O Canada! > Canadian > Cogeco > [INTERNET] Absurd Cogeco internet charges

reply to urbanriot

Re: [INTERNET] Absurd Cogeco internet charges

reply to urbanriot

reply to rudeboy24
My experience so far is Start's metering system doesn't work. For a while there it was recording someone else's usage (was running about 10gb/hour!). Now, their meter isn't working at all and tells me I'm using zero a day??

Mine are too, when its working. Apparently got shut off because of an issue earlier in the week but now its supposed to be turned back on. Still nothing showing up so I'll see.

Now running.

reply to urbanriot
Rogers redirects you to a page once you hit 75%, 90% and 100%, and you have to click "acknowledge" that you received the notice, otherwise you'll get it again. No emails.
--
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. - Albert Einstein

Yep. Cogeco used to do something along those lines but everyone complained so now they just straight up charge...

Mind you, they didn't initially offer a choice and if people had to choose, I'm sure they'd choose Rogers' method over outright paying through the nose.

Thanks for this post, made me check my own bandwidth.

I too rarely use more than 25% of my internet bandwidth (175GB) but for January I reached 85%. Note: I didn't realize the utilization notifications were only sent to cogeco addresses. It should be assoc with the same address they send the bill IMHO, which is to an external email address for me because I changed when all the issues with their smtp servers continued for several weeks.

I did do something I don't normally this past month - downloaded 3 movies. That's it. But with uploading them back, the total utilization numbers are very similar to what Cogeco is telling me. For me at least the Cogeco tool looks accruate.

My point is ... it doesn't take much to quickly use your bandwidth and we don't for the most part even realize it. Very scary when you think about it.

I do think that Cogeco needs to improve their notification methods when you approach 85%. When you get to 99% it should require some sort of authentication to go over - a pop up or email link (to the same email address you use for billing) to confirm you want to start getting charged the penalty. And if you don't answer the confirmation, your service is suspended at 100% until you contact Cogeco. Not everyone may want that option but it should be there for people that don't want to get extra charges for exceeding their bandwidth.

Edit ... just realized the other change this past month is I switched to Cogeco's phone service. Likely stupid question but VoIP usage isn't counted for your bandwidth utilization - is it?

The DNS redirect is a good idea , but when you have a little Johnny in the house who is running Bittorrent for 24hours a day, and he clicks the notification and does not tell mom and dad, who pays the bill when it comes in?

At least when they send the email it goes to the primary email address, which would normally be the bill payer.

Which account password? My cogeco account does not have a password.

However my email addresses do, but you just said they never get used so....

reply to dillyhammer

reply to reboot

reply to Shecat2000
Here are points you must consider:

People believe bandwidth is only used if you're downloading files, EVERYTHING you see that isn't stored on your hard drive is gained from your bandwidth. Whenever you open your web browser you're using bandwidth, albeit little amounts depending if you're just browsing or streaming videos via YouTube, etc.

It's probably not a virus because it won't be transferring GBs of data.

The meter is probably 99.9% accurate because it's monitored by the up/downstream of their service (ie: how much service is used through your line), and I'm not talking about their web log of your bandwidth because there is a delay on there for around 1 day.

Your network could be unsecured which is almost always the case in these situations. This means you probably didn't set a password on your router (for your wifi) or if there is a password, it's still set to the manufacture password.

Your kids! Games these days whether its on PC or consoles are commonly bought via their platform's store (ie: Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, etc). Games are becoming increasing larger in size around (average: 5-15GB).

Netflix! Streaming movies or TV shows (on your PC too) take bandwidth! Read my first point! If you're streaming in HD this goes up exponentially!

I hope this has been informative about where your data goes.

Not really.

I'm sure you mean well, but Cogeco customers have repeatedly:

• Used other tools to measure their usage, up and down, and noted large disparities.

• Been billed for usage not possible to attain within the billing window.

• Been told it's their unsecured wireless when they have no wireless.

• Seen usage on the Cogeco meter while their modem was unplugged!

The official response ranges from "Pay up" to "We'll give you a credit this one time". There's simply too much at stake for them to admit flaws in the system.

Chorus of angels?

The OP in this thread is only the latest. Maybe I should have referred to them as former customers as many have moved on.

Why the media, this site excluded, seem uninterested in incidents such as those reported here is beyond me.

As for Cogeco's motivation to (sometimes) offer a credit, I can only opine. The potential ramifications of admitting to a flawed meter seem like a pretty powerful motivator.

It's not a flawed meter, trust me. I keep an eye on my usage and I know how much I use up.

The cases where there is still usage on the meter when the modem is unplugged is most likely a MAC cloning issue (black market type inet thieving system). The usage tool gets it's information directly from the modem, so given logical thought on that note, no modem, no usage. If there is usage, swap the modem

Others report very different experiences.

That said, a system which will accept data from anything other than the legitimate source and generate a bill from the resultant data is quite obviously flawed.