Last week, we asked you what annoyed you most about your mobile phone plan, and most of you picked “cost.” Now comes news that the Federal Communications Commission is going to review new proposals intended to keep you from spending more on your phone bill than you’d planned. [More]
at&t
My House Is In The Tiniest Broadband Dead Zone In Texas
By 10.8.10
Cliff and his wife recently purchased a house–hooray for them! Strangely, Cliff tells Consumerist, this house exists in a tiny pocket of space and time that their broadband provider of choice, AT&T Uverse, cannot reach. Well, that, or they live in a newly constructed area that doesn’t have the infrastructure for it…even though it should. [More]
You Order 2 iPhones, AT&T Ships 4, Sends You To Collections
By 10.1.10
Redditor Sketchampm says he and his girlfriend ordered two iPhones, and AT&T shipped them four. They sent two back as instructed and got refunded, but AT&T kept sending them bills for the other two phones, which customer service told them to ignore. Today, 3 months later, they get a call from a debt collector, demanding $1,100. [More]
AT&T Thinks 0 Kbps Counts As DSL Service
By 9.8.10
AT&T wants to charge Derek a $100 early termination fee even though the DSL they’re giving barely even works. His downtime is almost 12 hours a day, and on the rare occasions it does work, it’s only 100kbps. It’s like watching taffy grill on a Georgia sidewalk. AT&T says they’ve lived up to their part of the bargain, with one customer service rep telling him, “If AT&T were to provide a constant speed of 0 Kbps this still qualifies as service within our contract,” and so now he must pay his contractually stipulated ETF. Also, he must have imagined that a technician came and visited his house. [More]
AT&T Customer Service Rep Says Store Employees Are Commission-Chasing Liars
By 9.7.10
One of our readers just switched over from T-Mobile to AT&T, but he discovered that pretty much everything the salesperson promised him at the retail store turned out to be a lie. At least, that’s what the angry AT&T customer service rep told his wife when she called in to dispute her first bill. [More]
My AT&T DSL Nightmare Began On Friday The 13th
By 9.3.10
Koji would like to sign up for AT&T DSL. However, some evil force at AT&T doesn’t want him as a customer, and keeps sneaking into the computer system to cancel his account activation and otherwise destroy any hope that he might have of DSL. Why is this happening? No one at AT&T knows. [More]
Watch For Mysterious Data Usage On Your iPhone
By 9.1.10
If you’re on one of AT&T’s limited data plans, you’d better start carefully monitoring the data usage, because some customers are noticing unexplainable daily hits on their accounts. The support forums at Apple are filled with pages of theories and complaints from frustrated customers, but our tipster David got the following admission directly from an AT&T rep: “She told me that most, if not all, 3g-capable iPhones were being charged erroneously like I had been experiencing. She told me AT&T was unaware of why the data was being charged, and where it was coming from.” [More]
Banker Undergoes Surgery For Using iPhone Too Much
By 8.27.10
Tendons in a mortgage banker’s thumb became so inflamed from excessive iPhone use that she had to get the tendons surgically removed. [More]
Can High Humidity Void Your iPhone's Warranty?
By 8.23.10
It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity that can kill your iPhone, reports the South China Morning Post. Apple says their phones are built so that humidity doesn’t accidentally trigger the device’s water sensors, but users in Hong Kong, where humidity can reach 95%, say their devices’ warranty claims are unfairly getting rejected for water damage, even when not a drop has touched them. Humidity test results tell an unflattering tale: [More]
This Cellphone Ad Needs More Anxiety!
By 8.3.10
As any Mad Men fan can tell you, ads are all about creating the itch and then selling the cream to soothe it. You stoke the desire and then offer the solution. Sales ensue. But what the modern dreamweavers on Madison Ave have figured out is that the two don’t even have to be related. You could show a bunch of elephants trampling a village – an anxious event, indeed – and then “Pencils! Get 20 for $2” and you have yourself a great ad. Very Eisenstein, and for some reason, this tactic seems especially popular in cellphone ads. I remember a Verizon one where a girl had to have a llama and it was socially awkward. Inspired, I wrote up a short sketch to demonstrate: [More]
AT&T Really Wants Everyone To Know About Their Remodeled Store In Niles, Michigan
By 7.22.10
Either someone at AT&T thinks thousands of its customers need to know about its newly renovated store in Niles, MI — a town of around 12,000 not far from the Indiana border — or someone at AT&T screwed up and sent out e-mail announcements about the store to the wrong distribution list. Because we’ve gotten several complaints — including one from yours truly — about this apparent gaffe. [More]
Verizon May Introduce Tiered Data Plans As Early As Next Week
By 7.21.10
One month ago, Verizon Wireless’s CFO hinted in an interview that the company might follow AT&T’s lead and replace unlimited data plans with tiered ones. Now Engadget is reporting that the switch might come on July 29th. Because this is just a rumor so far, there’s no word yet on whether Verizon will offer the same 200 MB / 2 GB split as AT&T or whether it will grandfather in existing unlimited customers. [More]
Verizon Still Stealing Customers From AT&T
By 7.15.10
Despite having an exclusive on a much-hyped phone, AT&T is still losing customers to Verizon, says the NYT. [More]
AT&T U-Verse Points Finger At Cablevision In Flap Over AMC Fees
By 7.14.10
Midnight tonight is the deadline for AT&T U-Verse to come to terms with Cablevision’s Rainbow Media over carriage fees for several channels, including AMC, which is about to debut its new season of its biggest show, Mad Men, next week. Now AT&T is pointing the finger squarely at its opponent in this showdown. [More]
How Would You Get Around iPhone 4's Death Grip Problem?
By 7.13.10
Yesterday, our more studious siblings at Consumer Reports made some headlines when they said they couldn’t recommend the iPhone 4 after lab tests confirmed reports that the device could lose its signal merely by being touched in one specific spot. As a quick-fix remedy, CR threw out the idea of using non-conductive tape like duct or electrical tape to cover the contact point. But we think there are some more creative ideas. [More]
Consumer Reports Won't Recommend iPhone 4 Until Apple Fixes "Death Grip" Design Flaw
By 7.12.10
As we wrote last weekend, the tech types over at Consumer Reports had done some preliminary tests demonstrating that the reception on the new iPhone 4 dropped significantly when touched on a certain part of the device. Now, after more rigorous inspection, CR has announced that — in spite of the iPhone 4’s many positives — they just can’t recommend it right now. [More]
Judge Gives Go-Ahead For Apple/AT&T/iPhone Class Action Suit
By 7.12.10
Three years after the first lawsuits were filed against Apple and AT&T alleging the two companies of antitrust violation, a judge in California has given the green light to consolidate several of the cases into a single class action suit. [More]
