Forced upgrade with UPC

kevthecelt

Hi guys, so I went over my download limit twice, first time I was unaware there was a cap on their so called unlimited connection, second time was because of others in the house downloading while I was away, and now UPC have 'forcibly' upgraded my connection from a 39.99 a month 20meg to a 30 meg 'Extreme' line which is 79.99 a month (ouch)

Is there anything that can be done about this to get it reversed? Or has this happened to anybody else?

listermint

kevthecelt wrote: »

Hi guys, so I went over my download limit twice, first time I was unaware there was a cap on their so called unlimited connection, second time was because of others in the house downloading while I was away, and now UPC have 'forcibly' upgraded my connection from a 39.99 a month 20meg to a 30 meg 'Extreme' line which is 79.99 a month (ouch)

Is there anything that can be done about this to get it reversed? Or has this happened to anybody else?

How have they 'forcibily upgraded your connection??

Where you billed for the overrun?
How much was downloaded?
Did they write to you to ask you to upgrade?
Did it just happend and have the billed you for same?

Your details are very lax..

kevthecelt

They wrote to me back in early December notifying me that I was abusing the acceptable usage policy of 250gb per month, and that if I did it again my account would be upgraded (without my consent) to the Extreme package.

In January they stated that 331 GB was downloaded, it was approximately the same for Novembers usage and I was not charged for that.

I'm just wondering what my rights are here, seems excessive that they can just upgrade me to double what I was paying after only 1 warning?

eoghanhickey

UPC seem to contradict themselves on their site. If you look at the conditions from the upc site, "there is no monthly usage cap for Fibre Power Broadband 20Mb or 30Mb."

However if you look at the data transfer allowances they seem to state that your broadband is capped at "250GB for Fibre Power Broadband 20Mb and 30Mb users".

Legally they are within their rights to force-ably "upgrade" your account if you breached the 250gb amount. That said the download cap is the same on 20mb as it is on 30mb. I would ring them up and kick up a fuss. Bluntly state that you cannot afford to pay 80euro a month, and work something out with them. Generally companies are willing to come to a compromise, as they don't want to lose their customers or receive bad press.

dub45

eoghanhickey wrote: »

UPC seem to contradict themselves on their site. If you look at the conditions from the upc site, "there is no monthly usage cap for Fibre Power Broadband 20Mb or 30Mb."

However if you look at the data transfer allowances they seem to state that your broadband is capped at "250GB for Fibre Power Broadband 20Mb and 30Mb users".

Legally they are within their rights to force-ably "upgrade" your account if you breached the 250gb amount. That said the download cap is the same on 20mb as it is on 30mb. I would ring them up and kick up a fuss. Bluntly state that you cannot afford to pay 80euro a month, and work something out with them. Generally companies are willing to come to a compromise, as they don't want to lose their customers or receive bad press.

Could you tell us please on what you base this statement?

eoghanhickey

Perhaps I am misusing the word legally, but it is written into the acceptable Usage policy which you agree to when you sign up to them.


If you exceed your monthly data transfer allowance as determined by UPC, in our sole judgment, UPC may take any of the following actions, or any combination thereof:

• Impose a charge of 3 cent per megabyte or part thereof for exceeding your data transfer limit; and/or
• Upgrade your package to a package with a higher data transfer limit with the corresponding higher monthly fee; and/or
• Downgrade your upload and download speed for a period of one month to dial-up speed, with your monthly fee remaining the same; and/or
• Suspend your access to the services for one month, with your monthly fee remaining the same; and/or
• Terminate your account as per the terms of the User Policy and UPC Terms and Conditions.

dub45

eoghanhickey wrote: »

Perhaps I am misusing the word legally, but it is written into the acceptable Usage policy which you agree to when you sign up to them.


If you exceed your monthly data transfer allowance as determined by UPC, in our sole judgment, UPC may take any of the following actions, or any combination thereof:

• Impose a charge of 3 cent per megabyte or part thereof for exceeding your data transfer limit; and/or
• Upgrade your package to a package with a higher data transfer limit with the corresponding higher monthly fee; and/or
• Downgrade your upload and download speed for a period of one month to dial-up speed, with your monthly fee remaining the same; and/or
• Suspend your access to the services for one month, with your monthly fee remaining the same; and/or
• Terminate your account as per the terms of the User Policy and UPC Terms and Conditions.

Indeed it is and how exactly does that comply with the following requirement from Comreg?

ComReg expects each service provider to implement a clear, transparent and policy for dealing with customer usage above any set thresholds. The policy should set out the rules for contract termination, including penalties, the charges that shall apply for any use above the threshold/limit, and the policy regarding migration of the customer to other packages, if applicable

UPC's terms above demonstrably do not comply with Comreg's requirements above. How can anyone be expected to agree to being "upgraded" to a product which doesn't officially exist and which they don't know the cost of?

Meanwhile UPC continue to deceive potential customers:mad:

Then 20Mb is for you and with unlimited usage don’t be afraid to download again and again.

No qualification whatsoever!!!

www.upc.ie/broadband.

Xzen

I recently encountered the same delightful upgrade with UPC. Was just forced into the 30Mb/s "broadband 30Mb extreme" package and without any notice.
But as I'm upgrading the 100Mb/s at €80 p/m I don't mind so much.
(by the way does anyone know what the usage limits on the " 30Mb extreme" package are? )

I've been beta testing 3 different games and another piece of software in the last few months and they all use BitTorrent to distribute their software. This is becoming common practice lately and probably something not taken into account by ISPs.
So it's no surprise I went over the limit. It's beginning to look like the 250GB limit - thats a combination of Upload AND as download by the way - is becoming pretty small these days.
That said UPC's 250GB limit is the largest available from any of the national ISPs in Ireland (500GB on their 100Mb package)

--

Aaaanyways, From the small print on UPC's site it does indeed look like the limits are set out "clearly" from a legal stand point.If you exceed the limits in your agreement, UPC are within their rights to adjust your connection accordingly.
You are correct however, their advertising of "unlimited" usage is a complete lie (Feels like a dirty filty lie at that, lets call it a politicians promise ). Comreg can do nothing about that, however the ASAI (advertising Standards Authority Ireland) could probably do something about it....then agian if they could they would have by now. After all, ISPs have been getting away with "unlimitied usage" advertising for years now and without the slightest bit of intervention.

Also a few things that might be of help for you.
Firstly:
I'm assuming you pay by Direct Debit here. If they upgraded your connection without explicitly letting you know in writing that your Direct Debit account would be charged the extra cost of the upgrade, then you do have rights to complain to your bank and ask for the amount to be refunded. AFAIK companies that charge via the DD scheme cannot increase the charge without notice.

Secondly:
Assuming you're not living alone.
You can always disconnect from UPC and reconnect in the other persons name (with their permission of course), that connection would be completely new from UPC's point of view and you could go back to the 20Mb package


Hope that helps

cykedout

Xzen wrote: »

I recently encountered the same delightful upgrade with UPC. Was just forced into the 30Mb/s "broadband 30Mb extreme" package and without any notice.
But as I'm upgrading the 100Mb/s at €80 p/m I don't mind so much.
(by the way does anyone know what the usage limits on the " 30Mb extreme" package are? )

I've been beta testing 3 different games and another piece of software in the last few months and they all use BitTorrent to distribute their software. This is becoming common practice lately and probably something not taken into account by ISPs.
So it's no surprise I went over the limit. It's beginning to look like the 250GB limit - thats a combination of Upload AND as download by the way - is becoming pretty small these days.
That said UPC's 250GB limit is the largest available from any of the national ISPs in Ireland (500GB on their 100Mb package)

--

Aaaanyways, From the small print on UPC's site it does indeed look like the limits are set out "clearly" from a legal stand point.If you exceed the limits in your agreement, UPC are within their rights to adjust your connection accordingly.
You are correct however, their advertising of "unlimited" usage is a complete lie (Feels like a dirty filty lie at that, lets call it a politicians promise ). Comreg can do nothing about that, however the ASAI (advertising Standards Authority Ireland) could probably do something about it....then agian if they could they would have by now. After all, ISPs have been getting away with "unlimitied usage" advertising for years now and without the slightest bit of intervention.

Also a few things that might be of help for you.
Firstly:
I'm assuming you pay by Direct Debit here. If they upgraded your connection without explicitly letting you know in writing that your Direct Debit account would be charged the extra cost of the upgrade, then you do have rights to complain to your bank and ask for the amount to be refunded. AFAIK companies that charge via the DD scheme cannot increase the charge without notice.

Secondly:
Assuming you're not living alone.
You can always disconnect from UPC and reconnect in the other persons name (with their permission of course), that connection would be completely new from UPC's point of view and you could go back to the 20Mb package


Hope that helps

Been on the "Ultra" (or is it "Extreme") package for about a year now, and my average monthly DL is about 700-800 Gbs. Never had any other letters, etc, since. But I am wondering if they are traffic shaping/throttling my connection as Megaupload, Netload and others have gone to pot recently.

BTW, anyone have the 100 meg in Waterford yet, as I'm still only on 30 at the moment?

I've gone over my limit on my 100meg connection, interested to see what they do on that connection in relation to the Extreme package.

RedXIV

I got caught for going over the limit and in fairness I did so by a couple of 100GBs. Couldn't afford to pay so simply cancelled the direct debit, asked for an account number to pay in the bank and paid it over installments until it went back down again at the end of the month

kevthecelt

RedXIV wrote: »

I got caught for going over the limit and in fairness I did so by a couple of 100GBs. Couldn't afford to pay so simply cancelled the direct debit, asked for an account number to pay in the bank and paid it over installments until it went back down again at the end of the month

How did it go back down again after only 1 month? What did you say to UPC?

RedXIV

kevthecelt wrote: »

How did it go back down again after only 1 month? What did you say to UPC?

We didn't get a letter warning us so we said it was completely unexpected and we signed up over the phone for the broadband where the customer service rep constantly assured me there was no data limit.

So we got a big bill out of nowhere, rang them up, they told me about the fair usage policy, I said I wouldn't use the net for the rest of the month if they dropped it back down from extreme package to normal and the rep said that shouldn't be a problem and to call back at the end of the month

RedXIV

RedXIV wrote: »

I got caught for going over the limit and in fairness I did so by a couple of 100GBs. Couldn't afford to pay so simply cancelled the direct debit, asked for an account number to pay in the bank and paid it over installments until it went back down again at the end of the month

Imagine they charged you the 3c for each meg over.
You would be without internet for well over a year, if you were to use the same solution.:o

Menengroth™

Received the same letter this month - first offense, same threat to upgrade me to the 30mb 'extreme' package for €79.99 - unlimited my arse. Also, if they were to charge me the 3c per mb for the 41gb I went over the 250gb, that'd be €1,260........

Still, was a once off for me, normally don't download that much.

hightower1

dub45 wrote: »

Could you tell us please on what you base this statement?

dub45 wrote: »

Companies are entitled to change their Terms and Conditions and there are usually clauses within their Terms and Conditions as to how this should be done in respect of notifying customers and the notice period involved.

When they receive the notice customers can then choose to take whatever action they wish.

N.B - Personally I dont agree with advertising BB products from ANY provider as unlimited with AUP attached no more than I agree with any stipulation to a headline grabbing advertisement. In fact I think its a case of now that there is for want of a better word a marketing arms race where one ISP makes a claim "unlimited" and they all have to then seeing as average Joe soap just doesn't know much when it comes to this kind of thing. I think UPC would be only delighted to have comreg tell all ISPs that they have to state the limits and ban use of the term unlimited for bb products seeing as they could then show the average joe that their cap beats the pants off Eircom across the board. Why be upset about showing your hand when you've the best at the table right. Only a fool would still be paying more for less if they dont have to be.

fatmike

Got put on the Extreme bb package, got my first bill today "Total Amount Due € 102.44". I thought it was 80 euros?? no way im payin that much for 30mb bb, id rather cancel the account and pay the cancelation fee.

Xzen

fatmike wrote: »

Got put on the Extreme bb package, got my first bill today "Total Amount Due € 102.44". I thought it was 80 euros?? no way im payin that much for 30mb bb, id rather cancel the account and pay the cancelation fee.

Yep they do that. It is indeed €80, however if they changed you over half way into the month they charge you ~2 weeks in your old tariff then the rest of the month in the new "extreme" package.
So every month from now on it'll be €80...at least I hope so, Just got changed over the other day. (which I'm fine with ... upgrading to 100mb when its available in a month or 2)

roast

Xzen wrote: »

Yep they do that. It is indeed €80, however if they changed you over half way into the month they charge you ~2 weeks in your old tariff then the rest of the month in the new "extreme" package.
So every month from now on it'll be €80...at least I hope so, Just got changed over the other day. (which I'm fine with ... upgrading to 100mb when its available in a month or 2)

You'll be charged 80 until a month comes where you don't exceed the usage, in which case you'll be charged the standard rate for the BB.