Tarriff Rip Off

[#1]

If as claimed 2-3 surfing and email a day is using more tham 10 gig a month something is very wrong. I use the internet a lot during the day and my two grandsons give it a hammering at weekends with their lap tops and I never ever get anywhere near 10 gig.

[#2]

What I don't understand is why did you not cap your account so you don't get charged for using all your usage? Plusnet sends you many e-mails warning when your about to hit it. £40 for broadband a month and not even noticing the cost going up???

[#3]

Re my useage, on first month, l think l was informed that l was passing or had passed the logb allowance, and it would cost 5pound for an extra 5gb, at that stage did decide l need to  top up to 60gb extra, which l did expecting pn could do that straight away, and if they can should, they couldnt or wouldnt,  l cant shut the computer down for over 2 weeks being like most we get to depend on it, emails, work, etc. By the second week l had passed another 5gb, then despite dropping down to minimum useage, which kept it to l5gb over, if normal use would have been 20gb over. l am not into computer technology so didnt know what gb useage l would use having been with sky and virgin 5yrs presumably unlimited, might add in 5yrs disconnection could be counted on one hand, cant ever recall having to touch the router, let alone endless checks and tests,  but pn rep and son told me 10gb would suffice, and l dont know why mine is or was heavy useage, seems to have decreased a bit now.  Agree with poster who suggested a month trial to work out average useage, and then set limit, would lead to less bad feeling with new customers.
Although that was annoying my main problem was and still is the disconnections, numerous over three months, l would accept the useage as a bad start, now settled, but the disconnections seem to be ongoing, which is unacceptable. For those that havent had any problems, great for them, that happens with everythings, doesnt mean others dont, as is happening for me and others judging by just the ones l read about on forums.
This will be the last month l can tolerate frequent disconnections.

[#4]

Hi there,
I'm sorry the experience so far hasn't been ideal, have you raised a fault regarding the disconnections? As long as the line still drops when the router is plugged directly into the master socket (and all other phones etc have been unplugged from the line) you've proved it isn't being caused by any wiring or equipment in your premises. If you could run through the troubleshooter at http://faults.plus.net (which will take you through the above testing) we'll pick up the ticket and get it sorted for you.

[#5]

Having just signed up on plusnet, i am a bit dissapointed and concerned that they count usage towards your 10GB tarriff.
I have had 10GB limits previously and has always been enough, for my purposes, because no othe rcompany charges for usage as does plusnet.
Do we have another Ryan Air here?
That to me is underhanded and not exactly honest is it, as they advertise.
Also my usage overnight goes up when nobody is using it and they cant explain that.
Yes i have security on router.
They also tried to bill me before my phone was connected. something wrong when they try to tell you you pay month in advance. even htough my phone not connected.
Effectively we are paying twice if they charge for usage on your 10gb limit.
I hope this isnot a matter for ofcom. and trading standards

Ih

[#6]

what exactly do you mean they charge for usage
what the heck do you think your 10G is for?, its the traffic between you and PN.
or do you think its speed
Oh and welcome to the forum
the overnight usage is not counted against your 10G package (  between midnight and 8 am), it is normal to get a small amount of traffic reported, it can be anything, i.e people sniffing your router to see if they can get through

[#7]

On a broadband connection with the router switched on 24/7 but all the computers switched off overnight, you might typically get about 250KB of background traffic appear per night in your overnight usage - but it does NOT count against your 10GB allowance because it is in the FREE overnight period - and therefore NOT charged.
Similarly you might see approximately 500KB of background traffic during each day, which you WILL get charged for,  but -
500KB * 30(days) = 15MB(per month),  which amounts to 0.15% of your 10GB allowance - so hardly a big deal !
If you wanted to reduce this background traffic, you could set your Plusnet Broadband Firewall to the highest setting that is compatible with your needs,  and that should block most of the unwanted connection attempts from external sources and bots, but you will still see some traffic that YOUR router initiates.
I'm basing my figures on a router that regularly gets updates from four external NTP servers, and emails it's connection log overnight to an external SMTP server, and is on a connection with the Plusnet Broadband Firewall set to OFF, and is on a long held static IP address.

[#8]

Sorry - but I STILL don't understand how someone can use up 10GB a month unless they are watching video/TV a lot of the time - which I'd suggest that puts them into a high usage band anyway. I use the internet for several hours a day and potentially more at weekends and only get to just over 3GB most months. But I don't watch much video and no TV...

[#9]

Streaming youtube & iplayer video does use up a LOT of allowance.
Conversely streaming iplayer radio stations and youtube AUDIO ONLY files uses much less than one might expect.

[#10]

I logged into a local webcast debate recently and was online for 2 to 3 hours per day for 1 month.
I also used my computer at night for own personal useage., when I checked my usage at the end of the month it was around 9.5 GB.
Since going back to normal uses, my average is well under that amount, at the end of the day it depends on what you use your personal computer for.. 

[#11]

My typical usage (two users and only a bit of streaming) is about 9GB which is why the extra usage is usually set to zero - not this month as I had my daughter staying over Christmas and usage jumped up even though she wasn't streaming - I wonder how much Facebook can use if there are a lot of pictures 

[#12]

Could Plusnet not set the limit to £0 for all new customers? That would avoid people being surprised by a high bill unless they've knowingly upped their limit.
The worst that would happen in that case is the customers gets throttled to 256kbps, and a quick call or ticket to PN and they would be informed why and discuss whether moving to Extra would be more appropriate (if they've used up the 10GB in the first week).

[#13]

[quote=CX23882]avoid people being surprised
They shouldn't be surprised (as things stand now) because they should receive an email informing that they have exceeded 80% of their monthly allowance
  - assuming that that system is still actually working ? http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,100993
I do agree with the point about setting the limit to £0 by default.

[#14]

If the additional spend limit defaulted to zero those who take no notice of emails and never check usage will complain when their speed is suddenly restricted. An email is sent when extra usage is added so again users are warned.
On balance I think the present system does its best to notify users in time for appropriate action to be taken if they don't want extra charges to accrue. I see no reason to change it.

[#15]

My monthly average daytime is around 8gb pcm, and most of that is reloading webpages throughout the day for updates on News etc which I have as autoloading bookmarks groups . (One click to load several web pages)
My overnight usage is around 80gb pcm, mostly BBC iPlayer, and webpages with lots of content, photo's youtube etc which I flag for overnight download from my RSS feeds, using little during the daytime.
I also am on the internet for perhaps 3 hours overnight each night.
So I find it difficult to approach 10gb, unless I inadvertently allow  BBC iPlayer to download an item daytime (resume).
I normally switch off my wireless connection to router if I watch a BBC iPlayer item daytime, for safety.
I use my own Spreadsheet to keep a track on things, towards the end of my billing month, I can go crazy daytime safe in the knowledge I have lots of spare capacity !!