more realistic usage limits?

[#1]

revisiting this as I have hit the 13Gb limit again - any news on that "21CN pricing" ?
we have tried to do all that was suggested in this thread, and are back to: not able to just "use the internet"
I have blocked some sites completly, inc the "watchtvsitcoms" mentioned earlier in the thread - but I am starting to get a LOT of grief from the kids, "why are you sticking with plus when ALL my friends can use these sites without hassle?"
today's "view my usage" shows very little that's not "web" use ~
<img src="http://www.joncooper.plus.com/plus15dec.jpg">

[#2]

Hi Jon,
Do you know roughly when your "off peak" usage is happening?  Is it mainly between 8am-4pm, or is it before then?
If it's the latter then you would definitely be better off using BBYW Option 3 (£19.55 with 30GB peak usage allowance between 8am and midnight).  Looking at your usage, over the last 3 months, you've not been over a total of 30GB and you'd be saving yourself a couple of quid per month.
Seems like the sensible option to me

[#3]

I would say the bulk of "off peak" would be during the day (ie; between 8am-4pm), with a little after midnight
I would have switched to BBYW when it started if it hadn't been for the huge loss of "off peak" hours (1/3 of a day)

[#4]

2GB can be used in one day in this household.
2 adults 2 teenagers, usual stuff, myspace, facebook, youtube, voip, browsing and email etc. All the things you would expect people to do on the internet these days.
Reluctantly I have had to block some video sites to reduce the peak time usage.

Quote

but I am starting to get a LOT of grief from the kids, "why are you sticking with plus when ALL my friends can use these sites without hassle?"

I get exactly the same comment from my kids too.

[#5]

Quote from: joncooper

I would say the bulk of "off peak" would be during the day (ie; between 8am-4pm), with a little after midnight I would have switched to BBYW when it started if it hadn't been for the huge loss of "off peak" hours (1/3 of a day)

Hi Jon,
That's why I had a look at your usage.  Over the last three months, your *total* usage hasn't exceeded 30GB, which is why IU recommended BBYW Option 3.

[#6]

Hi James
not sure I'm understanding you
my total usage is almost 33Gb now, and I have a week left of this month

[#7]

Sorry Jon - I was looking at your previous three months rather than this month in general.
The other thing tio consider with BBYW is that with Premier, you have management level 1, 2 and 3, restrictions will only apply after you hit 30GB.  You'd also then have the option of adding more usage if you wanted to.
Appreciate that you can't be sure whether or not it's suitable for you, but you'd be welcome to try it for a month and I'd happily move you back to Premier if things dfon't work out.

[#8]

Hi Peter.
"Before you start doing any calculations you have to deduct £8.40 (Ex VAT) which is the ADSL port cost that BT charge the ISP for a broadband connection - there are deductions to this which the ISP can claim but ita in pence rather than pounds."  Well actually, all of the £8.40 is a cost deductible aaginst the (sales) income of 21.99.  Therefore 21.99 less 8.40 = 13.59. Then a claim against corporation tax is made of 8.40!

[#9]

Quote from: Jameseh

Actually, we would care if you left. We always hate to see our customers leaving and we do try to do whatever we can to make sure that any concerns are squashed wherever possible. Unfortunately we can't justify offering additional usage making it an unprofitable product, all we can do is tell you why we charge what we do and why we do things our way. Roll on 21CN pricing.

 
I too am considering moving as the current products are not realistic compared to [some] other providers; e.g. for an extra £4per month I can buy 40Gb extra - ANYtome of day.  Do plusnet offer this I wonder?

[#10]

Quote from: joncooper

I would say the bulk of "off peak" would be during the day (ie; between 8am-4pm), with a little after midnight I would have switched to BBYW when it started if it hadn't been for the huge loss of "off peak" hours (1/3 of a day)

I couldn't agree more.  Incidentally 3 have an interesting package and so does Talk Talk.

[#11]

Hi can I tack a useage question onto this thread - I'm on BYW Option2, is there a limit to the amount I can download in off-peak hours? Thanks.

[#12]

rammie1976 - short answer is no, I've done over 100GB off peak and haven't had any contact from PN.

[#13]

Monday morning.
Hello Mr adiewoo, This is plusnet Sheffield calling. We would like to talk to you about your off peak download usage........

[#14]

Whilst there are no official limits for off-peak usage, I suspect that if you really did push it Plusnet would contact you and discuss whether your usage is completely necessary.
That being said, I've also racked up over 100GB offpeak (and over 30GB peak) before, and not had any contact from PN regarding it.
B.

[#15]

This thread came up on my radar because recently I had an email from Plus about the possibility of going into L1 administration due to getting close to the 13GB limit peak for some of the old, so called, "legacy" products. This I found quite perturbing.
So, I had a look around, like the OP did, and checked a few things.. Apparently now, I can re-grade my account to one of the current product line-ups for free, whereas before, not long after the prices started dropping for broadband, I'd have had to pay Plus £15 in administration fees to get a regrade to the same usage speed and no limits for £3 less a month (the same price as the OP is paying), in effect I wouldn't see the benefit of that until 6 months later - I pointed this out on these forums and disagreed with it then. Had I followed through with that transaction, I'd be disagreeing more.
Fair enough, I'm on a "so called" legacy product, paying £24.99 a month.
What I find distasteful is that I've seen mentioned in this thread that certain products have "Never been advertised as unlimited".
Ok, "certain" products haven't been.

Mine was. And when I vented about the regrade costs, the product I could have been regraded to was at the time advertised as unlimited.
I checked the T&C's thoroughly, both times, and even after being reccommended by several friends, work colleagues, and several of my fathers work colleagues and acquaintances, I didn't believe what the site was saying. I triple checked everything before I signed up to start with, and the only reason I didn't regrade when it got cheaper is because I didn't want to spend 6 months paying for what I should have had without cost.
All was good, until (yes, you knew this was coming) I had an unexpected downtime in connectivity at which point I for the first time used this members center and by stroke of luck found the forums (the website wasn't as easily navigated then), and found the shocking discovery that the T&C's had been updated, and that a Fair Usage Policy came into effect about two months beforehand. I wasn't particularly happy, and neither were the rest of the household, especially as we'd not been informed of the proposed changes, and didn't actually receive a notice about these changes from Plus til a month after I found out about it on here.
Fair enough, I *could* regrade for free, and not have the three levels of administration on my account, and lose 8 hours of off peak download bandwidth for doing so (as the OP stated, one third of a day), but when my "product" as advertised by this very website - that most people used to sign up for the service they are being provided, myself included - was at the time unlimited, I find it very annoying that not only did I actually get that warning email, but that apparently if I went over my enforced but apparently severely limited download allocation (of 20GB peak per month as I have since found out buried in subpage after subpage of help topics)  that my internet speeds would degrade in quite large chunks until I hit that limit at which point I'd be better off using dial-up.
I'm still paying a premium for a service that was was sold to my household as unlimited, but in effect is only unlimited if you can find a download manager that you can schedule for the off-peak times - I've managed this, but I'm still not willing to lose those eight hours and definately not for a meagre £5 saving.
May your gods, whoever they may be, help me if I happen to have to use windows update to fix yet another critical flaw in one of MicroShafts operating systems and I go over my limit due to not only having to download the fix in the last place, but having to endure the few days of trying to get rid of yet another set of virii/malware/adware/trojan/worm combo that are self-replicating and that eat your bandwidth like an impoverished alien family would probe your livestock for the knowledge rights.
I think it's about time that the system was at the very least worked on, or failing that scrapped, these administration set-up's are totally out of line with the current product placement, we're paying that £2-5 over the odds for something with a limit of 20GB a month peak, 13GB unrestricted and 7GB restricted, when we could get higher peak bandwidth usage, less warnings and no administration levels until after the (latest advertised) limits are hit for a cheaper price.
Maybe of us old "legacy product" users should be given a break, we're actually paying more to get less than that of every other user on the Plus system, even when those eight hours are taken into account - if I transferred to a current product and topped up my bandwidth usage to my current price plan I'd get more than those eight hours usage by a long shot - we're still paying more, at the very least stop the ridiculous administration levels taking effect until we actually hit that 20GB limit, especially as we're putting more into the Plusnet coffers than the majority of home users out there.
Food for thought, eh?