vodafone overcharging on broadband

scottishriver2

Has anyone out there been overcharged by vodafone at home broadband.
I got my bill for dec and they say that i went over my 40gb limit by 28.8 gb which i find very very hard to beleive for the last 3 bills i have not went over 25gb but all of a sudden 68.8gb and i havent being using more or less just the same as usual. really thinking of going back with eircom.
any thoughts people:mad:

Pat Mustard

I've noticed that my last two bills were charged at a higher rate than normal. I queried this with Vodafone. They have changed my billing to online billing, unilaterally. I never asked them to do this.

The previous bills up to March 2011 were nothing out out of the ordinary.

However, in April 2011, Vodafone billed me for €46 odd, claiming usage of more than 48 GB. Also, this month, I've been billed for the most recent billing period. The bill is more than €51 and they claim that more than 53 GB of data has been downloaded.

My download cap is 40 GB.

I rang Vodafone and told them that I was surprised at what they were claiming, and I was surprised that they hadn't contacted me to tell me that they claimed that the download cap had been exceeded.

I am sceptical about this apparent sudden spike in usage. It doesn't make any sense to me. I don't know if I have any way of verifying it. I've asked Vodafone to send on the details of the data usage, but they told me that it would be 'just data'. I'll wait to see it.

I share the house with two people but I am the billpayer. One girl only uses broadband for streaming RTE player and Channel 4 player, pretty much. I have yet to ask the other lad in the house what his usage is - but I very much doubt that he is downloading enough to fill his hard drive every few months.

I used to have a 10GB download cap with BT Ireland before Vodafone took over the fixed line broadband business. I was never notified of having exceeded the 10 GB cap by BT.

When Vodafone took over, they increased my download cap to 40GB. However, I am told that I have been consistently exceeding this in the last few months. My Vodafone online account now shows that I have apparently downloaded more than 51 GB since 14th April 2011. I cannot accept this.

I am annoyed with Vodafone and I am thinking of changing ISP now. I am looking strongly at Magnet (who have no download limit, incidentally).

I am interested to hear of other similar experiences that people may have had with Vodafone.

I would also be interested to hear if there is a way of checking the volume of data traffic going through my router.

NIMAN

Worrying to read, as someone thinking of going with VF for my broadband.

Is it not possible for them to make your internet connection actually stop working once you hit your limit? That would make sense to me.

Pat Mustard

NIMAN wrote: »

Worrying to read, as someone thinking of going with VF for my broadband.

Is it not possible for them to make your internet connection actually stop working once you hit your limit? That would make sense to me.

I know that some of the satellite broadband providers do that. When you exceed a certain amount of data usage, they choke off your connection (excuse terminology - probably not quite correct). I think that they do that out of necessity though, because they have very limited bandwidth.

In any case, if you exceed your download limit, it is common to be charged for that rather than to have your connection cut off.

My issue is with the amount of data that they claim that I used.

OMG Its EoinD

NIMAN wrote: »

Worrying to read, as someone thinking of going with VF for my broadband.

Is it not possible for them to make your internet connection actually stop working once you hit your limit? That would make sense to me.

My netgear router allows me to do this. I don't though. I use 100+GB regulary on eircoms 30GB package and nothing is done so...

Pat Mustard

Im_EoinD wrote: »

My netgear router allows me to do this. I don't though. I use 100+GB regulary on eircoms 30GB package and nothing is done so...

Interesting - how do you do that?

Also, presumably, if your router allows you to cut off the connection after X amount of data is used, then surely you can use it to monitor the amount of data actually used?

OMG Its EoinD

well there are 2 ways to monitor data.

go to dslstats.eircom.net and put in your phone and acc number.

or look at this router firmware. Gives you an idea of what you can do. Its very good.
netgear.png

OMG Its EoinD

Sorry mustard I put a link for eircom bandwidth tracker :L sorry about that

but here is my usage for the last few months :Pusage.png

Pat Mustard

Im_EoinD wrote: »

Sorry mustard I put a link for eircom bandwidth tracker :L sorry about that

Maybe I could track down router firmware for my old BT router (whatever model it is), and do the same.

OMG Its EoinD

I know the open source firmware DD-WRT is very customisable ect but your router must be able to support it.

Pat Mustard

Im_EoinD wrote: »

Sorry mustard I put a link for eircom bandwidth tracker :L sorry about that

but here is my usage for the last few months :Pusage.png

Haha, you'd wanna watch that.

I met a few of my friends for a couple of pints last night and was bitching about this whole thing.

One of them uses Eircom. He says they are pretty scrupulous in charging him if he exceeds his cap.

Pat Mustard

Im_EoinD wrote: »

I know the open source firmware DD-WRT is very customisable ect but your router must be able to support it.

I'll give it a look. Probably beyond my capabilities, but sure we'll chance it.

OMG Its EoinD

Well they normally seem to be uptight when its NGB as you're paying for bandwidth not speed. And the max package I can get is 3 down with the 30GB cap. No NGB yet :-/

OMG Its EoinD

btw the router I have is the N300 and thats 120 quid. But for the N150 for 50 euro but it should have the same firmware ect http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/9255090/Trail/searchtext%3ENETGEAR.htm

Pat Mustard

Nice one. I'll look into that.