Five broadband rip-offs!

We reveal how broadband providers routinely swindle their customers.

Here's a surprising (but true) statistic: one in five British adults (20%) have never sent an email before, according to recent research from BT. 

For the remaining 80% of us, broadband is an absolutely essential service, almost on par with our home phone or television. With Internet access, we can hunt for bargains, do our weekly shop from the sofa, and save a fortune on everything from flights to food. 

However, not all broadband providers offer a first-class service. As a result, broadband complaints to telecoms regulator Ofcom have risen steeply in recent years. In fact, ISPs (Internet Service Providers) recently got a big slap on the wrist for making exaggerated claims about their broadband services. 

What's more, shopping around for best-value broadband could save you as much as £20 a month, especially if you've not changed contracts for, say, three to five years. That's a saving of as much as £240 a year, every year. 

Five broadband swindles

Now let's find out how broadband providers routinely rip-off millions of users. Here are five scams to watch out for: 

1.     'Up to' speeds 

In all broadband adverts, the two most important words are 'Up to'. For example, an ad will confidently boast of 'Up to 10Mb download speed' -- no doubt with the 10Mb (per second) in very big letters and the 'Up to' in tiny type. 

Alas, for most customers, these maximum download speeds are nothing but a fairy tale. All too often, these alleged speeds are, at best, optimistic and theoretical and, at worst, unrealistic and misleading. 

For example, my father signed up to a new 'Up to 20Mb' broadband service earlier this year, only to find that his maximum download speed varied between 2Mb and 4Mb. Of course, he was less than happy to be consistently getting a mere 10% to 20% of the advertised speed. 

Hence, at the end of September, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) issued new guidelines on using 'Up to' in broadband advertising. This followed a review of speed claims by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). 

From 1 April 2012, any speed claims used in broadband advertising must be based on actual user experiences and be achieved by at least a tenth (10%) of customers. 

I'd go much further, as I believe that advertised speeds should reflect the actual experience of the majority of customers. Hence, I'd push for actual speeds based on 51% of all a provider's customers. This would help to kill off the mythical speed claims made by ISPs. 

Incidentally, hats off to Virgin Media for advertising speeds that at least 90% of its customers actually receive. I've just checked my Virgin fibre-optic broadband download speed and it was 9.65Mb against the advertised 10MB service. Full marks to Sir Richard Branson for a fair deal! 

Is your ISP ripping you off? Take this free broadband speed test to find out... 

2.     The 'unlimited' myth 

Another example of deceptive broadband advertising is what I call the 'unlimited' myth. Broadband providers love to shout about their unlimited services but, when you dig into the fine print, hidden limitations emerge. 

For example, some web users with 'unlimited' downloads have been charged or had their broadband service suspended for exceeding a limit which was not made obvious to them. Also, almost all broadband providers habitually use a traffic-management technique known as 'throttling' to curb download speeds for heavy users. 

Hence, the only truthful part of the word 'unlimited is the word 'limit'! 

Again, the ASA and CAP have issued new guidelines on such claims, warning that undue traffic management or charging for unlimited packages will be deemed misleading. Alas, like the revised guidelines mentioned above, this clampdown won't come into force until next April. 

3.     Download limits 

Some broadband services impose an upper limit on your total data usage each month, by combining your download and upload usage into a figure, measured in gigabytes (GB). Should you exceed this download limit, then additional data usage can be very expensive. 

For example, one of my previous ISPs would charge me £2 for every 2GB of data above my monthly limit of 10GB. As a result, I would often find an extra £6 added onto my £10 monthly bill. Fed up with paying these rip-off charges, I switched to a cheaper, faster service with award-winning broadband provider PlusNet. 

Since moving home in April, I've been with Virgin Media, buying a bundle (broadband, home phone and digital TV) to save even more money. Learn how you too can save a bundle with a bundle. 

4.     Auto-renewal of contracts 

We all know how capitalism works: new customers get the best deals, while loyal, existing customers get taken for a ride. 

This is very much the case with broadband, as sneaky ISPs railroad customers into new contacts by automatically renewing them as they expire. In effect, this underhand practice locks users into long-term, poor-value, uncompetitive deals. 

The good news is that, since 13 September, regulator Ofcom has banned the automatic renewal of contracts for home phone and broadband services. As a result, customers are no longer handcuffed to unattractive deals and can shop around for bargain broadband as their renewal dates approach. 

Hooray for this victory for common sense! 

5.     High monthly charges 

Lastly, 'consumer inertia' (alias 'laziness') means that millions of broadband customers have not price-checked their service for years. As a result, too many British households are paying rip-off monthly rates for what is frequently an inferior service. 

According to our award-winning partner, BroadbandChoices.co.uk, low-cost broadband is available from just £2.99 a month, which is within reach of even the tightest household budget. Hence, why pay, say, £20+ a month for decidedly average broadband, when you can save a fortune, or upgrade to a top-notch package for the same price? 

The best broadband compared 

Trust me, the only way to compare broadband packages is by using an Ofcom-accredited broadband comparison calculator, the finest of which is offered by BroadbandChoices.co.uk. This highly praised service takes the hassle out of comparing and switching broadband providers. 

In summary, never assume that your broadband provider is being trustworthy, open and honest with you. In this cut-throat market, anything goes, so make sure you're not paying over the odds when surfing! 

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