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Strange excessive data use on mobile broadband

jeffdawson78
4: Newbie

Hi,

I've very recently - 9 days ago - signed up to Vodafone mobile broadband 50GB plan using there mifi mobile router for use at home on my boat with our laptops.

 

As I have not used this before I have been keen to see how the speeds compare to my old Plusnet broadband and keep an eye on data usage.

I was therefore very surprised to see my account saying I had used 13GB of data over 2 nights! I checked the usage breakdown and saw a number of very strange readings of the same amount at small intervals:

 

16 Jan 2107
18:34  990.03 MB
19:33 990.03 MB
21:07 967.97 MB
21:25 990.03 MB
21:41 967.97 MB
21:57 765.02 MB
22:10 967.97 MB
22:30 199.16 MB

17 Jan 2017
07:09 11.49 MB
20.21 990.03 MB
20:35 967.97 MB
20:49 990.03 MB
21:05 967.97 MB
21:21 495.01 MB
21;28 967.97 MB
21:47 990.03 MB

22:05 234.86 MB 

 

On the 16 I did download a couple of shows from iplayer (approx 1.5GB) but nothing to use anywhere near that much data. 

I called the supprot line this morning but whilst courteous weren't able to do anything other than suggest visiting a store.

Has anyone experienced similar issues and how did you resolve it?

Thanks for any advice!

349 REPLIES 349

Further to this post I reset the data limit on my hub manually. So the used data on the hub may not actually have been exactly the same as used data generated by Vodafone. So my hub could actually run over the 50gb but by only maybe by a few hundred mb. Not by the 7gb which I'm being charged for plus I had about 5gb of my of my allowance remaining.

Hi there and thanks for the post - yep exactly the same as me right down to the pretty much exactly same data amounts.

Did you speak to Vodafone at all. Whilst I can guess the answer would be interesting to know.

I'm sending my router off to be looked at today, whcih whilst it will leave me without internet for upto 10 days I want to try and get an answer 

Nabs
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

@jeffdawson78 @Elaines35 this is a very weird one! It's far too convenient that 2 different users should experience exactly the same issue within days of each other. This would suggest to me that there is either a fault in the Vodafone hardware or their billing system is incorrectly registering data use. One of the eForum team should be able to pick this one up and get it investigated.

 

For future reference, you can add an account level data cap. You should be able to switch this on or off through your My Vodafone account.

Hi. I can beat that charge - got a call on Monday to say we had gone over our 50gb limit 7 days before and now owe £498! Using SIM in a router so can only check usage on the rubbish Voda website and the unbilled section of that was "being upgraded" for weeks so could not check. Have had to pay up and wait until they bill us in 2 weeks before we can dispute both the data used and the fact they did not advise we were supposedly over they limit for a whole week!

Plus the list of data charges makes no sense with some still free and multiple charges for hugh lumps of data at exactly the same minute. This all happened just days after we were beyond the 30 "trial" period. 

I've had so many conversations with South Africans this week. It's a shame no one in the U.K. will work in for them!

Nabs
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi @TomW500

 

Sorry to hear you've been affected as well! 
Are you able to post the list of data charges from your account, similar to the list provided in the first post of this thread?

 

I'm trying to work out if there is a pattern to these sudden charges.

Hi Nabs

Mon Jan 23 00:00Mobile BrowsingINTERNET2968.018 KB0
Sun Jan 22 20:21Mobile BrowsingINTERNET973769.552 KB21.667
Sun Jan 22 18:04Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB21.667
Sun Jan 22 18:04Mobile BrowsingINTERNET422204.538 KB5.417
Sun Jan 22 12:17Mobile BrowsingINTERNET165501.022 KB5.417
Sun Jan 22 07:07Mobile BrowsingINTERNET143363.106 KB0
Sun Jan 22 02:33Mobile BrowsingINTERNET54429.028 KB0
Sun Jan 22 00:00Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB21.667
Sat Jan 21 22:47Mobile BrowsingINTERNET692653.814 KB16.25
Sat Jan 21 22:07Mobile BrowsingINTERNET29797.465 KB0
Sat Jan 21 17:39Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB21.667
Sat Jan 21 12:31Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB16.25
Sat Jan 21 12:31Mobile BrowsingINTERNET941500.963 KB21.667
Sat Jan 21 06:28Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976388.073 KB21.667
Fri Jan 20 18:01Mobile BrowsingINTERNET581275.591 KB16.25
Fri Jan 20 12:29Mobile BrowsingINTERNET11604.869 KB0
Fri Jan 20 11:15Mobile BrowsingINTERNET56.024 KB 0
Fri Jan 20 08:09Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB21.667
Fri Jan 20 08:09Mobile BrowsingINTERNET172738.551 KB0
Fri Jan 20 06:27Mobile BrowsingINTERNET41474.759 KB0
Fri Jan 20 06:17Mobile BrowsingINTERNET23366.911 KB0
Fri Jan 20 00:00Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB21.667
Thu Jan 19 22:16Mobile BrowsingINTERNET508323.330 KB10.834
Thu Jan 19 18:00Mobile BrowsingINTERNET975366.196 KB21.667
Thu Jan 19 18:00Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB21.667
Thu Jan 19 12:47Mobile BrowsingINTERNET975758.175 KB21.667
Thu Jan 19 12:47Mobile BrowsingINTERNET181795.390 KB0
Thu Jan 19 06:02Mobile BrowsingINTERNET29026.835 KB0
Thu Jan 19 00:00Mobile BrowsingINTERNET43824.335 KB5.417
Wed Jan 18 22:36Mobile BrowsingINTERNET380734.182 KB5.417
Wed Jan 18 19:06Mobile BrowsingINTERNET975194.387 KB21.667
Wed Jan 18 18:04Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB16.25
Wed Jan 18 18:04Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB21.667
Wed Jan 18 12:01Mobile BrowsingINTERNET975224.741 KB21.667
Wed Jan 18 12:01Mobile BrowsingINTERNET120039.402 KB5.417
Wed Jan 18 07:05Mobile BrowsingINTERNET31382.244 KB0
Wed Jan 18 06:33Mobile BrowsingINTERNET40960.556 KB0
Wed Jan 18 00:00Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB21.667
Tue Jan 17 22:41Mobile BrowsingINTERNET175752.052 KB5.417
Tue Jan 17 18:02Mobile BrowsingINTERNET975792.470 KB21.667
Tue Jan 17 18:02Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB16.25
Tue Jan 17 18:02Mobile BrowsingINTERNET973882.025 KB21.667
Tue Jan 17 14:52Mobile BrowsingINTERNET85.361 KB 0
Tue Jan 17 12:08Mobile BrowsingINTERNET976400.000 KB0
Tue Jan 17 12:08Mobile BrowsingINTERNET120288.634 KB0
Tue Jan 17 06:12Mobile BrowsingINTERNET74432.603 KB0
Tue Jan 17 00:00Mobile BrowsingINTERNET975727.123 KB0

Hope this works!

Nabs
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Spot on @TomW500

Your usage looks pretty similar, including some strange numbers, over the same timeframe as @Elaines35

 

 

Hopefully, with the mounting evidence, the eForum team will be able to put pressure on whoever they need to to have it investigated properly and the issues resolved ASAP.

Hiya TomW500,

 

See my latest post I think it's message no 92. Try and make sure you get the records of your conversations in case you need them in future.

Best wishes,

Kythie

Thanks Kythie

 

Having accepted 50% refund I was told that that precludes us from taking the matter any further. I felt that was grossly unfair and was sure it could not be the case but this was confirmed to me when I spoke to the outfit that mediate the complaints. It was either that walk away from the contract and loose the whole £500.

 

As I have mentioned in an earlier post it might have cost us £250 but it cost Vodafone 8 new connections that we were about to sign up for. Not that they care about that or owt else for that matter! 

Elaines35
4: Newbie
In relation to the cap I have tried to put the cap on UK data as I was aware of charges outide the 50gb. When I first received the sim I logged into my Vodafone a few days later to check the settings etc and I moved the slider so as UK data cap was on. I got the mesage about it taking about 5 minutes to a few hours for it to activate but never received any notification message. Checked the settings a few days later and it wasnt applied so tried again with the same outcome. So I had forgot about it and then the above happened with the massive data usage. It seems impossible to add the cap from my Vodafone yet i received the message on the screen to say it would take a few minutes. I tried last night again and took and screenshot of the on screen message but it still wasn't applied this morning