In UK, Broadband Limits Confuse Nine In Ten Users 217
Mark Jackson writes "ISPreview reports that 86% of UK broadband users don't understand the usage limits on their service, and nearly one million have reached or exceeded their ISPs limit in the last year. This is important because 56% of major providers are prepared to disconnect those who 'abuse' the service. However, it also shows how damaging bad marketing can be, with 6.2M people believing they have an 'unlimited' service with no restrictions. The UK Advertising Standards Authority is also blamed for making the problem worse by allowing providers to describe their services as unlimited even if there is a usage cap, as long as it is detailed in the small print. However, consumers are none the wiser with over 10 million broadband customers never reading their usage agreements and a further 1.8M not knowing whether they have read it or not. Unsurprisingly 7.5M do not even know their download limit, which is understandable when so few providers clarify it."
Do UK ISPs advertise using true total price? (Score:1, Informative)
Do U.K. ISP advertisements include the real total cost of the service?
U.S. ISP and telephone companies are notorious for not including all of their charges in their advertised rates, preferring to split out various fees, taxes, and other costs of doing business. Even VOIP providers regularly charge $5-10/month more than what they advertise.
In UK, nine in ten people are fucking stupid. (Score:0, Informative)
Go for a truly unlimited provider (Score:5, Informative)
Thanks Slashdot, two chances to plug http://superawesomebroadband.com/ [superaweso...adband.com] in two days.
"Unlimited connections on static IPs. No download or upload limits. No port blocking, no packet shaping, no transparent web caches, no 'fair usage' policy, no logging, no Phorm, no ad-serving, no small print. Rolling 1 month contract. No lock in period. Direct Engineer Support 24 hours a day, every day. Good, not cheap. £60 /month"
Re:further evidence (Score:5, Informative)
Take PIPEX as an example. I've been subjected to 56K speeds for exceeding my bandwidth quota of 50Gb per month. I can tell you that if I wasn't on a one-year contract, they would have lost a customer immediately.
Once this go-slow was lifted, I noticed that they were actually throttling my connection even when I'm a long way under my quota. I was getting a perfectly flat 512Kbps instead of the advertised 8Mbps and the 2Mbps I was getting previously. When I called to complain about it, they told me it was contention because of the olympics. When I pointed out that contention would cause variable transfer speeds instead of a flat one, they tried to get me off the phone and told me to write to their head office. I totally hate that company. Avoid.
not confused, just lacking basic information (Score:3, Informative)
Once you transgress this limit - whatever it happens to be, you get a letter (or email) telling you that you've broken the rules and if you do it again, you'll be cut off. However, this is completely arbitrary and un-testable as normal users have no means of challenging the veracity of the claim, nor of knowing in advance what this unspoken limit was.
So confused? yes, but confused that the ISPs are able to get away with such blatant mis-selling and arbitrary and un-appealable activites.
Re:Bunch of Tossers (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Go for a truly unlimited provider (Score:2, Informative)
"On the Be unlimited and Be pro packages, you may cancel your service at any time, providing you give us 3 months' notice."
3 months' notice?!
What I got out of the summary (Score:3, Informative)
Was this:
People in the UK either don't read the contracts they sign, don't question things they don't understand (the fine print), and just sign, so they can get on the internet.
Same thing as the mortgage scandal on this side of the pond.
I'm not into government intervention.... I'm into an educated populace. If people actually READ what the FUCK they are signing, people wouldn't be signing these contracts. If enough people don't sign on to the crap, the companies go out of business.
Other companies will step up, if it shows enough profit to be made, to allow people to actually use their pipes. Yes, you might have to spend a bit more, but in the long run, more people are happy, and companies like the ones mentioned in the article would be, losing.... Business, customers, etc.
Simple, people, quit being sheeple and letting companies push you around by YOUR BEING IGNORANT.
I read my contracts before I sign them. I'd be a fucking idiot not to. If I don't agree with something, I scratch it out, and submit it. If it comes back changed again, I have to agree to it. If the company doesn't send anything back changed, my contract stands. Doesn't mean I'll win in a court of law everytime, but it does mean I've actually STUCK TO MY GUNS and actually decided to THINK for myself.
Seriously, READ THE FUCKING PAPERS YOUR SIGNING. Simple, to the point, and won't happen, since that would require people to be literate :(
The general populace is stupid. New news at 11. :(
--Toll_Free
Re:suggestions for worst offenders... (Score:2, Informative)
Yup. Cancelled my Virgin broadband account recently, and it took about fifteen minutes to get through the laundry list of reasons. The staff member who dealt with the cancellation agreed with more or less every point on it, too. Finally he admitted that two-thirds of the staff had moved, mostly to Be.
Funny thing, apparently they've actually given up on Phorm due to customer complaints, have reversed their policy of making customers pay to report faults due to customer complaints, etc. The problem of course is that they didn't get around to reporting this to their customers, who continue to quit in droves. That said, it was their broadband limits that caused me to finally give up on them; they have incredibly low download limits at various times of the day. On one occasion I made the mistake of leaving streamed video turned on throughout the afternoon and they throttled the connection down to 'cannot even read email'.
In short, Virgin are total arseholes and Richard Branson needs a new brand name. This usage has somehow managed to tarnish the name even more than Virgin trains, which is an amazing accomplishment in and of itself.
Re:PS - Link to complaints form (Score:3, Informative)
I just checked my Verizon DSL account. It turns out it does have different levels:
50 hours == $7.
150 hour == $13
unlimited== $15
I had no idea there were various time limits! I just bought the "unlimited" service, because that's what was advertised. I guess it's similar to how Cable companies don't advertise their low-cost $15 a month option. They want you to buy the expensive $60 a month package and remain ignorant about lower-cost option.
Re:further evidence (Score:3, Informative)
This is what happened to them
Tiscali buys Pipex broadband unit [bbc.co.uk]
Re:the 1 out of ten that do... (Score:3, Informative)
What about legitimate internet video? I guess you just *have to* use services provided by your ISP or it's "partners?"
What about "tele-commuters?" Plenty of industries work with largish files and move them back and forth regularly (fMRI images anyone?).
There are plenty of uses for quality internet providers, it's just too bad they can't differentiate themselves from the fake "unlimited" providers.