Newnet’s Stealth Bandwidth Charging
I decided to migrate away from my ISP the other day as there have been a few things that have really irritated me about them. Anyway I phoned them up to ask for my MAC code and they said to use the form on their website.
The form has a box in which you type your reason for wanting to migrate.
Here’s what i wrote:
The main reason i migrated to newnet at the end of 2006 was because you were offering a fairly high cap for a low cost (about £25 for 60gig). 1 month after i migrated to newnet, you promptly ramped up the cost of this service to almost £40 a month.
Disgusted, i downgraded to home S and a 25gig cap. I was then shocked to find that newnet had tried to charge me for excess bandwidth, although this bandwidth was covered by the inital uncapped service.
This issue was resolved and Idecided to stay with newnet as the Accounts department were excellent in helping with this issue.
I have recently been advised that i have exceeded my cap for the past 2 months and am to be charged for excess bandwith. I phoned customer services to contest this as im sure ive not downloaded that much data. The representitive told me ‘you do realise upload bandwidth is counted towards your cap’, at which point I was aghast. I have used various ISPs at home since my initial ADSL conenction, and being an IT engineer, i am constantly specing and installing ADSL services for my clients. I have never in my experience found an ISP that counts upload bandwidth towards monthly bandwidth usage.
I trawled through newnets T&C and found that this is indeed the case with newnet.
I beleieve that your customers are being slightly hoodwinked, by this stealth revenue generation, and that any reponsible ISP would state clearly on their website that they do this, and not hide it in teh T&C. I expect that 90% of users to not read most T&C’s as it would end up taking half of their life. Its seems to me that newnet count on this in regards to their stealth upload bandwidth charging.
As you can tell this has really upset and irritated me. I have recomended newnet to 3 or 4 people since joining in 2006, and now feel that this was a very bad decision. I have been impressed with newnet in almost every other area, but feel i am compeleld to migrate as a matter of principle.
Anyway, I clicked next on the form and was promptly provided with the list of charges I’d need to pay before i could migrate, percentage of this months fee etc, usual stuff. But hiding in amongst it was am £11 plus VAT surcharge for ‘early migration’.  This stumped me, because as far as I am aware, im on a monthly contract and can terminate my service whenever i like.
If you think about it, ISP’s cant really charge you for migrating as they dont actually do anything apart from give you a MAC code, its the new ISP that has the work to do, setting you up on their systems, porting the phone line over etc.
I was really steamed at this point and phoned newnets customers services, and screamed at some poor girl down the phone. When i let her get a word in edgeways, she told me that the 11 + Vat wasn’t to pay for the migration, but to offset the cost of setting me up when i migrated to them! it costs them £22 + VAT to set a new customer up on their systems and port the lines apparently, and because i was leaving within a year of joining, i was liable to pay half of that cost!
Anyway, I ended up speaking to a manager and the guy was a true hard-ass, he wouldnt budge even when i mentioned all my previous issues with newnet, wouldnt even wave the 11 quid. I told him id be advising all the people id advised to sign up to get out as soon as they can, and telling everyone i know how poor newnet are.
IÂ Could wait 3 months before Ileave and not have to pay the 11 quid, but screw em, its a matter of principle, so im long gone from newnet.
Tags: ADSL, Broadband, cap, ISP, MAC Code, migrate, Newnet, Stealth Posted in