BT_Broadband_Problem ?

[gac]

I'm aware of that.

 

But if BT insist on imposing this excess usuage charge  of £60+ what other option  have I got to right the  financial balance,   but  following the path that the marketeers like i.e. change supplier and get a discount  at an introductory reduced monthly rate?

But the excess charge goes away for much less than £60 per month. Why would you just not pay it, and remove this problem entirely?

 

I'd be far better off moving to Plusnet for 12 months, where they offer unlimted VDSL service for £3 a month less than BT and then, if the service is ****e, transferring back to BT at the end of 12 months as a "Recaptured"  customer and get their £5 a month broadband for 12 months introductory deal. That way the £60 I pay now, I would get back in just over a year.

BT are by no means a shining example of customer service - so why haven't you already moved to Plusnet? Or Sky? Or anyone else who is doing any kind of offer? In one breath you're slating BT for their (supposedly) malicious overcharging, the next you don't want to leave in case the service is ****e. Make up your mind?

 

i'll have to look carefully into the claimed August over usuage further as I've discovered today that at least one of the Windows 10 updates downloading in the background to my Linx tablet  (The cumulative update to the Anniversary Update  KB3194496) has taken six attempts to download and install before it was successful and in the process added 700 MB to the data usuage for today

Which is exactly the sort of thing that several people in this thread have been suggesting to you for days (not specifically retried downloads, but just looking at the update system in general and make sure it's properly set up).

 

I don't even know why I'm bothering at this point, it may not be deliberate but you're basically trolling everyone here by being an askhole.

[@Lee]

I don't even know why I'm bothering at this point, it may not be deliberate but you're basically trolling everyone here by being an askhole.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, Nick's a professional complainer. His Top 3 are

1. BT

2. The NHS

3. Doctors surgeries/ receptionists.

 

I seem to recall quite a few moans about his local council and the parking of his neighbours also.

[Clunkclick]

I'd prefer it if you didn't insult me.

 

My recent experience is that the moderator's on here are very sensitive to that sort of thing.

 

 

Back on issue.

 

I don't know about you, but £60 is hardly office boy's jager bomb money to me. In fact, as a far from fully-fit pensioners on a pension income less than the Income Tax personal allowance, its is a significant amount of money - in fact its equivalnt to a week's worth of household expenditure. And if all, or even part of that charge is unjustified or can be avoided or abated then there are real positive benefits to me.

 

I find it hard to believe that if somebody nicked £60 from your firms petty cash or  the Inland Revenue demanded £60 a month extra tax without real justification that you or our bosses would lay back and let it wash over you !

 

I am fully aware that this sort of attitude doesn't go down  well with many of the marketing fan-boy/ stooge's who inhabit these fora as contributors , but . . . . . tough. You can inhabit your marketeers bubble and I'll inhabit the pensioner bubble and never the twain.

 

 

Nick

Edited 30 September, 2016 by Clunkclick

[Clunkclick]

In case you haven't figured it out yet, Nick's a professional complainer. His Top 3 are

1. BT

2. The NHS

3. Doctors surgeries/ receptionists.

 

I seem to recall quite a few moans about his local council and the parking of his neighbours also.

Me and 50 million others -  a clear minority in marketeering terms.

 

Nick

[gac]

If the moderators feel fit to ban me for a few days as they did you, then frankly they would probably be doing me a favour.

 

"I don't know about you, but £60 is hardly office boy's jager bomb money to me."

 

Your made-up £60/month is ridiculous. I would clearly not pay that and I've said as much.  Which is why I pay for unlimited internet, which is more like £60/year. Your stubborn refusal to do so has now cost you money, which it has always had the potential to do, and you have weighed up and accepted that risk. Now the worst has happened. I wasn't aware you were a pensioner (although the clues were there, there aren't many groups in society who have this much free time on their hands) and I understand that you're on low income. However, as I said earlier, unlimited Internet is an "insurance" of sorts. You know you're paying £60/year more, but you also know that you won't suddenly have a £60/month bill. Swings and roundabouts.

 

As for my "marketeers" bubble, I'd prefer it if you didn't insult me.

[@Lee]

I'd prefer it if you didn't insult me.

Alright then, you're an amateur complainer

[Clunkclick]

Sounds like somebody's going to start self-harming. . . . 

 

 

Not to worry, its Friday night and we'll all "Off the clock" now ?

 

 

Nick

[gadgetman]

You can disable your router over night from the admin panel on almost all routers, and also set access limits to block anything but certain devices during certain times.

 

The former the router will disconnect from the internet so no chance of being hacked.  Although as nearly every router in the world has had its remote access hacked, it can happen at any time of day.  They'll just scan for a suitable target and have their field day.  If it's going to happen, it probably already has without your knowledge and your router is all set up ready to go when the hackers choose.

 

There's more important things to worry about.

[GentleGiant]

Rather than blindly switch to PlusNet, where you will get a similar "experience" (they are after all, a 100% owned BT subsidiary); try looking for a better ISP by going through the Top Ten list at http://www.ispreview.co.uk/

 

Or if none of those rock your world, look through the listings for ISPs that offer the services you want.

 

When comparing costs, look at your TOTAL monthly outgoings for telephone, internet and line rental, as many "cheap" internet offerings have inflated line rental and call costs - such as BT, Plusnet etc.

 

A friend has had BT Infinity since it came out, his monthly bill for 38/10 limited, when line rental and call charges are included comes to 50p MORE than my 80/20 unlimited package with line rental and call charges included, even though the internet charge itself is less than a third of mine.

 

If you already have Sky TV, then their internet is cheap, and the support service has improved a lot since the early days; as long as you are in an area they cover; their BT based service isnt as good.

 

BTW BT crosstalk issues are "A THING", BT openly refer to them in technical publications, although they tend not to give too much info on the implications beyond data degradation; however they are trialling various methods to try and reduce them, including new data encapsulation formats.

 

(At this point, some well known BRISKODA pointy head is probably going to ask for a link/proof - my answer is "ISPR have historically published links to BT technical publications, go look and see if they are still active")

 

 

Ré crosstalk on upload side only - I dont know. At the time BT were only giving out an aggregated hourly total, not an up/down total, or a more detailed report; but even if it is up only, if a heavy torrent user (or Win10 user), is on a line physically close to yours, you could be getting partially charged for his upload activity.

[jonoj]

Rather than blindly switch to PlusNet, where you will get a similar "experience" (they are after all, a 100% owned BT subsidiary); try looking for a better ISP by going through the Top Ten list at http://www.ispreview.co.uk/

 

Or if none of those rock your world, look through the listings for ISPs that offer the services you want.

 

When comparing costs, look at your TOTAL monthly outgoings for telephone, internet and line rental, as many "cheap" internet offerings have inflated line rental and call costs - such as BT, Plusnet etc.

 

A friend has had BT Infinity since it came out, his monthly bill for 38/10 limited, when line rental and call charges are included comes to 50p MORE than my 80/20 unlimited package with line rental and call charges included, even though the internet charge itself is less than a third of mine.

 

If you already have Sky TV, then their internet is cheap, and the support service has improved a lot since the early days; as long as you are in an area they cover; their BT based service isnt as good.

 

BTW BT crosstalk issues are "A THING", BT openly refer to them in technical publications, although they tend not to give too much info on the implications beyond data degradation; however they are trialling various methods to try and reduce them, including new data encapsulation formats.

 

(At this point, some well known BRISKODA pointy head is probably going to ask for a link/proof - my answer is "ISPR have historically published links to BT technical publications, go look and see if they are still active")

 

 

Ré crosstalk on upload side only - I dont know. At the time BT were only giving out an aggregated hourly total, not an up/down total, or a more detailed report; but even if it is up only, if a heavy torrent user (or Win10 user), is on a line physically close to yours, you could be getting partially charged for his upload activity.

 

Cross talk does indeed exist however this is a bandwidth challenge and not an usage issue. 

 

If you look for "DSL bandplan" on google you may find more information about "cross talk"

 

When you have so many copper pairs in a cable together, it acts a little like a capacitor and the frequencies can interact - causing an error rate on the line. In ADSL the modulation scheme will change resulting in a lower sync bandwidth. To allow operators to get the most out of the copper network - as this is what is mainly in the ground at the moment - crosstalk can be minimised to increase the available bandwidth per user on the cable. When you look at the standards of DSL its nearly always a combination of modulation and carriers as well as cross talk reduction that will maximise the bandwidth available. 

 

Cross talk to the point of GBs over another persons line would be pretty unrealistic, if there was that much data I think the whole line would have resync'd and barely been usable - I think you should check ALL devices on the network to see where the usage has come from. If you have a mobile phone, updates and new services (cloud back up etc) could have contributed to the higher usage.

[GentleGiant]

Cross talk does indeed exist however this is a bandwidth challenge and not an usage issue. 

 

If you look for "DSL bandplan" on google you may find more information about "cross talk"

 

When you have so many copper pairs in a cable together, it acts a little like a capacitor and the frequencies can interact - causing an error rate on the line. In ADSL the modulation scheme will change resulting in a lower sync bandwidth. To allow operators to get the most out of the copper network - as this is what is mainly in the ground at the moment - crosstalk can be minimised to increase the available bandwidth per user on the cable. When you look at the standards of DSL its nearly always a combination of modulation and carriers as well as cross talk reduction that will maximise the bandwidth available. 

 

Cross talk to the point of GBs over another persons line would be pretty unrealistic, if there was that much data I think the whole line would have resync'd and barely been usable - I think you should check ALL devices on the network to see where the usage has come from. If you have a mobile phone, updates and new services (cloud back up etc) could have contributed to the higher usage.

 

 

WHat can I say, over the years, both on ADSL and Fibre, I see/read lots of complaints on forums that BT usage meters are suddenly vastly inflating the amount of data throughput; even the owners of VISPS have been known to complain about it.

 

Either there is an issue with the equipment, competence, or dishonesty.

 

As I said, my own usage figures with a BT line regularly showed usage on a wired only router, with no one else living in the property, and when I wasnt at home - or sometimes even in the country!! And this went on for years, until I switched away from BT, when suddenly the issue went away.

[Clunkclick]

Bitmeter running on the Windows tablet (And that's the only one of my computers  I have been running recently) is showing that the combined download and upload data usuage from 22nd September  to midnight yesterday is 9.43932 Gb.  That's 0.78661 Gb daily or 23.5983 Gb per 30 days. Now that's the usuage I have normally incurred according to BT records before July 2016

 

The tablet has been on 24/7 during that period of 12 days (Though its internet connection through the router is switched off from 02:00 -08:30-09:00 daily).

 

Interestingly, for today, up to about half and hour ago my router was showing  304Mb downloaded while Bitmeter was showing 264Mb. So that's a 15% difference already.

 

BT are claiming that my account had a  total usuage of 65.96 GB in July and 83.41GB in August against a monthly "On-plan usuage" data allowance of 45 GB. That's, respectively, x 1.5 and x 2.0 my monthly data allowance. And yet, now , both my router and bitmeter are showing that usuage from late September to early October is only equivalent to approx 23Gb a month.

 

I've contacted BT through the "Resolver" service linked to the MoneySavingExpert site and the current situation is that they are declining to provide Broadband data usuage figures for July-September:-

 

 

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support centre. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it within the next 14 days.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

 

 Subject Overcharged for services    Discussion Thread  Response Via Email (*******) 04/10/2016 03:26 PM Hello Mr XXXXXXX, 

This is in reference to the e-mail sent by you on 23 September 2016 regarding your BT account.

I am sorry but it is not possible for us to inform you monthly allowance per month, you can check it on MY BT at www.bt.com as well. Further, whenever you exceed the usage you will be receiving a notification for that. 

Also, your monthly allowance is 45 GB. 

I am keeping your complaint open till 11/10/2016 

How to get in touch 
If there's anything else you'd like to know, try our help pages online at www.bt.com/help. You can also see the various ways you can contact us if you do need to speak to an advisor. 

Best wishes, 

 

My response this evening:-

 

Dear *******

 

Thank you for your E-mail of 4th October.

 

I understand you are not able to provide the daily excess broadband usuage figures for July to September that I requested.

 

You understand that the excess broadband data usuage that you are claiming accrues against my BT account for July and August 2016 are respectively factors of x 1.5 and x 2.0 higher than my monthly Broadband monthly data allowance. For this reason, and because, I have never have had a claim for payment for broadband excess data usauge of this scale, I need to be able to verify this usuage figure before even considering paying the bill, as would be the case with any consumer bill. I can do this using records I have obtained from proprietry data traffic software running on my computer.

 

Your statement regarding broadband would woseem to be at odds with the long-standing BT practice of listing inidividual call charges, including "Off-plan" calls, on my quarterly BT telephony bill, which I am sure are designed to comply with in-company and industry codes of practice as well as the requirement of the Regulator under the terms of UK Consumer legislation

 

Given the scale of the excess charge you intend to demand, I think it is encumbent on BT to provide billing records for broadband of at least equivalent detail to that provided under the telephony service, so that I am given the opportunity to verify the usuage.

 

May I give you another opportunity to consider your response before this matter gets escalated to the Corporate Customer Service Manager and beyond.

 

Regards,

 

 

Nick XXXXXXX

 

 

It was quite evident to me that the alleged overuse has only occurred since they unilaterally switched my Infinity

Account to a max download rate of 52Mbs and the monthly data alloance to 45 Gbs, before that, everything was within envelope. It was equally apparent, on casual observation, that the broadband data usuage being recorded in my on-line BT account was jumping on a daily basis to figures dis proportionate to the actual time on-line.

Anyway, under the "Resolver" system the matter gets automatically escalated to the Managing Director, Customer Services within 2 days if unresolved.

 

Is there an Industry or BT Code of Practice covering record keeping and billing for alleged excess use?

 

If not, telecomms industry and their Regulation would seem to be behind the curve and the requirements of Consumer Law as it bears on utilities  in other sectors of the economy.

 

Nick

Edited 4 October, 2016 by Clunkclick

[gac]

Your statement regarding broadband would woseem to be at odds with the long-standing BT practice of listing inidividual call charges,

Given that it's broadband, how do you expect them to list anything even vaguely analogous to individual call charges? The "call" comes up at 8:00am when you allow your router to connect, and goes dead at 2:30am when you turn it off. Are you expecting some kind of timeline of how much data you load from every website you visit every day? Why don't you just move to China or North Korea in that case, where the government and your ISP can monitor/restrict your Internet usage. I'm sure there's no problems with overcharging in Pyongyang.

[GentleGiant]

Given that it's broadband, how do you expect them to list anything even vaguely analogous to individual call charges? The "call" comes up at 8:00am when you allow your router to connect, and goes dead at 2:30am when you turn it off. Are you expecting some kind of timeline of how much data you load from every website you visit every day? Why don't you just move to China or North Korea in that case, where the government and your ISP can monitor/restrict your Internet usage. I'm sure there's no problems with overcharging in Pyongyang.

 

BT are perfectly capable of giving an hour by hour data usage report, I have had them myself when I had similar issues many years ago; what they wont/cannot do is say where all the data is coming from/going to, although GCHQ probably can!!

 

In recent years, a number of these cases have come up on ISPR, and in in many of the resolved cases, it turned out the BT FON Hotspot usage had been added to the personal data allowance - so a known problem.

 

I should add that it took 3 months of me arguing before the charts were released, and they unhelpfully had GMT time stamps, not BST.*

 

This brought up an interesting point; at the time I was on a capped Peak Hours/Unlimited Off Peak hours deal, by having all their services running GMT all year round, it meant that during the summer, my unlimited off peak allowance started and finished at different times to what was expected; I scheduled heavy file downloads for off peak, and an hour of these was being included in my peak usage - way to go asshats!!!

[KenONeill]

BT are perfectly capable of giving an hour by hour data usage report, I have had them myself when I had similar issues many years ago; what they wont/cannot do is say where all the data is coming from/going to, although GCHQ probably can!!

 

In recent years, a number of these cases have come up on ISPR, and in in many of the resolved cases, it turned out the BT FON Hotspot usage had been added to the personal data allowance - so a known problem.

 

I should add that it took 3 months of me arguing before the charts were released, and they unhelpfully had GMT time stamps, not BST.*

 

This brought up an interesting point; at the time I was on a capped Peak Hours/Unlimited Off Peak hours deal, by having all their services running GMT all year round, it meant that during the summer, my unlimited off peak allowance started and finished at different times to what was expected; I scheduled heavy file downloads for off peak, and an hour of these was being included in my peak usage - way to go asshats!!!

Its quite normal for networks to lock server time to Zulu, and possibly allow individual users to set their display time to support "let's all get up an hour earlier and change the clocks to try and pretend we aren't time".

[Clunkclick]

Given that it's broadband, how do you expect them to list anything even vaguely analogous to individual call charges? The "call" comes up at 8:00am when you allow your router to connect, and goes dead at 2:30am when you turn it off. Are you expecting some kind of timeline of how much data you load from every website you visit every day? Why don't you just move to China or North Korea in that case, where the government and your ISP can monitor/restrict your Internet usage. I'm sure there's no problems with overcharging in Pyongyang."

Well, I'd certainly like like something a bit more detailed than your total usuage in July is 63 GB. In fact, I did ask, through the Resolver service, for a day by day record. Not unreasonable, given that I've got a oiece of free/shareware on my home computer that accounts data traffic, both up and down, on a daily basis. At least then I would be able to reconcile the alleged usuage with days when I know I didn't use the system at all. 

 

Surely, transparancey  and the release and distribution of  information of this type is the opposite top down total state control per RNK ?

 

Isn't it or am I getting confused ?

 

 

Nick

Edited 5 October, 2016 by Clunkclick

[Clunkclick]

BT are perfectly capable of giving an hour by hour data usage report, I have had them myself when I had similar issues many years ago; what they wont/cannot do is say where all the data is coming from/going to, although GCHQ probably can!!

 

In recent years, a number of these cases have come up on ISPR, and in in many of the resolved cases, it turned out the BT FON Hotspot usage had been added to the personal data allowance - so a known problem.

 

I should add that it took 3 months of me arguing before the charts were released, and they unhelpfully had GMT time stamps, not BST.*

 

This brought up an interesting point; at the time I was on a capped Peak Hours/Unlimited Off Peak hours deal, by having all their services running GMT all year round, it meant that during the summer, my unlimited off peak allowance started and finished at different times to what was expected; I scheduled heavy file downloads for off peak, and an hour of these was being included in my peak usage - way to go asshats!!!

So then, perhaps not so much a technical problem,  rather deliberate management  accounting action ?

 

Nick

[GentleGiant]

So then, perhaps not so much a technical problem,  rather deliberate management  accounting action ?

 

Nick

 

Partly; although some of my bandwidth over-usage could be shown to be caused by this, the BT meters still continued to show use when the router was switched off - a 2 week week holiday in the US racked up an average of nearly 500MB PER DAY, even though no one was home and the router was switched off; now to be fair, this was spread over the entire 24 hour period, so about 30% of it fell under the "Unlimited" portion, but it still added up to a LOT of data, nearly half of my 40GB per month limit effectively.

 

After repeated complaints over many months, it suddenly stopped; but BTR never gave an explanation and then they started getting arsey over my phone bill, cutting me off for failure to pay a regular quarterly bill within 7 working days (again, while I was away on holiday!!)

 

THAT complaint rumbled on for 18 months, during which time they cut off all voice service, but left the internet side working, so I had 18 months free internet and line rental out of the bar stewards.

[Mort]

Not unreasonable, given that I've got a oiece of free/shareware on my home computer that accounts data traffic, both up and down, on a daily basis.

Considering your argument here is that BT are evil and conning you out of money; what happens when they say "you used 20GB of bandwidth on Tuesday" and you reply with "Well, my freeware app on my computer says I only used 6GB"? What part of you is not expecting a response of "Well, sir, our logging infrastructure has been purposefully designed by a national organisation to monitor this data, and account for all transfers and overheads, not just those to/from the one device you're monitoring. We believe it is far more accurate than a free piece of software you have downloaded. You owe us £100, please pay up".

I'm just not sure where you expect this to go? "Oh, sorry sir, you must be more correct than our system - please don't bother paying the £100 we claim you owe us"?

[Clunkclick]

Considering your argument here is that BT are evil and conning you out of money; what happens when they say "you used 20GB of bandwidth on Tuesday" and you reply with "Well, my freeware app on my computer says I only used 6GB"? What part of you is not expecting a response of "Well, sir, our logging infrastructure has been purposefully designed by a national organisation to monitor this data, and account for all transfers and overheads, not just those to/from the one device you're monitoring. We believe it is far more accurate than a free piece of software you have downloaded. You owe us £100, please pay up".

I'm just not sure where you expect this to go? "Oh, sorry sir, you must be more correct than our system - please don't bother paying the £nct100 we claim you owe us"?

Don't worry yourself !

 

Its only rock and roll (Dispute resolution).

 

I won't be relying entirely on bit meter- bit meter is a prima facie indicator.  And at the moment it seems to be reconciling quite well with the usuage  stated in my BT Account. So, the question which  would be asked is  why should that realtion have changed since July/August?September.

 

have several other sources that can cross-substantiate my assertions.

 

There will be times when I can prove, though a third party, that I was out of the house and therefore couldn't have possibly used the hardwired router connection or similarly, that the router was switched-off.

 

And if they want to dispute that, then the Resolver process "Unresolved" case output is to the Ombudsman and ADR.

 

Nick

Edited 5 October, 2016 by Clunkclick

[Dr Zoidberg]

So your argument is that BTs monitoring appears accurate now and was accurate before, but wasn't for two months?

You have no evidence to show this is the case and can't get it without a time machine.

[Clunkclick]

Subject

 

Overcharged for services    Discussion Thread  Response Via Email (*******) 05/10/2016 09:20 AM Hello Mr XXXXXXX, 

This is in reference to the e-mail sent by you on 23 September 2016 regarding your BT account.

I am sorry for the earlier e-mail confusion, yes if you wish to have usage for monthly that can be provided. It is below:

July -2016 Total Upload 6.44 GB and Total Download was 59.52 GB Total Usage 65.96 GB and Exceeded Usage 21 GB 

August - 2016 Total Upload 3.92 GB and Total Download was 79.49 GB Total Usage 83.41 GB and Exceeded Usage 38.41 GB

September - 2016 Total Upload 2.81 GB and Total Download was 53.09 GB Total Usage 55.9 GB and Exceeded Usage 10.9 GB

Further, we have last 31 days usage, last 12 months usage and Average usage. 

I hope this helps.

I am keeping your complaint open till 11/10/2016 

How to get in touch 

If there's anything else you'd like to know, try our help pages online at www.bt.com/help. You can also see the various ways you can contact us if you do need to speak to an advisor. 

Best wishes, 

XXXXXXX

Digital Care 

 

Latest response from BT

 

And my reply:-

 

Dear *******

 

Thank you for your E-mail earler today.

 

I note that you have enclosed a breakdown for the broadband data usuage attributed to my account as monthly totals for July, August, September. Thank you. But I did originally request from you, earlier in this correspondence, breakdowns for these months as DAILY TOTALS.

 

Please supply DAILY TOTALS .

 

Further, please would you advise me the date when BT's unilateral alteration to my Broadband download and upload speeds and monthly data allowance took effect. You recall from my opening communication in this correspondence that earlier in the year, BT unilaterally i.e. not at my request increased my data download speed (From 40Mbps to 52Mbps) and my monthly data allowance (From 40Gb to 45Gb).

 

Please supply the DATE THAT THIS TOOK EFFECT.

 

Also, I understand that the charge rate (Per Gb) for excess data usuage increased this year from £1.50 per Gb to £1.80Gb.

 

Please tell me the DATE THAT THIS TOOK EFFECT.

 

Finally, would you please supply, per your earlier offer, HISTORIC MONTHLY TOTALS for Broadband data usuage earlier than July 2016 - if you were able to obtain records going back to July 2015, this would be ideal.

 

As previously said, this excess usuage only seems to have occurred after BT unilaterally changed the maximum download speed on my line. Also of note, is that, for several days in June 2016 the on-line usage monitor in my on;-line BT account "Went down" and was not available for me to access.

 

Many thanks,

 

Regards,

 

 

Of note is that at shortly after  I received notification from BT of the changes to to the download rate (And the increased charge of £3 a month associated with this change), I decided to remove the 1571 answerphone service as I no longer was using it having previously purchased some months before a cheap  combined digital phone and answerphone from BT, saving £2.75 a month - and, in the words of the pink nose brigade, that's when the fight started.

 

All good stuff.

Nick

[Clunkclick]

So your argument is that BTs monitoring appears accurate now and was accurate before, but wasn't for two months?

You have no evidence to show this is the case and can't get it without a time machine.

Their figures and copies of my previous quarterly bills- see post above.

 

N

[Mort]

Yesterday I downloaded 2GB of GTA5 updates which is not in my normal usage pattern. I also assume that OSX Sierra and iOS10 for 3 devices in the house amounts to a substantial chunk of bandwidth that is not the 'norm' for me. There's plenty of reasons your usage could have spiked.

I don't see how you can prove your router was switched off if their logging shows network traffic, and being out of the house doesn't mean your internet suddenly stops working if you have connected devices (and ditto to how you prove they weren't connected).

I see the tactic is complain until they give up and write off the debt. But I don't see that happening. Even the Ombudsman, faced with "He says he didn't do it, our evidence says he did", doesn't sound like it'd fall in your favour?

But good luck with it, I'll keep an eye on the thread to see the outcome.

[gac]

BT are perfectly capable of giving an hour by hour data usage report, I have had them myself when I had similar issues many years ago; what they wont/cannot do is say where all the data is coming from/going to, although GCHQ probably can!!

 

That's my point - even if you break it down by hour, what does that actually achieve in this case? The most useful thing is to be able to work out that you did 10GB of games downloads from Steam (unusual activity), 3GB of Windows Updates (semi-unusual traffic since the size varies), 1GB of Gmail (small traffic, daily occurrance). Even having a breakdown hour by hour does not help you narrow down any strange activity.

 

The only advantage is that you could say "this shows traffic between 4am and 5am, my router is always off during that time" but would you really expect BT to believe you? They could prove/disprove it with PPP logs or physical layer logs - but they won't put the effort in until they have to, and I can't see any Ombudsman ordering them to.