After the media got ahold of the story of AT&T suing a small business owner over $900,000 worth of fraudulent phone calls, for a total of $1.15 million including fees, it seems the telecom giant is willing to back down. The company issued a statement saying it will abandon the lawsuit against the president of the small manufacturing firm. There’s one condition, claims the man — he must drop his countersuit as well. [More]
at&t
AT&T Demands Payment, Doesn’t Care If Business Owner Made $900K Worth Of Calls To Somalia Or Not
By 7.9.12
When a small Massachusetts business that never in the past ever called the Africa nation of Somalia racks up almost $900,000 in calls in four days to that country, some might find that unusual. Instead, AT&T decided that was totally normal and that the business — which usually runs up a bill of about $700 per month — should be on the hook for $1.5 million, including charges and interest. And the kicker? AT&T apparently doesn’t think he made those calls either. [More]
AT&T U-Verse Subscribers Get Their AMC Back; Dish Customers Get Movies They’ve Seen A Million Times Already
By 7.1.12
The deadline AMC Networks — the people behind quality programs like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and the first couple episodes of The Killing, and also a handful of channels no one watches — faced two contract deadlines this weekend; one with Dish Network and the other with AT&T U-verse. In the former standoff, the satellite provider stood firm in its decision to axe AMC; while in the latter, some sort of vague agreement has been reached. [More]
Deadline Looms For Dish, AT&T U-Verse Subscribers To Get Hosed In Spat With AMC
By 6.28.12
As we mentioned last month, Dish Network says its relations with AMC Networks — which also includes IFC, The Sundance Channel, and WeTV, though people only really care about AMC — is kaput and as of July 1, subscribers will be left without their meth-making science teachers or slickly dressed ad men. The clock is also ticking on the deal between AMC and AT&T U-Verse that expires this weekend. Regardless, it’s the TV-watching consumer that will pay in the end. [More]
Cancel Crappy AT&T DSL Service, Get Billed For It Anyway
By 6.25.12
Beware, Michael warns Consumerist readers. Beware of handing over access to your bank account–that is, your debit card number–to companies that might auto-bill you. For services that you’re no longer receiving, and never really in the first place because the connection never worked properly. Michael had been an AT&T customer for DSL, but never had very good connection speeds. So the Death Star offered him great incentives to upgrade to U-Verse. He did, but the promised rebates never came. He offers this cautionary tale about putting your debit card information in the hands of a mercurial public utility. [More]
DOJ Reportedly Investigating Cable Companies For Squashing Online Competition
By 6.13.12
The Justice Department is reportedly engaged in an anti-trust investigation into many areas where the cable TV industry might be acting inappropriately to try and quell competition from online video. Many consumers want to pick and choose what they watch, using services like Hulu and Netflix, whereas cable companies would like them to continue to pay for bundles of TV channels, even some they might not watch. [More]
Wireless Companies Hope To Cash In By Pushing Everyone Into Unlimited Voice Plans
By 6.6.12
Since the iPhone ushered in the smartphone era in 2007, the average wireless subscriber is making fewer and shorter voice calls — resulting in a nearly 20% drop in average monthly minutes. But rather than give consumers the option to dial-down to smaller-tier voice plans, the titans of wireless are looking to give everyone an unlimited amount of talk. [More]
AT&T Wants To Force Everyone Off Dialup…Except Me
By 6.6.12
Reader yesfarro doesn’t exactly live far from civilization, but she does live far from civilized telecommunications. Mobile phone reception isn’t great, but more importantly, there is no broadband. No cable, no DSL, no anything. She gets by using dial-up through aT&T, but even that has become significantly slower than usual due to a problem with the phone lines that no one–not AT&T, not BellSouth–knows how to resolve. [More]
Is It Time For Wireless Companies To Offer Data-Only Plans?
By 6.4.12
When was the last time you saw someone under the age of 21 willingly make a phone call when texting or e-mailing was an option? And reports show that free messaging apps are growing in popularity. So at what point will society just give up on voice and text services and go data-only? [More]
AT&T Telling DSL Customers They Have 45 Days To Upgrade To U-Verse
By 5.31.12
UPDATE: A rep for AT&T confirms to Consumerist that while the forced upgrades are occurring, it is only happening to customers in select areas. [More]
AT&T Upgrades DSL Customer To U-Verse, Slower Internet, Static
By 5.16.12
Cameron moved recently, but not all that far away. Just to another apartment within the same building. Not so bad. He’s been an AT&T DSL customer for six years, but the Death Star wants to wean customers off DSL and get them onto U-Verse. Cameron was told that he couldn’t be reconnected to DSL down the hall, so he upgraded to U-Verse. Only the upgrade is more of a downgrade. To lower Internet speeds and static on the phone line. [More]
Tales From The AT&T Landline Twilight Zone
By 5.15.12
Imagine an alternate dimension. One where you have phone service, but it isn’t working. You call AT&T your service provider, and their automated response system tells you that you aren’t an AT&T customer, and to call your actual provider. When you call up AT&T to wait for an actual human to sort this out, they call you back… to immediately put you on hold. [More]
AT&T CEO Regrets He Ever Offered Unlimited Data To You Ungrateful Punks In The First Place
By 5.7.12
A lot of things keep AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson up at night. If he has enough hair gel to get through the week… Putting down the pesky rebels led by that Luke kid from Tatooine. But mostly it’s about how third-party messaging systems are taking money out of his company’s coffers and how he never foresaw that people might actually want to use smartphones for things other than checking e-mail. [More]
FCC Approves Transfer Of AT&T Spectrum To Its Former Flame T-Mobile
By 4.25.12
In the telecommunications world, the transfer of spectrum is sort of like alimony for a relationship that didn’t quite work out. The Federal Communications Commission has approved just such a gift from AT&T to T-Mobile, which was a condition of their failed merger. No word on who got the house in Aspen. [More]
More People Would Still Rather Sign A Binding Contract With Verizon Than AT&T
By 4.24.12
Even though it got the drop on Verizon Wireless by being the first company to offer the iPhone, AT&T still signs up fewer customers with contracts. Maybe because by now, smartphone purchases have slowed down after last year’s rush for the newest iPhone. We hear enough bad stuff about both companies to be unsurprised that one is preferred over the other. [More]
How Did Telemarketers End Up With Number That Was Changed To Avoid Telemarketers?
By 4.10.12
A man in California was so fed up with unwanted telemarketing calls (which may be a redundancy) that he finally gave in and changed his number to one that was completely unlisted. Little did he know his actions would only lead to end up on a list of newly changed numbers that was sold to telemarketers. [More]
AT&T Caps Off Crappy Year With Third-Place Worst Company In America Finish
By 4.3.12
This sort of epitomizes the last 12 months for AT&T. First it attempted to leap-frog to the head of the wireless pack by swallowing T-Mobile whole, only to fail miserably after many months and at a cost of several billion dollars. Then it came tantalizingly close to vying for the coveted Worst Company In America Golden Poo trophy, only to be given the smack-down by a video game company. At least it won’t be leaving the tournament empty-handed. [More]
Worst Company In America Consolation Round: AT&T Vs. Walmart
By 4.2.12
As we announced on Friday, for the first time in Worst Company history, readers will have the chance to vote on a third-place finisher from between the two companies eliminated in the Semifinal round. This means that either Walmart or AT&T will end up being honored with the coveted Bronze Poo trophy. [More]
