David says he lent his girlfriend an old smart phone, then AT&T forced her into a data plan for which she had no desire. A story on Endgadget proves he is not alone.

David writes:

I lent my previous smartphone to my girlfriend when her old-school RAZR finally bit the dust last week. She doesn’t have any sort of data or texting plan and only has a contract for her voice service. However, she got a message a few days ago stating that a $30 data plan will be added to her bill even though I disabled the data connection on the phone. How is it not illegal for a company to decide for you that a data plan is necessary? What’s to prevent them from deciding you need an unlimited texting plan or their $10 per month navigation option because the phone has a keyboard and internal GPS? I understand that most phone companies have started doing this when you sign a contract to offset the cost of a subsidized phone, but that’s not the case here. What would be a good course of action to put a stop to this nonsense?

If you’ve dealt with this issue, how did you handle it?

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