CS13B

iTrader: (11)

Is everyone here now getting hit with Bandwidth Caps on their internet service? When the fuxxors did this happen?

We're with Bell and we pay for the extra 40GB (90GB total) addition but still, we are at 88.9GB with 5 days left in our 'month'! I thought there was some petition thing going on so that the Gov't didn't allow this internet cap bullfeather scam.

Here's what happened with Bell according to my dad:
We were on an unlimited usage plan about 5 months ago. Bell called us up and the lady said they were offering a plan upgrade to "Bell-fibe" for the same amount of money we were paying which would upgrade our modem to their new 2Wire Gateway Modem/Wi-fi thing and ultimately give us faster internet. They were persistent, telling my dad that "there would be no changes to rates" "rates would stay the same," "no hidden charges" etc.
Well when the next bill came we had a 50GB cap and we had blown through that halfway through the month. My dad called Bell livid with the hidden charges when we were promised nothing would change from the previous plan. When we demanded to switch back to the previous plan they said "Sorry, you can't do that," even when we offered to give the new junk back. We told them that if we didn't opt to accept this new package we would still be on the old plan with unlimited usage so why can't we switch back? "Sorry, we don't offer your previous package anymore."
So we started paying an extra $5/month to boost our cap by 40GB to 90, but we are still coming close. Without paying another $10/mo. for the 120GB what do you guys think we could do to tell Bell to shove their modem somewhere unpleasant (i.e. back on the shelf where it can be wasted product - that'll show 'em). Right now we are with Bell for home-phone, cell-phone, internet, and satellite, since my mom used to be a Bell employee.

Comments/ Suggestions/ Criticisms?

Nd4SpdSe

Actually you're thinking about the pay-per-usage, where you're charged per MB right from 0, that would kill the internet and Canada's Internet evolution, which we're behind already compared tot he rest of the world, even the US.

Caps have been around for a long time, but I do remember times where there wasn't, and when they started, if you went over too much, they'd literally shut down your Internet, I'm/my parents are with Cogeco, and as far as I understand and have seen it, there's a max fee of $30 additional that ISP's can charge you for overages. So if you're 50GB or 1TB over, you're still charged only upto a $30 max. I've seen this personally. Since I've moved out, my parents only have the 10gb/month plan, which I tend to easilly max out over a weekend whenever I'm home, and it doesn't matter, the max surcharge is only $30.

I'd bitch and complain, they lied to you, mislead you, and you have no right to just sit back and take it. But still, don't be so worried about overages. The extra $10 is probably cheaper than the extra $5+overages

Flash

iTrader: (2)

Too bad you don't have Shaw out in Toronto. They're the only high-speed internet provider in Canada I know of that isn't scamming their customers with over-age fees.

thewird

iTrader: (8)

Welcome to Canada rip-off. There is nothing that can be done as its already been tried and failed. The business's are the boss, not the government, they do what they want in order to keep the profit up. It really is a huge scam. I work in the internet service industry providing high bandwidth servers (100meg/1gbps/10gbps pipes) and know the real cost of bandwidth which is basically nothing in comparison. Some upstream providers are offering $2/mbps and the cost comes down monthly pretty much as the backbone is upgraded to provide more bandwidth. Also, I'm sure companies like Bell/Rogers have huge commits which means a cheaper rate. But all I get is the occasional increase blamed on so called increased costs in my internet service even though nothing gets better as I still have the same internet I had 7+ years ago. Increased peak speeds but I have to download less so whats the point of the extra speed, its just a marketing ploy.

I remember back in the day (3-4+ years ago? Don't remember) I'd use to pull 400+ GB /month from rogers before the caps were introduced. Thankfully I can use my servers to download everything I need to so it saves my home bandwidth.

Do you know in the states if you live within a 100km radius of certain upstream providers, you can get 100meg unmettered full-duplex connections installed to your home for about $100 /month + installation fee which can be waived if you make like a 1 year contract.

thewird

CS13B

iTrader: (11)

^ A little bit of that goes over my head as it's above my knowledge of internet systems, like the unmetered full-duplex thing. An upstream provider is someone who supplies internet to Bell or other companies?

thewird

iTrader: (8)

Yes, an upstream provider provides internet to bell, rogers, etc. Some companies off the top of my head....

Cogent
Comcast
NLayer
TINet
Level3

Full-duplex means you can get 100 mbps download and 100mbps upload at the same time.

thewird

Nd4SpdSe

I know, I love it!

Hey, you can download faster now (not like it was slow before), but you can now get upto your cap at a faster rate!

Speed really isn't the issue anymore except for streaming movies/HD, but with more devices going online, and more services going online, websites becoming more interactive, lowering caps and the pay-per-use type services are a very, very BAD thing. Businesses wouldn't benefit from that at all.

thewird

iTrader: (8)

Oh yah the other thing I forgot to mention is that companies like Bell/Rogers are technically a provider so they have peering contracts with other providers. Which basically means they trade bandwidth for FREE.

thewird

djphonics

iTrader: (1)

OP: talk to Bell management, as they said there would be no increase in charges and there were (an overage fee, when previously there was none) they should honor that statement. It will be a pain in the *** and cost you a couple hours of your time but they should honor it. if they refuse, ask them for the script of the conversations that you had with them to be sent to your address. Although probably a waste of your time to go to court, unless you want to show the man, it is something that will still worry them a bit.

And that petition was to help save unlimited usage from my understanding. Companies that got their service from bell/rogers/telus, were selling unlimited packages and B/R/T wanted to stop them. I'm about 70% sure of this lol

nd4spd: how certain are you of the $30 maximum overage charge? I'm with cogeco, and it actually makes sense as I believe that's all I've been charged for overages before.

Nd4SpdSe

http://www.cogeco.ca/web/on/en/resid...ernetratesonen

CS13B

iTrader: (11)

I know one day my dad was on the phone with quite a few different people about this (for a couple of hours obviously, probably only a 15 minute conversation total though) but I'm not sure who he spoke to. It isn't until now when we are getting so close to our bandwidth cap again that he brought it up. My mom is now suggesting to contact the higher-ups that she knew from working there who might be able to get this issue to the right people. Still though, it's more the fact that such a large company would pull a (seemingly) scam like this - I may be exaggerating a bit but that IS essentially what it is; false representation of their product.
Especially because there is such a low chance of talking to that same lady who first called us. Are you sure they can get scripts of the call that was made here originally, from say, 5 months ago now? We wouldn't take it to court as it seems like a waste of time for the amount of money we're considering here.

This is more of a discussion by the way, not meant to find out the ways I can screw Bell over in a retaliation effort. I wanted to see what kinds of plans you guys and girls are using.

Double_J

iTrader: (28)

Marco hook me up with some cheap 10gbps!!!! I will find you a crack head for your pleasure

Seriously I am a internet speed junky. I have been with rogers, and bell. Who ever has the fastest service/most reliable I am there. In my area that is currently rogers. I have the 50mb/s with 175gb monthly cap. Do I need that fast? no..... It is kind of like an RX7 though. It has 300-400hp. Do I really need a bigger turbo? But you do it anyway.

To the OP I had a similar situation with bell. I wanted to go to the fiber line several years ago. They said it wasn't available. After some bitching because a person literally on the other side of the street had it they agreed to install it. The install day came and went and nothing happened. I called them back and they said the computer on there end wont allow them to make the change. I said *** it what ever just put me back to my previous service. No can do sir, that is an old account and we cant do that either. Holy **** I blew my mind. I called them for DAYS and DAYS and swore my effing head off. I email every single VP I could google. I called head office and bitched. I got no where. I finally cancelled every thing - internet, phone, and express vu. A month later I got a call from some VP, said he just heard about my situation. He said he would do anything to make it right. I told him to **** OFF, you blew it lol.

So anyway good luck getting your original service back.


Figure out what you want. Do you need speed, large cap, or cheap. Once you know that you can start searching.

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/unlim...iders-1024857/

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/3web-...ntario-960401/ <--- long thread you might want to skip to the last few pages.

CS13B

iTrader: (11)

^ Curious.. Why not take advantage of the VP contacting you when he's willing to do 'anything' to get you back as a customer? Demand some amazing deal on the best possible plans at that point no?

djphonics

iTrader: (1)

nd4spd: you just made my day, thanks, i'm hitting netflix back up like a son of a beehive:p

the reason why they can't put you back on the old plans is actually because of their computer systems. It would be like trading in your FC at a dealership, and then demanding it back a month later. But they generally do go the length to make things right, or as close to right as possible. They can grandfather a plan, but not retrieve it from the dead essentially.

On a sidenote, yelling and hollering will not make the person on the other line feel appreciated, and they won't want to assist you in your situation. As long as you are calm, and clear with what you are looking for, they are generally willing to help.

They will have the transcripts from 5 months ago. As long as your account is active, I believe they keep all transcripts. Bell wanted to sue my brother a couple years ago, and both my brother and bell went back to scripts.

BTW, I believe I have a 60gb cap with cogeco. Don't know the transfer rates though.

Double_J

iTrader: (28)

Dj you you likely have 10mb/s.

I didn't take the offer for a couple of reasons.

1) I argued for a long time and got no where
2) They absolutely pissed me off.
3) In my emails I gave them a drop dead date because I orderred Rogers. That date came and past so when the VP called I had already had rogers in place.

Funny thing. A few months ago I found a thread on redflagdeals where you could get bell fiber for THREE months. The cost was only $10! I tried it out because it had been a while since I had been with bell and the price was insane. I'm not sure what has changed with bell but I was having massive packet loss. General surfing was an ordeal. I couldn't wait for the offer to expire.

RXeckless

iTrader: (11)

CS13B, how the hell are you using 90g a month?
Are you on netflix or something thats eating your capacity? I'm in the graphic industry, no video and don't get close to 90g. Are you sure your wifi is secure, is someone else is using your bandwidth maybe.

distr0

iTrader: (1)

are you serious? i use around 200 gigs every month, and i'm by no means a high bandwidth user. i know many that are into the terrabytes regularly

get teksavvy... half the price for quadruple the service

CS13B

iTrader: (11)

When we first switched to the new bell service it wasn't secure and we had the neighbours stealing our service for a while. It's secure now but there are four of us in the house all with our own laptops. My brother and I both stream movies on our computers (3/4gb each roughly). My dad is head of the hockey organization here and does a TON of work on the computer. I'd say majority of it is my movies though. I use them as study breaks and as a result I've become somewhat of a film nerd

RXeckless

iTrader: (11)

That the main reason the telco's are putting the cap is so many people are downloading movies and not using their PPV services. The Telco are just trying to build new revenue streams with the lost of home phones & long distance. Everyone's got to make a buck. Being a Bell and Rogers stockholder, the bastards will always find a way to generate more money, which is good for me one way. I've been on the internet pretty well since it's inception and back in the early days bandwidth was insanely expensive. Compared to today it's cheap. Also comparing us to the US is not fair as the US has 10x the population and the population is not as remote as much of Canadian population, so services in the Yukon are I believe the same price as say Toronto, because the CRTC mandated it. So as Canadians we are paying more for these reasons.

Neo

iTrader: (4)

As mentioned before, the companies are out there to make more cash. There's no reason to put caps on, but it's another "ploy" for them to make more money.

You can try arguing with Bell, but it won't get you anywhere. As soon as you got off your old plan, it was game over. This is how they get you.
I couldn't wait to get rid of Bell.
Rogers isn't any better. Both of them have crazy caps on their service.

On a really busy month, I download about 170-180GB a month. That's if there's new movies, music or applications all at once.
Usually I pull down about 70-90GB a month.
I'm no where near the amount some other people are doing. It's not unheard of to pull down 400-600GB a month.

CS13B

iTrader: (11)

Oh yea I forgot about music... I have about 36 days worth of music on my iTunes...

RacerJason

iTrader: (5)

lol I have a 25gb cap on my Rogers Lite account. Use to be a 50gb limit for lite but Robbers lowered it, oh and increased the cost. Unfortunately TekSavvy isn't available in my neighbourhood, I checked a year ago.

distr0

iTrader: (1)

rogers lite
$36/month
3 Mbps download speed
256 Kbps upload speed
15 GB cap

TekSavvyExpress Cable
$36.95/month
10 Mbps down
512 K up
300 GB cap

as far as i know, available anywhere in toronto

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

How are people downloading more than 60 GB a month?!? I mean, I can see some people going over that when they are streaming movies (NetFlix, etc.) for several hours a day most days of the week. But few people do this. I rarely see "normal" people streaming, excluding YouTube.

So how does one exceed 50-60GB a month through normal usage? When someone says "Downloading movies, applications and music", does that really mean "pirating movies, applications and music"?

Even at my computer shop, where I am constantly downloading Windows updates, service packs, trial versions, virtual machines, ISOs (legitimate), drivers, etc. etc. 8 hours a day 5 days of the week, I don't generally exceed 40 GB.

I do about 100GB per month upstream at my house, but that's because I host my website.

CS13B

iTrader: (11)

Well don't forget I'm talking about 4 people in my house; two of which are teenagers. Often times I'll start streaming a movie, get bored of it when I search for other movies, and then I'll decide to start streaming another. My brother also spends a lot of time on the internet on PS3, which apparently uses a lot of internets and whatever.