heavily overcharged by upc

dogpile

zenno wrote: »

i agree but upc sent me this one to use. i might try a different one to be sure. but they seemed to recommend this one as they sent it. SHaPlus bandwidth meter 1.3.1

Just downloaded that program....... running in a tray down bottom, something don't look right with it after just flicking through various web pages not DLing anything in well under 10mins I'm over 100MB......it's actually ticking away as I'm doing nothing.......God help you if that's what UPC use to monitor usage

zenno

dogpile wrote: »

Just downloaded that program....... running in a tray down bottom, something don't look right with it after just flicking through various web pages not DLing anything in well under 10mins I'm over 100MB......it's actually ticking away as I'm doing nothing.......God help you if that's what UPC use to monitor usage

thanks for trying that program and verifying the results here.

well as i said i was given the link for that program by upc via e-mail so it does begger belief.

dogpile

I'm pretty much close to 1gig in under an hour now of doing very little.....don't think I've ever gone over 30gig a month, ever!


I'd do that in a week with this

zenno

dogpile wrote: »

I'm pretty much close to 1gig in under an hour now of doing very little.....don't think I've ever gone over 30gig a month, ever!


I'd do that in a week with this

yeh it's a strange one thats forsure. I will be doing a fare few more tests later on other software to see how this pans out.

my e-mail details from upc as follows...

Thank you again for the mail but unfortunately I am not able to advise of anything else at present. The acceptable usage policy is part of the terms & conditions of your contract please read through the following link at it may help you understand the policy better.

http://www.upc.ie/termsandconditions/acceptableusagepolicy/


Apologies but we have to see the usage curtailed before any downgrade is allowed to go through that is why we would have had to wait till the end of February.

I can only suggest that you make sure to keep a close eye now and hopefully this issue will not arise again and the upgrade will not happen again. Please look at the meter below it may help you to monitor the usage

http://www.shaplus.com/bandwidth-meter/


Regards


Mia


Mia Manek

upc Broadband Usage CoOrdinator

Upc

Inchicore

Dublin 8.

Email:

dub45

zenno wrote: »

thanks for trying that program and verifying the results here.

well as i said i was given the link for that program by upc via e-mail so it does begger belief.

You should ask UPC what software they use to monitor customer usage and if it has been certified by any professional body as being fit for purpose.

zenno

dub45 wrote: »

You should ask UPC what software they use to monitor customer usage and if it has been certified by any professional body as being fit for purpose.

don't worry this is exactly what i will be asking them tomorrow when i ring them as well as e-mail them. i have it all on paper now.

L'prof

L'prof wrote: »

I found an interesting site that analyses web pages and it says that YouTube is 14285 bytes which works out at 14MB.

Massive, brainfart here! 14285 bytes is 14kB, which is 0.01MB. When I opened YouTube my network activity spiked to about 100kB/s, so get rid of that software UPC recommended!

Sponge Bob

The shaplus app should be this one on their own site, is this the LINK that UPC sent you ??

http://www.shaplus.com/exes/misc/ShaPlus%20Bandwidth%20Meter-Setup.exe

Are you running Skype all the time BTW ??

zenno

L'prof wrote: »

Massive, brainfart here! 14285 bytes is 14kB, which is 0.01MB. When I opened YouTube my network activity spiked to about 100kB/s, so get rid of that software UPC recommended!

10/4 removing it now.

zenno

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The shaplus app should be this one on their own site, is this the LINK that UPC sent you ??

http://www.shaplus.com/exes/misc/ShaPlus%20Bandwidth%20Meter-Setup.exe

this is the link upc sent me... <upc> Please look at the meter below it may help you to monitor the usage

http://www.shaplus.com/bandwidth-meter/ in regards to you're question on skype' at first i had skype on the taskbar but wasn't using it. but while i was testing the program for the last fare few hours i had it turned off but the same problem with the program usage was still the same. having skype on didn't make any difference than it being turned off.

Sponge Bob

That is the correct link and my bandwidth does not gallop like yours does. There is something the funneh about this, maybe a virus maybe only skype.

You may have a public IP addresss with the UPC router often set in bridging mode, if so you should exit skype after setting it not to launch with windows and see if that makes any difference. If necessary reboot and look at the bandwidth.

It is also possible you are fragmenting packets with a borked MTU value, this means you are sending 2x or 3 x the data packets you should send for a given amount of data. This could well be UPCs fault but proving it is a tad technical to say the least.

However it is provable it is their fault !!

zenno

Sponge Bob wrote: »

That is the correct link and my bandwidth does not gallop like yours does. There is something the funneh about this, maybe a virus maybe only skype.

You may have a public IP addresss with the UPC router often set in bridging mode, if so you should exit skype after setting it not to launch with windows and see if that makes any difference. If necessary reboot and look at the bandwidth.

It is also possible you are fragmenting packets with a borked MTU value, this means you are sending 2x or 3 x the data packets you should send for a given amount of data. This could well be UPCs fault but proving it is a tad technical to say the least.

However it is provable it is their fault !!

i see. i will look into that.

i always scan a few times a week with kaspersky internet security 2011 and malwarebytes and trend micro housecall. but this system according to all of them is clean. but i will get to the bottom of this none the less.

Sponge Bob

Try this off a command line, if it fragments at a value below 1460 we might be on to something.

http://help.expedient.com/broadband/mtu_ping_test.shtml

zenno

getting back to the main issue...I have just found another error in upc's billing of my usage.

it say's on my bill that was posted to me the other day that my usage for the month of february 2011 was...{my stat for february 11th 2011 upload 101.69 download 94.015146 total 195.7GB but on this attachment below it say's 149.28GB for february 2011. so this is another error on their side. it's either one or the other but i will sort this out as well later. the more i dig into this the more i seem to find. the bill i was sent in the post is completely different to what their e-mail and upc bill online is.

dub45

I found with them recently that their billing is extraordinarily unprofessional. I had terminated my contract with them, had incredible difficulty in getting them to actually cancel it but they continued to send me bills with figures that seemed to be plucked out of the air. No attempt whatsoever to show how the figures were calculated.

I know I constantly criticise them but every interaction I have with them is an unmitigated disaster. they really appear to be making up stuff as they go along and there isnt a hint of professionalism in anything they do and that is based on direct experience.

zenno

dub45 wrote: »

I found with them recently that their billing is extraordinarily unprofessional. I had terminated my contract with them, had incredible difficulty in getting them to actually cancel it but they continued to send me bills with figures that seemed to be plucked out of the air. No attempt whatsoever to show how the figures were calculated.

I know I constantly criticise them but every interaction I have with them is an unmitigated disaster. they really appear to be making up stuff as they go along and there isnt a hint of professionalism in anything they do and that is based on direct experience.

I will agree that their billing is extraordinarily unprofessional i have just found holes in their own billing to me and this is not going to help them at all.

why should i have to spend hours and days e-mailing them and trying to sort this out when they (upc) have made clerical errors in their billing, i have no confidence in upc anymore as they do not include usage in their online billing information which i find very suspect.

the way i see it now after all this idiotic behaviour from them is' when i deal with them tomorrow if my problem is not sorted out then i will write them a registered letter and cancel my broadband account with them. they firstly will have to explain the errors in their billing to me first so i can get it on record.

also i see that not one upc boards member in billing has replied in this thread as they usually comment here on issues like this. vodaphone have no problems of replying to their customers comments on boards.ie.

dub45

zenno wrote: »

I will agree that their billing is extraordinarily unprofessional i have just found holes in their own billing to me and this is not going to help them at all.

why should i have to spend hours and days e-mailing them and trying to sort this out when they (upc) have made clerical errors in their billing, i have no confidence in upc anymore as they do not include usage in their online billing information which i find very suspect.

the way i see it now after all this idiotic behaviour from them is' when i deal with them tomorrow if my problem is not sorted out then i will write them a registered letter and cancel my broadband account with them. they firstly will have to explain the errors in their billing to me first so i can get it on record.

I wish you luck with that!

slave1

If we are at the stage where routine day to day surfing is contributing to breaking a 250gig AUP on a 30mb connection then there's something wrong somewhere.
I leave myself 8gig for routing surfing a month and use the rest of the AUP for other downloading/uploading purposes and have never had an issue with UPC/AUP (so far:eek:)
Will be interesting to see how you fair out, I wouldn't neccessarily jump ship, you could use to your advantage and ask for a loyalty discount if you stat, you don't want to cut off your nose etc. because who's to say your next ISP will be any better....
Keep us updated

bonoman66

dogpile wrote: »

Just downloaded that program....... running in a tray down bottom, something don't look right with it after just flicking through various web pages not DLing anything in well under 10mins I'm over 100MB......it's actually ticking away as I'm doing nothing.......God help you if that's what UPC use to monitor usage

I noticed too when I setup this bandwidth monitor that the traffic it measured was significantly higher than I could see was actually occurring - I just ran some very simple file download tests & saw it measured several times the data doownloaded. When I checked the setting / configuration option within the bandwidth monitor utility, I saw that multiple devices/network protocols were all ticked meaning that I was not seeing accurate data tranfer / usage figures. When I unticked all the options apart from the one I knew to be my primary NIC in the PC, everything started to measure correctly & has been stable / accurate since. Maybe just have a look at the settings to see if there are multiple devices/protocols ticked & try just ensuring just the main NIC in your system is ticked & test it again. Hopefully this might help you.

Bear in mind that it is possible for the bandwidth monitor correctly to show some usage even when you are not physically doing something yourself because its possible that maybe your AV software is being updated in the background (granted not all the time but just an example of why you might see some usage at certain times when you are not proactivley using the web/or downloading) or maybe Windows update is working away in the backgound. Obviously you'll see some usage too if you're feeding data to your dekstop (& have forgotten you've done this - stats, share prices tickers, internet radio etc..)

Sponge Bob

That is possible, there are selectable virtual and real drivers in the settings for the recommended download monitor. In real life a real device driver may pass to a virtual device driver and then to the operating system. This would explain a double count.

Only one of physical network card (eg often broadcom or intel ) should be selected and one of wireless network card ( often from the same two vendors) and with all the miniport and virtual drivers not monitored in case of double and treble counting.

Fittle

Zenno, if you see my post I just put up this morning - I rang them yesterday to ask to cancel my broadband connection and even though I am no longer in contract with them (just over one year), it will take 30 days to disconnect, and I am required to send it to them in writing.

I have to agree that I find their billing process appalling.

I recently disconnected a second tv connection (7.50pm plus VAT) I had with them. It appeared on my next bill.

When I contacted them, I was told that they don't issue credit notes, I would have to pay the 7.50 plus VATfor a service I no longer had (or I would be disconnected) and they would credit my invoice for the following month. I had an argument with the girl over the phone stating that it clearly said on my bill '1 Jan 2011 - 1 Feb 2011 Extra TV 7.50' When in fact my extra tv had been disconnected on the 28th December. I also pointed out that I had never in my life paid for a service that I didn't have in the hope that the company would credit me the following month.

Anyway, as often happens, I paid it so that they wouldn't disconnect my main TV and they did credit my invoice for February. I find their customer service section very unprofessional.

L'prof

Fittle wrote: »

Zenno, if you see my post I just put up this morning - I rang them yesterday to ask to cancel my broadband connection and even though I am no longer in contract with them (just over one year), it will take 30 days to disconnect, and I am required to send it to them in writing.

I have to agree that I find their billing process appalling.

I recently disconnected a second tv connection (7.50pm plus VAT) I had with them. It appeared on my next bill.

When I contacted them, I was told that they don't issue credit notes, I would have to pay the 7.50 plus VATfor a service I no longer had (or I would be disconnected) and they would credit my invoice for the following month. I had an argument with the girl over the phone stating that it clearly said on my bill '1 Jan 2011 - 1 Feb 2011 Extra TV 7.50' When in fact my extra tv had been disconnected on the 28th December. I also pointed out that I had never in my life paid for a service that I didn't have in the hope that the company would credit me the following month.

Anyway, as often happens, I paid it so that they wouldn't disconnect my main TV and they did credit my invoice for February. I find their customer service section very unprofessional.

Their customer service is very poor, but they're pretty much unrivaled in this country when it comes to the quality of their tv & broadband package.

dub45

L'prof wrote: »

Their customer service is very poor, but they're pretty much unrivaled in this country when it comes to the quality of their tv & broadband package.

A good product or service does not excuse lousy customer service on the part of any company.

zenno

I have read all new comments here and will update here soon as i am in the process of this issue with upc at the moment.

as i said before my antivirus is on manual updates and windows update is deactivated as i manually update everything on this pc i never use automatic updates on any program in regards to that shaplus program.

thanks for the replies and will update soon.

zenno

no further updates at this time but there will be tomorrow. tomorrow is the day and should all be dealt with then. so much for that. it looks like monday. well it gives me more time to go over all this stuff. there are things i would like to say here now but i will just leave it to fleetwood mac.

while i'm waiting for my issue to be dealt with' upc might enjoy this songs lyrics... tell me lies. both below bills are february billing' looks off to me. how can my bill in february be two different usages ? anyone from upc want to comment ?.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiGjxxytLy8

zenno

I have just been notified via E-mail that the manager of upc AUP wants to talk to me. I should be contacted soon. so I will see how it goes.

TouchingVirus

Zenno, there is something wrong with those stats, least of all the mismatch between Mia's report and your bill.

It's pretty rare for a user's Upload to exceed their Download, in 99% of cases it's the other way around - the user downloads more than they send to the internet. In three years with UPC I've had Down vs Up ranging from 240GB/10GB to 320GB/52GB but never the other way around.

Even if somebody manages to hop onto your wireless network their usual goal is to get some free downloads, not free uploads :P

If you do talk with the UPC AUP manager please ask why they are the only provider in the country who doesn't supply a facility for users to log in and check their usage, especially during the billing cycle. The technology exists.

zenno

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Zenno, there is something wrong with those stats, least of all the mismatch between Mia's report and your bill.

It's pretty rare for a user's Upload to exceed their Download, in 99% of cases it's the other way around - the user downloads more than they send to the internet. In three years with UPC I've had Down vs Up ranging from 240GB/10GB to 320GB/52GB but never the other way around.

Even if somebody manages to hop onto your wireless network their usual goal is to get some free downloads, not free uploads :P

If you do talk with the UPC AUP manager please ask why they are the only provider in the country who doesn't supply a facility for users to log in and check their usage, especially during the billing cycle. The technology exists.

well that is absolutely correct. I will be explaining this to them as well. their billing is all over the place.

the stress this is causing here is starting to take it's toll but I am not letting them away with this thats forsure' I don't care if it kills me at this stage.

zenno

I never got a response from upc <AUP> manager so i sent another E-mail hoping that I will get a professional response this time and not a robotic one.

Dear Sir/Madam

I was notified this morning @ 9:30am via E-mail from Laura O' Sullivan <upc broadband usage CoOrdinator upc> that the manager of <AUP> will be contacting me soon. but as of today monday 07/03/2011. I have not received a response.

I would like to know when I will receive this response regarding this ongoing issue.

I would also like to explain to you the following...

as I have already said in numerous E-mails to you and Mia, that we never received a warning letter on the 30th september 2010. why have I been charged now for allegedly going over my "limit" almost six months ago ?.

I would advise you to read the below statement...


ComReg would like to advise consumers that any provision of a contract which sets usage thresholds, or describes what constitutes ‘fair’ or ‘acceptable’ use, should be clear and unambiguous, particularly where the service is described as being ‘unlimited’.

Usage thresholds or limits should be clearly set out, as should the manner in which they may be updated or amended.

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. [end]

obviously my usage is not displayed on <upc> billing site. can you explain why it is not allowed to be accessed by upc customers ?.


also can you explain to me how you comply with comreg's requirement that you should have a policy on so called unlimited products ?.


and also I would like to know what system you use to monitor customer usage and if your system has been independently certified as being fit for use ?.


regards

colin.

will update if i ever get a reasonable response. also I am in the process of writing a letter to comreg.


this following link is what I was with back then in 2009 and there was no download cap. upc just pulled this out of the sky thereafter. I am with upc now over 3 years and never was capped until now. http://broadband.blogs.ie/category/chorus-broadband/

20MB Speed for an extra €20 Euro a month on top of the 3MB price. (No download or data cap) and as the years went on with their special deal of a free extra 10MB added on to the 20 I am on 30MB now. so their deal wasn't a deal after all in the sense that they gave me a brand new cap. :eek:

slave1

Nice response, interesting to see how this one pans out