3G billing queries

[gabberry]

Hi 3g Vodacom,

I have a similar problem to 'Cheated 16/10/06', I have had my card since march 06, I used it very successfully till september, never really using more than 400Mb of the 512 bundle. Sunddenly I received a bill two month ago from Nashua Mobile exceeding my limit by app. R4500 (at R2 a mg) which works out that I downloaded in the region of 512mb + 2.25gb.

I have been communicating with Nashua mobile for a month and a half and they just say the bill is correct and that they have asked Vodacom to contact me. I have asked them about five times to do so and I am still waiting.

Few reasons why I am querying the bill: (sorry for the long expalination)

1. Tested for viruses and spyware and there were none, I know my usage as I am in the IT field and I basically run my mail and banking off the card, maybe downloaded a few drivers for clients.

2. They say my usage was close to 3 gigs, I only had 200mb of space left on my hard drive.

3. I closed all applications running in the backround, and opened up my 3G software. It transfered data without anything being open.

4. Two of my clients had the same problem in September, I installed the 3g software on their laptop at 2 o'clock on a Tuesday, by the next morning at 10 o'clock the whole bundle was used up. I ran virus checks and closed all applications, the same thing happened to them.

5. I reinstalled my laptop to make sure it was clean, I closed all appications running in the background, opened up my 3g software and connected, it just transfered data.

I don't mind paying my bills and have done so on time for years, I am sure there is something faulty, please could you help me out.

Cheers

 

[Edinetz]

What does your itemised billing look lilke? I have never had a problem with Vodacom billing personally and it proves to be very accurate but maybe Nashua Mobile (or the Service provider) are billing the same tickets multiple times or allocating other subscriber billing tickets to your account - you need to get Vodacom to provide their billing tickets unprocessed by the SP but the request would in any case have to go through Nashua unfortunately since they own you in Vodacom's eyes.

 

[diabolus]

Yea, check your itemised billing taking into consideration it will take quite a few hours to actually download 2.25GB "accidentally" .

I would especially try to see if this happened in a single session and checking if it actually COULD happen in that session [i.e. no way you can download 2.25GB in a 2 hour session].

Otherwise see if it's spread out , i.e. 200MB here and 300MB there [which might make your case for it being a mistake a bit weaker], and where it came from...

2. They say my usage was close to 3 gigs, I only had 200mb of space left on my hard drive.

You pay for uploads too....P2P type software [torrents etc] have this nasty effect where while you download you share the download to the rest of the planet , which might mean people might be downloading from YOU [especially if you left the app running through the night]. Again, upload speed is much much slower, it will take days to download 2.25GB going 64kbps ..

 

[ic]

Why is everyone assuming that the 2.25GBytes|2.25Gbits were only downloaded? - could also be partly accounted for in uploaded data - remember that most malware these days tries to send out spam emails, which would be in the upload portion; and just bcos one has anti-malware s/w checking for malware, does not prove that there is no malware - it just means that no malware was found, not that it did not exist.

 

[vodacom3g]

I decided to see what my Home PC would do if I allow Microsoft updates to run. This PC was pretty much up to date, or so I thought.

Xp, Office and other updates used 218Mb of data. I did not check disk space before and after but assume most of this would be replacing current files so it would not severely impact disk space.

On a similar note, a while ago I forgot a P2P program open on my laptop. Wiped my 1G bundle out, overnight.

 

[gabberry]

I understand that 2.25gb will not just be downloads and that malware could still be on the my computer, but that is the reason that i formatted the hard drive and reinstalled the o/s, just loaded the 3g software and went online. I went into task manager and closed any application that was not part of windows. The card was still up and downloading.

That was for septembers bill. In October i monitored my usage, i only went online to download mail when i was in the office (app. twice a day), to see how the usage would be, my October bill was for an extra R 3300. It was doing the same thing, i left it on for 2 hours when i popped out to a friends house, I was downloading 5mb of mail, i came back and it had up/downloaded 40mb. The night before i left in on by mistake with no appilications open, it up/downloaded 180mb.

How do I get Vodacom to show me what was uploaded and downloaded? I have asked nashua mobile about five times to please get me more info.

 

[vodacom3g]

Vodacom can't show you what was uploaded/downloaded, only how much data was sent and received. From a privacy perspective we don't track what you do, where.

The best thing to do is load netlimiter on your and let it monitor which applications are doing what.

Where are you based?

 

[gabberry]

Durban

 

[vodacom3g]

Durban

I'd suggest do the the netlimiter thing and watch your upload/downloads this way.

If you still battle, PM me and I'll get someone in Durban to look at your PC.

 

[gabberry]

Thanx, will do

 

[WildPikachu]

Is it possible to use vodacom4me to check the traffic currently utilized?

All I see is basically that I've used my bundle, but can't see to see the total usage for the current month.

I think a few days ago I could click "My Account" ... Info ... reports ... and pull a itemized invoice report. But it just pops up a blank page now ... maybe I'm going mad?

 

[Gunny]

I have a similar problem on Sept 17th my 500Mb bundle ran out at 3am in the morning and I had requested another 500Mb ad-hoc bundle which kicked in at 11am onthe 17th but in those few hrs I got billed for 458Mb of data. On my bill it show me using a Meg a minute from exactly the time the bundle ran out to exactly the time my new bundle kicked in then the throughput settled to beleivable levels again. Anybody who looked at th bil would see it looks fishy but Vodacom say no it looks ok.
Now I ask you I watch my usage carefully, would I be that stupid as to d/l 450Mb between 3am and 11am if knew my bundle was done and getting billed out of bundle rates. Also why would the uage skyrocket at the exact time I was out of bundle and then settle when th bundle became active. And Voda tell me it looks normal maybe I should suspect spyware, thats bull, if I had spyware why is the usage only high when I'm out of bundle must be some smart spyware/virus that cant be detected and only makes itself known when you dnt have a bundle. That sounds like a virus/spyware designed by Voda. Anyway its been about 3 weeks since i first picked up on it and started speaking to Voda they keep escalating it.

I'm not happy.

 

[Gunny]

Seems like no one has a theory as to what happened in my case so I'm going to assume that Voda decided to rip everyone off in Sept to build up for xmas bonuses they scored R913 off me what pisses me off is no one want to take responsibility and look deeper I even offered to bring my laptop in so they could do a forensic audit on te thing if it goes that far.

 

[MyDraadloos]

Seems like no one has a theory as to what happened in my case so I'm going to assume that Voda decided to rip everyone off in Sept to build up for xmas bonuses they scored R913 off me what pisses me off is no one want to take responsibility and look deeper I even offered to bring my laptop in so they could do a forensic audit on te thing if it goes that far.

My view is that some network defficiencies will lead to the customer getting screwed. (Vodacom can and will not be held responsible for these, they reserve the right to bill for any and all traffic)

Bad transmission or network congestion will lead to packets loss, resends and more congestion. Transmission failure between you and the tower will result in you still being billed for traffic that has not reached you as it has already passed by the billing engine.

You can not download half an e-mail attachment, the system will try again and again. This is how the 5mb attachment will end up generating 50mb worth of traffic.

IDM has improved my life for HTTP downloads, but this does not help for failed Windows updates, AV updates or Popping your e-mail.

 

[gabberry]

This did happen to three of my clients over September aswell, I looked at my 3g card again this morning and it just upaloads and downloads as it want, I have to sort this out otherwise my bills are going to be this consitant.

Hey Vodacom 3g, wonder if you could get that technician to come have a look at my pc, he can see it for his own eyes.

 

[cisco_trouble]

tweak your windows. especially automatic updates

 

[vodacom3g]

This did happen to three of my clients over September aswell, I looked at my 3g card again this morning and it just upaloads and downloads as it want, I have to sort this out otherwise my bills are going to be this consitant.

Hey Vodacom 3g, wonder if you could get that technician to come have a look at my pc, he can see it for his own eyes.

PM me your details and I'll arrange it.

 

[Gunny]

My view is that some network defficiencies will lead to the customer getting screwed. (Vodacom can and will not be held responsible for these, they reserve the right to bill for any and all traffic)

Bad transmission or network congestion will lead to packets loss, resends and more congestion. Transmission failure between you and the tower will result in you still being billed for traffic that has not reached you as it has already passed by the billing engine.

You can not download half an e-mail attachment, the system will try again and again. This is how the 5mb attachment will end up generating 50mb worth of traffic.

IDM has improved my life for HTTP downloads, but this does not help for failed Windows updates, AV updates or Popping your e-mail.

No no windows updates no av updates no nothing just 450 megs of data that apparently happened to be downloaded mysteriously and cannot be accounted for on my pc.

Anyway everyone is missing the point. My usage is what I consider normal up to the point where the data bundle ran out then it gets billed at a meg a minute untill the new bundle takes effect. So I used 500megs in bundle up to 3am on the 17th sept and then 500megs in bundle from 11am 17th sept but between 3am and 11am on the 17th got billed for 450 megs thats my problem thats why I say it looks fishy

 

[vodacom3g]

Gunny, I'll PM you my e-mail, so we can pick this up.

 

[gabberry]

Suddenly this month my 3G decides to start behaving, very big coincidence, need to take this up with Vodacom.