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Videotron Bills Montreal Student $1,800 in Overages: “Now My Broadband Bill = My Rent”

Phillip Dampier January 6, 2011 Audio, Canada, Data Caps, Editorial & Site News, Vidéotron 22 Comments

What would you do if your broadband bill was the same as your monthly rent?

That’s a question 21-year-old Notre Dame de Grace resident Amber Hunter has been dealing with since the neighbors began hacking their way into her wireless router, gaining access to her cable modem service from Videotron, Ltd., and running her bill into the next province.

It’s the predictable outcome of what happens when Internet Overcharging schemes gain traction, leaving ordinary consumers literally holding the bill.

Videotron sells usage limited broadband service across Quebec, but heavy users who routinely exceed their arbitrary usage caps knew there was a limit on the overlimit fees Videotron charged.

Not anymore.

Videotron left the usage caps on, but removed the limit on how much they can charge customers who exceed their monthly usage allowance.

Videotron sets prices like the OPEC of the Internet -- the sky is the limit

“The sky is the limit, or at least your bank account,” writes our Montreal reader Hei.  “The only thing unlimited with Videotron are the overlimit fees.”

Hunter had no idea she was being hacked.

“I had no idea what a gigabyte was, so when I started getting higher bills, I just assumed it was from watching TV shows online,” Hunter says.

Her boyfriend told her otherwise, making it clear it was impossible for her to be running up 350GB a month in usage just from watching a few movies and TV shows.

Since August, Hunter has accumulated more than $1,800 in broadband bills stemming from parties unknown who hacked their way into her wireless router and “borrowed” her Internet account.  Videotron itself is directly responsible for part of this debacle, encouraging Hunter to upgrade to a higher tier of service that upgraded her from a 30GB usage allowance to a 100GB usage allowance, with a major catch.

Hunter had become accustomed to paying her usual broadband bill plus the $50 maximum penalty charged for her “overuse.”  So a Videotron representative suggested a higher usage allowance plan might lower her bill.  But somehow, the Videotron customer service agent forgot to mention that the new plan no longer included a limit on overlimit charges.

When Amber switched plans, her broadband bill exploded.  Now the waitress hands over most of her weekly salary to Videotron.

“I’m a student, and I work at a bar, and now most of the money I have goes to pay my Internet bill,” Hunter told the Montreal Gazette. “It’s more than I pay for school and books, and I don’t have a lot of money left for food.”

She still owes the cable company $506 and they aren’t interested in providing her any service credits beyond the $313 they gave her a few months ago.

It took a Videotron help desk employee to finally unravel the mystery of the Internet Overcharges — someone was hacking into her wireless network.  Exactly who has been living their online life usage-limit free at Amber’s expense may never be known. Those living in apartment complexes and other multiple dwelling units can often find a dozen or more wireless connections, some password protected, others not.

Hunter’s wireless network was secured with a difficult to guess password using a four year old Linksys router.  Unfortunately, older routers often lack robust security and are easily hacked.

A handful of Canadian ISPs still offer unlimited broadband accounts.

As far as Videotron is concerned, it’s all Hunter’s fault — she should have understood what a gigabyte was, how many she was supposed to be using, what the security capabilities of her router were, that they were properly enabled, that she checked her usage on a daily basis looking for anomalies — investing her time, effort, and energy to stop the cable company before it billed her an enormous amount… again.

Speaking for Videotron, Isabelle Dessureault said, “It’s a case where Videotron showed some understanding and listened to what happened. We’re well-renowned in the industry for our technical support team. We credited her account for $313, but at a certain point, we need to share the responsibility. We don’t like these kind of situations.”

Videotron’s responsibility to their customers stopped where their profit margin began.  The company could have sent Amber a bill for the wholesale cost of her Internet usage, which she could have paid with a few of her bar tips.

Because Hunter’s broadband bills were now rivaling her monthly rent she decided to invest in her financial future, buying a new router and making sure the wireless was turned off.  Today she runs dozens of meters of Ethernet cable between all of her computers, just to keep the neighbors off her connection.

Although Videotron has become intractable, demanding Amber pay up, one of their competitors used the opportunity to score public relations points that Videotron sacrificed.

Jarred Miller, the president of the Internet Service Provider YOUMANO offered to cover all of Hunter’s overage fees amassed over the past year that also includes a free year of Internet service with his company, a generous offer Hunter will take.

YOUMANO is one of a handful of Canadian ISPs still offering unlimited Internet access, and do not think of themselves as the OPEC of the Internet.

The entire affair is a warning to Americans.  If you think Videotron is an Internet evildoer, imagine what Verizon, AT&T and Comcast could do to your bank account.  If they have their way, you’ll need to become intimately familiar with your router, the concept of a gigabyte, and take a class in “negotiating to win” when fighting over your future enormous broadband bills.

Listen to an interview with Amber Hunter. She appeared on this morning’s Daybreak on CBC Radio Montreal to discuss her experience with Videotron Internet Overcharging. (8 minutes)
You must remain on this page to hear the clip, or you can download the clip and listen later.

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jr
jr
13 years ago

This is racketeering

D
D
10 years ago
Reply to  jr

You are all missing the point here….

Videotron sucks huge dick and shouldn’t have bandwidth caps, this practice is draconian and only happens in NA, trust me, go have a look at Australia, EU and you will see that they don’t have bandwidth caps….

F*** videotron and go with an isp that doesn’t’ have caps on bandwidth or anything else…

Larry
Larry
13 years ago

$1,800 Canadian? That’s nothing, wait until the Canadian equivalent/branch of the RIAA gets her name and address from Videotron for all those songs her neighbor was sharing. That will teach her to get an Internet connection without being an expert in network security.

/sarcasm

Ben
Ben
13 years ago

UGH – Ok, first off it’s a ROUTER, not a ROOTER. What happened here is likely that this woman had either an unsecured connection or a WEP (easily hacked) passphrase. The cable company should be responsible for her not using due diligence to secure her connection.

mfd141
mfd141
13 years ago

The best way to secure a wireless router is to use the MAC address filter, most routers have this ability. The only way someone can access my wireless router is if I add there MAC address to filter. A friend of mine, a very smart software engineer, could not hack into my wireless router because of the MAC filter I set up.

Ian M.
Ian M.
13 years ago
Reply to  mfd141

Don’t forgot WPA-AES or WPA2-AES as well. Mac address filtering + those = bulletproof.

Larry
Larry
13 years ago
Reply to  Ian M.

Nothing is bulletproof. If someone wants to hack your wi-fi router, and has enough time, skill, and determination, they will get in. However, unless they’re targeting you for some special reason, the more road blocks you put in place the less likely they are to try. If they are just after connectivity, which are they more likely to try to hack first: your WPA2-PSK + Mac Address Filter or that WEP connection that’s within range? Just don’t be the low hanging fruit, and you’re less likely to get hacked.

Janesa
Janesa
12 years ago
Reply to  Ian M.

I’m impressed by your writing. Are you a professional or just very knowledgeable?

Smith6612
Smith6612
13 years ago
Reply to  mfd141

While it might have stopped him from getting in, I can say that if I were to in fact run a packet sniffer on any wireless signal that I could pick up with a laptop, I could have obtained your MAC Address and spoofed it, giving me access to the network. That is, unless you were using Encryption (WPA2-PSK AES) as well, then that makes it more difficult to do.

Alex Perrier
Alex Perrier
13 years ago

Bell’s new routers uses WEP by default, which is BROKEN security! My friends have the new router. They changed absolutely no settings, not even the router’s name!

So, if someone broke into their insecure router, it’s my friend’s fault?

That doesn’t make any sense! Enable WPA by default, greedy beavers! No wonder Bell is so rich!

Ben
Ben
13 years ago
Reply to  Alex Perrier

Yes, it’s your friends fault for not securing the network.

RaptorZX3
RaptorZX3
13 years ago

that’s exactly why i left Videotron. I was a long-time customer with them. I had the standard High Speed internet with them, 7mbps, with an “overcharge” limit of 30$, then after years of being with them, it raised to 50$, then i decided to switch to Extreme High Speed with them which was UNLIMITED at the time, but then they switched to 100gb combined LIMITED (that mean it combine both downloads and uploads usage, meaning it can be 80gb download and 20gb upload), and NO LIMIT of charging per Gb, which is 1.50$ per Gb, so if you download 200gb… Read more »

Adam
Adam
12 years ago

Videotron user’s can check their internet usage on the company web page. Also, customers can call technical support if they need help setting up their router, and yes the reps do encourage adding security (wpa). The problem is most router’s come with open security by default, so its not Videotron’s fault if this woman is unable to setup third party equipment correctly. There is no excuse for ignorance and stupidity.

lewis
lewis
10 years ago
Reply to  Adam

Videotron is selling a technical product to a lay market.
At the very least they should have warning emails sent out when customer’s usage behaviour seems unusual.
Why should they, when they can sit back, wring their hands, and watch the billings go up.

There’s a difference between claiming no responsibility, and acting ethically!

Lewis

lewis
lewis
10 years ago

I am about to enter a battle with videotron on the same issue. I am not sure how yet, but over a 10 day period my modem was uploading at about 80gb a day. I have a 150gb cap. My overage will be in the 1500 range when all is said and done. They hold me responsible and don’t feel they had any need to inform me when I exceeded my monthly limit in 2 days. What a great business. Credit card companies inform you! Even Rogers, when my wife accidentally used internet on her mobile on, and ran up… Read more »

Joshua
Joshua
10 years ago
Reply to  lewis

Hey Lewis, I’m dealing with the same issue ($3366 for a monthly bill!) so I’d appreciate hearing how your battle went, what ended up happening, and if it’s still unresolved.

Thanks,
Joshua

punki
punki
9 years ago

Hi guys, I’m exactly in the same situation (also with almost $3000), any feedback will be really appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott
Scott
9 years ago

Personally I’d refuse to pay, there’s no way that’s actual usage.

punki
punki
9 years ago
Reply to  Scott

Thanks Scott, unfortunately mine is already paid…

Scott
Scott
9 years ago
Reply to  punki

Not good, that takes away all your leverage in the situation. If you’re holding the money you can work through the BBB or try and negotiate with the company for a resolution which I had to do once to get a metered billing credited in full. If you’re really determined you can try to get your local attorney generals office involved and complain about the business practices and fraudulent metering, sometimes making them more amiable to crediting you if its taken seriously. If it was paid by credit card even a month or two ago you can dispute it through… Read more »

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