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In the weeks immediately following the Haiti earthquake, Verizon and AT&T offered free calls to Haiti as a goodwill gesture to people in the U.S. with family and friends over there. The offers weren't identical, though, and Verizon was only offering free calls made to Haiti, not the reverse. Spc. James Crawford kept calling his pregnant wife each day from his station in Port-au-Prince, and now they have a phone bill for $1,919.44. More »
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UPDATE: Took Matter Into Own Hands After RoboCaller Spoofed Cell More »
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Gina Cain
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AT&T online customer service reps have apparently changed their tune since we first reported yesterday that they were telling potential iPhone buyers that New York "is not ready for the iPhone." The current line: "Due to increased fraudulent activity, the Apple iPhone may not be available to purchase online in certain ZIP codes." There's just one problem: It seems pretty unlikely. More »
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Update: New York customers are now able to order iPhones via AT&T's Web site. It would appear that the company has once more modified its "promotions and distribution channels." We've requested a statement from AT&T, and will update this post if and when we receive it. More »
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Reanimated corpse of Luke Wilson
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—>As a whimsical follow-up to AT&T's lawsuit concerning their "There's a map for that" ads, Verizon Wireless released their Christmas-themed set of AT&T/iPhone bashing ads today. They're harsh, but also pretty funny. More »
—>Codenamed "Project Dark," Tmobile has launched a $79.99 unlimited plan with no annual contract. More »
—>In the net neutrality debate, there are a surprising number of grassroots organizations (well, surprising to me at any rate) that have filed statements against the FCC's recent draft of rules. Matthew Lasar at Ars Technica just published an interesting article where he looks at some of these groups and tries to figure out whether AT&T is secretly influencing them, or whether they really do think net neutrality will hurt those they represent—frequently minority groups—in the long run. More »
—>Do you want to get rid of the data plan for your AT&T smartphone, but missed the September 6th deadline? You now have a second chance. The deadline to drop your plan has been extended until October 31st. More »
—>A reader sent us a letter that AT&T sent to its employees asking them to tell the FCC they oppose net neutrality. This comes after the FCC announced plans to investigate and enact net neutrality rules that will ensure that internet service providers (like AT&T) treat all content equally. The letter and a rebuttal are inside. More »
—>AT&T put a press release out today about a new plan they're introducing on Monday, billed as a $60/month unlimited voice and text prepaid plan. While this plan is more competitive with smaller, prepaid-only carriers such as Boost Mobile, it's also significantly cheaper than similar regular plan options. So what are they thinking? More »
—>Justin says he has done something that many iPhone users have discussed, but haven't been able to accomplish. He claims that AT&T let him drop the voice plan from his account, and plans to use VoIP in order to make any voice calls he needs. Is this even possible? Is it a good idea? More »
—>If you've been waiting for a chance to use Skype on your iPhone over AT&T's network to save on international calls or supplement your calling plan's minutes, your day has come. After a little nudge from the FCC, the company has reversed its ban on VOIP apps on its data network, and will now let you Skype away until you run out of people to call or things to say. More »
—>AT&T loves your money and will not give up that money no matter what, even if it means making you waste nearly an hour of an AT&T employee's time, which surely must be worth more than three dollars. We guess it's the principal; as long as AT&T refuses to admit they've got problems, the problems don't exist. More »
—>Hey AT&T, maybe you should offer some sort of congestion pricing on your iPhone plans in places like New York City. We've heard/read all sorts of anecdotal reports on dropped calls before, but today Engadget reported that an Apple Genius said a 30% drop call rate is average for the area. If that's true, it seems like false advertising to charge for a full-time calling plan that you can only use about two-thirds of the time. More »
—>Richard is annoyed at AT&T. Due to what we will optimistically call a mixup, he didn't exactly get the DSL service he ordered and was paying for. While he has straightened things out with the company, he wants to keep other customers in his area from having the same experience. More »
—>On Friday, AT&T filed a letter with the FCC accusing Google Voice of violating network neutrality principles. Google Voice doesn't work with certain numbers that AT&T, as an old-fashioned landline and mobile provider, does. More »
—>Wow - just got another robocall from AT&T telling me that it was an important message and that I should call them. Either something is wrong with my account that yesterday's CSR couldn't figure out, or something is wrong with AT&T. Either way, annoying. More »
—>AT&T has called me repeatedly over the past few weeks and months for some mysterious reason. More »
—>It's no secret that AT&T's cell network sucks (and, yes, that is the scientific term for the state of the company's infrastructure). Fortunately, AT&T has come up with a solution to dead zones and overtaxed circuits: The AT&T 3G MicroCell, a router-like device that will let you experience the magic of using your mobile phone in your very own home! Of course, magic doesn't come free — or cheap. AT&T is testing the MicroCell now, and is charging subscribers $150 for the box, plus $20 a month for the magic of, you know, using your own freaking phone in your own damn home. More »
—>The FCC today proposed new rules to protect and preserve "net neutrality," the idea that ISPs must treat all users the same and not prejudice against different types of customers. In a speech, Chairman Julius Genachowski supported adopting the "Four Freedoms" first articulated by the FCC in 2004 (PDF) not just as principles but as formal rules, and adding two more: "non-discrimination" and "transparency." The big networks are, naturally, incensed. More »
—>Reports are showing up online that AT&T is beginning a slow rollout of official MMS functionality to seemingly random iPhone users, from Manhattan to Idaho. The official start date is September 25, but it makes sense that the company would implement the change gradually to make sure the network can handle it. More »
—>If you're a Sprint customer using the company's Everything Data Plan, you can now call any mobile phone on any network without using up any of your plan minutes. Good news? If you're on the carrier's $70 a month plan, which has 450 included minutes along with unlimited data service, it could be — if you don't roam into areas where there's no Sprint coverage (where the meter will start running) and if you have a lot of regular contacts on other cell networks. More »
—>MMS is finally coming to the iPhone in two and a half weeks! Yaaay! Wait, iPhone users, why are you still sad? What's wrong? What are you doing with that AT&T voodoo doll? More »
—>If you have a WinMo smartphone, you're in luck. (Wow, I never thought I'd be typing that.) Starting September 14th, AT&T will open up its approximately 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to Windows Mobile customers with "qualifying plans." According to AT&T, that should mean most WinMo customers as "most [already] have a qualifying data plan." More »
—>Here's a lovely story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A unnamed 75-year-old widow says AT&T called her to offer their new U-Verse service with bundled TV, Internet and phone. She signed up, only to receive a phone call letting her know that the TV service wasn't available in her area yet, but would she like to sign up with DirecTV instead? She agreed, but DirecTV started doublebilling her as soon as her service started. After a few months of the runaround from DirecTV she called to cancel. More »
—>Bad news, smartphone-owning AT&T customers. Starting September 6, customers will not be permitted to use a smartphone on the network without purchasing a smartphone data plan. Exceptions: unlocked phones and customers who currently have a smartphone (think Blackberry or Palm) but use a non-smartphone data plan. More »
—>Apparently, Apple didn't reject the Google Voice application for iPhone. They "[continue] to study it." Yesterday, Apple, AT&T, and Google all turned in their responses to the FCC's questions as part of the investigation into the bannination of Google Voice from the iPhone App Store. More »
—>No matter how awesome the iPhone is at multimedia, gaming, or taking money out of your wallet and mailing it to AT&T and Apple, it still doesn't let you use multimedia messaging service (MMS)—you know, that thing where you send a photo to a friend over text message. Earlier this year AT&T finally said it would happen by the end of summer, but now a group of customers in Louisiana are tired of waiting. More »
—>Hey, AT&T customers: be very, very careful when dialing three-digit numbers. If you're trying to dial, say, 211 or 311 (local government information), 611 (AT&T Wireless customer service) or 711 (TTY relay), and you dial 411 for directory assistance by mistake, you'll be charged for it even if you realize the mistake and hang up immediately. And you'll need to live with the consequences of your error, since, according to reader Stephen, AT&T will not refund these charges. More »
—>A new survey from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) compared annual costs around the world for consumers who have cellphones, and the U.S. is in the top three for most expensive. How expensive? DSLReports notes that "on average, the OECD found that Americans pay $635.85 on cell phone service, compared to $131.44 per year in the Netherlands or $137.94 per year in Sweden." More »
—>Apple may not feel like you're ready to take advantage of Google Voice, but luckily Jobs and his legion can't lock you out of every potential way to access the service. (Yet.) Here are three paths to GV you can use today, no permission needed from the Applelord. More »
—>There's been a lot of talk online the past week about extending the principal of network neutrality to wireless networks, which may be partly why the FCC has asked Apple, Google, and AT&T to answer some questions about the rejected Google Voice iPhone app. Todd Barr at Bandwidth.com thinks that the reason may actually have to do with the concept of number portability. More »
—>Fearing his identity would be stolen, Mike put out a fraud alert on his credit report to insure he'd be contacted whenever new credit applications went out under his name. The move paid off because someone snagged his social security number and tried to open accounts with AT&T and Sprint. More »
—>Last week we wrote that AT&T charged Spoco's Amex card twice for the same payment, but their CSRs refused to investigate the issue for him. After we posted his story, AT&T took notice and reversed the charge. That raises the question these stories always raise, which is, "How do I get the same result if my problem isn't published on Consumerist?" More »
—>The person who blogs at MichiganTelephone just tried to help his friend sign up for DSL from AT&T last week. Their experience was so full of fail that now his friend doesn't even want to bother trying anymore. Yes, a customer came to AT&T ready to sign up, and AT&T drove him away. Michigan telephone wonders, "Does AT&T have a death wish, or are they really just that incompetent?" More »
—>David Pogue's continuing crusade against useless voicemail instructions knocked loose an excellent suggestion for anyone willing to re-record their voicemail greeting. Too often the standard voicemail greeting is: "Hi, you've reached so-and-so. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you." Why not make it more useful, something like: "Hi, you've reached so-and-so. Please press star (or whichever command applies to your carrier) to leave a message." More »
—>Apple (and AT&T) may have finally pushed too far with this week's rejection of the Google Voice App from the iPhone App Store, for no reason other than it "duplicated functionality" already offered—for a price—by AT&T. According to mocoNews, the FCC has asked Apple and AT&T to provide answers about how apps are approved, why they're denied, and particularly how much say AT&T has over things iPhone-related. More »
—>Apple's not through with their blitz against jailbreaking, with this newly updated support doc that says, among other things, that the recent Visual Voicemail outages from AT&T were caused by—and happened to—hacked iPhones. More »
—>Here's the secret codes for skipping long-ass cellphone voicemail intros that cellphone companies don't want you to know about: Just remember "one star pound." More »
—>We think AT&T just stole about $157 from commenter Spoco. They applied the payment as always via his Amex card, but then said that it was declined and auto-debited it a second time a month later (+ late fees, of course). The only problem is, it wasn't declined, and Spoco has proof. He just can't get anyone at AT&T to care. More »
AT&T users in parts of the Northeast and Midwest had a massive mobile data outage (both 3G and EDGE) this morning. Voice reception was not affected. One user reported receiving a $25 credit after calling AT&T to find out what was going on, so it may not hurt to ask. [Business Insider] More »
—>The new ebook offering from Barnes & Noble may not be that compelling—it's all the DRM badness of Amazon, but not always the lower prices—and yet something awesome has come out of it. Starting immediately, all customers can access free Wi-Fi in any B&N store. More »
—>You can download a mobile Google Voice application for Blackberry or Android, but not for the iPhone. Apple rejected Google's official application, and has been removing other apps using Google Voice functionality from the App Store. Now, why would they do such a thing? You know the answer. AT&T told them to. More »
—>Reader "ValentineHumphrey" has a part-time job with a company that gets a 25% discount from AT&T. It sounded like a good deal until she found out there was actually a fee for signing up for the discount. What? More »
—>AT&T released a statement about their temporary blocking this weekend of troll haven 4chan for its customers. The company said the temporary block was to stop DDos attacks on one customer emanating from IP addresses associated with the site. After the threat was over, the block was lifted. Here's the official release: More »
—>UPDATE: AT&T has a statement. They said the temporary block was to stop DDos attacks from IP addresses associated with img.4chan.org. After the threat was over, they lifted the block. More »
—>Oh jeez, AT&T, don't you have enough on your plate? You can't handle your iPhone customers as it is. TechCrunch says some customers' voicemails go missing for days or even weeks, you can't enable MMS because there's no room for it on your system, and the "faster" 3GS isn't any faster at all on your network. Now comes word that you'll be the one providing so-called "connectitivty" for Barnes & Noble's new ebook reader coming out next year. The result: more congestion for every AT&T customer. More »
—>Verizon announced it will limit handset exclusivity deals to 6 months, a bow to pleas by small wireless carriers, and in advance of possible Department of Justice action on its inquiries on the one-carrier deals for the iPhone, Pre and LG Voyager. In its announcement, Verizon noted 24 rural carriers had asked it to limit these anti-competitive deals. Yes, apparently there are that many small carriers still left. More »
—>A Consumerist reader has pretty much reached the limit of poor AT&T customer and technical service over his shoddy Elite DSL account, which for two years now drops to speeds of around 10k every four months. Check out this letter and included chat log for some stunning examples of all the ways AT&T fails at providing a service it charges lots of money for. More »
—>I cancelled an iPhone within the 30 days buyer's remorse period recently and learned something interesting. Before AT&T will let people who bought their iPhones from Apple cancel service, they want you to return the phone first. They also want proof it was returned. They also want you to print out this proof and take it physically to an AT&T store and show it to them. Returning the phone, I have no problem with. But trekking out to a store to show someone in person a printout of an email?Madness. More »
—>For as long as there have been iPhones, there's been the requirement to sign up for AT&T service. And as long as that requirement has been around, there have been hackers who release downloads that unlock your phones and free them to access other services. More »
—>Not content to let the RIAA get all the recent publicity for stupid lawsuits, ASCAP has sued AT&T over sales of ringtones, saying each time a ringtone plays it's a public performance and royalties should be paid. Luckily (?) for consumers, ASCAP wants AT&T, not individuals, to pay—although we wonder what they'll say when you take a track from your own library and make a ringtone out of it. More »
—>An exciting new policy change took effect last week at AT&T Wireless. Have you recently started a new job, or joined a group that provides discounts on your cell phone service? Guess what? You get to pay a $36 fee per line in order to get your discount! More »
—>For as long as there's been mobile Internet, there have been outrageous roaming charges for using mobile Internet abroad. Now, people affected by this issue have a celebrity spokesman: Adam Savage of "Mythbusters" fame. More »
—>On Saturday, Kevin lost his iPhone in a bar in Chicago, and by lost we mean someone grabbed it within seconds of him leaving the bar, but no one had seen a thing when he ran back in to ask about it. Since he had the Find My iPhone service activated on it, and his friend had a Sprint 3G dongle on his laptop, they decided to see whether they could track it down. AT&T and Sprint: working together to fight crime! More »
—>How are Apple Stores doing with the much-anticipated iPhone 3G S launch? Apple fan on the ground Joseph reserved his phone online, queued up outside of his nearest Apple Store this morning at 6:30, and... hit a snag, since his reservation apparently isn't a reservation. More »
—>Bill thinks that AT&T might have a message for him. "Here is a rather unfortunate captcha I received tonight when I logged in to AT&T Wireless to check on the shipping status of my new iPhone 3GS," he wrote. AT&T, do you serve captchas to your mother with that mouth? More »
In preparation for the phone's launch on Friday, AT&T wrote today: "We've been listening to our customers. And since many of our iPhone 3G customers are early adopters and literally weeks shy of being upgrade eligible due to iPhone 3G S launching 11 months after iPhone 3G, we're extending the window of upgrade eligibility for a limited time." More »
"This is a recommendation," the technical support person told me. "If you decide not to go, it's okay but we're informing customers that service will not be up to par." More »
—>For a while now, there have been rumors and speculation that AT&T was considering reducing its data plan by $10 per month in an attempt to be more competitive with other carriers. Today AT&T officially put the kibosh on that scuttlebutt, which is how I write once the cocktail hour kicks in on Friday. Says an AT&T spokesman, "We've been very happy with our pricing." More »
—>It's become clear since the release of the iPhone 3G S that most iPhone owners hate AT&T. A lot. Why is that, exactly? PC World has the answer. More »
—>Arnie and his wife have a fever, and the only cure is more iPhones. A shiny new iPhone 3G S to replace the clunky old 3G iPhones they've been forced to use, to be precise. Frustrated that the cell phone business insists on subsidizing the gadgets by only offering a sane price to new customers, or customers willing to upgrade, Arnie called AT&T. That's when he stumbled on a solution that's almost hilarious in its simplicity. More »
—>Apple fans around the country are foaming at the mouths over the jacked-up pricing AT&T has announced for the upgraded iPhone. AT&T apparently can't afford to subsidize the phones for existing customers, because if you currently have an iPhone and more than 6 months left on your contract, you'll have to pay $417-$517 for the newer model (that includes an $18 "upgrade" fee). More »
—>If you're managing cellphones for a family or your parents, or let's say hypothetically you have a boyfriend who says he reads Consumerist but really he doesn't or else he would have known better, you'll probably run into stupid subscription and content fees from time to time. You know how people are when it comes to fake "free" offers. More »
—>Rouzbeh has tried six times to sign up for AT&T's U-verse service, but each time AT&T cancels his installation request because they don't believe his apartment exists. Nevermind the small details like the DSL service AT&T provides him, or the $287 bill they insisted he pay after they accidentally sent two modems to his apartment along with a charge for three months of service. More »
—>Say you got a problem with your cellphone company and you want it solved, pronto. You've already called regular customer service and they're either unable or unwilling to help you, or you're just sick of waiting on hold. You've got things to do! That's where executive customer service comes in handy. Just about every big company has a pack of these people who can basically walk on water within the company and get any problem solved. The key is reaching them. Naturally, you won't find them in an overseas call center at the end of the 1-800 number. Rather, they're attached to the corporate headquarters executive offices. Don't worry, we did the hard part for you. Here's up-to-date phone numbers for the executive customer service departments for Sprint, Verizon, T-mobile, and AT&T: More »
—>Chris was surprised to find that T-Mobile didn't cancel his account as promised a few months ago. What's worse, the note on his account that mentioned his cancellation request was missing, and nobody at customer service would help him. Chri works for a "very large consumer electronics company" that he won't name (we're pretty sure it's Apple) and thinks customer service is important, so he gave up on the CSR angle and instead came to our site to find contact info for T-Mobile executives. One EECB later, Chris is free from T-Mobile and the ETF they tried to apply. More »
All the outrage over Sling Media's iPhone app—which would have only worked with the latest Slingbox models—may have been moot. Boy Genius Report says they've received a tip that AT&T asked Apple to kill the app due to concerns about potential bandwidth drain. Update: JosephFinn points out that the tip is likely fake, as the IP address came from a prison. [IntoMobile] More »
—>The iPhone blog says that AT&T is going to start contacting iPhone owners who aren't using an official iPhone data plan and force them to sign up for one. The crackdown supposedly starts tomorrow in the Atlanta and Austin markets, and expands nationwide by the end of the month. More »
—>The death star vs a bankrupt, liquidated retailer in its final year of eligibility? Who makes you angry? More »
—>Claire was told the wrong thing by an AT&T Wireless rep regarding international long distance, but when she called back to sort things out, she came up against the Nurse Ratched of the AT&T call center—a woman who refused to give in, or offer any help at all. In fact, when Claire finally admitted defeat and said she'd accept the credit that had been offered to her, the supervisor refused. Apparently Claire only had one chance to accept that and since she said no, it was off the table. More »
—>Jeff canceled one of the two lines on his AT&T Mobility family plan, and on his next bill he noticed the remaining line had been charged for mobile-to-mobile calls on the AT&T network—even though those minutes are supposed to be free. More »
—>AT&T has announced that starting next week, it will sell the iPhone 3G to current AT&T customers sans 2-year contract, possibly in an attempt to move inventory. Unfortunately, the conditions of the sale are such that it's not worth it unless you're determined to own a brand new, out-of-warranty (i.e. jailbroken) iPhone 3G that you intend to use on another network. (Note: our readers point out that even that route is far cheaper if you buy with contract and pay the ETF.) Otherwise, you'll still be locked to AT&T and you'll still have to buy the more expensive smartphone data plan, which doesn't include text messaging. For no-contract bragging rights, you'll have to pay $600 or $700 depending on the model. More »
—>You know those car warranty robocallers calling your cellphone? Of course you do, you hate them. This how reader Eyebrow McGee deals with them, and gets to have a little laugh at the same time: More »
—>She must have calluses on her thumbs. Teenager Reina Hardesty racked up 14,528 text messages on her parent's AT&T bill last month. She say's she basically just texting back and forth with four of her friends all day long. Thanks goodness for unlimited text-messaging plans, otherwise it would have cost $2,905.60. Guess for a teenage text insurance policy, $30 is worth it. Reina's parents have since set a limit of no texting after dinner. Good luck enforcing that. More »
—>Ronny can't buy a new iPhone for the next 18 months, even though he's willing to fork over $499 for an unsubsidized model. Ronny swapped his original 8 GB iPhone for a 16 GB version within his first month of service, but recently lost the phone. Now, both Apple and AT&T are telling him that he's a jailbreaker and he can't have a new phone for 18 months—unless he's willing to get a new phone number. More »
—>We've been getting a lot of emails from people saying that a company is using a robocaller to call their cellphones and pretend that their car warranty is expiring. Too bad that some of these readers don't even have a car. Has happened to you? Do you know who is behind it? More »
—>A woman in Oklahoma bought a 3G netbook from RadioShack for $100, subsidized by a two-year data plan from AT&T Mobility. That plan comes with a 5GB monthly data cap, which she exceeded, and as a result her first monthly bill was over $5,000. Now the two companies are facing a class action lawsuit that alleges they are not clearly disclosing to purchasers that overage fees could be "astronomical." More »
—>Wayne has an AT&T wireless card that he uses in combination with his Slingbox to watch TV while he travels. It's normally a good system, but he recently got a shockingly huge bill after watching about 2 1/2 hours of a Bears game while waiting for his cruise to depart Miami. More »
—>Naked (or "dry loop") DSL is generally considered wonderful, especially among people who haven't had a landline since, um, wait... oh yeah, never. But it seems that although AT&T was forced to offer it by the FCC as part of their merger with Cingular, they haven't yet realized that it's a product that they sell. Reader Brent just wanted to cancel, but AT&T said no. And then they said yes. And then they told him he never tried to cancel. And then they sent his account to collections... More »
—>A little over a month ago, Mark gave up on his GoPhone SIM, went into an AT&T store with his iPhone 2G in hand, and signed up for a new two year, post-paid plan. The sales rep promised Mark that his corporate discount would apply, and instead of a contract presented just a receipt. Now AT&T is saying there's no corporate discount on an iPhone purchase—even though he didn't buy an iPhone, just the service plan—and that he can't cancel now without paying an ETF because it's past the 30 day mark. More »
—>This is like one of those ghost stories where the hero joins up with a fellow traveler, and then at the end of his journey discovers that his travel companion never existed. Oooooo! Only it's about AT&T, so instead of being spooky it's just annoying. Especially the part at the end where he receives a bill. More »
—>You know those annoying robocalls on your mobile phone about renewing your car warranty? The companies behind the calls use spoofing to remain hidden, but AT&T Mobility just filed suit in federal court to track down the culprits, then hopefully make them stop. This is great news, because judging from the quotes given to RCR Wireless, the FTC and FCC both don't seem too concerned about the matter. More »
—>Reader Dan says he was walking home last night and got robbed at gunpoint, losing his iPhone, which he only got five days ago, in the process. He asks, "Any tips from you or readers? Can it be tracked using the onboard gps? This STINKS!" More »
—>The number of people gunning for some Apple/AT&T cash keeps increasing, with three new class action lawsuits filed over the past 8 days alone. In all three suits, the primary complaint is the same: that AT&T Mobility's 3G network isn't robust enough to deliver the type of experience promised by iPhone marketing. More »
—>Ralph discovered a mysterious $18 charge on his most recent AT&T bill. A little research turned up OSP Communications, which is apparently a front for a fraudulent biller that has repeatedly hit AT&T customers with a cramming fraud. Read Ralph's email below, and be sure to check your own phone bill for charges like this each month. More »
—> Google has decided to throw its weight around when it comes to Net Neutrality; the search giant announced a plan to let end users see what their Internet Service Providers do with their bandwidth. What does this matter to you, the aforementioned end user? Inquire inside. More »
—>No, we didn't accidentally republish yesterday's post. This is another story of a "new" iPhone with someone else's email address, and this time there appears to be no simple explanation for it—the address on the phone belonged to a man who lived on the other side of the country and used a Blackberry. More »
—>It's bad enough that Victor and his friends were scammed by this AT&T store in Brooklyn, but AT&T has basically told him that they can't help fix the problem, even though he's now in another town. Update: Eugene Pikulin says this could have happened innocently when the phone was activated in-store. More »
Rumor confirmed: AT&T has indeed dropped the price of its unlimited data and messaging plan by $5—the new cost is $30/mo, and $10/mo to add a second phone under their shared family plan. Unless you plan on texting more than 200 messages a month, however, it's not worth it (you can get unlimited data + 200 messages for $20). [Engadget Mobile] More »
—>Here's 2 numbers to reach escalate an AT&T residential problem that regular customer service can't or won't fix: 404-362-0021, 866-232-9733. (Photo: genetic.drift) More »
—>AT&T spammed a "'significant number' of its 75 million customers" yesterday with text messages advertising the premiere of American Idol. AT&T also pissed off a significant number of its 75 million customers in the process, and the company's justification for the blitz isn't exactly making AT&T sound smart when it comes to understanding what qualifies as spam. More »
—>Even a TV producer with 5 years experience in doing consumer complaint stories is powerless against AT&T's incompetence. Anderson writes: More »
—>AT&T is encouraging its customers to upgrade to the faster 3G network—by downgrading their older EDGE service. More »
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Tipster David sends us that U-Verse customers are going to see a $5 spike in costs at the start of February. AT&T has yet to explain why, so I'm assuming it is Sith-related. More »
Academic and New York Times blogger Stanley Fish kicks off nominations for Worst Company in America 2009 with his account of frustrations—both consumer and grammatical—with AT&T. More »
—>Whose problem is it when your iPhone needs to be activated? Nobody seems to know. It is a mystery. More »
—>Wanna know why your call to customer service went so poorly? Maybe because it was routed to an outsourced call center run by Teleperformance USA where, according to an insider, customer service goes to die... More »
Does Comcast love Obama? Or do they just really, really, really hate FCC Chairman Kevin Martin? [DSL Reports] More »
—>Inside, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses for over 100 different companies to inject your customer service complaints into their corporate executive offices, and get it well on the way to success. More »
—>Here's how with a little patience, persistence and pricematching, reader Scott is saving $65.52 on his phone and internet service with AT&T: More »
—>Red Tape Chronicles reports on how AT&T internet decided to announce a change of its Terms of Service (ToS) via email. Some of the policies were contentious enough for some, but then many customers didn't even receive the email, because AT&T's own filters marked it as spam. Its questionable whether you can announce you're changing someone's contract by email fiat, especially if your own system prevents them from even receiving the message in the first place. More »
—>The national wireless carriers have responded to the Senate's request for information on why its text-messaging fees have doubled over the past three years. Their collective response: they haven't gotten more expensive, they've gotten cheaper—and your public suspicion of our business practices has led to lots of class action lawsuits! More »
—>Wow, those iPhones really are amazing. Chris' iPhone can make a call from Nicaragua the same time it's incurring a data roaming charge in Mexico—all without leaving Chris' side in the U.S. Some skeptics will probably just say there's a problem with AT&T's records, or the phone's SIM card was cloned or something, but AT&T believes. That's why they want Chris to pay that bill each month it keeps happening. More »
—>If you or your teen racked up surprise monthly fees from Mobile Messenger after texting a random code to a strange number because the tv told you to, then you may be eligible for a refund, if not triple damages. More »
—>Do you want to know if AT&T boosts your rates? Maybe you want to pay only for services you ordered or explicitly authorized. Tough! AT&T's new 2,500 page "guidebook" is the latest spawn of California's failing experiment with deregulation, one that is in "direct violation" of the law, according to the Public Utilities Commission. More »
—>Verizon and AT&T have jumped head-first into the shallow end of the social networking pool. The companies will charge consumers up to $35 per year to access unpopular social networking sites, a feature they're respectively billing as "SocialLife" and "My Communities." Not part of your social life or your community: Facebook. More »
The similar price increases, coming at similar times, Kohl said, "is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace." More »
—>You really got to be careful when using cellphones or wireless data plans internationally, otherwise you'll end up racking up $19,370 on your AT&T AirCard like this American kid did in Canada. It would be nice if they made some kind of warning system that said hey, you're spending several hundred times what you normally do, are you sure you want to continue, but then again, it would also be nice if a cupcake appeared on my desk right now. More »
—>This unedited transcript from a recent "customer support" chat is pure, undiluted idiocy. Do not be surprised if after reading it, you feel a little dead inside, or a little stupider. That's how you know the customer service chatbot—or person, which is kind of sad—is doing its job. More »
—>We just love the word unconscionable. You know who doesn't love it? AT&T. Their mandatory binding arbitration clause was ruled unconscionable by the state Supreme Court of Washington, after AT&T tried to prevent a consumer who believed he was being systematically overcharged from filing a class action lawsuit. More »
—>AT&T wireless is experiencing some kind of data outage in the Northeast, and if you call up and complain, you can get a $10-$20 credit (YMMV), Gizmodo reports. Let us know in the comments if you're an AT&T user experiencing data outages, where you're located, and if you have any luck snagging credits. If calling 611 from your phone doesn't work for ya, here is a variety of contact information to try. More »
—>Attention citizens: A machine known only as "the computer" has taken control of AT&T. The humans are powerless to control it — or even to negotiate with it. If it decides that you should be triple billed for phone numbers you don't need or use, there's nothing AT&T can do. Gather your children and all the salmonella-free peanut butter you own and report to your basement. Dunk your cellphones, DVRs, Apples and XBOXes into cold water before they rise up and destroy you like they're destroying reader Patrick. More »
—>Reader Anthony was robbed at knifepoint by a jerk with a 10" blade, but his real complaint is that he feels that AT&T is robbing him again. After he filed a police report and told AT&T that his new iPhone had been stolen, they told him that since he already bought an iPhone he no longer qualified for the subsidized price of $199. More »
—>In another step towards the impending demise of mandatory binding arbitration, a customer's right to file a class-action lawsuit against AT&T Wireless was upheld by Washington Supreme Court yesterday. More »
—>When reader Nick tried to sign up for ATT "naked DSL" or "dry loop" service (getting DSL without having paying for a landline), a curious thing happened. More »
—>An alleged insider for AT&T sent us the following tip on how to avoid a connection fee if you plan on getting both a regular phone line and DSL through AT&T. We don't know if it works, but you may be able to avoid a $40 charge for what amounts to "flipping a switch" at AT&T HQ. More »
—>Reader Rom is angry with AT&T because they won't sell him an iPhone 3G for the price listed in their press release. AT&T says the promotional pricing ($199 for an 8GB, $299 for a 16GB) is only available to, among others, existing iPhone customers. Rom is an existing iPhone customer. More »
"There is no indication of any change in the near future regarding the current state of competition. Market forces have not yet met the challenge of controlling price increases." More »
Best Buy will start selling the iPhone on September 7th, making it the only retailer other than Apple and AT&T to offer the device. [Associated Press] More »
—>Reader Corey checked the 3G coverage map before buying a new iPhone, only to find out that the map was wrong. The story has something of a happy ending, however, because Corey says he's pleased with the $250 service credit AT&T offered. More »
—>Would you buy DSL service from a company that either doesn't care about Do Not Call lists or doesn't know how they work? A man in Missouri was harassed to the point where he considered calling the police, because no matter what he did, AT&T wouldn't stop calling. Every time he tried contacting AT&T to get it to stop, he ended up in automated phone systems with recorded messages, busy signals, and disconnections—but never a live person. Only after he wrote to a local consumer advocacy columnist did AT&T pay attention and turn off the telemarketing fire hose. AT&T didn't, however, explain why they were targeting this person, or whether anyone else is facing the same barrage of calls. More »
—>"Jurgis" writes, More »
—>If arguing for completely getting out of your AT&T early-termination-fee isn't your thing, you can try doing what Felix did and get 75% off it. More »
—>So there appears to be something of a shortage of iPhones this time around, and while it's probably good for "creating buzz" it's not so great for wooing busy business customers away from their Blackberries, according to reader James. You see, only the Apple store has iPhones, but only the AT&T store can activate them for James. More »
—>Identity theft reports to the Federal Trade Commission show that Verizon was the most frequently named company, averaging over 900 events per month in 2007. According to an updated study by Chris Hoofnagle, senior fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, the number of complaints involving Verizon nearly tripled from 2006. Rounding out the top five are AFNI (a collection agency), JP Morgan Chase, AT&T, and Capital One. More »
—>We've seen a few addresses that have fractions in our time on this planet, but we never stopped to think about what it was like to try to order internet at one of these locations. Turns out, its about as annoying as you think it would be. Meet Michael. His address is 914½. This problematic little fraction causes AT&T to completely freak out for two months. More »
"When AT&T provides broadband service by speed, it will do so in discrete, non-overlapping tiers," Quinn said in written testimony. "We will strive to provide service within the speed tier purchased by the customer and, if we find that we are not providing service within the ordered speed tier, AT&T will take action either to bring the customer's service within the ordered tier or give the customer an option to move to a different tier." More »
—>Reader temporaryerror brings up an interesting point. Should AT&T and Apple be advertising the iPhone 3G as "twice as fast" in areas where there is no 3G coverage? He sent in the above advertisement from the local Wichita, KS newspaper. He says that the closest 3G network is 120 miles away in Topeka, and that the advertisement doesn't disclose this information. Is this ok? More »
—>Movearoo.com is a new website that appears to offer free assistance with your move, helping you set up things like phone service, gas, and electricity at your new address. The site calls itself "Your Total Moving Resource." It's a helpful site, sure, but you should be aware that it's funded by AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest, and exists primarily to promote their services. In other words, you won't find a comprehensive list of competing phone service providers through Movearoo, only those offered by the three sponsor companies. A consumer advocate points out the drawback of making Movearoo your sole relocation resource: More »
—>Reader Michael is having a rough time with the iPhone. He says that two out of three of the iPhones purchased by his family were defective, and the third one wouldn't receive calls. Weirdly, this story has a happy ending, because Michael found some contact information on Consumerist that got his problem solved in 5 minutes. More »
—>Fine, fine, the iPhone is decent and all that, but here's a funny clip from "The Soup" that puts the lie to that whole "It's so much cheaper!" hype. And if you're not an iPhone owner and need even more reason to feel good about that, check out Wisebread's rant against people who stand in line for gadgets. More »
—>Reader Joshua wants to warn everyone that exchanging your defective-out-of-the-box iPhone 3G is a huge pain the butt. His girlfriend got her iPhone on launch day but quickly discovered that the speaker was broken. She brought it into the Apple store to have it checked out and an employee accidentally dropped it. At that point, Apple told them they'd just replace to the phone. That's where things got complicated. More »
—>As Consumerist's resident Apple fanboy, I spent the last few hours standing outside an AT&T store waiting to buy the iPhone 3G, then waiting for it to activate in iTunes. Here's what went down. More »
—>Reports on the MacRumors forums and Gizmodo comments assert that some of the new Apple iPhone 3Gs look distinctly iJaundiced. Needless to say, the owners are pissed. Did you get one of these banana phones? Send an email with a pic to tips@consumerist.com or let us know in the comments. More »
—>Only the first lucky clutch of people in line today at AT&T stores will walk out with a new iPhone 3G in-hand. There were only 30 phones available in total at the the biggest AT&T store in Waterbury CT, at the Brass Mill Center, according to a store employee. Reporting from the line, reader Kevin says that everyone else was given an option to buy a slip of paper for $226.79 (see a scan of it posted inside), have the phone shipped from the warehouse to you, then you come back to the store to activate the phone. Customers will have to pay for the shipping charges for this favor. More »
—>Reader Ron writes: More »
—>When I heard that the iPhone activations were completely borked, I thought, man, that's what you get for partnering with the Death Star. But from what reader Justin heard from an ATT rep, oh-so-pristine Appple might actually be the one with blemishes. He writes, More »
—>A nation-wide epic fail of the iPhone activation systems has gutted the release of the new iPhone 3G. Here's an account from reader Tyler: More »
—>The new iPhone is 3G—but AT&T's 3G network isn't exactly "nationwide," so you might want to check the coverage map to make sure that there's a 3G network in your area. More »
—>As the second coming of the Jesusphone 3G draws near, we wanted to remind customers of other wireless carriers that there are ways to escape your existing cellphone contract free of early termination fees, and trade your piddling Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile bills for hundreds of pages of gloriously itemized AT&T charges. Or just switch carriers. More »
—>It's sure to be a pain in the butt if you accidentally switch two of your payments — but we'd always assumed that companies like AT&T and Dell wouldn't cash checks that were not even made out to them. We we wrong! More »
The Senate passed the FISA bill today, which effectively puts an end to any chance of legal repercussions for telcos who helped the government spy on citizens. Senator Obama voted for it, Senator McCain didn't vote, and Senator Clinton, for what it's worth, voted against it. Find out how your senator voted here. [TechCrunch] More »
—>An Apple store insider has leaked to us what they say will be some limitations and barriers on buying the iPhone Apple and AT&T stores will apply to the new iPhone 3g that goes on sale this Friday: More »
—>With the debut of that new super iPhone thing only a few short days away, now is the time to threaten your current cellphone company. What's that? You have no intention of switching cellphone companies for the iPhone? Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon's retention reps don't know that. Do they? More »
—>Those of us who bought iPhones when they came out haven't been very popular over the last year. We've been viewed as impulse-buying fanboys who got suckered into paying to beta-test an incomplete product on an inferior network. Then Steve Jobs sold us out. Now our co-workers won't stop making fun of us. I bought my iPhone on June 29th, I still love it, and I can't wait to buy a new one next week. Inside, my reasons why. More »
—>Dana's divorce left her with crappy credit and now AT&T wants a $750 deposit! She's wondering if anyone has any advice for avoiding such a large deposit... More »
—>Reader Victor wrote to alert us to NCIC payphones which are charging outrageous rates and fees in various airports across the country. At first, Victor used some spare change in an NCIC payphone and received a reasonable long distance rate of about $1 for 4 minutes. But Victor ran out of change and used his credit card to make 3 more quick calls. When Victor received his bill he discovered that he'd been charged $11 per call. He directed us over to ripoffreports.com and as far as we can tell, he got off easy. We read numerous reports of customers being charged exorbitant rates for local and long distance calls. The amounts that their customers are being charged vary so wildly that we're not even sure what NCIC's rates are supposed to be. Victor's letter, inside... More »
—>Meet Ms. Suspicious, a member of the "Online Liberation Movement." According to AT&T, Ms. Suspicious "has nothing to hide," so she certainly won't mind when AT&T and their traitorous telecom buddies trash the Constitution and violate her right to privacy! More »
—>Discounting or pro-rating the early termination fees that cellphone companies love to tack on to their contracts is becoming more common, so we thought we'd make some graphs that show the strengths and weaknesses of the different policies. As you can see, T-Mobile 2-year ETF doesn't make any discounts until fairly late in the contract period — and their ETF of $200 is higher than either of the other two companies that offer discounts. (Sprint does not pro-rate or discount its ETF.) T-Mobile's ETF does, however, reach a point where their discounts are steeper than Verizon and AT&T's pro-rating. More »
As the new FISA bill—the one that grants retroactive immunity to wiretapping telcos—moves closer to a final vote in the Senate (and a threatened filibuster), Ars Technica looks at the money. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint donated double the amount to House Democrats who supported the bill than to those who opposed it. [Ars Technica] More »
—>Update: Voted! Passed 293-129.
Today the House votes on a new compromise FISA Bill that will make the NSA's formerly questionable activities—like spying on Americans—legal, and will grant conditional immunity upon the telephone companies that aided the NSA in spying on their customers. It's "conditional" because there will still be a court review, but nobody seems to be taking the court review seriously: Senator Russ Feingold, D-WI, calls it a "capitulation" in the ongoing fight over holding the telcos responsible, and Rep. Roy Blunt, R-MO, says the review will be a "formality." Looks like you're about to get off free, Verizon and AT&T! More »
Here's a new excuse for bad service: AT&T is being plagued by copper thieves in Tennessee. The thefts of copper cables "has caused disruptions to voice and data communications, as well as emergency calls, company officials said." [The Tennessean] More »
—>If you've ever received cell phone spam, you know how infuriating it can be—especially if you pay by the message. David Pogue of the New York Times recently got hit with a spate of junk text messages on his Verizon plan, and he figured out how to block most of them. If you're with AT&T or Verizon you can block any messages sent through the Internet, as well as change your text message address to an alias to thwart number-guessing spammers. Sprint will let you block specific addresses. T-Mobile lets you block email messages and set up filters based on specific phrases. Login info below. More »
—>If you're thinking about getting that new 3G iPhone, you might want to hold off a few more months and see what happens with the other carriers. BusinessWeek has an article about how AT&T's aggressive subsidizing of the iPhone will have a negative impact on handset makers and carriers, because it's going to force them to increase subsidies and reduce service fees. Translation: good times for the consumer bold enough to stay off the iPhone train. More »
—>Apple's new 3G iPhone might seem like a bargain at $199: more features, 3G speeds, and $200 cheaper than the original model. Great, except it's not actually cheaper. The new $199 iPhone is actually $160 more than the $399 iPhone it replaces. More »
—>Thanks to AT&T settling a recent class-action, the era of third-party scammers cramming consumers with fraudulent subscriptions to ringtone, hookup text and other stupid content services may soon be over. AT&T Customers can claim refunds for wrongful charges from up to 3 of their bills between 1/1/04 and 5/30/08. The lawyers will get $4.3 million. AT&T will now require subscriptions to 3rd party-services with recurring fees to be confirmed by responding to a text message. 3rd party services will also have to send a monthly reminder with unsubscribe info. The firm has filed similar suits against Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Claim forms and more info at thirdpartycontentrefund.com. More »
—>AT&T Mobility has agreed to offer refunds to customers who were charged for third-party services like ringtones, although if you were frequently a victim of this you'll quickly exhaust your refund quota: "Customers will able to claim refunds for spurious charges that appeared on up to three of their monthly bills between Jan. 1, 2004, and May 30, 2008." AT&T should be sending out a notification to its customers "soon," but you can already download a refund request. More »
—>We get a lot of questions and complaints about the cellphone shopping process, so we thought we'd put together a list of 5 things consumers say to cellphone sales reps that they really should just keep to themselves. Enjoy. More »
—>David ordered a refurbished iPhone from AT&T. What he received was a brand new empty plastic bag. Apparently, AT&T has 500 backorders for refurbished iPhones, so for some completely unknown and nonsensical reason, they've decided to start shipping empty plastic bags. Let's join David as he tries to track down the iPhone he ordered... More »
—>AT&T has started having early termination fees go down each month for new contracts (old customers are still screwed). The $175 fee for canceling AT&T service before the end of your two-year contract will go down $5 every month. This means that even by month 23 out of the total 24 you will still pay a $60 fee. While the other providers have announced their intention to do the same, Verizon and AT&T are the only companies to actually have ETFs go down over the course of the contract. This should not be confused with "pro-rating," however, as the fee is not being divided proportionally. If it was, the fee would go down $7.30 each month and by month 23 you would only pay a $7.30 penalty. More »
—>Reader Nick's wife recently ordered an iPhone and was surprised to find it came in two boxes. She was even more surprised when the second box contained only an AT&T plastic shopping bag. It was also packed with brown packing material around it. "I find it comical that the plastic bag had more packing material around it then the $250 iPhone did," Nick writes. More »
AT&T's one-iPhone-per-customer rule lasted only one day before the company went back to its three-per-customer policy. Apparently they found some more iPhones in the back. [Information Week] More »
This is Round 40 in our Worst Company in America contest, Capital One vs AT&T!Here's what readers said in previous rounds about why they hate these two companies... More »
—>A testament to the "Series of Tubes" meme's pervasiveness is its inclusion in an AT&T FastAccess business DSL tech support manual. According to a former employee, her bosses who made the manual were big nerds and read BoingBoing, Gizmodo, and The Consumerist. She also says in one of the the tech support training videos for the new customer Yahoo portal that's rolling out later this month, it shows how to create a feed for The Consumerist. Note too that the internet is depicted as a giant fluffy cloud. More »
—>Reader Nicholas is in the military, and while he was serving in Iraq, AT&T decided to give his phone number to another customer. When he returned, he asked for the number back, but was refused. The rep then convinced him that he needed to sign a new 2 year contract in order to reactivate his number. Naturally, right after he did this, his phone broke, and now AT&T is telling him that he'll have to wait until 2009 to get a decent upgrade. More »
—>Picture this: The phones rings, and you check the caller ID and see your girlfriend's number. With great anticipation you answer the call, but then a gruff masculine "Hello" bellows from the ear piece. What the...? It sounds awkward but that's what happened to James. His girlfriend's iPhone was stolen a few weeks ago and the theft was reported to AT&T who had the phone deactivated. However, the new owner of the stolen iPhone had it reactivated and assumed the phone number of James' girlfriend, thus deactivating James' girlfriend's replacement phone. How could this happen? James' letter, inside... More »
—>In case you though AT&T wanting to run a credit check before they sell you a prepaid phone was as dumb as AT&T could get, reader Dan writes in to tell us about an AT&T store that wouldn't sell him a phone because he was already an AT&T customer. If he hadn't copped to being an AT&T customer, he could have walked out of the store with a lovely LG CG180 Go Phone. But since he admitted he had an AT&T number, the sales reps at the store wanted him to put an extra $100 down. More, after the jump. More »
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If you thought AT&T's $2 fee to pay a bill in cash in-store was bad, wait till it goes up to $5. The price increase is scheduled for later this year. [Red Tape Chronicles] More »
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—>Today only, all AT&T phones are on sale at Amazon for only 1 cent with new service plan (Sorry, the iPhone is not included). We don't know whether it's an error or what, but it looks like on some of these you actually make money after rebate. More »
—>AT&T demanded a $750 deposit from Richard before selling him an iPhone, but couldn't provide service because they improperly entered his address. Richard spent hours at the AT&T store trying to fix the mistake before deciding to cut his losses and recover the deposit. AT&T promised to refund his money in 7-10 days. That was two months ago. Why the hold-up? AT&T can't issue the refund because they don't have Richard's proper address. More »
—>This is Round 16 in our Worst Company in America contest, Mattel vs AT&T.
Mattel profited off of selling millions of toys covered in lead paint, as well a toy with detachable, swallowable, magnet balls. More »
—> It's finally official: as of May 25th, AT&T will join the ranks of the pro-rating carrier crowd (which so far just includes Verizon) and start reducing their early termination fees (ETFs) by $5 per month on both one and two-year contracts. This only applies to new customers and those renewing contracts on or after May 25th, so if you can, try to hold off on entering into a contract with AT&T for the next two months. What up, Sprint and T-Mobile? Why is it taking so long for you to pro-rate your ETFs? We guess you're too busy going out of business and suing creation, respectively. More »
—>Reader Tom wrote in to let us know that during a conversation with AT&T customer service, a representative told him that it is typical to send out collection notices ten days after the original bill is mailed. Factoring in two or three days for the bill to arrive, two or three days for the check to get back to AT&T, and a Sunday or two, that leaves three to five days for customers to pay their bills before the angry letters and phone calls begin. More »
—>Reader Steaming Pile is waiting, not so patiently, for AT&T to give him back his $160. He had an account set up with automatic bill pay, and when his contract was up in September he canceled the account. This should have been the end of his dealings with AT&T. A few months later, he was perusing his post-holiday credit card bill when he noticed a charge from AT&T. Reviewing his statements more closely, he noticed that while he was successful in terminating his service, he hadn't convinced AT&T to stop taking his money every month. Thanks to automatic bill pay and (let's admit it) his own negligence, AT&T had pocketed $160 for a closed account. In fact, when he called to terminate the automatic bill pay, not only did he have to argue for the credit, he's still waiting for his money three months later. Check out his very angry email below. More »
—> Do you wish you had a way to spend your money more easily, without all that opening-the-wallet or punching-the-pin-number manual labor? The trade publication Cards & Payments (registration required) says that it's received a copy of a report filed with the FCC that indicates Citigroup is developing a Near Field Communication, or NFC, mobile phone that would allow its customers to make contactless payments at participating retailers. More »
—>Here's some depressing news. AT&T's CEO says his company is having trouble finding enough skilled workers in the United States to fill the 5,000 jobs he promised to bring back to this country. More »
—>Read in awe as a former Quality Assurance Specialist divulges the deepest, darkest secrets of outsourced technical support centers. Learn what happens to "rogue" call centers who refuse to give terrible customer service, why the tech support guy stops listening to you after you say certain keywords, and so much more. More »
—> In a letter to Sprint, AT&T Mobility, and T-Mobile, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has asked the companies whether or not they're going to start pro-rating their Early Termination Fee policies as promised, reports RCR Wireless. "Sens. Klobuchar and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) are co-sponsors of a sweeping wireless consumer protection bill" that carriers are against. In her letter, Klobuchar writes, "It is time for the wireless companies to adhere to the assurances they made to the American consumer and start pro-rating these fees." In response, Sprint said by the end of Q2 2008, T-Mobile said the first half of 2008, and AT&T Mobility said nothing at all. (Verizon already pro-rates their ETF.) More »
—> Another person has stepped forward to allege that a "major wireless carrier" may have aided the FBI's warrantless wiretapping program. He claims he was brought in to work with the company on something called the Quantico Circuit, "a high-speed line from the wireless carrier to an unnamed third party. Quantico, Va., is the site of a U.S. intelligence and military base."
"The circuit was tied to the organization's core network," Pasdar stated in the affidavit. "It had access to the billing system, text messaging, fraud detection, Web site, and pretty much all the systems in the data center without restrictions."More »
—> Earlier this week we posted an email from a man who said an AT&T salesman tried to charge him an "activation fee" to switch his daughter's already-active SIM card to a GoPhone. We got a lot of useful (if sometimes contradictory) advice from readers in the comments section, and now an AT&T spokesman has written in with an official statement about it. More »
Greetings O exalted ones! More »
—> Does AT&T really charge a $25 "activation fee" when you move your SIM card to a GoPhone? A father had to replace his child's broken cellphone over the weekend, and the rep at the AT&T store told him the only way to avoid an ETF or plan extension was to buy a GoPhone and pay an activation fee, even though the SIM card was the same. Online, you can buy a new GoPhone and have the activation fee waved. Way to treat your current customers, AT&T. More »
—>An AT&T insider tells us that starting March 11th AT&T has begun charging customers in the Southeast an extra $5 if they call in to make their payment over the phone by speaking to a customer service rep. He says this is set to be rolled out nationally starting in May. Please only speak to our robots, otherwise you will be punished, thanks. More »
—>Colin writes:
I went into my nearest ATT store and there were two CSR's behind the counter- I asked for an 8gig Refurb iPhone thats being sold for $249 and the kid said sure and walked me over to the desk. The next words out of his mouth "What is your social security number?" No "How are you today?" "Thanks for coming in" No, apparently they just want my credit report to see if I am "worthy"More »
In response to yesterday's post, another AT&T employee writes, "Just to clear up some confusion, AT&T may charge an administrative fee when paying your wireless bill with a representative. There is no charge to use the automated payment systems. The source for this is the tagline on my bill." More »
—> An anonymous AT&T employee who says to call him "Vernon" wrote in to tell us that starting next Tuesday, March 11th, some customers in the Southeast who call in to make a payment will be charged $5, with the fee going nationwide by May. He writes, "I feel this is taking advantage of our customers' trust, because even when we put it on all of their bills, and let people know, there will be tons of reps that won't let the customer know they're being charged for taking their payment." More »
—> Florida's Attorney General scored a victory for consumers last week, when AT&T Mobility agreed to refund fees that third-party vendors snuck onto thousands of accounts under the guise of "free" ringtones, wallpapers, and text content. They also agreed to hand over $2.5 million to help fund the state's recently-created CyberFraud Task Force, to spend $500,000 for "consumer education on safe Internet use," and to start policing third-party vendors better and make sure all billed items are clearly described. More »
—>8 out of 12 AT&T customer service reps don't know their company's own early Early Termination Fee (ETF) policy. Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, called up AT&T to inquire about the policy and got several different answers. Some said that the ETF was halved after the first year of contract, while others said it went down each month. In fact, while AT&T has talked about switching to a pro-rated ETF, they haven't yet. Whether you cancel service 1 month into or one month before the end of contract, it will cost you $175. Consumers Union called the other major cellphone providers too, and they gave out the right information. Couple this news and the story yesterday about reps giving out wrong information about upgrading to a new iPhone locking you into a new two-year contract, and it plum looks like AT&T has a serious front-line rep training problem. More »
—>Some iPhone users are being told that they have to sign up for a new 2-year contract if they upgrade from the 8gb iPhone to the 16gb iPhone. Even though Apple's website and AT&T's internal official policy says this is not the case, some AT&T reps are insisting that customers have to extend their contract. Fortunately, they are completely misinformed. You just get your new iPhone, update your account through iTunes, and boom, you're good to go, no contract extension. More »
—>AT&T and Comcast may be willing to help Hollywood control piracy on their networks, but Verizon wants none of it, says the New York Times. More »
(Photo: bryce_edwards) More »
Wondering how undersea cables in Asia recently interfered with AT&T's network? Wired ran an excruciatingly detailed piece in 1996 by the hacker tourist that explains how the worldwide network of undersea cables—tubes, if you will—connects us to our friends halfway around the world. [Wired] More »
—>Tmobile is yet again as number one in customer care., according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Wireless Customer Care Rating. Tmobile scored 105, Verizon comes just behind at 101, Alltell and AT&T tie at 99, and Sprint puts in a poor showing at 83. The survey measures quality of interaction with customer service reps, automated response systems, in-store visits, and online chats. Tmobile consistently ranks high on the survey due to a company culture dedicated to solving problems on the first call. As for the other providers? The subheading on the rating agency's press release says it all, "When Customer Care Issues Are Handled by an Automated Response System Wireless Provider Performance Drops Dramatically" More »
—> What's up, AT&T? Your MMS messages have been acting wonky since the beginning of the year, according to posters on HowardForums. When they do come through, they've been reduced to a tiny postage-stamp size, whereas in the past they were delivered unaltered. We've been testing the service all morning with our N95 and not a single photo MMS gets in or out. More »
An AT&T spokesman says yesterday's data network outages across the U.S. were the result of the cut undersea cable in the Mediterranean that's caused Internet and phone disruptions across Northern Africa, India and the Middle East. The cable will take 12-15 days to fix, although AT&T's U.S. network was back up by the end of the day yesterday. [The Seattle Times] More »
—> Rick in Chicago wrote to us this morning to let us know that he hasn't been able to access AT&T's 3G network all day. So far, AT&T has told him nothing, nor have they made an announcement: "text messaging still seems to work, so they could send out a text message to let people know ," he IMs us. He got confirmation that it was the network and not his company-issued phone from his company's tech department. This blog says it's 3G and Edge, while this blog says its UMTS that's down and disabling Treos and Blackberries. More »
—>Until now, we've been telling people trying to escape their cellphone contract without early termination fees based on a raise in text message prices that it's necessary that they don't have a text message plan. However, reader Mtman says he used a novel argument to get out of his Verizon plan, even though he did have a text message plan! More »
—>AT&T is raising the rates for sending text and picture/video messages to 20 and 30 cents, respectively, giving customers a chance to break free of their contract without early termination fee if they use the now-classic "materially adverse changes to contract" argument. Inside, how to deploy that tactic, as well as the text of the rate change notice. More »
—>Here's a problem: Apple says they've sold 3.7 million iPhones. AT&T says they've activated 2 million iPhones. Just where the hell are the rest of the iPhones? More »
—>Team AT&T is absolutely kicking everyone's ass all over town, adding a record 2.7 million new wireless customers in the 4Q, says MarketWatch. They also added 396,000 high speed internet customers and 105,000 U-Verse TV customers. More »
—>After reports started surfacing that AT&T was offering a SIM-card only option that was tied to a 2 year contract, we contacted AT&T for more information. As far as we knew, AT&T allowed new customers to bring their own compatible equipment and did not require a 2 year contract. More »
—>Lots of companies are pushing deals for their bundled internet, tv and phone plans, but which are best? Consumer Reports surveyed its readers and here's how they ranked the service providers: More »
Talking About AT&T's Internet Filtering on AT&T's The Hugh Thompson Show [Boing Boing Gadgets] More »
—>Another of AT&T's big metal cable boxes placed on people's lawns has exploded. The system's lithium-metal-polymer batteries are the culprit, prompting AT&T to replace 17,000 of them. Four of the U-Verse cabinets have exploded since the program began. More »
—>Reader Jen was having a hard time using AT&T's website. She says, "It was very slow, I was asked to log in several times, the fonts unreadably small in places (and not just fine print, either)." More »
—>Poor Dustin. AT&T won't stop sending him junk mail at the wrong address. Sounds impossible, but one should never be too quick to judge with AT&T. More »
—>Reader Michael writes in to share his 5 minute technique for switching to AT&T's dry loop or "naked" DSL. More »
—>Vonage has settled with AT&T over claims that the VOIP provider infringed on some patents held by the telecommunications giant. More »
Of the almost 200 people who have contacted the Savvy Consumer column in the St. Louis Dispatch about AT&T's $10 naked DSL, only a handful report being able to successfully sign up for it. Obviously they haven't read this post of ours which tells you exactly how to do it.[St. Louis Dispatch via U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog] More »
—>AT&T has a new campaign advertises how it "works in more places like," and then lists a fictional place that's a mashup of three cities. The ads are appearing in the tunnels and trains of Washington DC Metro, a real place, where AT&T really doesn't work. Only Verizon works down there. Commenter XianZomby writes, "I think before ATT works on getting their wireless network in places that don't exist, they should focus on getting their cell phones to work in places where they advertise cell phone service." More »
The official list of bidders for the 700 mhz spectrum is out. Google Airwaves, LLC joins Verizon, Cox and AT&T in the ultimate spectrum battle. Get your popcorn ready. [Ars Technica] More »
—> Like all decent Americans, I loath Time Warner and decided to cancel my cable and get satellite service through AT&T, who are a Dish Network reseller. More »
—>If you're AT&T cellphone customer on a messaging plan and you like to send pictures, check your bills. After noticing he was getting overcharged for sending pictures, reader Robert says an AT&T CSR told him that AT&T is having a nationwide computer glitch that could be overcharging you too... More »
—>Reader Christian has an iPhone that is activated on a pre-paid GoPhone plan with AT&T. The EDGE service has stopped working properly for quite a few GoPhone-style iPhone users in California and Christian isn't having much luck with AT&T's customer service: More »
—>A firm called Klausner Technologies has just announced that they are suing both Apple and AT&T for patent infringement over the iPhone's "visual voicemail" feature. Klausner Technologies has already sued VOIP provider Vonage and AOL/Time Warner for the same darn thing, and both companies chose to settle and license the technology from Klausner. More »
—>AT&T announced today that they are exiting the pay phone business, and will be phasing out 65,000 pay phones in 13 states, according to Bloomberg. More »
—>Verizon's next generation of devices will run on the GSM network that will be used by AT&T and T-Mobile, meaning that in a few years, customers with unlocked phones will be able to move between the three providers without purchasing new equipment. Verizon currently uses a CDMA network along with Sprint, but last week announced that it would use the GSM-protocol LTE (Long Term Evolution) for their fourth-generation data services. Note, Verizon's LTE phones will not be backwards-compatible with the current GSM networks run by AT&T and T-Mobile. Both are expected to support LTE. And don't expect to see the new phones anytime soon... More »
—>Google announced today that they will be bidding in the 700mhz auction! For real. More »
—>Apple has a 10% restocking fee on opened non-defective products, but AT&T seems to think that this applies to iPhones that are defective right out of the box. More »
AT&T will begin selling phones and wireless service at Costco. [BusinessWeek] More »
—>When Stephanie the AT&T "escalation affairs administrator" lied to Jan about why her phone couldn't be repaired for several days, she probably didn't know what Jan did for a living. More »
—>Net neutrality advocates are gathering momentum to take Comcast to the woodshed for an old fashioned populist beating. Comcast believes that deliberately destroying connections to the popular communications protocol BitTorrent amounts to "reasonable network management," which the FCC permits. Advocates figure if they can't ride the net neutrality pony to Congressional passage now, it will forever lie dormant in the stable munching on BitTorrent packet hay. More »
A reader showed us a letter he was going to send to AT&T. At the end, among his demands, he listed, "a written apology." We told him to get rid of it. He asked why. He said the apology would actually be worth more to him than the refunds for which he was asking. More »
—>Customer satisfaction with buying cellphones at stores fell this year, reports J.D. Power and Associates in the recently released 2007 Wireless Retail Sales Satisfaction StudySM-Volume 2. More »
—>Starting November, AT&T will begin pro-rating early termination fees, and stop extending your contract when you change your calling plan. The new policy comes on the heels of a similar move by Verizon. Could we be entering a new era where cellphone companies will compete on customer satisfaction, rather than Beyoncé ringtones? Don't think they're doing it out of kindness, Sprint was recently sued by the Minnesota Attorney General for extending customer contracts when they changed rate plans, and AT&T wants to stay ahead of similar litigation. See, cc'ing your complaints to the Attorney General really works! More »
—> Sprint will relinquish unlock codes to departing customers in good standing as part of proposed class action settlement.The class was formed last year by California consumers who argued that the locked phones bound them to Sprint by making it more expensive to switch carriers. Sprint claimed that releasing the codes was unnecessary since the service contract clearly informed consumers that phones would only work on Sprint's network. More »
—>AT&T wrote in to say they won't be charging the family whose house burned down in the California wildfires for the satellite dish they left behind when fleeing for the lives More »
When this Azola couple got back from their honeymoon, they had about an hour of matrimonial bliss before being forced to flee as their house was engulfed in flames. So you can understand they had some things on their mind other than the status of their AT&T | Dish receiver as they ran for their lives. When they called to cancel service, the customer service rep asked if they had "remembered to pick up the receiver" as they left the house... More »
—> You know telecoms are behaving badly when a business columnist who just a year ago argued for a hands-off government approach has reversed his opinion. "I've changed my mind," he writes. "The behavior of the top telecommunications companies, especially Verizon Communications and AT&T, has convinced me that more government involvement is needed to keep communications free of corporate interference." More »
—>Kimberly writes:
My concern is over another fee that I get nailed with every month that I had never noticed... Not only do I have to pay a federal universal service charge, but the District of Columbia, where I live (obvs), charges me another time - to the tune of $8.90 a month. That seems exorbitant and arbitrary! Not a good combo! What the hell is this and who do we complain to?While perhaps exorbitant, the fee isn't arbitrary.... More »
—>The Wall Street Journal has it in their pretty little heads that AT&T is in the market for either EchoStar or DirecTV. And hey, why not? AT&T owns everything else. More »
—>Jack recently got a new phone for one of his AT&T cellphones. In the process, he of course had to extend his contract another two years. When he got his bill, he discovered a mysterious $18 "upgrade fee." When he called AT&T, they told him it was the standard contract extension charge. More »
—>Here's some news for those of you out there who have so much money you literally can not think of anything else to do with it: AT&T has announced a partnership with Napster in which you can download songs to your phone for "only" $1.99 a track or 5 for $7.49. More »
Wired is assembling a list of where each senator stands on the issue of granting immunity to phone companies who participated in wiretapping—which could be decided as early as today. The list includes phone numbers so you can call if you don't see a response for your senator. [Wired] More »
—> Yesterday, the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee "reached a tentative agreement... with the Bush administration that would give telephone carriers legal immunity for any role they played in the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program." The senators who have been reviewing classified documents related to the phone companies' participation in the program are now saying that they believe the companies "acted in good faith" and "that they should not be punished through civil litigation for their roles." More »
—>Ah, that most delightful of surprises: The parking meter with time already on it. If the City of Chicago has its way, (and let's face it, they usually do) the gift of a partially full parking meter will a thing of the past. More »
—> Maybe the T-Mobile lawsuit has scared AT&T a bit, because they've announced that they're changing their early termination policy: they will now prorate termination fees instead of charging a flat fee. They're also removing the policy that required existing customers to extend a current agreement or sign up for a new one when changing their level of service. No word on when these changes will go into effect, but there's nothing on their website yet. More »
—>Here's the current text-message rate plans for the different cellphone providers. Most providers also offer unlimited text message plans: AT&T: $19.99 a month, Sprint: $20 a month, T-Mobile: $14.99 a month, Verizon: Unlimited messaging isn't optional feature, but it is part of the America's Choice Select Plan. More »
—>AT&T Mobility's CEO Stan Sigman has announced his retirement after 42 years with the company. The AP says:
Sigman began his career with Southwestern Bell Telephone as a stockman in 1965. He stayed with the company as it grew from the smallest Baby Bell to the nation's largest telecommunications company through a series of aggressive acquisitions.How nice. More »
—>To reach the AT&T | DISH retentions department, call 866-266-1292 , press 1, then press 1 again. Retentions departments are the gate of customer service you usually have to pass through to cancel service. They try to identify and solve objections to the service you have, either by pointing out features of awesomeness you apparently weren't aware of, or by tossing credits or price reductions your way. More »
—>The California Attorney General has announced a settlement with AT&T that ensures that California AT&T customers will no longer have to pay for calls made on a stolen phone, a complaint that often comes sailing into our inbox, but has no easy fix. More »
—>BoingBoing reports that AT&T has altered the language in its reviled TOS to say it thinks it's okay for people to speak their mind. Really, they hard-wired that into the legalese: More »
—> A class-action lawsuit was filed on October 5th against the unholy duo of Apple and AT&T, charging that they intentionally broke unlocked headsets via the last firmware update, and conspired illegally to monopolize parts of the mobile phone market by preventing consumers from using any services other than those provided by the two companies. The suit charges the two companies, either jointly or separately, with six formal counts, including "alleged violations of the California Business and Profession's Code, The Cartwright Act, The Sherman Act, The Federal Trade Commission Act, The Communications Act of 1934, and The Telecommunications Act of 1996, as well as rules and policies established by the FCC." More »
—>954-626-1263 goes right to level two retentions for AT&T landlines. These are the people that are supposed to dissuade you from dropping service, through credits and price reductions. Like we said said here, don't just call up and ask for free money. Paint a picture of customer dissatisfaction. Pitch woo. Then see what you can get. More »
—>After getting roundly whiplashed for having a clause in their Terms of Service that could be interpreted as meaning they reserved the right to terminate the service of any customer who criticized them, AT&T DSL reached out to several blogs today with the following commitment to change their ToS:
We are revising the terms of service to clarify our intent. The language in question will be revised to reflect AT&T's respect for our customers' right to express opinions and concerns over any matter they wish. And we will make clear that we do not terminate service because a customer expresses their opinion about AT&T.We'll reserve judgment until the pixels dry. As of now, their ToS is still the same. More »
—> According to a Slate columnist, not only is it legal, but it's ethical and fun. (Fun?) "I did just throw down more than $400 for this little toy," he writes. "I'm no property-rights freak, but that iPhone is now my personal property, and that ought to stand for something." More »
—>Rhett was trying to order $10 DSL for his mom when he got the fabled "$10 DSL Runaround." More »
—>Yesterday we posted about how the AT&T DSL Terms of Service contain a clause that says AT&T can cancel your service if you "damage" their "reputation." Today, AT&T PR bots reached out to some sites to say they would only do it if you were promoting violence or peddling child porn. Unfortunately, that's not what's in writing. What's in writing is the nebulous "damage" of their "reputation." So, AT&T subscribers, feel free to criticize away, until they change their mind. More »
—>According to Google, Sprint is the suckiest cellphone company. When you query "____ sucks," filling in the name of different providers, Sprint returns the most results. Here's how all the providers stacked up: More »
—>According to Google, Verizon is the coolest cellphone company. When you query "____ is cool," filling in the name of different providers, Verizon is tits. Here's how many results were returned for each company: More »
—>Mouseprint scanned through AT&T's cellphone contract and found some very interesting clauses and restrictions: More »
—>Criticizing AT&T DSL as a subscriber can result in them shutting down your service, according to their Terms of Service: More »
Hey Guys, More »
—>A reader reports that a Bellevue, WA AT&T store is trying to play it like the company-wide iPhone price drop is a "manager's special." When he called the regional manager, our reader was told the signs were the brainchild of the regional marketing department. More »
—>Thanks to the efforts of the Illinois Citizen's Utility Board, people all across the Midwest, Southwest California, Nevada and Connecticut, can get AT&T dry loop DSL for only $23.99 (express) or $28.99 (pro), instead of $43.99 or $48.99. But they won't tell you this through the regular customer service line, because AT&T would really rather you have a landline along with your DSL, and pay more for the privilege. A current AT&T retention rep tells us this is the way to do the discount dry loop dance: More »
—>Naked DSL, (DSL without the requirement to have a landline), will be available nationwide by the end of the year, according to statement made by AT&T to the Wall Street Journal. More »
—>If you bought the iPhone before the price drop, Apple has an easy site where you can claim your $100 credit. More »
—>Cellphone text message spam is still rare, but annoying, especially as each one usually costs you. If you're experiencing a deluge, often the only way to fight it is to turn off text messaging entirely, but which providers let you? More »
—>Elena Tyrrell is the postmistress of Canyon, California. After AT&T removed the town's pay phone, she organized an effort to buy a new one for her town, according to NPR. More »
—> We hate to say this, but in the interest of fairness we must: sometimes it really is the customer's fault. A man took his three iPhones out of the country, and now he's got a $4800 roaming bill because he didn't turn them off and they kept checking for email. Well, he didn't turn them off off. You know, there's standby off and off off. Or maybe you didn't know? It's all in the Apple iPhone User Guide—we just looked at it online and it's right there on page 14: how to put your phone in standby (which just turns off the screen) and how to shut it off completely. More »
—> Early Adopter Syndrome can strike anyone—our fancy N95 is less than six months old and has just been kicked to the curb by Nokia for a new version that works with US 3G—so we sympathize with all of you who just shelled out $600 for that great iPod/so-so phone combo from Apple. The Unofficial Apple Weblog offers the following five suggestions on how to fix your little $200 problem. More »
—>Reader Rob has an AT&T 8525. More »
—>Boy, if there's one thing that really makes us happy its being pestered by door-to-door salesmen. We just love it! Often, we are sitting around with nothing to do and no one to talk to and then surprise! Oh, happy day! An AT&T salesman wants to talk us about their many fine products! More »
—>AT&T is no longer claiming to be the network with the "fewest dropped calls," according to a company insider. The assertion was widely panned as a lie:
The ad campaign, which launched last March, was based on a Telephia report that actually noted AT&T Wireless (then Cingular) did not have the most reliable network in New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles. A recent JD Power report gives that honor to T-Mobile in most markets. Similarly, a report from Consumer Reports placed Cingular/AT&T at the bottom of their rankings for reliability and satisfaction.AT&T will instead boast that they have: "more bars in more places." More »
—>Ars Technica is reporting that the iPhone has been unlocked. Good news for those of you who wanted to use it with T-Mobile or a foreign GSM carrier. More »
AT&T yesterday decided to stop raping forests and stop sending customers several hundred-page long iPhone bills itemizing every single photo they accessed while web-browsing. The change was announced In a text message sent out to subscribers that read:
AT&T free msg: We are simplifying you paper bill, removing itemized detail. To view all detail go to att.com/mywirelesss. Still need full paper bill? Call 611Tasty Blog Snack blogger Justine Ezarik, whose video of opening the box containing her 300 page bill received several million views, curtly thanked AT&T for the shift in a new video, above. She all but places her hands on her hips, bucks her head and says, "Thass right, girlfriend," but we're sure that's only because she doesn't want to damage the iPhone she's holding. More »
AT&T spokesman Kerry Hibbs says the company hears you and "We've changed our website to make our $10 DSL offer more prominent and easier to find."So we tried again — and still couldn't get it to work.
—>"July 25 - So, I recently moved and have had one hell of a time with DISH Network. Apparently my new apartment building has an "exclusive contract" with ATT. So I call up those guys to get some TV in my new apt. ATT tells me to call DISH directly (their partner) and I oblige because ATT doesn't deal with apartment complexes. I get on the phone to DISH with a guy (I think his name was Sam) who happily placed my order, until he asked me what floor I live on and I told him third. Sam proceeded to tell me that because of insurance reasons their DISH installers will not install on third floor or higher. I was a little baffled by this and Sam told me to goto a DISH reseller, like Radio Shack. More »
—>Over at Blackberry Cool they're claiming that an AT&T insider told them AT&T had bullied RIM into crippling the Blackberry's GPS features so it wouldn't make the iPhone look bad in comparison. More »
—>Here's a direct port from the AT&T/Cingular internal database on how to handle complaining customers. These are the document every customer service rep in their call centers uses to deal with you when you kvetch. If you have an issue with AT&T, you can use this as a guide to see how they're going to react to your various thrusts and parries, from simple billing and service issues to requests for cancellation and escalations to the Office of the President (gamely referred to by the acronym "OOP")... More »
—>AT&T pulled the bait and switch on its own employees. One was repeatedly told that his employee discount would apply only towards iPhone calling plans, but not the iPhone itself, or its associated data plan. The employee twice verified the existence of a calling plan discount - at an AT&T store, and with AT&T customer support. He even called customer support before the 14-day return window closed and again verified that, yes, his discount applied to the calling plan. After the employee received his first bill last week, he sat down and wrote us this letter: More »
—>Remember JD? 32 hours of tech support from Apple and AT&T couldn't coax his replacement iPhone into working with his prepaid SIM card. After we posted his story, representatives from both companies had a powwow and traced JD's problem back to mismatched IMEI numbers. Now JD's replacement iPhone works, and he has advice for anyone in a similar bind:
Received a call from an extremely helpful AT&T representative yesterday. She was informed of the situation by Apple, and worked with them to resolve it. Along with AT&T, I received a call from an Apple executive, who was also extremely helpful. Thanks to them both for getting to the bottom of this situation. More »
"[The muting was] a major mistake by a webcast vendor and completely contrary to our policy. We are working closely with the vendor and the band to post the song in its entirety on this site and ensure that this does not happen again."More »
—>iPhone owners using prepaid SIM cards better take extra special care of their pocket trophies. According to Apple and AT&T, prepaid SIM cards are eternally wed without consent to one lucky iPhone, an important caveat reader JD discovered after spending 32 hours trying to activate his replacement iPhone. JD warns:
If you activated an iPhone with a new AT&T prepaid plan, you *must* keep using that iPhone. You *cannot* replace that iPhone with another iPhone. The only way to use a new iPhone with your prepaid account, is to *create a new account with a new phone number,* and have them move your balance over. Period. Apparently this is a "security feature" and the system was "designed that way," specifically for prepaid iPhone plans.The discouraging verdict from both Apple and AT&T should make potential iPhone users think twice before using a prepaid SIM card to skirt the confines of a two year contract. JD's full story, after the jump. More »
—>AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that his customer just aren't interested in ultra-cheap internet service. AT&T is required to offer $10 DSL throughout 22 states, a concession made to the FTC as part of a deal to acquire BellSouth. AT&T has been accused of hiding the $10 DSL option, which, apparently, they did for the sake of their customers. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution: More »
—>Well done Charter, people would prefer to buy bundled services from AT&T because they think phone companies provide better customer service than cable companies. Both cable companies and telecoms rank towards the bottom of the American Customer Satisfaction Index. More »
—>Tiffany's cellphone was stolen right before she got on a chartered sailboat for a week of vacation. When she got back, AT&T told her she was responsible for the entire week of soft core porn downloading that the thief had enjoyed during the time she was away. More »
—>According to an AT&T press release, DRM-free online music giant eMusic has cut a deal with AT&T to offer music that can be downloaded to certain AT&T handsets, with a duplicate DRM-free track also delivered to the user's computer. More »
—>International data roaming charges are out-of-control expensive and can be difficult to dispute, should you accidentally rack them up. It's not uncommon to be slammed with a $3,000 bill from just looking up a few websites on the go in Europe. We've written about it before, actually. More »
—>Unfortunately, Apple's design gurus didn't get to lovingly sculpt AT&T's billing system, so when the first iPhone users opened their bills this month, they got a surprise. Actually, pages upon pages of surprises. Every single image gets assessed a fee based on its kilobytes, and is then painstakingly itemized on your AT&T bill. More »
—>This guy uses a Packet8, a VoiP provider, but the reception from plugging his phone into the modem wasn't very good, so he asks AT&T if he can hire them to install phone jacks. More »
—>Analysts had estimated that AT&T and Apple would sell and activate 500,000 iPhones before AT&T's earnings report was released yesterday. More »
—>AT&T has raised the price of call waiting, call forwarding, and caller ID by $1.01 per month for all California customers that do not subscribe to a service bundle. This marks AT&T's second rate hike since the California Public Utilities Commission stopped regulating phone rates last summer in the name of "promoting competition." AT&T is not hesitant to admit that the rate increases are designed to prod consumers into signing up for bundled phone and internet packages: More »
—>The Supreme Court of Washington State has ruled that consumers cannot sign away their right to participate in a class action lawsuit, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. More »
—>New iPhone users are gasping as the first bills arrive and they read numbers that are significantly higher than they thought they'd be. More »
—>In case you're wondering why Consumerist isn't writing a bunch of posts on how to hack your iPhone to get it to work on "any network," here is why: More »
—>Listen to the valiant attempt a T-mobile retention rep makes to keep Matt Haughey, Metafilter creator, from canceling and switching to an iPhone. More »
Anthony, who wasn't able to use his new iPhone for over 48 hours when porting his AT&T number over, just got his problem solved! Hooray! More »
—>Darin's iPhone was defective, so he tried to return it to the AT&T store where he purchased it. No dice. AT&T told him that Apple was responsible for the device. When Darin tried to exchange the phone with Apple, they told him he'd have to deal with AT&T for the first 14 days. More »
—>UPDATE: Now I Can Use My iPhone! More »
—>We could be standing on line outside an Apple Store waiting to get our grubby little hands on an iPhone. We are not, and we're ok with that. You too can resist the little charmer's curves and siren song ringtone by remembering the iPhone's imperfections: More »
—>NBC 10 in Philadelphia had some people camped out for an iPhone when what did they see? Wait, is that... the Mayor? It was:
Donning a white baseball hat and warmup suit — complete with an iPod strapped to his arm — a casual Philadelphia Mayor John Street patiently sat on a lawn chair on a South Philadelphia sidewalk, hoping to get his hands on the new Apple iPhone Friday morning. More »
—>Marketplace interviewed us about our 6 tips for canceling your cellphone so you can get an iPhone. We told people to die... More »
—>Jim writes to tell us that he ordered AT&T U-Verse (it's supposed to be installed tomorrow) and was surprised to find a letter in his mailbox telling him that AT&T had decided to "Limit and/or deny the purchase of products and/or services" based on his credit report. More »
—>If you're planning on buying an iPhone, make sure you won't have buyer's remorse because if you do, it'll cost you 10%. AT&T has released a PDF of "pre-purchase understandings" that read like warnings: More »
—> Apple has posted the rate plans for the iPhone and a few reader questions have been answered. More »
—>Tucked into your landline phone bill is probably a very official looking fee called the "Federal Subscriber Line Charge," but did you know it doesn't go to the federal government? More »
—>The Onion skewers the iPhone's "most highly anticipated features:" More »
—>AT&T will leave Alaskans eager for an iPhone out in the cold. The telecom provides services to the 48 contiguous states and Hawaii, but not Alaska. The free-minded state isn't taking the slight lightly. The Anchorage Daily News has issued a call to committed adventurers: Go South, Young iPhone Seekers!
Buy a plane ticket to the nearest AT&T or Apple Store (at least $350 to Seattle) and misrepresent oneself as a Washington resident. Get ready to pay sales tax for the phone plus a yet-unknown amount for the service plan. Or find a friend in the Lower 48 to do the misrepresenting, in which case shipping runs $1.48 to $16.25.How to keep AT&T's nosy location-tracking network from disconnecting you after illicitly acquiring your precious, precious iPhone, after the jump... More »
—>You better frickin' like your full-price iPhone because if you don't, AT&T plans on charging you the full $175 early termination fee, even though the phone's cost isn't at all subsidized under a long-term-agreement. More »
—>AT&T is required to offer a $10 DSL option to those consumers who are in AT&T's 22 state coverage area and who have not previously subscribed to AT&T DSL. This requirement is part of concessions made to the FTC so that AT&T could merge with BellSouth and take over Cingular. More »
—>Dustin paid the price for following Consumerist's advice and never giving personal information to people who call and claim to be from your phone company or your gas company or your bank. Someone called Dustin claiming to be AT&T and demanding that he confirm the last 4 digits of his SSN. Dustin honestly thought, as we would, that it was a meth-addict trying to get his SSN. More »
—> As part of a concession made to the FCC in order to get its mitts on BellSouth, AT&T is required to offer basic DSL for $10 a month to its entire 22 state coverage area for a period of 2 years. More »
—>AT&T has announced a plan to keep pirated content off their network by peeking at everyone's data to see if it contains copyrighted material. The plan, which the telecom somehow claims will "not violate user privacy," will only target repeat offenders. More »
—>Don't go looking for the new iPhone at any ol' AT&T store come June 29th, it will only be available through Apple.com, Apple stores, and certain special AT&T outlets, according to an AT&T memo we received. More »
—>Whoever writes the scripts that CSRs are required to spit out has extremely poor social skills. When your company screws up someone's billing, then shuts off their phone and tries to charge them a fee, that's your mistake. Fixing it is not "a courtesy." It's also not a "one-time courtesy." More »
—> Let's face it. Cellphones are here to stay and you need to know a little something about how they work if you're going to know which one is right for you. Over at Yahoo! they've got a list of some cell phone acronyms that you could learn, thereby increasing your knowledge of the world around you. We know most of our readers are pretty well versed in everything cellphone, but its still worth taking a look. More »
If you also suffer from this travesty of service, here's how to get out of your contract: More »
—>Chris exchanged his messed up Blackjack with Cingular (now the new AT&T) under warranty replacement. Now Cingular (now the new AT&T) can't find the phone that he sent back and keeps trying to bill him $349.99 for it. Repeated calls to customer service are unsuccessful and provide contradictory information. More »
—>Matt's voicemail stopped working so he called up Cingular to get it fixed, and while he was there he had them check out the rest of his account to make sure everything was ok, but they found something disturbing. More »
—>Wired has an informative, deeply terrifying, interview with Mark Klein the whistleblower who outed AT&T for spying for the NSA.
WN: How many people worked in or on that room? More »
—>AT&T is firing VoIP customers who live in areas not served by E911. The letters to CallVantage subscribers were sent over the past two weeks and read, "All customers who currently have A911 service must be moved to E911 service (where available) or their AT&T CallVantage service will be disconnected." If E911 is unavailable, service is suspended effective May 21. More »
—>AT&T is charging users of its prepaid calling cards up to eight minutes per minute spent making an in-state call. The practice began in February and affects in-state calls made from every state except Illinois, Indiana, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. More »
—>AT&T DSL subscribers who use their ISP email will now have the pleasure of seeing ads in their email service. That they pay for. Did we say that already? More »
"Verizon became the new market leader in terms of total direct retail subscribers/customers, with a total of 56.8 million, against 56.3 million for Cingular," said IDC's Julien Blin in a statement.Meanwhile, Sprint is losing customers due to its general ineptitude. —MEGHANN MARCO More »
The woman at AT&T told me I received it because AT&T no longer provided telecom service to the Penn State campus - where I haven't lived for 8 years (because I am 100). I'm not sure what went down so that they're sending me almost three whole dollars, but it's three dollars I didn't have this morning, so... Aces.Kate tells us she's very excited to cash her check so she can buy "IN TOUCH and some gum." She also notes that the check says "CON REFUNDS," which we feel is heartwarmingly honest of AT&T —MEGHANN MARCO More »
According to Lt. Thomas Stacho of the Cleveland Police Department, three men claiming to work for the phone company knocked on the door of an an elderly couple living in an apartment on Payne Avenue. More »
The company is outsourcing customer service jobs on the sly, and have been for at least a few months. Not to India, because that would be obvious, but to Canada. Alberta- to be specific. The newbies are working with a company called Convergys. These people seem to be going through a real crash course, and seem to know only how to read the sample scripting our computer system spits out. We've been having problems with them screwing up orders left and right, misquoting (or not quoting) rates and fees, and generally mucking up everything they touch. The bad part for customers, aside from not knowing exactly what they're going to be paying every time, is that it seems like they're not as ready to credit accounts when it they need to. I'm not sure they have the authority to give more than a few bucks back, which doesn't always cut it.More »
AT&T submitted a mock-up of the paint scheme in January that kept the car's orange paint scheme and Cingular's logo on the hood. The only AT&T branding was its trademark blue and white globe on the quarter panels. More »
—>Usually when people talk about AT&T and Verizon becoming cable operators they spin a bunch of bull about how competition will lower your bill. So far, that isn't happening. But what happens when the technology comes together? Will you be able to use your cell phone to control your DVR? From the Chicago Tribune:
[AT&T] this week began offering its "Homezone" customers the ability to control their digital video recorders through Web-enabled phones. The interface lets cell phone users schedule or delete recordings on their set-top boxes from anywhere. More »
"Although the exact wording of these provisions has changed somewhat over time, each has required customers to pursue their disputes with Cingular or AT&T Wireless in either individual arbitration or small claims court," the defendants allege in their motion. More »
—>CingularThe new AT&T has shutdown the old AT&T's TDMA network in Arizona, five weeks ahead of schedule. Reader Kevin sends us his complaint to the Better Business Bureau.
- "I [contacted] Cingular Wireless on February 25, 2007 and was told that the old AT&T TDMA network was shutdown early in Arizona. I was given no notice that my phone would no longer work after February 23, 2007. Quite the contrary, the Cingular text message and website specifically state that service would be ending March 31, 2007. Now I am stuck with a worthless phone and a balance of $93.00 that I can't use."
—>Having trouble finding the special number for a specific department at your cellphone provider? Just feel like bypassing the intermediary customer service reps who might end up disconnecting the call or transferring you to the janitor's closet? More »
—>David's Mom just got her refund check, nearly bringing her issue with Comcast billing and harassing her for cable that was never installed to a close. More »
"The past two years were unprecedented — investing almost $1.3 billion to deliver a quality wireless experience to our customers here," said Andy Shibley, vice president and general manager for the company's Greater LA market. "Our wireless network is world class and second to none. The major expansion we completed was an extraordinary achievement that enables us to provide exceptional service for our customers today and into the future."According to the press release they've concentrated their efforts, in part, on Pismo Beach, which we remember from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Now Bugs can talk on his cell phone if he forgets to take a left at Albuquerque. —MEGHANN MARCO More »
This person identified himself as being with a company called EMS and had no details to give or leave with my husband for me to see later. More »
"Consumers need to be prepared if they receive this type of phone call," said Madigan. "Do not provide any personal information over the telephone, and if you believe you have received such a call, please report the call to your phone company as well as to the Attorney General's consumer protection hotline." More »
—>AT&T leased a crappy old-school phone to an elderly gentleman for over $7500 over a span of 30-plus years, his son just discovered. Kimdog writes: More »
When AT&T's average monthly bill to one such Iowa telco, the Superior Telephone Cooperative, went from $2,000 to $2,000,000, it was time for Ma Bell to call the fine-suited folks at Sidley Austin LLP5 to try to close the loophole down....Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Central Division, AT&T's lawsuit seeks to stop FuturePhone as well as the telcos who provide local infrastructure from continuing with their operations that use regulatory-fee arbitrag1 and VoIP to provide international calls for only the price of a long-distance call to Iowa. Though the case was just filed on Jan. 29, it has already apparently caused FuturePhone to shutter its service, and has produced nothing but "no comment" replies from the Iowa LECs we contacted who were also named in the suit.Party's over, baby.—MEGHANN MARCO More »
What would you call getting a bill for services you never received? How about fraud? That's what Comcast is doing to one blogger's mother. More »
We're not really buying this one, but apparently Jim Cramer, former hedge fund manager, director of TheStreet.com and host of CNBC's "Mad Money," is telling people that Cingular will give away 18 months of service with purchase of an iPhone. More »
Brian spotted an AT&T tech "fixing" something in his back alley for the past three days. Turns out, the tech was fixing himself lunch, using his truck's ladder to steal oranges from a customer's tree. More »
- Cellular phone carriers like Verizon, Sprint and Cingular, now the new AT&T, are beginning to test and roll out advertising on mobile phone screens, and by next year, cellphone advertising is likely to be more common. More »
In the coming months AT&T will sell stand-alone, or "naked," DSL service for $19.95. Currently, AT&T charges $45 for broadband if you don't purchase any other bundled services. If you purchase DSL and phone from AT&T, it's only $28, a deliberate attempt to preserve their phone business and limit consumer choice. More »
- Starting Monday, Jan. 15, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is launching a new multi-media campaign to begin transitioning the Cingular brand to AT&T in advertising and customer communications, throughout Web sites and nationwide retail stores, and on company buildings and vehicles. More »
With the merger between AT&T and BellSouth, AT&T has total control over Cingular wireless. What does this mean to you? More »
Maybe we're just intolerant of ads, but when we heard about AT&T's new ad supported 411 service, we just laughed. If you're willing to listen to 40 seconds of advertising, you too can get directory assistance. The best part? There's auto-connect, but it's at the advertiser's discretion. Yes, the media buyer at Pizza Hut's ad agency decides if you get to auto-connect. Gee, how did we ever live without this. More »
—>Wired News is reporting that several media outlets (San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News and Bloomberg News) have joined together to with Wired to petition for the release of "secret" AT&T papers detailing the extend of the White House's warrantless wiretapping program. AT&T is resisting because they claim the papers contain, "corporate trade secrets." "At 2 p.m. Thursday, both sides will make oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco." More »
—>"AT&T filed a lawsuit Dec. 8 in a district court in Bexar County, Texas, against Time Warner Cable's San Antonio division, alleging that the cable operator engaged in "a methodical invasion of facilities owned, operated and controlled by AT&T Texas" while installing voice service at apartments and other multiple-dwelling units in and around the city. In its lawsuit against Time Warner Cable in San Antonio, AT&T alleges that: "Cable technicians trespassed on AT&T facilities and cut or disconnected wires in network interface devices." More »
Welcome, New York Times readers. Here's a bit of an intro to The Consumerist, if you're curious and want to learn more. More »
- Many customers who called AT&T Illinois to get cut-rate phone service deals advertised in their November phone bills are being told the plans don't exist, leaving customers confused and AT&T embarrassed. More »
—>Illinois AT&T customers looking to save can now sign up for a new reduced plans. More »
CRMLowdown sifted through countless customer service surveys, studies, and real-life experiences to come up with a pretty damn impressive list of the best/worst companies for customer service. More »
Starting today, Cingular is shutting off TDMA cellphone service in Toledo. More »
—>In a move towards empowering consumer choice, AT&T DSL customers no longer have to be locked into 12 month contracts. AT&T now offers DSL on a month-to-month basis. More »
—>FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seems to be close to inking his rubber stamp for a merger between AT&T and Bellsouth, a move that would create the world's largest telco company. More »
—>After being fined millions of dollars for engaging in "misleading marketing practices", AT&T is taking advantage of "new rules that allow California phone companies to unilaterally change certain regulatory provisions without prior approval from state officials." What? Who the hell decided to let them do that?! AT&T will be ignoring the disclosure agreement, which forced them to reveal to new customers its cheapest service first and to seek permission before making marketing pitches, because... More »
It's a testament to the anachronistic nature of my family that I — a hot, sexy male in my late 20's — can operate a rotary phone with aplomb. A dusty, rotary wall phone with a hypnotic whirring click was present in my kitchen up until my late teens, when it suddenly and sadly gave up its ghost. More »
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—>There's nothing interesting any more about companies systems getting compromised and tens of thousands of customer records suddenly glutting the Russian identity theft black market. In fact, when we read such a story, we stifle a yawn: "Again? Business as usual." More »
—>U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit today found the NSA domestic spying program "without warrant" and violated the First and Fourth Amendments. She ordered it stopped. More »
An upcoming Business Week article socks phone companies right in the kisser for their squelching of new technologies. More »
—>A judge Tuesday tossed out an ACLU lawsuit against the government over over AT&T's alleged turning over of phone records to the NSA. More »
Amidst a looming lawsuit over its lack of service to newly incorporated AT&T customers, as well as our revelation that Cingular will no longer try to retain its most unprofitable consumers: More »
—>If you're looking to join the newly minted class action against Cingular, you might want to turn that shredder off. A customer was seeking to replace the billing records he had shredded, in order to prepare to join the suit, and called up the cellphone company. More »
—>If you were an AT&T customer as of October 26, 2004 and, following the switchover to Cingular More »
—>Cingular duped and overcharged AT&T customers ported over following their merger, contends a lawsuit filed last Thursday. More »
—>In a followup to "AT&T: All Your Phone Are Belong to Us", the SF Gate interviewed some privacy wonks who say: More »
—>If you're an AT&T customer, you have until this Friday to switch. More »
—>Some people just are gluttons for punishment. Ed Horrell gets his fill by calling up customer support lines and recording the results. More »
—>At 2:00 AM EST this morning, Wired News published primary documents incriminating the NSA and AT&T in a clandestine surveillance operation by the government to monitor the internet. More »
—>Consumer Affairs has an article up called "Florida Opens Cramming Probe." They've got that the order jumbled up. Let me give you the advice my father gave me: "Son, first you probe, then you cram." More »
—>Although doubtlessly guilty of insider trading, former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio has one moral feather tucked beneath the diamond-encrusted ribbon of his Mr. Moneybags-style top hat: when the NSA approached Nacchio and demanded Qwest phone records to stave off the terrorist threat, Nacchio told them to go fuck themselves. This is while executives at companies like Verizon, AT&T and Bell South gleefully capitulated to what amounts to an illegal and unconstitutional request. More »
Bad news for those of us who don't want the long-distance sex calls we made to our Canadian girlfriends shouted mockingly at us when we're tied to a chair with a burlap sack over our face in between a knee-thwacking with a length of hose. The Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit by the EFF against AT&T for illegally complying with NSA wire-tapping of citizens' lines. More »
—>AT&T is torching their Cingular brand like a gang of boychiks igniting a hobo on their way home from the milk bar. From the ashes, phoenix-like, a new brand is to emerge: AT&T Wireless. Try to repress those epileptic seizures of excitement breaking every bone in your hyperventilating frame. More »
—>We love this quote from AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre, referring to Google, eBay and Amazon.com: "Why should they be able to use my pipes for free?" Pointing out that people are actually paying for the bandwidth going through his pipes hasn't swayed good old Ed. If the man ran FedEx, both the sender and receiver would pay for a package. More »
—>As you all know, AT&T is currently fighting a class action lawsuit leveled against it by the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, claiming that AT&T has been working with the Bush Administration to secretly spy on millions of Americans without warrants. More »
Here's the results of our week-long look into how long it takes humans at various cellphone companies to pick up the phone. Sprint was dead last and an old-school Nextel support line, first. Verizon and T-Mobile trailed not far behind. More »
Only two more days to go in this week's look at how long it takes a human at various mobile phone companies to pick up. More »
—>With the depressing defeat of the Net Neutrality bill before the House Telecom and Internet subcommittee yesterday, many Internet users are getting a bit nervous. Are we on the precipitous edge of one of those nefarious slippery slopes people are always talking about? Will common sense prevail? If it doesn't, can we trust providers like Verizon and AT&T to not cripple the Internet? More »
Today's results in our week long trial to see how long it takes mobile phone carrier's humans to pick up on the customer service line. More »
All the mobile phone carriers performed very well today. More »
Here's how long it's taking to reach a human at various mobile phone carrier customer service lines today. More »
In the wake of purple ribbons, zombies and looking up words in the dictionary, we thought we might want to try something resembling journalism. To that end, we've started the Time to Human project. More »
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- "Today, I got a call from AT&T's billing department. The lady wanted to know when I was going to pay the past due amount of $477.82. I paid this, I responded. She begged to differ. More »
—>Allegations have arisen that AT&T is abusing its power as a monopoly provider in US soldier's PBXs in Iraq to block 1-800 numbers needed to use non-AT&T calling cards. More »
—>Fewer bars in fewer places. According to unconfirmed reports out of New York City, AT&T/Cingular wireless service has been down for 2-3 hours, as of 12:50 PM EST. More »
—>We love whiny CEOs here at the Consumerist. There's something special about men with net worths greater than most small nations complaining to Congress about unfairness that tickles our irony receptors. In this case, Ed Whitacre, CEO of AT&T (pictured) and Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Communications, traveled to the Capitol to bitch about the regulatory barriers-to-entry that telephone companies have when trying to get into the video delivery business—a business obviously dominated by cable companies. More »
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued AT&T for its complicity in the secret monitoring of millions of American's phone and internet records by request of the NSA. EFF's website has the scoop on their pursual of these scumbags: More »
—>Since first we spoke of troubles with Cingular, many of you have taken the time to write us with your own stories—especially stories about the troubles since the Cingular and AT&T Wireless merger. More »
