[TelstraClear] TelstraClear says I've used 15,800 gigabytes traffic in a single day

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] TelstraClear says I've used 15,800 gigabytes traffic in a single day

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#70323 11-May-2007 09:40

bradstewart:
allstarnz: I have the same thing with Ihug, they reckon i've downloaded 80GB since the 4th of May. Including 43GB on Monday! I will check with my flatmate, but i'm pretty sure he wouldn't be whoring the connection that much, I would've noticed surely.

43Gb in one day on ADSL? Sounds like a Tui ad, yeah right!! I would be taking issue with that figure if I were you.

Yes, i've sent them an e-mail, explaing it's impossible

I checked this morning, they reckon i have downloaded 3.4GB on peak today, as I understand it that's 3.4GB in 2 hours, as the only on peak times so far today are between 12am and 2am. [puts on Borat voice] 1.7GB an hour, niiicceee!!

Nety - I think you miss the point. When you are on a plan where you get charged for excess usage, it is a big issue to make sure that data usage is metered properly. To put a parallel to it, what happens when you go to BP and fill your car up, they say that you have bought 51L of petrol and they charge you for it, but actually you only get 12L in your car.

freitasm

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#70331 11-May-2007 10:07

People, I've received an e-mail from TelstraClear regarding this issue and I was asked to post it here (I will also post in my blog):

Please be reassured that customers will not be billed, via direct debit or otherwise, for the fault yesterday with the usage meter.

We are sending an e-mail out to all customers affected within the next 24 hours explaining the issue we had with the usage e-mail, reassuring them that they won't be billed for this and apologising for any inconvenience.

This is the official communication and I can only assume this is how it will happen.

nzealander

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#70344 11-May-2007 10:36

Good to see that I am right for once :)

humvee

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#70350 11-May-2007 10:56

When I rang there call center and held for over an hour and finally got hold of some one. I was told that yes there is a problem and we are looking into it please DONT use your Internet connection until the problem has been fixed. I promptly told him that was unacceptable and that we would be using the connection as we need it for business. I was then told we have been instructed to tell customers not to use their Internet connections. at which point I repeated that this was unacceptable. And I was then told that he would have some one call me and we were not to use it until then. An I told him he better make it bloody fast other wise I would be using it anyway. We were going out for the next hour anyway so it was unused for an hour, Well now its nearly 24 hours later and they haven called me back the haven't fixed it, they haven't e-mailed me, they haven't corrected there mistakes, and If I had actually listened to their instructions I would not have had any Internet for this time.

Shocking customer service, and very rude in my opinion

davidcole

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#70372 11-May-2007 12:56

sbiddle:
catflsp:
When will Telstra Clear offer an apology by email to customers. This is the least they should do given the 60min plus waiting time on their phone service (also with no recorded message telling of the matter). Hiding the problem under "some other known problems" is wrong this is a "major problem" from my point of view. This is very bad customer service and only gets worse with their lack of concern or action to give me confidence that they care about customer service. The simple answer is for them to post an alert on their web pages where it can easily by seen (not hidden as I point out above) and to send out an email immediately.

I can't understand why people are getting so emotional over this whole issue. On the radio this morning you have a guy wanting compensation and the news incorretly saying that people "have been billed for excess data". Customers have not been billed for this so it's entirely incorrect.

For once I actually feel some sympathy for TCL. Usage meters are one of the biggest issues for any ISP these days. Xtra's didn't work for months last year (yet they didn't receive anywhere near the bad PR that TCL have had), Xnet's has failed a few times lately and Vodafone's just doesn't work properly at all. As internet connections get faster trying to lodge a billing ticket for every single packet which passes through a gateway is becoming a near impossible task. Realtime usage meters are no longer a realistic expectation and it's something that will only get worse in the future.

The only reason I can think of for people getting emotional about it because unlike a majority of the xtra plans, with TCL pay when you go over. When I see my usage page spike like this I get a bit worried until I figure out if it's their problem or unauthorised usage. I have the advantage that even when their site is down I can still look at my previous usage with a website I have at home that keeps track of it...

I remember last year I had a spike that could have been extra usage rather than something that is as ridiculous as the numbers some are quoting from today. Then you get quite worried that someone has been stealing your internet.

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freitasm

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#70383 11-May-2007 14:07

sbiddle: I can't understand why people are getting so emotional over this whole issue. On the radio this morning you have a guy wanting compensation and the news incorretly saying that people "have been billed for excess data". Customers have not been billed for this so it's entirely incorrect.

Wow... Some people really have no clue!

freitasm

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#70384 11-May-2007 14:10

TomAckroyd: sbiddle - couldn't agree more. National Radio repeated the "people being billed extra" news several times, in the same breath giving this thread as their source. Unbelievable.
Tom

Unbelievable is the word. I can't see anywhere here talking about billing, we just talked about a glitch in the metering system and a few posts before this I posted about TelstraClear's response - including that there will be no billing coming from this glitch.

People read only what they want to read...

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jpollock

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#70386 11-May-2007 14:42

I think that people's reactions were understandable given the information they had. I would say they were even reasonable.

Let's look at this situation again. Your only source of information is the email. There's no link in the email to their online usage monitor. The information
on the failure is impossible to find on their homepage. You can't get through to TCL because everyone else is calling. In other words, there is no way for you to find more information for yourself.

How are you going to react? Particularly since telco's have a pretty good history of being obnoxious when billing irregularities happen.

Now add that it's a demand for $200+. It isn't enough to trip your BS filter, but enough to be scary if you don't have the money to hand.
Now how are you going to react? Are you going to lose sleep over it? Heck Yes! If I got a bill for $200 while at Uni?!?! EEEK!

We aren't all telco geeks who have friends who ask you, "Say, did you get that silly usage email? Check out the geekzone thread! Looks like TCL's done it again!"

For example, if anyone's interested, I have a bill for several thousand dollars from TCL that consists of page after page of lines that say "Telecom Charges $0.26" or similar. Since I was overseas at the time, it went immediately onto my credit card and I didn't notice until the credit card bill came in.

I call them, and they said, "You didn't complain before your credit card was billed, that means you have accepted the bill as correct".

WTF!

That's why people freak.

Jason

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jpollock

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#70443 11-May-2007 21:20

Oh, I was just told this story by my wife...

It seems that a co-worker of hers at work was ripped a new one by his wife when she got the email about the overage and lost it when she saw a bill for $15000.

Jason

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http://blog.jason.pollock.ca

ZollyMonsta

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#70454 11-May-2007 22:22

Recieved by email tonight in my inbox

Dear Valued Customer


Yesterday, TelstraClear experienced a temporary problem with its broadband usage meter,
which caused broadband usage on your account to be calculated incorrectly. 

As a result you may have received incorrect usage notification email(s).  

The problem was identified yesterday morning and to avoid further confusion for customers 
we temporarily suspended access to the usage meter until the problem was resolved.  

We have identified that usage calculated between the hours of 10am and 5pm yesterday, 
Thursday 10 May 2007, was affected.  To ensure that you are not disadvantaged in any way, 
all usage accrued on your account within this time period has been removed from our system.  
Rest assured you will not be billed for any usage that occurred during this time period.  

We have now reinstated access to the usage meter and all usage notifications you receive from 
Friday 11 May 2007 onwards will be correct.

TelstraClear apologises for any inconvenience this may have caused you. 

For commonly asked questions and answers or to contact us, please visit the Online Help section of our website. 

Kind Regards,

The Team at TelstraClear

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

DonkeyKong

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#70456 11-May-2007 23:06

humvee: When I rang there call center and held for over an hour and finally got hold of some one. I was told that yes there is a problem and we are looking into it please DONT use your Internet connection until the problem has been fixed. I promptly told him that was unacceptable and that we would be using the connection as we need it for business. I was then told we have been instructed to tell customers not to use their Internet connections. at which point I repeated that this was unacceptable. And I was then told that he would have some one call me and we were not to use it until then. An I told him he better make it bloody fast other wise I would be using it anyway. We were going out for the next hour anyway so it was unused for an hour, Well now its nearly 24 hours later and they haven called me back the haven't fixed it, they haven't e-mailed me, they haven't corrected there mistakes, and If I had actually listened to their instructions I would not have had any Internet for this time.

Shocking customer service, and very rude in my opinion

Do you know who you were speaking to, because I did not hear of anyone else being advised of that.

KellyP

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#70472 12-May-2007 12:42

Wait, so you guys actually get an email telling you how much you've used so far? or just when you use more than your allowance? Because I have never received such email.

rscole86

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#70473 12-May-2007 13:00

TelstraClear normally email you when you get to 80% of your allowance and then 90% then 100%.

They then try to email you as you spend extra blocks.

In this case I would say everyone got an email stating how much they had gone over, as it seemed to happen instantly.

All I got was an email, no warnings about getting close etc, that I had used an extra 4000 odd blocks.

ZollyMonsta

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#70474 12-May-2007 13:03

James Bond: Wait, so you guys actually get an email telling you how much you've used so far? or just when you use more than your allowance? Because I have never received such email.

You only get an email when you are getting close to reaching your allocated bandwidth total.
A warning email is sent.

Emails are then sent each time you use another block of bandwidth (2gb blocks).

That's the only time you'll recieve emails. To monitor your usage use https://www.telstraclear.co.nz/usagemeter/

The login is usually your email login/password. The graphs are quite good (I use it to see what hours my radio station's streaming is the busiest etc). Also lets me put 'rules' in place for streaming if I'm reaching my bandwidth total (ie: ban multiple connections/rippers etc).

Cheers,
ZollyMonsta

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

KellyP

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#70475 12-May-2007 13:03

rscole86: TelstraClear normally email you when you get to 80% of your allowance and then 90% then 100%.

They then try to email you as you spend extra blocks.

In this case I would say everyone got an email stating how much they had gone over, as it seemed to happen instantly.

All I got was an email, no warnings about getting close etc, that I had used an extra 4000 odd blocks.

So I should assume that I've not been affected? (I can't remember my usage meter password, so I can't check)

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