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ConfusedAndy
@suddenlink.net

ConfusedAndy

Anon

Just received my first warning about exceeding monthly limit

I just received my very first warning about exceeding monthly limit.

What am I supposed to do now?

(1) shutdown my modem and wait until next billing period starts

(2) "upgrade" my plan to a higher speed (30mbps?)

(3) call Suddenlink and dispute it? My router only recorded 215GB of upload/download usage during the same dates

(4) ignore it and do nothing

Below is the email that I got:

As of approximately 11:59 p.m. CT on 08/05/2013, your Internet account had used 257 GB in the current monthly billing period, exceeding the monthly allowance of 250 GB. This is the first time your account has exceeded its monthly allowance since our current plan was put into place. Per that plan, customers are not billed for exceeding the monthly allowance until the third time doing so. Very few customers exceed their allowance; even fewer exceed it three times. In the future, we'll notify you whenever your account approaches its allowance and again if it exceeds that allowance.

If you wish to change how you receive these notifications in the future, please log in to your online account at Suddenlink.net; choose "My Account," then "Online Tools," then "View Internet Usage," and then "Update Notification Preference." If you do not yet have an online account with us, visit Suddenlink.net and follow the registration instructions provided there. When complete, choose "Online Tools," then "View Internet Usage," and then "Update Notification Preference."

If you have questions about Suddenlink's allowance plan, please visit this Web page: httpwww.suddenlink.com/allowanceplan

gatorkram
Need for Speed
Premium Member
join:2002-07-22
Winterville, NC

gatorkram

Premium Member

I'd ask them for the logs of all your data used and that you want a full accounting of everything, because your logs don't match. It would be interesting to see what they send you.

moldypickle
Premium Member
join:2009-01-04
Haughton, LA
ARRIS SB8200
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-nanoHD

moldypickle to ConfusedAndy

Premium Member

to ConfusedAndy
Quit frankly, customer logs matter very little now. That much is stated plainly by SL. I really doubt you'll be able to dispute it as they say you are supposed to watch their meter for usage and not your own router.

That aside, I would assume that you won't get another warning for either the rest of the month, or the next 50 gigs of usage. We haven't had anyone post they've got a warning until you, so we really don't know yet.

I really wouldn't suggest unplugging your net just because of an overage, lol.

ConfusedAndy
@suddenlink.net

ConfusedAndy to gatorkram

Anon

to gatorkram
I'm in Winterville as well

I spoke with a couple of Suddenlink reps this morning. Both said Suddenlink wouldn't be able to provide anything more than what was shown on my online account.

Even if they could, I have no records to compare it to. I did a factory reset on my router because today is the begin day of my current billing period. I wanted it to start fresh and start tracking my own usage for this month.

Oh well... at least Suddenlink said that they wouldn't charge me anything for a first time offense.

Gaff
Just like the gypsy woman said
join:1999-09-05
North TX, US

Gaff to ConfusedAndy

Member

to ConfusedAndy
Given that I have no "Update Notification Preference" options under My Account -> Online Tools -> View Internet Usage, then it looks like this is how you can identify whether your area currently has overages in place or not.

I've also gone over 250GB for the past two months and received nothing about it, either.
semaj81
join:2002-08-12
Marietta, OH

semaj81 to ConfusedAndy

Member

to ConfusedAndy
I guess what I don't understand or like is .. Why did they wait until you were in this state before telling you? Hell, I have Verizon send me notifications all over the place if my wireless data use reaches 2 gigs.. and I have a 4 gig/month plan.. I can set it to notify at 150MB if I want to be that petty about it.. Suddenlink wants to meter, bill for overages, fine.. But keep it fair. Notify users BEFORE they reach the limit ... I mean they say for a plan 10 to 30 Mbps it's 250Gb.. Fine, just be careful, but when you are only notified at 245Gb of usage, what the hell are you supposed to do? Only thing I could see doing is to disconnect until the next billing cycle.. Honestly. Is that so hard to do? I already posted and found they send banner messages out.. They can customize it for usage..

moldypickle
Premium Member
join:2009-01-04
Haughton, LA

moldypickle to Gaff

Premium Member

to Gaff
Gaff, from what I've been told, if you can see the meter, the system is live in your area. Obviously something still isn't working right, lol.
Uplinkpro
join:2008-02-11
Lake Charles, LA

Uplinkpro to moldypickle

Member

to moldypickle
The thing is you can't really trust their measurements. Just saying "trust us, we're right" isn't something that any intelligent person will get on board with.

Also, as has been mentioned before, other people have gotten these letters one month and the the next month nothing, and this could end up being another example of it. The fact that they constantly add and remove stuff from their faq regarding this and that different people in their own company give different answers should raise alarms.

Also, the fact that they haven't told anyone (to our knowledge) that the system has been brought back into place in any specific area is also a cause for concern, not to mention the fact that broadband caps are only there to make your experience worse and the only "enhancement" is their bottom line.

moldypickle
Premium Member
join:2009-01-04
Haughton, LA
ARRIS SB8200
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-nanoHD

moldypickle

Premium Member

Maybe not, but being the meters are unregulated, what course of action do we have. We can all point out all day long that we feel it's wrong, but the only "fight back" option I've seen since this started is to "cancel the service and move elsewhere".

Not trolling here, open to any actual ideas on the subject for discussion.

Now the THEORY of the caps is sound. Restrict/penalize heavy users in the hopes that they reduce their usage and better the experience for all users. The actual practice though can definitely be debated as users could just chose to pay the overage and keep on. At no point though does caps affect any other issue can the infamous 'bandwidth hog' and leaves things such as an un updated network or overcrowding well up in the air.

And I've been in touch with Pete a couple times on here over the last months and have heard that both the meter system was back officially (couple months ago) and that if you can see it on your SL page, then the meter is active for your area (recently). I can't say a single thing as to their employees being on different pages other than poor internal communication?