*ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)

[dibbler]

After trying for nearly a week to get through to the disconnections part of NTL. "We only work 9 to 5"!!! So do most other people..

I finished work early today. Managed to speak to somebody about stopping my phone and tv at 4.40. (leaving the broadband until the phone is connected).
When I explained that I wanted to close my account the person on the phone took the details and put me on hold. When the phone was picked up again (now 4.55) the person asked for my details again, so like a good customer I gave them over. She then asked me what I wanted. I explained that I had already given my details once and had allready told somebody I wanted to leave. This new person then went on to say I had rang the wrong number and gave me the "correct" number. When I calmed down after counting to 10 I explained that I had rang that number, been put on hold and I guess transfered to the normal help line. Not best pleased. I did ask if this was a ploy to make it as hard as possible to stop my account. The person I was speaking to was then able to stop cancel my account as it had now gone five and the other line was closed.
So after, I carnt remember how many years, since nynex and cable and wireless Im back with BT.
So long and thanks for the cap

[Kaychsea]

Originally Posted by PC_Arcade

No, the cap is the punishing of customers because NTL CAN'T manage their network properly,if it was about being equitable, then surely they would provide higher limits off peak to try and avoid congestion at peak times, rather than just limiting everyone to 30Gb?


30Gb in this day and age is nothing much IMHO, The latest full distribution (32 & 64 bit) of Suse Linux is 9.4 Gb, or 1/3 of your limit with one download :lol:

30Gb @ £37.99 (£1.26 per Gb) for NTL compared to
500Gb @ £24.99 (£0.04 Per Gb) for UKonline or unlimited for £24.99 (0.00 Per Gb) (bulldog, pipex, demon) etc
I can't see how £1.26 per Gb compared to the either of the above is a "fair cap at the price"

I thought you were off?

How can NTL be punishing people by providing a particular service and charging what they think the market will bear? If they are wrong folk will leave to find other providers and they'll adjust their strategy. If they don't then they will go out of business. It's not like the board are falling off their chairs with laughter at the caps having lured innocent grannies in off the street, is it?

You don't know what the economics of the provision of the service are so you don't know how sustainable the other deals are, but as you point out there are more attractively priced packages for what you want, so why are you complaining? Would it not make more sense for you to sign up to these great deals and come back and gloat at the rest of us? Or is it the moaning that you get off on?

It's one thing to complain about a service that doesn't work, or you haven't had any warning about changes to. It's another to complain up to the wire that what's coming isn't fair and how much better other deals are if you don't get on your bike and take advantage of them. The infractructure costs that left all of the cable companies near bankruptcy and huge debts are beginning to payt off, but the debts are still there and they are corporate entities, in it to make money, for themselves and shareholders, not to hand out freebies.

[BarFly]

Originally Posted by Kaychsea

I thought you were off?

How can NTL be punishing people by providing a particular service and charging what they think the market will bear? If they are wrong folk will leave to find other providers and they'll adjust their strategy. If they don't then they will go out of business. It's not like the board are falling off their chairs with laughter at the caps having lured innocent grannies in off the street, is it?

You don't know what the economics of the provision of the service are so you don't know how sustainable the other deals are, but as you point out there are more attractively priced packages for what you want, so why are you complaining? Would it not make more sense for you to sign up to these great deals and come back and gloat at the rest of us? Or is it the moaning that you get off on?

It's one thing to complain about a service that doesn't work, or you haven't had any warning about changes to. It's another to complain up to the wire that what's coming isn't fair and how much better other deals are if you don't get on your bike and take advantage of them. The infractructure costs that left all of the cable companies near bankruptcy and huge debts are beginning to payt off, but the debts are still there and they are corporate entities, in it to make money, for themselves and shareholders, not to hand out freebies.

[chiba]

Always-on connection sales blurb

untill you reach 30 gig then no longer always on, how does that work

and as for leaving I'm sure a lot will but while they provide the service i orignally signed up for I will use it as i wish untill i'm pushed.

why go through the hassle of sorting out a new connection untill I have to, as for people moaning about wanting a better service so they are applauding NTL for eliminating the Bandwidth abusers Wake up and smell the corporate coffee this is about NTL wanting bigger profits and in no way linked to an improved quality of service

if you don't believe me wait untill September when anyone who got a letter (myself included) and didn't take any notice is thrown off the network, and any problems you may be having remain.

BTW has anyone here actually been a victim of a heavy downloader and not just NTL's poor service

before anyone starts saying then why don't you leave my answer because my service has been ok and I'm too lazy, I'm the leech waiting to be picked off.

At least I'm honest

[DieDieMyDarling]

Has anyone gone over 30GB yet, this month, after receiving the letter last month? Anything happened if you have?

[PC_Arcade]

Originally Posted by Kaychsea

I thought you were off?

I am, however I have to put up with NTL for another month.

How can NTL be punishing people by providing a particular service and charging what they think the market will bear? If they are wrong folk will leave to find other providers and they'll adjust their strategy.

People are leaving already, 2 have posted here already and I'm fairly sure more will follow if they continue to enforce the cap.

If they don't then they will go out of business. It's not like the board are falling off their chairs with laughter at the caps having lured innocent grannies in off the street, is it?

We can but hope, as for the board, I don't know what they are doing, I don't attend NTL board meetings, do you? If so, please tell us what they ARE doing

You don't know what the economics of the provision of the service are so you don't know how sustainable the other deals are, but as you point out there are more attractively priced packages for what you want, so why are you complaining? Would it not make more sense for you to sign up to these great deals and come back and gloat at the rest of us? Or is it the moaning that you get off on?

I have switched, and I wasn't moaning, I was disappointed that NTL put me in a position where I felt I had no choice BUT to leave, or are you now saying that it's OK to talk to heavy users like **** because they have transgressed a rule that they never agreed to in the first place? I don't "get off" on moaning, in fact looking back I don't see where I did moan, I stated my reasons for leaving, and backed them up when you posted. I'm sorry if YOU didn't like it, but there ya go

It's one thing to complain about a service that doesn't work, or you haven't had any warning about changes to. It's another to complain up to the wire that what's coming isn't fair and how much better other deals are if you don't get on your bike and take advantage of them. The infractructure costs that left all of the cable companies near bankruptcy and huge debts are beginning to payt off, but the debts are still there and they are corporate entities, in it to make money, for themselves and shareholders, not to hand out freebies.

I HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF BETTER DEALS which part of that do you not understand? My service did work very well, and it's a shame I have to leave, but in all honesty do you expect me to feel sorry for NTL being left near bancruptcy?? I couldn't care less if they go bancrupt, other than feeling sorry for the GOOD employees that will lose their jobs. It shouldn't be down to the customers to pay inflated charges though because NTL made some ****-poor business decisions should it?

[chiba]

Originally Posted by DieDieMyDarling

Has anyone gone over 30GB yet, this month, after receiving the letter last month? Anything happened if you have?

50 gig so far and nothing, but the letter said they would contact us again in October, if they do and are not happy with me thats when i'll leave and go else where.

awaiting AUP Stormtroopers to kick my door down any day now

[waggy]

bugger, ive been using usenet day and night

Im on 2mb at the moment. Is it conceivable that they will drop me back down to one meg at the cost of 2mb but with no cap?

Have ntl release the bandwidth useage program Ive heard about yet?

[nemesis01]

i dont think i have even downloaded 10gb since i got my letter, downgraded my service to 2mb too, might download a few things to get my money's worth but doubt i will go over the cap limit.

[mcmanic]

14gig so far here,probably will go over the 30gig cap by at least double, using about 1.5 gigs a day, you'll be surprised how much bandwidth MSN Zone takes up playing them online games everyday!. How anybody can stay within 30gigs and use the internet is beyond me, try playing on MSN Zone for 3/4 hours and see how much you download

[barq]

Hi Guys

I'm not ideologically opposed to caps and I don't want to degrade my neighbours' connections. But I don't seem to be able to monitor my usage. I have a network of three computers connected through a hardware router. My router doesn't log the amount of data going through the WAN port so I can't monitor my usage there (unfortunately PRTG doesn't work either). I can log the network usage for each computer, but this includes all my local network traffic (which is a huge amount because I stream digital television from one computer to another).

The only thing I have been able to do is to keep tabs on the larger files I have downloaded. But even this isn't straight forward. I downloaded Debian (9GB!) using BitTorrent, but I don't know how much of my 30GB limit that ate up because being BitTorrent a whole load of it would have been uploaded to other users as well as downloaded. Okay, sure, I don't download linux every month, but there are loads of things you can do on the internet which make estimating your usage really complicated (e.g. streaming music/radio/video, gaming).

I want to be a co-operative customer but ntl don't give me the means to know whether I am staying within the cap. I have tried to find a way of logging my usage and I'm sure it must be theoretically possible, but I don't think it is reasonable to assume such a high level of technical expertise from the general public. This isn't like using the telephone where you can keep a mental log of how many calls you have made. For people like me data seems a very abstract concept and without some tools with which users can monitor their usage the AUP seems unreasonable.

Someone made the point that anyone downloading 150GB/month must know they are busting the cap. I think for the most part that is a fair assumption. But for those of us much closer to the 30GB cap I'm not sure the same is always true. I'd be really surprised if I got a letter from ntl about my usage because I suspect I am way below their radar. But this isn't the point, I could still be in breach of the AUP without knowing it and without meaning to be.

barq

[Lemonhunny]

I've just cancelled my account with NTL, effective October 12th, when I shall do something I always swore I would never do, and return to BT. The lady at Customer Relations was extremely helpful, tried to persuade me to go to AOL 1mg unlimited connection, retaining my NTL phone line. I declined that. She went on to tell me about the 10mb connection, which I told her I had no interest in, the 2mb connection being more than ample for my needs, and that I felt the cap on that was equally ridiculous as the cap being used on the other connections. She asked if I exceeded my 1g per day, and I told her yes, that it was easy as pie to exceed that, with 3 pcs connected all doing stuff such as webcam chats to family overseas; legal download of movies in the public domain; online gaming etc etc - the duMeter is terrifying to watch at times! She started to tell me about other services that will be released at the same time as the 10mg connection becomes available, 2mb quoted verbally as being the £24.99 per month we pay now - but unlimited data transfer. But who wants to watch a meter constantly NOW, and risk being suspended or even terminated for exceeding the limit? It's almost as bad as clock-watching when we were all paying ENORMOUS phone bills for dial-up!

She expressed regret that I was looking at leaving NTL (I've been with them years, and have always been bemused at problems others report, as I've had none), thinking their service (to me at least) to have always been excellent. But eventually she realised I was leaving, there was no persuading me otherwise, and I arranged disconnection for October.

It's sad, because I've hated the times I've been with BT, and hubby hated BT even more. But all we'll use is the phone line, having chosen to go to an ISP that gives us 2mb unlimted connection (I have phoned and checked and double checked), and also unlimited 24/7 phone calls within the UK, all for £29.99 per month.

I will watch with interest, and no doubt one day will say "I wish I'd stayed with NTL", but for now - for me - there is no choice other than to leave.

[Scopeuk]

sorry if this has already came up but does any one else here use 300k atm and haing to opt out of the covert 1 mb semi mandatory upgrade with a huge downgrade in cap incres in speed = 3 times
decrese in cap = ten fold
wheres the value in this i know i represent the small part of the market needign resonable transfer limits (3 gb not resonable god only knowsd what ntl will do with use when they move that to 10 meg 3 gb caps with 10 meg speed any one) without having the cash flow to grab a huge connection such as ntl 2 or 3 meg.
way to go rip[ off britain
rant over flame me all u like

[Ignition]

Originally Posted by Scopeuk

sorry if this has already came up but does any one else here use 300k atm and haing to opt out of the covert 1 mb semi mandatory upgrade with a huge downgrade in cap incres in speed = 3 times
decrese in cap = ten fold
wheres the value in this i know i represent the small part of the market needign resonable transfer limits (3 gb not resonable god only knowsd what ntl will do with use when they move that to 10 meg 3 gb caps with 10 meg speed any one) without having the cash flow to grab a huge connection such as ntl 2 or 3 meg.
way to go rip[ off britain
rant over flame me all u like

I would but I think you'd be far better off learning the English language first.

I didn't really read your post properly as it's next to impossible to read due to the combination of no punctuation, a few typos, poor spelling and a couple of bits of txt spk.

Punctuation, spelling and basic grammar really do go a long way and sadly a point is far more likely to be listened to when presented articulately.

As far as your comments go you represent the part of the market needing higher transfer limits but don't have the money to take a 2 or 3Mbit service, the only thing I can recommend is that you go ADSL, you get what you pay for in most aspects of life, internet connection being one of them.

UKOnline offer a 512k service from their unbundled exchanges that is unlimited and costs £9.99 a month. There are a few 512k unlimited ADSL options that are sub-£15 a month.

[Chrysalis]

My friend was about to order the 9.99 offer and almost pulled out because of the 3 gig cap, I persuaded him to order as he is only going to be webbrowsing. Caps do put people off, he had a nightmare with AOL regarding overage charges and all he wants is a flat fee service on his ntl cable, but doesnt want to use AOL its not too much to ask.