""

Friday, March 11, 2011

Bell FibeTV/internet bandwidth issues, "Why am I being charged so much on my internets"

March 11/2011 – TORONTO – Well I did speak too soon, same problems (pixillating and sound-outs on the TV side) after 1-2 days, I don’t know what I’m going to do now. Just so depressed by all this and feel like jumping off a bridge, but I shall still hang in there and hope for the best, but it means more calls to Bell Fibe and another round of service calls. You can read all our encounters and results CLICK HERE.

March 6/2011 – TORONTO Called Bell FibeTV today to compliment them that the TV side is working much better but the final determination will be made when it is trouble free.
Today I want to bring up a revelation about the bandwidth issues we are all encountering across Canada with Bell and other large internet providers. Tech Savvy and other smaller operations have been giving unlimited bandwidth for years and the big guys don’t like it.

Bell Canada FibeTV/internet

The "BIG" guys
As I said, I called Bell FibeTV today to compliment the techie for the work he did yesterday for my FibeTV signal and he asked me “is there anything else I can help you with?” and the floodgates opened. I started to ask him why I was charged just under 22GB for three separate days in February 2011. My total usage for the month according to Bell’s own Bandwidth Usage Monitor was about 50GB which fell under my bandwidth limit for the month, but I wanted to try and understand why I was accounted for using such a large amount of bandwidth over three days, when my regular usage is well less than 1GB per day. This question was actually a side issue and I never really gave it much thought, since I was not being charged for any overages. (CLICK HERE for larger view of usage monitor)

Click READ MORE below to read on about Bell bandwidth issues ....
UPDATE – March 10/2011 – Read an interesting response on another forum about the comments below about an investigation and proving how much bandwidth I had used.
“And I suppose you would much rather they tracked your movements on the web and what porn sites you visit and what warez you downloaded. If you prefer to track internet use that is your choice. Most people prefer their privacy online.” Anonymous.
When I read that I thought he had a point, but I don’t want them to reveal these details, I just want an investigation done, and they have said they cannot do that. Although it doesn’t really bother me that anyone knows where I go, let’s face it with cookies, etc, we are being tracked and yet it’s not a big deal to me, but being charged too much bandwidth is important.
Bell is just using this as a form of nickel-and-diming us to generate revenue, and I know they are in business to make money but this is NOT the way to go about it.

Bell (screen grab) bandwidth usage monitor

IMPORTANT READ THIS – I asked the Customer Service Rep (CSR) how I would question these charges which I know are not legitimate and he said, “We have no ability to start an investigation” and therefore what they are saying is that the extra bandwidth charges cannot be contested? Let’s say I normally use 1GB a day and then a month in the future I am billed extra bandwidth charges for 500GB for the month. Bell Canada has no way to prove that those extra charges have been documented, nor are they willing to start an investigation.


Bell Canada FibeTV/internet
Let’s use an analogy of a Bell telephone, I charged up $1000 worth of phone calls and contested those charges. They would send me a list of the calls made from my home phone with times and numbers called. I would have no option but to pay it, since the calls were made from my home phone. But in the case of the Bandwidth issues, they say I used 500GB and I say “prove it” with documentation (sites I visited, things I downloaded or streaming videos I watched) and they say, “we can’t provide that” well how did they get away with this for so long? Their attitude, or that of the CSR is, “that’s the way our computer system works, and we don’t have to prove anything, if you don’t like it take a hike.” that’s the impression I got.
I’m not concerned so much for me, about this since I did get the extra bandwidth insurance, but what about everyone else out there that is just paying these extra fees without Bell being held accountable (oversight) and PROVE these extra charges?
Does the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) control such things?

All images are © COPYRIGHT – All rights reserved – with “DMB” Watermark.











dandmb50flickr's photos on Flickriver
Daniel … Toronto, CANADA
My take on everything




Check out all my other stories about the whole nightmare we have encountered for over four months regarding Bell’s FibeTV/internet service package. CLICK HERE to read all about it.

2 comments:

  1. Very cool site I love the new layout, great content too.
    Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, interesting post. I have been wondering about this topic, so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be subscribing to your site. Keep up the good posts

      Delete

Just click on comments below and let me know what's on your mind.
Please leave me your comments, anything, anytime ask me.

Daniel ... Toronto, CANADA
http://dandmb50.blogspot.com/