HawthorneVillager.com

I have been receiving unusually high bandwidth utilization since July. I initially blamed the kids (both under 10) thinking they were using it somehow, I ended up disconnecting all streaming connections and over this long weekend left home with the Cogeco Modem to Great wolf lodge. Well, the modem claimed it downloaded/uploaded 11GB on a day no one was home and the modem 70KM away. Multiply that by 31 days and your are looking at $310 of fictitious billing.

How have you bills been?

http://www.hawthornevillager.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=45094&start=60






I did not go for a week but took the long weekend off to Great Wolf Lodge with the family. Left Sept 1st, came back today, September 3rd.
Just for fun, I decided my Cogeco modem would be lonely so I physically unplugged it and took it along. This means absolutely no way ANY download should occur as the MAC of the modem which was 70km away is the only authorized MAC to connect to Cogeco's network.

Well, I checked my usage for September 2nd (remember, me and my beloved cogeco modem are away and nobody at home). It was an astonishing 11GB, ~6GB download and 5GB upload. Multiply by 31 days and that's $310 of illegal billing close to what they have been charging me over the last 2 months.
I think while I was out with the family riding the vortex and slaying dragons on Magiquest the cogeco modem developed intelligent life on Sunday and started uploading and downloading data from the GWL hotel room at Niagara falls.

At least that is what I am expecting Cogeco to tell me.

I read about the cogeco billing system being faulty in other forums, well I am 100% certain now. I have been living like a caveman for 15 days browsing on my iphone and turned off all streaming devices and yet I was still averaging 8-10GB a day.

I tagged a couple pics with GPS coordinates of the cogeco modem over the weekend. I'll be taking this as far as possible.

I spoke to two different tech support individuals over the last few weeks, they both told me it is tracked on the modem using the MAC address.
If you go to the Cogeco site you can only view your usage via your assigned modem MAC address. I also asked what would happen if I disconnected my modem, I was told the reading should be 0MB provided it spanned a 24 hour period from 00:00 to 00:01 the next day.

I asked if they did any estimation, equal billing or charges based on past usage and the answer was no. Really interesting this one, they have been so confident the problem could not be from them.

I already quit Cogeco and have a ship back box in the basement, just have a few more days to say bye-bye to Cogeco forever. Maybe they have some insider thing going on and someone cloned the MAC but that would mean they have the same IP as I do and I know that shouldn't be possible. The Rep told me only one IP is assigned to a specific MAC (I asked a lot of questions as I am also a techy)

Have a look at this thread, see post #73 and others. They have been at this for some years, only thing that has not changed since 2009 is the response the reps give you. "You have a virus"

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=109610&page=5

sounds like someone spoofed the mac address on another modem, connected it to the network so it would register and is getting free internet. I don't think cogeco's controls are as strong as the bigger guys like bell and rogers.

who are you moving to? bell or someone else?

Moving to START, already have the kit but Cogeco still has me locked in for a few days, yesterday another 10GB was charged to my account even though I only got back and connected the modem about 7pm and only did some minor web browsing.

Reading the US/Brazilian Netflix thread just pisses me more as I can't dare go and reconnect my PS3 and get on netflix until I am off shitty Cogeco. I did finally get to the next level of escalation with Cogeco who will be 'looking' into it. All I want is my $400+ in overuse fee back for starters.

So what again is Cogeco saying about all this? Its kind of really f'd up if you ask me and should be a simple fix. I am surprised they are not as stumped as you and offering a modem replacement as a first step at figuring out the issue.

Well, until I gave them all the hard evidence today, the official response has always been, "you have a virus or someone hacked your wireless, we are 100% accurate on our billings". They were that sure.

I found it so absurd as I knew what I was talking about, made a direct connection with only one PC for 24 hours with Bitmeter on the sole PC showing about 400MB download and they came back with 16GB that particular day.

One CSR (Mimi #46) would not even let me finish a sentence before cutting me off, when I asked to speak to a super, she 'dropped' the line. I called back requested another super from a 'nicer' CSR, no call back after a week. The Customer Service has been horrific.

Hmmm, well if you are the escalating type, do a quick search on LinkedIn, there are some contacts coming up on there that I would give a shout to. If the service has been good, other than this issue, I would imagine they would try to keep a customer and appreciate learning about some training issues they might have in their CS department.

Cogeco is definitely overcharging me.

On the west coast, I can use Shaw and get 250 Mbps unlimited for $130/month.

In Milton, I have Cogeco Business Ultimate 55 Mbps unlimited for $200/month.

Yes, the price point for internet with the bigger companies (bell/cogeco) is pretty steep

I am still waiting for my call back from the supervisor, Roslyn. As of Tuesday this week she was going to call me back yesterday, another super I spoke to when I called in today for the status indicated they are still 'investigating' and will get back to me now next week Wednesday. Next escalation point will be the 'office of the president' whatever that means in their escalation process, then CRTC. 5 more days and I will be off them and the ridiculous constant of 10-14GB a day (or 36-48 hours of netflix a day according to them) will be over.

Bandits.

Wow unbelievable, at least in your case your tech savvy. Pity someone like me having this happen as I would be totally lost trying to defend the bill. Keep us informed on the outcome.

Shaw on the west coast is the equivalent of Rogers and Cogeco.

Strangely, not quite as evil.

The real banditry going on is the fact that they are charging ridiculous amounts for bandwidth in the first place.

In my professional life, I receive 1000 Mbps connection in my datacenters for < $5000 per month, unmetered.

I imagine Cogeco would have a bit more bargaining power than I do, and could have a negotiated a smaller rate.

A single 1000 Mbps pipe nets a total volume of 316 TB per month for the business. The 100 MB or whatever caps you are receiving on the residential plan, and the extreme overages, all add up to total and complete bullshit.

Good grief, just to put that in perspective, 316TB = 323584GB

Cogeco charges $1 for each GB over your limit, that's $323,584 for something routehero pays $5,000 for. Yeah, they pay for running the cables to your house and other over head but $318,584 a month for that?

http://stopthemeter.ca/

I wish you had posted this earlier. I just checked my cogeco bills, and they have been charging me for overages too. I usually use 10 gigs a month or less. It seems they have me going over for the last 2 months, at almost 50 gigs each month. Not sure whats going on, but I haven't changed my internet usage in that time, it's always been light usage. I'll have to contact them. I usually assume it's long distance when the bill is higher, but I guess it's my fault for not checking.

Ok this is crap, apparently they sent me an email saying my usage was high, at least 4 times. Obviously I didn't receive these emails, or I would have known to look into it sooner.