R13 000 bill for Windows update
Potentially corrupt Windows update files have been blamed by SA broadband users for racking up hefty data bills.
In one case, a Vodacom subscriber was presented with a R13 000 bill for data downloaded. When contacted, Vodacom agreed to drop the charge by 50%, still leaving the subscriber with a R6000 bill.
The user, a MyBroadband forum member, was using Windows XP when the incident occurred. The seemingly broken file restarted the download repeatedly racking up a hefty 10GB of bandwidth before stopping. (http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=1712555&postcount=85)
"The trouble started precisely on the 18th of March … at 8:14 pm and finished on the 19th at 11:42 pm," says MyBroadband member AK65. "I had checked Vodacom4me a day or two before that and saw I had a couple of hundred meg till month end, so I was under a big misconception that everything was hunky-dory."
A Vodacom representative on the MyBroadband forums confirms that this is not an isolated incident. "I had that with Vista SP1, it downloaded to 87% and then restarted. Used 1GB of data before I fixed it, by downloading and installing manually … I just checked my update logs and it started on the 19th of March."
The issue again raises concerns that 3G users are able to run up significantly high cellphone bills without being fully aware of it.
While Vodacom says it has in place a policy to contact users with extraordinarily high usage, it is often the case that the bandwidth has already been used before processes to contact them take effect.
Microsoft did not respond to requests for feedback regarding this issue.
Windows update data discussion
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