BSNL Cheating with Incorrect data sessions after 8AM in Night unlimited plans

[sriharsha_madineni]

I have been using BSNL Broadband for the last 8 months. Earlier I was on 750UL plan before I shifted to 500C+ owing to its 2-8 Unlimited usage. I have been using NU plan for almost 6 months now and I'm facing these incorrect session issues from day 1.

I have type-4 UTSTARCOM WA3002G4 router which is connected via LAN to my Pc and I occasionally use three wifi devices viz iPod touch, 5800Xm and Samsung Galaxy Spica. Primarily I use PC for all the data needs so most of the usage is from PC.

My Auto download setup is like this.........

I use auto power on and shutdown to manage boot times and utorrent and IDM are scheduled to Download ONLY between 2-8 in utorrent and 2:30 - 7:45 in IDM. I have even scheduled a batch file to restart router at 2 am and 8 am. I save synchronized my pc and router with time.nist.gov and I have set my router in PPOE mode with 2 mins inactivity time out. And I monitor my pc traffic using NETWORX.

I use avast antivirus with Comodo firewall and I've blocked all the unwanted programs from using internet.

Earlier the Free timings itself was varying, like one day its from
2:10 to 8:10 and the next day it used to be from
2:23 to 8:23 like that.
I used to get random amount in billed usage and It never crossed my monthly limit so I used to ignore it.

This continued till January 2010. From JAN-10 Billing times suddenly became correct exact from 2:00 to 8:00 AM, but the catch is only the timings are mentioned as correct. But I have been getting some extra sessions after 8AM like 8:00:00 to 8:00:45 and sometimes as
8:00:00 to 8:23:30 and sometimes even more like
8:00:00 to 9:33:30 or even 8:00:00 to 10:30:00 AM

and I'm getting excess usage in these sessions when I'm quite sure that my PC is off. Those random excess usage never crossed >50MB.
But on April 11th I was charged excess usage of 600 odd MB. So I immediately called up the complaint cell here and informed them the same. They won't listen to me and even gave some ridiculous answers like some virus might have used the data. I didn't push them further so I ignored it again.

Five days later the same happened and this time I got an excess 70MB after 8AM. I was awake that day and I switched off PC at 7:45 myself. Yet I got a session till 8:23AM. Pissed off, I called my friends who are on same plan and asked them to look into their portal usage and see if they have got the same errors.
Infact they had similar issues so I asked them to forward me all those reports so that I can file a complaint to DE, BSNL.
Before that I called complaint cell again and mentioned the same to them, they tried to convince me with some bullshit answers.

DAY-1

So I went to the DE directly and showed him all my four month portal reports from JAN-10 till April 10 and also showed my friends usage reports with similar errors. I even gave them my four month hourly reports from NETWORX.
I explained to them about the erroneous sessions after 8AM, they told they'll study those reports and let me know in a couple of days.
They also said that billing system is outsourced from IBM and they have to contact them in case of conflicts.

Day-4

No one contacted me since Day-1 so I called them to know the status of my problem. I was surprised when told me they haven't even filed a complaint and they are still studying my reports.

I decided to make a complaint myself on the online grievance cell. So made a complaint in that site and then went to BSNL office and asked them about the progress. They showed me their internal reports for my number where in MAC address and port assigned for that session are shown.

I was surprised when I saw that mac number, coz that is not mine, but the sessions were correct, I argued about the same and they asked me to get my router to office so that they can check the same. I took my router to them and showed that my mac ended with XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:73 as shown on sticker and firmware.But it is reported as XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:73 in their internal reports. After a thorough check its weird that my mac is showing other number than indicated in firmware. Earlier when I didn't tell him about this mac conflict, he blabbered about the mac thing, that all my usage report depends on mac and hence forth. So when I asked him about that erroneous mac, he changes his stand and says mac is not that important, so it doesn't matter. Had a heated argument about that which was going no where.

And then when I asked him if mine is an isolated case then how come my friends are getting same error. He said its your complaint so lets talk about this, we will look into his matter if he complaints. Pissed off I called him immediately and asked him to come to BSNL office and file a complaint. By this time he started to escape us saying he has some work and I should talk about this with DE. But that DE has a single lame answer everytime. I asked them into look into your matter, I can't say anything about that until I get the reports and he insists there is a virus in my system which is using that data. HOW DUMB!!!!!!!!! And he is D.E. GOD save BSNL.

In the mean while I searched around and found several posts in various sites citing the same issue, even in this forum I came across numerous links about the same issue.

I don't want to ignore this issue if they come up with some ridiculous answer and try to close the complaint. If they do so then I'm planning to take a legal action. I want to know the procedure to file a case in consumer court.

Also there aren't any guidelines or terms with BSNL about those free times like when they say 2AM-8AM, it never was accurate and there aren't any guidelines for this timings.

I want to know what Can I do further before filing a case, like can I take this matter to some higher officials. What pisses me off is that when they know about bugs in their billing system, why wont they accept??

---------- Post added at 12:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:41 PM ----------

here's a few comparisons between networx data and portal data on the same day I got this error.

On that Day I had an exam so at 8:30 AM , I Checked system before going to college if it has properly shutdown or not. It was completely off.
Then I came back home at 1:30 PM and switched on pc at 2PM so I'm comparing that sessions

FROM PORTAL

Start Time (DD-MM-YYYY) Stop Time (DD-MM-YYYY) Download (KB) Upload (KB) Total Units (KB)
Duration (HH:MM:SS) Chargeable Units(KB) Excluding Night Unlimited

12-04-2010 02:06:24 AM 12-04-2010 02:11:35 AM 13 10 23 00:05:11 0

12-04-2010 01:23:46 AM 12-04-2010 01:41:11 AM 60 17 77 00:17:25 77

12-04-2010 01:05:44 AM 12-04-2010 01:18:15 AM 131 11 142 00:12:31 142

11-04-2010 02:26:19 PM 11-04-2010 02:31:59 PM 11 10 21 00:05:40 21

11-04-2010 02:03:39 PM 11-04-2010 02:23:58 PM 2615 461 3076 00:20:19 3076

11-04-2010 02:02:47 PM 11-04-2010 02:03:35 PM 1 0 1 00:00:48 1

11-04-2010 01:49:32 PM 11-04-2010 02:01:08 PM 665 131 796 00:11:36 796

11-04-2010 01:27:44 PM 11-04-2010 01:34:58 PM 26 12 38 00:07:14 38

11-04-2010 01:16:00 PM 11-04-2010 01:24:54 PM 12 14 26 00:08:54 26

11-04-2010 12:35:07 PM 11-04-2010 12:50:54 PM 94 26 120 00:15:47 120

11-04-2010 12:15:19 PM 11-04-2010 12:20:32 PM 27 11 38 00:05:13 38

11-04-2010 11:44:54 AM 11-04-2010 11:50:06 AM 8 11 19 00:05:12 19

11-04-2010 11:14:29 AM 11-04-2010 11:19:39 AM 8 11 19 00:05:10 19

11-04-2010 10:42:45 AM 11-04-2010 10:48:19 AM 23 9 32 00:05:34 32

11-04-2010 08:00:00 AM 11-04-2010 10:20:21 AM 446646 165978 612624 02:20:21 612624

11-04-2010 06:55:56 AM 11-04-2010 08:00:00 AM 203884 75765 279649 01:04:04 0

11-04-2010 01:38:56 AM 11-04-2010 01:54:59 AM 92 13 105 00:16:03 105


From Networx

Date Time Avg DL Rat Avg UL Rate DL Volume UL Volume Total

12-04-2010 2:00 - 2:59 91.3 KB/s 45.9 KB/s 320.94 MB 161.43 MB 482.37 MB

11-04-2010 14:00 - 14:59 755 bytes/s 150 bytes/s 2.60 MB 0.52 MB 3.11 MB

11-04-2010 7:00 - 7:59 170 KB/s 63.1 KB/s 596.24 MB 221.89 MB 818.14 MB

11-04-2010 6:00 - 6:59 149 KB/s 58.7 KB/s 523.28 MB 206.37 MB 729.65 MB

11-04-2010 5:00 - 5:59 194 KB/s 70.8 KB/s 681.51 MB 248.96 MB 930.46 MB

11-04-2010 4:00 - 4:59 196 KB/s 71.9 KB/s 689.05 MB 252.75 MB 941.80 MB

11-04-2010 3:00 - 3:59 165 KB/s 53.1 KB/s 578.56 MB 186.64 MB 765.20 MB

11-04-2010 2:00 - 2:59 116 KB/s 24.5 KB/s 409.15 MB 86.02 MB 495.17 MB

11-04-2010 1:00 - 1:59 0 bytes/s 0 bytes/s 0.00 MB 0.00 MB 0.00 MB

10-04-2010 21:00 - 21:59 4 bytes/s 5 bytes/s 0.01 MB 0.02 MB 0.03 MB

Also notice sessions from 2AM to 6:55AM are not even present in portal while my sytem was on and downloading at than time.

Now notice this session from networx
11-04-2010 14:00 - 14:59 755 bytes/s 150 bytes/s 2.60 MB 0.52 MB 3.11 MB

same session From Portal
11-04-2010 02:03:39 PM 11-04-2010 02:23:58 PM 2615 461 3076 00:20:19 3076

^^ I'm quoting this to verify that both are reporting same values.

This is when I started my Pc(2PM) again on that day, so where did that 600MB come from.

My point is if you look at the usage from portal after 6:55 to 10:20 AM where 279649 is under night unlimited and 612624 was under billed data,
If I add these sessions then 279649+612624 = 892273 or 871.36 MB

where 279649 is under night unlimited and 612624 was under billed data

Which is roughly the same amount in networx that I downloaded between 7-8 818.14 MB

Since networx reports hourly sessions,
the remaining ~50MB might have been downloaded between 6:55 to 7:00 And hence the difference. Adding that amount to networx data it now shows~870MB which is the same amount portal is showing between 6:55 to 10:20 AM i.e 892273KB or 871.36 MB

My point is they have considered the session between 6:55 AM to 10:20 AM as a single session, but in portal report they have just split the sessions exactly at 8:00AM which is suspicious an buggy.

This is just for one day. there are numerous such sessions over a period of 4 months.

Can't I prove the same if I file a case based on this that they have cheated me with wrong sessions.

 

[Aspire]

Is your Wi-Fi password protected?

 

[sriharsha_madineni]

Is your Wi-Fi password protected?

Wifi is in WPA2 secure mode with AP Name hidden and MAC filter enabled.

 

[Aspire]

^MAC filter is working in which mode??
Permit/Deny ?

 

[sriharsha_madineni]

Permit mode.

But the point is my PC is off in the first place and no one else can access my router owing to the security measure as mentioned above. So where did that usage come from??

As clearly explained in my above post its a clear cut case of session overlap, since the used data reported by BSNL Portal from 8-10:20 matches my Networx usage report between 7&8 AM.

Attaching my reports seems to be an issue since forum doesn't support zip or xls attachments

---------- Post added at 11:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 PM ----------

Here are my four month usage reports from both BSNL Portal and Networx hourly reports from my PC

*tinyurl.com/3a2evlf

 

[FilledVoid]

I had the same problems till i refused to download / upload at sharp 2 and 8. Instead now I start my downloads at 2:15 and end at 7:45 . Yes I know that you effectively lose 30 minutes of your download time but Id rather be safe than sorry. Not to mention its the only broadband provider where I live.

 

[sriharsha_madineni]

Yeah I used to do the same earlier, but when the timing issues seemed to be sorted out from JAN-10 I reverted back to sharp 2:05 to 7:55 timings.

After this I again changed my timings to 2:15 and 7:45.

At present a complaint has been filed both online and in BSNL office here.

Earlier I had similar issue when someone else's usage(9GB) was shown in my bill instead of mine which is way under limit as per portal(2.4 out of 2.5GB). So my final bill came down from 5000 to 500 last time. So I'm sure their billing process is full of bugs.

 

[FilledVoid]

When I first got broadband and had my plan switched to the Home 500 plan I recall getting my first bill as rs 6k. Although 5 Gb was downloaded in Night Unlimited time schedules. I was way below my allowed limit in the regular time as well. I remember this well because I was pretty much screaming bloody murder in the IRC Channel back then.

Anyway I went to BSNL's office and although not a single person frmo the tech Department was able to help me I walked into th Accounting department and talked to the person in charge for the Broadband Billing Section. I showed him all the reports and within 5 minutes he handed me over a new phone bill for Rs 800.

What I did learn was if you want to get anything done in BSNL you either have to be amazingly lucky or be able to find that certain person up on the ladder willing to help you. If you plan on pursuing it I can only say to contact Executives who are higher up on the food chain.

 

[sriharsha_madineni]

Yeah its tough and almost impossible to get them work on our complaint. They'll come up with one or other reason to close the complaint saying nothing's wrong and such.

Earlier with my billing complaint, nobody was listening to me, but when I contacted DE, result was immediate, they handed over new bill the next day.

But somehow this time, the same DE is delaying the process for some unknown reason. I'm keeping my faith in him. Let's see what happens.

 

[vaithy]

It is not the DE who correct the bill..but recommend the correction.. it is the Accounts Officer who will correct the bill after ascertaining the case from DE. So If the DE is delaying the complaint, because his feedback from the NIC may not be confirm your complaints.. I am also facing the same issue, but disconnect at 07.55 where as in the bill it say I disconnected at 07.59 if I utilise even 1 more minutes the usuage is running into 100 MB..when a freeusuage session is ended in to non free usuage session the server is not calculating two different time so the timing issues is not likely to go away..You have to prove that the BSNL server timing is wrongly calculated..In many cases Accounts Officers are likely to allow the customer argument in the timing of BB usuage charges,so you have to again contact the Accounts Officer as well as the DE concerned...

 

[sriharsha_madineni]

^^ Do you think this is valid enough to prove about the session error.

I'm copy pasting it again!!!!!

Now notice this session from networx
11-04-2010 14:00 - 14:59 755 bytes/s 150 bytes/s 2.60 MB 0.52 MB 3.11 MB

same session From Portal
11-04-2010 02:03:39 PM 11-04-2010 02:23:58 PM 2615 461 3076 00:20:19 3076

^^ I'm quoting this to verify that both are reporting same values.

This is when I started my Pc(2PM) again on that day, so where did that 600MB come from.

My point is if you look at the usage from portal after 6:55 to 10:20 AM where 279649 is under night unlimited and 612624 was under billed data,
If I add these sessions then 279649+612624 = 892273 or 871.36 MB


Which is roughly the same amount in networx that I downloaded between 7-8 818.14 MB

Since networx reports hourly sessions,
the remaining ~50MB might have been downloaded between 6:55 to 7:00 And hence the difference. Adding that amount to networx data it now shows~870MB which is the same amount portal is showing between 6:55 to 10:20 AM i.e 892273KB or 871.36 MB

My point is they have considered the session between 6:55 AM to 10:20 AM as a single session, but in portal report they have just split the sessions exactly at 8:00AM which is suspicious an buggy.

 

[abhijangda]

I think there is a timing problem with BSNL server.
I remember when i changed my plan to 500C. I started downloading Fedora 10 in free 2-8 AM time. I started at nearly 2:03 AM and downloaded nearly 500 MB upto 3:00 AM. Next day when i checked my usage i see those 500 MB not in night unlimited. Timing in BSNL portal was 1:59 AM- 2:58 AM.
So there are issues with BSNL server.
Since then i starts my download at 2:15 AM. It's safe to do so.

 

[celldweller1591]

i had the same time problems , so i scheduled my downloads from 2:20 to 7:40 just playing safe !

 

[emmarbee]

I had this problem months ago. I turn off the modem/router at 7:59 A.M. Also I turn off and turn on (restart) the modem at 2:01 A.M.
I found the problem to be solved.
If you want to do this automatically, you have to sacrifice two features - the always on feature and the wifi feature. If so, you can set the router to bridging mode and use a dial up mode. (connect to)
free download manager will choose the default dial up connection and dial it up at 2:01 and hang up at 7:59. Your problem will be solved.

 

[Cool Buddy]

I had switched to 500C plan last year in January. Since the switch was made in the middle of the month, I was billed according to my old plan and had been billed for Rs. 30100. Well, I almost fainted when i saw the bill, I thought the movies and games i downloaded would cost me more than the originals. And it took a whole month to solve the issue, we got the correct bill only in mid-March. So i always play it safe. but there have been no errors since (think I'm quite lucky). I use a batch file to disconnect automatically at 7:58 using task scheduler.

 

[skeletor]

The old BSNL connections i.e. the 59.9x.x.x ones are the best. Never faced any sort of problem in my life related to Internet Bill with BSNL.

 

[neerajvohra]

This happens to me most of the times..check out the usage of 10th May..I got charged for 9am to 8pm..and then getting charged from 1:30pm, How can I be charged twice for the same time...Stupid Tata...and I'm still using the broadband from 2 years or so..My importance is getting 4mbps in night and 2mbps in daytime..for 9rs/hour in daytime and night 9pm to 9am unlimited..So I just let the poorer Tata Wimax to get some more money from me

*i792.photobucket.com/albums/yy206/neerajvohra/1.jpg

 

[paroh]

The problem is not only with BSNl but also with MTNL (Time Travel) lol

*img682.imageshack.us/i/timetravels.jpg/

*img682.imageshack.us/i/timetravels.jpg/
*img682.imageshack.us/i/timetravels.jpg/

---------- Post added at 06:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:46 PM ----------

*img682.imageshack.us/i/timetravels.jpg

---------- Post added at 06:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------

*img682.imageshack.us/i/timetravels.jpg/

 

[neerajvohra]

The problem is not only with BSNl but also with MTNL (Time Travel) lol

*img682.imageshack.us/i/timetravels.jpg/
*img682.imageshack.us/i/timetravels.jpg/

---------- Post added at 06:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:46 PM ----------

*img682.imageshack.us/i/timetravels.jpg

---------- Post added at 06:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------

*img682.imageshack.us/i/timetravels.jpg/

That means all the broadband providers and F***ing A**holes

 

[paroh]

There are lot of problem with the people having night unlimited broadband like i previously using night unlimited 12AM to 8AM (Unlimited) but i get shocked when i see that i login at 12:05AM and logout at 8:15AM. Actually i login at 12:01AM and logout at 7:59AM. But there is lot of gap between the actually time and the time at the mtnl side. So i change my plan to unlimited. I think people having night unlimited plan should file a RTI again this type of error as the fault is on there side and customer suffer.

My other experience as i am using normal adsl modem and there is a scheme on the mtnl site that if u apply for wifi adsl(During a specific period) modem u need not have to pay any security for wifi modem. i Apply for the wifi modem but they charge me Rs 800 Extra. I made a lot of complaint about this but in vain. So i launched a Public Grievance will the print out of the scheme and the faulty bill. After 2 Month i get a letter that ur Bill is rectified , and on my next bill they corrected the bill that is Rs 800 extra.

*www.dot.gov.in/pgcell.htm