Finally, I have something for my Wacky Aurora Hub category to post – sorry, no pictures this time. The Bell story is worth sharing to make you aware of what can sometimes happen with your internet usage, but I can also assure you that you’ll likely never find the answers either.
Let me tell you: No matter how tight you think your security is, there is no such thing as complete internet security. Absolutely nothing is fully protected. My websites have been hacked, my personal email was accessed by someone in Russia, and just recently, someone was using our home internet – and we were paying for it.
I received an e-bill from Bell. What? This was the third time I had gone over my 25 GB bandwidth limit. I was charged two dollars for each extra gig. The third bill raised a red flag. After the first two overages, Matthew was no longer allowed to use my computer. We thought it was the YouTube cartoons, but even with less usage, we were still over.
To reinforce my suspicion, I didn’t use the internet for two days, and still, 2 GB was consumed per day. Aha… something was definitely wrong.
How could this be? We don’t have wireless because it’s never secure. With the right equipment, hackers can access your wireless in no time.
We called Bell the first time. They were clueless and suggested changing the password. I didn’t do it.
My husband took over the calls and eventually got someone who seemed to know something – but not the difference between upload and download. He tentatively concluded that someone could be using our account without us knowing. So, on the second call, we changed the account password.
We decided to stop using the internet for another day or so. The next day, when we logged into our account, believe it or not, 2 GB was consumed the day before – even with the changed password. What was going on? Something was definitely off.
We called Bell again. They put a watch on our account and promised to call us back within 24-48 hours with an explanation. In the meantime, the Bell technical support rep credited our account.
We continued to use very little internet, and the next day, the usage stopped. Bell never called us back, so we called them to find out what happened.
Bell technical support couldn’t find any record of monitoring our account usage. No explanation was given. They just brushed us off.
The same day, we received a survey to rate their customer service performance. I failed them miserably.
In conclusion, I can only assume the following:
- Bell’s landline got crossed, or someone else did, to steal our internet bandwidth.
- Bell made a billing error they don’t want to admit.
- Maybe Bell was experiencing low sales and decided to pass the blame onto someone – and that someone was us.
Wasn’t that wacky?
COMMENTS
kaslkaos said: January 28, 2012 at 09:31
“I guess the lesson is watch your bills? Interesting that they didn’t get back to you….hmmm… and yes, if you ever get wireless, you need a password, otherwise you’re broadcasting a free line. But you know that, and didn’t do that, and still got dinged. Which is weird….I have Rogers, but still a good reminder to watch those payments at the end of the month.”
Marvin said: January 30, 2012 at 23:53
“Wow, that DOES sound like a screw-up on their end. They would never admit it though. Have you ever seen the Saturday Night Live skit by Lily Tomlin where she famously said, “We’re the phone company. We don’t care. We don’t have to?”
Anna Lozyk Romeo said: February 1, 2012 at 00:28
“Kaslkaos, thank you. I watch all my bills like a hawk, LOL. Not sure if I will be staying with Bell, and never been sure of Rogers. I miss ACI (Aurora Cable Internet).”
Anna Lozyk Romeo said: February 1, 2012 at 00:31
“Marvin, I did little searching and this has been going on for a while. If you complain they give you a credit and never tell you why. If you don’t, money in their pocket. You are right they don’t care, they don’t have to, they are the phone company. Thanks for sharing the skit by Lily Tomlin that was actually funny.”
Kelly said: March 13, 2012 at 21:08
“I think I have the same situation, 100GB total of which 67 gig is UPLOAD. This started about 4 months ago and I blamed it on my son until this month. As a family we do not use the internet that much. I will contact bell tomorrow to find out what is going on. Thanks for the original post!!”
