Telecom usage meter inacurate?

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28 posts

Geek

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#483492 21-Jun-2011 08:58

networkn: It's really hard to not feel that after so many problems Telecom "accidentally" has with it's usage meter, that this isn't intentional. Of course they will come out and say no no, it's completely an accident and give credits etc, but when internet is metered in NZ, then it should be able to be reliably metered. It's a pretty fundamental part of the process. I don't believe personally only 7% of the people were incorrectly counted, and I would like to know exactly what the problem was. I have been involved in helping customers with their usage issues with various ISP's in NZ since the pilot of ADSL, I can't tell you how many times I have proven differences between meters and actual usage and had credits issued.

we have a number of system checks in place and regularly monitor and review all of our systems however the nature of this progressive fault, which developed in a small part of the system over several months, meant that it didn't become immediately apparent.

during those months we only had 8 faults reported.

logging them here is good but it is really important that they are logged with the helpdesk too so that we can see patterns and join similar cases together. this helps our team suss out wider issues.

Hatch

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Hatch (affiliate link).

res

18 posts

Geek

#483962 21-Jun-2011 21:13

I wholeheartedly agree ALL Telecom capped users should get compensation. You work hard to control your usage but find it was a false ceiling - but if you didn't break that false ceiling, you were a good boy or girl, Telecom says screw you. Nice.

I've given two or three lectures to my son this year about excessive, impulsive, selfish usage putting the family in danger of spending days capped. But this might have been just Telecom unable to get its billing act together. So yes, I'm real angry. Once is a software problem, twice is incompetence.

As an aside, I'm also concerned about speed reductions caused by Telecom's "fix". See http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10732819

Here a New Plymouth user claims his speed dropped from 15 Mb/s to 1.5 Mb/s because of the fix. It sounds a little extreme and I can't see how it can be but....... in the last week or two our speed has dropped from 6 to 5 Mb/s. Not nearly so dramatic, but significant.

Of course it could be something like water in the cable (but we've had wetter weather without this), it could just be a coincidence......

So has anyone else noticed any change lately????

res

(edited to correct typo)

Spong

1005 posts

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#484053 21-Jun-2011 23:19

I found that the metering of my connection appeared to be excessive about a year ago. I confirmed it with Networx (around 25-30% high) and succeeded in getting tier 2 support to investigate, but they never came back with an answer. They told me metering was contracted out to Hewlett Packard! There were a number of threads relating to this, and I'd be surprised if this problem just started late last year, and there were only eight complaints.

Soon after I bought a TiVo, and found it was "FreeVo" as far as metering was concerned - no worries.

Once Telecom worked out how to differentiate between TiVo and normal broadband data, I was back to "exceeding my limit" every month and either paying additional for it or cutting back severely. Rather than do battle with Telecom again, I just upgraded from the 40GB to the 60GB plan.

I believe I've been paying for more data than I needed to, so expect to be reimbursed. I can't see any difference between this, and inadvertently exceeding a 40GB limit.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

Ragnor

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#484408 22-Jun-2011 14:46

If you weren't affected by this specific problem and the majority of people weren't, I fail to see any logic in expecting compensation.

If you were they will be able to tell and you will get some compensation.

Speed issues are not likely to be related.

The basic process of usage metering works like this: They have a process that take logs files from particular routers, switches or bras servers (netflow, sflow etc), these logs gets parsed and they figure out which account to allocate the traffic too.

This is a fairly asynchronous process that doesn't affect throughput of the routers/switches in the network.

res

18 posts

Geek

#484492 22-Jun-2011 16:52

Ragnor: If you weren't affected by this specific problem and the majority of people weren't, I fail to see any logic in expecting compensation.

If you were they will be able to tell and you will get some compensation.

Hi Ragnor.

The issue as I read it in the newspaper is that Telecom have said only those who were affected (had overstated usage) AND exceeded their cap will be compensated. So a whole group of people who were affected, but managed their usage to stay under the cap even with the over-reading, get nothing. That just is not fair or reasonable. ALL affected customers should be compensated.

I too struggle to understand how usage metering and connect speeds can be related, it should just be a modem to dslam negotiation. Unless its something to do with the BRAS authentication or part of the fix is modifying customer profiles??? My knowledge of these aspects is too sketchy to make useful comment.

All I can say is my connect speed has mysteriously dropped. If it's me alone then usage meter fixes have got nothing to do with it but if others have observed the same thing an investigation by Telecom is warranted.

res

Spong

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#484493 22-Jun-2011 16:53

Ragnor: If you weren't affected by this specific problem and the majority of people weren't, I fail to see any logic in expecting compensation.

If you were they will be able to tell and you will get some compensation.

I agree that if I wasn't affected, I shouldn't get compensation. However if I was affected, and took steps to avoid going over my limit, i.e. upgraded plans or reduced my usage in the last week, I should be compensated.

I'd like to know if this situation will even get picked up and considered for compensation.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

Beccara

1469 posts

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#484496 22-Jun-2011 16:57

Please define how Telecom can systematically tell the different between those that weren't going to go over their cap and those that were but managed it

Most problems are the result of previous solutions...

All comment's I make are my own personal opinion and do not in any way, shape or form reflect the views of current or former employers unless specifically stated

cbrpilot

945 posts

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Spark NZ

#484517 22-Jun-2011 17:25

Beccara: Please define how Telecom can systematically tell the different between those that weren't going to go over their cap and those that were but managed it

Look for all who have exceeded 80% of their cap (instead of 100%), and give them the benefit of the doubt ...

My views are my own, and may not necessarily represent those of my employer.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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#484520 22-Jun-2011 17:26

Spong:
Ragnor: If you weren't affected by this specific problem and the majority of people weren't, I fail to see any logic in expecting compensation.

If you were they will be able to tell and you will get some compensation.

I agree that if I wasn't affected, I shouldn't get compensation. However if I was affected, and took steps to avoid going over my limit, i.e. upgraded plans or reduced my usage in the last week, I should be compensated.

I'd like to know if this situation will even get picked up and considered for compensation.

they won't be able to tell if you monitored and changed your behaviour or if you just used as normal.
This is why I suggested (to someone else earlier in the thread) calling them to ask about your individual situation. that kind of thing can be done on a case by case basis (like what happened with XT outages)

kobiak

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#495447 19-Jul-2011 21:18

I can not find my usage for this mounth under "your telecom"... am i missing somthing and it's been moved/removed? or just it's gone today and only for me? :(

helping others at evgenyk.nz

Ragnor

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#496050 21-Jul-2011 01:30

kobiak: I can not find my usage for this mounth under "your telecom"... am i missing somthing and it's been moved/removed? or just it's gone today and only for me? :(

Normal for me, if you can't see it log a fault with the help desk, the least annoying way to do that is via the contact us (email us button) form on:
http://www.telecom.co.nz/contact

Kiwi1971

696 posts

Ultimate Geek

#500942 2-Aug-2011 17:57

Just received a letter regarding this and a credit for $170.80 on my account.

Apparently my line was affected by the error and as I increased my data cap during this period they think the inaccurate monitor error might have played a part in this decision, so they have credited the price difference between my old plan and the new plan from the change over date to August 2011.

So thanks Telecom and a bigger thanks to the people who highlighted this and fought the good fight for people like me who didn't even know they were being over measured.

DLS

Dulouz

877 posts

Ultimate Geek

#504168 10-Aug-2011 09:06

How do you know if you were affected or not?

Amanon

Kiwi1971

696 posts

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#504177 10-Aug-2011 09:14

Dulouz: How do you know if you were affected or not?

In my case I didn't know until I received a letter.

Telecom investigated which lines or exchanges were affected and advised their customers. I guess if you didn't get a letter, you weren't deemed to have been affected.

DLS

Dulouz

877 posts

Ultimate Geek

#504186 10-Aug-2011 09:25

Kiwi1971:
Dulouz: How do you know if you were affected or not?

In my case I didn't know until I received a letter.

Telecom investigated which lines or exchanges were affected and advised their customers. I guess if you didn't get a letter, you weren't deemed to have been affected.

DLS

Cheers, I trust them to get it right and contact all who were affected, with such a fine track record how could they not.

Amanon

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