How can companies legally sell a service advertised as unlimited and then apply limits to it?

I recently get myself option3 BT broadband because it was unlimited….UNLIMITED! But since it was activated I have noticed around the 3:30 mark my internet becomes really slow and if I am using torrents they fall from 600kbps to 0.2kbps each.

Obviously I thought, this cant be my service, I will restart my router. No luck. Must be the seeders but all 6 of the downloads had falled to barely nothing. So I decided to go to the BT website to check out in more detail my “Unlimited” plan.

To cut a long story short, the service is limited during peak hours…how can you sell something that is unlimited and then put a limit on it during busy times? Surely that isn’t right?

Well the Guardian agree with me as do channel 5ive’s Gadget show, infact they successfully convinced Sky to remove any limits on their unlimited services so clearly the ISP realise they are having a laugh.

If I could of would use Sky, but I can’t so I’m gonna complain my balls off to BT until they change their policy -  also, if this annoys you, you can contact your ISP to complain in the following ways:

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS

NAME TEL ## E-Mail Postal Address
ADSL4Less 0871 240 1499 (option 5) send e-mail 24 Chiswell Street, London,EC1Y 4TY
Be 0808 101 3430 send e-mail Be House, 62 Lancaster Mews, London, W2 3QG
BT Broadband 0800 800 150 Contact form BT PLC, Correspondance Centre, Durham, DH98 1BT
Demon 0141 567 1783(option 4) send e-mail Thus Plc, Gateway House, 322 Regent’s Park Road, London, N3 2QQ
EFH Broadband 0808 156 4776 send e-mail EFH Broadband, 195 North Street, Leeds, LS 2AA
Homechoice (now Tiscali) 0871 222 3311 (Option 2, 2) send e-mail Tiscali UK Ltd, PO Box 14505, Birmingham, B46 1BF
O2 Broadband 0800 230 0202 send e-mail O2 Complaint Review Service, PO Box 116, Leeds, LS11 5DS
Orange Broadband 0800 980 1492 Contact form Orange UK Plc, PO Box 486, Rotherham, S63 5ZX
Pipex 0800 458 7000 send e-mail Pipex Home Call LTD, Complaints Department, Christie Fields, Derwent Avenue, Manchester, M21 7QS
Post Office 02871 304 703 send e-mail Post Office Telecoms Services, Bridge Court, The Close, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 3BA
Tiscali 0800 975 3030 (option 4) send e-mail Tiscali UK Ltd, PO Box 14505, Birmingham, B46 1BF
UK Online 0800 053 0606 (option 3) send e-mail UK Online,The Maltings, Charlton Road, Shepston Mallet Sommerset, BA4 5QE
Utility Warehouse 0208 955 5000 send e-mail Utility Warehouse, Edge Business Centre, Dryden House, Humber Road, London, NW2 6EW
Virgin Media (Non-Cable only) 0800 052 0459 Contact form Virgin Media, PO Box 333, Matrix Court, Swansea, SA7 9ZJ
Vodafone Home Broadband 0808 0000166 send e-mail Customer Correspondance, Vodafone Lts, PO Box 549, Banbury, Oxon, OX17 3JZ

Whilst every effort has been made to include all the ISPs which offer “unlimited” packages in this list, please contact us at thegadgetshow@five.tv if your service provider does appear here.

Write to your ISP

Dear [insert name of your ISP],

I am writing to complain about your use of the term “unlimited” when advertising your uncapped broadband service.

Your terms and conditions warn your customers that you have the right to restrict this uncapped service in some way if the amount of data being downloaded is deemed to be unfair, or excessive.

However, I believe this is wrong. If you are advertising uncapped or “unlimited” downloads then your customers should be getting exactly that – unlimited downloads, without restriction.

I am writing to demand that you remove the policy you have in place restricting the amount of data a customer can download on your uncapped data plan to more accurately reflect what you advertise.

I would appreciate a reply and an explanation of what action you intend to take.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]

It’s fucking bullshit you pay for an unlimited service and they don’t give it. Go complain now.