Opps I think the form timed out... sent a few blanks... lucky I had a copy...

For the last few months I've been trying to get value out of my internet plan, but it is impossible to achieve.

Last night I was on the last day of my monthly cycle and I see that I've got about 2GB of my 10GB plan... so I decide to try to use it in the last few hours...

Carefully watching my up and down traffic so not to go over the remaining 2GB allocation I begin downloading, and then about an hour before midnight I get slammed with a extra 1GB data pack.

Oh, bugger I think, maybe the usage was delayed so I didn't actually have 2GB (even though I'd seen that I was sittng just over 2 GB for the last week). Oh well... I know I've got this extra packet now, so I might was well use it...

So I immediately and carefully start downloading again to get my 1GB of value... and then switch my computer off at midnight, looking forward to a nice fresh 10GB for the next month...'

...This morning... "You've used 925MB, 9% of your monthly allocation..." last month you used 10.01GB.

When I look at the daily graph, the peak of my 925Mb is right on 12:00am.

I guess if you complain you get pointed to the fine print saying that the meter is just an estimate and that it might be running up to 6 hours out.

What really p*sses me off is that their additional block billing is not synchronised with their usage, which means they are actually billing me for an extra data block inside the new monthly cycle which is impossible to use since I'm already being metered for the next month when that extra block is charged.

In my opinion this is a scam. I've spoken to lost of people who have had the same experience. They usually just shrug their shoulders and say, oh well, its only $2.95... but I guess that is how a good money making scam works.

The only way I can see around this scam if you want value for your money is to to almost use your months allocation a day before your new cycle and then disconnect the modem and not use it at all for the last day. Quite a inconvenience though!

To be fair, I think Telstraclear need to implement a more accurate usage meter, synchronise their billing of extra blocks with the usage meter.

If Telstraclear denies this to be a deliberate scam and blames their systems, then I challenge them to be fair to their customers by at least allowing extra data blocks to be carried over and used in the following month cycle, rather then just cashing in on their technical inadequacies.