(Cross posted from YY as there may be Demon users on here)
Just got a fair usage letter, 47 gigs in last thirty days - first time I've ever been near it (Battlestar Galactica, a one-off).
So apparently the limit of my unlimited broadband is 50gb per rolling thirty days. Fine, I'll just stay under that and there's not a problem, I'm never likely to need to do this much downloading again anyway.
So I go on their website, and I look, nowhere to be seen is a means of finding out my usage over the last thirty days. So I call the number they provided and speak to a gentleman in India (not sure why, as I 'bought British' quite deliberately). They tell me they can't help, I need to call an 087 number, which I do, which takes me to a nice lady in India, with a script and a VERY STRONG ACCENT.
"Can I have your house name, sir?"
"Erm... ok - ****field House"
"No, sir, your house name"
"****field house, which is number ** **** road, Cardiff - why do you need this?"
"No, sir, the name of your domain, your house name"
"Host name?"
"Yes"
"<sigh>"
Apparently, I've used 47gb. Yes, love, I know. (Wouldn't it be easier just to publish these callcentre scripts online and we follow them, they could lay off whole cities of staff and pass the saving onto the customer). So I explain that that 47gb is rolling, and it could have been all used in the last ten days, in which case I need to be very careful, or in the first five of today's thirty day period, in which case a couple of days without iplayer and I'm safely in the black (which I'm in anyway, and am trying to responsibly stay in). So I ask how I'm supposed to know.
"With respect, sir," she begins "there is software you can download from Google to do this for you".
Joy! Google host software that will tell me what my Demon internet account usage has been each day ovr the last thirty!
Or not.
Apparently, their solution to my 'when did I use this bandwidth you feel is important enough to write to me about' query is for me to download an unspecified app 'from Google' and use that in future. I respond enthusiastically "Great, so this Google application will cover my three main machines which run Xandros, XP and Vista respectively?"
"Different softwares are available"
"Great, so when I consider the three laptops, two desktops, two EEEPCs, two DSes, an XBox, a 360, a PSP and an N95 and a Wii all of which use the connection at times, this software will sort the lot out, will it?"
"No, it is for individual machines only"
"So I've no way of knowing how much I've used then?"
"You have used 47gb Mr Finlay"
"When though?"
"In the last thirty days, I apologise that I can't be more specific sir".
<Facepalm>
So I'm off to Be, however she told me my contract was renewed on 20/10/07 when the only thing I've ever agreed to was the service on 9/10/06. I could push this, but I'd sooner just cancel.
Alternatively, I could just stop paying them, and when they call to query, I'll advise them I did indeed pay, 'at some point in the last thirty days' and if they want to know more, download something from Google.
Fucking shitbags. I hope to god Be do manage to unbundle my exchange this month, as their website suggests. Anyone who where else I might check such things? Please, please don't suggest there's something i can download from Google