded 39.46GB...

the combined download and upload for that month in DUmeter adds up to 73.87GB, but the letter clearly states that I've exceeded the downstream allowance

Thats the first concrete sign then that NTL/UPC are counting total traffic as "download usage"

This is not good news...

Drapper

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

Thats the first concrete sign then that NTL/UPC are counting total traffic as "download usage"

This is not good news...

Its such a sad situation! NTL were leaders in the BB field ! they will get slatted for back pedelling!!

Sponge Bob

Jumpy wrote:

That is a bit of a guess now isnt it? Tis a rather large assumption.

Fact. Chorus is now running NTL not the other way around. Thats because UPC took Chorus over long before it got its hands on NTL .

Dublin Galway and Waterford people never had to deal with Chorus before. It will be interesting to wathc them adapt .

bk

Sponge Bob wrote:

Fact. Chorus is now running NTL not the other way around. Thats because UPC took Chorus over long before it got its hands on NTL .

Dublin Galway and Waterford people never had to deal with Chorus before. It will be interesting to wathc them adapt .

I've been saying this for a long time now, people see to think that NTL CS in the past were bad. But being from Cork and having experienced both Chorus and NTL, I can tell you NTL are vastly superior to Chorus.

There is a reason why most people in Cork hate Chorus and their bloody black box, there is a reason why in Cork, people have been leaving for Sky in large numbers. Now lucky NTL customers get to experience their incompetency also.

Chorus is simply one of the worst managed and worst run companies in the country and unfortunately we are now seeing the effects of that on NTL.

PixelTrawler

If UPC are counting total traffic as download or downstream usage surely this is a breach of their own stated terms and conditions...

Is this something that Comreg can assist with?